°˖✧Gaijin✧˖°

°˖✧Pardon Me, I Have To Go Now✧˖°

"Oh, come on. Please don't be so difficult, now..."

Ari says nothing, only keeping her nose turned up as the scruffy guy that has been tasked with babysitting her tries to plead with her to let him feed her. If she wasn't handcuffed, she might have even crossed her arms over her chest to give him the ultimate amount of sass possible.

"Anaya-chan, I can hear your stomach growling from across the cultural tower," he continues to plead. He takes another piece of the omurice from the plate and tries to feed her, but she lets out a grunt, leaning away. "They make the best omurice in the city! They use four eggs, even! Don't you want to eat something tasty since you're hungry?"

"Eating is for the weak," she says stubbornly despite the fact that she is starving. The hunger is getting so bad that she's starting to get nauseous and a headache simultaneously, but she's really trying to protest here.

"Why must you be so stubborn?" He whines, setting the plate on his lap once more. "Suzuki-san is really doing you a favor! I know it doesn't seem like it yet, but - "

"Doing me a favor?" She repeats, whipping her head towards him. It's the first time she's actually spoken to him, and it seems to shock him into a temporary silence. "Now, you listen to me, scruffy. He is not doing me a favor by taking me away from my home, my family, my friends! I have a mother at home that is probably losing years off of her life because of how scared she is for me! Yet you have the audacity to say that this is a good thing!"

"Do you know what that's like? I am the only thing my mom has!" She points at him, feeling her eyes beginning to sting. She doesn't know if she's starting to cry from frustration, or the fact that she feels so strongly about her mom and her situation. "She and my sister don't even talk, and she moved us across the world in order to keep me safe! The only person she has close to her now is me! And now you... you people take me away from her!"

The man visibly falters at his outburst and looks down at the plate, gnawing at his bottom lip. There's a certain look of contemplation on his face, like he's trying to figure out what to say without being insensitive. He fidgets with the spoon, pushing the omurice around a little. "I... I see," he says lamely. "You must love your mother a lot."

"I do. She's the only family I have left."

He's quiet for a moment more before he speaks. "The way you speak about her... she's quite similar to my mother. My mother worried about me more than she ever worried about herself. No matter how much trouble I gave her, she never gave up on me." A small smile graces his features as he speaks about her. "I... never gave her a reason to keep going."

Her eyes soften at his heartfelt confession. She looks down, suddenly feeling a tad bit guilty for snapping at him. He's just following orders, really. And... for some reason, she's getting the sneaking suspicion that the two of them are more alike than she thought. While she's more bold now that she's learned that life doesn't have to be as crappy as she once thought... maybe he hasn't had that opportunity?

She opens her mouth and points to her face. He visibly brightens upon realizing that she's allowing him to finally feed her, and gets right on it. As much as she doesn't want to admit it, the omurice really is to die for. Maybe it's the four eggs he mentioned earlier that makes it so tasty. Maybe it's simply a bit of love.

She chews each bite gratefully, and a silence befalls both of them as they have this moment with one another. But, regardless, she finds herself giving him the occasional look. She's getting the vibe that he's not exactly like the others. There isn't a pure drive to conquer the world for him. If anything, he seems almost... unsure of what he's doing.

"I think... you should try to reconcile with your mother," she says after a long moment of quiet. "I'm sure she misses you."

"I don't think that's possible..." He shakes his head, a somewhat sad smile upon his face. "I was a thorn in her side my entire life. Fifteen years of never leaving my room with no signs of stopping will fracture a relationship. That, and I've done too much to ever go back now."