BiTTER (Shokugeki no Souma Fanfic)

23. Reason For and Reasons to Be.

Uncle Yukihira lifted his head.

"What? You didn't know yet?" he said, frowning at Eda. "You know we told you not to hide it, Kiyofumi! You can't cook safely when people don't know you can't taste or smell a thing."

Immediately, Eda leaped from his seat, "Wha-- wait! Wait, U- Uncle, I--" his head spun, from his uncle to the slack-jawed Shinomiya and right back to his uncle in hopes of some sort of salvation-- but alas, Uncle is the criminal, he won't get help from that monster.

So he bit his lip and-- and just completely short-circuits.

He couldn't say a thing. Didn't know what to say, what to do-- should he run? But what then, he'll have nowhere to run that Uncle Yukihira didn't know he could get to and argh! Why did he bring Shinomiya along? He brought this upon himself! He's so stupid. This sucks. This can't be happening. Let me just die. Oh crap.

"The food's going to go cold," he said, changing the subject in the most pathetic way possible. "C'mon. We need to eat."

He doesn't want to answer this. I don't want to answer this. He doesn't want to--

"Huh," Shinomiya said, and Eda completely froze up. "Yeah," he rests his chin in his palm, "shoe fits, I guess. You really shouldn't be hiding something that important."

Huh?

"What?" Shinomiya frowned, and Eda noticed his own expression-- slack jawed, horrified, confused-- just straight up bewildered-- and Shinomiya was the picture of undeterred. "You could seriously cause food poisoning, you know? Are you an idiot? When you work in a kitchen with a disability or whatevershit, you gotta tell us so we can look out for ya!"

Eda immediately felt the burn in the back of his eyes.

"Yeah," his grip tightens on his spoon. "I'm just being an idiot. I know."

He stuffed a spoonful of gratin into his mouth, turning away sharply so he doesn't need to come up with another response.

Shinomiya grumbled something inaudible, before taking another mouthful himself.

Uncle Yukihira smiled.

-

Miserably enough, they make it to Kiyo's bakery (it was closed) just like that. In silence, meeting no one else, and exceedingly awkward. Grandma Kiyo was still at the market with Tamako, so they still had some time to themselves to settle down.

"Why'd you hide it," Shinomiya asked.

Eda was clawing at his hair at this point, "don't ask. Use your head."

"Being taste-deaf ain't some groundbreaking discovery," Shinomiya muttered, "plenty of people lose their taste over time. Even my Baba--" he cleared his throat, face heating up, "I mean, my grandmother back home, can't taste much cause her taste buds got burned in an infection."

Well, that's true.

"I'm in a culinary school," he said. "A hyper competitive, 10% only, culinary school."

Shinomiya grimaced at that. "Right. What the fuck is up with that, really," Shinomiya said, "but you can cook, so who the fuck cares you can't taste?"

Eda froze at that.

Did he just-- say it like it was no big deal?