Do not tread on me [Luka | C]

It had been a pretty long shift, and honestly, Luka was looking forward to going home. He would have been too, if it weren't for one factor. Wiping his brow, the small teen adjusted his uniform slightly before making sure he had the ingredients out and ready. He wasn't sure what he would make yet, and they'd all come out of his wage, but that didn't matter, there was heroism to do. Sure, sometimes heroism was saving one hundred people from a burning building, and other times it was saving them from their own self-doubts. The Germanic teen may not have been a very good hero in the first sense, but he always tried his best in the second, and tonight was the chance to make another difference to one person.

He checked his phone before nodding to himself and stepping through the quiet restaurant, the lights dimmed and a clear 'closed' sign displayed at the front. Everyone else had gone home, and he was staying behind to lock up... after this. He figured this was the best way to keep his special guest comfortable, where even one of his coworkers could spook the poor boy. That certainly wouldn't do, not even a little. Walking back through the kitchen, Luka stepped out the side entrance, reminding himself to get some sort of lubricant for the hinges of the door as it squeaked open. The slime boy glanced around the alleway for a few moments, his long blue hair held in a high ponytail bobbing behind him until golden eyes finally caught sight of glowing red eyes and a massive threatening tail raised up agains the dark backdrop of the alley.

He was very glad he was expecting that, because otherwise his reaction would have been unfortunate to say the least. "Irasshaimase, Katou-kun, please come in," he said calmly, his 'customer service' smile in place. Without waiting for a response he walked slowly towards the large, threatening figure, his polished shoes tapping loudly along the alley, his pace measured and careful. Slowly, he'd reach out to take the other boy's hand, watching carefully to make sure he didn't spook him. Somehow he doubted anyone had done this for the Scorpion-quirked teen before, and based on the way Katou reacted to most things, well, it was better to give him plenty of time to process what was happening. Assuming he managed to take the much larger teen's hand, Luka would slowly lead Katou into the restaurant. 

"Would you like to sit in the main area? Or would you rather stay in the kitchen and watch me cook?" he asked once they were inside and the door was closed behind them. "I also brought you something to wear, it should be about the right size, you can get changed in the bathroom if you'd like" he said with a smile, gesturing to a pile of clothing that sat on a nearby bench. The clothes were simple, and cheap, but they were soft and comfortable. Not to mention they would probably offset Katou's appearance a bit to make him seem less intimidating, what with them basically being a comfortable t-shirt, tracksuit pants, and a soft hoody. "I wasn't quite sure where to put the holes in the tops and pants for your wings and tail, but I can do that quickly before you wear them if you just show me where to make the adjustments. I'm not great at sewing, but I can do that much I think~"

It was definitely going to be an uphill battle to get the other boy to accept all this, but Luka was determined to see it through. "Once you're changed you can decide what we eat, ok?"

The moment Katou took the clothes and ran off, Luka's smile fell, his expression becoming one of concern and barely restrained anger. The situation was far worse than he had imagined, and he'd imagined a pretty bad scenario. It was very clear that the large teen had been severely abused, mentally, emotionally, and possibly physically. For a moment the slime boy felt more than a little overwhelmed with emotion at the events that had brought Katou here, and the urge to hit something as hard as he could was difficult to ignore. In the end however, he simply walked his way to the bench and began preparing ingredients, taking his frustrations out on hapless meats and vegetables while the larger boy changed.

Humming softly to himself, Luka started up the stovetop as his hands moved almost absentmindedly, chopping and slicing and generally throwing together all the required materials so that it would be easy enough to cook it all as he needed, rather than rush through the preparation work. That was a rather nice change of pace from working in the kitchen normally truth be told, he could pace himself a lot more casually than when he had to make orders for multiple people simultaneously. In the middle of battering some chicken as Katou walked back in, Luka nodded his head towards a stool he'd placed in front of the central bench, so that the other teen could sit and watch as he cooked. The kitchen was sooned filled with the smells of frying meats and the sounds of bubbling pots as Luka worked to the best of his abilities to complete the meal. He may not have been an expert chef, but he was technically a professional one.

"So Katou-kun, are the clothes to your liking?" he asked as he began to serve the first part of the meal, dishing out the various parts onto a tray and finishing it all off with a cute bear-shaped chopstick rest. "There we are, for our first course we have Chicken Katsu with White Rice, Miso Soup, lettuce, tomato, and some pickled vegetables," he explained as he placed the tray before the large youth, flipping two bottles absently towards the plate with tendrils of slime as he poured Tonkatsu and Mayonnaise onto the katsu before smiling widely at the scorpion boy, "seems to me like you could use some comfort food. Please, eat, I'll have some when I'm done cooking~" 



While Katou began to eat, Luka went back to work. The next dish was a little more tricky, but he went about it with gusto, washing up dishes from the first course whenever there was a lull in the cooking of the second. He hummed quietly and casually to himself as he worked, deciding not to talk too much to Katou as the other boy ate, partially because he wanted Katou to focus on eating, and partially because he felt like it would make the winged-scorpion more uncomfortable to be under too much scrutiny. It was an unfortunate situation that Katou was in, and Luka wasn't too sure how else to help him. He'd already expressed his concerns to Tetsu-nee and the staff, he's gotten Katou some clothing and some actual food, both of which sould last the soon-to-be First Year until he moved into the dorms, there really wasn't much else he could do.

That didn't mean he didn't want to.

"Ne, Katou-kun, do you think you could coil your tail up close to your body? I was thinking maybe if we put a hole in a backpack that was big enough you could walk around without anyone really remarking on your quirk. Some facial markings and set of wings might be enough to avoid the worst attention," he suggested as he began to put the rest of the meal together, the various parts cooked to an adequate level and ready to be served. Regardless of whether Katou had finished the first part, Luka set a large steaming bowl down in front of the other teen, a rather wide grin on his face. He knew he could do at least this dish very, very well. 




"Dig in~" he declared as he grabbed his own share of the Chicken Katsu and sat down across from Katou, digging in with the gusto of the famished. Even if he hadn't been working quite hard all night, Luka generally ate quite a bit, so he was happy to have something to fill his belly before he went home. He would remain quiet for a time, to allow Katou to eat and hopefully become more comfortable. He didn't really know what else to do, this was all new territory for the Slime Boy.

It was gratifying to see someone enjoy his cooking in such a way. Sure, he could cook better than most and was technically a professional chef, but it wasn't like he was a particularly good one, just good enough that customers kept coming back. "We don't serve expired food here," he remarked as he began to eat his own food with the sort of gusto that one would not expect from such a small boy. He tried to ignore the tinges of concern as he noticed Katou tearing up, he could guess why, and it wasn't something he thought was a good idea to point out. Instead he remained quiet and ate, letting the other boy recover from the food. 

"It might be who you are, but it doesn't mean you can't keep it hidden for a bit to get some piece and quiet. I mean, you won't have to at U.A., but it might make trains and walking around a bit easier for you," was Luka's response to that issue, the blue haired boy shrugging slightly with that said, he stood and got some paper napkins for the larger boy to use as necessary, placing them beside Katou without any sign of concern for the scorpion-quirk's intimidating appearance.

Devouring his own ramen in short order, Luka let out a satisfied sigh as he patted his belly, leaning back slightly on his stool as Katou continued to eat. His contentment dried up however when the boy declared that not only was the meal perfect, that it was wasted on him. Frowing, Luka shook his head, "you probably enjoyed every bite of that more than anyone else I've ever seen eat my food. I'm really not that good a cook, and to see you love what I made that much means it wasn't wasted." While Katou continued to eat, Luka got up and began fiddling with something on the other side of the kitchen, hiding his displeased expression at the treatment the other boy must have experienced to be responding to the food in such a way.

"Are you ready for desert? Be careful, it's still cold" he said, customer service smile fixed firmly on his face as he turned back around, a small glass bowl in his hand as he walked over and placed it next to Katou. 

It was somewhat amusing watching Katou react to the ice cream mochi, although Luka's amusement turned sour as he realised the larger teen was legitimately distressed by his brain freeze. The slime cursed his stupidity, of course Katou wouldn't know what a brain freeze was, he doubted the scorpion-quirker had ever had something that cold in his life. "Press your tongue against the roof of your mouth, it'll warm your mouth quickly enough to end the pain sooner," he instructed as swiftly as he could, trying not to sound like he was giving orders or was angry. "That's called a brain freeze Katou-kun, if you eat something as cold as ice cream too quickly your brain gets tricked by the body's reaction to try and warm your mouth back up, it's nothing to worry about, just take it a bit slower, ok?" he tried to explain, so that Katou could understand what happened to him and why. Because it seemed that he had already reverted back to a much less confident demeanour from something as simple as that.

What a nightmare.

That brought up another potential issue that Luka hadn't considered... if Katou had been eating such bad food all his life, how was his digestive system going to handle eating properly for the first time? With a slight grimace, he realised he'd probably made another mistake, better to let Katou know now rather than simply be miserable and confused if his body decided it couldn't handle what he ate. "Ne.. Katou-kun, I just realised your body might not have been ready for food like that, it might need to be eased into eating real food. It could be ok, you might have a sturdy enough digestive system to be fine, but I thought I should warn you that you might experience some pain and discomfort from eating. If it happens, it's nothing permanent, or anything you did wrong, but I wanted you to know it might happen. I'm sorry if my thoughtlessness ends up causing you distress." From his stool he bowed relatively formally to the other boy, a sheepish expression on his face. He really, really hoped that it didn't do anything to Katou, but it would be far too irresponsible to ignore the possibility.

With that thought expressed, he turned his attention back to the original topic of discussion, a hand coming up to his chin in thought. "Support tends to focus on three sort of areas, I think. The obvious one is invention and creation of technology, a lot of support students make really crazy things," he thought about the Death Roombas, the robo-dog, and the various other things he came across. Yes, support students could definitely produce things that would have been science fiction only decades ago. "The next area is medical treatment, for people who are more interested in healing and maybe biological aspects of quirks. My sister is actually a doctor, though she didn't spend any time in the support course... anyway," it still felt raw to talk about Elise, so he decided to move on, "I don't know how accurate it is, but I think support students also can focus on disaster relief and rescue. I mean, heroics students would do that too, but I imagine that it's probably some part of support, surely..." he shrugged slightly and speared a slice of the ice cream mochi, popping it in his mouth and chewing slightly before swallowing. His ability to bite into ice cream caused a number of people in his life discomfort, but he doubted it'd bother Katou.

"I know you're moving in a little early, so maybe you could spend a little time thinking about what you wanna do. I mean, it's not like you have to decide or anything though, you have three years of U.A. before that becomes something for you to worry about, and obviously it's part of your schooling to be helped decide your path. As long as you try your best, you should be good." He was babbling a little, but he'd already blundered a few times, and he didn't want to make it worse. "Did you maybe have any questions you wanted to ask? I promise I'll answer as best I can without getting made, kay?" He rather hoped to draw Katou more out of his shell again, because the last thing he wanted was a retreat back to that uncertain and shy individual. It wasn't a positive thing for him.