Chapter Text
Friday nights at Oishi were normally the most hectic. When he decided to open his own restaurant in the heart of Kyoto, Sesshoumaru Taisho expected as much. He knew it wouldn’t be such an easy undertaking, especially if the chef opening said restaurant trained with one of Japan’s most famed chefs like he had done. It didn’t help that his father was something of a celebrity chef himself. He was expected to live up to his father’s legend, blending traditional Japanese cuisine with contemporary French cuisine, with a few Spanish touches.
What wasn’t expected were blowouts with sous chefs halfway through the evening, just when things were really beginning to really get crazy in the kitchen. Between making sure the right order went out to the right table, and the right things were plated together, the last thing he wanted to do was fight with the person he had taken on as his protégé.
“I told you, the crème sauce goes out with that dish, not the pesto!” he raged, throwing his dish towel onto the counter.
“And I told you that the pesto would go better with that dish!”
When he had taken Rin under his wing, he knew things would grow heated exceptionally fast. The girl had too much creativity for her own good, especially for someone who was supposed to be training under him. There were many conflicts when it came to what was on the menu, and what was to be paired with what. She had many of her own ideas, ideas that would have been perfect had it been her restaurant. Unfortunately, she wanted to rise higher on the ladder much faster than she was supposed to, creating many nights of tension in the kitchen of Oishi.
He shook his head. “When you are in charge of your own restaurant, you will be more than welcome to make menu changes. For now, you work under me. Your responsibility is to follow my menu the way I wrote it, not implement your own changes without consulting me first. Know. Your. Place.” The last words were uttered sharply through his teeth. Sesshoumaru swore he felt an eye tick coming on. No one inspired such irritation like she did.
“I know my place! My place is in a kitchen, just not yours.” Without hesitation, Rin pulled off her hat and smock, then calmly placed them on the prep table next to her. “Thank you for the opportunity to work for you, sir. I regret that we must part on such terrible terms.”
Sesshoumaru raged as his former protégé walked out of the kitchen and into the dining room. Where the hell was he going to find someone with her talent before his restaurant hosted the Kobayashi Communications gala? No one else who worked for him had the creativity that the tiny sprite of a girl had. They were general kitchen hands that followed directions when given and never thought outside of the box.
The thought plagued him for the rest of the evening. He had trained many, though finding someone with a true passion and knowledge of food and its preparation was like finding a needle in a haystack.
He considered contacting a few of the local culinary schools and browsing over their list of soon to be graduates. He had done it before, and it worked out well, but some of them just knew how to cook, not add personal touches or even just play with flavors. The person he needed had a passion for their profession, could follow directions, offer suggestions when the time was right, and had no fear of trying something new. He needed someone he could work with like a well oiled machine, someone who could anticipate his every move while he in turn anticipated every move they made before the thought to make said move ever occurred to them.
He wished that science was advanced enough to make a clone of himself. He would work great with himself, not counting the added fame Oishi would gain from being the first kitchen with a clone of its head chef actually working alongside the original copy.
As his staff broke the kitchen that night, he sat in his office and flipped through resumes. “Too young. Not enough experience. No experience in the culinary field. How does this man expect to go from fast food to gourmet?” His restaurant was hot - of course everyone and their brother, qualified or not, was going to drop off a resume. Some of them were laughable.
He lit a cigarette and leaned back in his chair, then pinched the bridge of his nose. It was definitely one of those nights where he would be going to the local ramen place for a beer. The little joint where many of the city’s chefs tended to gather after a long and hard day. After spending his days elbow deep in Kobe beef and other foods considered delicacies, it was nice to wrap up with a cheap beer, cheap food, and share horror stories with others. They could possibly suggest someone that could step in while he searched for another person to fill in for Rin.
Contacting his father was always an option. Knowing the old man, he would probably send him whatever fluffy television personality he was taken with that week. Sesshoumaru definitely didn’t have room for such a person in his kitchen. The eye candy would be appreciated, but not the idiocy.
He broke his attention when he heard someone in the doorway clearing their throat.
“Yes, Jaken?”
Jaken, his personal assistant of many years, walked into the small office and sat down in one of the chairs in front of his desk. “I see Rin finally had the courage to walk out.”
“Pardon?”
“She’s been talking about it for a month. Creative differences, or some nonsense. As if some slip of a girl could know more than the Great Chef Taisho!” he said haughtily.
Sesshoumaru sighed. “Jaken, this is not the time to boost my ego.” He leaned forward in his chair and put his cigarette into the ash tray on his desk. “I’ve got to find someone to replace Rin, and fast. The Kobayashi gala is in two weeks, and I need someone who knows what the hell they are doing in a kitchen. Most of these morons,” he said, gesturing to the pile of resumes, “couldn’t find their ass with both hands and a GPS system.”
“You might not like this suggestion, sir, but why not contact your brother?”
“You really must be out of ideas,” Sesshoumaru snorted. “He is one of those morons that cannot find his ass with both hands.”
“Yet he has the only restaurant in the city that rivals Oishi in popularity.”
As much as Sesshoumaru dreaded to admit it, Jaken had a point. His idiot of a brother was a damn good chef. If he didn’t have anyone to spare, he knew of someone who would be fit to do the job. Just as Jaken had pointed out, Inuyasha’s restaurant was the only one in the city that really seemed to hold a candle to his own place. Katana and Oishi did have similar cuisine on the menu, though his brother liked to take what would be normally blue collar street food and add a gourmet twist. The menu’s headliner was his brother’s favorite dish: ramen. Of course it was jazzed up to fit the more gourmet crowd, but either way, it was still ramen. The mere idea of serving ramen in a higher class restaurant made Sesshoumaru’s skin crawl.
“Call him,” he said, simply.
Jaken nodded. “I will do that first thing in the morning.”
“Call him tonight.”
“Yes, sir.”
Without as much as a goodbye, Jaken stood and left the office. Sesshoumaru knew his assistant didn’t want to call his brother after midnight, fearing that he might be asleep. Personally, he didn’t care either way. Drag the whelp out of bed. It would make up for the many times that he had been dragged out of bed by the kid in the middle of the night because he had gone out and gotten himself arrested. If he was going to lower himself to relying on the whelp, the least he could do was inconvenience him in the process.
As he locked up the restaurant for the night, he hoped Jaken would call with good news before he retired for the evening.
----------
“Hey, Kagome! You finished with those noodles yet?”
“I can’t make them cook any faster!”
After such a long and hectic day, watching the little Styrofoam cup of ramen spin in the microwave while it cooked was almost mesmerizing.
Kagome Higurashi loved her job beyond words. She worked for the most amazing boss (who tended to be a jerk, but she loved him anyway), in one of the most amazing restaurants, in an amazing city. She had come to the conclusion that she couldn’t ask for more. Well, she could, though she didn’t think that Mama, Souta, and Grandpa would be very likely to uproot their life in Tokyo to come live with her in her seedy little two bedroom apartment that was comfortable and cheap but had kitsch 1970‘s cabinetry in the kitchen.
At the age of eighteen, she shocked her entire family by deciding to go to culinary school. Never being the student with the perfect marks like her mother had wanted, Kagome begged off of going to university to study business like her family had urged her to do and instead went to culinary school. It didn’t please her family, but it made her happy. Several years and a study abroad trip in France later, she landed herself working in Katana, one of the hottest restaurants in the city of Kyoto working under head chef Inuyasha Taisho.
The first few months at Katana had been very hit and miss. She and Inuyasha butted heads nearly every moment of the workday. None of her ideas were good enough, and none of his were smart enough (she called him ‘dumbass’ more times than she cared to count in those first few months). He would expect too much of her on the days she wasn’t feeling up to par, and then not enough on the days she felt like she had won the lottery. With him, there was no in between - just extremes. It had taken quite some time for the two of them to find that happy medium where they actually worked well together and didn’t want to murder each other.
The ding of the microwave roughly pulled her away from her thoughts. Carefully, she pulled the steaming hot cup from the microwave and carried it to his office.
“Ramen, fresh from the microwave,” she said, handing him the cup.
When the hot Styrofoam hit his hands, he hissed a bit. “You weren’t supposed to nuke the entire cup! Are you sure you graduated from culinary school?”
“And a poached egg isn’t supposed to be completely solid like it’s been boiled. Are you sure you graduated from culinary school?” she shot back.
“Bitch.”
“Dogface.”
“Learn to cook.”
“Learn some manners.”
“When ramen is brought into play, manners go right out the window.” He ripped the little paper lid from the cup and tucked into his noodles like he hadn’t eaten in days. “I got a call from Jaken about an hour ago.”
“What did His Toadiness have to say?”
“The asshole needs a sous chef.”
“What exactly does he expect you to do about it? Your father would be a better bet than you.”
Inuyasha shook his head. “Dad would send one of his girls. No talent, big rack, legs for miles. Great to look at, not to work in your kitchen.”
“I still fail to see where you are supposed to help him. The two of you meet once every few weeks and sort through resumes together anyway, looking to hire new talent. Did he think he missed something between last week and now?”
Her impressions of Inuyasha’s brother weren’t very high. Between the tales of childhood misery from Inuyasha, and the rumors of how his kitchen was more run like a dictatorship than a kitchen, Kagome was not on the list of Sesshoumaru’s Number One Fans. Even though she hadn’t met him for more than a few minutes, something about him made her skin crawl. He was too cool and calm for someone who was supposed to work in a busy kitchen day in and day out. Even the look in his eyes seemed a little cruel.
“I suggested you,” Inuyasha said, avoiding her gaze.
“You what?!” She shot up from her place on the other side of his desk, planted her hands onto the desktop and leaned down toward him. “What in the hell were you thinking, Inuyasha Taisho? Of all of the moronic and stupid things you have ever done in your life, what the hell makes you think I want to work for him?”
“Look, Kagome, I don’t want to let you go -”
“Then don’t!” she cut him off. “I’m comfortable here! I know the menu, the staff, and the customers! I like it here!”
“Exactly,” he said, tossing his spent ramen cup into the waste bin. “You’re talented, but I can tell you’ve gotten bored. You don’t think like you did when I first hired you. A fresh start might do good.”
“But…but…” Her anger was quickly fading to tears, something that pissed her off more than Inuyasha trying to pass her off to his brother.
Inuyasha stood from his chair. “Shut up and come here,” he said, holding his arms out.
Without a second thought she rounded the desk and walked into his embrace. As embarrassing as it was, she sobbed into his chest. “I like it here.”
“I’m not sending you there for good, just until he can find a replacement for Rin. She walked out on him tonight and his standards are too high to hire just any yahoo off of the street. Oishi is hosting a large party in a few weeks and he needs someone who knows what the hell they’re doing now. After that, you can come back if you want.”
“I still think you’re a jerk,” she mumbled into his chest.
“And I think you’re right,” he replied. “Now get off of me, you made my shirt soggy.”
She laughed a bit as she pulled away. “When do I start?”
“I’ll drive you over tomorrow morning to meet with Lord Asswipe and His Toadiness. Be ready early or I’ll drag you out of bed and drive you over.”
“You wouldn’t!” she hissed.
“You know damn well I would, so wear some clothes to bed or risk being arrested for indecent exposure after I drag you up to Oishi naked. Now get out of here and get some sleep. I don’t think he wants to meet a zombie in the morning.”
----------
“I’m bringing Kagome tomorrow.”
“Your own sous chef?”
“Yeah. You’ll be hard pressed to find someone on such short notice that will meet your standards.”
“Does she know?”
“I told her tonight. She’s pissed.”
“I assumed as much, little brother. She had better be the talent in the kitchen that you say she is.”
“Oh, she is. Trust me. When have I ever lied to you?”
“When we were seven, and you broke my lightsaber. I knew it wasn’t the dog, you know.”
“Alright, since then, have I lied to you?”
“When you were sixteen and took my car for a -”
“Ok, I get the point. I haven’t lied to you in my adult life. And I’m not lying about her. She’s got more talent than nearly anyone I’ve ever worked with. She follows directions without asking questions, and doesn’t make split decisions on the floor that could fuck up a meal.”
“Where did she come from?”
“Le Cordon Bleu Tokyo. Specialized in French cuisine. Trained in Paris for almost two years under Henri Leveque, and then another few with some pastry chef in the south.”
“Will she fit my style?”
“She will change to suit. She’s versatile.”
“Fine. I will see you in the morning. Don’t be crushed if I send her away.”
“That just means I can keep her at my own place. I’m only sending her to you as a favor. Like Dad says, you shouldn‘t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
“Whatever. See you tomorrow.”
-click-
Sesshoumaru paced his apartment after he rudely hung up on his brother. He wasn’t as ignorant to the career and education of Kagome Higurashi as his brother thought. In fact, she had been one of the top candidates he was considering for Oishi until Inuyasha had snapped her up from underneath him. After hearing of her attitude from others that she worked with, he was glad in a way. Apparently she was a spitfire. On average she worked well with others but wasn’t afraid to light a fire under someone’s ass if they weren’t doing their job, or if they weren’t doing their job fast enough.
He hoped that she had mellowed since her return to Japan. It was his job to push his kitchen staff to their limit, not hers. He was the king and Oishi was the kingdom - she would know her place and she would like it.
A glance at the clock and he groaned. It was half past two in the morning, and he had to be at the restaurant at nine to meet with his brother and his prospective staff member. It would do no good for him to be late. After all, it was the first impression that mattered the most. He wanted to make sure that the first impression would be a lasting one, and the girl would realize exactly what she was getting herself into. He would be the first to admit that he wasn’t easy to work for, and that he demanded perfection in everything that went on in his establishment, so there was no reason to candy coat it. She would know what to expect and have the option to accept the position without any smoke and mirrors.
After setting the coffee pot for six, Sesshoumaru went through his normal routine before falling into bed and admiring the cityscape of Kyoto that his floor to ceiling windows offered him. It was truly a beautiful city.
———
The next morning, Sesshoumaru sat with his coffee and reflected on the events of the night before.
Through his brother he knew Kagome well enough, or so he thought. She was creative and had a bit of a smart mouth, was well educated, and knew how to run a fast paced kitchen as well as he did. While she had not been in the business quite as long he was positive that she would be an asset to Oishi’s staff.
He was a bit nervous, though; the gala was a huge deal for Oishi and he couldn’t afford to mess it up. His father had been instrumental in getting the gala to happen at his restaurant. Their relationship was not the best but there was that part of him that still wanted to make his father proud. He needed this gala to go off without a hitch.
He needed Kagome to be as good as his brother said she was.
———
Kagome was nervous as she and Inuyasha walked into Oishi. She had not seen Sesshoumaru for a long time. The last time she saw him he’d been a complete asshole, looking down upon his brother. Kagome doubted that he even remembered meeting her the few times that he did; he just struck her as that kind of man. Kagome was insignificant in his eyes until now when he needed her.
“Are you sure about this? We can turn back now and go home,” Kagome said to Inuyasha, her voice pleading. “He can find someone, I’m sure of it. This is one of the hottest places in town. Who wouldn’t want to work here.”
“It’s not about finding someone, it’s about finding someone who can do the job to the asshole’s standards,” Inuyasha told her. “You fit the bill, chick.”
“That, you do.” Sesshoumaru walked out of the kitchen and into the dining room where the two stood. “I’ve looked over your resume. It’s impressive.”
Kagome bowed. “Thank you, Taisho-san.”
“No need to be so formal. You’ve been in a kitchen long enough to know it’s not a place for formalities.”
“Alright, Sesshoumaru. Let’s get down to business then. I’ll be here for the two weeks before the gala and the gala itself. After such you’ll find another sous chef and I will return to Katana.” Kagome kept it cut and dry. She had a feeling that was the best way to be with the man.
Sesshoumaru nodded. “Correct. Then you never have to think about Oishi again.”
Kagome stuck out her hand. “Deal.”
He took her hand and firmly shook. “Now, let’s get into the kitchen and see what you can do.”