post-canon souma x erina headcanons
(because there is absolutely no way they aren’t AT LEAST dating by that point. heck if tsukuda hadn’t said he planned for them to be married, I would’ve thought they had been since I don’t see either of them changing their last names)
POINT
he calls her first out of absolutely anyone he knows when he comes back home and from erina’s dialogue they’ve had this practice for quite a while, literally an ldr right there folks
it seems the usual thing is that erina arrives earlier than him to yukihira and that she waits inside for him so that means she’s the one who usually opens up the diner; that’s right it looks like she’s even been given keys to yukihira’s! if that doesn’t scream domesticity, I don’t know what does
the familiarity between erina and grandfather; the way he calls her erina-chan or how he leaves it to her to tell ‘the boys’ where he’ll be, and just how he speaks to her as if already seeing her as a granddaughter-in-law
that whole reunion! so soft, after both their inner monologues, and just for them alone. the ‘i’m home’ on souma’s part and the ‘welcome home’ on erina’s part and how erina is probably always the first to welcome him home since he calls her first and ‘home’ for them doesn’t just mean ‘japan’ but coming home to ‘yukihira’s’ and even better coming home to ‘her’ waiting at the place he calls home. THE DOMESTICITY I CANNOT. THEY ARE LITERALLY HUSBAND AND WIFE MATERIAL.
THE PARALLELS. erina as saiba and souma as tamako.
it’s actually souma’s inner monologue that convinces me. what his dad and asahi said has already been on his mind for a while and in this chapter it’s already solidified into an absolute certainty, the ‘forever’ is what clinches it to me. he’s been dedicating his cooking to erina all this time after all. it seemed to me that it’s in this chapter that he came to a resolution that it’s forever, no-takebacks between them. wouldn’t surprise me that when erina finally says ‘delicious’, he’ll just propose there on the spot. headcanon that that’s why he wants there to be a lot of witnesses when he didn’t before because he could propose at any time. wouldn’t even be surprised if after this chapter he really did propose with all their friends surrounding them because of how he ‘swears’ that this’ll finally be the dish to make her say ‘delicious’ (at this point delicious has become code for ‘I do’ between them not kidding)
HEADCANONS (since Tsukuda said the rest was free to our imagination, and anyway he confirmed their romantic feelings towards each other already, so many possibilities and I hope the anime builds on it)
when souma came back from his first tour abroad, they were already about to graduate as third years; it was erina’s teary, frustrated face, as if ready to smack him (and she does) when she sees him again that puts everything into place for him
but he still doesn’t say anything
since he already missed a lot of his requirements and the graduation exam he was granted a special exam by the headmistress herself, beat her in a shokugeki in order to graduate; that high-stakes confrontation was just like them; I think he did eventually beat her in that shokugeki or in a shokugeki because at present it seems their challenges don’t consist of shokugekis but him just feeding her and he did eventually take over yukihira’s, that would have probably been enough to satisfy jouchirou’s condition
she still doesn’t say it’s delicious. not because she doesn’t want to, but because there seems to be something stopping her. it’s ok, he’ll wait for her to be ready.
so she becomes dean full-time and he becomes owner of yukihira’s but she invites him to teach at tootsuki often; he has this habit of his, pre-asahi, of when he was bugging her to eat his dishes but she’d have her hands full with paperwork so he just feeds her. just like that (you know what I’m talking about that blessed volume 36 inner cover). souma’s just like ‘say ahhh nakiri’ and erina’s just ‘?!?!?!’ but it’s more troublesome fending him off and fighting off her blush so she just. gives in to it. so it wasn’t that uncommon to see the dean being handfed with chopsticks by yukihira-sensei to make sure she eats (so hisako totally approves) while making sure this is finally the day she says ‘delicious’, while she multitasks with paperwork in her office. and that just fuels rumors among the student body and even their friends don’ know what the heck they are?? it’s just their something and they don’t really say anything about it, not like they need words when they have food and that’s enough of a language for them. and erina is still oblivious.
as repayment for teaching at tootsuki, souma invites erina to help out at yukihira’s and cheekily tells her she has to wear the uniform and that he’s the boss this time around. erina just scoffs. and that’s how souma’s grandfather finds them, cooking together at yukihira’s, and with how souma grows to look more like jouchirou everyday and erina’s short hair, it’s like he’s seeing a young jouichirou and tamako all over again. he’s a bit teary and more than a bit glad to be introduced to erina-chan.
souma was in for a surprise to find out asahi was erina’s older brother, as if the nakiri family couldn’t get weirder enough already. asahi does not give him an easy time AT ALL, always saying he was never going to hand over his precious baby sister to souma. souma just gets hit by dejavu and not a small amount of irritation. shokugeki battles are frequent. (asahi knows they’re inevitable though, his younger sister and ‘younger brother’, he just likes to tease and prolong it); the lines in the nakiri family are pretty clear-cut, anyone apart from asahi and azami (like father and son) wholeheartedly approve of souma for erina (not that either of them know it); mana: what has you so irritated? doesn’t that boy remind you of yourself when you were wooing and already married to me? azami:………………; mana apart from senzaemon is probably souma’s biggest supporter in the nakiri family (even if he probably wouldn’t take the nakiri name) since she witnessed his devotion to erina so early on; azami probably weighs being saiba-senpai’s in-law versus having souma as a son-in-law. it is not an easy decision.
eventually wanderlust hits again and souma decides to travel to learn more and be a better chef. after all erina still hasn’t said ‘delicious’
for erina’s part, she’s sorely tempted to just finally say it, but apart from the fact that she’s nakiri erina, she’s also scared at what comes after, if finally saying ‘delicious’ would end this tenuous something between them. but at the same time, she’s tempted to say it just to get him to stay. but she’d never clip his wings like that especially when he was the one to give her a chance to break free from her birdcage (just as souma doesn’t take her away from what makes her a nakiri and has only ever pushed her upwards even so early on when he made her headmistress in their first year; I STAN A HEALTHY, SUPPORTIVE, AND INDEPENDENT POWER COUPLE OK). and always, always, no matter how far or how long (only a few weeks at most, because souma probably can’t last that long anymore) he always comes back home. to cook for her. to her. just like how saiba-sama always came back to tamako-san no matter where his travels took him and ANWAY WHY WAS SHE COMPARING THEIR SITUATION TO THAT OF HIS PARENTS?? erina is still in denial.
see, for his part, erina really is the best motivation because he can’t go back to see her without an outstanding dish that will dazzle her and he can’t not go back to her, so he puts his all to creating his recipes, the sooner to see her and make her finally say it’s delicious. it’s the same way erina puts her all to running the academy and make sure it’s not a disappointment to him when he comes back home.
the first time they say goodbye at the airport (because she wouldn’t let him hear the end of it the last time he left with just a note, not without a little hurt), she tries to be stone-faced, after being conspicuously left alone by his family and their friends, and he just says ‘see you nakiri, i’ll miss you’ and goes off without even hearing her reply which is just as well since erina probably couldn’t speak for how red she was. she swears she’ll kill him when he comes back for making her realize, because ah, now erina remembers a girl’s sleepover and love-talk and now she knows.
after numerous goodbyes at airports and ‘i’ll miss you’s and ‘next time for sure’s from souma, the day erina finally stutters back ‘i-i’ll miss you too’ is when souma asks to kiss her on the cheek (anything more would probably make her combust)
erina initiates their first kiss and souma’s like oh so that’s why they call it the ‘god tongue’
jouichiro and his grandfather give him a lot of grief about his relationship with erina since ‘could he hurry it up I want erina-chan as my daughter/grandaughter -in-law and grandkids/great-grandkids already!’ and souma’s like ‘she hasn’t said it’s delicious yet pops!’ and jouichirou is just dumbfounded at his kid’s stupidity and his grandfather’s just exasperated ‘what is it with you yukihira men wooing your future wives by stuffing them silly?’ the key to a woman’s heart is through her stomach after all.
after erina finally, FINALLY, says it’s delicious, souma’s too nervous to even celebrate - the ring? the ring?? where did he put it? - erina stops him in his tracks because she says to him with a small smile and a twinkle in her eye - ’hmphh I guess you’re no longer that plebian I first met, so how would you like to be promoted to my precious person? - souma recognizes it, of course he does, and of course she’s beat him again. he can’t help the blush on his face and doesn’t know who laughs louder, his pops or him.
at the wedding, erina asks him what now since she’s already said his food was delicious. souma’s there grinning manically ‘what are you talking about? you think one measly delicious is enough after how many times you’ve denied me? I swear I’ll make you say delicious a million times - no a hundred million times - for the rest of our lives.’ and erina can’t help but cry and smile and laugh through her tears. he’s always told her she was at her most beautiful laughing. there could have never been more perfect vows for them.
although I don’t think either of them will change their family names as I’d see them always support each other through their endeavors, I headcanon that after so much responsibility at such a young age erina would enjoy retiring at yukihira’s and just savoring her warm family time, something she’d desperately wish for when she was young and now has in abundance. she’d still consult and run restaurants but would probably leave most of the leadership to alice in later years.
souma and erina have a son as cheeky as his father and as brilliant as his mother. they have cooking showdowns with erina as the judge, but unlike tamako, she almost always declares their son the winner; souma: unfair, you only pick him because he’s your son. erina: he’s your son too dear and of course since he has the best of both of us; they also have a younger daughter who’s every much the tsundere erina is and as wild as tamako was (I DEMAND MY TWINTAILS SORINA DAUGHTER THANK YOU VERY MUCH); her brother probably dotes on her and they probably have the same relationship as soe and mana as well as asahi and erina. between the two of them, it’s their daughter that inherits the god tongue but she doesn’t want to be a chef and that’s perfectly ok with the whole family.
And that’s a wrap. Honestly, that was a better ending than I expected. For me, in terms of satisfying resolutions of shonen ships they rank up there with Ed and Winry, Kaneki and Touka, Medaka and Zenkichi. It’s that softness and the promise of more to come, them knowing and us, the audience knowing their mutual feelings for each other, with the knowledge that they will eventually get married. I have the anime to look forward to at least and seeing all those moments animated.
