Awkward Breakfast

Rem was left sitting up in her Sensei's brother's bed with the lipstick of his girlfriend still staining Rem's pale lips a vivid rose pink.

Ruki Sensei's strange rules were all starting to make sense to Rem now.

Rules of the House:

First Rule: Keep all your clothes and accessories in the corner of the closet, except for Sally of course. Rem had done so, even though the closet was already overflowing with junk and it took a long hard while for Rem to re-find the black trash bag that was the container of Rem's possessions.

Don't wear skirts, dresses, or capri pants. Wear only T-shirts that are no smaller then large or extra large. In fact, Ruki had given Rem his younger brother's clothes to wear, there were plenty to choose from in the red toolbox tower which acted as a chest drawer, and was beautifully glossed.

Rem had figured Ruki was a modest traditional man who didn't want to seem like a pervert. Even if some of the rules were inconvenient.

Judging by the clothing in the beautifully glossed tool box/chest drawer, the brother seemed to be a street punk, with half the clothes worn down by recklessness and age, and others brand-new and yet suffering almost equal damage. If someone with this kind of clothes got into college, maybe there's a chance for me after all, Rem thought. But then again, all the clothes seemed to have been abandoned, the brother probably bought a whole new wardrobe before he left for his new and better college life.

Rem's frantic mind wondered back to the present and she turned her face to the long piece of mirror leaning against the wall with the top decreasing into a sharp point.

Rem's hair was short enough in the back to make decent spikes, and now lacking hair products it stuck up in thick random heaps with the longer strands in the front bordering around and in Rem's face carelessly. Behind some longer bangs her plain black eyes were round as California oranges, with the tips of her bangs nearly reaching the stained lips that remained in a tight line almost pouting outward. Suddenly her still stunned frozen eyes creased into a light irked frown.

"How could that crazy old lady mistake me for a guy?!" she muttered to her glaring reflection. The question echoed in her mind and automatically she began to piece together a logical answer. As her mind trailed it left her eyes staring at her reflection long and hard enough to notice very distinct features, her boney body was concealing utterly by the huge warn out navy blue T-shirt, giving her absolutely no figure. Her longest locks of hair barely reached her mandible and around her eyes a natural shade of dark purple circled, and only her lower eyelashes could be made out through the darkness.

A blink snapped Rem out of her self-evaluation, and she glared down at herself and pulled the thick black covers off lower body. The damn large T-shirt was like a skirt on her, and she wore cotton plaid-blue PJ pants beneath it which sagged at the ends when she walked.

Rem's shoulders slumped downward as did her head, allowing her bangs to take the opportunity to curtain over her bowed face.

"But why didn't Ruki Sensei inform his girlfriend of the mistake she had made?"

Strange giggling and voices coming from below took Rem out of thoughts and made her wrap up in the blanket and slink deeply into it till the lower portion of her mouth was concealed by the covers leaving her round eyes to stare blindly up at the ceiling.

Her mind swam with regrets, questions and possible resolutions, and just plain weird ideas till some specks of light penetrated through the middle of the plaid red curtains, and the strong scent of fresh cooked breakfast sent Rem's stomach into a frenzy dance.

Even with the jabbing and contorting pains in her stomach Rem dared not come down where the strange lady was who made her sensei seem like a stranger to her.

All through breakfast the giggling and loud remarks continued, what was said was impossible to decipher, yet judging by the all the schoolgirl giggling Rem decided such comments should have been said with a low confidential tone.

The taunting smell of breakfast only increased Rem's stomach's rage until she clenched her eyes closed and drew the covers over her head, and when she awoke the black alarm clock on the small nightstand made of concrete bricks told her three hours had passed making it 9:00 and the stronger rays of light penetrated through the glowing fiery plaid curtains.

"This sucks like hell …" she muttered with a deep exhale as she flipped over onto her side, and curling like a caterpillar beneath the black heavy blankets.

Suddenly there was a dull knocking on the door, it lifted Rem's body rigidly up into a sitting position yet she did not know how to answer.

She suddenly realized the noises down stairs had abruptly stopped. This was unnerving and suspicious. "Whose there?" she asked meekly, her eyes wide again.

"It's Ruki, can I come in?" asked Ruki's voice sounding a little timid, or perhaps it was because he was speaking from beyond a closed door.

"Yeah." She answered, not sure if she had said it loud enough.

But the doorknob moved and the door was opened, and Ruki poked a sprightly grinning face into the room.

"Sorry, we took so long. My girlfriend went home. I brought you something to eat."

Rem's eyes fell down toward the tray in Ruki's grasp, it had an enormous porcelain dish supporting a huge omelet with every vegetable known to man fused within it, toast bordering one side, and waffles piled high dripping with syrup and a brown mug with a stack of white cream smoking like a chimney.

A grin overtook Rem's gaunt stern face, "A way to a man's heart is through his stomach." She said still gazing at the glorious bounty.

Ruki's eyes widened with a little surprise. "What?" his eyebrows raised. "You're not a man, Rem. Don't take what I said personally. My girlfriend is kind of crazy around other females. I'm not trying to come on to you, you are cute, but there are a number of reasons why I can't be with you, first one being my girlfriend. Second you're my student. I'd be called a cradle-robber. It wouldn't be professional. I'd be a wolf taking advantage of my homeless roommate … of course that's not to say-"

"No." Rem's face lit up with amusement. "What I meant was your girlfriend cooks so well, that's why …you … it was a joke." Rem lost her voice to the seriousness in her sensei's unblinking concentrated gaze, she finished the broken sentence with a shrug and swept her downward feeling like a whale penis.

Ruki's stern concentrated face finally broke into a small grin. "That would explain it." He agreed simply, as he came to the side of the bed and handed the tray to Rem, who grasped it slowly and laid it upon her lap, being sure not to make eye-contact. Rem promptly began shoving toast and omelet into her gaping mouth, both from hunger and because she couldn't say anything stupid with her mouth full.

"Except my girlfriend didn't cook the food, I did." Ruki continued after Rem's mouth was full of luscious clumps of food.

This makes Rem's eyes bulge as wide as her cheeks, and she begins to double over as she chokes on the glutinous amount of food in her mouth.

Ruki's firm hand pats her arched back strongly till the pain coming from the impact distracts Rem from the strangling amounts of food going down her gullet and she swallows.

"You ok?" he asks, his pain-filled pats increasing in speed.

Rem's esophagus finally clears for her to reply with a raspy: "Ouch …" the corners of her eyes clotted with tears.

"Oh, you're OK." Sensei sooths, with one last swift pat that hunches Rem further over almost flat onto the tray on her lap.

"Thank you …" she adds, trying to turn her back away from his reach.

"No problem. Saving people's lives is an every day occurrence for me." He replies with a broad grin.

"I don't care about that. Thanks for making me breakfast, it was breathtaking. I can't even cook water with out burning it." Rem replied with a crooked grin as she edges her back further away from him.

"Don't mention it." He says as he arches his wrist back to give a final friendly blow to her back, but her eyes widen and she catches the hand in mid thrust with both her hands.

Suddenly Rem realizes her mistake as she is frozen stunned-in-place holding Ruki Sensei's strong hand and wrist still in mid-air, her eyes shift to see his expression, and it seems to mirror the astounded look on her face. Besides having him pull her fingers onto the right strings Rem had never made any contact with her Sensei, and now it looked like they were embracing each other's hands.

Rem's stiff fingers unclenched and instantly came down onto her lap, right on top of her syrup soaked crispy waffles. Ruki also took a drastic step backward and turned to leave the room. Before exiting the ill at ease silent room he grinned and turned his face back to Rem. "Sometime I'll teach you to cook. Since I'm such a great teacher after all. You're going to be eating your whole life, you might as well know how to do it well." He says, before he closes the door behind him.

"Ok …" Rem replies a little too late, lifting a syrup-fused hand up. Her wide unblinking gaze turns down to her sticky palm and she begins to lick the sweet stuff from her fingers.