So a Demon and an Angel Walk in the Park...

Oh. Her parents definitely knew about the match. Masuyo was a big name in Shibuya now. It was really only a matter of time. All it took was one regular to walk up to the counter and talk about the big splash thier daughter was making in the arena.

...all over the canvas. Man. Lunch was gonna be awkward tomorrow.

At least the Swede’s opinion of her didn’t seem to change all that much. Still keeping her cheerful attitude no matter what. But for all of Elsa’s attempts to cheer her up, it only made her more disappointed in herself. Wasn’t enough that she was bringing her own little sob story into this, now she was threatening to drag her date down with her. This wasn’t the time or place for it. She should have left that last bit out. There was no reason to kill the mood like that. She was already opening her mouth to apologize when a tug on her arm caught her attention.

“H-hey.” That was the last thing she uttered for a while before the two broke through the light and entered the clearing.

Free of the obscuring branches and leaves, the two could make out the large field of green in front of them. Aging cherry blossoms danced carelessly in the air, and groups of men and women, children and students, tourists and locals walked about the scene in front of them. A pair of little Shih Tzu chased one another in wide circles, leaping about in the warm sunlight. Masuyo let out a relaxed breath. A mixture of wonder and relief. This place had always been one of her favorites, and she was just happy it seemed so alive today. Hopefully, Elsa would be impressed.

“It’s a pretty little spot, isn’t it?”

Her eyes drifted across the treeline until she turned her head to the side and noticed the landmark she was looking for. It was a slightly elevated little lump off to the side of the field. A maple tree planted firmly on its side offered some shade. A mere brisk walk away. Looked relatively clear, too. Enough for them to talk undisturbed. Just what she was hoping for.

“Do you wanna come over here and sit down? Bask in nature’s beauty? It is a park after all.”

If Masuyo wanted Elsa to be impressed, her hopes would become a reality as the swede stared at her surroundings. It was better than she had expected in fact, and the snowy angel had already expected it to be gorgeous. There were some people already here, but Elsa didn't mind. To her, it might as well just been her and Masuyo...because that's all she was paying attention to besides the beautiful scenery.

"Wooooww...yeah...this is beautiful..." the swede would say in awe as she held onto her date's hand. This area was certainly amazing to Elsa, she'd definitely be coming back when she got the chance. Maybe a picnic with Masuyo, maybe to play something as simple as frisbee...maybe even to just lay back with her crush to watch the the clouds

...until their eyes met...and slowly...they kissed before beginning to...

Face blushing a bit suddenly, Elsa tried to fend off her wild desires and vivid imagination. This wasn't a time for lust, this was a time to get to know Masuyo on a deeper level. Besides, the swede already went the whole way with the demon. She didn't and shouldn't need to get her hands on the woman until they were ready to as a couple. Luckily Masuyo would ask her if she wanted to sit in a lovely looking spot...which helped the swede calm her imagination.

"That sounds perfect~" Elsa would say as she followed the young woman to the pretty, little spot. This date was turning out even better than the swede had expected, and she hoped to learn even more about Masuyo as the day went on. "Thanks again for bringing me here, Masuyo...this was a really nice of you."

“A beautiful place for a beautiful person. Fair trade if you ask me.”

God, that was awful.

She was still having a bit of a difficult time with the whole “You’re the first woman I’ve ever been attracted to without secretly being Piko. By the way, can I have your autograph?” thing. Though she was doing a good job at hiding it, a web of nerves was starting to tingle beneath her skin. Maybe she’d say the wrong thing. Maybe she shouldn’t behave the same way she usually did on these things. Just needed a little more time to get used to all this.

This was guaranteed to turn things around, though. This was something she knew everyone loved. All Masuyo had to do was contain her excitement, all the way until they reached the top of the incline, and she sat Elsa down on the bed of grass. Before she could join her, however...

“Just one second. I’ll be right back.”

Masuyo jogged a bit of a way down the slope, eyebrows furrowing as she came closer to the tree with each step. The idea of wasting all that money, all that time and taking all those burns for nothing wasn't going to sit well with her. Please still be there. Please still be there. Please still be there-yes!

Placed tightly within the nook of the tree were a pair of lunch jars. But not just any lunch jars. Lunch jars filled to the brim with the Absolute Best Supreme Put-Your-Mother’s-Cooking-To-Shame Knockout Ai-style Noodles! The chopsticks hadn’t been swiped by the birds, either. So far so good. All that was left was the taste test. She took the jars and walked straight back up to Elsa with the biggest smile she could manage.

“It should still be warm.” She said, holding one out for her. “Lunch jars haven’t failed me yet.” And hopefully, it wasn’t going to be now.

Elsa smiled happily after hearing what Masuyo had to say. It was nice to hear that the young woman thought she was beautiful. It actually made the young swede blush a bit, she just thought it was so sweet of Masuyo to say. But when her date said she'd be right back, Elsa wasn't sure what to expect.

Was she going to get something? Did she just see someone she knew and wanted to introduce her to the swede? Did she need a break from how bad of a time she was having!? WAS SHE NOT GOING TO ACTUALLY COME BACK!!!!??? Lightly slapping her cheeks to calm down, Elsa would ignore all those negative thoughts that had just come over her. She and Masuyo were currently having a nice time together. For whatever reason she had to leave, the swede knew her date would come right back. She had said so after all, and Elsa trusted the woman's words.

Then soon enough, Masuyo returned with some jars, chop sticks and the biggest smile. Flashing one back at the young woman, Elsa would take the one given to her and quickly peel off the lip. "Thanks so much Masuyo! Mmmmmm~ These smell tasty!" she would say before getting the chop sticks out of their packaging.

Just smelling the noodles had made the swede incredibly hungry, but she was certain that they would fill her up. So after getting the chop sticks in her hand, Elsa would slowly pick a few out and blow on them just in case. Needless to say using chop sticks was the hardest thing she'd done since arriving in Japan, and she still wasn't 100% with them. So making sure that she didn't drop the precious noodles, Elsa would slowly bring them up and into her mouth, before humming in delight of the taste.

"Mmmm!~ Yummy!~ What kind are these? Oh! And how'd you manage to get them?" she'd ask happily as she began to have this wonderful meal with Masuyo.

Another satisfied customer. As per usual.

Albeit, Masuyo did have to fight the urge to snicker at Elsa fumbling with her sticks like that. She just stared in silent observation for a couple moments as she watched her date place them between her fingers...then nearly drop just a few noodles back into the jar. Gaijin. What can you do?

But then the verdict was in. Masuyo’s face lit up, giving the best smile she could manage. It was good to see that her time in the ring hadn’t dulled her instincts in the kitchen at all.

“You bet they are!”

Well, no point in letting Elsa eat alone. Masuyo crossed her legs and finally got down to eating her fine work. Even she was impressed with herself. At times, she wondered if she was a better cook than she was a mixed martial artist. Probably true.

Either way, she was just happy to see her date enjoying herself. It was a pleasant moment that she couldn’t help but appreciate. The wonderful smell of the broth, the gentle wind washing over them, the rustle of trees surrounding them both as they continued to enjoy the soft delicacy. Those noodles had taken hours to prepare. She probably would have had to kill her otherwise. The Swede was curious, though, and Masuyo was more than happy to answer.

“Hand. Made.” She pointed her chopsticks over to the Swede, a wide grin stuck firmly on her face. “Those noodles have been in my family for over 600 years. They carried the Ai name through the Age of Warring States, the Edo period, the Boshin War, and all the way through the Restoration. And not once have we ever gotten a complaint.” She coughed. “To our faces, that is.”

She looked back to Elsa with bright eyes and an even brighter smile. Her excitement was coming back in waves and, before she even knew it, she’d forgotten about the lunch resting between her legs. “This batch is one I made just for us, though. I spun the noodles for an extra ten minutes just to make sure they were super flat going into the pot. These noodles are actually closely based off ramen noodles, but we started drawing inspiration from danzai noodles that became a mainstay in China about a hundred years ago. That’s what helped us adapt to our changing clientele once the country started opening up. What stays the same for all our noodles, however, is that we burn off Habu Sake when we cook them. It gives the noodles a nice glaze and acidity that only really comes from the habu snake’s venom. Enzymes from other pitvipers interfere with our dishes umami a bit too much.” She hadn't taken a breath yet. “The broth is mostly a composure of native Japanese ingredients, using chicken stock made from tommaru, light soy sauce, white soy sauce, miso, wasabi then added to with some garlic, shiitake mushroom, ebi-imo taro, and daikon. The simmering actually happens in three stages where-”

She stopped.

“Heh, sorry. Noodles are my life. You understand.” She sipped more of the soup into her mouth.

Elsa was surprised to hear that Masuyo made these herself. Not because of any bad reasons, but because the young woman already seemed so talented that becoming this awesome at cooking would be too time consuming. Elsa believed every word, though, and was thoroughly impressed. However, while the swede loved hearing about all this history and info that Masuyo was explaining to her, she couldn't keep up with all of it.

At first it was easy. Listening about how her family had been making these noodles for over 600 years was quite the fun fact. And that they'd made it through like, five eras was also pretty cool. When Masuyo started explaining even more specifics, though, Elsa's comprehension started to waver.

Hearing terms like danzai and unami were a bit confusing to the Sweden native. She literally had no idea what tomaruu was, and how chicken stock was made for it. But she still was holding up pretty well all things considered before her date finally stopped herself mid-sentence. Sure some parts were confusing and fast, but Elsa for the most part understand the key point of all this.

Masuyo was proud of her noodles...and the swede thought she was rightfully so.

"Of course I understand! That's all really impressive Masuyo! So you shouldn't be sorry!" Elsa would say as she slurped more noodles that she'd plucked from the jar with chopsticks. "All that history is almost as impressive as these taste! But uh...did you say there was snake venom in this?"

Upon realizing the weight of that fact, Masuyo would stair at the noodles and think before eating more. On one hand the woman definitely said snake venom. That was scary. On the other, though, Elsa doubted Masuyo would endanger her, and she didn't want to seem disrespectful or even hesitant.

So she'd continue slurping the noodles regardless of what Masuyo said.

Elsa didn’t really have to lie for her. It was just common courtesy. Masuyo as much, but she really should have tried harder in making it less obvious.

She’d been staring at her wide-eyed for more than half of her rambling, as if she were an alien from another world on a diplomatic mission that had gotten lost on its way to the embassy and started asking her for directions.

The Swede was in the majority, however. The Ai family had always possessed an undue amount of passion to otherwise underappreciated aspects of the country’s culture. Masuyo was no exception. If she were a few years younger, she could have easily kept on going past the sunset and not even have gotten through the prep stages.

She was right to be worried about the habu snake venom, though. A species found only in the Ryukyu islands. No relatives. No equal. A one of kind snake for a one of a kind venom. Nasty stuff at that, too. But for Masuyo, it was only further proof that Elsa hadn’t understood any of it. Who on Earth would put venom in their broth? What was she, from Laos?

Still, there was some fun to be had with that.

“Pretty much. Yeah. Just an ounce or two, though.” She knocked her sticks against the side of lid, clearing some debris. “I wouldn’t worry about it either way. Isn’t this food to die for?” She said with most maniacal smile she could muster.

Elsa's eyes went wide as Masuyo said there was snake venom in the noodles with a scary grin. But after a few moments she relaxed figuring it had to be a joke, but then it hit her what if it wasn't and she tensed for a second. Then she continued tensing and un-tensing couple more times. One of Elsa's biggest flaws had just shown itself to her date, that being the fact that she was gullible to the core. It didn't often show in the ring, but in private she was easy to trick. In the end, though, Elsa decided that Masuyo had to be poking fun at her playfully.

"Heheh, don't tease me like that!" the swede would say with a playful shove with one hand. "I get it. That was a stupid question. I'll ask a better one instead...would you teach me how to cook noodles?" she would ask with the cutest smile.

Elsa figured it would be a really fun way to get to know Masuyo. Cooking was clearly a big deal for her, and the swede liked cooking nice meals from time to time.

"Oh but I'm not talking about any super secret family recipes, though! I really just wanna be able to help you out in the kitchen! If that's ok I mean." she'd say wanting to make sure Masuyo would even want her to help with cooking.

“Whaaaaaaat?”

Masuyo chuckled against the shove. Elsa may not have been the brightest bulb in the box, but that was almost part of her charm. That odd mix of dimwitted and cuteness that one rarely saw outside of a romantic comedy. There were so many things about this woman that almost didn’t seem real.

And now it was her turn to deliver a surprise. As swallowed down another mouthful of noodles, Masuyo quirked an eyebrow at the Swede’s suggestion. Though she was apprehensive at first, the air at least thinned when she realized she wasn’t after her family recipes. That definitely would have given this unexpected date a lot of context.

Still, it was an awfully generous offer, to say the least. Masuyo was just thinking not too long ago about how nice it would be to have a couple extra hands to do prep work before the place opened. While she wasn’t much of a teacher by any stretch of the imagination, it wouldn’t be hard to teach most of the basics.

But maybe she was just getting ahead of herself. Elsa couldn’t have really meant all of that, could she?

“Help me out?” Masuyo raised an eyebrow, giving the woman a good look over. She looked pretty honest, as always. “You...want to work in the restaurant?”

Elsa laughed as her date played innocent with a stretched out 'Whaaaaaaat'. It was pretty funny, and the swede was having a pretty nice time as the two laughed. But after asking her date if she'd teach her about cooking, it seemed Masuyo got confused. Elsa didn't mean that she wanted to work in the restaurant. The swede just meant she'd like to learn about cooking at home with Masuyo as a hobby.

Something they could bond over. However, Elsa didn't want to get another job. She had a full schedule of training and actual matches. It'd be difficult to add a second job to the mix, even if it was just part time instead of full time. The snowy angel actually wondered how Masuyo had the time, but that didn't matter right now. Elsa just had to explain her date what she meant.

"Oh well, I meant something more like home cooking. You know? Something fun we could do." the swede would say with a friendly smile. Elsa really liked the thought of cooking with Masuyo. Maybe she'd be able to make her some noodles then and surprise the dark haired beauty! Elsa was certain that Masuyo would appreciate that!