Swiss Cheese

Eiji knew he shouldn’t have mentioned the yoyo incident again, especially not in context with “cooking” and “their fifth anniversary.” Really, was it his fault that he’d been in a rush and had just chucked all the cheese he could find into the pan that one time? Or that Eiji’s sister had put a plastic-wrapped yellow yoyo in the fridge? (And he still didn’t know why she’d put it in the fridge of all places. Or why she’d had a yoyo, for that matter.) It looked like Edam, really, without the icky red stuff on the outside. And he did realise it was a yoyo, too, before he’d tried serving it to anyone. “Aw, come on, Oishiiii!” Eiji whined at him. “Let me? Please?” “No!” “But I want to do something special for you!” Oishi was so cute when he blushed. “N-no!” “It was just one little accident. . . .” “Eiji, you tried to cook a yoyo.” “But I didn’t try to feed it to you!” “Eiji!” “How about if I use Swiss cheese instead?” Oishi blinked at him. “Swiss cheese?” Eiji grinned and winked. “I won’t mistake any yoyos for it, nyah!” “Eiji. . . .” Oishi groaned, putting a hand over his eyes. “Pleeeeease?” “No.” “Don’t you trust me?” Eiji pouted, going for the big-wobbly-blue-eyes tactic. Oishi blushed again, looking anywhere but at Eiji’s face. “Of course I trust you, Eiji, but you try to do everything all in a rush, and cooking goes wrong if you do that.” “I don’t try to do everything in a rush,” Eiji said, pouting, and grinned as Oishi blushed. “Ah – that – ah – that’s different,” he sputtered. “You – you—” “What about stuff that cooks quickly? Like pasta! I could put the Swiss cheese into a pasta sauce, and we could have that!” Oishi started, then winced as he switched onto Eiji’s latest train of thought. “You were trying to make pasta sauce that time, too.” Eiji blinked, then looked sheepish. “Oh yeah, so I was.” His face lit up suddenly, and he bounced on the spot. “How about cheese on toast, then? I can’t go wrong with that!” “It’s not really . . . romantic, is it?” “Well I can’t let you cook, you did that last year!” “How about we just go out for a meal? There’s a new restaurant a short walk from my house.” “Do they have Swiss cheese there?” “I don’t know. I’ll call and ask them.” “Don’t bother, nyah, I don’t like Swiss cheese.” “Eiji!”

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