Hayasui and Rachel: Fire Forged Friends?

Hayasui looked up from the root beer she was happily sipping from to see something she never thought she'd see. The girl seemed to stop breathing altogether, the straw dropping from her lips back into the glass as she stared at the man, who simply offered her a placid look in return.

...Impossible.

Hayasui knew full well that her clan had amassed considerable resources, both monetary and otherwise, but she knew just as well that their influence had its limits. She hadn't imagined, however, that they would send someone this far from that sphere...just to keep track of her? Or was he on a job? Had they come to take her back?!

"Relax, kiddo," the man said easily, his speech jarringly foreign from the tone her parents used with her, "Just wanted to congratulate you on your first match. Man, your dad's probably going pitch a fit at me for doing this, but if you ask me, the whippersnapper could learn to lighten up."

At this point, Hayasui's jaw fell open in disbelief. This man didn't look nearly old enough to be calling her father a 'whippersnapper', forgetting how hard the elders would come down on him for such brazen-

"So you're Rachel," the man continued, "You made a good showing out there today, all things considered. You've probably figured that Haya's trained and all, but the fact remains that you scored a good few shots on the prodigy and former heir to a centuries-old family of martial artists."

At this point, Hayasui managed to regain herself, blushing furiously at the man's words, but not doing much else.

Rachel stared blankly at the man, and then at Hayasui, and back to the man, before saying anything. "Wait, what? What?! What is going on? Is this for real? This is like... like some kinda... kung-fu movie. Do I need to defend my famury's honor or something? 'Cause, ya know, that's what the whole biting business was for, I already covered that," she looked over to Hayasui, "Did you set this up? Is this like, some kind of super-elaborate prank? What the hell is he talking about 'centuries old martial artists'?" A befuddled look still on her face, Rachel finally turned down to the empty beer glasses on the table in front of her, pushing them aside in a gesture of rejection.

"Please, I'll explain everything later," Hayasui said, looking pleadingly at Rachel, "Just don't try to start something with him."

"Prank?" the man said with a laugh, "Right, a prank. And I'm the first of clan, and secretly an immortal. ...Oh wait, I am...whoops. Okay, that aside, no this really isn't a prank. I think I'll let her explain the rest."

The man paused, looking at Hayasui for a moment before sighing.

"Well, damn, I've really fucked this one up, haven't I?" the man sighed, "Well, I guess I can see why her dad was so adamant on...You know what, I think I've said enough. You kids have fun."

With that, the strange man stood up, wincing a little at Hayasui's current state, before quickly withdrawing.

Rachel shook her head in a mix of disbelief and confusion before looking at the counter again. "Either I've had too much to drink, or not enough to drink... and when in doubt, drink more! Let's get some sake!"

She started to wave a waiter over, but stopped herself before being noticed. With little more than a glance, it was clear Hayasui was more tense than she had been since she was trying to snap Rachel's arm in half. "Oh wait... you gotta drive, huh? Yeah, I won't party without you. And you know what? I'm not going to ask what that was all about, either. We've both had a rough enough night, let's just sit back and enjoy ourselves, right?" Almost as if to match itself with her timing, a burst of flame shot up in front of them as the grill started up.

Hayasui allowed a hollow laugh at Rachel's antics before she was shocked out of her somber mood by the sudden blaze springing up in front of her.

The girl turned to Rachel, thankful to see that, somehow, she hadn't been all that shaken by the events that had just transpired.

"Sure," Hayasui agreed, soon losing herself in the wondrous show the chefs always made of their cooking at these kinds of restaurants.

About an hour later, and the two of them were headed back to the car, both laughing and plenty relaxed. Rachel was glad to see Hayasui's attitude change, even if she did have to fight the girl to pay for her own food (not literally, fortunately, but it was still the fiercest argument she had over paying for something). Rachel patted her tummy, satisfied with the meal, as it turned out cheap did not equal bad here. Well, cheap didn't really equal cheap either, but relatively speaking, anyway.

As both of them got in the car, Rachel leaned back with a sigh. "Aw, that was fun. Thanks for that." She turned to Hayasui with a smile, "So, where to next? Don't suppose you have anything else special planned for the evening, do you?" she teased with a cocked eyebrow.

Hayasui's face went red once more at Rachel's quip, but this time the girl wasn't intending to take it lying down. Furthermore, she had recently acquired something of a secret weapon from the restaurant.

"Maybe," she said, pulling a decently sized bottle of sake, recently bought from the restaurant itself, out of the bag of leftovers she'd brought with her, "But I think we should get home first."

With that, she pulled out of the restaurant, quickly getting them back to Hayasui's place.

Rachel's eyes shone at the sight of the sake, the genuine surprise on her face lasting a few moments before being replaced with another sly smile. "Ohohoh, you little devil, you," she giggled, leaning back into her seat for the brief ride back.

When they arrived at Hayasui's place, it was Rachel's turn to show a bit of embarrassment, though she'd be dammed if she let Hayasui see. For all her teases and quips, something about just spending the night here felt a bit... naughty. Not unwarranted or even unwanted, but there was something about this situation that got to her a bit more than usual. Maybe it was Hayasui's apparent innocence at all this, maybe it was that her place was nicer than most Rachel was used to, or maybe it was medical ointment-induced delirium, it was hard to say. In any case, it took her a moment to get out of the car after Hayasui exited, though she continued to make attempts to hide any sign of her feelings for the time being.

Hayasui turned on a few lights once they got into the living room, directing Rachel to the sofa this time (For some reason, the flyer had called it a love seat, something that Hayasui was working very hard to not remember right now), and leaving the sake bottle nearby.

"I'll be right back," Hayasui assured her. Making her way into the kitchen, Hayasui took a moment to try desperately to regain her composure. The facts that it was night time now, they were alone here, and there was a fresh bottle of sake for them to share weren't lot on Hayasui, who retrieved the sake dishes with a red face and shaking hands.

Focus, Hayasui. No matter what, this will be fine. Try not to think about meet a clan member at a Hibachi restaurant. Try not to think about how a tiny part of you wants to kiss Rachel, just to see what it's like. And especially try to avoid remembering those-

Hayasui shook her head, trying in vain to clear her mind and at least succeeding in stilling her hands. With that, she made her way back over to the couch, sitting down beside Rachel and placing the sake dishes next to the bottle itself. Of course, due to the size of the couch, that didn't leave much room between them. Trying not to think about that, Hayasui swiftly poured out two servings of Sake and handed one to Rachel.

"...as cheesy as this sounds," Hayasui said, still a little red in the face, "To friendship? Or at the very least having a good time together..."

Again, Rachel was struck by the size of the place as her host went to serve up their drinks. It wasn't huge, no, but it wasn't an apartment, and it certainly was no trailer. She was still a bit confused by the guy at the grill, but at least some of the pieces were adding up; this all looked easily like it could belong to the heir to some sort of famous family. Her attention was drawn towards the kitchen at the sound of chittering plates, however, and she was just about to investigate when Hayasui returned.

When Hayasui showed up with the sake set, her nervousness was more than clear to Rachel. Still, Rachel couldn't help but smile at it all, she didn't want her new friend to feel uncomfortable but it was all just too cute. As Hayasui poured their glasses and handed one to her, Rachel couldn't help but inspect it briefly, for someone who doesn't drink, she had some pretty cool sake glasses.

Still, as Hayasui gave her toast, Rachel went back to her warm smile, and raised her glass in kind. "Yeah, friendship sounds good!" she said as they chimed their glasses together. She started to bring the glass to her mouth when a thought occurred to her. "Hey, this isn't going to taste a whole lot better than the beer, but just down the whole thing all at once and you'll love it, okay?" she asked with a concerned look before giving a demonstration with hers.