Work Text:
Exam season was always a stressful time for students and Kaori was no exception to the rule. Instead of pouring her stress into studying or exercising or being social, she would bake her stress away. Ever since Kaori could remember, she always loved baking. It could calm her down when she was too worked up and it helped her bring joy to the people around her. To Kaori, baking was her passion. Normally she would pass her treats off on her landlord or her neighbors but since it was exam season she had made an extremely large batch of cookies.
Yesterday, when worried for the results of her math final, Kaori had distributed brownies to everyone she could see. They all still had way too many of her creations and Kaori didn’t think they’d appreciate another. Instead of trying to eat through the cookies herself, she decided to bring them to the volleyball team. Worse case scenario was that they didn’t want any and then she’d give them to people at lunch.
With that train of thought in mind, Kaori packaged the cookies and headed off to school for the team’s morning practice. Since Yukie was also a manager, Kaori only had to come in during the last twenty minutes of morning practice, so the team was thoroughly worked by the time she got there.
“Hey Kaori! What’s that?” Yukie asked as she looked at the container in Kaori’s hands.
“Hello Yukie-senpai. I made too many cookies so I figured I would share them with you all,” Kaori said, holding the container out to Yukie.
“Everyone, Kaori made cookies!” Yukie shouted to the team and they flocked over to where the girls stood. The cookies were passed around until Kaori had an empty dish back in her hands.
“These are amazing Kaori!” Komi said as he shoved more cookies into his mouth.
“They are excellent. Thank you for bringing them,” Akaashi complimented and Kaori could feel her face heat up at all of the praise.
“Ah thanks everyone,” Kaori smiled sheepishly, watching the team devour her treats.
After the cookies went over so well with the team, the trend of Kaori bringing baked goods continued. The containers never ended, all filled with delicious treats. Once a few weeks went by, Kaori started to feel guilty and one Friday she decided to switch things up.
“Where are our treats Kaori?” Bokuto asked when she came in with no container.
“Bokuto-san, she isn’t obligated to give us baked goods every day,” Akaashi reprimanded.
“I won’t be the reason you all slip out of shape! I’m inviting everyone to dinner at my house tonight so I feel better knowing you are having nice balanced meals,” Kaori said firmly. The team looked shocked at how confident she was before smiling.
“We’d love to. Will your parents mind?” Onaga inquired.
“No need to worry about them. Now let’s finish this practice so we can all go and eat,” Kaori replied, easily dodging the subject of her parents. Everyone was hit with a second boost of energy and they were all anticipating a great meal.
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“This is where I live,” Kaori said while unlocking her apartment door, “make yourselves at home.”
“You might regret telling some of these boys that,” Yukie laughed and walked inside.
“It’s a lovely place! But it’s so small. Where does everyone sleep?” Sarukui asked as he hopped around the rooms.
“Well, actually, my parents don’t live here. They travel around the world for work so they thought it’d be easier to just pay for an apartment near the academy for me,” Kaori admitted, getting to work on cooking. “I learned how to bake and cook because I’ve been alone in apartments like these since I was ten.”
“Kaori!” Bokuto exclaimed before hugging the younger manager. “That’s so lonely!”
“Not really. I have all of you,” Kaori said. Her gentle smile melted the groups’ hearts but she didn’t get to see the effect before she was working on the food again. Half an hour later, and the team was all settled in the kitchen to taste Kaori’s food. Seconds were asked for and then thirds and then fourths until finally there was no more food left on the table.
“That was lovely Kaori. I wish we could do this all the time,” Komi sighed wistfully and Washio grunted in agreement.
“Well we could,” Kaori said shyly, “I mean not everyday of course, but every Friday we could meet here to eat.”
They looked at Kaori with smiles on their faces. No matter how used to it you were, living alone for six years would always be, well, lonely. At least now, Kaori would have her rowdy gang swing by every Friday to bring some life back into the apartment.