Strawberry Tart For Two
A Mitsu (Mio x Ritsu) Fanfiction
Summary: Mio decides to make something sweet to eat for tonight's dinner with her wife.
Genre: Romance, Fluff
Rated: K
Dedication: tumblr user the-keionbu
Author's Note: This is set after the events of the K-On! College. Mio and Ritsu are married, and Ritsu runs a music shop while Mio works from home in their studio writing music for their two person band Sakurabi. In a sense, Mio becomes a stay at home "wife", but they both maintain careers.
Three ounces of melted German sweet chocolate. One pound of cream cheese, softened to room temperature. Three tablespoons of heavy whipping cream, coupled with two teaspoons of vanilla extract. Two cups of sugar, added to two and a half cups of fresh, sliced strawberries and a fourth cup of red currant jelly, all to be placed within a fluted tart pan filled with a sheet of pie pastry, coated in butter for extra flavor.
Mio was sure she had read the recipe perfectly. She had spent the past three hours, after all, preparing the kitchen, scrubbing it so that every surface was clean and sanitary. Now, she was ready to go to work once more, this time on a treat for her and her wife.
Tonight would be a purely American feast: Mio would begin the feast with platter of fresh, deviled eggs, then would follow up with a main entrée of baked chicken, creamy potato salad with bacon, barbeque backed beans, and corn bread delicately accented with rosemary. She'd finish with her piece a la resistance: a strawberry tart, the very one she had researched all day.
It'd be delectable and sweet, the perfect mixture of cream and strawberry, with the added sensation of crunch. Mio would even go as far to say that the tart she'd create would have it's own umami, capturing all of the senses in a beautiful, wonderful dish.
Rather, she'd say that if she had all the ingredients.
The normally sensible Mio had completely forgotten to get the contents for the treat. Wrapped up in cooking, the hours had ticked by, and now, it was three o'clock, leaving Mio only two and a half hours to get to the grocery story and back before Ritsu got home. And…
"…And not enough time to make the tart!" she cried, slumping over on the counter. "Darn, I knew I should have just written all the ingredients down before I got too involved!" She pounded her fists on the counter, lips turn down into a tight pout. Exhaling slowly, she shifted, moving back to her laptop and double checking the recipe, quickly writing down the ingredients on a piece of paper, resolute. "Well… I might as well try, right?" Her computer screen darkened as in response.
Before Mio knew it, she had made it back home from the grocery store, and, despite a few hiccups, she was all ready to go, this time, for sure. Spreading out the ingredients on the countertop, she grabbed a mixing bowl and rinsed the new pan she bought, humming softly. "There!" she exclaimed, drying it and gently setting it on the counter as she reached for an apron. "Time to bake!"
Quickly, she shifted the contents of the oven to the counter top. The scent of fresh chicken, soft potatoes, and rosemary greeted her, and she sighed, an easy smile settling onto her lips. She knew for sure Ritsu would love dinner, but she couldn't daydream about her coming home: she only had an hour and a half left, and she had work to do.
Quickly, she unrolled the sheet of pastry, covering it in a gloss of (microwave melted) butter until it glistened. Fortunately, the oven was still on, so it only took a few minutes to heat up to the perfect temperature. Once there, she popped the pastry, pressed into the sides of the pan, into the oven and set the time for fifteen minutes later.
Shifting, she popped the chocolate into the microwave, carefully monitoring it so it wouldn't burn. Dumping the blocks of cream cheese into a silver mixing bowl, she set to working them together with the sugar, cream and vanilla until they were a solid, sweet smelling mass. Quickly, she dipped a finger in, and smiled at the result, clapping her hands together.
By now, the pastry was ready to be removed. She quickly turned off the over, depositing the crust on the counter to cool. She stirred the chocolate, resting next the cooling crust, and poured it in, spreading it over the entirety of the crust. She let it rest so it would flatten, and then with a gentle hand, poured the cream filling.
Mio hadn't noticed Ritsu's arms wrapping around her midsection, or the lips pressed to the shell of her ear. She hadn't even glanced over at the clock: if she had, she would have realized that more than twenty minutes had passed. Rather, that it was shortly after five, when Ritsu tended to arrive back at their home.
"Good evening, Mi-chan," Ritsu's voice crooned, breath tickling Mio's ear. Mio clenched the tart tightly, slowly lowering it to the counter.
"I… dinner…" Mio felt her breath grow short as butterflies tickled her stomach. She turned, handles fidgeting with her apron. "It's-"
It was as if Ritsu knew what she was going to say. "Not done. I bet you got caught up reading the instructions, didn't you?" Ritsu chuckled, pushing a stray lock of black hair out of Mio's face, tucking it behind her ear. Mio felt her ears burn with shame.
Mio's cheeks turned bright red, and she nodded, looking away. "I mean, the deviled eggs are done, and so's the main course, but… desert…I…" She sniffled, eyes watering. She rubbed them quickly, trying to cover up her tears.
"Mio, sweetie. We can finish it together," Ritsu said. She reached out and took Mio's hands, kissing them gently. "Mmm, sweet, just like my girl."
Mio couldn't help but giggle. She nodded, allowing Ritsu to kiss away her tears. "Okay. You can even brush the jelly on."
"It'll be my treat," Ritsu said, reaching for the spare apron. She slid it on as she toed off her shoes, pushing her hair back and readjusting her headband. "Now, let's make a tart for two."