Mrs. Stern just can't understand it.

Washing the dishes in the kitchen sink, she sneaks another look at her son who is home for the holidays for once.

His expression, as moody as his father's, falters as he absentmindedly pushes his string beans around on his plate in a circle. He finally spears the smallest bean stalk onto his fork and smoothers it with salad dressing.

Taking the tiniest of bites, he chews the vegetable with a grimace on his face. And she just can't understand it.

"Ulrich, dear?" she asks, when she can no longer contain herself. "Don't you like your string beans?"

"Um, not really, Mom. Sorry," he answers guiltily as he pushes his vegetables further away from him on the plate.

"Are they not cooked enough? Or over cooked? I could make you some more," she offers. His eyes widen horrifically when he thinks about the possibility of eating more.

"Uh, no thanks, Mom. I'm just not really a string bean person," he tells her sheepishly. His mother holds out her hand and he gratefully passes the plate to her, still covered with the greens.

Smiling, she waves him off, and he thanks her as he rushes outside to practice soccer.

She just can't understand it.

Earlier that day...

"Ulrich?" She knocked on his bedroom door, but heard no answer inside.

She entered with an armload of his laundry to deposit it on his bed when she saw his school books scattered over his comforter.

Placing the bundle on his pillow, she straightened out his books and tried to make order of his dog eared papers and notebooks. A small piece of white paper slipped from between the pages of his physics book and fluttered to the floor.

"Ulrich loves String Bean!"

The large purple print stood out comically and a thin pencil line ran through the words as though trying to cross them out.

Shrugging, Mrs. Stern placed the note back inside the textbook it fell from. Retreating from his room, she planned to make string beans tonight special for Ulrich.

Two updates in two days? What is this anarchy? lol

I was re-watching an episode where Sissy calls Yumi a "string bean" and I thought of this cute little one shot.

Can you guess who the note is from?