Love's Recipe ~Choji~

Chapter 23

Choji invaded my every thought the moment I realized my feelings. I wanted to burst, to run to him and scream I love you. But I just tossed in bed, imagining his cheery grin and soft hugs. It was hard to fall asleep, but I finally did. Ikuto woke me up in the morning like he usually did to get his breakfast. To my amazement, mom and dad were downstairs too. They both smiled and waved at me as I entered the kitchen.

My parents are strange people. With their work, they aren't home much, but with their hobbies, that support my livelihood, they are almost never home. Plus, they are ridiculously lovey dovey and often go away together over the weekend. So yeah. But I know they love us and think about us. They both smiled up at me as I gave them cups of coffee and started to make breakfast.

A knock on the door stopped my progress. Who in the world...?

"I got it." Ikuto left the room briefly, and came back all smiles, Choji tailing close behind.

"Hey!" I called out, stepping quickly to hug him hello. "You're really early. Come have some breakfast. Have you met my parents?"

"Sorry. I know we planned for later, but something kind of came up." He slid in to sit next to my parents, shaking their hands and introducing himself briefly. "Remember awhile ago when my team went to the land of snow?"

"Yeah, you guys were gone for weeks. I was bored out of my mind."

"Well... We got a mission call back."

Ninja lingo is so weird. "A what?"

"The people who hired us last time want us to come back and do basically the same job."

I turned, almost dropping the fresh plate of food. "How long will you be gone?"

He picked up the cup of coffee Ikuto had gotten him and went to take a sip. "Hopefully only a week. Since the job is coming to a close."

I set down the food, everyone grabbing portions before I even had the chance to  sit down. Animals. "What exactly are they having you do?"

"Scout work. They're in the middle of a civil war and want us to gather information and identify some people of interest." Choji proceeded to stuff his face full of pancakes and eggs. His little chipmunk cheeks are so cute! He looked up when an unfortunate snort made its way out. The guy looked so adorable and embarrassed at the same time, my heart had no idea what to do! Ikuto was making faces while mom and dad simply observed over the rims of their coffee cups. 

Looking back down at my meal, I felt the skin under my eyes begin to tingle with heat. Our relationship is new, but it's so comfortable I feel as though we've been together for years. And I know we still have a lot to learn about each other. But this man... I truly love him. And I can't wait to see where we go together.

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It was not a week until I saw Choji again. It was ten days. I was standing in my kitchen late at night, going through my recipe box, thinking there were things in there I hadn't made in awhile. A few that jumped out at me were ones grandma had given me. I wanted to plan a big meal for when everyone came back, but for some reason, all I could look at was the dessert cards. Chocolate truffle cake, Strawberry cream pie, red velvet cookies, peach tarts. Sugar sounds delicious for some reason. It wouldn't hurt, maybe I could actually gain some weight.

"ALSONO!" Holy God, heart attack! I hit the floor, my hand over my heart as the shock of the loud out burst settled. Choji and Ino both came around the counter and helped me up.

"Jesus guys! If my hair wasn't already silver-"

"Shikamaru was captured!"

~Important message from your author~

Hello everyone. I wanted to explain something, hoping to clear up a few things. I know I've been slow to update. Not only this book but my others as well. I'm still very much invested in these books and trying to finish up a few as soon as I can so I can roll out the next batch. But in the past few years I've gone through some major life changes. I moved from Illinois to florida, started a new job, and gotten married. At the beginning of this year I lost my step father to cancer and have been working through grief and anxiety since then. However, everything is beginning to finally calm down, and I hope to finally get to sit down and work like I used to. Thank you to those who read my books and enjoy them, and thank you to those who continued to read this instead of skipping to the next chapter.