deercountry | If I had died

Ritsuka nodded as Keith came in, seeming to have a hard time with responding but considering some people he knew didn't talk at all unless absolutely necessary, Ritsuka was fine with it. He liked quiet people.

"Has he always been bad at cooking?" he asked as he set about fixing the rest of the meal.

Keith nodded.

"Yeah." He shrugged. "Never knew him not to be." He thought for a moment. "I think... that's why Adam. Adam cooks."

Keith smirked. He knew that wasn't the main reason for their relationship, but it was an amusing joke to make all the same.

"Oh, well, I'll be cooking now too. I offered to do it so I could live here," he plated the food and turned to Keith.

"Like I said... you can have some, if you want?"

"Okay." Keith nodded. It wasn't bad to have more people cooking. And it wasn't that Keith couldn't cook. He was better at it than Shiro. Though, that wasn't exactly a high bar to get over. But, still.

"Uh, sure." He shrugged. Granted, he wasn't big on mushrooms, but that was pretty much what they had here. It was a forced and acquired taste, he supposed.

"I um." Yeah. Coldblood communication issues were making it harder for him to talk this month. Not that he was great at it to begin with. "I can. Too."

Ritsuka had no opinion on foods except coffee. He handed the mushroom ramen stir fry over to Keith with some chopsticks resting on the plate.

That Keith was answering mostly monosyllabically didn't bother Ritsuka, he didn't really like bothering with long drawn out conversations anyway. He turned off the oven and hung up the apron before plating his own food and heading to the kitchen table.

He put his hands together said a soft "time to eat" and picked up his chopsticks. His cat ears shifted back as he dug in. He looked up at Keith after a mouthful.

"Would... you want to try cooking together?" he was trying to be nice since they were going to be living together, but he would be perfectly fine with Keith saying no, he'd understand it too since Ritsuka was a complete stranger.

Keith had stuck to a fork for his meal. Asian foods weren't exactly common around the American southwest, so his chopstick usage was mediocre at best. He was used to more TexMex and other southwestern cuisine. He also wasn't used to a lot of Asian customs, even being as close to Shiro as he was, so Ritsuka's quiet phrase did catch his attention. He'd have to ask when this stupid blood magic effect wore off and he could communicate better.

He did look a bit surprised at the question, though, and then nodded.

"Sure." He didn't mind. He wasn't some amateur gourmand like one of his teammates back home, but he knew his way well enough around a kitchen. Keith was good at the semi-home-made method of "pantry" cooking... he could take what he had available and make a decent meal, even if it wasn't fancy.

He nodded, eating the stir fry slowly, trying to remind himself he doesn't have to worry about getting the wrong answer. Keith wasn't expecting anything of him. There were no foods he had to pretend to hate or avoid.

It was always a little bit harder to eat with other people around whom he didn't know well but he could push through.

He watched him for a bit, wanting to ask if it's good but also not wanting to make Keith have to answer such a thing. He was eating so... it couldn't be too bad right?

The silence wasn't terrible. Keith didn't mind not talking, even more so than usual right now thanks to the stupid blood effect he was experiencing. But, after a moment, he realized that he was being watched on occasion, and that was a little bit awkward.

He lifted his eyes up from his meal in a silent question. Was there something Ritsuka was expecting from him?

He blushed at being caught, his tail shooting up and frizzing while his ears pressed down. He cleared his throat, looking down at his hands.

"S-Sorry, just um... I just want to make sure you like it."

Keith looked a bit surprised for a second, and then nodded.

"Mm... Mm-hm." Give him a second. "It's uh... It's... good." Yeah. That's what he wanted to say. Words! Sometimes still work! Stupid blood effects. But he managed a small smile. "It's... there is a... a lot." He poked at one of the mushrooms. "Them. They're here. A lot." In Trench. It was almost like their primary crop or something. So, Ritsuka had better get used to them.

"You uh... Do you?" Keith stumbled a bit, tapping his finger on the counter in impatience as he scrunched up his face slightly. "Like them?"

"Ah- that's good." His tail wags at knowing Keith likes it. He clears his throat.

"Oh um... I like foods that are easy to eat and don't... require too much chewing or something. Or chocolate." He was a little chocoholic. He was also an old man in a 12-year-old's body. "I don't have any food I dislike," though he had to pretend, often enough.

Didn't require too much chewing... that was an interesting description to Keith for some reason, and he tilted his head in curiosity.

"Not much chewing?" Was something wrong with Ritsuka's jaw or something? Or was it just a personal preference?

But he nodded. "Me, neither." Granted, there were a good number of foods that he didn't have a lot of access to back home because of regional preferences, but that was fine. Keith was open to trying to new things, at least.

He blushed and looked away but then shrugged.

"It's bothersome," it's also partially his depression and eating is... a chore at the best of times, but he's also just never been allowed to be picky on his own terms. It was only with Soubi and now, Makoto, that being allowed to have choices and being a part of the cooking process made eating less of a chore and something he wanted to engage in.

"The only food I don't like is coffee," which yes, he's DEEPLY aware of what that means in this house. He found the coffee cabinet.

"Oh." Keith wanted to say more on that, but he wasn't sure he'd even be able to get his point across in the right way with how his ability to communicate was being affected by the blood magic, let alone if it would be taken well even if he could say it properly and without any issues. So, he kind of let that drop for now... besides the coffee comment definitely caught him off guard.

"That's a big deal here," he said quietly. "Not... not so much... for me, but." He shrugged a little. "Shiro. Adam. They like it. A lot."

"Just means I'm not going to be attacking their coffee stash, and it's my understanding stuff like that is rare in this place." he offered with a shrug. "Though if we invest in hot chocolate or milk, I'd be grateful."

"Milk... kinda hard. Dunno about... the other..." Keith waved his hand to indicate hot chocolate. Even though Ritsuka had just said it, the word was already gone again from his head due to the blood effect.

"Not exactly a lot of cows roaming around with all the monsters, yeah..." he sighs, then shrugs. He's used to going without. This is not new. So he'll deal with it. It would just be NICE is all.

"One cow." Keith knew where there was at least one cow. Though, he knew just one cow wasn't going to be able to supply a whole city with milk. Kaltenecker had done well for them on the Castleship, but that was just seven of them. "Barn." He gestured in the general direction of the barn Lance had been keeping her in over in Cellar Door.

"A barn?" he repeated, his ears perking up. He had picked up on Keith being stuck on one-syllable words at the best of cases so he wasn't going to ask where yet. "That's cool. I've never met a cow in real life."

Keith looked surprised.

"No farms?"

Like, really? Keith lived in an area where there was a lot of big open space. People liked to transform it as best they could into farm land, and it was good for things like cattle and horses. Sure, he was in a desert, but it was a high desert with scrub brush and other things that could be terraformed and irrigated.

"Not real ones, no, I lived in Tokyo, Japan. It's a pretty massive city but not like... any farms, at least not that I know of. Have you heard of Tokyo?"

Keith nodded. Yeah, he knew it. It still existed for him in his reality.

"Farms don't..." He frowned a bit, scrambling for words. "...not cities." Farms didn't do well in cities unless there was like a special area or something. So, he definitely understood. Also, Japan didn't exactly have a lot of cows in general. He imagined that they were pretty rare in a mountainous island nation.

"Yep, so then you've heard of it. So can I meet the cow?"

"Yeah." Keith nodded. He'd heard of it, and sure, Ritsuka could meet the cow. Kaltenecker was pretty chill. She'd been through a lot for a cow, even back home. Keith was pretty sure there wasn't much that could shake her at this point... except maybe a barn fire or a monster attack.

"Don't uh... yeah. That's... that's..." It was fine. He nodded again.

If I had died

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