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Yakumo always loves being in the kitchen, but in winter it's truly the perfect place for him. The fires and stoves keep the room warmer than the rest of the mansion, so rather than succumbing to his serpentine urge to brumate through the cold days, Yakumo has energy to spare for his favorite pastime: cooking for the people he loves. And he can view the beautiful snowy scenery through the kitchen's windows - the ideal way for him to enjoy the season.
On this particular morning, Yakumo is watching the snowflakes fall outside the window as he cleans up after breakfast. He'd made a recipe Eiden had taught him: slices of bread soaked in batter and cooked in a skillet, served with butter and maple syrup. Apparently Eiden had learned it at the part-time job he'd once had at a place called "Denny's" back in his former world. As Yakumo hand washes the dishes, he hears the door to the kitchen open behind him.
"Little Yakumo!"
Yakumo turns around with a smile. Blade bounds toward him, his footsteps silent despite his exuberance. In his hands is a book Yakumo recognizes from perusing the mansion's library: a collection of baking recipes.
"Little Yakumo, look!" Blade exclaims. He holds out the book and opens it to a particular page. "These cookies are so cute!"
Yakumo looks at the page. The cookies in question are a popular confection for Kleinmas: small mounds of sweet dough covered in powdered sugar to evoke the image of fresh snow. "Oh, those do look cute," Yakumo replies. "They look like your fluffy puffies, right?"
Blade smiles. "Yeah! They look like the fluffy puffies, and snow, and Darling!" Yakumo tilts his head, trying to find an angle at which the cookies resemble Eiden, but as usual, he can only assume that Blade's perception of the world is different from his own. Fortunately Blade doesn't seem to expect a response from him about that. "They're very cute, so I wanna try making them for everyone!" Blade continues. "But Darling said I should ask for help when I'm cooking..." Blade looks up at him with the most sweetly pleading expression imaginable. "Little Yakumo, can you help me?"
Yakumo's chest flutters, and he feels a blush rising in his cheeks. "O-Of course!"
"Yay!" Blade throws his arms around Yakumo, enveloping him in a hug. "Thank you, Little Yakumo!"
Yakumo isn't sure at first whether to return the hug, as his hands are still wet and soapy. But surely Blade of all people won't mind if his clothes get a bit of soap and water on them, right? Yakumo raises his arms to hug Blade back, enjoying the soft warmth of his embrace. "I-It's nothing, Mister Blade," he replies. "I, I'm not that good at baking, but I'll try my best..."
“I’m sure it will be delicious with Little Yakumo baking!” Blade gives Yakumo one more squeeze before letting go. “What do we do first? Make a big fire?”
“Ah, n-no, wait!” Yakumo puts out a hand to stop Blade from scampering straight to the oven. “We need to read the recipe carefully and make sure we have all the right ingredients.” He gestures toward the cookbook, and he and Blade lean over it together. “Baking is different from cooking,” he explains. “In cooking, you can change a lot of things and still make something good. But when you bake, you have to follow the instructions in the recipe very closely, or it won’t turn out delicious.”
Blade gives a thoughtful nod. “It’s no good if it’s not delicious. I want everyone to feel happy and sparkly inside when they eat it.” He looks up at Yakumo. “That’s why I asked Little Yakumo to help, because Little Yakumo’s cooking always makes everyone happy!”
Yakumo’s face flushes so hot he has to look away. “I-It’s nothing, really!” he stammers. “I, I’m just happy that I can do something for everyone…” He takes a step back, heart still racing. “Um, could you read the ingredients to me, and I’ll get them from the pantry since I know where everything is?”
“Oh, good idea!” Blade exclaims, completely unaware of how much he’s flustering Yakumo. “The first thing is flour…”
A few minutes later, Yakumo has gathered all the ingredients and put them on the counter, along with all the bowls, trays, and utensils they’ll need. “Okay, u-um… First we need to mix the sugar and butter… Oh, and the nuts aren’t chopped yet, we need to do that too.”
Blade looks at the bowl of pecans Yakumo had brought from the pantry, and his eyes flash. “Target acquired,” he says in the deeper tone that indicates he’s entered mission mode, and one of his knives appears in his hand.
“Aah, Mister Blade, w-wait!” Yakumo catches Blade’s wrist before he can unleash a flurry of attacks against the unsuspecting pecans. “I, I think your knives are too sharp for this, b-but… I can show you how to do it with a kitchen knife?”
“Oh!” Blade’s knife disappears as suddenly as it had appeared, and his demeanor returns to his usual friendliness. “Sure, Little Yakumo! I didn’t know that there was a knife just for the kitchen!”
Yakumo smiles. “There are actually a lot of different ones,” he says, gesturing to the wooden block where an assortment of knives are sheathed. “Some for meat, others for fruits and vegetables…” He pulls out a serrated knife from the block. “And this one is usually for bread, but I like using it for nuts, too.”
Blade nods along to Yakumo’s explanation. “Little Yakumo knows so much!”
“I-It’s not anything that remarkable,” Yakumo stammers as his cheeks flush again. “Just little things I’ve learned from cooking all the time…” He takes a clean tea towel and pours the pecans onto it. “Make them into a little pile, and then press the knife down like this.” He rocks the knife into the pile of pecans a few times, creating a satisfying crunch as the nuts split apart. “Now you try!”
Blade takes the knife from Yakumo. At first he grips it with the blade pointing downwards, the same way he would a weapon. “Hmm, this isn’t right, is it,” he says, looking down at his hand with a perplexed expression. “Can you show me how you hold it again?”
“Of course,” Yakumo answers. “Here, let me…” He touches Blade’s hand, and finds it pleasantly warm.
“Oh,” Blade says softly. “Little Yakumo, do you need to warm up?”
“Ah!” Yakumo instinctively pulls his hand away. “I-I’m sorry, it’s because I’m a serpent, s-so I’m not warm like Mister Eiden and the others… It must not feel good to you…”
“Huh?” Blade looks at him in genuine confusion. “No, it feels nice!” He takes Yakumo’s hand in his free one. “I just worried that Little Yakumo was too cold,” he says, “because if Darling’s hands get cold, it means he needs to warm up. But of course Little Yakumo’s body is different from Darling’s!” He squeezes Yakumo’s hand. “I like your hands, they feel so nice and cool to touch. Just like your body when I hug you! It’s wonderful!”
Yakumo’s chest floods with emotion, and a lump forms in his throat as he tries not to cry from sheer joy. He’s been slowly getting used to being surrounded by so many people who truly love and accept him just as he is, but it still feels overwhelming at times, even if it’s in a good way. “I-I’m really happy,” he says, “that you feel that way, Mister Blade.” He gives Blade’s hand a squeeze in return and focuses on the sensation of it. “I, I like your hands too… They’re warm, a-and soft.” Blade’s artificial skin has an unusual texture to it that reminds Yakumo of an ancient memory: the shell of a serpent’s egg, swaddling him in warmth. “It makes me feel very safe.”
Blade’s cheeks flush pink, and his eyes sparkle. “That makes my core feel so tingly and fuzzy,” he murmurs. His usual enthusiastic grin softens into a sweet, gentle smile full of affection. “I’m happy Little Yakumo likes me.”
Yakumo’s heart races. Blade is standing so close to him, holding his hand, looking up at him with pure adoration. Yakumo’s eyes are drawn to Blade’s lips, curved in that soft smile. Would his lips be as warm and comforting to kiss as his hands are to hold?
Yakumo gasps and his face goes hot again as his own amorous thoughts fluster him. I’m just imagining things, he tells himself. Mister Blade is affectionate like this with everyone. He should get them back to the task at hand, rather than getting distracted thinking about kissing. “Ah, M-Mister Blade, the knife, I-I forgot to show you…”
“Oh!” Blade exclaims. He raises the kitchen knife in his other hand. “Right, we were making cookies! Show me the right way to hold it?”
“Of course,” Yakumo replies. He takes the knife from Blade and turns it around, then closes Blade’s fingers carefully around the handle. “Here, if you hold it like this… U-Um…” The same sudden boldness that sometimes compels him to take the lead with Eiden swells up inside him, and he finds himself standing right behind Blade, guiding his hand as he holds the knife. “Press it down, but not too hard, like this…” He shows Blade the right amount of pressure to use, and the pecans split beneath the knife with a crisp crunching sound. His boldness fades and he lets go of Blade’s hand, stepping back as his shyness overtakes him again. “N-Now you try?” he stammers.
“Okay!” Blade replies. “Not too hard, gotta be gentle…” He presses the knife into the pile of pecans, just as Yakumo had shown him, and they split perfectly beneath the blade. “Ah! I did it!” Blade’s face lights up with excitement. “I did it right!”
Yakumo’s heart flutters again. Blade finds so much joy in even the smallest things in life that just being around him is a recipe for happiness. “Yes, that’s perfect!” Yakumo encourages him. “Good job, Mister Blade. Can you chop the rest of them just like that while I mix the butter and sugar?”
“Of course, Little Yakumo!”
The recipe for the snowball cookies is, thankfully, a simple one with few ingredients, so it doesn’t take them long to prepare the dough for baking. After mixing the butter and sugar, Yakumo adds a bit of vanilla and a dash of salt to the mixture. He has Blade add the flour a little at a time along with the freshly chopped pecans, and stirs it all together until it forms a cohesive dough.
“Wow,” Blade says as he watches Yakumo mix the ingredients. “It looks totally different now! Little Yakumo, you’re a baking sorcerer!” Blade looks back at the cookbook and tilts his head. “Hmm, what do we do next?”
“It’s almost time to bake the cookies,” Yakumo replies. “We need to shape the dough into balls, and then…” He looks over his shoulder at the oven. The fire beneath it is kept burning from before breakfast until after dinner, but it’s died down a bit since he’d started it in the morning. “Oh, we should feed the fire first!”
“Is the fire hungry?” Blade asks. “We could give it some cookie dough!”
Yakumo can’t help but chuckle at the cute image Blade’s words conjure in his head. “Well, we could, but wood will be much more effective.” He walks over to the oven and picks up a piece of firewood. “Here, like this.” He carefully puts the wood into the fire beneath the oven, and the flames start to reach up around it. “Do you want to try, Mister Blade?”
“Sure!” Blade kneels beside him and takes a piece of firewood in his hand. Yakumo instinctively reaches out to gently catch his wrist.
“B-Be careful,” he stammers. “Don’t put your hand too close to the fire, I don’t want you to get burned…”
Blade just smiles at him. “It’s okay,” he says. “You don’t have to worry! My skin can’t be burned by this kind of fire.” He eases the firewood into the flames with care regardless, and then turns back to Yakumo. “But it makes me happy,” he adds, “that Little Yakumo wants to make sure I don’t get hurt.”
“O-O-Of course!” Yakumo’s heart races as Blade’s words fluster him. “I, I always want you to be safe, Mister Blade.” Blade is looking at him with that soft, affectionate smile again, and Yakumo’s eyes are drawn back to the curve of his lips. Kissing him in the warm glow of the fire would surely feel even more wonderful–
“L-Let’s get the cookies ready to bake!” Yakumo says, cutting off his amorous thoughts before they can go any further. He stands up and moves away from the oven. “The fire should be fine now, s-so all we need to do is shape the dough!”
“Okay!” Blade springs to his feet and is back by the counter with the bowl of cookie dough before Yakumo can blink. “The book says to make it into balls.” He looks up at Yakumo. “Little Yakumo, can you show me how to do it?”
“Yes, of course,” Yakumo answers. He scoops a bit of flour from the bag. “Here, hold out your hands.” Yakumo sprinkles the flour over Blade’s hands, and then his own. “It might seem silly, but this will keep the dough from sticking to our fingers, so it’ll be easier to shape.” Yakumo scoops a small amount of dough from the bowl with a spoon. “Then take some dough, like this, and put it in your hand.”
Blade nods and follows suit, grabbing a spoon and taking a much larger scoop of dough than Yakumo had. “Like this?”
“O-Oh, that’s a little too much,” Yakumo replies. He holds out his own spoon to show Blade the difference. “We need to make sure all the cookies are about the same size, so that they’ll bake at the same speed.”
“Ohhh,” Blade replies, as though Yakumo had just imparted some truly profound wisdom to him. “That’s so smart, Little Yakumo!” He starts to remove the dough from his spoon a little at a time to make the amount match Yakumo’s. “You said you don’t know much about baking, but I think you know a lot.”
Yakumo struggles not to fidget at the praise. “It’s really nothing special…”
“It is to me,” Blade insists. “I didn’t know any of the stuff you’re teaching me! If I tried to do this by myself, it wouldn’t have turned out the right way. I needed you to help me.” Blade smiles as he looks down at his spoon, the amount of dough in it now the same as Yakumo’s spoonful. “I always feel so happy when someone needs me,” he says softly. He glances up at Yakumo. “Do you feel the same, Little Yakumo?”
Yakumo’s heart overflows with emotion, and he feels tears starting to push at the corners of his eyes. Blade is so open and honest with his feelings, Yakumo can’t help but be moved by his words. “Yes,” he replies. “Being needed is a really good feeling.”
If Yakumo keeps looking at Blade, he’s definitely going to start crying, so he focuses on the cookie dough instead. He moves it from the spoon to his hand, and begins rolling the amorphous glob between his palms. “H-Here, this is what we do next,” he stammers. “Roll it gently between your hands, and turn it around, and before you know it…” He holds out the dough, now shaped into a sphere. “...you’ll have a nice little ball, see?”
“Whoa, that’s amazing,” Blade says. “My turn to try!” He mimics Yakumo’s hand movements, slowly and carefully rolling the dough in his hands. When he stops, the resulting ball of dough is a bit lopsided, but close in shape to Yakumo’s. “Did I do it right?”
“Yes!” Yakumo feels a small swell of pride glowing inside him. This must be how Father Olivine feels when one of his students does well. “That’s so good, Mister Blade!” He sets his ball of dough on a baking tray and gestures for Blade to do the same. “Here, put yours a little bit away from mine, and then we’ll make more.”
Blade’s eyes light up. “Okay!”
The two of them make quick work of the cookie dough; now that Blade understands the basic technique for shaping it, he’s much faster at it than Yakumo. They end up with four trays of a dozen cookies each, plenty for the entire clan. Yakumo slides the first tray of cookies into the oven, and Blade watches them through the oven door with a fascinated look in his eyes. Before long, the delicious scent of baking cookies fills the kitchen.
“They smell wonderful, don’t they,” Yakumo says. He’s back at the counter, preparing a bowl of powdered sugar for coating the cookies once they’re baked. “How are they looking?”
“Hmm…” Blade takes a moment to scrutinize the cookies. “They’re more flat than before, is that okay?”
“Yes, that’s alright,” Yakumo replies. “They’ll look like little hills when they’re done.” He walks over to peer into the oven along with Blade. The cookies seem to be baking well, but haven’t taken on the color that would indicate they’re fully baked. “Hmm, they’re not quite ready.”
“How do you know when they’re ready?” Blade asks.
“Well, I haven’t made these before,” Yakumo admits, “but the recipe said we should take them out when they start to turn golden brown. I-I think it will take about ten minutes? But it’s best to just keep an eye on them, so that they don’t burn.”
“Okay!” Blade reaches up to touch Yakumo’s hand, his skin now even warmer than before from being close to the oven. “Want to watch them with me, Little Yakumo?”
“S-Sure,” Yakumo stammers. He sits beside Blade on a kitchen stool, close enough that their shoulders touch. Watching something bake is one of the least interesting parts of cooking, but sitting with Blade in the warmth of the oven feels so cozy and comfortable that Yakumo doesn’t mind the mundanity of the task at all. It’s even nicer than basking in the sunlight - not only is the air filled with the scent of fresh cookies, he also has a cherished companion at his side.
Blade slips a hand around Yakumo’s. “Little Yakumo?”
“Y-Yes?” Yakumo startles slightly at Blade’s touch, but doesn’t pull away.
“This feels so nice,” Blade murmurs. “Being with you makes my core feel super warm and snuggly.”
Yakumo’s heart leaps. “M, Mister Blade, I…” He squeezes Blade’s hand. “I feel the same, when I’m around you. I-I mean, I don’t have a core, but I get that same feeling in my chest.” He lays his other hand over his heart. “You’re always kind, and friendly, a-and… happy to be with me.” His tears start to flow as his emotions get the better of him. “I, I’m so glad that M-Mister Eiden found us both, and brought us to live here.”
“Me too,” Blade replies. “When I lived by myself, I had fun looking for cute things, and building my house, but every day kind of felt the same. I didn’t have anyone to share it with, and nothing special ever happened.” He holds Yakumo’s hand a little tighter and lays his head on Yakumo’s shoulder. “Getting to see Little Yakumo every day means every day is special.” He nuzzles Yakumo’s shoulder with his cheek, and Yakumo’s heart races. The way Blade is touching him now feels more intimate than usual, even considering Blade’s uninhibited affectionate nature. Perhaps Yakumo hadn’t been imagining it after all?
At the very least, Yakumo can be certain that Blade wouldn’t be upset with him for asking.
“Mister Blade?”
“Yeah?”
“Do, do you…” Yakumo’s heart pounds in his chest, and he clenches his free hand in his tunic to stop his fingers from shaking. “…w-want to, um… I-I mean…” He swallows hard and pushes down his nerves. “Do you want to kiss me?”
Blade gasps with delight and straightens up to look right into Yakumo’s eyes. “Yes!” he exclaims, his smile brighter than Yakumo has ever seen it. “Yes! I want to kiss you so much, Little Yakumo! I want to kiss you and cuddle you, just like I do with Darling, because I love you!”
I love you. The beautiful words echo in Yakumo’s mind. Coming from Blade, there can be no doubt that he genuinely means it, but Yakumo is stunned all the same. “You, you do?” he asks. Joy overwhelms him, and tears start to flow from his eyes once again. “You really… f-feel that way, about me?”
Blade just smiles, and reaches up to cup Yakumo’s face in his hands. “Of course I do,” he murmurs, like loving Yakumo is the most natural thing in the world to him. “Do you feel the same way?”
Yakumo manages a shaky nod, and smiles as his joyful tears run down his cheeks. “Yes,” he answers, “yes, I do.”
Blade’s smile turns even sweeter. “That makes me so happy.” He brushes Yakumo’s tears away with his thumbs, and leans closer to him. “May I kiss you right now?”
“Y-Yes, please,” Yakumo whispers. He closes his eyes, and a moment later he feels Blade’s lips brushing over his, so soft and warm it makes him tremble. He moves his hands to hold onto Blade’s waist, and Blade makes a pleased sound against Yakumo’s lips. It feels so, so good to kiss him, even better than Yakumo had imagined, cozy in all the right ways as they press close to one another surrounded by the warmth of the kitchen and the sweet smell of the cookies–
Yakumo gasps and breaks the kiss. “The cookies! We need to take them out!”
Blade’s eyes go wide. “Oh! I’ve got it!” He lets go of Yakumo and leaps up from the stool.
“B-Be careful, they’ll be hot!” Yakumo warns him. He grabs two protective mitts from nearby. “Here, put these on first!” Even if fire wouldn’t burn Blade’s skin, it can’t be a good idea for him to pick up a hot metal tray with his bare hands.
Blade slips on the mitts and opens the oven door with the kind of speed he usually reserves for missions. In an instant, the tray of cookies is rescued from the oven and safely deposited atop the towels Yakumo had laid out on the countertop.
Yakumo looks the cookies over and lets out a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank goodness, they haven’t burned!” He starts to move the cookies one by one from the tray to a cooling rack with a metal spatula. “Thank you for getting them out so quickly, Mister Blade!”
“No problem, Little Yakumo!” Blade gives Yakumo a thumbs-up that’s somewhat obscured by the oven mitts he’s still wearing. “Should I put the next tray in the oven?”
“Y-Yes, that’s fine,” Yakumo replies. “I’ll use a timer so we don’t forget to check on them this time…” He pulls a small hourglass made for measuring ten minute intervals from a drawer and sets it on the counter. “And once the first batch cools a little, we can put the powdered sugar on them.”
“And then they’ll look just like snowballs!” Blade exclaims. He looks out the window after putting a fresh tray of unbaked cookies into the oven. “Look, Little Yakumo,” he says, “it’s snowing harder than before. Isn’t it pretty?”
Yakumo glances over and smiles as a warm feeling spreads through his chest. Snow is drifting down outside the window, and Blade is watching with awe in his eyes. “Yes,” he answers. “It’s beautiful.”
Not long after that, they set about the final task of preparing the cookies together. Yakumo shows Blade how to roll the still-warm cookies in the powdered sugar, and between the two of them, the first dozen cookies are finished in no time at all, with several minutes to spare before they need to take the next batch out of the oven.
“They’re so cute!” Blade exclaims as he admires the tray of completed cookies. “Should we taste them now?”
“Oh!” Yakumo’s ears go hot as he realizes something he’d overlooked. “W-We actually should’ve tasted them sooner, I forgot all about that. Hopefully we didn’t forget anything when we were making the dough…”
“I don’t think we did,” Blade says, “but I can check!” He pops one of the finished cookies into his mouth whole, and chews for a few moments before swallowing. “Analyzing…” His eyes flash as he processes the contents of the cookies. “Wheat flour from the village south of the mansion, pecans grown in an orchard in the Water Territory…” Blade lists off not just every ingredient but its place of origin as well, and to Yakumo’s relief, everything in the recipe is accounted for. “Don’t worry, Little Yakumo! You made them perfectly!”
“That’s good,” Yakumo replies. “How do they taste?”
“Hmm…” Blade shrugs and shakes his head. “I can’t tell anything about how food tastes.” His eyes light up, and he steps closer to Yakumo. “But, if you want, Little Yakumo,” he adds, reaching out to stroke a hand down Yakumo’s arm, “I can show you?”
Yakumo’s face flushes hot. He recalls Eiden mentioning how Blade’s saliva took on the taste of something he’d eaten, and realizes what Blade must be suggesting. “Y-Yes, that’s a good idea,” he says. “Please show me.” He leans down slightly to put himself at Blade’s height, and Blade kisses him again, more firmly than before. Yakumo parts his lips to allow Blade’s tongue to slip between them. A rich, sweet taste fills his mouth. Yakumo whimpers as the sensation of kissing blends with the delicious taste to create an entirely new form of pleasure. By the time Blade breaks the kiss, Yakumo feels as indulgent as if he’d eaten an entire plate of cookies himself.
“What do you think, Little Yakumo?” Blade asks. He wraps his arms around Yakumo’s waist and snuggles close to him. “Is it sweet enough?”
Yakumo smiles as warm feelings of joy and affection spread over him. “Yes,” he answers, hugging Blade in return. “It’s just as sweet as I’d hoped.”