Chapter Text
Another day, another round of grumpy boredom for Husk. Wandering down the halls for once instead of drinking and sleeping the day away at the hotel's bar, the cat demon looked at a paper that he had found next to himself earlier in the morning.
"This year, you have to make a choice between two life paths. Second chances comes your way. Extraordinary events culminate in what might seem to be an anticlimax. Your lucky numbers are 84, 23, 11, 78, and 99," he read off, before sighing and throwing the sheet to the side. "What a load of shit."
Now, normally, when he threw something carelessly like that, he'd see Niffty pass by and scold him before dashing away with the offending object - so it was a bit concerning when such a thing didn't happen. "The fuck..."
Continuing his walkabout, he eventually passed by the kitchen - where he spotted the cyclops peeking into that room from behind the door. "Uh... Niffty? You alright?"
The only response he got from the tiny demon was her turning her head to shush him before going right back to watching whatever it was that was happening in the kitchen.
Considering how giddy she was... it must be something good.
---
In the past few weeks, Ryuji had really made the kitchen more or less his secondary room. The majority of his time was occupied by cooking and preparing food for the others - sometimes he even took special requests for specific dishes. It wasn't always perfect, considering his speciality is takoyaki, but he did put forth a lot of effort regardless. Shit, he still remembers the time that spider wanted spaghetti and Ryuji just ended up putting a bunch of ramen noodles on some shitty little meatballs.
Angel Dust got real miffed at that. What was it that he said? Something like 'if ya weren't so hot, I'd kick ya in the dick for this' - guy really takes his meals seriously, apparently.
Placing his knife down and looking up from the dish he just made, the golden dragon rang the little bell on the kitchen counter to announce that dinner was ready and that everyone should go and gather in the adjacent dining room.
As he walked away to go wash his hands, he didn't catch a glimpse of Niffty's head peeking at him from behind the kitchen door.
---
Putting the plates full of food down on the table before the assembled Hotel family, Ryuji let a very slight smile creep onto his face. "[Here ya go, everyone. Happy eatin'!]"
Despite some poking at the food with disinterest, like Silverhand and Angel for instance, most of the gathered crew were more than happy to eat what the dragon had made for them. In fact, a certain someone was a bit too happy to eat, considering how she was already bouncing up and down next to Ryuji, holding her empty plate.
"[Ryuji-han, can I have some more please? It was really good, it's a lot better than the things we used to eat before you came around! Other than Alastor's jambalaya, of course,]" Niffty said breathlessly, as everyone but Husk and Ryuji just stared, clueless at what had just been said.
The golden dragon smiled down towards the much smaller cyclops. "[C'mon now, I'm sure the food wasn't that bad. But sure, ya can have some more.]" Helping Niffty fill her plate, Ryuji let his smile grow just a bit. "[By the way, yer Japanese is really good. Ya sure it ain't yer native language, Niffty-chan?]"
Blushing and chuckling, Niffty shook her head. "[No, I've just spent a lot of time learning how to speak the language! After all, I've been down here for a long time so why not, right?]"
As the gathered demons slowly started to leave, Niffty tried to say something to Ryuji, but stopped herself and zoomed away. Seeing that, Angel Dust turned to look at Husk, whom he was following out of the dining room, and smirked. "Man, she totally has the hots for him," he whispered loud enough for others to hear - and someone did hear.
"Girl's crushing hard," came the voice of one Johnny Silverhand, joining Angel in bugging Husk. "No fuckin' way she's gonna tell him upfront, though."
"Why do I always have to deal with you two fuckers," Husk groaned out.
Meanwhile, zooming down the halls, Niffty had so many thoughts running through her head that she barely knew what to do with them. Every time she talked to Ryuji, this always happened - he was just... so great! She had to admit, the very first time she saw him up close, she was a bit intimidated, but she quickly found out how much of a sweetheart he is.
And she really just wishes she could bring herself to confess how she feels about him.
I really wanna stop, but I just got the taste for it
I feel like I could fly with the boy on the moon
So honey, hold my hand, you like making me wait for it
I feel like I could die walking up to the room, oh yeah
Sometimes, she passes by his room, thinks about going inside, gets an inch away from the door and then turns away. She can't keep doing this, can't she? One of these days, she's gonna have to talk to him and admit that she has a crush.
And maybe, just maybe, she hasn't been imagining the current passing between them in the glances they've shared.
Late night watchin' television
But how'd we get in this position?
It's way too soon, I know this isn't love
But I need to tell you something...
Dashing into her room and locking the door behind her, she snatched her computer and opened her Voxcrosoft Word application - pirated copy, of course - to try and write something to externalise her feelings.
After a while, she got a rush of inspiration. Turns out that learning about Japanese culture is gonna come in handy...
Fanfic time.