A Casual Affair [Meido]

[Reiniku Daichi]

On this brisk, chilly day, Daichi had taught his class with the same youthful exuberance that he always had, but instead of taking a light jog home, he ended up getting a tad...sidetracked on the way.

Not that he minded.

Over the last few weeks, Daichi had been spending more and more time with one of his star pupils, a girl named Meido. As it turned out, the pair of them had a lot of similar interests besides martial arts, especially their shared love of Shoujo Manga. Today, he decided to treat Meido for some casual lunch, totally and completely unaware of her affections for him.

Daichi walked into the cafe and held the door open for his small, adorable friend and gestured for her to head inside, grinning broadly at her.

"Take a seat wherever you want, Meido-chan!"

Oh yes, and Daichi insisted that outside of the dojo, they be on a first-name basis. They were friends, after all...right?

[Wakahisa Meido]

This?

This was amazing.

Meido wasn't really sure what to make of this turn of events as of late, really. Sensei was taking her out to eat! It was practically a date in her wildly optimistic eyes, though she knew him to be an absolute gentleman of the highest caliber. Though she wasn't really dressed for much of one--her twin braids still pinned up in buns from her lessons, her favorite lavender cap tilted at a jaunty angle to accommodate the style--but not even the lack of a chance to get super cute for him could ruin this!

They were already on a first name basis and just for the fact that it turned out that they had so much in common.

"Y-yeah, okay, Daichi-sensei!" she replied, bobbing her head as she picked up her step and looked around the cafe. She was, admittedly, only getting better at addressing him outside of the dojo by fractions. "How about this one?"

It probably wasn't coincidental that the booth she'd pointed out was one used often by couples, out of the way in a corner with privacy but still a good view of the street.

[Reiniku Daichi]

Daichi, being Daichi, was blissfully ignorant of most things around him, especially the romantic intentions that his student had for him. To him, this was just a casual lunch. After all, he always got hungry after a long and hearty day at work, and taking his new friend out afterward just seemed to fit with him.

Once Meido was inside, he closed the door and grinned down at her. Of course, Daichi didn't even notice that the booth she pointed to was nice and secluded for couples to sit.

"Sure! That looks fine to me." Daichi reached out and lightly patted Meido on the head, then proceeded to the booth and plopped himself down. Giving a stretch, he groaned as he did so and then lowered his arms towards the back of the booth seats.

"Oh man...I could really use some chow! All that working out makes me hungry, ya'know?" He grinned over at Meido again as he said this, content to know that she enjoyed his company as he did with her.

[Wakahisa Meido]

The proper thing a girl her age would say as she had a conversation with a boy she liked was something demure, putting off the topic of food entirely. A proper lady certainly wouldn't nod enthusiastically, agreeing with wholehearted enthusiasm, "I know! A good workout deserves a good meal! They serve some really great sweets here, too, you know, and we could always split one of the bigger desserts."

And it was just coincidence that she'd let him sit first, sliding into the small U-shaped booth with an energetic nonchalance that made it just seem sheerly accidental that she ended up right next to him. There wasn't much room, after all, with its two person design. Meido really couldn't be blamed for her actions.

Daichi was just, well, a very attractive person. He was kind and charming and always so friendly to just about everyone. His martial arts skills were something to envy, too. He'd had her since word 'go,' really, but it wasn't like she was the first or the only girl to be head-over-heels for him.

But, the blonde noted gleefully, she was the only one he was taking out right now!

[Reiniku Daichi]

Of course, Daichi had no idea of the romantic intentions Meido had in mind. He was a bit of a dunce, after all. He smiled warmly over at her, even with how squished they where together, and how his arms just happened to be slung over the backs of the booth chairs. If he were a much more smarter man, he would've "accidentally" dropped an arm to Meido's shoulders...but unfortunately for her, Daichi didn't quite get the concept of romance.

At least, not yet.

However, Daichi's face lit up at the mention of dessert. "Oh! You mean like a banana split?! Man, I love those things! We should totally get one after our food, okay? I'll try not to eat it all, Meido-chan!" He laughed at this, then flagged down a waitress.

"Can I have some of that awesome chicken teriyaki rice, the biggest size you have! With some egg rolls, oh...maybe four I think, with duck sauce and some steamed pork buns too? Three of those?" The waitress looked at him strangely.

"For you...and your friend?" She asked with a confused expression. Daichi grinned and waved his hand.

"Naw! It's just for me! I eat like a pig sometimes!" He laughed, "Speaking of pig...can I have some fried pork with the rice, too? And some hot oolong tea too, please!"

The waitress continued to look at Daichi with a strange expression, but wrote down the instructions, then turned to Meido, hoping she didn't eat as much as Daichi did. "And for you, miss?" God, the waitress hoped the guy tipped well for all of the stuff he was ordering...

[Wakahisa Meido]

Daichi didn't have to understand quite yet, really. The tiny--relatively speaking, at least--blonde girl was satisfying herself with the fact that she was within touching distance of her idol, her crush, her clueless beloved when they weren't on the dojo floor. There was a rumble outside, rolling thunder that indicated they'd gotten in at just the right moment even if it hadn't seemed particularly bad outside.

Meido glanced between Daichi and the waitress; once, twice, clearly indecisive for a few moments. Subtle and feminine was one thing she was supposed to be trying for, but this was definitely one place where 'I'll have a salad' wouldn't fly, especially considering everything her sensei had just listed.

So much delicious food!

"I'll have what he's having!" she announced cheerfully, blind to the fact that the waitress was openly staring at her. She smiled, perhaps just a little vapidly, as the woman processed that information and numbly wrote 'x2" next to the lengthy list of orders.

There was something wrong with these people.

[Reiniku Daichi]

Daichi remained clueless to the baffled waitress' expression, especially since Meido was quite a bit smaller then he was. All that he did was continue to smile that usual goofy grin of his, happy to find out that Meido like the same food he did!

"Wow, Meido-chan!" He exclaimed as he looked down at her, "I didn't know you could eat that much! Here I thought I was the weird one for having such a huge apatite!" He laughed loudly. The waitress groaned and hurriedly left the table to place their order with the line chef, hoping that they good and well would tip good.

When another boom of thunder ripped across the skies, Daichi turned his head outside. His brows furrowed slightly, tilting his head to the side. It had been fairly nice out, and now the skies had just opened up and started to pour.

"Wow, would you look at that." Daichi said in an oddly serious tone, "I had no idea it was going to rain today! Man, I wish I had thought to have brought an umbrella!"

[Chuushin Yuki]

Yuki had only left the candy store for a few minutes before it started to pour down rain. Groaning as he realized that in his hurry, he had forgotten an umbrella, he looked around, trying to find a place to duck into until the rain stopped. Spotting Cafe Amigo, he made his way inside, frowning as he tried to get the water out of his hair.

"Ugh, I hate rain." He groaned. Although he liked that the clouds covered up the sun so that he didn't need his goggles, his hair and rain never agreed with each other. Not to mention that he couldn't wear a soggy eyepatch, he added as he peeled his off, shifting his bangs to cover where it was. Tucking it away, he glanced around for a free table, and then nearly froze solid upon seeing something he never thought he would see.

Wait, was that Meido? With an older man? At a table clearly reserved for couples?

There had to be something fishy going on there.

Without hesitation, Yuki headed over there, and stopped in front of the two. "Oi, Meido. What's goin' on here?" He asked, glancing over at Daichi with his good eye. The guy looked like he was at least in his twenties- what the hell was he doing hanging out with a sixteen year old girl?

[Wakahisa Meido]

Meido, fearless as she was, might have just taken advantage of the crack-bang of thunder to jump in her seat. It was coincidental that when she settled back down, she was just a little closer to the object of her adoration. No, really. Subtlety, it seemed, was an art the young karateka had yet to master.

It was probably a good thing Daichi never paid much mind to that sort of thing.

She tittered at the comment of her appetite, shrugging cutely. A good appetite was only healthy! At the comment of the weather though, she did have a chirpy comment for, "Maa, so ominous, isn't it? It's creepy that it was so sudden!"

It was, just a little, but she tried not to pay too much attention to it. The company she kept was far more important in her eyes, but a challenger appeared before she could go right back to pining over her teacher.

Yuki, of course her luck was like that.

The girl's expression shifted into one that wouldn't be familiar to her sensei. Meido crossed her arms as she quite visibly did not approve, chin tilting up just to afford the illusion of looking down her nose at him as she huffed and replied brusquely, "No business of yours, Gray Demon."

The effect of her attempt at intimidation, however, was either ruined or enhanced by her cap sliding down inconveniently to shadow her eyes, but she resisted the urge to reach up to fix it until she had run off her unofficial big brother figure.

[Reiniku Daichi]

Daichi blinked once.

Then again.

And again.

The sure-fire look of "Daichi is Confused" crossed over his face as a challenger appeared, not really sure what the problem was. The other man seemed to be thoroughly displeased that Daichi was sitting with Meido, and Daichi hadn't a clue as to why. More over, Meido's reaction was something he didn't expect from her. Slowly, Daichi shifted his gaze from his companion, then to the offender, then back to Meido.

"Um...do you know this guy, Meido-chan?" Daichi inquired, then returned his confused expression towards Yuki. "Err...I don't mean to be intrusive, but Meido-chan and I are just friends! I hope I'm not offending you or anything mister by having a casual lunch with her after training. So um...no need to be so upset??"

As always, he was clueless as usual.

[Chuushin Yuki]

Yuki twitched a little at the mention of his unwanted nickname, looking back towards Meido. "Haaah? Can't I show concern for my younger sister? Anybody would get worried seeing you alone in a booth with an older man."

Hearing Daichi speak, he glanced over towards him with a small frown. It didn't really look like he was thinking anything about those kinds of things- really, it didn't look like he was thinking about much of anything. He had a feeling he might have seen this guy somewhere, put couldn't quite place it.

As soon as he mentioned training, however, something clicked. Oi, this guy was Meido's sensei? He'd heard her talk about him before, but, well... he looked kind of different than he'd pictured. Well, that was the ideal filter for you, he guessed.

"Hmmm, just friends you say?" He tilted his head to the side and looked back towards Daichi. It seemed like he meant what he said, but Yuki still didn't like him. After all, this was his childhood friend they were talking about here! How could he just let her pursue a guy he knew nothing about? "Ya sure about that?"

I mean, even if said childhood friend did think he was a villian.

[Wakahisa Meido]

There had been exactly three times in just the past year that such familial terms had given people the absolutely wrong idea. Given his appearance and reputation, it positively reeked of certain organizations that a righteous heroine of justice refused to allow herself to be associated with! The one with her homeroom teacher outside of school had been the worst, but with Daichi it could be catastrophic!

It was unacceptable!

Worse yet was the fact that Meido was capable of playing 'tough girl' for all of five seconds, particularly when it didn't work to rush the other off. Even worse, the insinuations cracked the thin veneer of serious business that she had managed to front at first. The brief scary faux-delinquent showdown was at an end, a cold war that never often got off the ground.

"Yu-nii! That's not-- It's-- Sensei, he's... waaaah!" A brief pause broke the storm of sputtered denials, and then she was flailing a little, offering puppy-eyes to her sensei, and finally she was pointing accusingly at the pale-haired interloper in a flurry of motion. "You villain!"

People were starting to stare, but she wasn't paying it much mind.

[Reiniku Daichi]

Daichi was utterly confused.

Why was this guy getting on his case? He wasn't doing anything wrong, at least in his eyes - just having a casual meal after a hard day of work with a student that had become his friend. More over, Meido was starting to act strange, which lead Daichi to believe that there was something else going on here.

Maybe...Yuki was suggesting something? Like, they were dating? Or was he trying to ruin Daichi's reputation?

"Please, sir, I am not doing anything wrong by having lunch with a friend," Daichi's voice took a strangely serious stone to it, his green eyes calm and collected as he looked at Yuki. "I enjoy spending time with Meido-chan, and we don't get to hang out enough. I'm not sure what the problem is you have with two people hanging out and having fun, but if you do, please leave us be."

Although he didn't hate or was angry at the other young man or anything, Daichi was starting to feel slightly perturbed that Yuki was trying to spoil this. If Yuki wasn't going to leave, Daichi had half the mind to get up and find someplace else to go with Meido.

[Chuushin Yuki]

In response to the combined reactions of Meido and Daichi, all Yuki could do was laugh. Grinning a little, he shook his head as he looked at Meido's flustered face. He hadn't been one hundred percent sure before, but now he knew for a fact that Meido was in love with her sensei. Pretty deeply in love with him too, from the looks of things.

"No, no problem here." Yuki raised his hands, grinning at Daichi. "She's just like a baby sister to me, you know? I've known her since she was yea tall." He said, showing with one hand. "She's had complications with men in the past, so I worry about her because she's an idiot."

Glancing back at Meido, he gave her a grin, indicating that he knew all about her little crush. "And I've told you before, I'm not a villain."

[Reiniku Daichi]

Despite what Yuki had said about there "not being a problem," Daichi didn't quite buy it. Sure, he may have been an idiot, but the way Yuki was treating him with such animosity showed that there was some kind of a problem with this. It slightly annoyed Daichi that this other man wasn't going to give him a chance with Meido--

...Wait, where did that thought come from?

Brushing that aside, Daichi forced a grin down at Yuki.

"Hey, no worries about that! Meido-chan is really dear to me, and I promise I won't hurt her...okay?" Hopefully that would be enough to get Yuki to leave them alone. While his heart seemed to be in the right place, in the end he was trying to bust up a good time between Daichi and Meido, and Daichi wasn't very happy about that.

But, he would let by-gones be by-gones if Yuki left them be. After all, Daichi was always one to make new friends and to let things slide in favor of forgiveness.