New Customers Are A Pain

8

'Good morning.'

Akechi was bit surprised to have Saiki greet him first. It took him a few seconds to respond.

"Good morning!"

Saiki ordered and sat down, where Akechi was already sitting, his food arranged on the table next to a volume of Silent Cyborg.

"Hey, Kusuo-kun, would you be interested in a trade?"

'A trade?'

"I give you a bite of my cake, and you give me a bite of your coffee jelly. I believe it's a fair trade-off, but we don't have to if you don't want to. An eye for an eye, as they say. That phrase originated from the Mesopotamian Empire under Hammurabi. The phrase was later used it the old testament. I suppose one could argue my misuse of the phrase, because it was originally meant to be told to people who committed crimes, stating that justice would be served, or that they would face consequences..."

Akechi kept blabbering on about the phrase he had used without a second thought. Somehow, A casual remark became an entire lecture. Saiki took the time to think, and really, he couldn't argue with Akechi's logic.

An eye for an eye seemed entirely fair.

"...But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. It's from Exodus 21:24. I believe reading up in certain religions can grant you a sort of enlightenment, so as to view different philosophies and lifestyles from an outsiders perspective. Ah! Forgive me, I lost track for a second. I asked you a question and didn't even give you a chance to answer."

'I don't mind. It sounds fair.'

Saiki had barely finished answering, when Akechi had already picked up his fork and picked up a bite size piece of cake. He picked it up to his eye level, which was close to Saiki's mouth.

"Okay, I go-"

Before Akechi could say anything, Saiki leaned over and took the piece of cake in his mouth, licking the icing off the fork in the process.

Akechi turned a dark red as he looked at Saiki, his thoughts speeding faster and faster and cutting into each other. Saiki simply chewed the bite of cake, not yet realizing what he'd done.

'Did he just-'

'Why would he-'

'Does he w-'

'Maybe he-'

'It doesn't ma-'

Oops.

"I... suppose that's one way I could have given it to you. It was certainly unexpected, but that's okay. I didn't think you'd be so bold, eating it out of my hand like that. But now, Kusuo-kun, you owe me," he said, a smug smirk growing on his face.

Saiki wasn't sure what the look on his face was supposed to mean, but he didn't like it.

"Can I try your jelly now?"

Oh.

Yeah, that made sense.

Saiki grabbed his spoon and scooped up a piece of jelly.

'Hmm, wait that's a little too big. That's almost half the jelly.'

Saiki put a small portion of the jelly back, lifting the spoon when he stopped midair and returned it to the bowl.

'I'm being a bit unfair. I'll give him a bit more.'

Wait, he grabbed too much again.

Saiki continued to adjust the serving, putting it back and grabbing more and putting it back again, as Akechi watched in confusion without the faintest clue as to what was going on.

Finally, after completely mutilating his jelly, his sanity, and Akechi's patience, he raised the spoon and tried to hand it to Akechi, only for him to reject it.

"Silly Kusuo-kun, you misunderstood. Remember? I said you owed me. I believe that things should be fair and that our friendly exchange should stay even. You tipped the scales, and now it's your turn to return the favor. So if you will?" he said, opening his mouth and leaning toward Saiki's hand.

'Now who's being silly?'

"Come on Kusuo-kun, don't be shy."

Saiki rolled his eyes, ignoring the fact that they looked absolutely ridiculous, but relishing in the fact that Akechi looked more absurd than he did.

"Mmm! This is quite tasty, and I can say I understand why you order it every time. I can't say I like it better than my cake, though. But perhaps I'm biased toward strawberry cake, because my mother would bake it for me every year on my birthday, before I learned to bake," he said, a bit of whipped cream spilling out onto his lip.

'You have cream on your face.'

Akechi stuck out his tongue and attempted to lick it off, not even getting close.

"Did I get it?"

'No.'

Akechi wiped the cream off with his finger, popping it into his mouth.

"Mmm!"

'Just use a napkin.'

In the midst of their banter, Saiki and Akechi turned their heads in unison in response to a squeal they heard from behind them.

Akechi didn't see anything out of the ordinary, so he started going on about Silent Cyborg.

"I was rereading Silent Cyborg again, and I noticed something I didn't the first time. Shiragami Fudekichi commented on volume six, on the omake page, saying how he came up with the idea for chapter eighteen..."

But Akechi wasn't a mind reader; he didn't have powers like Saiki did. There were certain things that only an ESPer could hear, no matter how badly he wished he couldn't.

'Oh my gosh, they're feeding each other! So cute! I hope Miyake is seeing this!'

'Oh wow. I didn't expect that.'

'I'm so glad I got to see that!'

'That's really sweet.'

Miyake smiled to himself in amusement, and Suzuki giggled into her arm, nearly spilling the coffee she was serving.

Saiki's face heated up, and every time it did, he worried that he might have used pyrokenisis by mistake.

Saiki's face heated up, and every time it did, Akechi noticed and liked to torture him by pointing it out.

"Kusuo-kun? Are you sick? If you're sick, you don't have to come here. I wouldn't want you to visit the cafe if you're ill. It's always best to rest at home if you have a fever, to avoid overexerting yourself. Also, you might infect other people, so it's good to be mindful of everyone around you."

'I'm not sick.'

"Are you sure? Wait, did you see a bug? Does your face flush when you're frightened? I wouldn't know, because people have different responses to fear." Akechi asked, his expression showing genuine concern.

No matter how much he tried to resist it, Saiki couldn't help but smile.

And it was getting harder and harder to resist him.

'I'm okay. I mean it.'

Akechi smiled sweetly and went on eating his cake. Of course, the fact he was eating didn't stop him from talking, even if he could hardly speak in between bites.

It should've disgusted Saiki; the mess he was making of himself.

A few weeks ago, it might have.