"H-hi, I'm back." Emma said, looking into his eyes with a flushed face. She looked even more beautiful now than before.
Klaus' eyebrows arched in amazement and again a bench corner smile appeared on his face at the sight of her. "H-has something happened? What about your friends?"
"They canceled at the last minute... It looks like the subway will be at a standstill overnight because of the snow, and private car drivers on nights like this aren't usually very reliable, so they don't think it's a good idea for us to go out tonight.... By the way, is that on your face a smile because I came back?"
"No, of course not. You're going crazy. Now, come on in. You must be cold just being in this dress and coat."
Klaus promptly helped her remove the white coat and hung it on the rack.
At that moment Emma thought he would be out of the small foyer of the apartment by now and automatically turned to walk forward, only for him to turn back to the door to talk to her. The two narrowly missed banging their heads against each other, and that minimal distance that separated them forced them to look into each other's eyes from a distance they had never looked at each other before. Their lips were very close together, and so was their breathing.
Klaus was not blind; he could perfectly see the blush on Emma's face. However, the last time he had been alone with her and had seen her like this, she had shown that he was confusing things when she had asked him if he could help her tell Jayaa that she was the Bleeding Lily.
That being the case, Klaus didn't fall for this trick again and took a step back, walking away. He looked away and running a hand over the back of his head, said:
"Sorry about that. I'm going back to the kitchen. I was looking for vanilla essence to make some cookies like my mother's, but since you're here, I'll make us some dinner."
"All right." She said and looked at his back sadly as he walked away.
When Emma entered her room, she looked at the mirror that was on one of her closet doors and saw how red her face was. She put her hands to her face, and the memory of a few seconds ago invaded her mind. Then she dumped herself on the wide bed behind her and could feel her heart racing more than ever.
"Seriously, what is happening to me? I'm not like this..." She said, a little emotional as she looked up at the white ceiling. "At that moment, we were so close to each other..."
However, she didn't have much time to wonder about what she was feeling, because soon the smell of something delicious invaded her room.
Emma got up and as she opened the door, she heard a sound of something being cut and then heard Klaus' voice in the kitchen.
"Let's see, I need 500 grams of shrimp, some sesame oil and.... Ah, I think that's all." He chatted to himself so as not to forget the steps.
Emma walked down the stairs as she enjoyed Kaizen's expression of concentration cooking.
In her vision, there was an aura around Klaus that exuded admiration. That was something hard to describe. Seeing him like this, in the kitchen with an apron, made her totally forget what he looked like when he was inside Rise Online.
Kaizen and Klaus were like two different people when it came to personality.
"What are you preparing for us?" She asked Klaus with a curious look.
"Since we don't have a turkey, I am preparing a shrimp stew. It's a recipe I learned when the webnet was still called the Internet." He said, not looking away from the ingredients in the bowl.
"Wow, that looks delicious." She said and approached him at the stove.
At that moment, it was impossible for Klaus not to notice that Emma was wearing a wide reindeer print sweatshirt jacket and that she was also wearing sweatpants. These were very homely attire and highlighted how totally at ease Emma felt next to Klaus, not least because the huge neckline near the collar of her jacket, shall we say, showed more of her breasts than the dress she was wearing before.
"Yes, I hope it will be... good." He said, looking away from her and returning his focus to the pot.
Emma kept him company in the kitchen and tried to help as much as she could with the preparation of the shrimp stew. When the sauce was ready, Klaus took some with his spoon and tasted it to check if how she seasoned it was enough.
"Um, it's very good." He complimented and looked at Emma.
Seeing the look on his face, Emma blushed. "Let me taste it too."
"All right." Klaus took some more of the sauce with the same spoon and extended this forward. "Make it 'A'." He directed her.
Obviously, as an adult it was impossible for her not to be embarrassed by this, but she did as he asked. She opened her lips wide, and then he brought the spoon to her mouth.
"Mmm, it really looks great." She said and smiled at him.
Klaus smiled at her as well. "I knew you could do it."
Looking at this reaction from Klaus, Emma realized that he didn't even notice that at this moment not only a taste of sauce happened, but also an indirect kiss.
While she was still and heart racing, Klaus went back to cooking as if nothing had happened. Then she wondered:
'Could it be that this thing I'm feeling...is it just me? He reacted so naturally to an indirect kiss.... This is unfair. Is he so experienced that this is no big deal to him, or does he just see me as his friend's sister and nothing more? Or worse, he must think I'm much older than him because I own the apartment, so he sees me as some kind of.... janitor?'
Her mind was a mess and her thoughts were jumbled.
However, at that moment she realized that she finally understood her own feelings. She understood that in reality she didn't want Klaus to see her as just some girl, she wanted him to see her as a woman and have as much desire for her as she had for him.
...
Edited by: DrHitsuji
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