takutomaruki | HOME/LAB [maruki family thread tracker]

"I did. Hopefully I didn't end up kicking you too much," she chuckled in amusement, sipping from her glass some more. She gestured to the bowl of almonds.

"What're these soaking for? Is this a hangover cure you have in your back pocket?" she asked, a lilt of amusement in her tone.

Oh, she's amused. Maruki's expression settled into ease as he waved his hand in dismissal. "I did end up waking up with my mouth full of hair, but that's as far as it went," he remarked while gesturing at the towel now wrapped around her head. He followed her gesture to the bowl of almonds, confused by the question before realisation swept over his expression.

"Those were for you...you mentioned you liked snacking on them, so figured you would like it," he chuckled lightly as he gestured at the bowl and reached down himself for one of the soaked almonds. "It's a healthy snack to start your day with- though as for an actual hangover cure, I do have one specific recipe in mind. If you are down for something savoury."

With that, he walked past her and bent down to grab some things from the lower cabinet- already getting down to business.

He really is memorizing all of the little details about her. Charming. How in the world did someone break up with him?

She leaves the question unvoiced, settling instead for plucking a few almonds out and enjoying them. "Mmm, I've never actually soaked them - I usually just eat them out of the bag. Good for the salt fix, that way - but this is surprisingly nice too."

Relaxing against the back of the sofa, she turned to watch him as he moved to the kitchen. "I don't mind anything savory. I was going to offer ordering breakfast in if you were too hungover to cook, but if you're up for it, I won't say no!"

He sets down a few things before diving into his fridge and pulling out an open container with a towel draped over it.

"I don't usually order breakfast unless I really can't make it through the day. I do enjoy cooking at home." He grins as he arranges the pot on the stove and then gathers some vegetables to chop them. "It's actually a pretty popular hangover cure, sooo I will let you guess. Most of my ingredients are up and ready- just need to assemble them together."

"Ohh, a soup... that makes perfectly good sense, very hydrating, after all. Let's see..."

Something quick and easy, suitable for breakfast - come to think of it, he's made something for her breakfasts and lunches along those lines, hasn't he?

"Miso, maybe? The konbu would be great at providing minerals a dehydrated body's missing."

The clams were always the tricky part, given that if you were a newbie you needed to make sure you drain them of any pests or parasites before you could safely consume them.

As someone who did end up getting regularly hungover, he always kept some at bay.

"Getting warmer~ no pun intended," he teased as he tossed in some chopped ginger and japanese leek before proceeding to make the miso broth. "It is one of the ingredients."

Edited 2025-05-16 10:57 (UTC)

"Hmmm... you're probably adding some protein or carbs... extra tofu, maybe?"

A fun guessing game! With a bit of a yawn, still catching up from waking up so hungover, Ichinose got a handful of the damp almonds to start crunching on them.

Takuto paused, glancing back at her. "Do you prefer that with your miso?" he asks with a cheeky twinkle in his eye. Try again.

With that said, he easily moved the pot away from Ichinose’s view and grabbed the previous container from earlier- now opening the clams to slip them into the broth. He's done. Nearly.

"That would be traditional! Hmm... enoki maybe? Good source of vitamins... or maybe shrimp, or some other leftover seafood. I knew someone who would always save the last bits of fish from dinner to put into his miso in the morning."

Frugal! Waste not, want not, right?

Hm, maybe he could add some enoki in... he hums as he goes around the kitchen and grabs some of it from the adjacent section in his fridge. He quickly chops some of that, ensures that all the scum is gone for sure he lowers the heat and watches the shijimi clams open up nicely. "Oh-? Sustainable! I approve of your friend," he grins at the mention of adding fish.

Once he's sure the miso is dissolved, he lowers the heat completely and removes the pot. He serves more of the portion to Ichinose since he had some earlier this morning before garnishing it with some chopped scallions. "You were very hot to the actual dish, and now I am just hoping the cure is worth the wait." He chuckles lightly as he sets the pot aside, checks the stove and walks past to get some of the fruits he had chopped up earlier when he got Ichinose's text.

Maruki sets down the dish in front of her and sits beside her, holding his own bowl. There were some apples cut in the shape of bunny ears on a small platter as he finally eases up and turns to Ichinose with something like excitement.

"It's Shijimi Miso soup. Just with a few touches of my own."

"Clams! Now that makes sense. That smells fantastic, thank you," Ichinose chuckled in delight. She went right for the soup, taking a sip and relaxing a bit, the warmth washing over her as a small balm against the soreness and aches of the hangover.

"That was my ex boyfriend - he was such a penny-pincher, even though I offered to cover more expenses if he needed. Men are so stubborn about letting a woman contribute, even if she's doing better financially than he is."

"No problem," he grinned as he went back to attending to his soup, stirring the ingredients together. "These clams just eat away at the toxins produced in your system- I don't know where I would be without it."

Ah, ex-boyfriend. He remembered when she had mentioned partners to him earlier- this might be a relationship that didn't end on good terms. Better tread carefully.

"Hmm, probably because men struggle with the idea of not being the provider, kind of like a problem we bring up on ourselves," he sighs as he takes a quick sip of the broth. "Brings back memories when we used to struggle with bills too- a researcher's pay leaves much to be desired."

"I can imagine. You're all in on cognitive psience, right? I was able to pay my way around easily by selling code and getting a few programming gigs during school," Ichinose chuckled. Between that, selling EMMA and her inheritance... she's been pretty comfortable for most of her life.

"Are you also too proud to let your partner take care of you?" she asked after chewing on a clam, giving Maruki an amused grin.

"I opened up a counselling clinic back home along with being a part-time counsellor at Shujin Academy. I occasionally visit those places here, too. My Palace gives me more patients though," he explains. "It's easier to tackle the limitations of my previous profession with cognitive pscience."

Are you also too proud to let your partner take care of you?

His expression sobered a little at the mention of it. A partner.

"I wouldn't...call it proud...?" He tries as an answer, glancing back at Ichinose with an eye pinched playfully. "You would have to ask my former girlfriend that question for an unbiased opinion."

"Ohh? Was she a doting type of girlfriend, or did she butt heads with you over wanting to help out?" Ichinose snickered in amusement, curling up on the couch with the miso bowl in her hands like a cup. Warm...

"My ex would raise a fuss about me being the bread-winner. So sensitive about it, I never understood why - I tried to listen, but it just never made sense to me."

Maruki couldn't really answer her question right away- not with the way he seemed to be so utterly focused on the soup before him.

Butting heads...in a way he had always opened his heart to her in time of need. She doted on him with ideas, and he did everything in his power to spoil her too.

"Sounds like there's a reason why he's your ex," he remarked easily as he crossed one leg over the other. "Perhaps he was a little insecure. When the roles shift, even if it's for the better, sometimes people might feel... lost, or even ashamed. Defensive even." Rumi earned more than him back before everything so when her company laid her off, when she ended up in that comatose state, things felt so much more hopeless. With him saving money for her treatment to working on his research...

"...she was more of the reassuring kind. She had the ideas, and I used to do whatever I could to make them come true."

Hmm... the topic of his girlfriend seemed to really dampen his mood. That sort of reaction means he might still care for her, doesn't it? Ichinose tilted her head in thought, for a moment, watching Maruki's expression.

...Did she still pine for her ex boyfriend? ...Not really... she didn't think about him much. Even now, reflecting on him and his little quirks, even reflecting on how defensive he would get or the other things he said... it didn't feel like much of anything. That was a while ago.

"You're the most cold, heartless woman I've ever met. You don't even care about me."

He probably wasn't wrong, if even now the thought of him dumping her didn't stir her much. It didn't make her make a face like what Maruki was making.

"She sounds nice," Ichinose offered instead of vocalizing any of that, pausing to sip her soup. "It's too bad. It seems like that loss is painful."

"Painful?" He whips his head back at her, confused for a moment. Was there something on his face that made her come to that conclusion?

"Well, obviously. Getting dumped is painful, right?" She tilted her head. Wasn't that obvious? Of course that was supposed to hurt a normal person.

Oh.

He thought she meant it some other way. "Sorry, I misread that, I guess," he looks away. "She didn't dump me...would you be surprised if I said I was engaged? We were together for most of our lives, with a small break-up in between before picking things up again."

Edited 2025-05-16 15:37 (UTC)

Ah-- then the other unfortunate fate. Engaged, dating for a long time...

"My sympathies for your loss. ...But I can see you engaged, at least - you're very enjoyable. I imagine there are plenty of women that would confide in you once you're past mourning."

Oh wow, he was really blowing this out of proportion. The compliment aside, which made him sputter and stutter out of pure confusion. "No, I am not- see that's the thing. People confide in me cause I am trained in it again- I am not mourning her."

"It was all my fault in the end." He offers her a weak smile as he finishes the last of his soup. "For being a bit of a coward. It's been a good few years since then, and she's much happier now! Much happier than back then...there's nothing more I am grateful for."

...? What in the world is he talking about? Ichinose's brows furrowed in thought as she examined him, turning the words over in her head...

"...A coward... oh! Did you run from the altar?"

Maruki began sipping away on the soup, hoping that she would drop the topic. It's a thing of the past and he has much bigger things to worry about and work on so-

Did you run from the altar?

"...!"

"Bwfah-" Maruki chokes on his soup, some of the enoki gladly making their way to his windpipe as he coughs and sets the bowl on his lap. "Wha- okay."

He ended up laughing- not expecting that speculation at all. Most people didn't ask beyond that but Ichinose-? She did.

"I wish it was like that. Honestly."

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1/2

2/2 (he will mention the incident after sadhd just give him a bit)