The Hierophant's March

"Gimme a Break...", part 2: Cover

-... & this one is my dorm room. –After a very long tour through what felt like the entire campus for Jotaro, Noriaki opens the door with the number 254 on it. -Just as I expected, no one else is here. Touch whatever you want, do whatever you want & break whatever you want as long as that doesn't apply to my stuff in the room in the corner. –Noriaki pointed at a black wood door in the corner that seemed to spend most of the time closed, unlike the rest, that were open at the moment. –Questions?

-Can I drop the bags now? –Jotaro asked, clearly struggling & getting a small chuckle out of Noriaki.

-Yes, just put them in the kitchen so we can unpack them & start... after your arms rest a bit, you poor thing. –Noriaki finished, poking fun at Jotaro. –I'll cut the vegetables & you can prepare the water & kombu. Will you be able to handle that?

-Can you cut it out already? I'm fine-

-From how you've been complaining the whole walk, I don't think so-

-Shut up.

When Jotaro was done getting the water ready, he took a quick glance at Noriaki cutting the vegetables, who stood just in place to stop him from looking.

-If you're done with that, maybe you can do me a favour & make the udon noodles for me, can't you?

-That'll be your lunch tomorrow, not mine, so why should I-

-Can't you? –That was when Jotaro learnt that when Noriaki asks the question twice it's not a question anymore, but an order, & so, he followed it as such. While the noodles were on the stove, Jotaro still tried to steal glances at what Noriaki was up to in vain, & when he tried to ask again, he ended up having to prepare the sauces instead. His curiosity was high, & the damns he gave about what he had to do to find out, pretty low.

-All right, let me see, now-

-What? No, hey! -Too late. By just holding him by the waist with his hands, Jotaro lifted Noriaki in the air & away from the counter, to find that the carrots & tofu were cut in the shape of stars & the shiitake mushrooms had stars cut onto them. Jotaro took a while to let that information in, process it & come up with a response.

-You think this is funny? –Said with a tint of annoyance was the one Jotaro ended up choosing.

-W-well, it does suit you and you told me this is how Seiko does it, or did when you were kid, cutting everything like stars so you would eat it. I thought it was... Kind of... cute. –The entire perspective was still embarrassing for Noriaki, who was holding onto composure like Jotaro was at his waist & still not letting him go for some reason he did not know. Really, he just wanted it to be over as soon as possible.

-... You really remember that? –Was the only thing Jotaro was able to ask. –I said that once, like, ages ago.

-Well, it's an important detail to me, now please... -Noriaki pointed at his own waist with emphasis on the fact that he was still being held in the air. –Do you mind? ...

-O-oh, yeah, sorry about that.

A few seconds that felt like years went by before Noriaki crashed both Jotaro's & his own speeding train of thought to ask.

-Wait, where are the noodles, again?

-... Shit-

...

When everything was finally set, they flipped on the portable stove & waited patiently... for about thirty seconds before agreeing that waiting around doing nothing for ten minutes until the thing was ready was way too boring, so they started looking for things to do instead (say "looking for things to do" or say "sitting on the couch waiting & thinking of things to do in the meantime instead of just sitting & waiting". Whichever is fine). By the end of the first minute, Jotaro asked: