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Nee-san was cooking again.
Why oh why must she dream to be a normal housewife. Chiaki was reckless but even he was not that reckless to voice out that she would sooner kill her would be husband with her cooking than live normally with him.
Takeru and Jii would not let anyone skip dinner so that they don’t hurt Mako’s feelings.Tonight, she cooked seafood...if the lumpy dish of something and the burnt crisp fish can be called seafood. Chiaki shifted through the food carefully. When it comes to seafood, he was extremely cautious because of a life threatening shellfish allergy.
When he first came to live in the manor, his father called Jii and warned him about his allergy. Jii then gave Mako the same warning when she started cooking meals.
“Don’t worry, Chiaki. I made sure your dish doesn’t have any prawns.” Mako assured him. Sure enough, everyone else had an extra serving of not well cooked prawns, to Takeru, Ryuunosuke and Genta’s secret dismay. The Gold Samurai was already regretting accepting Takeru’s invitation to join them for dinner. The lord did this to make him suffer with them, Chiaki was sure.
Chiaki smiled weakly at her. “Thanks, Nee-san.”
Ryuunosuke gave him the stink eye at his luck for missing out on the prawns when he took a bite and immediately covered his mouth to stop himself from spitting it out.
“Ryuu-san, are you ok?” The ever kind Kotoha asked.
Ryuunosuke forced himself to swallow and grin. “Yeah! I’m fine! I just ate too fast just now!”
Chiaki rolled his eyes at Ryuunosuke’s antics. But there was no use delaying the inevitable. He picked out a piece of fish and quickly swallowed it before he could register the tar, burnt taste.
“Don’t swallow your food without chewing!” Mako scolded him.
“Sorry.” Chiaki ducked his head and stuffed more fish in his mouth, this time taking his time to properly chew. Three mouthfuls in, he already wanted to vomit everything out. It was as if the fish came alive in his stomach and was flopping around, sending everything inside churning and threatening to travel back up. That allegory grossed him out.
But there was no denying that Nee-san’s cooking was worse than usual. He normally didn’t suffer much as compared to Ryuunosuke and Takeru when eating her cooking (He always told his father that they were better off living on takeout than his cooking but he never listened). But this time, it was harder to hold his food down.
“...Chiaki, your arm!”
Chiaki was fixated on stopping himself from vomiting the content of his stomach that he didn’t realize that his arms had turned red with rash and welts until Kotoha’s cry.
Immediately Jii was in front of him and made him open his mouth to check for swelling. Chiaki cried in discomfort and just like that, everything in his stomach was thrown up.
Luckily Jii had anticipated this and had moved away from the mess.
“What’s wrong with him?” Takeru stood up in alarm. The rest of the samurai looked on in horror.
“He’s having an allergic reaction.” Jii said tightly, rubbing Chiaki’s back. Once Chiaki was done, he tried to gasp in air but found it difficult to breathe. Just like that, the severity of the situation went up a few notches.
“Get his injector from the medical kit!” Jii snapped at the Kurokos who were on standby. He made Chiaki lie on his side and made sure his swollen tongue was not blocking his airway. “Mako, what did you put in his fish?”
“Nothing! Just salt and pepper.” Mako shook her head, bewildered that the fish would trigger his reaction.
“Did you cook the prawns first or the fish?” Genta suddenly asked, looking uncharacteristically serious.
“The prawns…”
“Then did you wash the wok and utensils or use a new batch of oil before you cooked the fish?”
“No.”
Genta groaned and waved his hands. “Mako, that is dangerous! You should have cooked the fish first and kept it separate from the prawns! Or wash the wok and utensils thoroughly before using it again! The oil from the prawns was transferred onto the fish. That’s why Chiaki is having an allergic reaction to the fish.”
Mako’s face fell in dismay. She never intended to cause Chiaki harm with her cooking.
The Kuroko then hurried back with the epipen and Jii pressed the device against Chiaki’s thigh. Slowly, Chiaki’s wheezings died down but his face and arms were still red and blotchy.
“Tono, I am taking Chiaki to the hospital. He cannot go out to fight for the next few days.”
“I understand. Keep us posted.” Takeru nodded curtly. “Mako, until you take lessons from Genta on food preparation safety, you are not allowed to cook.” He said once Jii hauled Chiaki off to his car and the kuroko started cleaning up Chiaki’s mess.
“I understand.” Mako lowered her head in guilt.
Genta’s face softened and he patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry, it was an honest mistake. I didn’t learn this myself until my mentor made the same mistake. And Chiaki won’t blame you for it. You know how he is.”
“That’s right, Mako-chan.” Kotoha nodded in affirmation of Genta’s statement. “I’m sure that Chiaki will forgive you.”
“But maybe you might want to take proper lessons before you start cooking again.” Ryuunosuke input with a queasy look. Best to suggest that now when Mako was more open to it.
“Alright.” Mako sighed. She gave the men a resigned smile. “None of you actually like my cooking, right?”
They looked away sheepishly but nodded. Mako picked on her charred fish with a pinched look but nodded in understanding. “I got it. I’ll train myself to be better so that all of you can enjoy my meals.”
Takeru managed a small smile at her. “We’ll look forward to it.”
Everyone cleared up their dishes to give the kuroko a break since they had to clean up Chiaki’s vomit. Takeru later checked his messages and found one from Jii.
“Chiaki will stay at the hospital overnight for observation but he is better now.” Takeru read out loud for the benefit of the retainers.
“Ah, that’s good.” Ryuunosuke sighed in relief. He then smiled crookedly. “Chiaki is probably rejoicing that he can skip training tomorrow.”
“He won’t be when he learns that he has to do make-up work for it.” Takeru said nonchalantly.
“Take-chan, that’s a bit harsh, don’t you think? He just got suffocated and has to deal with the aftermath.” Genta grimaced on his friend’s behalf.
“He’ll be insufferable if I don’t give him something to do.”
“That’s true.” Ryuunosuke agreed solemnly.
When Chiaki got back, no one was surprised to hear the indignant scream from the manor when they gathered in the yard for training.