Hidden Love (Scoups)

𝟷𝟽. . .sᴇᴄʀᴇᴛs

She was still stunned at seeing Scoups being here in the morning but as she got over her surprise, she asked, "Where did you go?" 

"Convenience store," Scoups answered, "You didn't have much rice left so I got instant rice. And I needed coffee. You don't have a coffee maker at home." 

That's mostly because Nabi prefers to buy her coffee at the cafe of her work building since employees get a discount. Besides, she isn't a coffee maniac to consider buying a machine too. 

"Rice?" Nabi asks however. 

"Yeah," He looks at her, "You need to eat breakfast." 

"I usually don't have breakfast," Nabi told him. 

Scoups looked at her as if he wasn't too surprised at hearing this and said, "I'm hungry. And I'd like if you'd join me." 

Nabi got up from the bed and walked over to the couch, picking up the grocery bag Scoups had put on the couch earlier. Taking a look into it, Nabi saw a few packets of instant rice in alongside a few tiny cartons of banana milk and some corn dogs too. 

"This a lot of food for a breakfast," Nabi commented, her voice low.

"I bought extra. So you can eat them later on too," Scoups explained, "You're at home all day today anyways right? You can eat them later too." 

"I don't think I've ever seen anyone eat corn dogs for breakfast though," Nabi wondered, "I'll make some seaweed stew quickly to eat with the rice then. I don't think eating plain rice will be appetizing enough." 

"You can wash up. I was going to make it anyways," Scoups mentioned earlier, taking off his mask as well. 

This time Nabi actually halted in her actions and gaped at Scoups open mouthed. In all of the eleven months they have been together, Nabi actually can't remember a time where Scoups even offered to cook, let alone cook alone himself.  As far as Nabi is aware, he wasn't really that fond of cooking. 

"Y-you're going to cook," Nabi stammered like an idiot. 

Scoups nodded, not really catching onto her surprise and if he did, then he made sure to not show it. 

"I can cook something super simple so don't expect anything grand," He told her. 

"It's okay,"Nabi pretty much objected, "I'll just cook. You can just rest."

Nabi moved to walk towards the kitchen section of the apartment but as she was passing Scoups, he grabbed her by the elbow and held her back, not letting her walk any further. 

"I said I'll cook," He repeated himself sternly, the tone of his voice clearly conveying that he wasn't really up for negotiations. 

"But-"

"Do you not trust me at all?" Scoups asked. Even though they were just talking about cooking, his eyes were dead and tired and his voice was monotonous and emotionless. It was almost as if Scoups was talking about something else entirely. 

"I-I do," Nabi said quietly. 

"Then just let me cook," Scoups instructed. He let go of her arm and took the grocery bag from her hand to his, walking towards the tiny kitchen. 

Nabi watched as his back was towards her, feeling very awkward and out of place. She's never had anyone else cook for her in her apartment before. It was certainly a new kind of feeling, one which certainly felt unfamiliar. She isn't used to having favors done to her for free. 

However just standing and watching Scoups without doing anything is even more awkward and so Nabi moved towards her bed, folding her blankets away and arranging her pillows, deciding to clean her apartment and bit and wash up before she ate.