Chapter 7: Serenade for Strings

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

Mysterious flickering lights, circuit breakers tripping, and outages were all affecting the Seasoning City metro line for weeks. The trains weren't on time and neither were the people of Seasoning City. Timely bosses who usually chided their salarymen underlings for their tardiness were huffing and puffing as they raced from the subway in a desperate attempt to make it to their desks before the clock ticked down to 8 AM.

They weren't the only ones huffing and puffing, though; Mob and Reigen had chased their target down and cornered him before he could make his way to another train line and the two were exhausted. It was nothing short of a miracle that the two of them had managed to make it to the last train of the night before the doors closed behind them.

Mob collapsed one of the train's empty seats, his damp palms pressed down atop the poly-cotton blend of his gakuran slacks. It was only by sheer miracle that they weren't soaked through. Sweat seemed to be pouring from every pore on Mob's body.

"Sorry," Mob said apologetically. "If I had been faster, we wouldn't have had to do so much running."

Comments

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

Mob wordlessly looked up at Reigen, surprised, but not quite showing it. He never imagined that Reigen might be talking about him to his friends. Especially since Mob wasn't sure that he had any.

"Oh," Mob said in reply.

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

"You're quite the envy of a few folks at my place, you know. When it comes having a good wing to nest under, there's no one else better than Reigen-sensei. He's turned more than a few lives around." He laughed.

"You're flattering me, Kashu-san." Reigen laughed along, but his eyes were darting around for an easy excuse to escape the topic.

Whatever he had said about Mob, he hadn't said it soberly.

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

"Yeah, he's a good teacher," Mob agreed.

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

"Ah, but I won't keep you two. I was just picking up some fresh lemons." Kashu turned back to Reigen and winked--he knew his favorite drink, after all.

Reigen sighed in relief about being offered the out so easily.

"How old are you, Shigeo-kun? Middle school, right? Come join us when you're 20. Your first drink will be on me." He offered good-naturedly.

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

"Thanks," Mob said simply. He had a lot of years left before he'd be able to drink.

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

"What he means is thank you, Kashu-san," Reigen repeated with more emphasis. Enforcing some arbitrary standard of politeness felt pointless between a sinking brick and someone who was overly buoyant, but it was the most measure of control he was getting over this interaction.

"Hah! Anything for the apple of Reigen-sensei's eye," Kashu said in English, which Reigen unfortunately understood immediately. Hell, he was probably the one who taught him the phrase.

When Kashu grabbed the hondashi and carried on Reigen took a moment to clear his throat, grab the last remaining bag of the soup stock, and motion for Mob to follow him to the meat section.

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

"I didn't know you had other friends," Mob observed, following behind, can still in hand.

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

"You sound surprised."

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

"You never mentioned them to me."

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

"You've never asked."

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

"I thought if you had other friends and wanted to talk about them, you would have brought it up first."

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

"Mob. You're my deshi. This is different."

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

"I thought that we were friends."

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

"Eh?"

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

"We are, right?"

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

"You're my deshi," Reigen repeated. Was that suddenly the wrong answer? Mob was pinning him to the spot and their simple shopping trick was threatening to derail entirely much like the trains. "Look, Mob... .. ..."

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

"Oh." Mob guessed he had gotten the wrong impression. It wouldn't have been the first time. Still, it hurt to be wrong this time.

28%... 29%... 30%... 31%...

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Mob's disappointment was palpable. Even if no one could tell just by looking at them, Reigen could. As many mysteries as Mob's brain contained, Reigen still knew how to read him better than anyone else, and his student's pain wouldn't wait for Reigen to stop stumbling over his words.

"Hey, hey." Reigen turned to fully face him. "Just let me finish talking, okay? We are friends."

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

Mob peered up at Reigen carefully.

"...you're not just saying that, are you?"

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

"I'm not." Reigen put a hand on Mob's head, giving his uniform bowl cut a gentle ruffle. "You're still my deshi when we're at work, understand? But we're not at work right now."

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

Mob's expression may have only shifted slightly, but the relief he felt was clearly palatable to someone who knew him as well as Reigen did.

"That's good because I was planning on making some salmon onigiri for you." Mob still held a can of salmon in his hands from earlier. "Onigiri is really the only thing I can cook well."

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

“O-oh. I see.” Reigen was completely disarmed once again by Mob. “Tonight?”

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

"Yeah, it won't be very hard since we'll be making rice already."

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

When was the last time anyone had made food for Reigen that he hadn't paid for? The question popped up in his mind as they continued their journey to the meat section.

"Very well. You're in charge of the onigiri. But you won't be able to say you can't make anything else after tonight." Reigen gave Mob a firm pat on the back.

They finished up their shopping--since Mob was in charge of the onigiri, he paid for the canned salmon and rice bag, while Reigen paid for everything else.

The sky was a deep purple by the time they made it back to Reigen's apartment. He removed his vest and stretched his neck from side to side, unused to lugging that many groceries home at once.

"Alright. First thing's first. You're on potato duty. That means washing and dicing them - no bigger than a quarter inch on those." Reigen approached a small cd player he had sitting neatly on one of his end tables and checked what was inside--ah, yep. Still the classics. It'd do. When he pressed play, a gentle swell of strings from a symphony filled the apartment. He adjusted the volume until it was just loud enough to be a pleasant part of the background.

[spiritsandsuchtrainee]

Mob didn't know why he was surprised that Reigen liked classical music, but he was nevertheless. But now that Mob thought about it, most people probably wouldn't look at him and think he liked eating out, either.

"Okay," Mob said. He wasn't sure he could do it, but he was going to give it a try. Mob gave the potato a wash, just like he had seen his mom do plenty of times before.

"Did your mom cook for you a lot, Arataka-chan?" That's what his friends called him, right? And he was technically a friend right now. It was probably OK for him to not call him master.