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“Like this, dude?”
“Yeah, but don’t let the veggies sit too long or they’ll stick to the bottom.”
“Yes, chef!” Josuke scraped up a couple of carrots from the bottom of the pan. The kitchen smelled amazing. Between Okuyasu’s cooking and their combined pile of video games, the long weekend that stretched out before them promised to be fun.
“Hmm. Looks good, you can put in the chicken now.” Okuyasu handed over a bowl of chopped chicken breast and Josuke dumped it in.
“Smells good,” Tomoko said approvingly from the kitchen doorway.
Josuke turned and grinned at her. “Check it out, mom—Okuyasu’s teaching me!”
“Well, I hope he has better luck than I did.” Tomoko laughed, crossing the short distance to the stove and giving Josuke a peck on the cheek. “Are you sure you boys will be okay alone in the house?”
“Mom.” Josuke rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry, we can take care of ourselves.”
Tomoko sighed. “Be careful this weekend, okay?”
Josuke pouted. “What do you think we’re gonna do, burn the house down?”
“With you two, I’m never sure.”
“Appreciate the vote of confidence,” Josuke muttered.
“Don’t give me that, Josuke,” Tomoko scolded. “I’m leaving you alone for the weekend, aren’t I?”
“It’ll be fine, mom, I promise.”
“Okuyasu,” Tomoko said, standing on her tip-toes and kissing him on the forehead. “Try to keep him out of trouble, okay?”
Okuyasu blinked. “Y-yeah. ‘Course, Ms. Higashikata.”
Tomoko picked up her bag. “I’ll see you boys on Sunday, okay?”
“Bye, mom.”
Tomoko picked up her bag. The front door snicked shut behind her a few moments later. Josuke turned his attention back to the pan.
“How does this look, bro?”
Okuyasu, who was standing next to him blankly, said nothing.
“Hey, Okuyasu!” Josuke waved a hand in front of his face, and he blinked. “You okay?”
“…Yeah,” Okuyasu replied, unconsciously touching the place on his forehead where Tomoko had kissed him. “I…yeah.”
“What’s up?” Josuke put down the spatula.
“I just…huh. That reminded me of my mom.” Okuyasu sat at the kitchen table, still touching the same spot lightly.
“You wanna talk about it?”
Okuyasu shrugged.
Josuke abandoned the pan and sat in the chair next to him. “C’mon, dude, talk to me.”
“I just don’t have a lot of memories of her, y’know? She died when I was really small. Keicho mostly took care of me after that, since dad was too distracted to pay any attention to us. I mostly just remember her voice.” Okuyasu looked down at his hands. “She used to kiss me on the forehead like that all the time and tell me I was smart. No one else’s ever told me I’m smart, Josuke.” Okuyasu’s lip trembled. “They mostly just get mad at me for messing things up.”
“Hey, don’t say that,” Josuke said, covering his hand with his own. “You are smart, Oku.”
Okuyasu looked away. “I know I’m not. Have you seen my grades?”
“Book smarts and real life smarts aren’t the same thing, dude.”
Okuyasu sighed. “I dunno, bro. I guess I just…I miss my mom, y’know?” He wiped roughly at his eyes. “She’s been gone for a long time, and ever since my bro died it’s just been me and dad, and there’s not really anyone who takes care of me anymore. But when I come over here your mom treats me like I’m part of the family, and it’s really nice, y’know?”
“You are part of the family, dude.” Josuke squeezed his hand. “I think my mom worries about you a lot. You know you can always come over here, right?”
“Yeah.” Okuyasu blew his nose on a paper towel. “Thanks, Josuke.”
The shrill screech of the smoke alarm startled both of them. Okuyasu fell out of his chair. Josuke whirled around to see the stove in flames, smoke pouring from the charred remains of the meal they’d been making.
“Shit! I forgot to turn off the stove!”
Josuke leapt to his feet and dug for the fire extinguisher under the kitchen cabinet, spraying it at the conflagration on the stove until the fire was gone. He dropped it and surveyed the damage. It was pretty bad—the wall and ceiling above were blackened, and the stove itself was a mess of chicken blackened to charcoal and foam from the fire extinguisher.
Josuke sighed. “Well, I guess I had that coming after what happened to Rohan’s house. At least we got it before it spread too far.” He turned to Okuyasu. “Hey, wanna order out instead—?”
Okuyasu’s face was buried in his hands, his shoulders shaking.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Josuke asked with concern.
“This is all my fault!” Okuyasu sobbed. “Your kitchen caught on fire because of me—”
“Dude, it’s fine—”
“—and now your mom is going to hate me!” Okuyasu looked up, and tears were pouring from his eyes. “She’s never going to kiss me on the forehead again—”
“Okuyasu, come on.” Josuke knelt on the floor beside Okuyasu and put an arm around him. “She’s not gonna be mad, I promise.”
“You don’t know that!”
“I do, but that’s beside the point. Dude, my mom loves you. Even if you burned the whole house down, she wouldn’t hate you. I told you you’re part of the family, right? Your family wouldn’t hate you for making a simple mistake. Besides, it’s more my fault than yours.”
“What are we gonna do?” Okuyasu wailed.
Josuke grinned. “Dude, did you seriously forget about Crazy Diamond?”
Okuyasu sniffled. “Oh. R-right. Yeah. Maybe.”
Josuke got to his feet. “I got this.”
Crazy Diamond had already manifested beside Josuke. Under his stand’s steady hands, the blistered paint on the walls and ceiling flattened and smoothed. The foam from the fire extinguisher flew back into the nozzle. The blackened remains of what was supposed to be their dinner reverted back to recognizable ingredients distributed neatly across several bowls and cutting boards. If anything, the kitchen looked better than it had before they started. Even the smoke in the air was gone.
“See, Okuyasu?” Josuke gave him a squeeze. “No harm done. Mom’s never gonna know. You don’t have to worry, okay?”
Okuyasu took a deep breath. “Yeah. Okay.” He wiped his eyes. “I’m sorry, Josuke…”
“Don’t be, dude. Everything’s fixed. We can even start over cooking if you want. Or we can go out and get burgers or something—I think mom left some money in case something like this happened. I hate to admit it, but she knows me pretty well.”
“Not just for that. For all the stuff about my mom, too. I didn’t mean to unload on you like that…it just kinda hit me all at once…”
“Hey.” Josuke sat back down and looked into his eyes. “Don’t apologize for that, Okuyasu. I’m serious. Keeping all of that bottled up has got to be hurting you. You can talk to me about it whenever you need to, okay? I promise I’ll never be mad.”
Okuyasu’s eyes spilled over again.
“Come here, dude.” Josuke pulled him up into a hug. “Everything’s okay. You can let it out. We can stay here as long as you need to.”
Okuyasu buried his face in Josuke’s shoulder and sobbed. Josuke stayed with him on the kitchen floor and held him, rocking ever so slightly back and forth and murmuring words of comfort until it was over.