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“Hey dudes, how’s it going?” Saeko kicked open the door with her usual exuberance, back from her Taiko practice.
“Saeko! Beautiful as always!” Yuu shouted, although he didn’t actually look up from holding the roof on his gingerbread house.
Chikara, occupied trying to make a set of candy canes form a fence on the plate, also didn’t look up, although Ryuu’s squawks told him Saeko was rubbing his head in affectionately aggressive greeting.
“Hey Saeko. It’s going, although some of us have been more successful than others.” Hisashi answered, snickering. He had a fully set up house, and last Chikara had glanced at him, he was decorating with way too many gummy bears.
“I can see that!” Saeko laughed, evidently having released Ryuu, since his squawking stopped. “Lookin good Chika!”
“Thank you,” he said distractedly, setting the last candy cane in place and holding it to let the frosting dry and harden. Once he was pretty sure it wouldn’t move, he looked up, absently cataloging how the others were doing after he nodded politely to her.
Yuu was doing as well as he’d been last time Chikara checked, namely, his roof was falling down again. He had yet to get a good angle on it. Or the right amount of frosting. Kazuhito was probably five minutes away from just doing it for him so it was done.
Ryuu was doing slightly better, in that he was also decorating, but his decorating skills left much to be desired. And half of the decorations he hadn’t held on for long enough so they started sliding off. One of the peppermints had fallen off, and was now sitting underneath the roof. Chikara wasn’t sure if Ryuu had noticed it yet.
Hisashi was evidently not done with the gummy bears yet, despite having used up most of the bag and covered most of the house with them. His house was, remarkably, still standing despite the weight of the gummy bears. Chikara was a little curious about whether his gummy bear greediness would result in the death of his house.
Kazuhito had made a perfectly respectable house, with a few cute little decorations added, then called it good and set it on the counter, mostly out of reach. Probably a wise choice. At least one roof collapse on Yuu’s end had been due to Ryuu knocking into his house.
“Who’s got theirs on the counter?” Saeko asked, going around to look at it. “It looks like it should be on the front of a gingerbread house box. Or like, on Instagram or something.”
“That’s mine,” Kazuhito admitted, raising a hand. “I finished it a little while ago. I’ve just been suffering under watching Yuu fail to put his roof up in the meantime.” And heckling everyone. Real convenient that he forgot about that part. Chikara’s little candy cane fence was cute, not ridiculous, excuse you. Yes he was aware there was nothing between the candy canes, it was the principle of the thing. They looked cute.
“If you’re gonna be so smug about your perfect little house, come fix mine yourself coward!” Yuu said hotly as his roof collapsed again. One of these times, the gingerbread itself was going to break. When it did, Chikara was going to laugh at him.
“Yeah sure, it’s better than watching you suffer with that. Get out of the way. And don’t you dare touch my house. I will trip you in front of Kiyoko.” Fascinating threat choice. Not the one Chikara would have gone with, but he also probably wouldn’t have bothered with a threat in the first place. It wasn’t usually needed.
Yuu gasped, aghast. “You’d what!?”
“Don’t test me,” Kazuhito said, nodding. “I will do it.” Chikara believed it. It wouldn’t even be that hard to do. For all that Yuu was their libero, he was prone to tripping on occasion. Or fairly frequently. He just didn’t usually go down, usually turning it into a roll or catching himself easily.
“I swear I won’t touch it,” Yuu promised, leaving his chair and then taking Kazuhito’s when he vacated it.
“Whatcha planning on doing with all these houses when you’re done?” Saeko asked, slightly startling Chikara, who hadn’t realized she hadn’t left yet.
“I was going to take it home and see what happens,” Chikara answered, putting a last peppermint on and then deciding to also call it good. “I assume my brother will pick at the candy, and then eventually it’ll get thrown away.” He couldn’t say for the taste of the gingerbread itself, but he doubted it’d be all that appealing. He might also help with the picking at the candy himself. He was partial to candy canes.
Part of why he’d decided to make a fence of them.
“Well I was going to eat mine, once I finish anyway,” Ryuu said boldly, attaching another peppermint that started sliding off. “I guess you can help a little sis, if you really insist.”
“Nah, I don’t like crunchy cookies, you can have it all,” Saeko said immediately.
“My little sisters are probably going to devour it,” Hisashi answered, sticking another gummy bear on. His dedication to the gummy bears was admirable. Chikara was a little afraid he was going to use the entire bag at this point. “I’m hoping that if I stick enough gummy bears on it, I’ll still get some.”
“You could just eat them now,” Chikara pointed out dryly. “Or get a bag and hide some for yourself.” He didn’t have to risk the structural integrity of his house.
“Ooh, smart. Maybe I’ll do that too.”
Chikara didn’t ask which suggestion he was referring to. It was probably both of them.
“Maybe I’ll just sacrifice my house to Hisashi’s cause,” Yuu said, somehow making it sound like it was a noble action and not just him passing off his ramshackle hut of gingerbread to someone else. Although through great effort and skill on Kazuhito’s part, it was looking less ramshackle by the minute.
“I think my older brother will eat mine once he gets back from college,” Kazuhito said, pausing to hold the roof together so the frosting could dry a bit. “Although my mom might help, she likes gingerbread. She usually just makes some though.”
“I bet homemade gingerbread is way better,” Hisashi sighed wistfully, finally abandoning his gummy bear crusade and sitting back, evidently(hopefully) done.
“I’ll bring some to school next time she makes some and let you have some,” Kazuhito promised, which probably would have been better incentive for Yuu to keep him from wreaking Kazuhito’s house than the threat of tripping him.
The threat had so far been effective though. Although it was probably more respect for Kazuhito’s work then anything else that was working. Yuu was excitable, and often very blunt, but he wasn’t callous. He wouldn’t destroy something someone had worked really hard on. Not intentionally anyway.
“Sweet!” Ryuu cheered, even though he technically hadn’t been the one promised that. “I’ve always wondered the difference!”
Kazuhito just rolled his eyes, going back to putting the roof on the house. “Are you even going to remember what this stuff tastes like by the time she decides to make some?”
“Of course I will!”
Chikara wasn’t totally sure about that, but if it helped him sleep at night, sure. He adjusted the angle of his house slightly, taking a couple more pictures. Added for slightly self serving purposes or not, the candy cane fence was pretty cute. No matter what Kazuhito said.
He had initially slightly dreaded this, but he was glad Yuu had suggested this. It had been fun.