Disclaimer: I don't own Shokugeki no Soma.

"My God, what is it now, Yukihira?"

"Aw, come on, Nakiri! Aren't you amazed by all of this stuff?" The annoying redhead in front of me spread out his arms, wanting me to understand how impressive the region of Hokkaido was.

For most people, it would be cool to see. There were numerous eateries, stalls, stores… pretty much everything a populated city would have. For a place such as Sapporo, that was to be expected, after all, being the region's capital and all that.

But for me, this is just another day. I don't even know why we were out right now. I was ready to endure another day of practice, but…

"Alright you guys. Go and have some fun today!"

…

What?!

For countless days, both before and after we established the terms with Central, we have been in the kitchen, testing our teamwork, chef skills and creativity, all in hopes that by the end of the war, we would stand on top, and overthrow my father's regime.

The Regiment de Cuisine, the Shokugeki that will determine the fate of the first-year rebels, is about a month away.

So needless to say, this left me utterly dumbfounded.

"But, Saiba-sama, we should be training more. We don't know how our skills will match up with Central! Shouldn't we-"

"Ah, but there's more to the Regiment than skills, Erina-chan. You guys have to improve your teamwork, both while cooking and outside of it!" Saiba-sama grinned towards me, Sōma, Takumi, and Megumi.

After taking some time to think about it, it made some sense to me. One part of the regiment that separates it from a regular shokugeki is that members can assist each other if needed.

I have no clue as to why spending a day not training would aid us in this assisting, but I digress.

Not long after, the four of us were sitting outside, on a bench while watching the snow fall. Despite the numerous times I come to this area, seeing Hokkaido in the winter is still a breathtaking sight.

Everyone else seemed to share my sentiments, as for those few minutes of calm, they were entranced by the snow as well. This is the one moment that we can take, to just appreciate the beauty of the region, before the Regiment comes around.

Not long after, however, Sōma had to open his mouth.

"Alright, I'm done with sitting! We should go around the place!" As he got up, his signature grin was back in full force, making all of us (including myself, kind of unwillingly) smile to varying degrees in response.

"Alright, Yukihira! What should we do?" Takumi replied, getting up and pumping his fist like we were about to go to battle. Megumi and I also stood, finishing up our look up at the snow.

"Well, I've never been here before, so maybe we should split up! We can come back and talk about what cool things are here!" The rest of us deflated at his answer, all of us expecting some response like this. Nevertheless, Takumi seemed to agree.

"Alright then! Tadokoro, let's go around, so we can find something that Yukihira and Nakiri can't beat!" He grabbed Megumi's arm, and they started walking away from us.

"W-wait Takumi-kun, t-this isn't a contest…" The weak voice from her made Sōma chuckle a bit and me smile at her misfortune.

"Well, they're doing their thing, so let's explore!" Sōma started walking ahead, and I had to try and catch up.

"W-wait, Yukihira-kun! You don't even know what to do in this place!"

About a half-hour later, and we're back to now. I let out a sigh at Sōma's wonder.

"I'm not really amazed by this stuff, no. For one, I've been here numerous times, so I know a good chunk of the places here." I said, making Sōma laugh.

"You only know the super posh places probably. I bet you haven't even been in this area." My red-headed ally said, making me blush in embarrassment. He was right, I've only been to Hokkaido for tastings, so I've never had the chance to just look around. Even so, I wouldn't give in so easily.

"T-that's a lie! I've been here before!" With a small humph and a hair flick, I looked away, trying to look at what places were here. Sōma chuckled at this, probably hearing my stutter revealing my inexperience.

"Alright Nakiri, I guess you do." He said mockingly, but continued on. "What's the other thing?"

Ah, right!

"And two, I don't know if you noticed, but we have a REGIMENT DE CUISINE IN A MONTH!" I nearly yelled at his smiling face! How couldn't he understand what was on the line!

"Aw, don't worry about it Nakiri! We've been doing pretty well lately, so I think we'll be fine!" His reassurance wasn't helping my internal panic. The weight of the Regiment's potential consequences was weighing down on me, but I did my best to hide it.

"That's not the point Yukihira-kun! We're going to be facing the best people in the school! If we don't practice, we're not going to stand a chance!" Sōma wagged his finger at me, making me even more irritated.

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong. Practice is good and all, but something to work on is our peace of mind. We can't do well if we're eternally stressed, which is why pops got us to do this tonight!" Hearing that, as well as seeing Sōma spin around and laugh, made me go along with his plan.

So long as we practice for the rest of the break period, then it'll be ok.

I let out a small sigh. "Alright then, Yukihira-kun. Where should we go?" I asked, making Sōma look to me.

"Um… we can just look at stuff, I guess." An exasperated sigh escaped my lips this time, but I carried on regardless.

"Whatever. Just don't get lost."

…

After spending another half hour looking at various stalls containing jewelry, trinkets and food (which Sōma decided to buy some for the both of us, despite my refusals), something finally caught my ally's eye.

"Nakiri, let's go in there!" He pointed to a small house, with a sign reading, "The Hometown Restaurant".

I looked at him a bit skeptically, confused as to why we would go eat somewhere when we can just cook something ourselves.

"What? It reminds me of home, so I want to see what they're serving here."

With a reluctant nod from me, we went inside, which brought us to a small, cozy room. The space between everything felt very small and intimate; the kitchen was attached directly to the dining area, and while there were only a few other customers inside, they seemed to be having a great time, interacting with themselves and the workers.

"Welcome! How are you two this evening?" The hostess asked us cheerily, giving us a large smile. Looking at her closer, she was a nice lady; shoulder length black hair, warm brown eyes and a smile that was sure to make anyone feel welcomed. Her voice fit her perfectly as well, light and cute.

"We're doing good, thank you! Can we have a table for two please?" Sōma asked, causing the hostess to giggle.

"Of course! Going out on a date, I assume?"

That response made me see Sōma blush for the first time in my life. I wasn't faring much better, feeling just as embarrassed as he did.

"N-no." "Nope!"

Our synchronized responses got a giggle out of the black-haired girl.

"I see, I see… Well, anyway, follow me, lovebirds!"

I decided to ignore that line from our hostess, lest my blush deepen more.

…

After sitting down, I decided to look around the area, due to its small size. Luckily, a turn of my head as enough to see pretty much everything.

There were two people in the back; probably a married couple, if I could hazard a guess, considering what I could see. They seemed to be truly enjoying themselves while cooking for the few customers currently in the restaurant.

Speaking of the customers, there were a few older people, and a small family; a mother, father and child currently occupying the tables. It seemed like the child, who couldn't have been older than 6, was done with his food, and was currently moving about the area around their table, as his parents were talking with each other, taking a lot of care to alternate between their partner and their kid. The child tugged at his mother's leg, and after a bit of talking, started to walk around the restaurant at his parent's approval. Soon enough, he approached our table, eyeing Sōma's loud hair colour.

"Hey there, little guy." Sōma said confidently to the kid, flashing him that iconic smile. The chestnut-haired child waved in response.

"Hello! Do you want to play a game?" He asked, throwing the two of us off guard. Sōma looked at me, and knowing that we haven't ordered yet, I gave a small shrug of indifference. We could afford to spend some time to entertain ourselves.

"Sure, bud. What do you want to play?" The child thought for a moment, before, lighting up with an idea.

"Let's play hide and seek! You count to 100, and then try to find me!" Sōma gave a thumbs up at the idea, and I was interested in how this was going to go. The kid was small, so realistically, he wouldn't be easy to find, necessarily.

"Alright, but no running around while you try to hide. Can't have you messing with the other people inside, alright?" After a nod from the child, Sōma closed his eyes, and started counting.

While my ally was counting, I was observing the tyke move around the restaurant. The parents were keeping an occasional eye, but the little child was rather far from them at this point, so I was making sure that he wouldn't try anything.

And just as I expected, the little devil tried going outside of the restaurant. I quickly got up, as he was slowly approaching the door. My steps were much wider than his, so I reached the tyke rather quickly.

I poked his shoulder, causing him to look up at me. I kept a stern, but amused look.

"Were you trying to go outside?" I asked, making him look down in embarrassment. He gave a slight nod, causing me to smile.

"Well, I won't let you. I'm sure your parents would be scared if you left the restaurant, right?"

Another nod, and a small "yes" came out of the tyke. I picked him up, showing him my amused smile.

"Well, we can still hide from Yukihira-kun. Let's go find a spot." Another nod and a smile from the kid, and I couldn't help but giggle at how adorable he was. We quickly found a decent spot near the kitchen and entrance and sat down. My curiosity got the better of me.

"What's your name, little one?" I asked, causing him to look up at me.

"It's Haru!" He exclaimed, although quietly, knowing that he was still playing hide and seek. He looked at me inquisitively, and asked me the same question.

"My name is Erina, and my… friend there is Sōma." I said to Haru, hesitating a bit when referring to Sōma as my friend. I didn't feel like we were at that point yet, but I had to say something to the kid.

We mostly kept quiet from that point on, simply waiting for Sōma to find us. We weren't necessarily that out of the way, so it wouldn't take too long for Sōma to figure out where we went. I was looking at Haru, and found myself in awe at how cute he was. During my time of tastings before all of this started, I wouldn't see kids all that much; I would only see top chefs, and only briefly. But looking at little Haru, I was amazed at how innocent he looked. He had this look of wonder and curiosity at everything. If I wanted to be a bit selfish, I was a bit jealous of him; due to my upbringing, I never got that opportunity to be in wonder after Saiba-sama graced my presence.

Despite my jealousy, however, I still was amazed. I was always worried about thinking into the future. The fear I had that I might impart some of my father's harshness was eased for the moment, as I looked at Haru and thought that having a child wouldn't be the end of the world. Just seeing a child be so innocent and happy… it was-

"Found ya!"

I had a bit of a start; my thoughts were broken by the redhead in front of me as he found the two of us outside the kitchen. Haru laughed, while I was looking at Sōma questioningly, as he looked at me with mirth, clearly amused that he found me with Haru.

"I was making sure Haru wouldn't do anything irresponsible while you were counting." At the mention of Haru's name, Sōma looked at me surprisingly, before looking at the brunette child with wonder.

"So Haru's your name, huh?" Said kid nodded.

"Yes, Sōma!" Haru laughed at his hair getting messed up by Sōma, leaving a smile on both of our faces. After talking a bit more with Haru at our table and eating food with the tyke, we saw his parents walk up to us, smiling at their little boy.

"Hey Haru. Did you have fun with these two?" His mother asked, getting a rapid nod from her son.

"Yes, mama! Playing with Sōma and Erina was really fun!" That got a giggle out of the parents, as they looked at us with a smile.

"Well, on behalf of my wife and I, we would like to thank you for taking care of Haru while we got to catch up." The husband said, to our delight.

"I have to say, you two would be great parents." With those words from Haru's mother, it caused the two of us to blush again, just at the simple implications of that sentence.

"U-um, we're not-" "We're just-"

"Oh, did I have the wrong idea? Apologies to you two, although my point still stands. I could see you guys enjoying Haru's company, and he was clearly delighted to have some people to play with." Haru's mother said, while his father nodded in agreeance.

After getting over our blush, we said our goodbyes to Haru and his parents, Yuuki and Ami. At Haru's request, we even got a picture with the tyke, and Ami provided us with a copy. While the food here was not awful, the experience of this night was something to remember.

Not to mention the fun story we got to tell Megumi and Takumi when we met up at the end of the night.

A/N: Hey everyone!

So, after a while being away, I decided to actually get back to finishing this story (with a new username to boot) . Ironic because almost, if not all of the chapters are pretty much done at this point and just need editing, but I digress.

Being stuck at home really forced me to do something (school work or otherwise), but I chose to do this instead. I actually had this idea for a downtime chapter for a while, but never got around to finishing it until now. It's just some fluff before getting into some more hurt/comfort fluff in the later chapters, with the idea of Haru being the idea that got me to finish the chapter, as I just thought that Soma and Erina acting like parents is a totally great thing. There might be one more chapter like this, as since this looks a bit into Erina's perspective, we need one for Soma, but the problem is that this chapter kept me really stalled (among everything else I stalled with), and I would at least want to finish this story at some point. The only chapter that isn't written is the new idea I had for the finale, but that will come when we get to it.

Speaking of, I do want to get this story done, fingers crossed it would happen by the end of the year. I still actively read fics, but writing for me has waned considerably. I don't want to leave a story unfinished though, so I vow to finish this story, even if the next chapters don't go through full editing. I've re-read each of the written chapters multiple times, and I'm proud of them, so they're really close to done. I've seen the ending of the manga, and I'll just let everyone know that this deviates from the manga timeline.

I'll see what you guys think however; I can either put up the chapters in quick succession (which would be after my school assignments end, as the next few weeks are really busy for me), or give them a once over, and then put them up. The story should hopefully be finished by May at most, but I want it to end earlier. But let me know, I still read everything that you guys leave as a review, and if you have any ideas that could spark anything in me, let me know!

With that, thank you for reading, and I hope to see you again soon!

(Also, be sure to stay safe during these scary times. Please stay home, wash your hands, and all that jazz. I still hold all of my readers in a special place in my heart, so please be safe.)

It Was You Ch 4: AM 1:27 - Uploaded March 21, 2020