Work Text:
Kaori sighs as she grabs more ingredients. She just wanted to make a nice meal for her team, was that too much to ask?
It hadn’t seemed like a lot, not when two of the other managers and Yukie had offered to help. But then the other teams had called their managers back, and Yukie had been sent to go help Coach out, and well, here she was.
She takes a breath, she could do this! Yukie would probably be back soon, and Kaori would trudge on alone until then. The team gave everything their all, she could give hers too.
So she starts, separating her ingredients first. She could do this, if she worked double time she’d probably be able to finish before dinner.
She trips three times before someone pops in to check on her.
“Oh is that karaage?” Konoha asks, eyeing the chicken Kaori has laid out.
Kaori starts, “That?” She asks, “No, I’m making tatsuaage with that.”
“Aw, are you sure?” Konoha asks, stepping into the kitchen, “It might not be- Woah you have a lot of food out.”
“Yeah,” Kaori breathes out, surveying the messy kitchen in front of her.
Konoha glances around, “Is no one helping you? It looks like you have a lot…” He looks at her. “I could help y’know?”
“Well…” Kaori sighs, biting her lip.
This was supposed to be for the team, wouldn’t making them help defeat the point? Plus, “Don’t you have practice?”
“We’re on break right now actually! And I’m sure our coaches won’t mind if I’m helping one of our wonderful, hardworking, managers. I’ll let someone on the team know.” Konoha finishes, walking over to the sink to wash his hands.
Kaori still hesitates. She could still finish on her own, and if they were on break then Yukie would be back soon right? Could Konoha even cook-
“Hey! I know that look! That’s the ‘this guy totally can’t cook’ look!” Konoha protests. “I’ll have you know that I cook at least once a week!”
She raises an eyebrow, “Oh really? Is your food good then?”
“Hey, nobody said anything about good,” Konoha responds, smile wide as he finishes washing his hands and plants himself in front of Kaori, “Okay I’m ready. Put me in coach!”
Kaori laughs, but relents, tossing him an apron.
Konoha is an eager helper and Kaori has him put to work quickly, apron on and digging through the cabinets for the pan he needs. She mentally pats herself on the back and gets to work herself, Konoha would be helpful, but they still had quite a bit of work ahead of them.
She huffs and straightens up, it was time to get to work! They would make a meal so great the team wouldn’t know what hit them!
So Kaori works for a bit, going through ingredients to try and start another dish while she lets Konoha handle the tatsuta-age. She glances over every now and then to make sure that he’s sticking to the recipe and not trying to make karaage instead, but he’s cooking dutifully, checking the recipe every so often and whistling to himself. She smiles as she sets her apron straight and walks to the other counter to start preparing the jiaozi.
She’s only able to focus for two seconds before looking back at Konoha, only to see him toss all the ingredients on the counter carelessly.
Kaori squints at Konoha as he pulls out the seaweed, “Be careful with that okay? If you rip it all before we can use it, you’re the one buying more,”
Who taught him how to prep ingredients?
“I’m not going to rip it! I can be careful too,” Konoha defends, pointing at her with the seaweed, “I pose no threat to this seaweed.”
As he says this someone comes bounding down the hall, and pops their head into the kitchen, startling both of them and making Konoha drop the seaweed.
“Akaashi! I found them!” Bokuto yells as he smiles from the entrance, “They’re in the kitchen!”
“Thank you Bokuto-san, but I could hear you perfectly well without yelling,” Akaashi replies, walking up to Bokuto. He nods at them, “Are you busy?”
Kaori blinks and shakes herself out of her Bokuto induced shock. She sends a quick glare at Konoha for dropping the seaweed, then turns back to Akaashi, “I’m sure practice needs you two more, we’re just cooking right now. We-”
“Cooking? I want to help!” Bokuto interrupts running into the kitchen and grabbing an apron. Kaori glances at Akaashi, brow raised.
“I think it’s normal for him to cook at home with his family. We can help out here if you would allow us to,” He replies, already walking over to the aprons and guiding Bokuto to the sink. “But, if you rather not, we can leave.”
Kaori raises her other eyebrow in amusement, watching as Bokuto dries his hands and rushes over to Konoha, asking questions a mile a minute and looking at the ingredients and recipe. She had a feeling that even if she wanted them out, Bokuto wouldn’t be going anywhere.
“It’s fine Akaashi, I appreciate having more hands.” She shifts over to the other end of the counter and waves him over. “Is there anything you want to do? What do you usually make at home?”
“Oh,” Akaashi replies as he walks over, “I… usually don’t cook. I’m not too sure what I’d be good at…”
She blinks at him.
Well, she could work with that. Bokuto was already chopping up ingredients like he did it every other day (maybe he did?). Konoha was very obviously avoiding him, giving the knife in Bokuto’s hands a concerned glance.
“Oh?” Another voice chimes before Kaori can decide what to do with Akaashi. She turns to see Yukie in the doorway. “Have I been replaced as sous-chef?”
“Yes,” Konoha says immediately, sticking his tongue out at her.
“That’s so sad… guess we won’t be having that yakiniku donburi I was preparing then..?”
Konoha drops the act immediately, “Now now, let’s not be hasty! Of course you’re our sous-chef!”
“Hmm, that’s what I thought,” Yukie replies, washing her hands and walking over to the fridge. “Kaori, everything is still in the fridge right?”
“It should be?” Kaori responds, “But I think some of the other managers came in earlier to drop off their own food so it might be-” She was cut off by Yukie opening the fridge and a flood of containers falling out of it. “…buried.” Kaori turns to Akaashi, giving him a friendly smack on the back. “Akaashi you can help by sorting that out with Yukie and finding our meat.”
Akaashi nods and heads over to kneel down by where Yukie is trying to re-organize the fridge.
Kaori gets at most another two minutes of peace before the comfortable focus of the kitchen is interrupted again. She’s trying to chop her ingredients before she hears the door open and someone murmur ‘called it.’
She turns to see Komi walk in with Sarukui and Washio close behind.
“Is anyone on the team actually practicing?” Kaori asks as they peer over her shoulder at her food.
“Onaga-” Komi’s phone pings. “Is on his way here now, so no.”
“Go make yourselves useful then,” She says, smacking away Sarukui’s hand before it can reach her food. “I think if Yukie puts any more tupperware on Akaashi, he’ll collapse.”
They turned to look at where Akaashi was trying to balance at least 15 containers. They nodded and started towards him.
Kaori quickly grabbed Washio and Komi, “We don’t need five people on fridge duty! You two go make sure Bokuto doesn’t accidentally give Konoha a stab wound,” She tells them, pushing them to the other counter.
They quickly take the knife from Bokuto’s hand before he can knick Konoha, who has gotten as far from Bokuto as he could, trying to hide behind Yukie.
She sighs fondly before giving them her ingredients and reminding them to make sure they didn’t burn themselves on the stove. Then goes back to more prep, letting herself get lost in the chaos of the kitchen as they work.
“Don’t put the ginger and mushrooms in yet! It’s too hot!”
“It’s not garlic Bokuto, it’ll be fine,” Konoha replies, followed by twin yelps as the mushrooms jump in the pan.
Meanwhile, Akaashi peeks inside one of his many containers. “Is this what we’re using for the spice?” He asks, holding up a red pepper.
“Akaashi… are you touching that with your bare hands?” Yukie asks.
“..yes?”
“Akaashi… put that down and don’t touch your face until you’ve washed your hands thoroughly.”
Kaori chuckles to herself quietly, well no better way to learn than doing it yourself. Onaga had already arrived and was being coerced into being a taste tester, getting called over and spoonfed whatever had been finished.
Kaori jumps as she goes to give the other side of the kitchen her ingredients and comes face to face with Bokuto.
“Konoha’s siew mai looks better than mine,” Boktuo whines, holding up his attempt at the wrap.
She stifles a laugh and pats him on the shoulder, “It’s just for us, so it doesn’t matter what it looks like as long as it’s tasty! Taste is most important!”
Bokuto perks up immediately, nodding in agreement and scampering back to the others. Kaori finds herself smiling again as she watched them work, and found her smile grow even more when they motioned for her to join them.
—
Kaori raises an eye at the table in front of her. She said that she didn’t care about plating but well, maybe she should have said it still has to look edible.
“I promise it tastes good!” Onaga says quickly. “I tried almost everything and it all seemed okay!” He continues, Akaashi nodding in agreement.
Well, if they both said it was good then it should be right? Kaori tells herself this as she takes a seat at the table, the rest of the team slowly following.
They stared at the food suspiciously, wondering who would take the first bite.
“Bokuto as our captain it’s only fair that you-”
“I think Kaori should eat first!” Bokuto states, and Kaori wonders where she went wrong with him. “She was the first one to start cooking! She was willing to do all that hard work alone so that we could have a nice meal together! It’s only fair she gets to enjoy it first.”
That was… a lot sweeter than Kaori had been expecting. She ignores the way her eyes were watering, telling herself it was from spending too long in the kitchen. She takes a bite, the team leaning in expectantly.
Kaori chews it thoughtfully, and swallows. They lean in closer.
“It’s good!” She announces, the team cheering in response.
They all start shoveling food onto their plates and Kaori laughs as she watches them argue over who gets what. The sound of her laughter draws their attention, and they all glance at her empty plate for a second before scrambling to hand her some of their food. Even Yukie nudges her and lets her take a bite of her onigirazu, the seaweed broken from where they had put too much rice.
“Thank you,” Yukie whispers as they watch the team talk, “This really wouldn’t have happened without you.”
Kaori smiles, but she doesn’t think that’s true. They all needed to be there to make a team. But she shrugs it off, deciding to let herself enjoy the food for now.
She hums as she takes another bite, it really was delicious.