A Week in Italy (itapan)

6

Tuesday

The next day, I got dressed to spend the evening at the house of Feliciano. He texted me the address and it looked like it was a five minute walk from the hotel I was staying at. When I arrived at his apartment it looked like a very warm and cozy place. I knocked on the door softly and waited a little bit before he answered. "Hey! I'm glad you could make it!" He smiled. Feliciano opened the door wide for me to come in. I had some food stuff in my hands so I tried to squeeze through quietly.

I took off my shoes at the entrance and he looked at me in an interested way. "Here let me take these from you, you can put your coat right there" he spoke. I handed him the bags of food and started to take my sweater off. His house smelled really good, and looked really clean and neat. I walked over towards him and took a seat at his table. "It smells good in here, are you making anything?" I asked. He looked at me confused and shook his head. "No.... I guess it always just smells like this?"

I was shocked at the thought that his place always smelled so sweet and good. My face was red and I wanted to smell everything in his apartment... or was that weird? "So what are you making?" He asked. "Just some rice balls" I answered. He smiled at me sweetly as I began to take the things out of the grocery bag I had. "How do you make them?" He asked. I showed him the rice and slowly opened it "I will show you!" I answered.

"Do you have a rice cooker?" I asked. He shook his head "how about a lot and water?" I asked. He nodded and stood up to get a pot from inside one of the cabinets. Feliciano began to fill up the pot with water , placing it on the stove where he began to turn on the stove top. "What now?" He asked. "We just wait for the water to warm up and then we can put our rice in" I answered. His mouth made an o shape and he walked over to his sofa, taking a seat.

"Come back, you have to help me" I spoke. He looked to me with a soft confused face "what next?" He asked. He jumped up from his seat and started to come over towards me like an excited puppy. "What else!" He cheered. " we have to cut the nori sheets, and get them ready" I spoke. I placed my hand over the water to feel the steam and nodded. "Now we can put the rice in as well" I added. "I can do that!" He smiled brightly.

Feliciano grabbed the bag of rice and began to pour some in "wait!! It needs to be four cups" I began. I stopped him from pouring it in and quickly grabbed a measuring cup. "Here you go" I spoke. He nodded and began to focus on measuring the rice in the cups. When he finished doing that, he looked to me and gave me a thumbs up. "What now?" He asked.

I took out my timer and set it for 20 minutes "we wait for the timer to go off while we prep the Nori sheets" I spoke. Feliciano took a seat across from me and rested his cheek against the palm of his hand. He gave me a sweet smile and waited for me to sit down. I took a seat across from him and started to lay out the supplies. The sheets and the scissors as well as the small bowls. "I can't wait to try them" he smiled.

I nodded at what he said and looked him in the eyes. His eye color was really beautiful and vibrant. His eyes were a beautiful amber color and looked so warm and comforting. My eyes in the other hand were a void of darkness. I could stare at his eyes forever if I had the chance. I would never tell him that though.

"I'll cut one as reference and you can follow that" I explained. I began to cut the first one and I was so used to cutting them that it did not take long to finish the first piece. I handed him the reference sheet, and the bigger piece and he took it. While he worked on that one, I began to cut the other sheets. I looked down for a second and heard a sudden gasp. "Look kiku! I'm the seaweed monster! Rawrrrr!!!" Feli spoke. I looked over to him seeing that he put the strips on his head. "You are so gross" I began to laugh.

His eyes widened and his cheeks began to turn a shade of pink. "Watch out!! I'll eat you all up!" He began. He stood up slightly , getting closer to me and I began to laugh again. "The only thing you are eating are these rice balls" I laughed. He took the strips off of him and looked at me sweetly. I couldn't help but feel myself smile from that. I held myself a little and looked down.

We continued to cut some more strips and I stopped to look at him for a bit. "Kiku, when are you leaving again?" He asked. "On Friday..." I answered. He nodded at what I said and paused what he was doing. "That is really nice... I was going to ask if you would like to spend the night tonight? I have extra clothes if you would want to use those" he spoke. My eyes widened and I got nervous "I wouldn't want to intrude or anything-..." he cut me off and shook his head. "You could never intrude on me. I want you here.... so what do you say? Are you up for it?" He asked. I was silent for a moment as I tried to think about it. I'm sure it won't be so bad... "sure.. it could be fun" I answered. He smiled brightly and began to nod please "that makes me happy" he whispered.

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