Work Text:
There was flour everywhere.
Momo blames it on the small kitchen. It was, at least in part, responsible, being rather small and cramped. One quick turn and smack! An arm-to-flour-bag collision sent the product flying to the floor, landing in a cloud of white powder.
And it was loud, too, making a rather distinct thump that likely resonated through the entire apartment.
And throughout the entire apartment meant—
“Mary!”
The girl jumps from her position across the kitchen, dropping the measuring cups and spoons she had been carrying to squeak nervously.
“Don’t let danchou see this!”
As if on cue, a door down the hallway could be heard creaking open. Mary squeaks again and stumbles towards Kido’s room, tripping over her own feet in the process. Momo stands and listens as the girl attempts to urge the disoriented gang leader back into her room, idly brushing off the coating of flour that covered her entire being.
Kido’s voice is rough when she starts asking questions. “What happened? What fell?”
“Nothing! Nothing! It’s fine—everything’s fine so, please, um, go back to your room now! Get more rest, you’re still sick!” Mary yelled in response, voice faltering and increasing in pitch as she went.
“It’s only a slight fever, I’m fine. I don’t understand why you guys are so—”
Mary, not knowing what else to do, screams. In surprise, Kido responds with a sharp yelp. They were probably, most likely, definitely causing a disturbance by now.
“What’s wrong? What’s going on? Where’s Momo?” Kido questions Mary, frantically now, her voice becoming a hoarse whisper due to illness.
“Um, I, um,” Momo hears as Mary struggles to keep Kido from walking into the kitchen and nearly steps out to help while still half covered in flour. Instead, she opts to respond from the kitchen.
“I’m dealing with it, don’t worry danchou!”
“But what is it, that’s all I’m asking—”
“It is being dealt with!”
There was a brief pause, leaving the apartment in silence. Momo strains to hear Kido mutter a soft, resigned “forget it, whatever it is, I don’t want to know,” and turning around to return to her room. Mary returns, red-faced and pouting with her hair puffed out. Momo laughs nervously.
“Thanks for helping me,” she says, voice shaking a bit. “Now, to clean this up and get back to making that cake…” Momo trails off, turning around only to nearly trip over an entire person who had seemingly appeared out of thin air.
Another startled yell erupts in the apartment. “Watch it, auntie!” Hibiya huffs, crossing his arms. At some point he must have snuck up behind her. Momo glares down at the boy, starting to prepare a lengthy, irritated response. But instead of yelling, Momo collects herself and simply pushes the boy aside, striding towards the broom.
“Huh. So your girlfriend’s needs override your need to chew me out for everything I say? Jeez…” Hibiya mumbles.
“She’s not my—I mean, she is, but don’t. Don’t say it that way,” Momo responds, beginning to sweep the flour up as Hibiya picks up the fallen bag. “Hey, how much is left in that? Do you think there’s still enough for a cake?”
“A small one, maybe. There’s like, half a cup of flour left in here.”
“How much does a cake usually need?”
Hibiya stares. Momo holds her ground. “Don’t you have a recipe or something?”
Well.
“I was getting to it.” She averts her eyes.
Hibiya sighs dramatically. “Look up a recipe on your phone. I’ll grab what we’ll need.” He starts to shuffle about the kitchen, collecting ingredients and supplies with a scowl on his face.
Momo bites back another retort and starts searching for recipes to use, figuring there was no use in arguing right now. Mary jumps in to assist Hibiya, cleaning the dirtied utensils she had dropped earlier.
Hibiya sets up everything they need neatly on the small counter space they have, while Momo carefully measures each ingredient as he directs. Mary starts operating the mixer, but after a shared glance between Momo and Hibiya and Mary’s hair, she’s relegated to cleaning up after the two instead.
It’s an effort that takes about an hour longer than it should, but when they finish icing the cake, the three share a moment of pride together. Hibiya seems satisfied with the result, and Mary’s eyes sparkle as she fawns over how pretty it looks—despite the slightly deformed shape and thin, rather haphazardly spread reddish-brown icing.
Momo cuts a generous sized piece for Kido and addresses the other two, beaming. “Thanks for all your help, team! Feel free to help yourself to some of the rest, or something!” Not that there was much left, considering the circumstances, but Momo had skipped out of the room before either could point it out.
Once they hear Kido’s door open and close, Hibiya and Mary lean against the counter, sighing in unison.
“I’m not even hungry,” Hibiya mumbles first under his breath, then speaks up: “We should probably—”
Mary stretches and yawns suddenly. “That was a lot of hard work! I think I’m gonna go… take a nap…” Already almost asleep somehow, Mary drags her feet out of the kitchen and disappears into her own room.
“—clean. We should—I’ll clean. Okay.” Hibiya makes his way to the sink.
Momo practically bounces into Kido’s room, cake balanced precariously on the plate held behind her back. “Kido! I have a surprise for you!”
“Were you baking?” Kido responds without hesitation.
Momo stops in her tracks a few steps away from her bed. “Ah… You…”
“Smelled it?” Kido chuckles a little. Momo regains her composure a few seconds later, finishing her journey to the bed, plopping down beside Kido and presenting the cake to her.
“Well, whatever. Look! We worked really hard on this!” Momo nearly glows with satisfaction. Kido gingerly takes the plate from her.
“Ah,” Kido says. “Thank you.” The plate sits on her lap. She stares down at it.
Momo continues to give her a look, one of adoration and anticipation and love and Kido has the choice to either swallow down her hopeless devotion to her girlfriend or swallow down the cake in front of her on an upset stomach, risking further nausea or worse.
“I’m sick, you know.” She states. Momo nods, about to respond when Kido continues. “So I can’t… really eat this right now. You know?”
The realization seems to dawn on Momo rather painfully, and in seconds the girl has apologies spilling from her mouth like a waterfall. Kido can’t even get a word in edgewise to stop the torrent of despair coming from Momo, who seems to think that she’s ruined everything—I’m so sorry, how rude of me, I should’ve known better, oh danchou, I’m sorry—
Kido stabs a piece of the cake with a fork suddenly, causing Momo to freeze. In that moment, she leans over to shove the bite into Momo’s opened mouth.
“It looks good though, so you should at least enjoy it.” Kido says, smiling and slipping the fork from between Momo’s lips and taking another piece. She offers it to the other girl, gently this time. Momo squints at the cake, then at Kido, before tentatively accepting the treat.
“It is good… I’m sorry you can’t have it. After all that trouble we went through, too.” Momo glances to the side, still embarrassed. She accepts another piece offered by Kido, licking icing from her lips after swallowing.
Kido would have blushed at that, had her cheeks not already been flushed from the fever. There were things about being sick to be thankful for after all, she thought.
She ends up feeding Momo the rest of the cake in a calm silence; broken only by soft chuckles when Kido’s hand misses its target and smears cake across Momo’s cheek. Had she been a bit bolder, Kido fantasizes, she might have licked off the sugary substance. Instead she watches as Momo tries and fails to stick her tongue out and lick off the icing herself, the two falling apart into a fit of giggles.
Once Momo finishes up the cake, she takes the plate and fork, leaning down to give Kido a kiss. Before she can do so, however, Kido covers her own mouth and puts a hand to Momo’s forehead. Momo blinks in confusion.
“I don’t want you to get sick too.” Kido hastily explains.
Momo lets out a soft noise of understanding, then removes Kido’s hand from her forehead and moves in towards the other girl anyways. She presses her own button nose to Kido’s pointed one, pushes their foreheads together, and nuzzles her. Kido’s flushed face reddens tenfold, her body stiffening up a little, then relaxing. Bashfully, she returns the show of affection. Momo quickly pecks her on the forehead before pulling away.
“Alright, well you rest up a little more. Hopefully Kano and Shintaro will be back with some medicine to bring down your fever soon enough.” Momo reassures, grinning.
“Doubtful.” Kido mutters, smiling back.
As predicted, the duo doesn’t return until two hours later; Seto for some reason in tow, seeming rather disoriented from being pulled away from whatever job he had been working at for some odd reason. Likely to settle whatever argument Shintaro and Kano had gotten into, one probably provoked by Ene.
By that point, Momo crossly points out, Kido had already fallen back asleep, out like a light for the rest of the night.
The medicine gets tucked away in a cabinet for future purposes, and Konoha ends up consuming the remaining cake.