K Project: King's Flower (Possible Tatara Totsuka x OC)

Chapter 7: Heart of Gold

"Welcome back Hana!" Tatatara called as he spotted me walk into the door.

"Hannnnnnnnaaaaaa." I gulped as I slowly turned around to face a creepily smiling Izumo.

"Hi Kusanagi-san." I whispered in my best 'I'm so sorry for using your kitchen, don't kill me voice.' I almost forget that I had used Izumo's kitchen, but I cleaned everything after myself! I even saved leftovers in the fridge AND labeled it for him.

Izumo glomped me. "Come work for me! The bar was SPARKLIN' when I came back this afternoon. And your food is so good! Where did ya learn to cook?"

One of his arms was hanging off my shoulder. I felt so relieved knowing that I wasn't in trouble like I thought. "Sure, I'd love to! My grandparents taught me how to cook. I need to start working anyways to repay you guys for giving me a place to sleep."

Izumo's face turned serious. "Ya don't need to thank us for that, you're welcome any time. Plus, you saved Anna-chan and givin' you a bed is the least we could do." He went back to the bar to tend to his customers, giving me a wink to show that he's back to normal.

Anna finally noticed me and came running towards me. "You're back."

I gathered her in a hug. I've been gone for not even a half day and I missed her so much. Pepper transferred to Anna's shoulders during this hug. "I missed you." I murmured into her white hair.

"Missed you too." Anna responded into my shoulder.

"Alright! Let's go to the couch, I need to start helping Kusanagi-san with the bar." I picked Anna up bridal-style as she squealed in surprise.

I walked over and plopped her down on the couch, next to Mikoto.

"I could've walked." She pouted.

I messed up her hair with a hand. "It's not fun that way though. When you're tired, head up to bed." I left Pepper with Anna.

Izumo called over some orders and I responded, "Hai hai, I can get those done."

I moved to the kitchen and began cooking the ordered small dishes. It's a bar, not a restaurant so there aren't any heavy menu items.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

About half an hour later, Tatara joined me in the kitchen.

"Can I help?" His soft voice broke through my concentration as I was mixing the ingredients for chicken karaage (Japanese fried chicken).

"I'm actually working on chicken karaage right now, could you please pass me the flour?"

"Sure." Not a moment later, there was a large crashing noise.

Startled, I looked up from the mixture I was working on to find Tatara on the floor with flour spilled in a half circle around him. He had fallen backwards while holding the flour jar, so he was now on his butt with his arms supporting the upper half of his body.

I rush over to help him up and dust him off. My eyes lingered on his for a moment too long. God damn he has beautiful eyes. They're just so kind and honest that I could stare at them all day if I could. That's too embarrassing though.

"Quick, we need to clean this up." I started panicking and crouched down to gather the spilled flour and also to hide the blush on my face.

"Maa maa, it'll be fine. This'll work out. We'll just clean it up, nice and simple. There's no need to rush." Tatara's slow movements expressed his carefree personality.

"Nice. And. Simple. Huh." Tatara and I froze at the sound of Izumo's voice coming from the doorway. Slowly we turned around and the anime tick mark was clearly visible on Izumo's forehead.