Disclaimer: I don't own Yakitate! Japan.

In Their Eyes

If you enter the room you share with your teammates and find one of them talking with somebody from a different team, you become worried. If those people had their matches over, you still become worried. If they were adversaries, you become interested. If one of them is an attractive girl and the other a young man, you become suspicious. If they're seating on the girl's bed, you start to wonder. If one of them is Monica Adenauer, you just decide the young man has candy. If the young man is Kai Suwabara, you promptly hit yourself several times on the head for having stupid ideas, pinch yourself to check if you're not asleep and stare in shock.

If Monica is staring at Suwabara as if he were one of the eight wonders of the world, you continue staring at them. If Suwabara is doing the same, you start feeling as if you were in some kind of a crazy place. If Suwabara starts showing signs of having noticed you, you notice that traveling at the speed of light isn't that difficult.

That course of action was exactly the one Spencer Henry Hoko took, when he found himself being the witness to that situation.

Suwabara Kai's face turned beet root by the time the Shachihoko left. He was quite easily embarrassed by Monica, not to mention he had a strange feeling the young American would be getting weird ideas.

"This is unfair," Monica complained, pouting. "Baldy tried peeking on us and now Shachihoko walks in on us. Didn't he learn to knock?"

"He didn't really interrupt on anything…" Suwabara muttered, sounding as if he didn't really believe what he was saying.

Monica huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. Maybe she intended that or maybe she didn't, but Suwabara started acting uneasy again.

"Dirty, dirty!" the girl chided and pounced on the Japanese. "But you're cute anyway!"

"I-I'm not… cute!" Suwabara protested. He held his hands in the air, as if he were afraid to touch her. To tell the truth, he looked a bit scared… and certainly more than just a bit embarrassed.

Monica didn't seem to mind that and snuggled to the young man. The expression on Suwabara's face suggested that he actually kind of liked being snuggled to, but on the other hand felt rather uneasy about it. He certainly acted as if he had no idea what to do.

"And you smell like bread," Monica commented. "I'll grow fat because of you."

"Says the person who smells like bubble gum and cookies," Suwabara replied, retaining enough of his confidence to hug the girl, though he did that so carefully as if he expected that something terrible would happens as soon as he was holding her. "…You don't get fat because of them…"

"See?" the girl said, grinning slyly. "You are cute."

"No, I'm not," the Japanese answered stubbornly.

The American's expression indicated she didn't agree with him at all. Still, she decided that she teased Kai enough.

"Anyways, I'm hungry!" she started complaining again.

"You'll grow fat, if you eat so much," Suwabara replied.

"You just said I wouldn't!" Monica protested, pouting. "And it's gonna be your fault if I do!"

"Fine, fine," he sighed, although it sounded as if he didn't really mind agreeing. "Let's go eat!"

His reply was apparently a very good reason for Monica to start bouncing, which in turn caused Suwabara to blush again. He did have a lot of self-control. Really! Just his eyes got a cramp. Or something.

Unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end and Monica stopped bouncing, jumped off the bed and waited for Kai to get up. As soon as he was standing, she cuddled up to his arm, which did not help the Japanese to stop blushing. It seemed it was going to take a while before he'd get used to how Monica acted. Still, it didn't mean he minded: those were two different things.