This had been the tone of their interactions for about six months now. Tessa, who had once seemed like an otherworldly being, was now someone Sousuke felt quite close to. He couldn’t claim he didn’t enjoy her attentions, either—Tessa was a very appealing girl, and he liked that she was willing to engage him this way. And in moments like these, with her eyes pointed down studiously as she focused on her cooking, Tessa reminded him of Kaname.
“It’s finished.” Tessa came out of the kitchen, carrying a large dish of pasta. “It’s spaghetti carbonara,” she explained. “I frequently make it for myself after work.” Tessa piled the pasta onto a small dish using a fork and spoon. The steaming dish was coated in thick cheese and cream sauce, and fragrant with pepper and garlic.
“It’s quite easy to make,” she went on. “I find it easier than Kalinin-san’s borscht, at least... I’m sure you’ll like it.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Sousuke said pointlessly, before bringing a forkful of pasta to his mouth. Suddenly, his eyes opened wide. It really is... “Very good.”
The moment he’d said so, Tessa scrunched up her shoulders and flashed a V-sign. “Ah... all my training paid off. Now Kaname-san’s lost her sneaky advantage...” she whispered to no one in particular.
Sousuke stared up at her suspiciously. “What?”
“Oh, nothing... Go on, eat up!”
“Ahh...” Though still dubious, Sousuke continued downing the pasta. His empty stomach helped.
Tessa watched him eat for a while, enraptured. Then she said, “Sagara-san, would you like more?”
“Please.” Sousuke typically didn’t stuff himself, but he found himself holding the dish out for more.
If they had had a mission coming up, he might have refrained. They weren’t supposed to fight on a full stomach; it slowed your reaction times, and raised the chances that a bullet to the gut would prove fatal. But they were currently on board their submarine, so that was probably unlikely. As long as Kurz doesn’t make some stupid mistake on watch duty, at least...
“Is it very good?” Tessa asked again, interrupting his thoughts.
“Yes,” he told her. “It’s... very good.”
“I’m so glad!” Tessa grinned.
Is that what people mean when they say, ‘a radiant smile’? Sousuke wondered idly. He felt warmed by the sight, and at the same time, slightly guilty.
“Hey... did you know that next week is Christmas?” she asked hesitantly, changing the subject.
“I’m unfamiliar with the specifics,” Sousuke answered. “But it does appear that way.”
“Do you know what the 24th is?” she asked curiously.
“I’ve heard it’s a custom known as Christmas Eve.” Sousuke knew that Christmas was a Christian custom, but as someone who had fought with an Islamic mujahideen, it had little meaning to him. He was actually much more conscious of Ramadan, which was beginning three days before it this year. To Sousuke, Christmas was primarily a period when the alertness of his enemy in his Afghani days, the Soviets, was reduced... and nothing more.
Why is she bringing up Christmas? Sousuke wondered, and found himself tensing up a bit. He was fairly certain that Tessa was a Catholic, and while he didn’t think that she was about to engage him in a religious debate, the topic still made him vaguely uneasy.
“I see. You really don’t know...” she mused.
“Huh?”
“Nothing. Well, Sagara-san...” Tessa said hesitantly.
“Yes?”
“On the 24th... the squadron is going to hold a party together, you know? And I was going to hold a smaller, secondary celebration in my room afterwards, with Melissa and some of the others. Would you like to join us?” Tessa’s eyes, brimming with sincerity, now gazed into his.
“On the 24th?” he clarified.
“Yes.”
Sousuke fell silent. He felt uncertain, because that was the day of the school’s make-up trip. He’d just finished declaring that he’d take all measures necessary to ensure the class’s safety.
Then again, he also didn’t get many chances to deepen his friendship with Tessa, who was typically a very busy person. These last few months, he’d vaguely become aware of her affection for him; it might be cruel to dismiss her invitation out of hand.
She spoke into the silence. “I suppose you’re too busy with school?”
“No, it’s not that... It’s just a bit...” As Sousuke struggled to form a response, he suddenly heard hurried footsteps in the corridor outside.
“Hey, hey!” Sounding panicked, Mao burst into the mess. The last time he’d seen her, she’d been using her laptop to investigate something, so he assumed it must be related to that.
“What is it, Mao?” Sousuke asked.
“Sousuke! You speak Persian, right?”
“A bit,” he told her. “The Afghani dialect, anyway... What about it?”
For some reason, Sousuke’s response caused Mao to groan. “Then why didn’t you catch on sooner?! Sheesh!”
Sousuke tilted his head questioningly.
“That ‘badam’ thing you mentioned... I’ve been looking into it,” Mao explained impatiently. “I was running it through various languages Gauron might know, given what we know about his history. Do you know what the word romanized as ‘badame’ means in English?”
Sousuke was a bit taken aback by the suddenness of the question, but he did offer a word he knew, “I think it means... almond?”
“No, that’s B-A-D-A-M. What if you add an ‘e’ at the end?”
“I don’t know,” Sousuke admitted, feeling a bit bad about his answer. When he’d lived in Afghanistan, he’d used Tajik and Farsi—the Afghani dialect of Persian—daily. He also knew some conversational Pakistani Pashto. Afghanistan was a country of diverse cultures, after all.
The reason Sousuke knew so many languages wasn’t due to any particular talent in that regard; he’d just lived in that region during the age when the brain was open to learning such things, and he’d just naturally picked them up. Still, his Farsi had gotten very rusty by now, and he’d never been able to read or write it. He could only write in English, Japanese, and a tiny bit of Russian.
“So, what does it mean if it’s ‘badame’?” Sousuke asked suspiciously. Tessa, who could speak close to ten languages fluently but didn’t appear to
