Shokugeki no Sōma
—Intertwined—

Summary: Sometimes she wanted to send him flying away, but that did not stop her from wondering if theirs was destined from the beginning of everything. As if someone had planned each step, each word without saying anything to them.

Note: This story was done for the SouEri/SoRina Week 2017 but it was published in Spanish only, after a lot of work, I could translate it into English and have some small things changed in order to participate in the Shokugeki OTP Week 2018 Day #2 :D.

Prompts: Future/Soulmate.

There was something that, hidden in her romantic heart, she had always asked herself. After all, the things that had happened in her life, in both of them, seemed to have been placed in such a way that they could not be without each other.

A destined love? Soulmates? Her exhaustive research on shoujo mangas, romantic movies and magazines, all of them talked about finding the one with whom you would spend the rest of your life, that companion who from the very first moment your eyes crossed, had made your heart beat in an accelerated way.

She frowned and saw her partner in the kitchen, looking something in the fridge.

Accelerate her heart from the first encounter? Not at all. On the contrary, all that she had wanted at the beginning was for him to disappear from the face of the earth.

How their relationship had progressively improved over the years until the closure of their marriage was still a mystery.

Because yes, there were still times —too many— in which she had wanted to put him in a rocket straight to the moon.

But that did not prevent her from wondering if theirs was destined from the beginning of everything. As if someone had planned each step, each word without saying anything to them.

She gently bit the thumb of her left hand when noticed that a smoking cup was in front of her amethyst eyes.

"Earth to Erina." Sōma gently waved the cup in front of her, which seemed lost in her thoughts.

"I-I'm sorry." The blonde took the cup with both hands, avoiding looking directly at him.

Because Erina knew that if she did, he, with that strange power he had of reading her like an open book (which fascinated her and drove her crazy in equal proportions), would definitely know what she was thinking.

"Are you okay?" The redhead took a seat next to her on the couch and settled down to watch her, while resting his elbow on the edge of the back of the couch.

"Y-yes, it's nothing." Erina shook her head and took a sip of the chai tea he had brought, savoring the spices in it; Sōma raised one eyebrow, with disbelief.

"Well, what's hanging around that little head of yours?" Sōma stretched out his other hand and stroked her cheek with his knuckles. Erina closed her eyes, delighted in the subtle caress.

"It's kind of ridiculous." Erina sighed, if she told him, she was sure he'd make fun of her until the end of her days.

"That would be something new," he taunted, making her look at him in a fulminating way. "Hey, the one with ridiculous thoughts and ideas in this relationship is me, right?" And raised his eyebrows, playfully.

Erina snorted. How was it that she had married this man who drove her mad, so buffoon and, in his very own way, so wonderfully strange?

"I have a hot drink in my hands and I could use it against you," she said, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"You wouldn't dare to." He feigned fright and leaned back a little. "The doctor's bill would be pretty expensive for you."

"It would be expensive for you, I will not give a single yen for you to be healed," She replied, following the jokingly flow.

"Wow, what a cruel wife I've got." Sōma wrinkled his face in feigned anguish, as he brought his hand to his heart and Erina could not help but laugh at his face.

"Take a peace offering not to pour it on you." Still laughing softly, she extended the cup towards him.

"You have thrown something on it while I wasn't looking?" He questioned, and she tapped him lightly on the arm he had leaning against the back of the couch.

"I-idiot" she shook her head, "with what chance? You've been watching all the time," and Sōma opened his eyes, astonished, and formed a perfect "o" as he looked at the tea and then at her.

"So if I stop looking, you'd really throw something on it," he said incredulously, "and here I was thinking that after all this time you have finally accepted me." He pouted and Erina could only laugh all over the theater her favorite redhead was playing.

"Just take a sip and give me back the cup." Erina held her cheeks, feeling then hot from all she had laughed at.

Sōma looked at her sweetly. Seriously, that woman had him fascinated. He loved her when she was acting all mighty as much as seeing her undone with laughter and joy that made her amethyst eyes shine with happiness.

He saw Erina brush her fingers down her cheeks, feeling the warmth of them, the brightness of her eyes, the smile that still danced on her sweet lips.

Sōma had never been the type to think about girls or dating in the past, it was even quite surprising for himself to have noticed that he felt something different for the heiress Nakiri that was nothing like what he felt for the other people around him.

And as he was glad to have noticed it and even more, to be reciprocated.

"What are you looking at?" Erina found him giving her that look she knew he reserved only for herself, the one where his manly features softened and his golden eyes seemed to radiate warmth and tenderness.

That look that made her feel a tingling at the tips of her fingers and her stomach be flooded by what looked like the furious flutter of a million butterflies.

"You," he answered flippantly, shrugging, curling his lips in a casual gesture.

Erina felt her heart rate increase, that idiot.

"Will you accept the peace offering or what?" She stammered, crossing her arms.

And there it was, her tsundere ways emerging.

"Yes, yes" Sōma nodded as he left the cup on the table and came closer to her, "I'll accept it" and Erina only saw the flash of his white teeth when he smiled briefly before feeling his lips on hers.

Erina closed her eyes slowly, feeling his lips move subtly and then biting gently on her lower lip, making her gasp, one that he took advantage of to sneak in and taste every corner of her warm mouth. Erina felt her pulse beating in her ears and how heat rose all over her body as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

Sōma sighed against Erina's lips and then slid his lips to her cheek, leaving a kiss there, and then leaving another against one of her temples.

"Thank you for the peace offering," he muttered, his voice hoarse as he smiled, resting his cheek against the blonde's temple.

"You took the wrong offering, i-idiot." She was still clinging to him, her cheeks hotter than before.

"Oh, I do not think so," he said, roguishly, as he separated enough from her to look for her eyes. "Are you going to tell me?" He asked like nothing, while stroking one of Erina's cheeks with the tips of his fingers, in a loving touch.

"T-tell you what, exactly?" She snapped.

"In what you were thinking when I brought you the tea," he noticed that she opened her eyes in surprise and then she parted her lips to reply. "I want to know, even if you think it's ridiculous, yes?" He cut her off before giving the chance for her to reply, while putting that look of abandoned puppy wanting to be taken home.

"Sōma…" She began, her tone tired.

"Come on." He leaned back, resting his back on the armrest and took her with him, practically making her lie on top of himself. "Are you worried about your restaurants?" He looked at her, his golden eyes reflecting his sincere concern.

"N-no, that's not it." She laid her head on Sōma's chest, feeling how he placed a chaste kiss on the top of her head, making her put a small smile.

"Do not tell me it has anything to do with your father," he huffed with some suspicion. Always listening to the uneasiness in his tone when he spoke of her father it always surprised her.

She knew first hand that the redhead was not spiteful at all, but if his father was included in the topic, Sōma's face could be transformed into stone and reflects the purest anger.

"Easy." She lifted her head to look directly into his eyes. "My father has nothing to do either, at least, not directly," she shrugged.

"What do you mean?" He played with the tip of the braid in which she wore her blond hair that afternoon.

She knew that he would not let the subject pass, especially if he imagined that her father was involved.

Why she couldn't be less transparent to this man? She questioned herself while inhaling deeply.

"I was wondering if" she heard him make an affirmative sound with his throat, waiting for her to continue, "if everything we lived was already destined to be, including... W-well, this result," she concluded quickly, hiding her face in Sōma's chest.

Erina felt him release the air slowly, as a sign of relief and relaxation.

"And you came to some conclusion?" His other hand drew circles on her back, on the fabric of the white turtleneck coat she wore.

"Not yet," she murmured, biting her lower lip before asking, "what do you think?"

She heard him release a soft hmm thinking of an answer. Erina could feel (and hear) the heartbeat of Sōma underneath herself, in a regular rhythm and that always managed to calm her down.

"I think our paths were meant to interbreed in some way or another." Erina opened her eyes in surprise and lifted her face to look at him. "Even if I had not attended Tōtsuki, I have the feeling that we would have met as well."

"What makes you believe that?" She caressed Sōma's chin with her forefinger. She felt him shrug under her.

"You knew dad since you were little, he and your grandfather have always seen each other, I suppose it would have been a matter of time when one of those visits pops would drag me with him just for the pleasure of defeating me in front of your grandfather," he caressed one her cheeks with his thumb, "or some situation like that."

"So, do you think our destinies were hopelessly intertwined?" She saw him nod.

"As those stories of the famous red thread of destiny." He noticed how her eyes opened up more, if that was possible. "I never believed or paid attention to those things" he smiled sweetly, "but with everything that we have gone through…" And he didn't finished that sentence.

But it was not necessary for him to do it, because she knew what he meant.

"So you have a romantic side too," Erina murmured, in feigned astonishment.

"Oh, yes, you have no idea," and then he placed that small, confident smile characteristic of his person. "Was that what got you so worked up before? I thought it was, I dunno, that the end of your favorite manga was late or that you did not know whether to add marmalade to the coffee instead of sugar.

Erina rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Marmalade to the coffee? For God's sake," when Erina saw that he was going to add something, she took that as a sign of silencing him with her lips.

Sōma had decided to let her do and not add more to what she thought about their paths crossing. But he was sure that the wheels of destiny had begun to turn from the moment he went to apply for the transfer exam.

He thought it was on that day that the bonds of their destinies were intertwined and since then, it had kept them together until today, and the days to come.

But that would be something that —maybe— he would told her later.

—Fin—

Shokugeki OTP Week 2018.

Day #2: Future/Soulmate.

February 12th, 2018.