Asu Mo Furu Kana: I Wonder If It Will Fall Tomorrow Too: Chapter 23

Kitchen adventures.

Lance headed towards the kitchen. Slipping out of his house slippers and into the kitchen slippers. It was a broad area, and, unlike more of the rest of the house, it was rather modern. Two stoves and two sinks were to the left, while the three refrigerators were to the right. In the middle was an island where a large cutting board was left. Past the stoves on the left hand side was an oven with a few other appliances on the counter top. Heading towards the rice cooker just past the oven, Lance thought about what sort of onigiri to make for Quince. Scooping out a cup of rice from the rice box in the bottom cabinet, he head someone enter. Turning, he smiled at Quince who was searching one of the refrigerators. “You’re going to ruin your appetite,” Lance said as he poured the rice into the cooker. Filling the cooker with water, he said: “actually, no, you won’t. Sorry!”
“HEY!! Just what are you implying,” Quince said as he took a container out of the refrigerator.
Laughing, Lance turned on the rice cooker. “I’m just implying that you have a rather healthy appetite. Nothing to be ashamed of…until you are the size of a small condo, that is.”
“…I exercise,” Quince said as he placed the container on the island and opened it up. “So, what do you think this is?”
“I think it’s Oden. Better leave it. It is Master’s favorite,” Lance said as he came to stand beside Quince. “Now, what would you like in your onigiri?” he asked as he replaced the Oden in the refrigerator.
“A hamburger,” Quince said as he jumped up to sit on the island.
“Well, Master seems to have a little bit of beef in here,” Lance said as he opened up the third refrigerator which was filled with meats. “It’s not quite a hamburger, but it will have to do.” Taking the package of long cuts of beef out of the refrigerator, Lance turned towards one of the stoves. Placing the package on the counter, Lance looked into the bottom cabinets. Finding a frying pan the size he needed, he took it out and placed it on the stove. Turning the gas stove on, he took out three slices of beef and placed them in the pan. He put the package back into the refrigerator and washed his hands. Then, he turned and walked to the pantry in the back on the right wall. Switching the light on, he looked around until he found what he wanted – the yakiniku sauce. Walking back over to the beef, he poured some sauce into the frying pan and closed the container. “Here, put this in the fridge, won’t you?” he said to Quince as he handed him the bottle.
“Ugh, I have to do everything,” Quince said as he took the bottle from Lance.
“Yes, I know. Life is so hard.”
“Hey, I am jetlagged,” he replied as he closed the refrigerator door.
“So is Lance,” a voice said from the door.
Turning, Quince glared at the man. “You know, Akito, if we were dating you’d take my side in this argument. I know how this works!!”
“Perhaps. But, it does not deny the truth to my statement, now does it?” Akito said stepping up to one of the refrigerators. Waiting for some sort of reply, Akito opened the first fridge and took out a bottle of water. Turning he looked at Quince.
“…true…but that doesn’t mean that I have to accept it. I still think your playing favorites,” Quince said as he jumped back onto the island.

- 30 minutes later -
Quince sat on the island eating his three onigiri. Lance had almost finished cleaning, and Akito was helping him. “Pretty good,” Quince said as he finished his first one.
“Thanks,” Lance said as he dried off his hands with the towel Akito gave him.
“Akito, Master wants you,” Yukito said abruptly from the doorway. He was wearing a large button down white shirt, which was mostly unbuttoned.
“Then I shall go see what he desires,” Akito said as he moved to exit the room.
Once Akito was down the hall, Yukito entered the kitchen – not bothering to switch slippers. “I want one,” Yukito said as he made to grab an onigiri from Quince.
Quickly pulling the remaining onigiri away, Quince shouted, “no!!”
“DON’T make me call master,” Yukito said with a glare.
“Give it to him, Quince,” Lance said sternly from the sink.
Glaring at Yukito, Quince handed him the onigiri. “Thanks,” Yukito said smugly as he exited the kitchen.
Coming up to stand behind Quince on the other side of the island, Lance patted his shoulder. “Let’s make you some more, okay?”
“Okay,” Quince said with a fake sniff. “Make these extra delicious!”
“Alright, alright. Extra delicious onigiri coming up,” Lance said as he poured some rice into the rice maker. He barely had a chance to start the machine when Akito came back in.
“Master and Yukito-sama will be dining together in Master’s room. Yukito has requested that you make them dinner, Lance. He didn’t specify what he’d like, just that it should be delicious,” Akito said with a piteous look upon his face.
“Okay…that is rather broad,” Lance said. Adding another cup of rice to the maker, as well as some more water, he turned and looked at Quince and Akito. “Well, let’s see what Master has in the fridge,” Lance said as he walked over to the meat fridge. “Perhaps some tonkatsu…ahh, good, Master does have pork cutlet.” Taking the pork out of the fridge, Lance walked over to the stove. Getting out the various ingredients required, he started to prepare the tonkatsu. After putting the panko on the cutlets, Lance took out a plastic container and put the pork into it. Moving to put the pork in the freezer of the meat fridge, Lance noticed the confused look on Quince’s face. “Freezing them for a little makes them come out crispier,” Lance said as he put the pork into the fridge.
“Oh. So…when are you gonna cook them, and when do we get some?”
“When the rice is almost done I’ll cook them. And, would you rather have onigiri or tonkatsu?”
“Tonkatsu,” Quince said without a second thought.
“Aktio? Which would you prefer?”
“Either is fine with me,” he replied with a smile.
“Will Scott, James, and Mitch be joining us?” Lance asked the two others.
“How am I supposed to know?” Quince said quirking an eyebrow.
“I’ll go check. Chances are James-san won’t, but perhaps Mitch-san and Scott-san will,” Akito said as he made to move for the doorway.
“Thanks, I’ll get to making some more for us and them then,” Lance said as he opened the fridge to find more pork cutlets.
By the time Akito had returned with both Mitch and Scott, Lance had finished preparing Master and Yukito’s dinners. Picking up the tray the two plates were arranged on, Lance moved towards the door. “I’m just gonna go give this to Master and Yukito; I’ll be right back. I just started some more rice, so it’ll be awhile before we can eat.” Having said that, Lance exited the room.
Returning to the kitchen about 20 minutes later, Lance placed the tray back in the cabinet.
“So…how’d it go,” Scott asked as he took a sip of tea.
“Want some tea?” Akito said as he walked over to the stove to reheat the water.
“Yes, thank you. It went pretty well. Yukito complained about it being tonkatsu, but, luckily, Master was happy with the choice,” Lance said as he leaned on the counter. “Is James still asleep?”
“Yes, the first time to experience such a change is very difficult,” Akito said as he retrieved a mug from the cabinet. Moving back to the island, he took the teapot that was sitting there and moved to the sink and cleaned it.
“He’ll probably be up early tomorrow morning. I hope he can get adjusted before it’s time to leave. How long was Yukito planning on making us stay, anyway?” Scott asked as he took a sip of tea from his cup.
“I think two to three weeks,” Lance said. Walking up to the refrigerator, he removed the prepared pork cutlets and moved back to the stove to start cooking. Starting to cook the pork, Lance added: “Though I don’t know how he’ll keep it snowy for that long. Besides, doesn’t the city have a limit to how many snow days we have?”
“Yeah…it’s 15 and then they start adding onto the end of the year,” Quince said as he chugged his tea.
“Well, at least you can spend some time here and relax,” Akito said as he filled Lance’s and then Quince’s cups.
“True,” Lance said turning the pork over in the pan.
“Yeah, we all know you’ll enjoy that,” said Mitch with a wink.
“I think James will enjoy it too,” Akito said after returning the teapot to the counter.
“Yes. It’s just Quince and I who won’t,” Mitch said grabbing Quince’s shoulder.
“Yes, we two loveless boys,” Quince said as he tilted his head to rest on Mitch’s shoulder.
“Well, luckily for you two, there are two of you, if you know what I mean,” Scott said wiggling his eyebrows.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be that desperate,” Mitch said letting go of Quince’s shoulder.
“I don’t think I’ll ever let him think he’s the desperate,” Quince said leaning away from Mitch.
Laughing a little, Akito said, “Aww, really. Perhaps if he put some whip cream on his—“
“SHUT UP!!!” Quince yelled as he covered his ears. “You’re mean!!”
Laughing, Mitch grabbed Quince by the shoulders and said, “It’s okay, Quince. I think it’s time we told them about our little secret.”
“What secret? That you’re dumb?” Quince said wiggling out of Mitch’s grip and walking over to Lance to check on the food.
“You know, I think I should be offended,” Mitch said jokingly as he watched Quince move.
“Well, that boy does think with his stomach. If you want to keep him, you better learn to cook,” Scott said with a smile.
“They done yet?” Quince asked, pointedly ignoring the others in the room.
“Yup. Can you get down some plates and put some rice in them?” Lance asked as he turned off the stove.
Doing as he was asked, Quince got down five plates and scooped rice into each – giving himself a little more rice than everyone else. Lance put the pork cutlets on top of the rice, and Akito brought over the sauce. Each of them poured sauce onto their own tonkatsu and began to eat. They all enjoyed a relatively quiet dinner.
After they had finished eating, Quince and Mitch went to their respective rooms, Scott went to go check on James, and Akito and Lance cleaned up.