After story:Devotion male reader insert version

Chapter sixteen-Julia Childish

I wiped the sweat from my forehead as I trudged down the road to the Fujibayashi house. Today's session with Tomoyo had been particularly brutal; to build up my overall strength, she had me carrying buckets of water all over the place. Fill it here, dump it there, go back and fill it again. I felt like I was in an old 'Karate Kid' movie, with Tomoyo as my Mr. Miyagi.

I was still working out some kinks from my arms when I arrived. Kyou was at the front door to greet me.

"Took you long enough," she complained.

"Nice to see you, too," I countered.

"Tch. Come on, Ryou's been waiting for you," the elder twin said, as she turned to enter the kitchen.

"I never said that!" I heard Ryou protest. "Onee-chan, don't say things like that!"

"Hey, Fujibayashi," I greeted. "Don't worry; I never pay much attention to what your sister says, anyway." I then marveled as the twins expressed relief and irritation at the same time. Similar faces, very different expressions. Interesting.

"Anyway," Kyou growled, "today I'm teaching Ryou how to prepare curry."

"I already know how to make curry," I said.

"But Ryou doesn't and, frankly, you probably don't know how to make good curry, so I'm going to help the two of you with that."

I ignored the obvious dig and went over to the counter where the ingredients and cooking supplies sat. "So...this is what we're using today?"

"Yup!" Kyou chirped. "So the first thing you two need to do is..."And so my cooking education started.

Truth be told, I did enjoy cooking. I never considered myself to be any kind of chef, but there's something neat about being able to eat food that you've prepared yourself. And it's impressive to be taught by someone like Kyou, whose cooking I'd had before. She may have had a terrible attitude, at least toward Sunohara and me, but I couldn't say anything bad about her cooking.

Kyou prepared a dish while describing the steps, and I found myself...mesmerized? Yeah, that's the word. Every movement was clearly planned and very smooth. One instruction flowed into the next, and I found it hard to believe how she could take words on a page and turn them into tasty art.

As I reached to turn a page from the cookbook, I saw the back of my hand.

'Fuuko'

My heart felt heavy again as I thought of the girl lying in the hospital, and the girl who used to scamper around the school giving out wooden starfish.

"L/n-kun, what's wrong?"

I looked over at Fujibayashi and, when I blinked, felt something on my cheek. "Huh?"

She had a worried look on her face. "Are you crying?"

I reached up and touched my cheek; sure enough it was a tear. "I don't know. I guess so."

"Hey, you two," Kyou admonished. "Save the lovey-dovey stuff for later."

"Onee-chan!" Ryou protested. "There's no lovey-dovey stuff going on! It's L/n-kun..."

Kyou stopped her food prep and came over to us. "The onion getting to you, F/n? Just man up and deal with it."

"It's not the onion, Onee-chan! Have some compassion! L/n-kun's-"

"It's all right," I interrupted, raising a hand. "I just thought of my friend from the hospital and it got to me."

Kyou's expression softened. "Starfish girl?"

"Yeah."

"Are you gonna be all right? We can stop now, if you need to."

I was surprised by the sudden about-face in her behavior. "No...I-I'll be fine, thanks." I took a deep breath, and that seemed to alleviate the sadness. "I'm sorry, where were we?"

Kyou suddenly seemed flustered for some reason. "Th-The next step is t-to..." And so I learned several new ways to prepare curry.

It was a start, but I found myself looking forward learning how to prepare different kinds of meals. At least I got to eat my own home-cooked meal. Not bad.

Overall, things were going well: I was getting a top-notch education from Kotomi, combat training from Tomoyo, and cooking lessons from Kyou. I was well on my way to being a well-rounded guy and productive member of Japanese society.

What could possibly go wrong?