Page 51 of Spoonful

Aditi crossed her arms and tilted her chin, radiating stubbornness.

“Fine,” Jaylin huffed. “We can ask Diego. But I don’t see why.”

***

Diego read the comic with clear excitement, and his face went through a myriad of complicated expressions as he did sowhile Jaylin got more and more self-conscious. He was near the point of snatching the pages back and calling the whole thing off when Aditi, who had been rereading the comic next to Diego, squished into his side, said, “See?”

“Yeah,” Diego said, nodding as he turned another page. “Yeah, wow.”

“What?” Jaylin bit out. “Look, it was just some stupid scribbles, you don’t have to—”

Aditi glared at him. “Don’t call them stupid!”

“Excuse me?” Jaylin asked.

“You heard me,” Aditi sniffed.

Jaylin looked to Diego for help, who scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Okay so, uh, could I maybe like, take a couple pictures to send to Dorit?”

“Why?” Jaylin asked incredulously.

Diego flapped a hand. “I just think it’d be a good idea for her to see them.”

Jaylin sighed as Aditi and Diego pinned him with twin pleading looks. “Fine. But someone tell mewhy.”

Diego patted Jaylin on the back. “Because this is good stuff,” he said. “I just wanna see what she says.”

***

As it turned out, Diego’s not!Aunt Dorit worked for Scholastic. She was apparently impressed enough by the concept of Jaylin’s comic to ask for more pages. She liked the fact that it wasn't a words-based comic, so readers of all ages and backgrounds and languages could appreciate it.

She wanted Jaylin’s permission to pitch the comic for publication.

Jaylin said thank you very carefully, told her that he was okay with that, sure, he appreciated her time, and hung up the phone.

He wasn't sure if he was excited or about to be sick.

He still hadn’t decided which reaction made the most sense by the time Hiro got home from work. Jaylin had stress-made a lasagna, so dinner was sorted for whenever they were ready to eat. He had been getting better at cooking over the last couple of months, and had found he actually liked to do it when he wasn't worrying himself sick over wasting food or money or time.

Hiro beamed at him and came over to press a kiss to Jaylin’s cheek, and they settled on the couch to unwind together. This didn't quite settle Jaylin’s turbulent emotions, but it did warm him down to his toes.

“How’s your day been?” Hiro asked, curling an arm around him. Jaylin immediately recalled Dorit asking for the name of the comic for her pitch. He’d panicked and replacedCaptain Hirohito MiyazakiwithCaptain Kuwabara,because he hadn’t felt like proclaiming to the world that the comic pulled from real-world experiences.

“Fine,” he choked out, before he cleared his throat. “What about you? How was your day? You had that networking event today, right?”

Hiro snorted. “If you can call it that. It was less networking with other companies and lawyers and more physicians trying to convince us to not kill ourselves with stress.”

“Um?”

A chuckle this time. “Maybe a little less dramatic than that,” Hiro said. “Mostly we had to sit through lectures about smoking, alcoholism, the need for healthy recreation—all that sort of stuff.”

“Oh.” Jaylin said. “Sounds… interesting?”

“That’s one way to put it,” Hiro said, pressing another kiss to Jaylin’s shoulder. “Mostly boring. The only highlight was thatthere was a self-defense portion. I guess to teach us practical skills?”

“Oh yeah?” Jaylin asked. “How’d that go?”

Hiro grinned. “Touya was the instructor. So it was kind of fun.”

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