clockmaster | [RL with Naoto- We'll Always Have London]

He decided not to comment about that, it was better that way. He laughed softly at her. He liked to mock people and Naoto was always so serious about her looks he couldn't help himself. "If you follow me please."

The guest room was in the second floor, it was big and well decorated. All that her mother didn't had in affection she had it in taste.

Oh, the room was definitely plush and well-suited to Naoto's tastes. She immediately took a running leap at the bed and flopped face first onto it. She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling, laughing.

"Well, at least I know you hired a good interior decorator!" Naoto said. She sat up and looked around, her hat falling from her head. "Better get a fire going before it gets too chilly. I get cold easily."

Good thing she packed her long pajamas. And with the thick down comforter spread out on the bed, she probably wouldn't have to worry about the cold too much.

"Don't worry about that. The rooms have electric heater and I can always give you more blankets." He sat in the bed and tap his hat, amused. "I need to check, but I'm sure that there's enough food for us in the pantry, What do you want me to cook?"

With that gesture, Naoto picked up her hat and placed it back on her head.

"Um... I don't know, whatever is easiest for you," she said. "I'm not terribly picky. I'll help you prepare the tea, at least!"

"I'm not the best cook ever but I can prepare a large variety of dishes." Making him learn how to cook was one of the few things his mother did. "Some tea will be good, but I should show you the whole house first."

"Well, if you want," Naoto said, standing up. She shrugged out of her jacket and laid it on the bedspread. "Why don't you give me a quick tour, and then we'll head to the kitchen, all right? I've got a pretty good memory, so I won't get lost too easily."

Hakuba nodded and lead the way. She conduced her to the different rooms, the studio of her mother, the library (not as huge as the own in Ekoda, but still big), the whole second and third floor and in the end they arrived to the kitchen. ]

And Naoto took is all in, impressed, but not overly so (though she did notice that the mansion was three floors, unlike the Shirogane estate, which only had two). After all, she was used to this sort of setting. As they walked, Naoto took careful note of the layout of the rooms, to she wouldn't get lost if she needed to travel about on her own.

"Well, what shall we make then?" Naoto asked, rolling up her sleeves. "Just show me where the kettle and tea is kept, and I'll handle the rest!"

Hakuba took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves as well. "If nothing changed since the last time I was here.." He leaned closer, almost touching her, and opened a drawer."Here."

Naoto felt the skin along her arm prickle as Hakuba drew close. She was still getting used to having Hakuba so close to her, when before she had always tried to maintain a sense of professional distance between them. But now... that wasn't an issue anymore.

"Um... Okay. I'll just fill the kettle and set that on the stove to boil. What sort of tea would you prefer?"

"I don't have a preference..." Saguru cleared his throat, looking slightly embarrassed when he saw Naoto's expression. "Would you like some pasta? It's not very British but it's a dish we can cook faster and it's latte. I promise to cook something decent the next time.]

The sound of his voice snapped her back to attention. She nodded vigorously.

"Yes, pasta's fine. And I'm a bit hungry anyway, so the sooner we eat, the better."

Naoto filled the kettle at the sink and then placed it on the stove top. Then she filled a large pot and set that on the stove, too. It would be a while before the water came to a boil.

"Do you make the sauce from scratch?" Naoto asked. "I could help you with that, if you like?"

"Yes." He nodded, smiling down at her. "What kind of sauce you want though? One of my favourite is Arrabbiata sauce. To make it we need abundance of canned tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, bay leaves and fresh basil, and then add a large dose of red pepper flakes. It's a sauce with fiery character." Like the kind of woman he liked, Hakuba thougth amused.

Naoto suddenly blanched at the mention of all those spices.

"Erm... Something a little less intense would be better for me." She laid a hand over her stomach and winced slightly. "I don't handle spice foods very well..."

"Oh.." Hakuba blinked, feeling a bit ridiculous. He was used to eat all kind of food, preferable in preferably in big quantity. That always seemed to surprise people, the fact that he could eat that much and don't get fat. It was as if his body tried to compensate the lack of sleep with the hunger for food.

"What about is a simple mushroom sauce?" He gave her a wary smile.

"That sounds good!" Naoto said, relieved. "And since I'm still learning to cook for myself, simpler recipes would be better. I'll be less likely to make mistakes."

Not that Naoto was a terrible cook. She tended to get distracted and let the food burn, that's all. As long as it didn't burn, it tasted just fine!

"Mistake can help you to learn faster." Hakuba moves around the kitchen as eh talked, finding all the necessary to make the sauce.

As Hakuba gathered the necessary ingredients, the kettle began to sing. Naoto removed the kettle and poured the now steaming hot water into a pair of teacups. She dropped in the teabags and left them to steep.

"I can help cut vegetables. I'm pretty handy with a knife, you know?"

"Actually, no I didn't know." Such a shame, there was a lot of things he didn't know about her yet. that was a good time to change it. He looked in a drawer and hold her a knife. "I will give you an apron so you don't get dirt in your clothes by accident." Hakuba informed her, already looking for the aprons in another drawer. Once he found one he stared at it with a raised brow. "I don't think that's (http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/yhst-20703681132046_2072_1112065)one of my mother's."

"I used to help my mother in the kitchen from time to time. Cracking eggs, cutting vegetables, grating cheese. I liked using the tools in the kitchen. It wasn't much different from tinkering in my workshop, really."

Naoto looked at the offered apron and fell silent. She put a hand to her mouth and tried to stifle a snort of laughter.

"Where did that come from?" She turned her back to Hakuba, still trying to stifle a few giggles. "Never mind. Just tie it on me, all right?"

"That's not mine"" The boy replied quickly, but doing as it was told. "It's probably one of my Dad's he has a strange sense of humor." He moved after her and tied it, caressing her neck softly as he did it.

Naoto felt a small tingle run down her spine at that gentle touch. Had it been an accident? Yes. Of course it was. Her hair was a bit longer in the back. He probably just had to brush it aside for a moment. She could use a trim, now that she thought about it...

Turning to face him, hands on her hips, she said, "All right! Let's gather our ingredients and get to work, shall we? We'll need mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, and... what else?"

the boy was still close to Naoto when he turned back, and he found himself suddenly facing the girl eye to eye. He didn't mind the closeness, but he wasn't that used to it yet. His cheeks turned reddish. "uhm..what else..?"

Naoto looked puzzled.

"I don't know. You're the one who knows the recipe, after all..."

Well, they had all the vegetables gathered together on the cutting board already. "I'll just wash these off and chop them up. Check the pot and see if the water has started to boil. If it has, throw the pasta in and help me with this."

And with that, Naoto began rinsing off the vegetables in the sink. Once that was done, she gathered up the mushrooms and started to slice them up. The onion could go last. She didn't want to get all watery-eyed right away...

"Ah..yes yes, of course." Hakuba blushed more." I got myself distracted, my apologies."

Seeing that she took care of the vegetables and tried to avoid the onion Hakuba smiled and took care of it. With a sharp knife in his hand he started to cut it in fast, fast movement, not even looking at it to avoid getting water eyed too. Oh yes, Cori taught him well about how to use a knife.

"Don't worry," Naoto said with a laugh. "Happens to me all the time. That's why I tend to burn whatever it is I happen to be cooking..."

Well, not this time! There were no case files to distract her at the moment. Just Hakuba. She paused in her own work to watch for a moment as Hakuba quickly chopped the onion with ease, like a professional chef on one of those home cooking shows.

"You're pretty handy with that knife," she said, "but I'm surprised you're not tearing up. I always get all weepy if I have to cut an onion."

It was then that Naoto realized that she had never seen Hakuba shed tears. Not once in all the time she had known him. She wondered for a brief moment if anything, short of a severe wound, would cause Hakuba to cry. He'd endured so many hardships in the past that perhaps he'd learned to hold everything inside, as Naoto had done.

The boy nodded, still flustered. He usually wasn't distracted so easily but with Naoto around that proved to be hard to control.

"It's all about practice." He said automatically and then turned to face her when she mentioned the tears. He couldn't just tell her that he was not able to cry, or that he didn't allow himself to do it. he could, when he was a kid, but now...sometimes he wondered what kind of freak that make him. "I..guess I'm lucky."

"I guess so..."

Naoto sensed that she might be treading too close to sensitive territory, so she thought a change of subject was in order.

"Say... You never told me what you intended to do with those photos that Rufus took of me. Don't think that taking me on a date to London would make me forget all about it!"

And to think, it was her asking about those photos that started this strange turn of events in the first place. It was still awkward to think about... She'd practically frightened the poor boy into asking her out on a date. Naoto had never really thought of herself as intimidating before... Maybe Kanji's attitude was beginning to rub off on her?

"I never asked him to took that photos, he did it because he wanted!" Hakuba said quickly, maybe to quickly but it was true. he really didn't knew why was Rufus snickering and taking photos all the time. He didn't wanted to know.

Well, Naoto could certainly believe that. She'd suspected that had been the case all along. Still...

"Well, what are you going to do with them now?" she asked with a playful smirk. "Put them in a special scrapbook or something?"

"What make you think that I have them?" Hakuba finished cutting the onion. He took care of it and then cleaned his hands. "Rufus never gave them to me. He just wanted you to think that he did it."

Naoto's mouth dropped open, the knife held tightly in one hand. Oh, that sneaky little bastard! Playing mind games, was he? Then what became of those photos? Was he seriously going to use them to blackmail her?

"Oh, I knew it!" Naoto said, stabbing the knife into the cutting board. She continued to grip the handle in a white-knuckled grip, eyes blazing with righteous fury. "That manipulative, silver-tongued bastard! He's going to hold those photos over my head for the rest of my natural life, isn't he?"

Hakuba touched her back and moved a hand over hers, caressing her white knuckles, trying to convince her to ease the grip with his touch. Naoto was kind of sexy when she was that angry. But he imagined that she will get mad if he mentions it. "Naoto.." His face was close to her. "Rufus is a complicated person, he likes to make other's people life difficult. it's nothing against you."

Naoto felt her fingers relax their grip at that gentle touch. Didn't mean that she still wasn't angry, though.

She heaved a sigh of exasperation. "Like he doesn't have better ways to waste his time?" Finally, she leg go of the knife handle completely. "No matter. Those photos are useless as blackmail material anyway. It's not as though I participated in the swimsuit contest."

Yes. She had some pride, after all.

"Let's do something." Hakuba said, trying to make her relax. "I will make sure that he doesn't use those photos for anything and that they end destroyed."

Naoto shook her head. "It's all right. I have to learn to accept that there are some situations in life that I have no control over. This is one of those situations. But I appreciate the thought."

The girl chuckled to herself as she began scraping the now minced vegetables into the pot containing the sauce. "I have to admit, you have some very strange friends. Not that I'm really one to talk. I'm not exactly a 'normal' girl, am I?"

A member of the Clan of Noah. A Gundam pilot. The President of an electric conglomerate. Witches, wizards, phantom thieves, and various other strange and wondrous personages had become close to the young detective. If it weren't for the fact that Naoto could wield a Person, she would have felt relatively ordinary next to them.

"Let's hurry up and get this sauce cooking, shall we? I can't wait to eat!"

[RL with Naoto- We'll Always Have London]

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