I've Got a Feeling PV Marcus Iwasaki Finished

3rd August 2021 - During the Lake Party
Not long after this post

The summer camp's food truck was parked back at the cabins during the lake party - it was not being used to serve the masses this time. Instead, Nora had baked loads of treats for the kids and put together baskets of food for them to eat. This meant that Marcus Iwasaki could use the truck to prepare himself a nice lunch. It was only a little while ago that he had dropped off tacos for Nora while she was supervising the lake party, so he was making more for himself now.

When he glanced through the serving window while cooking, he saw Maya Galim approaching. She was wearing her bathing suit and looked like she'd come straight from the water, where he'd left her a little while ago. She'd likely be able to smell the food as she approached. When she got to the truck window, Marcus leaned against it and towards her.

"Is there anything you don't eat? I could just make more tacos if you're a fan of them, or whatever else you might want. There's loads of ingredients in here," he explained, listening to the sizzling of the meat on the stove. He'd always been quite a chef when he was younger, though he had dropped off a bit while living alone and not having a full-sized kitchen. Here at Hogwarts he had cooked a fair amount, regaining his touch behind the stove, and before that at Nora's place. This food truck was an interesting cooking experience on its own, especially given the choice of cuisine.

"I'd invite you inside while I cook, but you're not exactly wearing something kitchen-friendly," he added, as his amber eyes glanced pointedly at her bathing suit before refocusing on her eyes.

Marcus' Intimidation is in effect.

It is a sentiment that enters people's hearts when they are in your presence. They feel dis-ease when you are present, even if the interaction is casual or even friendly.

@Marcus Iwasaki

"When you have been in the front lines, you learn to eat anything," Maya answered, looking at Marcus and then quickly looking away to towards the children who were playing and eating with each other. Their lives were pure, she thought. They did not have war, destruction or even death held on tight in the back of their mind.

The sizzle of the meat helped screen the silence that was between them. Maya looked back at Marcus and couldn't help but to smile just a tad bit, almost as though she was plotting after his comment about the way she was dressed. Yes, she was slightly damp from coming out of the water, but she was in no way unable to go in there and help cook something up for her.

"Move over," she said, not listening to his comment. His mention of so many ingredients got her mind rattling on what could be made. She went around the truck and jumped inside, seeing him at the window of the truck. The meat was still sizzling on the stove that was on the other side. It was incredibly hot inside the truck, but it smelled delicious.

"What's your favorite cuisine?" she asked, poking around inside the food truck. He was absolutely right: there were so many different foods inside that they could make just about anything. Maya looked at the door where she had entered and saw that there was a black apron. She took the apron and put it over her bathing suit, tying it behind her. It was her way saying she was helping cook, whether he liked it or not. Grabbing a spatula nearby in her hands, she leaned her hip to the right and cocked her head to the left, looking at him up and down before meeting with his eyes. They were an amber.

The front lines? Of war? Marcus' eyebrow raised at the words, but she looked away from him before he could properly determine if that's what she meant. "I was asking after any dietary restrictions, like dairy or allergies, but good to know," he said when she turned back to face him, rather than the lake in the distance.

After he mentioned her outfit, she offered him a smile that seemed almost mischievous in nature. A moment later, the brunette was moving towards the door of the food truck. Once again his eyebrows raised, this time in mild surprise rather than curiosity. She instructed him to move over, clearly intent on joining him anyway. "Alright, just don't blame me if you end up getting burned by oil or something," he said, chuckling a bit at her determination to help cook. At least she found an apron to wear that would protect more of her skin from any accidents. There was also the fact that they had magic to help with any burns, but it'd still suck if she were to get injured.

The food truck was not huge, but it was definitely big enough to accommodate two or three people cooking together. They just had to make sure to communicate so they didn't bump into each other. As she started poking around the ingredients in the truck, Marcus tended to some of the taco meat that was just finishing. "Favorite cuisine? Home-cooked Japanese food. It's comfort food for me," he said. "But if I'm going out, maybe Italian? I do like pasta.. But there's a lot of food I like. I'm not very picky."

Marcus finished checking the cooking taco meat and raised his eyes. "You?" he asked in turn.

@Maya Galim

@Marcus Iwasaki

There truly was not a lot of space inside the truck. There was enough for one person comfortably and two people, with a bit of closeness. Maya was a bit close to Marcus. She shrugged at his comment about getting burnt. "I'll still blame you," she said, jokingly at the Ravenclaw Head.

For some reason she was getting an odd feeling. She couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was, but she had the feeling of needing him. Why? Maya looked back at his amber eyes and then back at the sizzling meat that was on the stove nearby them. The last time she felt like this was with Aleksander. Was it really a need or was it purely a feeling of intimidation? No matter what, she could not pinpoint the feeling.

"It's good that you're not picky. Food is the best way to understand others and their cultures," she said, grabbing an orange from the corner. She began to peal the orange by sticking her fingernail first into the peal. Once she had a good grip on the pealing, she looked at Marcus with a playful grin. "Shakshuka," she said, knowing that he wouldn't know what it was. "But I'll eat anything", she added with a small chuckle.

Immediately after her chuckle, Maya couldn't help but to blush at how wrong that statement was. "Hmm, there's no saving that one," she whispered to herself, finally finished peeling the orange. She took the peel from her right hand and threw it away in the garbage. She had to, however, move closer to Marcus in order to do so. Slightly damp through the apron, her front was against his for a couple of moments. She could have moved back within a split second, but there was something about being close to him. What the hell was it? she asked in the midst of being close.

She stepped back and began to take apart the slices from the full orange. She offered him some by moving the orange towards him.

"Iwasaki...," she whispered, but she did not know how to word her next phrase. What was it that she wanted to tell him.

Marcus turned off the truck's stovetop as the taco meat finished cooking. He nodded along with the brunette's assement that being an unpicky eater was a good thing. "I'll try anything once," he confirmed, heating up some tortillas on the still warm stovetop. As Professor Galim went on to talk about it being a good way to experience culture, he glanced in her direction. "Have you done a lot of traveling then?" he asked. In her classroom a few months back, he had shared that he'd done quite a bit of traveling in his time, but he now realized he didn't know if she had been. He turned back to the tortillas and flipped them with his bare (recently washed) hands, quickly so he didn't burn himself.

"I don't think I've had that before," the man responded when she told him what her favorite dish was. "What sort of cuisine is it?" Saksuka. Shakshuka? He wasn't sure he had heard the name properly, and glanced in her direction in time to catch her face going red. He blinked. Was she sunburnt? No, she hadn't looked red like that a moment ago... Maybe it was the heat inside the truck getting to her? Marcus removed the tortillas from the stovetop and started loading the tacos with all the fixings, hearing her whisper about not saving something.

Rather than scratch his head wondering about that, Marcus just went about finishing the tacos. Soon, he had two plates of several tacos ready and steaming. Just as he was about to offer her one of the plates, she leaned in front of him to reach the garbage. And lingered. Again, the man blinked, but this time his head tilted ever so slightly while looking down at her. She took a step back and offered him some of the orange, promptly distracting him from the thought that had started to creep into his mind.

"Trade?" he asked, offering a slight smile as he held out the extra plate of tacos. He accepted the portion of the orange that she held out to him. "Yes, Professor Galim?" his voice wasn't a whisper, but softer since he didn't know why she was whispering.

@Maya Galim

@Marcus Iwasaki

"After my time in the army, I spent most of my time traveling the world," she said, answering his question. "I promised myself to continue learning muggle cultures although engulfed in the magical world," she said, sharing her vow from when she was little. Not many knew of this about Maya.

He seemed interested in her cuisine. She smiled and mentioned that it was from Israel. It was one of the many cuisines that was easy to make. She offered to make it for him one day.

Then, there was silence.

She had finally caught his attention. There wasn't anything interrupting them. She called out his name in a whisper and he was now waiting for her to say something. Should she call it what it is or say never mind like it never happened? Should she be her true self or this weird self that she always seemed to be when near him?

Maya cleared her throat ever so slightly and pushed back some of her dark brunette hair that was drying from the heat in the truck. She made her decision.

"I apologize for my straightforwardness, but why is a man of your high capability be without a woman?" she asked, looking at him questioningly. In her culture, men who were close to twenty-five and not married meant there was something wrong with them. Everyone got married at a young age. In Maya's case for not being married at a young age was because of the world she was forced into: the magical society. Sometimes she wondered what her life would have been if she would have been a Muggle and not a Muggle-Born.

She realized that perhaps she should not have asked. With the language barrier, the way she asked may have sounded too odd or too straightforward for the social norm. But how else could she get through in knowing more about him? It then hit her. Maybe, just maybe he wasn't into woman. Great..., she thought in her native tongue.

"We'll have to exchange travel stories sometime, maybe even over these tacos," Marcus said, finding his curiosity piqued when the woman confirmed she had been in the army. He suspected a connection between her army time and the red cloak she always seemed reluctant to discuss, and he found himself wanting to dig deeper. She always seemed to have an air of mystery about her when she had that cloak. Speaking of, he realized this was one of the first times he had seen her without it. It made sense considering it was hot out and she had gone swimming, but she looked a lot different than he was used to. She was giving off a very different vibe as she pushed her hair back.

Marcus was caught off guard by the question that left her lips next, and he tried to keep a straight face. Talking about his love life with colleagues was not something Marcus was accustomed to here at Hogwarts, one of the more serious careers he had pursued in the last two decades. In a construction zone, casual chit-chat about home life and relationships and such over lunch was pretty normal. But here, Marcus maintained a rather professional (ie private) attitude with most professors, the most intimate details he shared being hobbies or brief stories of travels. Nora was the exception - they had formed a lasting relationship beyond their workplace and she had become his best friend.

The Blasian man resisted the urge to take a step back and put distance between himself and Professor Galim (not because he was repulsed, but just out of surprise from the personal question). Instead, he stood his ground and held her gaze with his amber eyes. The purpose of her question did not escape him, and the position they were in was starting to look a little different to him now. He hesitated for a second before answering.

"This may sound cliché, but I suspect I just haven't found the right woman at the right time," he said. "A relationship hasn't been on my mind for a while, and although I'm not opposed to the idea of a partner, I can't quite picture it," he admitted, figuring this may satiate her curiosity.

Marcus was no stranger to love, but he had stopped pursuing it years ago. The only serious partners he'd had ended in disaster, and the timing had felt incredibly off. But with no desire to have children, he did not feel rushed to find someone new. If it happened, it happened. If not, then it didn't. That was his attitude towards love at this moment, but... perhaps it would change. He was only thirty-seven, after all.

After letting his answer hang in the air, Marcus finally broke his gaze with Professor Galim and turned his head away. He set down the orange and plate of tacos beside him, then busied himself with cleaning up the cooking area. They could take the taco plates to the picnic tables and eat outside the truck once he was done tidying. "Care to share your own reasoning?" he asked as he put away spices and wiped the counter.

@Maya Galim

@Marcus Iwasaki

There it was. An answer.

It wasn't one that caught Maya off guard, however. His answer was like most men. There was a slight difference though. His seemed to be more sincere in his tone. Perhaps it truly was not the right time or he had not met the right person. It did seem like a little blow to the face with the latter reasoning as it could be that she was not the right person for him, but she wasn't necessarily thinking so much on that topic. Sure, Maya was attracted to the dark skinned man before her, but her heart was not yet fully open to accept the attractiveness to a new level of crush.

Maya figured that there was more baggage than can be expected if he was the type to not even picture himself in a relationship. It was understandable. A man of his age has more past and experience to overcome.

Little did she know that the question would backfire onto her. Now was the time to answer why she was not yet with anyone. Should she be cliché as well or should she tell him the truth. Maya popped another orange slice into her mouth, watching him clean up the area by moving some spices back to where they belong. She left some silence between them, figuring out how to respond.

"It is a number of things, actually," she started, looking around if anyone was nearby or at earshot of them. She was willing to share with Marcus, but she did not want anyone to know more about her than they needed.

"I-," she paused, and she stopped rubbing her arms and began to play with her dark brunette hair that curled in front of her shoulders. "I haven't met the right person yet who shares in my understanding of the world," she said, looking around and then back at the Ravenclaw Head. There was definitely another reason. Maya cleared her throat and just shared it as much as she did not want to. "I also do not want children and for most, it is a dealbreaker," she said, shrugging at the thought.

There was a time Maya probably did want to have children when she was younger, but all of that changed after the war. To see people die and in danger before her, she did not want to bring children of her own into this world as much as she does see the beauty of it all hidden in the darkness. It was a promise to herself that she made after the Lebanon War.

Maya grabbed the plate of tacos and gave him a bit of a smile. It was more of a sad smile that crossed her face, but she hid it well. She felt weird to share something so close to her to someone. There was just something about Iwasaki that she never knew before. It was all unknown to her. Now was the time to change the subject, that was for sure.

"I'll take you up on exchanging travel stories over these tacos," she said, smelling the deliciousness on a plate. Although she finished her half of an orange, there was still room for some tacos made by Marcus. "What's the most beautiful place you've traveled to?" she asked.

As Marcus cleaned up the cooking area of the food truck, he didn't notice the way that Professor Galim was casting looks around before sharing. When she did speak, he made sure to hear every word but he didn't immediately turn to look at her. Her understanding of the world? He wanted to ask what exactly that meant, but instead let the quiet linger so she would continue of her own accord. And she did. She cleared her throat, finally prompting him to raise his amber eyes in her direction, and revealed that she did not want children.

The way she shrugged at her words suggested she was quite comfortable with this decision - it was something she had considered for a long time. At least, that's how Marcus interpreted the shrug. It was something he did not often hear from women - especially unprompted. But the words she included - that it was a dealbreaker for most - explained why she had brought it up.

Marcus turned his head away and finished cleaning, then grabbed his own plate of tacos. He gestured to the food truck door, asking the brunette woman to lead the way back outside. He didn't want to encroach on her space more than needed. As they headed outside, she spoke of taking him up on the offer of his travel stories. He grinned as they took a seat at one of the picnic tables in front of the truck. The area was deserted, considering everyone was either in their cabins or down at the lake party.

"The most beautiful? That's a tough question... France is a special place... Some of the architecture there is really gorgeous, and the rolling hills," he said, his eyes studying his food. The memories of his brief time there were significant and amazing and painful, perhaps enhancing the beauty he saw in the country. He took a large bite of his food, then looked to Professor Galim as he chewed, trying to ask her the same question by just raising his eyebrows in her direction.

@Maya Galim