A Dash of Chili Powder

21

[Matsuri is annoying. >< And that's okay. It happens.]

Amaya, reaching right back into her pouch, grabbed her little purse and flatly asked where the sweets were placed once Rage was done asking for the beef. He didn't really ask, more like wrote - in awful handwriting, she noted. Come to think of it though, the last time she actually wrote anything was back when she was six-years-old, half as old as she is now.

So her own handwriting is probably ten times worse than his.

The cheery man pointed in the same direction that he pointed in for the beef and smiled and unnecessary smile. "That way," he said. "Can I help you with anything else?"

Odd. Beef and cookies together at once? Hmm.

Amaya shook her head and almost skipped off towards the sweets aisle. Almost. Confections made her life complete and her world go round. But did she really have to skip around like an innocent child when she was absolutely not innocent herself? The thought made her brows furrow.

Hmph. 

She walked calmly down the linoleum pathways, eyeing a beautiful sign saying 'Sweets' on it and her heart flew. She continued on calmly, hoping no one would notice her adoration for confections and when she finally made it to the aisle, she almost collapsed from the sheer amount of all the beautiful sweets on the shelves.

There were so many. There were so many different flavors, each of them strange but beautiful in their own right.

There was apple-pear flavored (which she basically took all of) and cherry-banana and yuzu and muscat flavors and seaweed and plain apple flavored hard candies. There was chocolate chip and banana nut cookies, triple chocolate and peanut butter, ginger (she also took all of them) and tea, red bean and macadamia cookies. And the cakes... Row upon row of wonderfully decorated pastries. There was chocolate and yellow cakes with brown and white frosting, strawberries and sprinkles all over. There were ice cream cakes of unnatural flavors but still gorgeous and welcoming nonetheless.

So many to choose from with so little time.

She really wished she had a basket for all of these amazing confections. Too bad she didn't.

'Well, maybe I can use my empty satchel?" she thought, strings of the drawstring purse in her mouth and the ginger cookies and apple-pear candies in her arms. Perhaps she could, even though it would look very bad. She was no thief but she would definitely come across that way.

She sighed inwardly. A no win situation this was.

Looking around for more candy, she actually spotted an empty and neglected black basket. Skipping over, she dumped all that she had acquired in the basket and eagerly hopped all over to grab even more candy. Green apple, peach, black cherry, orange, grape, watermelon (<3), blue raspberry, yuzu, and muscat hard candies were all dumped into the basket.

Beautiful, gorgeous sweets~



Yuki was miserable. Her brother was-- And Kiba! She had completely forgotten Kiba too. She sniffled and covered her face in shame, tears lining her waterline. How could she forget him too? How? How could she forget her mate?

Her tears spilled over.

Kiba...was dead too. He had to be. The last she saw of him he was brutally beaten and hardly breathing, the same shape as Yasuo before he- She stopped herself there and allowed herself to cry. 

But she cried like a kicked dog, injured and sad. She had no mate now.

"Yuki," Kakashi cooed, resting his hand on her shoulder. He took note of her small flinch and sharp head-turn before he went on. "It's okay. He's fine."

It's like the stupid jounin KNEW she was thinking about Kiba. The fact only made her cry more, her heart aching. Was she so easy, so weak? Was he lying to her?

"I distinctly remember telling you to be quiet," Yuki huffed, her voice raspy and faltering.

Gracie

[Ami-chi is seriously my best friend right now. Rage is so confused! XD And tactless, tactless Vell-kun. -_-'' *slaps him upside his head*]

Rage had been scanning the meat section carefully - taking into account sales and his team's preferences in taste - when the sound of an avalanche made him jerk his head to look, wide eyed and tense.

Well. Avalanche, yes, but not of what Rage had expected.

Amaya was just coming back with another armful of candy, which she dropped onto the big mountain already accumulating in her cart. Her expression was of stern, blank resolve, as if she were collecting precious bandages to mend wounded heroes who would die without them. Looking at that mound of sweets didn't quite change his expression, but one could almost see a drop of sweat sliding from Rage's temple in shocked exasperation.

Setting down the package of stir-fry beef, he took up his pad and marker again and scritched a message. Then he tapped on the shelf to get her attention, holding up the page which read:

"iz tat awl u eet"

[Poor kid. Not even punctuation marks. =__='']

His peach eyes betrayed nothing but blankness, but he was definitely surprised at the array of candy taking up Amaya's cart. If Awaji saw that haul he'd probably go into a sugar coma from the smell alone.


Vell had stayed silent until Yuki's rasped snap. Now he narrowed an eye at her moodily. "Oi, he just said the mutt was alive. Shouldn't you be happier?"

"Vell," Kakashi said slowly, a warning tone.

The silver haired teen frowned. "What?" he asked indigently.