Author's Note

Welcome to another episode of "Me; throwing myself into rare pair hell"

For some stupid reason, this goddamn ship is slowly but surely taking over my life. And since I've been thinking about these two a lot most recently, all it took was a very, very rainy day in my city for me to get a fic idea.

There's going to be a part two but I don't know if it will go any further.

Heck, I also have to admit I am quite hesitant of posting this...I mean, not to be dramatic but it feels a little like I am committing blasphemy.

But well...Maybe it'll find it's audience so /shrug/ here goes nothing I guess.

Also...it's a very new experience for me to write any of the two and I hope I did okay.

Also...(Manga Spoilers ahead) This story here takes place after the Timeskip, so it's a Post-Central thing but they're still in school.

More notes at the end. Please read them ;w;

Disclaimer: I do not own Shokugeki no Soma or it's characters.

It of course had to rain when Etsuya Eizan needed it the least. Over the years he has learned to expect nothing less from his destiny.

Without umbrella and not in any way dressed for this kind of weather at all, he stood under a tree and had a thrilling competition with the clouds about who could probably look darker.

For quite some time now he was staring at the rainy, gray street in front of him, while the annoying patter of raindrops penetrated his ears.

It was as if Mother Nature was having fun testing out how long one could pull on Etsuya's patience until the rage broke out.

What appalled Etsuya the most in this situation was that the weather was truly out of his power.

The weather did what it wanted and there was really nothing Etsuya could do about it. He was absolutely powerless and without any control. And he hated that feeling.

The eighteenth, annoyed sigh of the day escaped him and he started to feel his bag for his cellphone so that he could distract himself a little.

But before he could devote himself to business plans and Sudoku, fate suddenly intervened: in form of a well-known voice. "Eizan?"

He looked up.

A young woman of his age had stopped in front of him. She wore rainproof boots, regular jeans and a black coat. In the pale hand she held the handle of a gray umbrella.

Her red eyes looked surprised and she raised her free hand to adjust her glasses.

"What are you doing here?"

Instead of answering her question, Etsuya slightly tilted his head to the right side. "Kinokuni?" He said in the same surprised tone she had used. She was silent and just looked at him expectantly. And so he just got to her question. However, quite short-cut. "I'm waiting. And what do you want here?"

She answered in the same short manner. "I am going home."

Actually, Etsuya would have thought that Nene Kinokuni would leave it at that. Eventually she would remind him of one of his Elite Ten duties but then wish him a nice day and continue on her way. That's how it usually went with her.

But to his surprise she stayed in front of him.

"What are you waiting for?"

He stopped short. "For the rain to stop." He then said. "Aha." Came from her.

For a short split of seconds, the two were silent and just stared at each other.

She, with this neutral, cool look that is so typical of her and perfectly shields any possible emotions in her from the world. And him, trying to somewhat imitate that said look.

Finally her red eyes broke eye contact with his, preferring to focus on his neck, then his chest, then his stomach and so on.

Nene inspected him from up to down and while Etsuya watched her doing so, he could not help but to think of robots in science fiction movies that scanned people for wounds or something.

"You are dressed way too light." The robot monotonously presented its result. Etsuya's teeth crunched. He had a sarcastic 'no, really?' on his tongue and if anyone else had stood in front of him, he would have totally used that one. But it was her standing in front of him. And so he decided to hum a "I know". Right after a new question followed. "How long have you been standing here?" To which he shrugged.

Suddenly her gaze sharpened, and she said in the reproving tone of a primary school teacher. "You're going to catch a cold, Eizan."

This statement, coming out of her mouth caught him a bit by surprise and he raised his eyebrow in wonderment. "Pardon?!"

And like a primary school teacher who was being asked by her students to explain a subject she had already tackled five times before, she sighed. Then she gestured to the shirt he wore and elaborated. "If you stay in this get-up for even longer out here in the cold, you'll get sick. That's logical or not? "

He only continued to stare at her, causing another sigh on her part.

"Do you know what?" She then said. "My apartment is very close, you can wait there for the rain to stop. At least you will not catch a cold there."

Now his jaw dropped. Did he just understand correctly?

"... you want me to come to your house?" He asked in disbelief after a short silence.

She frowned. "Is there a problem?"

It was not often that Etsuya was at a loss of words. After all, a good businessman must be convincing. And one of the best methods to be convincing were good, rhetorical skills. But at that moment he actually started to stammer a little. "I ... um ... it's just ... Is that really necessary, Kinokuni? I'll be fine on my own!"

She just looked at him sternly. "Well, a cold would not be beneficial to your business at all or what do you think?" "I ...!"

Mercilessly she took a step closer and her voice now took over that one, specific tone that almost made Etsuya give an automatic nod.

"Come on now, Eizan." It was that tone that did not allow any objection. The same tone that had said "You will not leave Totsuki, Eizan" a few months earlier.

It had worked back then and it worked again.

He raised his hands in surrender and grunted while avoiding her sharp gaze. "Alright, alright, Kinokuni. No reason to be so gruff 'bout it." "You hardly leave me any choice." She promptly replied.

At the same time she raised her umbrella a little to signalise that he should join her under it's safety. But there was the fact that Nene Kinokuni was somewhere in the 1.60 range, while Etsuya Eizan almost reached 1.80 m of height.

"Should I take the umbrella?" He asked with crossed arms. "... That would be for the better." She replied. So she handed over the handle to her counterpart and for a moment their fingers lightly brushed in the process and a quick lightning of warmth passed through the two. Without verbalizing it, both immediately chose to ignore it and simply join in silence under the umbrella to start walking.

Author's Note

So...That was it.

Actually not, because there is a part two.

What I just wanted to talk about is the possible up-coming criticism that Eizan might be acting too mild.

But let me point two things out:

1. It happens after the Timeskip as I said above and is not Eizan during Autumn Elections or during Central. He seems to have redeemed himself from what I see so far, so I generally wrote him rather chill.

2. Also...Please correct me if I am wrong on this, but one of the reasons why I actually ship Eizan and Nene is that, from what I've seen Nene seems to be the person Eizan holds the most respect for. From all the characters, even including Azami. While he never fails to be insulting and disrespectful even to his seniors, as far as I can remember he didn't said one rude thing to Nene. Even when she criticizes him...which usually makes him angry. So yeah. That's maybe way I wrote this so vanilla.

Anyways, thanks for reading I guess and I hope you stick around.

Tell me what you think. Especially if I kept the two in character, that's my biggest worry.

Cheers!