| Ayakashi Akashi | Riku x Karuta

|4| Abura Soba

   Riku shudders as he walks home, thinking about Karuta's hug. 'Stop getting so weird over it, he was being nice, that's all.' he tries to convince himself as he gets home and changes. Karuta gets home and puts on the outfit he had laid out the day before. 'There's still about an hour and a half, what should I do?' He questions himself. His mind goes blank, and then he suddenly thinks about the text Riku sent, 'Oh, I should text Riku and see if he likes Abura Soba!' he thinks to himself as he unlocks his phone and opens the app.

Karuta: hey Riku!! I just wanted to know if you like abura soba :D

   Riku hears a ding and looks at his phone on his bed. 'Hey Riku, I just wanted to know if you like Abura Soba.' He giggles and thinks about it for a second. 'I've had it a few times, and it's not my favorite, but it IS really good..' He thinks as he types out his text.

Riku: Yeah, I haven't had it a lot of times, but I think it's good.

   Karuta looks at the text and smiles. 'Another thing we have in common.' Karuta thinks and he checks the time. 'Forty minutes left.. maybe I can hang out with Riku for a little before the rest get there.' Karuta get's a little anxious, but still musters the courage to type out a text out.

Karuta: ok, since we have 40 minutes until everyone gets there, do you want to go there a little early? just so we can chat a bit

   'Wait he's.. asking me to hang out?' Riku blushes and hesitates before sending something back. 'Ahh.. I hope he doesn't think I'm weird for asking, and I'm sure my mom wouldn't mind me going early.. wait does she even know when? Whatever I can tell her right now.' Karuta thinks as he goes downstairs holding his phone and pocketing his wallet.

Riku: Yeah sure, I'll be on my way right now.

   'Nice' Karuta thinks as he makes his way down to the living room. He spots his mom and says, "Hey, c-can you drop m-me off right n-now?" His mom looks at him, "Oh, I thought it would be later but okay, by the way who's going to be there?" his mom says to him and he responds, "Just a f-few friends from s-school." 'Well no duh from school..' he thinks to himself as he tries to shake off the thought. "I guess, head to the car I'll go get some shoes on." his mom says as she goes up to her room.

   Riku assumes Karuta was getting ready to leave, so he does the same. He lives pretty close to the shop, so he can just walk to it. "Hey mom, I'm going to go now, okay?" he says to his mom from outside her room. "Okay! Be safe, and you better be home before it's dark." she shouts to him from her bed. "Yeah yeah, okay." he says as he walks down the stairs and out the door. It only takes about seven minutes to walk from his house to the shop, so it shouldn't take long.

   Karuta waits in the shop, his mom dropping him off a few minutes ago. 'Hm, I wonder when Riku will be here.. wait. He IS coming right?' Karuta thinks as he checks his phone. 'Oops, I forgot to text him back- I hope he didn't take that as me not being early. Well whatever, might as well text him back..' but just as Karuta was about to text him back he hears someone enter the shop. "Hey Karuta!" Riku says as he goes to the table Karuta's sitting at. "H-Hi, Riku!" Karuta says a little shyly as Riku sits next to him. 'There's still a little more than 20 minutes until the others get here, I hope they don't bail on us.' Karuta thinks as he looks up at Riku.

   Riku looks away, thinking he got caught staring, when really Karuta just wanted to socialize with him. "H-Hey. Is something w-wrong?" Karuta looks at Riku worried. Riku looks back and says, "No, my mom's j-just a little strict is all." he lies. "Oh, I-I'm sorry a-about that." Karuta looks down, feeling kind of bad for asking him to come early. "Oh no, it's fine she'll be okay with this." Riku says as Karuta looks back up at him with a small smile. "Well a-as long as s-she's okay with i-it I guess."

   (This takes place when Riku and Karuta were texting eachother by the way) Rokuro tells everyone he invited that it was cancelled since the shop unexpectedly closed today. "Heheh.. it's all gone to plan.." Rokuro smirks to himself as he texts Zero about it too.

Rokuro: i told them the shop closed today 😼😼

   Zero sees the pop-up and taps on it reading it closer. 'Rokuro.. you're such a dummy.. but you're my dummy.. wait no that's weird' he thinks to himself.

Zero: and what are you going to tell them when they realize nobody else came?

Rokuro looks at the message dumbfounded.

Rokuro: oops i didnt think that far ahead loll

   "R-Really? That's s-so cool! I wish I-I could explain e-easier so that when I-I become a t-teacher it'll already b-be easy to communicate w-with students.." Karuta says to Riku as they chat a bit more. "Mmm.." Karuta whimpers quietly. "What's wrong??" Riku says to him concerned. "I have a b-bit of a headache, that u-usually happens w-when I don't eat f-for a while.. w-wait.." Karuta says and pauses. 'How would he know that's what it feels like when he hasn't ate for a while? He doesn't starve himself right? Oh god Karuta please don't be doing that..' Riku panics. "Woah, i-it's been almost a-an hour already, where a-are the others?" Karuta says as he shows Riku the time.

   "We didn't come to the wrong one right?" Riku says to him as he looks at Karuta concerned. "I don't t-think we did, b-because we're both a-at this one." Riku shrugs and says "Well whatever, if they don't come they missed out." Riku jokes around to make Karuta feel better about it. "I g-guess.. well s-should we order soon?" Karuta asks him. "If you want yeah."

   "Seriously are you actually gonna let them tell Karuta and Riku that you wanted to set them up???" Zero says to Rokuro on the phone. "Well I didn't think we'd get this far!! Can't we just ask them to make an excuse??" Rokuro says back frustrated. "Rokuro you seriously need to come up with better plans, and you know that we could always just TELL them what your true intentions were." Zero says and Rokuro follow right after with, "NOO! Oops, sorry I mean no- I don't want to let them know I would.. set someone up." he whispers the last part. "Gh- whatever, what's your excuse then." Zero says. "Hey you were part of it too, y'know! What's OUR excuse?" Rokuro says as Zero sighs. "Yeah, but I only wrote about them, you were the one who wanted to invite everyone." Zero says while thinking of things to tell the others.

   "Mmh, I l-love Abura Soba so m-much.." Karuta says, fake sobbing as he shoves more into his mouth. 'Even when he's eating he looks so cute.. Gah! This boy, why do I feel like this for him..? It's only been 2 days but it feels like it's been a week.' Riku thinks as he watches Karuta slurp the noodles. "Yeah I love yo- it too." Riku says fast. Karuta noticed what he was going to say before and blushed, but pretended to play dumb as to not make it awkward. "It h-has to be m-my number one f-favorite by f-far." Karuta says while smiling, a tint of pink on his cheeks.

   "I can tell.." Riku says while looking at his own bowl and eating a piece. "O-Oh you have s-seaweed on y-yours? I've never t-tried it w-with seaweed, is it g-good?" Karuta asks him as he drinks some of the broth from his bowl with a spoon. "Wanna try it? I don't mind." Riku says as he picks up a piece with his chopsticks and hovers it over the table for Karuta. "O-Oh, I g-guess.." Karuta says as he nibs it from the chopsticks and swallows it. "Ooh, i-it tastes good w-with seaweed t-too." Karuta says smiling at Riku, and Riku's face turns about 3 shades of red while he looks away. 'I just fed him.. and he seemed to like it.. wait NO! Riku don't make assumptions you don't even know if he's comfortable with that..' Riku panics while Karuta sips some water.

   "Yeah, I guess they look cute, but when exactly did you care?" Zero asks Rokuro. "H-Hey, don't question me I just thought that they'd be cute together.." Rokuro mumbles over the phone. "Sure, but seriously why don't we just tell them the truth..?" Zero asks him. "If we're telling them the truth, can you take the blame pleaseee..?" Rokuro says, and Zero can practically see the puppy dog eyes through the call. "Only if you take some too." Zero says sighing. "Yayy! Thank you Zero, you're the best!" Rokuro says. 'That's such a back-handed compliment..' Zero thinks.