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On the days that there were no adventures, which were most of them, Banjo and Kazooie would stay home.
Following their first-ever adventure, Banjo was eager to return to their lax routine. Sure there were some upsides to adventuring — getting to kick the butts of all manner of creeps and ne'er-do-wells and helping others, for two — but spending the day rotating between sleeping in, playing video games and strumming a few chords on his banjo suited Banjo a lot more. Even Kazooie had, more or less, accepted the monotony, only occasionally setting out on her own to stretch her wings.
For these outings, early morning was almost always the best time to go, Kazooie found. And once she'd manage to wriggle herself out of a slumbering Banjo's arms, Kazooie would depart from their sleepy home to glide over the familiar peaks and valleys of Spiral Mountain as the sun rose.
Despite her outings being, admittedly, dull, sometimes, on rare occasions, she would happen across something interesting — something interesting like Banjo's little sister standing outside of her cottage, attempting to wave her down.
Kazooie furrowed at the sight. She really didn't want to pause her flight, but at the same time, there could've been something wrong…
"Alright, where's the fire, Tooty?" She puffed once she landed, earning a giggle from the pajama-clad cub.
"Good morning, Kazooie!" Tooty beamed, almost immediately quelling whatever worries the breegull may have had about there being an emergency with her overly-chipper greeting. "There's no fire, but I do have something special for you and Banjo!" Without elaborating further, Tooty skipped back into her cottage, leaving the door ajar for Kazooie to follow.
Upon entering, Kazooie was treated to the sight of Tooty's messy kitchen; it standing in contrast to the apple-pie order of the rest of her home.
Smatterings of batter, flour and globs of honey clung to most of the kitchen's surfaces, leaving Kazooie to gingerly tiptoe as she approached. "You know one of the rules of cooking is to clean as you go, right?" She quipped. How a small bear was capable of creating such a mess was beyond her. The only portion of her kitchen that wasn't entirely untidy was the table where a neat bundle sat, and judging from how Tooty was practically bouncing as she looked at it, she assumed that that must've been their "something special".
"Ta-da!" Tooty piped, gesturing towards the tallish bundle. "It's a cake!" She added before pausing for a yawn. "The recipe was kind of hard, so I spent all night baking to get it right. I really hope that you guys enjoy."
To that, Kazooie could feel her heart melt some. She wasn't entirely so jaded as to not appreciate a thoughtful surprise when one presented itself. "Tooty, thank you. I'm sure it's great." She spoke before going over to wrap her wings around the cub, melting even more when Tooty responded in-kind with her arms reaching around her. "You could've put a bunch of rocks or a mud pie in there, and I still think we'd love it."
"Tell you what," Kazooie began as she pulled away. "If you go to bed right now, I'll clean up the kitchen some, and fly back home as soon as possible so we can appreciate this master work of baking." As much as she didn't want to clean, it wouldn't sit right with her to leave a tuckered out Tooty to clean up all by herself, especially after being given such a present.
Tooty only responded with a sleepy, but appreciative, smile before shuffling towards her bed, too tired to object.
Once she was sure that Tooty was asleep, Kazooie began cleaning what she could — wiping up stray, sticky smatterings with a dish towel clutched underfoot, (carefully) dumping used pans and bowls and utensils into the sink and returning ingredients to their rightful places.
By the time she was done with tidying, the sun had since crested over the horizon, covering Spiral Mountain with its light. And without much else to do, Kazooie snapped up the package with her beak before exiting, leaving Tooty to rest.
When Kazooie returned home, she expected to see her bear in bed and snoozing as soundly as ever, so to catch him instead up and making coffee momentarily caught her off guard.
"G'morning, Kazooie. What've you got there?" Banjo asked, glancing over his shoulder.
"You're up early." Kazooie quipped after setting the bundle on the counter beside Banjo. "And that's a cake — Tooty baked it as a special present for Spiral Mountain's two greatest, most fearless heroes." She added, boasting. "Whatever's in there, I hope it has bird seed."
Banjo warily rubbed over his nose at that, having got a particularly aggressive peck there not too long ago, "Well, you weren't exactly being gentle when you got out of bed today." He commented before rubbing hands together as the cake that they were about to share took precedence over the pinch. "Let's open it up and see then!" He spouted before taking the bundle in hand and undoing its ribbons.
To Banjo's delight, inside sat a cake — a honeycomb surprise cake, to be exact — in all its stacked, saccharine goodness. "I'll get plates, yeah?" He offered, hardly pausing for an answer before rummaging through the cupboard, leaving Kazooie to observe the towering, bird seed-less dessert. It was impressive, she supposed, how much sticky honeycomb Tooty managed to pile on top of one cake.
When he returned, Banjo had two plates in one paw and two mugs of coffee clutched in the other, setting both down onto the kitchen table before going back over to the counter to retrieve the cake, a knife and a straw for Kazooie. "One for you, m'lady," cutting a small slice, Banjo set it on her plate, chuckling at the annoyed groan he got from his friend. "And one for me." He said before plopping a generous portion onto his own plate.
Forgoing forks, Banjo gobbled down his cake while Kazooie hopelessly pecked away at her own.
It was only when Banjo was about to cut his second slice that he took notice of Kazooie's plate, her own cake sat untouched as she instead took to crabbily sipping her coffee (or as crabby as anyone could look while sipping through a crazy straw). When he thought about it, he hadn't seen Kazooie eat anything taller than a strawberry on her own. And with that in mind, Banjo cut himself another slice and pinched a smaller piece with his fingers, being sure to include a good amount of frosting with it.
"Hey, Kazooie, open your beak."
Kazooie gave him an exasperated once over at that. "Your paws are dirty." She stated before returning to her coffee, blowing bubbles into it.
"I could lick them clean, if you want?" He suggested, teasingly inching his free, frosting-coated paw up to his mouth and earning a revolted squawk from his bird.
"Alright, whatever.." she sighed before opening her beak and allowing for Banjo to feed her the honeyed treat.
"Good, huh?" He asked through a mouthful of cake, having wasted no time in returning back to eating.
"Yeah, Banjo." Kazooie answered once she swallowed, tittering some at the sight of her friend before reaching over to sweep away some stray crumbs. "Tooty really outdid herself." She added before opening her beak again for another taste, which Banjo was happy to indulge.