"We're connected," she agreed quietly. "For always." She shifted her hand and curled her pinky around his. Misono loved being close to the people she loved; the fact that Kazunari got close, played with her fingers, put their heads together, was a gift to her. He was a gift.
"I don't know about honey in hot chocolate," she confessed as she opened the door to the upstairs apartment. "I saw it in a movie and it seemed like they really liked it so I thought I would try. But Ponyo isn't real so who knows? If we don't like it, we can have regular hot chocolate. I'll make extra so that we can." One handed she reached into the cupboards and pulled out the chocolate bars she kept there. "I like sweet things but not too sweet. America sure has a lot of things that are too sweet." She still had a Japanese palate--she preferred subtle tastes with the occasional burst of flavor, or else the simple tastes of something being just as it was.
Oh, for the simple things. "I'm letting go now but it's because I have to. I like that you touch me," she told him as she let go of his hand to make sliver the chocolate. "For a long time I didn't have anybody that did." She didn't bother to look at her hands as she chopped (she could practically cook in her sleep) but looked instead at her friend. "Is that why you came?" she asked him. "Because sometimes touching is like sunshine."
Nino nodded. Honey in hot chocolate. It sounded too sweet. Honey in tea was good. Hot chocolate was good, especially if there was cinnamon. But honey in hot chocolate... Well, he'd never tried it, so he really couldn't disparage it. He'd give it a chance.
He looked around the kitchen while Misono set herself to chopping chocolate. He missed the touch of her hand, but that couldn't be helped. She needed them to work. He didn't think he'd come just for that, though. "I... don't know," Nino said slowly. "I don't think so. At least not just because of touching. I wanted... I wanted to try and be out there," he waved vaguely. "With them. Because I'm starting to feel it - not having a human - and it's a little unnerving but I'm still not good around them. I started coming here before I could think about it."
Amazing how easy it was to talk to Misono. Perhaps because she'd seen him at his lowest. "I hear American senses of sweetness are slowly spreading," he said in a sort of desperate attempt to keep from thinking about it too much. "Sweetness and meat. Even back to Europe."
The old recipes had never been nearly so sweet. The food of the UK had always been somewhat blatant about its ingredients, and sometimes had bordered on bland. The Roman Empire had introduced foods and spices of the Middle East and Orient and things had gotten quite good. It allowed French and Italian cooking to become art - something that the British Isles forgot about after the fall of the Empire due to constant invasions. But never so sweet that your teeth felt like rotting out.
"It takes the fun out of eating," Nino decided. He turned so he faced the counter he was leaning on and watched Misono chop the chocolate. He pressed his shoulder to hers, because she wasn't using it for more than steadying the chocolate. "Anything I can help with?" he asked.
She leaned back into him, touching as much as accepting that touch, and thought about what he'd said. "You can get the milk," she told him. "I bought a quart of whole milk to use just for this." She kept her hands steady and quick. "And we need the pot, but that's already on the burner." She hummed under her breath, a short note, and then said, "I don't want American tastes to go all over. That's no good--because you said it: the fun part of eating is the different tastes." She made a face and looked at her chocolate, gauging how much she needed. "I'll have to work harder to make sure it doesn't happen."
Poor Yesung was going to have to eat more Korean and Japanese food after today. So was everybody else she cooked for. Except maybe Kazunari who already appreciated food the way it should be.
And on the topic of things as they should be... "How long can you go without somebody?" she asked curiously. "Because I can't for very long at all. Days or weeks, maybe." Finished with the chocolate she set down the knife and looked at it. "What happens to you?" she asked. She didn't want the answer to be 'I go home'. His home was not a place to which she could follow. "But it's good that you're trying, that you're looking," she went on in a rush. He was looking! He was trying! That mattered more. "If you want help, I can help but I think we don't work the same way with this." Misono found a family and then loved them, usually. Sometimes she started to love them before she went to them but mostly it was just a matter of getting in the door and then being ridiculous about things until it all settled. "But I'll do anything, you know I will. I'll help you even if all I can do is be next to you."
Looking up she studied his face. He said it was modeled on hers but she couldn't really see it. He was almost impossibly lovely to her eyes. "I promise."
"Milk," Nino repeated, nodding. He went to the thing that kept food cold - there was a name for it, but he never remembered - and found the whole milk. He brought it back to Misono, setting it on the counter by the burners for her. "It wouldn't be any fun," he agreed. "I wouldn't have a reason to want to eat human food if it all tasted like American tastes. ... I like turkey, though. That is something most countries don't have."
He turned his back to the counter to lean on it, folding up his wings as he folded his arms. It was easier to lean without them. "I don't know. 200 years, apparently. Or somewhere around there. I only just started to realize I was feeling it. I don't know what will happen."
It was possible he would fade and End. That happened to some fay, though he'd never heard of it happening to a fa without a human. He didn't know what happened after that. Nino also hoped that he would never have to find out. It would be a crime to leave Misono now. He turned his head enough to watch Misono's hands. Her eyes were on his face, and he looked up to meet them, smiling briefly. "I know. Thank you."
"Some stuff here is really good but sometimes it's not and sometimes they think good food is baby slime." She pouted playfully and then let it melt into a smile. "Turkey is good. I like Thanksgiving, that's pretty good all the way around. Yesung and I might do something for it this year."
This year, next, she'd have years with him and she knew it. But she also knew the years of being alone. She watched Kazunari's wings fold and his smile come and go like a firefly. "If you only just started to realize then you've probably got time yet. If it were something urgent it'd feel that way. And--" She didn't want to say that he was still healing even if he was. Well. "And you're still healing from everything from before. Your last favorite..." They'd never really talked about that person though she had her theories on it. It didn't (and did) matter who it was to the rest of the world, though, it mattered to him. "Your last was somebody very, very special, right? So it takes time. There's time to get better and go on, I know it."
She poured the milk into the pot and set the burner going, adding a splash of vanilla extract and a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg. It wouldn't take long. "I don't get powdered hot chocolate," she mused, reaching out to put a hand on Nino as she worked, his forearm warm under her hand. "It doesn't take too long to do it up right. And I'm an impatient person, you know."
Misono smiled at her friend. "Even with that, I'll always be beside you somehow. Do you want to talk about humans? If you want, you can tell me what you're looking for or if you're looking for something in particular or how it feels to find your favorite. Otherwise we can talk about the plastic basil plant I might get or the pervert flowers I'm gonna get for the shop or the fact that I'm making you a scarf."
Nino wondered briefly if 'baby slime' meant oatmeal and porridge. Or maybe apple sauce. They seemed like the kinds of things that would wind up on a list of foods not for adults in this day's thinking. Nino liked the stuff. It was simple and filling and so wide-spread that he'd practically grown from New to Used on it. Marie had liked porridge, but only when he made it because he'd tricked her into thinking it was a secret fay food. Then she found herself married to France and the royal court there would never have allowed something as base as porridge into their dishes.
"She was," Nino agreed. He glanced at Misono and looked away again, trying to remember if there was any sense to why he'd picked Marie. Or maybe why she'd picked him. Sometimes Nino wasn't all that sure that he had a choice in his favorite humans; he'd had some who'd turned out quite loathsome. "I don't even really know why. She was probably more favorite than my other favorite humans, but I can't remember why it was her."
Marie wasn't perfect by any means. He didn't think any of his humans were. It didn't much matter. Misono's hand on his arm brought his gaze down. He followed the line from her hand to her arm to her shoulder. Up to her face, to her smile. Nino smiled back slowly.
"That you are. It's part of your charm," he teased gently. How did he find a favorite? Nino wasn't sure he'd ever analyzed it. Probably not. Favorites just were. "I don't... I don't think I look for anything in humans. They call out to me or they don't, I guess. I just know who they are. It's hard to describe how something feels when it's that easy, you know?"
Misono had been thinking of Yesung's reaction to her infant-squid ceviche and how he'd called it slime later. Some people were just babies about food. Misono liked eating in general because she could still remember the novelty of doing so. But she also knew Court and food and would have agreed with Nino about how sometimes Court got it all wrong.
Not like Kazunari. "Doesn't have to be a reason," she said softly, adding the chocolate to the milk as it began to foam. She had to take her hand away from Nino to do so, needing to hold the pot as she stirred vigorously. "Sometimes they're just the ones you love best even if they're not the best person. Yesung is sometimes a big brat and sometimes he's just not very thoughtful but he's been my best family in a long time." She smiled as she stirred. "Sometimes they're the best because they are who they are."
Which was why her impatience was part of her charm, perhaps. She was who she was and it was good enough. "Ahh, so you just know them when you know them. Definitely different from me," she said as she listened to him talk. "I don't have to love them at first, I just have to get them to take me in. Then I love them. Sometimes I'm ridiculous about it at first and then I go back to being normal and getting irked when they leave socks all over the house." She'd keep an eye out for anybody she thought might be special enough for her Kazunari. Though aside from Yesung, Meisa would have been her choice for him. Maybe he needed a full human? But there was no rush, there was time to look.
"It's mostly a kind of cream color," she said, moving on to the scarf as she turned the heat off. "Mugs, please!" They were on the counter behind her but she wanted him to feel involved in what was going on. "But it's also got stripes on the ends. Green and orange and brown. Not bright colors! Neutral ones that look nice together." She'd been tempted to make him a rainbow one but she didn't want it to attract a lot of attention. "And it's super, super wide. You could fold it in half the long way and it'd still be a wide scarf. With tassels at the end, I think." She dimpled at him. "I wanted it to be warm even if you don't really feel the cold. Just in case! And the honey bear is also behind you. I got honey in a bear-shaped jar. I like bears."
The chocolate started melting into the milk, swirling out and away from the spoon as Misono stirred. Soon enough the whole pot was turning different shades of brown, getting deeper and deeper. It smelled good.
"It's irrational," he said absently. "Loving humans. I can't think why I do, you know. It doesn't matter what they did, or how people look at their memory later, or now. I still love them all."
He pushed away from the counter and picked up the mugs, holding them out for Misono to pour into. The scarf sounded nice and it would probably be warm because that was the point of scarves. Though why it needed to be super wide Nino wasn't sure. It sounded nice. He wondered if it would shrink with him or if he'd have to stay at this size to wear it.
Nino reached out and poked Misono's dimple lightly. "I'll look forward to it." He frowned lightly. "I don't know what to get for you, though. Because there's a holiday coming up, isn't there? Aside from Christmas. The one where they eat turkey."
He looked over his shoulder and Pushed the honey bear towards them. When it was close enough Nino actually picked it up. He studied the bear. "Bears are nice. I like wolves better. Canines. Canines and cats."
Misono had never really considered before the idea of loving humans. She just did. "I guess it's pretty strange, loving people. They do stuff we don't understand and have rules that don't make sense and they leave us behind. They always leave us behind. But..." She smiled as she poured, the scent of chocolate and spice wafting up with the steam. "But I guess it's like the way the cherry blossoms bloom and fall, or the fireflies coming and going. Like a sunset, they're beautiful because we can't hang on to them." She made a face looking up at Kazunari. "That's kind of poetic! I'm not a very poetic person so it's not very good but if we love who we love, that's enough to go on with, right?"
And thinking of enough...she tried to eye the honey as she squeezed a bit into each much. Not TOO sweet, she hoped. It smelled okay. "I only know two wolves. One is Yesung's and it eats up our apartment all the time and the other one is Wolf-san who walked me home one night. And jumped on me. I liked him okay. And you know, I met a kitsune at the zoo. They're all right, foxes. I love cats, though. I've got one. You could have a cat! Only you can't because you live at the Cloisters."
She looked up at him and smiled as she set the remaining hot chocolate down and turned a very, very low flame on under it. "Sorry. I didn't mean to say that if it made you feel bad. And that reminds me! You don't have to get me things. I'm making you the scarf" and a hat, eventually "because I want to give something to you for being you, for being here. You're the first person I've ever had who can stay with me for a hundred years and then some." Her and-then-some friend, her darling Kazunari. "So for Christmas and for Thanksgiving, it's enough for me to know you're here and that you're warm and safe and happy."
Well. Maybe she could wheedle a bit. "But if you want to come over for those days, and have turkey for Thanksgiving or Christmas ham or goose or something, that's good too. You're always invited, any time, any day, all the time." Yesung would have to deal with that but that was okay. Yesung needed to meet more people anyhow. She raised her mug and clinked it against his. "Let's taste this stuff!"
Humans always left behind those who loved them. But humans could join their lost humans. Nino didn't have that option. Not that he knew of. When he became too old for this world, he'd return to his own home. Fay weren't made to die.
Nino wrapped his hands around his mug, allowing himself to feel the heat. It wasn't much, but it was nice. It made him feel fuzzy even without Misono's magic. If there was more warmth like this to be felt he'd have to keep himself open to it. "I like that. The idea of humans as cherry blossoms and fireflies," he said, smiling. "Maybe you should write that down. Good wisdom in that."
A kitsune in a zoo didn't sound very good at all, though. Nino cocked his head, brow furrowing. "A kitsune? In a cage? Which zoo? Is it being kept against its will? I never really knew foxes. They're kind of like cats - or maybe cats are like foxes? They just wouldn't come to you because you asked. The wolves were nicer... when they wanted to be."
Wolves had also been vicious, in protecting their territories or their young. Nino had never had any trouble with them, but he was fay. Fay seemed to get passes with animals. "I'd like a cat, I think. But not at the Cloisters. They'd never feed it right."
He clinked their mugs and put his to his lips. For a moment he just breathed, inhaling the scent of the chocolate. Then he tipped it slowly into his mouth. The chocolate's sweetness hit his tongue first. Honey next. Then the tang. It wasn't terrible. Strange, but not terrible.
Misono felt a puff of a laugh escape, like dandelion fluff. "Kazunari is a god person," she said. "I won't write it down; I'll remember because normally nobody says I say wise things."
Point in case: "Ah! No, no, he's not in a cage!" She hastened to reassure. "His name is Masaki and he works there! He feeds the animals and he let me help! He's not a nine-tail, he's still kind of young, and he walks around looking like a person only sometimes he still has a tail by accident." She tipped her head, thinking about tails before shaking it off. "He's really friend and nice. We decided we're a little bit of kindred spirits, me and him. A different way from me and you." She and Kazunari were Fate, they were joined.
She sipped her hot chocolate and sorted through the tastes. "It's not bad!" she agreed. "Next time maybe I'll use cocoa powder with honey so there's a bit more bitter to it." She generally preferred chocolate but the honey needed something more. She made sure she slurped her next sip. "Sometimes I wonder what all I can put in a cup and make work." She liked to experiment.
Experiment. Wondering. "Sometimes I think I should have a cat here in the shop, a shop cat! One to help greet customers and be pleasant to have 'round. Only I can't because Yesung and Kitty von Catcat wouldn't like me bringing a stranger home every night. There's territory issues. And Kitty von Catcat does NOT like it here." Silly cat! She smiled at Kazunari over the rim of her cup, trying to be as cute and sweet as she could be. "If you lived in the shop, you could have a cat here~~~" she hinted. And then he would be RIGHT THERE. It wouldn't be the Cloisters and there were people everywhere but maybe he needed to meet more people. Kind of like Yesung. She turned up the wattage on her smile.
Nino pursed his lips slightly, nodding around his mouthful of hot chocolate as he took in Misono's words. A kitsune, huh? Young and walking around with a tail, working in a zoo. That sounded funny - a fox working at a zoo. But it was better than a fox being in the zoo. Maybe Nino could go if it was early enough, because zookeepers had to open early to feed and take care of the animals before the humans got there and he'd never met a kitsune before.
"I think bitter and honey would be better," he said, considering the dark liquid in his mug, "I like honey in tea. Dark tea. That gets pretty bitter sometimes."
He took another careful sip. He wasn't sure he could drink all of it. Sweet things just didn't taste good on his tongue after a while. But he'd try. Nino leaned on the counter and looked at Misono. His eyes narrowed at her unbearably cute face. "A shop cat, huh?"
Would it be so bad? Checking in on a cat at night? Or early in the morning? ... Or even staying the night, when it would just be him and the cat? He wouldn't have to leave the building. Nobody would even need to know he was there.
Misono's smile was kind of blinding.
"I know what you're doing... So do I get to find the cat?" he asked.
Honey in tea. Misono wrinkled her nose. "I like lemon. But then, I like green tea to be bitter." She shook her head. "Next time you can make tea and I'll drink it, just like I made the hot chocolate and you're drinking it." Because there WOULD be a next time, oh yes.
She dimpled, turning up her beaming smile to blinding. "I don't care if you know what I'm doing if it's working~~~" she trilled. "And you can pick the cat. Or anything! If you said 'Misono-chan, I think we should have a teacup pig' that would be all right, too! Even if you said 'Misono-ne-ne, I want to have a very large and grumpy snake as a shop-pet' this would also be okay!" She just liked the idea of Kazunari in one of her favorite places and she loved the idea of sharing a shop-pet with him. Still. She suspected that change wasn't the easiest for her friend. "And if you didn't want to stay here with him or her or it, you wouldn't have to. The Cloisters is a nice place! So you don't have to live here at all if you don't want! Just visiting on Sundays or before bedtime or in the morning before opening, maybe, would be enough."
Taking a gulp of hot chocolate--the faster to drink it and have regular hot chocolate--Misono leaned against Kazunari the way that Kitty von Catcat often did her. "I like the idea of you being around people more, but mostly around ME more; I like that part the best."
"Lemon is okay, but only in some," Nino said. "The British made that one up. I won't out it in many teas. Tastes funny. Like green tea tastes funny when anybody puts anything in it. I don't know why you'd do that to it." Humans had funny ideas about tea sometmes. Like they had funny ideas about a lot of things.
"If anything is okay then I want a wolf," he added, keeping his face straight. "A full sized one, a real one. I want to be able to ride on his shoulders." He'd done that once, before humans had forgotten to be afraid of wolves.
Nino let Misono lean, and rested his head briefly on hers. "I'll come more, if there's a cat. If it makes you happy."
"You can't put lemon in green tea unless you've burnt it," Misono agreed. "But I like to put it in black tea, the English black tea, not regular Japanese tea." Somehow she always tasted the difference.
Except the tea wasn't important and neither was the stuff to put in it because Kazunari wanted a wolf. Holy crap. She felt her eyebrows shoot up. She'd said anything. But. "Wolves make a mess--well, maybe not I only know part-time ones but the ones I know either try to eat me or they pounce on me or they bust up the furniture and chew on the couch and I don't want the wolf to eat the customers! But if you want one to ride and keep in the shop then I...I...I think you're teasing me!" she realized. Something about his eyes gave him away. She laughed, snuggling against him.
She drank more hot chocolate, too sweet with honey, and considered what made her happy. "I don't want to make you do things. If it's troubling for you to come for a cat or if it's just troubling to come here, then I don't want that. But I'm pretty pushy so if you don't say anything I will push at you to share a pet with me and be in Come Again and with me. I like being with you. I like being around the people I love the most out of anything I do."
Still. She really wanted more. More pets, more Kazunari, more fun. She gave him the big-eyed look that made Yesung make faces at her. "It's all up to you," she said while her eyes said that she wanted her way to be his 'up to'.
Nino felt his lips twitch when Misono's eyes widened at the scope of his request. He bit down on his tongue to keep from laughing. Misono's expression went from shock to what was probably worry and then to mildly indignant. She'd figured him out. Nino ducked his head and laughed.
It was hard work, keeping a straight face! Nino could be one of those entertainers that humans liked so much! The acting ones!
"I am," he confirmed. "I like wolves but they'd be very unhappy inside like this. Cats are much more suited."
The idea of staying so close to humans all the time was hard to imagine as reality now, but it was something he knew he needed to do. Misono would psuh and that was probably a good thing. And if Misono was here, and Nino didn't have to be seen, then it couldn't be so bad.
Nino had been telling himself that for weeks.
"I don't have anything to move," he said quietly, sipping more of his chocolate. "So I can move in whenever."
"I don't know about honey in hot chocolate," she confessed as she opened the door to the upstairs apartment. "I saw it in a movie and it seemed like they really liked it so I thought I would try. But Ponyo isn't real so who knows? If we don't like it, we can have regular hot chocolate. I'll make extra so that we can." One handed she reached into the cupboards and pulled out the chocolate bars she kept there. "I like sweet things but not too sweet. America sure has a lot of things that are too sweet." She still had a Japanese palate--she preferred subtle tastes with the occasional burst of flavor, or else the simple tastes of something being just as it was.
Oh, for the simple things. "I'm letting go now but it's because I have to. I like that you touch me," she told him as she let go of his hand to make sliver the chocolate. "For a long time I didn't have anybody that did." She didn't bother to look at her hands as she chopped (she could practically cook in her sleep) but looked instead at her friend. "Is that why you came?" she asked him. "Because sometimes touching is like sunshine."
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He looked around the kitchen while Misono set herself to chopping chocolate. He missed the touch of her hand, but that couldn't be helped. She needed them to work. He didn't think he'd come just for that, though. "I... don't know," Nino said slowly. "I don't think so. At least not just because of touching. I wanted... I wanted to try and be out there," he waved vaguely. "With them. Because I'm starting to feel it - not having a human - and it's a little unnerving but I'm still not good around them. I started coming here before I could think about it."
Amazing how easy it was to talk to Misono. Perhaps because she'd seen him at his lowest. "I hear American senses of sweetness are slowly spreading," he said in a sort of desperate attempt to keep from thinking about it too much. "Sweetness and meat. Even back to Europe."
The old recipes had never been nearly so sweet. The food of the UK had always been somewhat blatant about its ingredients, and sometimes had bordered on bland. The Roman Empire had introduced foods and spices of the Middle East and Orient and things had gotten quite good. It allowed French and Italian cooking to become art - something that the British Isles forgot about after the fall of the Empire due to constant invasions. But never so sweet that your teeth felt like rotting out.
"It takes the fun out of eating," Nino decided. He turned so he faced the counter he was leaning on and watched Misono chop the chocolate. He pressed his shoulder to hers, because she wasn't using it for more than steadying the chocolate. "Anything I can help with?" he asked.
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Poor Yesung was going to have to eat more Korean and Japanese food after today. So was everybody else she cooked for. Except maybe Kazunari who already appreciated food the way it should be.
And on the topic of things as they should be... "How long can you go without somebody?" she asked curiously. "Because I can't for very long at all. Days or weeks, maybe." Finished with the chocolate she set down the knife and looked at it. "What happens to you?" she asked. She didn't want the answer to be 'I go home'. His home was not a place to which she could follow. "But it's good that you're trying, that you're looking," she went on in a rush. He was looking! He was trying! That mattered more. "If you want help, I can help but I think we don't work the same way with this." Misono found a family and then loved them, usually. Sometimes she started to love them before she went to them but mostly it was just a matter of getting in the door and then being ridiculous about things until it all settled. "But I'll do anything, you know I will. I'll help you even if all I can do is be next to you."
Looking up she studied his face. He said it was modeled on hers but she couldn't really see it. He was almost impossibly lovely to her eyes. "I promise."
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He turned his back to the counter to lean on it, folding up his wings as he folded his arms. It was easier to lean without them. "I don't know. 200 years, apparently. Or somewhere around there. I only just started to realize I was feeling it. I don't know what will happen."
It was possible he would fade and End. That happened to some fay, though he'd never heard of it happening to a fa without a human. He didn't know what happened after that. Nino also hoped that he would never have to find out. It would be a crime to leave Misono now. He turned his head enough to watch Misono's hands. Her eyes were on his face, and he looked up to meet them, smiling briefly. "I know. Thank you."
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This year, next, she'd have years with him and she knew it. But she also knew the years of being alone. She watched Kazunari's wings fold and his smile come and go like a firefly. "If you only just started to realize then you've probably got time yet. If it were something urgent it'd feel that way. And--" She didn't want to say that he was still healing even if he was. Well. "And you're still healing from everything from before. Your last favorite..." They'd never really talked about that person though she had her theories on it. It didn't (and did) matter who it was to the rest of the world, though, it mattered to him. "Your last was somebody very, very special, right? So it takes time. There's time to get better and go on, I know it."
She poured the milk into the pot and set the burner going, adding a splash of vanilla extract and a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg. It wouldn't take long. "I don't get powdered hot chocolate," she mused, reaching out to put a hand on Nino as she worked, his forearm warm under her hand. "It doesn't take too long to do it up right. And I'm an impatient person, you know."
Misono smiled at her friend. "Even with that, I'll always be beside you somehow. Do you want to talk about humans? If you want, you can tell me what you're looking for or if you're looking for something in particular or how it feels to find your favorite. Otherwise we can talk about the plastic basil plant I might get or the pervert flowers I'm gonna get for the shop or the fact that I'm making you a scarf."
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"She was," Nino agreed. He glanced at Misono and looked away again, trying to remember if there was any sense to why he'd picked Marie. Or maybe why she'd picked him. Sometimes Nino wasn't all that sure that he had a choice in his favorite humans; he'd had some who'd turned out quite loathsome. "I don't even really know why. She was probably more favorite than my other favorite humans, but I can't remember why it was her."
Marie wasn't perfect by any means. He didn't think any of his humans were. It didn't much matter. Misono's hand on his arm brought his gaze down. He followed the line from her hand to her arm to her shoulder. Up to her face, to her smile. Nino smiled back slowly.
"That you are. It's part of your charm," he teased gently. How did he find a favorite? Nino wasn't sure he'd ever analyzed it. Probably not. Favorites just were. "I don't... I don't think I look for anything in humans. They call out to me or they don't, I guess. I just know who they are. It's hard to describe how something feels when it's that easy, you know?"
Nino cocked his head. "What color is it?"
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Not like Kazunari. "Doesn't have to be a reason," she said softly, adding the chocolate to the milk as it began to foam. She had to take her hand away from Nino to do so, needing to hold the pot as she stirred vigorously. "Sometimes they're just the ones you love best even if they're not the best person. Yesung is sometimes a big brat and sometimes he's just not very thoughtful but he's been my best family in a long time." She smiled as she stirred. "Sometimes they're the best because they are who they are."
Which was why her impatience was part of her charm, perhaps. She was who she was and it was good enough. "Ahh, so you just know them when you know them. Definitely different from me," she said as she listened to him talk. "I don't have to love them at first, I just have to get them to take me in. Then I love them. Sometimes I'm ridiculous about it at first and then I go back to being normal and getting irked when they leave socks all over the house." She'd keep an eye out for anybody she thought might be special enough for her Kazunari. Though aside from Yesung, Meisa would have been her choice for him. Maybe he needed a full human? But there was no rush, there was time to look.
"It's mostly a kind of cream color," she said, moving on to the scarf as she turned the heat off. "Mugs, please!" They were on the counter behind her but she wanted him to feel involved in what was going on. "But it's also got stripes on the ends. Green and orange and brown. Not bright colors! Neutral ones that look nice together." She'd been tempted to make him a rainbow one but she didn't want it to attract a lot of attention. "And it's super, super wide. You could fold it in half the long way and it'd still be a wide scarf. With tassels at the end, I think." She dimpled at him. "I wanted it to be warm even if you don't really feel the cold. Just in case! And the honey bear is also behind you. I got honey in a bear-shaped jar. I like bears."
[Ooc: This is the scarf.]
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"It's irrational," he said absently. "Loving humans. I can't think why I do, you know. It doesn't matter what they did, or how people look at their memory later, or now. I still love them all."
He pushed away from the counter and picked up the mugs, holding them out for Misono to pour into. The scarf sounded nice and it would probably be warm because that was the point of scarves. Though why it needed to be super wide Nino wasn't sure. It sounded nice. He wondered if it would shrink with him or if he'd have to stay at this size to wear it.
Nino reached out and poked Misono's dimple lightly. "I'll look forward to it." He frowned lightly. "I don't know what to get for you, though. Because there's a holiday coming up, isn't there? Aside from Christmas. The one where they eat turkey."
He looked over his shoulder and Pushed the honey bear towards them. When it was close enough Nino actually picked it up. He studied the bear. "Bears are nice. I like wolves better. Canines. Canines and cats."
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And thinking of enough...she tried to eye the honey as she squeezed a bit into each much. Not TOO sweet, she hoped. It smelled okay. "I only know two wolves. One is Yesung's and it eats up our apartment all the time and the other one is Wolf-san who walked me home one night. And jumped on me. I liked him okay. And you know, I met a kitsune at the zoo. They're all right, foxes. I love cats, though. I've got one. You could have a cat! Only you can't because you live at the Cloisters."
She looked up at him and smiled as she set the remaining hot chocolate down and turned a very, very low flame on under it. "Sorry. I didn't mean to say that if it made you feel bad. And that reminds me! You don't have to get me things. I'm making you the scarf" and a hat, eventually "because I want to give something to you for being you, for being here. You're the first person I've ever had who can stay with me for a hundred years and then some." Her and-then-some friend, her darling Kazunari. "So for Christmas and for Thanksgiving, it's enough for me to know you're here and that you're warm and safe and happy."
Well. Maybe she could wheedle a bit. "But if you want to come over for those days, and have turkey for Thanksgiving or Christmas ham or goose or something, that's good too. You're always invited, any time, any day, all the time." Yesung would have to deal with that but that was okay. Yesung needed to meet more people anyhow. She raised her mug and clinked it against his. "Let's taste this stuff!"
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Nino wrapped his hands around his mug, allowing himself to feel the heat. It wasn't much, but it was nice. It made him feel fuzzy even without Misono's magic. If there was more warmth like this to be felt he'd have to keep himself open to it. "I like that. The idea of humans as cherry blossoms and fireflies," he said, smiling. "Maybe you should write that down. Good wisdom in that."
A kitsune in a zoo didn't sound very good at all, though. Nino cocked his head, brow furrowing. "A kitsune? In a cage? Which zoo? Is it being kept against its will? I never really knew foxes. They're kind of like cats - or maybe cats are like foxes? They just wouldn't come to you because you asked. The wolves were nicer... when they wanted to be."
Wolves had also been vicious, in protecting their territories or their young. Nino had never had any trouble with them, but he was fay. Fay seemed to get passes with animals. "I'd like a cat, I think. But not at the Cloisters. They'd never feed it right."
He clinked their mugs and put his to his lips. For a moment he just breathed, inhaling the scent of the chocolate. Then he tipped it slowly into his mouth. The chocolate's sweetness hit his tongue first. Honey next. Then the tang. It wasn't terrible. Strange, but not terrible.
"It's pretty good!"
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Point in case: "Ah! No, no, he's not in a cage!" She hastened to reassure. "His name is Masaki and he works there! He feeds the animals and he let me help! He's not a nine-tail, he's still kind of young, and he walks around looking like a person only sometimes he still has a tail by accident." She tipped her head, thinking about tails before shaking it off. "He's really friend and nice. We decided we're a little bit of kindred spirits, me and him. A different way from me and you." She and Kazunari were Fate, they were joined.
She sipped her hot chocolate and sorted through the tastes. "It's not bad!" she agreed. "Next time maybe I'll use cocoa powder with honey so there's a bit more bitter to it." She generally preferred chocolate but the honey needed something more. She made sure she slurped her next sip. "Sometimes I wonder what all I can put in a cup and make work." She liked to experiment.
Experiment. Wondering. "Sometimes I think I should have a cat here in the shop, a shop cat! One to help greet customers and be pleasant to have 'round. Only I can't because Yesung and Kitty von Catcat wouldn't like me bringing a stranger home every night. There's territory issues. And Kitty von Catcat does NOT like it here." Silly cat! She smiled at Kazunari over the rim of her cup, trying to be as cute and sweet as she could be. "If you lived in the shop, you could have a cat here~~~" she hinted. And then he would be RIGHT THERE. It wouldn't be the Cloisters and there were people everywhere but maybe he needed to meet more people. Kind of like Yesung. She turned up the wattage on her smile.
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"I think bitter and honey would be better," he said, considering the dark liquid in his mug, "I like honey in tea. Dark tea. That gets pretty bitter sometimes."
He took another careful sip. He wasn't sure he could drink all of it. Sweet things just didn't taste good on his tongue after a while. But he'd try. Nino leaned on the counter and looked at Misono. His eyes narrowed at her unbearably cute face. "A shop cat, huh?"
Would it be so bad? Checking in on a cat at night? Or early in the morning? ... Or even staying the night, when it would just be him and the cat? He wouldn't have to leave the building. Nobody would even need to know he was there.
Misono's smile was kind of blinding.
"I know what you're doing... So do I get to find the cat?" he asked.
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She dimpled, turning up her beaming smile to blinding. "I don't care if you know what I'm doing if it's working~~~" she trilled. "And you can pick the cat. Or anything! If you said 'Misono-chan, I think we should have a teacup pig' that would be all right, too! Even if you said 'Misono-ne-ne, I want to have a very large and grumpy snake as a shop-pet' this would also be okay!" She just liked the idea of Kazunari in one of her favorite places and she loved the idea of sharing a shop-pet with him. Still. She suspected that change wasn't the easiest for her friend. "And if you didn't want to stay here with him or her or it, you wouldn't have to. The Cloisters is a nice place! So you don't have to live here at all if you don't want! Just visiting on Sundays or before bedtime or in the morning before opening, maybe, would be enough."
Taking a gulp of hot chocolate--the faster to drink it and have regular hot chocolate--Misono leaned against Kazunari the way that Kitty von Catcat often did her. "I like the idea of you being around people more, but mostly around ME more; I like that part the best."
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"If anything is okay then I want a wolf," he added, keeping his face straight. "A full sized one, a real one. I want to be able to ride on his shoulders." He'd done that once, before humans had forgotten to be afraid of wolves.
Nino let Misono lean, and rested his head briefly on hers. "I'll come more, if there's a cat. If it makes you happy."
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Except the tea wasn't important and neither was the stuff to put in it because Kazunari wanted a wolf. Holy crap. She felt her eyebrows shoot up. She'd said anything. But. "Wolves make a mess--well, maybe not I only know part-time ones but the ones I know either try to eat me or they pounce on me or they bust up the furniture and chew on the couch and I don't want the wolf to eat the customers! But if you want one to ride and keep in the shop then I...I...I think you're teasing me!" she realized. Something about his eyes gave him away. She laughed, snuggling against him.
She drank more hot chocolate, too sweet with honey, and considered what made her happy. "I don't want to make you do things. If it's troubling for you to come for a cat or if it's just troubling to come here, then I don't want that. But I'm pretty pushy so if you don't say anything I will push at you to share a pet with me and be in Come Again and with me. I like being with you. I like being around the people I love the most out of anything I do."
Still. She really wanted more. More pets, more Kazunari, more fun. She gave him the big-eyed look that made Yesung make faces at her. "It's all up to you," she said while her eyes said that she wanted her way to be his 'up to'.
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It was hard work, keeping a straight face! Nino could be one of those entertainers that humans liked so much! The acting ones!
"I am," he confirmed. "I like wolves but they'd be very unhappy inside like this. Cats are much more suited."
The idea of staying so close to humans all the time was hard to imagine as reality now, but it was something he knew he needed to do. Misono would psuh and that was probably a good thing. And if Misono was here, and Nino didn't have to be seen, then it couldn't be so bad.
Nino had been telling himself that for weeks.
"I don't have anything to move," he said quietly, sipping more of his chocolate. "So I can move in whenever."
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