Toromaki, Party of Two! (Painters, Arc/Lani; E)

It looked as if though Takumi quite suddenly gained an interest in the objects in the room which were situated in the various directions that Rin wasn't. In the end the table looked to be the most interesting of all. He was hoping for a casual conversation or something. Instead he had to keep himself from staring. In the end, he did that by both looking and and tapping on the table.

Rin seemed completely unaware of the entire situation at hand, attention on her phone while the awkwardness surrounded her partner appeared to be becoming palpable. There were worse things, she would have supposed, but right now, she was being utterly naive again.

Takumi did his trying but mostly failing to act normal thing up until the staff arrived with the food; that became a genuine distraction that he didn't have to work too hard to keep going.

Her phone disappeared the instant she saw the plates appear. She kept up the casual facade throughout the duration of the setting. Rin offered him a tender smile before eating.

Though quite unintentionally, Takumi also gave her a quick smile. Quick, because he caught himself doing so while feeling quite happy about it. He turned his attention solely to the food thereafter.

She noticed the change in demeanor easily enough, though forced her thoughts away from it. Instead, she knitted her brows and moved onto to the subject at hand: food. In the end, her only way to distract herself from the awkward tension between the two of them was to be reminded that there should be several more people around the table. That really only made her more depressed.

Takumi finished up his mean in silence, trying his best to think about non-Rin things. He, unlike her, only had his food to keep his mind off of her and it really wasn't working when even a misplaced glance would put a stop to his efforts. He thought initially that it might take him a few days to be able to act as if nothing happened and that all was fine.

Yeah right...

With a sigh he stood and excused himself, saying that he was going to his room, as he usually ended up doing; this was unusual in that he had eaten less than what he would on most other days, however.

The only part of the endeavor that really caught her notice was the fact that he hadn't finished eating. She furrowed her brow when this registered to her, concern evident though she knew not what to say. Their interactions the past few days had been a rollercoaster of such, leaving them neither here nor though but rather at some limbo somewhere in between. A sigh followed as she looked down at her food, unsure of what this meant for her, their partnership, the estate, and the Toromaki name itself. It seemed that answers would not come at any time in the near future.