Of Love and Tropes – Haunted

Rating: K

Disclaimer: If it had been up to me, Sorina would have been married at the end of the manga.

A/N: As noted in the summary, this story used to be called "Savior" and was originally going to be a series of somewhat related one-shots. I've decided to make it into a series of unrelated one-shots instead (though you may see a continuation here and there), and turn Kaleidoscope into its own story focused on whatever mess is going on over there. I apologize to anyone who got their hopes up thinking this is follow-up to the first chapter - it's not and is completely separate from the previous closet-rendezvous. Without further ado, enjoy this new story!

Question 42: Translate "Mata itsuka aimashō" into English.

Soma taps the end of his pencil against his desk in a steady rhythm, staring idly at the falling snow through frosted windows. The classroom echoes of lead against paper, the ticking of the clock, and exasperated grumbles muffled by knitted sleeves. He can't say he's faring any better than, say, Kurase on the exam (and truthfully, English is not his best subject), but his mind has all but checked out for the day.

"You're going to run out of time if you don't start writing down your answers."

Soma struggles to school his expression before he can roll his eyes and get accused of cheating. He doesn't need to turn his head to know that a girl with honey-blonde hair is hovering over his shoulders.

Quite literally. Hovering, that is.

He can't help but steal a peek at her anyway. She looks around his age and is wearing a school uniform he has never been able to identify. Her pink lips are curved into a mocking smile, and her translucent hands are resting on his shoulders. He feels a sliver of a presence, a warmth he has become accustomed to, and he wonders, not for the first time, what it would feel like to touch her.

Because she isn't really there.

Not to anyone else at least, and he would look crazy if he were to start holding a conversation with her.

Six months ago, he found her in his father's diner as they were opening up for the day. To say he was flabbergasted would be an understatement, as he may or may not have slammed the door shut upon seeing her.

She appeared to be a ghost, or some kind of spirit. She didn't remember anything about her previous life, nor why she appeared in the Yukihira diner. When he asked for her name, she could only recall "Eri," and thus, that's what he called her.

His father had a field day when Soma told him about this ghost, who spent most of her time following him around—not by choice, for the record. It seemed where he went, some kind of pull tugged her with him. Joichirou made fun of him and checked his temperature several times until Soma described her and her clothing to him. Cascading blonde locks and orchid eyes. A navy blazer and plaid skirt and bow. For some reason, his father challenged him to a cooking match right after, and it was during their showdown that they all found out she bore a gift.

She could name all the ingredients they used to make the dishes just by looking at it or smelling it. And she was extremely knowledgeable about cooking methods from all over the world, what spice would go well with certain ingredients, and could instantly tell whether his or his father's dish was better (though it was always the latter, never the former, much to his dismay). So despite not being able to actually taste anything he made, she fitted like a puzzle piece into his everyday life, cooking and whatnot.

"Do you want me to tell you the answer?" Eri taunts, and he can hear the smirk playing on her lips. He makes a soft grunting noise, hoping that it'll come off as a frustrated groan, which was not entirely untrue.

She settles for blowing gently in his ear, and it's a wisp of wind that ruffles his hair and flutters his test papers. Several heads turn to look at him and then the window, but he pretends not to notice. Not the curious stares nor the words in front of him. Not the translucent girl gingerly wrapping her arms around his neck from behind, and definitely not the way his heartbeat accelerated.

"Ahh, I think I failed that test," Soma grumbles, stretching out his arms and not bothering to suppress his yawn. Eri merely laughs at him.

"I could've told you all the answers, you know."

"Yeah, but that's cheating! I'll get through school with my own strength or else the Old Man won't trust me to take over the diner for him."

She gives him a skeptical look and he stops in his tracks, a blatantly irritated expression on his face. "What?"

With her hands on her hips, she drifts in front of him, practically head butting him as she leans down to meet his eyes. "Isn't there more you would like to do with your life? I agree that the Yukihira is a great place, but your goal is too short-sighted." She hovers away from him and looks to the sky. "Don't you want to see what else is beyond this small town?"

He merely shrugs. "Not really. I just want to prove that I can be better than him." He glances at her, eyes lingering on the haloing effect of the sun on her hair, before averting his gaze and walking past her.

"Plus, I'm pretty comfortable right now."

"Saiba-sama is going to win," Eri declares confidently, and her smug look is almost insufferable when the customers-turned-judges declare a 3-0 against him. Soma releases an aggravated sigh of defeat, untying his headband and wrapping it around his wrist.

"You were close this time, Yukihira-kun!" Kurase, one of the judges, reassures. Just as he's about to thank her, he catches Eri rolling her eyes in his periphery.

"Not really. The ratio of the cardamom to soy sauce was completely off." Eri is seated on the counter with her legs crossed, elbow propped on her knee, and chin resting on her palm. "Probably could have used a dash of lemon zest too. And who uses potato chips in a dish?"

Soma coughs. "Thank you, Kurase. At least someone here has good taste."

His classmate smiles, albeit a bit confused. "Of course, Yukihira-kun! Anytime!" But Soma's mind is already far from the competition.

Speaking to Eri in public has always been tricky business, considering that no one could hear her, but everyone could hear him. In less emotional moments, Soma is able to answer her in less conspicuous manners. With rising vexation, however…

"Yes, because you can only judge a meal if you can actually eat it, isn't that right, Kurase?"

Kurase's response is drowned out by Eri's indignant huff. "Excuse you," the blonde glares, catching his implications towards her, "I think I've proven that I don't need to be able to taste anything to know the outcome." A pause, then she adds, "And I definitely can assess better than this girl too."

Soma has never been one to back down from a fight. "Well, at the very least, it's nice to hear that people have faith in me."

"I'm sure lots of people have faith in you," Kurase reiterates, now completely at a loss.

"Ill placed," Eri quips.

Soma abruptly turns to his dad, who isn't surprised in the least and looks very much entertained. "You hear that, Old Man? Lots of people have faith in me."

"We sure do, Kiddo," Joichirou laughs, playing along and undoubtedly used to how his son converses with his spirit-friend.

Eri flicks her hair over her shoulder, hops off the counter, and floats to the back of the restaurant. On cue, Soma follows, throwing a "I'm doing some dishes!" over his shoulder as he slams the door behind him, leaving a rather baffled crowd of customers.

It takes him three large strides to find her in the dimly lit storage unit, where she is standing in the middle of the room. "You know what? I think you could be more open minded about ingredients," he says upon approaching her. Eri is grounded, and even in his irritated state, he is grateful that she respects him enough to not look down on him during an argument. "Otherwise, food just gets boring."

She doesn't miss a beat. "Are you suggesting that if I could cook, my recipes would be boring?" She crosses her arms over her chest, narrowing her gaze at him. "I'm obviously very skilled at whatever it is I do and have much more knowledge than you about worldly cuisines."

"I'm not doubting you." His own hands find purchase on his hips. "I just think there are some things you actually have to try to judge accurately."

"Again, obviously not judging inaccurately considering the results," she states matter-of-factly. It's his turn to roll his eyes.

"I'm not talking about the results. I'm talking about the taste. Which," he stares straight at her. "You. Can. Not. Do."

Eri exasperatedly throws her hands in the air. "I can't control that!"

"No one is asking you to! Just consider that maybe what you would find delicious isn't what is considered 'correct' or 'by the book.' There are so many flavor combinations out there to explore and you just won't know if they're good until you actually try them. And I wish you could." He glances to the side, nerves suddenly prickling at his skin. "I would cook for you, if I could."

There is a moment of silence as his words sink in. His neck feels hot as he watches her eyes widen and mouth slightly part. Finally, her expression relaxes and there is a small upturn at the corner of her lips. "Says the guy who doesn't want to leave this town to explore anything." He doesn't miss the tinge of endearment in her voice.

Soma smiles sheepishly before breaking into a full, confident grin. "Yeah, well. I've got you and your knowledge of 'worldly cuisines.' What else do I need?"

She's been in a daze lately, he's noticed. Less snarky responses and more wistful stares out the window. Every time he looks in the same direction, he never sees anything even remotely interesting.

It makes him feel unsettled. He hates to admit it but he's grown quite used to (and perhaps, even fond of) her wit and sarcasm. While he could go without the occasional violation of privacy, he's enjoyed her companionship, and she's barely spoken three sentences to him in the last week. Not even the distinctive smell of his peanut butter squid concoction riled her up.

So imagine his reaction when he's lying in bed, turning on his side, only to find her crammed next to him on his twin-sized mattress. He immediately jerks away from her, his back banging into the wall behind him. She looks unamused.

"I'm not a monster, Soma-kun," she deadpans, propping her head up on her hand. He shoots her a pointed glare.

"You're not far off considering, you know, you're dead." He expects her to hurl a few insults at him, but her gaze softens to a sad look.

"But I'm not." She says it so quietly he had to strain his ears to hear it. His breath nearly hitches in his throat. This is the first time she ever said anything resolute about her past or situation.

"How do you know?"

She places her hand on his chest and he can feel the rush of blood to his face. Her touch is warm, soft even, and he realizes then that he feels the slight pressure of her fingers.

He blinks. Once. Twice. Debates if his mind has short-circuited.

What the— "Eri, I- I can feel you."

He probably looks like an idiot, with his mouth agape and eyes wide in disbelief, but he cares very little about his appearance at the moment. He lifts his own hand towards her face, pausing mid movement before resting it on the curvature of her cheek. He stops breathing.

She isn't completely solid, not that he expects her to be since she is still translucent, but there is a semblance of skin. Smooth and flawless, his thumb traces the contours of her face as if he is trying to embed her into his memory, which—

"Why is this happening?"

"I think...I'm waking up somewhere," she explains, that wistful look on her face again. "I keep seeing flashes of light and this white room. I see faces, but they're blurry."

"That's good...isn't it?" Even as he says that, Soma can't dampen the foreboding feeling settling in his gut. "It means you're alive!"

She bites the inside of her cheek. "But I don't know where I am. What if I'm on a completely different continent?" It's she that rests a hand on his face this time and he feels her fears in the slight tremor of her palm. "What if I forget all this?"

He sucks in a sharp breath. It wasn't impossible. She couldn't remember her life prior to appearing outside his diner, so it would make sense that she wouldn't remember her time with him once she returned. And something about that thought just made him...ache.

It's silly, all things considered. He's only known her for a short time and knew next to nothing about her aside from her sixth sense for food. Not to mention that he isn't even 100% sure she's real because since when did ghosts actually become a proven existence. And even if she is real, he should be happy that she isn't dead.

He knows though - that she has grown on him. That he's found a real friend in her; someone he can trust and who is able to help him take his cooking to the next level. When he is up all night trying to put together a new recipe or trying to enhance an old one, she is beside him the whole time (the closest he has ever gotten to beating his dad was due to a dish she gave him pointers on). Sure, she insults him sometimes, but she's honest and is able to match his banter.

And then there is the way her presence calms him in ways he hadn't known he needed. At the same time, he's motivated to try harder to obtain her approval in his works. She melded into his life so seamlessly it's unfathomable her removal from it wouldn't scar.

"We'll figure it out," he says after some time, after watching her anxious face that seems to be nearing tears. He doesn't even know if ghosts can cry (she can smell so he can't rule it out), but he'd be damned if he causes it. He doesn't have an inkling of where to start, but part of him (perhaps larger than he's willing to admit) doesn't want to lose her. "We can look up some stuff online or go to the library to find some books. There's got to be something that can tell us how to make sense of all this." He puts on a false bravado in hopes of calming her nerves, but finds himself wanting to believe his own words as well. "Or maybe you'll see a clue in one of your flashes that'll tell you where you are, and then I can…" Soma stops short, his face warming at the thought of what he is suggesting.

"You can...what?" Eri asks, breathless, partly in awe at his determination and partly due to something she can't quite pinpoint. But it's her expression, filled with wonder and the same hint of desperation he's feeling, that allows him to finish his sentence.

"I can come find you." False bravado or not, he knows he will at least try.

Contrary to his attempt, Eri looks like she is going to cry even more, but she lets out a small laugh. The sound soothes him; her laughter had become a melody that eased his frustrations.

She still looks a bit somber when she speaks, but she smiles at him nonetheless. "Thank you, Soma-kun." She pulls herself closer to him and he responds in kind, his hand resting on the nape of her neck as their foreheads touch. The comfort of the position lulls him into a relaxed state, and he feels his eyelids getting heavy.

He's all but asleep when he hears the murmur of her voice. He manages a "hmm?" despite teetering on the edge of unconsciousness. There's a warm presence on his cheek, like someone whispering into his ear.

"The answer on your test. Let's meet again someday."

When he wakes up the next day, she's gone.

And he doesn't mean just from his bed. Or his room. Or even his diner.

He isn't prepared for the panic that grasps at his chest, nor the denial that causes him to check every place he's ever been with her. Nor the ache that sets in once he realizes she has completely vanished. The only placating thought he has is that, he hopes, this meant she is alive and well.

(Or her ghost was present only because she was in a limbo, and if she didn't make it...He dares not think too much into that possibility.)

He skips classes for two days, calling around and visiting local hospitals, before his dad forces him to go back to school. He doesn't put up too big of a fight once he acknowledges the fact that he doesn't know where to expand his search to. But even though he's back in class, he's too confused and in too much turmoil to pay attention to any of the lectures. He spends most of his time staring out the classroom windows, watching the snowfall fade; a blanket of white still covers the ground. Eri loved the pristine look of unblemished snow, loved that at least, as a ghost, she couldn't disturb it.

"What's the point then?" he scoffed at her. She stuck her tongue out at him and told him he didn't know how to appreciate beautiful things. He chose to not debate that lest he revealed the amount of time he had spent observing her.

"But you know," she started, her arms appearing around his neck as if she was piggybacking him (unnecessary because she could float but he never minded the proximity), "even if I could make prints, I would just step into your foot prints to avoid making my own, and it would look just like it does now." And then she giggled, the soft, twinkling sound making his lips curve upwards. "Or I could just make you carry me around this."

The memory makes him smile until he remembers he might not ever have the comfort of her arms again.

Winter turns into spring, and before he knows it, he is graduating middle school. When Soma returns home from his last day, Joichirou is waiting for him with a white envelope.

"What's that, Old Man?" he asks, not unkindly but almost defeated. It's been months since he last saw Eri and he is struggling to decide between running the Yukihira diner or crossing continents to find her. However, being only 15 and limited on funds, he really doesn't have much of a choice.

"It's a letter from Totsuki Culinary Academy. I signed you up and you'll be taking their entrance exam next month."

"What?" Now his tone is indignant. "But I'm going to run the diner." And save up enough money to travel, he adds mentally as an afterthought.

Joichirou gestures to the chair next to him. Soma drops his bags and settles into the seat, eyeing his dad wearily. The older man just smirks. "I think it's about time you and I do something different. It's been awhile since I went abroad and Totsuki will be a good place for you to hone your skills as a chef. I went to Totsuki too, you know." Before Soma can even protest, he continues. "Once you graduate from there, I'll let you do whatever you want."

Soma shoots him a skeptical look. "Something seems fishy. This is a little sudden." At this, the older man just shrugged. "Besides, I still haven't beat you even once."

Joichirou laughs boisterously. "And you never will if you don't widen your horizon!" He ruffles Soma hair, his eyes kind and understanding. "Just give it a try. You might just find what you're looking for."

To say Soma is aggravated is an understatement. Within the first few minutes of stepping foot onto the Totsuki campus, he has already encountered a quite snobbish group of examinees. Are all the people here full of themselves? He will admit the facilities are very impressive; the whole campus is akin to a small town, and a luxurious one at that.

He proceeds to the testing location, anxious chatter surrounding him. He definitely feels out of place but is determined to pass the examination, if just to prove that he can. He doesn't have any particular expectations for what is to come, but the sight of a female student on stage surprises him nonetheless.

Wait, that uniform.

Not only the uniform, but the girl wearing it as well. Long, cascading locks, sharp, piercing, orchid eyes. That haughty expression. His heart skips a beat.

There, before him, is none other than Eri.

Word Count: 3483

Special Thanks: To applecherry who continues to proofread my fics 'til this day and allows everything you guys read to be just a bit better.

A/N: Hello ladies and gentlemen! I know it's been a long, long time since I've posted anything and I thank you for your patience. This one has been floating on my computer for a while and I finally took time to finish it. I envision that, should this continue, it would follow the original manga for the most part with some obvious exceptions. I thought about waiting until I updated Kaleidoscope and a follow-up to Savior before uploading this one, but with the ending of the manga and less Sorina/Soueri fics popping up, I decided to go ahead and release this. As the new title suggests, most of these stories (if not all) are based on common tropes because I am a sap and I love them. This also means most will be AU, though I will still try to keep in some elements of cooking (if it's possible). You just kind of have to with this series. About Kaleidoscope & Savior —I cannot guarantee when the next installment of Kaleidoscope and Savior will be, but I will promise that I have not abandoned either. Originally, the latter was to be a longer fic, but with all the stuff going down in Kaleidoscope, I decided to keep Savior lighthearted with no real conflict to resolve except for Soma and Erina's undying love for each other. New installments of Savior will still follow that title within this fic. Anyway, as Of Love and Tropes is updated, let me know which incarnations of our protagonists you like the best! Thanks for reading and leave a review to let me know what you think!

-Intangibly Yours