"Why can't you choose?"

Yuuma shot a glare in Vector's direction.

"How can I choose just one? I love them both."

"If you don't pick one right now, I'll personally squash all of them for you." Vector grabbed the bowl of rice balls and Yuuma nearly knocked it out of his hands trying to get it back. Yuuma glared some more, pouting.

"Why are you trying to make me choose, anyways?" He grumbled and picked at the chicken with his fingers. "Why does everybody have to do this? What makes you guys think there even is a choice, seriously."

"You'll have to choose at one point, might as well be sooner rather than later, don't you think?" Vector casually threw a rice ball into his mouth, where it got stuck. It was twice as big as he thought it would be. He probably looked like a chihuahua holding a tennis ball. How the fuck did Yuuma shove an entire piece down his throat in less than a second? Daily practice? Smooshing the half he couldn't chew with his hand and spitting out the rest of the rice already in his mouth, Vector plopped down on the Tsukumos' couch.

"Besides," he said, "the answer could be interesting."

"The answer is there is no answer, you can't choose one important thing over the other!" Yuuma had stopped fiddling with the food to stand and yell directly in front of Vector. Vector watched his chest heave for a minute before he glanced up at Yuuma's red face. Yeah, that was another frown. He flicked a grain of rice towards Yuuma's feet.

"Don't get so worked up about food, Yuuma-kun. You can't be overzealous about absolutely everything. I'll end up dead at the tender age of 500 if you are."

"I'm not talking about food anymore 'cause you- what? You're 500 years old?"

"Sure, probably, or maybe not. Ask Nasch." Vector wiped his sticky hands on the cushion next to him while Yuuma got off track babbling about useless shit like ages and time and multiple lives. Vector would be stuck in middle school no matter how old he supposedly was, along with the rest of the Barians, if he let Nasch get his way anyway. If he ever found out who gave the purple sharktopus the idea that Vector would be better controlled if they were all one big cuddly family attending Heartland Academy together, he would treat them like he treats… Yuuma, actually. Actually, it was probably Yuuma. Yuuma, who was once again spilling his heart out about souls and he was getting around to bonds now, would he breach the subject of friendship again too?

"Anyways!" Yuuma interrupted Vector's train of thought. He pointed a finger dramatically and Vector was really tempted to bite it off. Drench it in oil and burn it. Maybe wrap it up and give it to Merag. Or Kaito, so he can feed it to his robot babies. Robots need nutrition too, right? And they'd eat greasy shit, right? Yuuma's incessant voice repeating Vector's name was the perfect background noise for such musings.

"Vector! Vect-"

"Shush, Yuuma. Eat your dead bird."

"It's not a dead bird! It's fried chicken!"