A/N: I know, I know, yall gone beat my ass but this chapter has been mostly finished and sitting in my Google drive for years because I just wasn't confident in it. I'm over it now and just miss writing for this couple. Also, this was written and conceptualized pre-covid, but it's funny how it relates lol.
Without further ado, enjoy the story, my loves.
*
Lucille sneezed and blessed herself before realizing how weird she sounded doing so. She shook her groggy head and pushed her shopping cart along the aisles. Hiro had texted her that he wanted some more of her good cooking and requested she whipped something together for him. She was reluctant, having been feeling under the weather for the past few days, but she thought she wasn't that sick that she couldn't move around.
She was fixing to make a vegetable soup for herself and was sure Hiro would be delighted to partake in anything that wasn't take-out. The young woman pushed her cart to the produce department where she inspected only the best vegetables to take with her and wrapped them in the clear bags and tassels.
After checking out, she took a ride-share to his apartment but found herself nodding off in the car a few times on her way there. When she arrived at his building, her body was burning up and she hated to be on her feet as she slung her body out the vehicle with her bags in tow. She walked through the autumn air and noted the drastic change in weather. It was nearly summer last week and the chilling change in temperature was so inconvenient, to say the least.
The doorman looked concerned at her sickly state and offered to carry Lucy's bags but the young woman gently declined, and thanked him nonetheless. She carried them to the elevator and rode to the top floor of Hiro's penthouse and knocked on his red and gold gilded door. While waiting, Lucille found herself nearly passing out and swaying anxiously.
Lucy's cheek pressed against the cool wooden door and she wasn't prepared as the assuring solid object was replaced by a warm, firm chest. She nearly tripped but was also caught by his equally strong, assuring arms.
"Lucille, are you okay?" His concerns were met with her heavy panting. He brushed his fingers against her forehead and found her body was competing with the heat of a furnace. Worry marred Hiro's brows and he gently pried her grocery bags from her fingers. "If you were so damn sick, you could have stayed home, you know..." He grumbled much to her cute reply of 'sorry."
Lucy's world began to turn into a bowl of jello when she felt herself being unexpectedly lifted off her feet. She looked up and could see the definition of Hiro's jawline and his hair pulled back into a man bun with wisps of hair falling down the nape of his neck.
Hiro carried his precious Lucy bridal style through his home and settled her on his bed where he went to work carefully taking off her shoes and clothes. Lucy was weak to wave his help, but he ignored her and stripped her down to her underwear and tossed his blanket on her.
"I can't believe I have to play doctor to you, not even the naughty kind." He said with a smirk as he turned on the air conditioner to cool her down. "How did you get so sick already when autumn just started?"
"Change in weather..." She groaned whilst ducking her body under his blanket. She poked her feet out from the end but covered herself up to her shoulders. A nice balance of hot and cold. "I brought ingredients for soup, I'm sure you can make it instead."
Hiro gave Lucy a look akin to saying 'do you know me?' "Not if you want to die of food poisoning."
The young woman huffed. "You can trade stocks, make investments, do complex critical thinking, but you can't make a damn bowl of soup?" Hiro laughed heartily at her comment.
"Perhaps you're right, text me the recipe and I will try to follow it as best I can and whilst I do that, take a nap and rest up." He handed her his phone notes and Lucy typed away a recipe as much as she could remember. Her head was too foggy to remember all the good tricks her mother taught her, but she was hopeful Hiro could manage and just feel around for the right taste.
"Please don't kill me," was Lucy's final comment as she handed the phone back to Hiro and turned over just as her sickness took her into a dream state and she finally relaxed.
~O~
Hiro did his best to try to stick to the recipe and he wondered if it came out properly. He tasted the broth and almost gagged at how tasteless it was. Even with vegetables stewing and the broth prepared the way the instructions told, it still didn't feel complete, but he had not a clue a way to fix it.
The last thing he wanted was to come back a failure at this simple task. Lucy would probably do that damn cute smile she does and still eat it nonetheless, all the while in the back of her head he could tell she will hate it. He sighed and looked over the recipe once more and stopped at the bottom where she gave him a little tip.
'Use seasoning to give it some flavor, but don't go overboard.'
Seasoning.
Hiro pursed his lips. That was a good idea. He turned to his cabinets but saw that his seasoning one was bare with only the basics of salt and pepper and some pepper flakes. He turned to her grocery bags and found small little shakers of various seasonings and had a moment of dumb realization. "Ooooooh, this is what this is for." He opened a few shakers and stirred them into the soup along with some dried herbs as well she said would give it a nice flavor to compliment the vegetables.
After letting it cook a little while longer, he noted how the vegetables were becoming very tender and tasted the broth once more. He put his lips to the spoon and slurped to his utter amazement, his brows raised. "
Well I'll be damned, that's way better than before
." He uttered in Japanese.
He turned the burner off and allowed the soup to cool down for a moment and prepared a bowl and saucer. He opened a slot of crackers and aligned them nicely on the saucer.
Just then, his phone dinged in his back pocket and without looking, he picked it up. "Hello?" He asked whilst ladling a scoop of soup into the bowl.
An onslaught of aggressive Japanese caused him to nearly drop his phone into the pot. He quickly grabbed it and readjusted it to his ear.
"Keep your voice down!" His hissed back. "You're making my ears bleed."
The person on the other line didn't seem to lighten up on their anger. "
Hoho
," He cringed at his childhood name. "
Why won't you hang out with me?! I haven't seen you in forever!
" His little sister whined.
"
Because you're annoying. I have to go
." With that, he hung up and scoffed, tossing the phone on the counter and not caring of the text messages that lit up his screen.
Hiro set the food down at the table and walked up the stairs. He noted how cooler the room seemed to have gotten and moved to turn off the air conditioner before she got too cold.
He sat at his bedside and marveled silently at the beauty tangled in his sheets. She had a thin layer of perspiration on her skin that gave her a heavenly glow to her sickness and her unbound curls were unruly against his pillows, but he felt taken in by the vision of peace she resided in. He had wondered how a beautiful woman like herself had come to be so infatuated with an angry, grumpy man and chuckled at how different they were.
This was one of the only moments he could take to truly take her in without just fucking her for all she's worth. Her rapid pants against his neck accompanied by the hands racking at his back were now calmed and gentle in her slumber. Her delicate brows, once creased in passion, relaxed and peaceful. He wondered what compelled him to sit at her side and allow her to take up space in his private world.
He had promised himself to not come this far with any woman, yet he found himself breaking his own laws for once. She became an exception he was intrigued with and as much as he will hurt her when he lets her go, he will miss moments like this when he could thank the gods for that one night of passion that led them here.
His eyes stayed glued as fingers caressed her gentle skin and brushed along her arched brows and thick eye-lashes. He traced her beautiful nose that he had learned she felt insecure about. But he loved her full nose and lips nonetheless and was envious of such features on her perfect face. He absently thought of the stories she told him of how she was bullied for her features and he had shared his own stories of racial prejudice that he had never told a soul about. His thumb rounded her nostril and lazily trailed farther.
His fingers stopped at the corner of her mouth and he watched her plump, parted lips as she took in air in her slumber. He had wondered when was the last time he kissed a woman. Did he ever feel such a desire to do so for anyone? Even girls he dated? He seldom ever dated for love and found it trivial at most unless, for status and never felt the need to give his then girlfriends even so much as a chaste kiss.
So, no, it had been a while.
The organic shape of her lips were so interestingly befitting of her that it was something he had wondered to ask God about one day. Why create such a beautiful creature that he could not keep to himself forever? He tucked a strand of his long hair behind his ear as he leaned close to her face and hovered above her.
His heart was beating heavily in his chest as he indulged in the proximity of their heated energies. It was like that fateful night where he rejected her. That evening he cruelly denied them both of a desire that could have been more. He wondered if she were to be awake now, would he have the guts to give her this kiss? What would she think of him?
He laughed inwardly.
He took the dive and his lips pressed against her soft ones, almost lovingly and he held them there for a moment. He moved back to see her face once more and found her still deep in slumber and smiled softly. If only feelings weren't so bothersome to deal with, maybe he would have been more open to letting Lucy love him, but he just felt he didn't want that at this point in his life. Lucy was sweet while he was more bitter and it wouldn't do good to allow him to corrupt her idea of love more than he has already. Hiro moved to kiss her forehead and brushed some errant strands of hair away and began to coax her awake. He knew his little vixen would be absolutely hungry.
Lucy peeled her eyes open and smiled weakly. The nap was exactly what she needed. She blinked groggily a few times and stretched out her limbs. Before she could fully wipe the sleep out her eyes, a small platter was put in her lap with a bowl of soup.
"Eat up, you're going to need your strength." Said Hiro. Lucy smacked her lips lightly with a small smile. The soup smelled great and he seemed to follow her ingredients really well. She lifted the spoon and collected some broth and brought the steaming spoon to her lips where she blew lightly.
She tucked away some of her hair as she slurped away the contents on her spoon. The soup was warm and delicious; way better than what she anticipated from Hiro.
Hiro felt pride seeing his vixen's delicate brows lift and her lips purse in a way to say 'Not bad' to his cooking.
"Well, color me impressed. You didn't kill me." She laughed. For a moment she wanted to take her words back at the look of sheer smugness growing on his face. He was patting himself on the back a little too much.
Hiro turned on his TV in the room while Lucy finished her soup. Her light slurping and sniffles were the only sounds filling their comfortable silence.
Lucille looked down at her bowl and stirred some of the contents thoughtfully before sniffling again. The soup was really good and it was doing well to break up the congestion in her chest. She glanced up from her bowl and blinked owlishly for a moment. Lucy had been taken back by how soft Hiro's eyes were as he watched her. A sliver of concern was crossing his features.
"Are you okay?" Asked Lucy before eating another spoonful of soup.
"Never better," Hiro blinked and the emotion vanished from his eyes. He replaced it with a tight-lipped grin while crossing his arms and moving to rest his ankle on his knee.
