Work Text:
“Hiyori... uh. What are you doing?” Yukine kept side-glancing the girl, who was steadfast in her current task of pouring some dry ingredients into a bowl.
“My grandmother has been sick the past week. And since Yato said--,” Hiyori stopped herself, quietly clearing her throat, “I thought it would be nice if I made a batch of melon bread for her, as a treat.”
The response was more or less straight forward, but she noticed the subtle quirk of the blond’s brow in question. She stopped, turning around to lean back against the shop’s counter. “What is it, Yukine-kun?”
“Huh?” Yukine paused, stalling in the realization that he’d been caught staring. “N, nothing!” The teenager averted his gaze, a barely visible tinge of pink rising up over his cheeks. “Never saw anyone make melon bread before, that’s all.” He reached for the broom that sat propped against the wall as Hiyori responded, enthusiastic in her approach.
“That won’t do at all. It’s easy, so long as you have the patience for it. Would you like to help me make them?”
Dropping his hand, Yukine turned back to look at her. “Yeah! I... I mean, if you really need the help. I’m not doing much over here, so...” He subtly covered up his excitement, securing the knot in his apron as he stepped over to her. “What do you want me to do?”
“Once I add this egg, I’ll be mixing it up. But then the dough will need some expert kneading so it can rise well.” Hiyori responded as she picked the egg up, cracking it into the bowl and starting to mix up the batter. “It takes a while, but after that, it’ll have to be covered up for a couple hours in a warm place so that it can rise. Think you can do the kneading?”
“‘Course I can, it’ll be a cinch.” Yukine grinned, feeling pretty confident about his abilities. He’d picked up a variety of techniques from Daikoku, where cooking was concerned. He moved to the back to wash his hands, returning just as Hiyori was dumping the mixed dough onto the floured counter.
“Right! Here we go. You take care of that, and I’ll go get the ingredients for the biscuit coating.” Hiyori stepped away, tucking a few strands of hair behind her ear as she went to get the next round of ingredients.
“Hmm...” Pushing his sleeves up, Yukine looked down at the blob of dough. Honestly...he’d never actually worked with bread. But like, how hard could it actually be?
He started rolling the sticky batter into circles, pressing into it with his thumbs and folding it one way, then the other. ...Yeah, this was actually pretty easy! By the time Hiyori’d returned, he had it shaped into an even looking ball.
“You did great, Yukine-kun!” The brunette peeked over his shoulder, emitting a sound of surprise. “You can put that into the bowl there and cover it with a warm towel so it’ll rise. And next...” She stopped, tapping her lower lip. “It’ll take a while. Do you want to take a break to work on your math? You have been slacking on it ever since you and Yato returned from Heaven.”
“Thanks, Hiyori.” Yukine’s smile dropped just a little at the mention of school work, and he shrugged. “I know. Guess I’m kinda nervous about just picking up where I left off.” It was still mega weird, being back. They’d only been gone a few days; but with everything that happened, it’d felt like an eternity.
Especially, being in that box.
“You’ll do just fine.” Hiyori reassured him, clapping her hands together. “Some normalcy is exactly what you need, even, after all that.” She turned, dumping some sugar into the next bowl she’d gotten a hold of. “I’ll mix this up and we can go upstairs. Don’t forget to cover the dough!”
“Ah-!” With it being rather evident that the boy had forgotten, Yukine scrambled to acquire a warm towel. He draped it over the bowl, moving to follow Hiyori up the stairs as she headed to the attic.
“What are you to doing down there?” As the pair entered, Yato lifted his head from where it’d been resting on his palm. A red circle marked the area; if he knew, he certainly wasn’t paying it any attention.
“I’m letting Yukine-kun help me make some melon bread for my grandmother. It needs to rise, so we came up to do school work.” Hiyori took a seat by the desk, smoothing out her skirt to fall just over her knees.
“Dude, your face is all red on that one side.” Yukine decided to point out the difference in appearance, taking up his seat across from Hiyori.
“--!!” Making more of a face than a sound, Yato pushed himself up and rubbed his cheek. “I know that! It’s just a thing that happens, you don’t need to point it out!” The deity’s tone turned indignant and he crossed his arms, falling quiet as the pair started talking about the schoolwork Yukine owed.
“Hmph.” Yato rolled his eyes and yawned, dropping down to lie on his back. “Hiyori. About your grandmother...” He looked over, noticing right off the bat that the girl had stopped talking to look at him. Instead of responding right away, Yato flipped the magazine next to him closed.
“How is she doing?” The last time he’d seen the woman... her life drew closer to it’s end with each passing day. It wouldn’t be too long, now.
“She’s been sick with the flu. Onii-chan has done as much as he can to keep her in good health.” Hiyori looked away again, flipping a page in Yukine’s workbook. “She’s getting better.” She added after a pause, now avoiding Yato’s gaze. She knew what look he was giving her; she didn’t want to see it.
“You know...”
“Yato, I know you can tell that she doesn’t wanna talk about it.” Yukine spoke out in his normal, harsh tongue. “And actually, that conversation has no place in the making of melon bread, so please be quiet.” He continued speaking, taking his pencils out as Hiyori went back to flipping pages.
“Here’s one for you to do, Yukine-kun.” Hiyori pushed the workbook over towards the boy, keeping an ear out for the silent God. Minutes went by, the only sound being pencil scratching against paper.
“...So, what flavor?”
“What?” Hiyori turned, brows knitted gently in question.
“What flavor of melon bread?” Yato clarified, a bit annoyed that he hadn’t been understood the first time. He sat back up, scooting closer to Hiyori’s side.
“Oh, that’s--! It’s just regular melon bread. You know, with the sweet biscuit top. My grandmother doesn’t typically like the flavored kind, so...” Hiyori trailed off. “I wanted to make it for her.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that.” Yato responded immediately. “Just be sure you weigh the portion of dough correctly. That’s a math lesson on it’s own that you can use, Yukine. Each cut portion should be a tenth of the size of the original.”
“I’ll teach him!” Hiyori spoke quickly. “I’m the teacher, here. Give him instruction too quickly, he may not be able to keep up.” She stopped, looking up to see Yukine staring at them both.
“...Weirdos.” He commented after a moment, going back to his workbook.
“I’m just saying!” Yato huffed. “I’ve seen a lot of people come out with all different sized buns because they decided not to weigh it in the first place. And not having enough biscuit topping...”
“Sasaki-san taught me how to make it when I was a child.” Having Yato say it like that, she remembered the woman having said much of the same thing, at the time. “We made it for my mother's birthday, I think.”
It was a good memory, when she thought about it. They had turned out a little under-cooked the first time, but her mother had eaten a few of them just to appease her in the end.
“Yato, Yukine-kun, would you like to come with me when I take her the bread?” Deciding to speak up, she looked between the two. “You can help us finish them too, Yato. That way, it can be a gift from all three of us. And maybe you could even reconcile, after the last time.” Hiyori giggled behind her hand, remembering the first encounter that the deity had with the woman. It hadn’t been funny at the time, but...
“Sure, sure. She still owes me for calling me ‘evil’, anyway.” Yato crossed his arms, frowning. While he doubted that melon bread was a suitable peace offering, it was certainly a good place to start.
“You know she didn’t mean it like that. ...After the fact, anyway.” Hiyori responded, cheeks puffing out.
“Are they done yet?” Yukine crouched in front of the oven, peering in through the dimmed window. The biscuit crust had risen, the puffed out creases making it look like it the back of a turtle’s shell.
“Just a bit longer, from the looks of it The tops should be lightly browned.” Yato leaned over to peer in, straightening himself shortly after. “Just don’t let them get too dark. They get stiff, after that point.”
“‘Kay.” Yukine’s response was distracted, and Yato grinned as he stepped back over to Hiyori. “Thanks for letting him help you out, Hiyori. The kid needed it.” He was starting to get back to his normal self again, and Yato felt good enough to relax for the first time in ages.
“It’s no problem at all, Yato.” Hiyori linked her fingers together. “We had fun, and he looked kind of bored sitting behind the register. Business was pretty slow today.”
A thick silence settled between the two following her response, and she cleared her throat. “So, um...where did you go this morning? Yukine told me you weren’t there when he woke up. Kind of weird, with how much you’ve been keeping an eye on him.”
“I thought I’d be back before he got up.” Yato evaded the question. “Guess I just lost my sense of time. He’s fine, so that’s all that matters.” He shoved his hands into his pockets, hoping for some kind of distraction. He didn’t want to mention how heaven had called him back for questioning.
“But that doesn’t tell me wh--,”
“They’re done!” Interrupting the conversation, Yukine piped up from across the kitchen, pulling the oven door open and retrieving the pan with an oven mitt. “Hiyori, can you get the bento box for me?”
“Sure, Yukine-kun. They have to cool first, though!” Stepping away from Yato, Hiyori walked back into the kitchen to retrieve the requested bento. She could hear the two boys conversing in her absence--but she could only gather bits and pieces. Mostly, Yato asking Yukine how he was feeling and Yukine shrugging off the concern.
Then, Yukine harshly speaking over Yato as he started whining.
Hiyori giggled to herself, stopping where she was after taking the bento down from the shelf.
Were things... really going to be alright? Despite the days falling into some semblance of what they had been before, Hiyori couldn’t help but feel that something had changed.
Perhaps, with Yukine’s birthday coming up, it would give them a chance to look toward happier times. Foolishly optimistic thinking, sure; but she liked spending time with her friends, and wanted nothing more than for them to be happy with what they had in each other.
After all... sometimes, she really did feel like they were part of the same family.