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Who: Niou and Miyuki
When: ... 1st August?
Where: Niou's Office
What: Miyuki is on a MISSION. Niou hates her
Niou stretched at his desk, feeling his joints pop and he sighed. Slow shift, too much design work on his computer and sending things off to the 3D printers for the morning shift, and not enough doing things in the lab.
He was going to go back to hunching over his desk when he happened to spot someone walking past his open office door. And given the time of night and the very tall figure, he had a single guess who it was. “Oi, Chitose,” he called out and glanced at the clock. “It’s past half time, don’t forget to take your meal break.”
Miyuki poked her head into Niou’s office, summoned by her name. "Oh, is it time for that already? Okay!"
She vanished for a second, before showing right back up with a big old container of some kind of food and two bowls. "Here we go! Kippei-nii sent this pasta with me and told me to share since he won't be able to stop by personally tonight to make doe-eyes at you!"
Oh good, Miyuki was going to go take her break, was what Niou thought for all of 5 seconds as he turned away and then she was back along with unnecessary comments and food.
Niou blinked. “I’m only partway through my meal from earlier…” was his first reaction as he looked at the half-eaten container on his desk that he’d brought to the start of his shift. To then, “... What?”
"Kippei. Niisan. Sent. Food?" Miyuki replied, unsure what part of that Niou was having trouble understanding. "Because he likes to make sure people eat?"
Geez Niou, you ought to know this about the man already.
“Yes I know that,” Niou said with a sigh. “He’s actually going to make me fat.” What with his ‘one meal a day is nutritionally enough’ but then somehow managing to sneak in second meals and treats every other day on top of that.
He sighed again and waved Miyuki over. “Just sit down and give me the damn food.”
Miyuki happily sat her butt down, scooping up a big bowl of food for herself and handing the rest over to Niou. She'd known he wouldn't be able to turn down a meal from Kippei-nii. It was too good.
Not to mention he had that weird relationship thing going on with the man.
"So how's your day been going? Getting your whole workload finished?" Miyuki asked, perky and ready to make small talk.
Niou cleared off some space on his desk first, shifting things so he could put the bowl down. And he hated that yes, the food did look very good and yes he was going to eat at least some of it now, and then go berate Tachibana later for sneaking food in with his coworker.
“It’s been OK. I’m nearly done with my work tonight. I’ll probably get started on tomorrow’s stuff and save Sanada a bit of work.” Niou pushed the food around the bowl and right, he should try and be nice to Miyuki. “Are you going well? … Welding cleanly? Sleeping OK with the night shift?”
Miyuki was amused with Niou’s clumsy attempts at small talk. "For someone who likes questioning people you're surprisingly bad at talking sometimes. Relax, bro, I'm not gonna bite! I like you!"
She shoveled more food into her mouth like the hungry, tall gremlin she was, chewing and swallowing before continuing. "But to answer your questions, I'm sleeping okay... not much difference between night and day here anyways."
“Questioning for the sake of getting information out is very different,” Niou said, looking unimpressed. And then it was just whatever questions happened to pop into his mind. “This is small talk.”
Niou ate a rather pleased mouthful and… maybe Miyuki stored food in her legs or something? An interesting thought. “You could technically move to the day shift if you really wanted. More people to pester. No rude accusations to throw around about people and doe eyes.”
"I said he makes doe eyes at you... you'd have to be blind not to notice." Miyuki pointed out cheerily. "I didn't say anything about you, because you seem uncomfortable with the whole thing."
Though now that Niou himself had brought it up it was all fair game. Thanks, Niou. Miyuki's nosy streak appreciated you.
"So what's the deal? Just new to relationships or something? Or do you dislike Kippei-nii?"
Part of him was so tempted to just deny it, but then… it was also so easy to slip into another personality. “Do you think he thinks I dislike him?” Niou asked, suddenly a bit anxious. “I got told that I maybe send mixed signals, but I don’t know.”
He paused and looked down at the food and then back up to Miyuki. “Do I really come across as uncomfortable?”
Miyuki squinted at her weird, weird coworker. Kippei swore he didn't have multiple personalities, but this was ridiculous.
Niou was just a massive troll, then. Whatever.
"If you're not uncomfortable just do something wild next time you see Kippei. Sweep him off his feet. He obviously wants it, but he's also stupidly noble and doesn't want to risk your friendship. So it's up to you."
Niou just smiled back at her suspicious squinting and propped his chin on his elbow and broke the personality. And then went back to poking at the food.
“I don’t actually think I’m capable of physically sweeping him off his feet,” Niou said blandly. “He’s too heavy, my arms would snap.”
Miyuki laughed at the mental image of scrawny Niou trying to sweep brawny Kippei off his feet in the literal sense. Yeah, that wouldn't work.
"Kippei-nii would go all broody and self-deprecating if you broke your arms, too. Might run off and avoid you for a decade. Definitely better to avoid the hassle." Miyuki agreed somberly. "So maybe like, kiss him or something. A metaphorical sweeping off his feet."
“Ooof, even avoiding me after we leave Izanagi, that’s truly a great amount of shame,” Niou said with a mock grimace. “I think it’d definitely be the end of the friendship at that point, I’m pretty hard to track down once I disappear.”
How many relationships had Miyuki had in the past, Niou wondered. He should ask her brother at some point. “You seem very, very confident that that’s what Tachibana would want,” Niou said, sitting back in his chair to look at Miyuki. “I need… 3 reasons why you think that.”
Miyuki stared at Niou like he was stupid for a moment. Because he was. An utter moron. "Well, one, you kiss people you like. And Kippei likes you. Two. You kiss people you think are hot, and for some reason he thinks you're hot. And Three..."
Miyuki looked at Niou squinting.
"You kiss people who want kissed. So providing you want Kippei to kiss you I'm sure he wants to kiss you." Miyuki cocked her head to the side. "He totally wants to bone you too. Maybe you two should have sex. You know how sex works, right?"
She'd had four relationships, by the way. A guy from her class and a cute upperclassman girl, and then this couple she'd been dating right up until she left for Yomi. She was practically a relationship expert.
Oh my god, Miyuki was so blunt and what the fuck. Niou stared at her through the explanation and nearly dropped his fork at her straight forward assessment of Tachibana.
"That's not what I meant," he said, feeling alarmed. "How do you know he likes me? I've had multiple people say this to me now. What measurable actions does he do that indicate that?" And then what, he was harder to read with things?
He looked a bit grumpy and ate a little bit more, to cover his embarrassment. "And yes, I know how sex works, thank you very much."
Miyuki still looked like she thought Niou was a moron, but she softened a little because oh, Niou wanted to be sure Kippei liked him.
"Bro, the way Kippei-nii looks at you says it all. That's the expression of someone who's smitten." She pointed out. "And it's the same when he talks about you. You know... I wasn't sure we'd get along at first. It was Kippei-nii who told me you were a good guy. He's absolutely taken with you."
“Isn’t that just his default expression?” Niou said, confused. Because okay, he hadn’t really paid that much attention to the first time they’d met, he’d been more interested in punching Tachibana in the face and then going back to work, and then the second time he’d been very mentally strained. So, from post-expedition onwards and now that he thought that he got pulled up short.
“... Oh my god maybe he did actually want to jump me in the shower.” The fork actually got dropped that time and he stared past Miyuki’s ear in horror.
Miyuki blinked. In the shower? What did that even mean? They took a shower together? "I mean, probably. Kippei is a manly guy. Lots of testosterone and stuff. I can't imagine him not wanting sex with the person he likes."
That didn't mean you had to HAVE sex though. Chill, Niou.
“We’d met in person for like five minutes before that! And most of that was me punching him in the face and threatening him, oh my god.” And oh no, maybe he shouldn’t have mentioned that in front of Chitose Miyuki, who was Tachibana’s friend. Niou backtracked quickly.
“And just for the record, he was fine with it. He said it was good for him and got him out of moping about your brother.”
Miyuki gaped. "You punched him? Well no wonder he's so smitten with you then. That's like the cupid's arrow when it comes to Kippei."
Though he could get over it. He wasn't an item with Senri, after all. But she expected that had more to do with Kippei's decade of separation than anything.
"Well, anyway, now I can see it's entirely your own fault that Kippei has feelings for you. So now you really have to get your shit together and do something about it." Miyuki instructed smoothly. "So do you like Kippei or not?"
Niou stared at Miyuki in growing alarm at what she was saying. “I’ve punched him like four times now,” he admitted, feeling actually horrified with himself as he said it. Not counting the like… little hits and now he was just judging himself.
His expression closed off at the very blunt question and Niou pushed away his bowl of food, any appetite suddenly gone. “I don’t know,” he said reluctantly, looking unimpressed with… both himself, and with Miyuki for even asking. “And even if I did know, I wouldn’t be sharing it with my coworker.”
"I mean true, I don’t really care, other than wanting Kippei to be happy." Miyuki confessed, utterly unbothered by Niou closing his expression off like that. She was a blunt person. If that meant her coworker didn't like her then so be it. "You should try to figure it out for yourself though. I think you'll feel a lot better when you do."
She paused.
"And don’t be like Kippei and think everything will fall apart if it doesn't work out. I'm still friends with all my exes."
Niou leaned back in his chair and looked at Miyuki with a bit of a frown, sorting through what she was saying in his mind. “So what you’re saying is that you disagree with Tachibana,” he said carefully, watching her expression as he spoke. “Because he seemed to think that we needed to figure things out before moving beyond being good friends.”
Unless he was now mis-remembering that conversation, because a lot had happened that time. “Hypothetically, if we’ve kissed and slept together and he’s done all his food things… and I’ve punched him multiple times… it’s not too far to go back to being friends if it ended up not working?”
"If you were really friends in the first place it won't be too far to go back to being friends." Miyuki replied with the utter certainty only a teenager could muster up. "Like I said, I'm still friends with all my exes. Kippei-nii is just a worry wart."
Listen to her Niou, she knew what she was talking about.
Niou nodded thoughtfully to himself. Obviously he wasn’t going to take Miyuki straight at her word, but it was a good starting point to start heckling the people he did actually trust the opinions of. “I’ll think about it. We’re stuck together for 5 years here anyway, there’s plenty of time.”
He considered things to find something else to talk about that wasn’t his thing with Tachibana. “What about you, huh? It’ll be hard with both your brother and Tachibana here. Your brother’s already poked me a bit.”
Miyuki visibly deflated a bit, and she shook her head in exasperation. "Tell me about it. It's like I have a whole army of overprotective big brothers... promise me you won't become like them, Niou-san!!!"
It would be nice to just have friends.
Just the thought of going to bother someone because Miyuki showed some interest in them made Niou laugh. He shook his head and bit back his laughter. “I’m not really the sort to do that,” he said. “I just enjoy getting useless information about people. Maybe I’ll tell you everything I know about whoever catches your eye.”
Miyuki perked up at the idea, pleased to have someone around who might just help her gossip about people. "You're the best, Niou-san!!!"
Just for that Niou was never getting the "nii" suffix added to his name. No, Niou was an equal.
Oh, his ego was just inflating with the compliment. “You can drop the “-san”, you know,” he said with a shrug. “I’m not really a big fan. Besides, you’re basically like Tachibana’s little sister, right?”
Miyuki nodded her head. "Kippei used to babysit me when I was little. I'm as much his sister as An-chan!" Except for the different parents thing, but that was a minor detail.
She cocked her head at Niou. "So what should I call you? Just Niou? You can call me Mi-chan then."
Oh that was right, Tachibana had a younger sister and had a dog at some point… and Tachibana’s sister didn’t look like him, according to Byodoin. Niou nodded as he remembered that information.
“Just Niou is fine.” He looked flatly at Miyuki’s suggestion though. “You’re stuck being ‘Chitose’, sorry. Maybe ‘Little Chitose’,” so I can differentiate you from your brother.”
Miyuki shrugged, going with the flow. It's not like Niou was anything other than stubborn. Easier to just go along with whatever he decided to call her. "Sen-nii's one of the only people I'm little next to, so feel free."
She finished up her bowl and pushed it away from her. "What about you... do you have siblings, Niou? You don't seem like an only child. Your vibe is wrong."
“Nothing wrong with being tall,” Niou said idly. Although, Miyuki was definitely… very tall. “It makes you useful for getting things for me without me needing to get a ladder.”
He eyed the rest of his bowl of pasta and… he’d cover it up and save it for later. He did still have the rest of the shift to go. “I’m a middle child. Older sister, younger brother. Does that fit the ‘vibe’ a bit better?”
"Middle child? That checks. You have the personalized." Miyuki replied with a nod, looking at the clock and looking surprised. "Oh, break's almost done! I should be getting back to work, but let's eat together again sometime, Niou!"
The sudden change in topic surprised him and Niou glanced at the clock as well. Oh, that went surprisingly fast. He was probably going to slouch around on break for a bit longer though. "Sure. Don't burn yourself. Keep welding cleanly, all that."
Miyuki nodded. "I'm honestly almost done with my workload for tonight, so if you need my help with anything just holler!"
And with that she was back in work mode and off to lay some fine as fuck welds as if she hadn't just been making Niou uncomfortable.
“I’ll be sure to add more things to your to-do list if you’re nearly done,” Niou said, waving Miyuki away. And then looked down at the extra meal he’d somehow had tricked on him and… he’d have to figure out what to do with it now.
When: ... 1st August?
Where: Niou's Office
What: Miyuki is on a MISSION. Niou hates her
Niou stretched at his desk, feeling his joints pop and he sighed. Slow shift, too much design work on his computer and sending things off to the 3D printers for the morning shift, and not enough doing things in the lab.
He was going to go back to hunching over his desk when he happened to spot someone walking past his open office door. And given the time of night and the very tall figure, he had a single guess who it was. “Oi, Chitose,” he called out and glanced at the clock. “It’s past half time, don’t forget to take your meal break.”
Miyuki poked her head into Niou’s office, summoned by her name. "Oh, is it time for that already? Okay!"
She vanished for a second, before showing right back up with a big old container of some kind of food and two bowls. "Here we go! Kippei-nii sent this pasta with me and told me to share since he won't be able to stop by personally tonight to make doe-eyes at you!"
Oh good, Miyuki was going to go take her break, was what Niou thought for all of 5 seconds as he turned away and then she was back along with unnecessary comments and food.
Niou blinked. “I’m only partway through my meal from earlier…” was his first reaction as he looked at the half-eaten container on his desk that he’d brought to the start of his shift. To then, “... What?”
"Kippei. Niisan. Sent. Food?" Miyuki replied, unsure what part of that Niou was having trouble understanding. "Because he likes to make sure people eat?"
Geez Niou, you ought to know this about the man already.
“Yes I know that,” Niou said with a sigh. “He’s actually going to make me fat.” What with his ‘one meal a day is nutritionally enough’ but then somehow managing to sneak in second meals and treats every other day on top of that.
He sighed again and waved Miyuki over. “Just sit down and give me the damn food.”
Miyuki happily sat her butt down, scooping up a big bowl of food for herself and handing the rest over to Niou. She'd known he wouldn't be able to turn down a meal from Kippei-nii. It was too good.
Not to mention he had that weird relationship thing going on with the man.
"So how's your day been going? Getting your whole workload finished?" Miyuki asked, perky and ready to make small talk.
Niou cleared off some space on his desk first, shifting things so he could put the bowl down. And he hated that yes, the food did look very good and yes he was going to eat at least some of it now, and then go berate Tachibana later for sneaking food in with his coworker.
“It’s been OK. I’m nearly done with my work tonight. I’ll probably get started on tomorrow’s stuff and save Sanada a bit of work.” Niou pushed the food around the bowl and right, he should try and be nice to Miyuki. “Are you going well? … Welding cleanly? Sleeping OK with the night shift?”
Miyuki was amused with Niou’s clumsy attempts at small talk. "For someone who likes questioning people you're surprisingly bad at talking sometimes. Relax, bro, I'm not gonna bite! I like you!"
She shoveled more food into her mouth like the hungry, tall gremlin she was, chewing and swallowing before continuing. "But to answer your questions, I'm sleeping okay... not much difference between night and day here anyways."
“Questioning for the sake of getting information out is very different,” Niou said, looking unimpressed. And then it was just whatever questions happened to pop into his mind. “This is small talk.”
Niou ate a rather pleased mouthful and… maybe Miyuki stored food in her legs or something? An interesting thought. “You could technically move to the day shift if you really wanted. More people to pester. No rude accusations to throw around about people and doe eyes.”
"I said he makes doe eyes at you... you'd have to be blind not to notice." Miyuki pointed out cheerily. "I didn't say anything about you, because you seem uncomfortable with the whole thing."
Though now that Niou himself had brought it up it was all fair game. Thanks, Niou. Miyuki's nosy streak appreciated you.
"So what's the deal? Just new to relationships or something? Or do you dislike Kippei-nii?"
Part of him was so tempted to just deny it, but then… it was also so easy to slip into another personality. “Do you think he thinks I dislike him?” Niou asked, suddenly a bit anxious. “I got told that I maybe send mixed signals, but I don’t know.”
He paused and looked down at the food and then back up to Miyuki. “Do I really come across as uncomfortable?”
Miyuki squinted at her weird, weird coworker. Kippei swore he didn't have multiple personalities, but this was ridiculous.
Niou was just a massive troll, then. Whatever.
"If you're not uncomfortable just do something wild next time you see Kippei. Sweep him off his feet. He obviously wants it, but he's also stupidly noble and doesn't want to risk your friendship. So it's up to you."
Niou just smiled back at her suspicious squinting and propped his chin on his elbow and broke the personality. And then went back to poking at the food.
“I don’t actually think I’m capable of physically sweeping him off his feet,” Niou said blandly. “He’s too heavy, my arms would snap.”
Miyuki laughed at the mental image of scrawny Niou trying to sweep brawny Kippei off his feet in the literal sense. Yeah, that wouldn't work.
"Kippei-nii would go all broody and self-deprecating if you broke your arms, too. Might run off and avoid you for a decade. Definitely better to avoid the hassle." Miyuki agreed somberly. "So maybe like, kiss him or something. A metaphorical sweeping off his feet."
“Ooof, even avoiding me after we leave Izanagi, that’s truly a great amount of shame,” Niou said with a mock grimace. “I think it’d definitely be the end of the friendship at that point, I’m pretty hard to track down once I disappear.”
How many relationships had Miyuki had in the past, Niou wondered. He should ask her brother at some point. “You seem very, very confident that that’s what Tachibana would want,” Niou said, sitting back in his chair to look at Miyuki. “I need… 3 reasons why you think that.”
Miyuki stared at Niou like he was stupid for a moment. Because he was. An utter moron. "Well, one, you kiss people you like. And Kippei likes you. Two. You kiss people you think are hot, and for some reason he thinks you're hot. And Three..."
Miyuki looked at Niou squinting.
"You kiss people who want kissed. So providing you want Kippei to kiss you I'm sure he wants to kiss you." Miyuki cocked her head to the side. "He totally wants to bone you too. Maybe you two should have sex. You know how sex works, right?"
She'd had four relationships, by the way. A guy from her class and a cute upperclassman girl, and then this couple she'd been dating right up until she left for Yomi. She was practically a relationship expert.
Oh my god, Miyuki was so blunt and what the fuck. Niou stared at her through the explanation and nearly dropped his fork at her straight forward assessment of Tachibana.
"That's not what I meant," he said, feeling alarmed. "How do you know he likes me? I've had multiple people say this to me now. What measurable actions does he do that indicate that?" And then what, he was harder to read with things?
He looked a bit grumpy and ate a little bit more, to cover his embarrassment. "And yes, I know how sex works, thank you very much."
Miyuki still looked like she thought Niou was a moron, but she softened a little because oh, Niou wanted to be sure Kippei liked him.
"Bro, the way Kippei-nii looks at you says it all. That's the expression of someone who's smitten." She pointed out. "And it's the same when he talks about you. You know... I wasn't sure we'd get along at first. It was Kippei-nii who told me you were a good guy. He's absolutely taken with you."
“Isn’t that just his default expression?” Niou said, confused. Because okay, he hadn’t really paid that much attention to the first time they’d met, he’d been more interested in punching Tachibana in the face and then going back to work, and then the second time he’d been very mentally strained. So, from post-expedition onwards and now that he thought that he got pulled up short.
“... Oh my god maybe he did actually want to jump me in the shower.” The fork actually got dropped that time and he stared past Miyuki’s ear in horror.
Miyuki blinked. In the shower? What did that even mean? They took a shower together? "I mean, probably. Kippei is a manly guy. Lots of testosterone and stuff. I can't imagine him not wanting sex with the person he likes."
That didn't mean you had to HAVE sex though. Chill, Niou.
“We’d met in person for like five minutes before that! And most of that was me punching him in the face and threatening him, oh my god.” And oh no, maybe he shouldn’t have mentioned that in front of Chitose Miyuki, who was Tachibana’s friend. Niou backtracked quickly.
“And just for the record, he was fine with it. He said it was good for him and got him out of moping about your brother.”
Miyuki gaped. "You punched him? Well no wonder he's so smitten with you then. That's like the cupid's arrow when it comes to Kippei."
Though he could get over it. He wasn't an item with Senri, after all. But she expected that had more to do with Kippei's decade of separation than anything.
"Well, anyway, now I can see it's entirely your own fault that Kippei has feelings for you. So now you really have to get your shit together and do something about it." Miyuki instructed smoothly. "So do you like Kippei or not?"
Niou stared at Miyuki in growing alarm at what she was saying. “I’ve punched him like four times now,” he admitted, feeling actually horrified with himself as he said it. Not counting the like… little hits and now he was just judging himself.
His expression closed off at the very blunt question and Niou pushed away his bowl of food, any appetite suddenly gone. “I don’t know,” he said reluctantly, looking unimpressed with… both himself, and with Miyuki for even asking. “And even if I did know, I wouldn’t be sharing it with my coworker.”
"I mean true, I don’t really care, other than wanting Kippei to be happy." Miyuki confessed, utterly unbothered by Niou closing his expression off like that. She was a blunt person. If that meant her coworker didn't like her then so be it. "You should try to figure it out for yourself though. I think you'll feel a lot better when you do."
She paused.
"And don’t be like Kippei and think everything will fall apart if it doesn't work out. I'm still friends with all my exes."
Niou leaned back in his chair and looked at Miyuki with a bit of a frown, sorting through what she was saying in his mind. “So what you’re saying is that you disagree with Tachibana,” he said carefully, watching her expression as he spoke. “Because he seemed to think that we needed to figure things out before moving beyond being good friends.”
Unless he was now mis-remembering that conversation, because a lot had happened that time. “Hypothetically, if we’ve kissed and slept together and he’s done all his food things… and I’ve punched him multiple times… it’s not too far to go back to being friends if it ended up not working?”
"If you were really friends in the first place it won't be too far to go back to being friends." Miyuki replied with the utter certainty only a teenager could muster up. "Like I said, I'm still friends with all my exes. Kippei-nii is just a worry wart."
Listen to her Niou, she knew what she was talking about.
Niou nodded thoughtfully to himself. Obviously he wasn’t going to take Miyuki straight at her word, but it was a good starting point to start heckling the people he did actually trust the opinions of. “I’ll think about it. We’re stuck together for 5 years here anyway, there’s plenty of time.”
He considered things to find something else to talk about that wasn’t his thing with Tachibana. “What about you, huh? It’ll be hard with both your brother and Tachibana here. Your brother’s already poked me a bit.”
Miyuki visibly deflated a bit, and she shook her head in exasperation. "Tell me about it. It's like I have a whole army of overprotective big brothers... promise me you won't become like them, Niou-san!!!"
It would be nice to just have friends.
Just the thought of going to bother someone because Miyuki showed some interest in them made Niou laugh. He shook his head and bit back his laughter. “I’m not really the sort to do that,” he said. “I just enjoy getting useless information about people. Maybe I’ll tell you everything I know about whoever catches your eye.”
Miyuki perked up at the idea, pleased to have someone around who might just help her gossip about people. "You're the best, Niou-san!!!"
Just for that Niou was never getting the "nii" suffix added to his name. No, Niou was an equal.
Oh, his ego was just inflating with the compliment. “You can drop the “-san”, you know,” he said with a shrug. “I’m not really a big fan. Besides, you’re basically like Tachibana’s little sister, right?”
Miyuki nodded her head. "Kippei used to babysit me when I was little. I'm as much his sister as An-chan!" Except for the different parents thing, but that was a minor detail.
She cocked her head at Niou. "So what should I call you? Just Niou? You can call me Mi-chan then."
Oh that was right, Tachibana had a younger sister and had a dog at some point… and Tachibana’s sister didn’t look like him, according to Byodoin. Niou nodded as he remembered that information.
“Just Niou is fine.” He looked flatly at Miyuki’s suggestion though. “You’re stuck being ‘Chitose’, sorry. Maybe ‘Little Chitose’,” so I can differentiate you from your brother.”
Miyuki shrugged, going with the flow. It's not like Niou was anything other than stubborn. Easier to just go along with whatever he decided to call her. "Sen-nii's one of the only people I'm little next to, so feel free."
She finished up her bowl and pushed it away from her. "What about you... do you have siblings, Niou? You don't seem like an only child. Your vibe is wrong."
“Nothing wrong with being tall,” Niou said idly. Although, Miyuki was definitely… very tall. “It makes you useful for getting things for me without me needing to get a ladder.”
He eyed the rest of his bowl of pasta and… he’d cover it up and save it for later. He did still have the rest of the shift to go. “I’m a middle child. Older sister, younger brother. Does that fit the ‘vibe’ a bit better?”
"Middle child? That checks. You have the personalized." Miyuki replied with a nod, looking at the clock and looking surprised. "Oh, break's almost done! I should be getting back to work, but let's eat together again sometime, Niou!"
The sudden change in topic surprised him and Niou glanced at the clock as well. Oh, that went surprisingly fast. He was probably going to slouch around on break for a bit longer though. "Sure. Don't burn yourself. Keep welding cleanly, all that."
Miyuki nodded. "I'm honestly almost done with my workload for tonight, so if you need my help with anything just holler!"
And with that she was back in work mode and off to lay some fine as fuck welds as if she hadn't just been making Niou uncomfortable.
“I’ll be sure to add more things to your to-do list if you’re nearly done,” Niou said, waving Miyuki away. And then looked down at the extra meal he’d somehow had tricked on him and… he’d have to figure out what to do with it now.
