Guess who remembered that her fanfiction account exists?~ This is one of a series of drabbley-type things that I was requested to do on my Sanae role-playing account over on Tumblr and I figured you guys over here would enjoy it as well. If you want the backstory for this, it's based off of a Sims screenshot in which Sanae failed to cook pancakes. (And I only remembered after I wrote this that Sanae actually sells pancakes at his cafe.)
"I want pancakes."
Sanae Hanekoma stopped moving his pen across the paper and set it down to a side, leaving his newest graffiti drawing half-finished. He leaned back in the chair he had pulled up to the counter of his cafe so he could work on his drawing. Afterall, it's not as though WildKat got many customers, so he didn't have to worry about one interrupting his art time. However, he didn't plan on the blonde in front of him slamming his hand down on the counter, demanding pancakes.
"Joshua," The barista began to the pouty-looking teen, sliding his art equipment off to a side before looking straight at the violet eyes staring at him, "this is a cafe. Cafes do not serve pancakes, at least, this one doesn't anyway."
"But it serves pumpkin soup?" The blonde asked in outrage, gesturing to the menu with a flourish as though the owner of the cafe needed reminding of what he offered to his customers.
"I happen to like pumpkin soup." The older man explained as he stood from his seat, frowning upon seeing that the mighty Composer of Shibuya was in one of his more childish moods today. "Pancakes, not so much."
"Well, I want pancakes." Joshua repeated, sliding onto one of the stools in front of the counter, still keeping eye contact with the barista. Lifting one of his hands, he playfully tapped the underside of the older man's chin as he tucked his other one beneath his own chin, supporting his head. "Is it not your self-given job to fulfill my wishes, my dear Producer?" The blonde inquired, that smug, teasing tone that was almost ever-present in his voice laced into his question.
Sanae sighed, realizing that the teen had him right where he wanted him. "That is true…" He admitted, turning his head to a side to escape from the younger's teasing touch.
Joshua smirked to himself, pleased that he was right, as usual. He retracted his hand, moving it to join his other one to help keep his head up. "Hop to it then." He said, one of his trademark giggles bursting from his throat.
The barista released another sigh, shaking his head as he turned to go to the kitchen area of the cafe, which was blocked from view from the main area of the cafe, to see what he could whip up. Any random stranger that may have just seen that would just assume that he was the teen's butler or something, but he knew better. Despite Joshua treating him with the same smug, bossy attitude as he did everyone else, he meant it only in jest as he was one of the blonde's only friends.
Now then, the cafe owner glanced about his kitchen, if only he knew what exactly he was doing. Despite knowing how to make all the necessary foods to run his cafe, he had no idea how to make pancakes, both because they didn't really exist when he was still alive and he never really had to before.
Sanae frowned to himself as he continued his search for pancake mix, at the same time, pondering on who he could possibly get to help him make the blasted things. Higashizawa was the immediate first choice, however, since there wasn't a Game running at the moment, he was off on vacation, probably sampling foreign foods or something like that. That narrowed his options down quite a bit since he wasn't exactly on friendly terms with most of the other Reapers. Only one other name presented itself as a possible aid in this situation; Koki Kariya. The man was just as laid-back as he was, thus the two got along right off the bat. He was even the only participant in The Game other than Joshua who he allowed to know what he truly was. Because of this, he didn't even bother calling him, instead using his powers to track him down and teleport him straight into the kitchen.
The orange-haired Reaper had to throw his arms out in front of him to prevent himself from crashing straight into the counter he suddenly found in front of himself. He let out a relieved breath after he had prevented himself from getting a severe abdominal injury and looked around at his surroundings. His eyes immediately alighted on the barista and he frowned, leaning against the counter he had just nearly smashed himself into moments before. "Sanae," He began in his usual relaxed tone, twirling his signature lollipop in his fingers, "I was trying to win another bowl of ramen off of Uzuki. Why'd ya have to go and ruin it for me?"
Said man jerked his head in the direction of the main area of the cafe. "Josh is out there." He told the other male. In order to hide his Composer's true identity from the Reaper, he had falsely informed him in the past that Joshua was his spoiled cousin-in-law that he had to take care of. "And he wants pancakes."
"Then make the kid some pancakes." The Reaper responded, hoisting himself up to sit on the counter while sticking his lollipop into his mouth. "I don't see what the big deal is." He mumbled, his words distorted a bit from the candy he had in his mouth.
"I have no idea how to make pancakes." The barista explained, oddly enough managing to find a box of mix in one of the cabinets. He figured Josh had put it there as he found no sense in keeping something he couldn't cook and had no memory of putting it there.
The orangette only looked at the other man for several moments, completely dumbfounded that he did not know how to make something as simple as pancakes. He slipped off the counter, walking over to him. "How the hell don't you know how to cook pancakes? It's one of the simplest things to make." He tapped at the back of the box Sanae was holding with a nail. "The instructions are right on the back, for the Composer's sake!"
The Producer frowned a bit after he had turned the box over in his hands, shooting a soft glare towards the candy-obsessed man. "Well, how should I have known that?" He snapped lightly at him, beginning to gather the ingredients he needed. "I've never had to cook them before."
"You'll be fine." Kariya said, lightly patting him on the shoulder. "Tell you what," He began, slipping the lollipop out of his mouth and pointing to the customer's area of the cafe with it, "I'll keep our favorite little brat amused while you whip them up. I'll come back here after a bit to see how you're doing, alright?" Before the other man could respond, he sauntered out to the main area of the cafe, leaving him to fix the food on his own.
And so, the barista was left to his own devices, staring cluelessly at the box of pancake mix as though it was written in hieroglyphics. The Reaper would regret leaving him be.
—
Just as Kariya said, he returned after a few minutes, the short interaction with the annoying blonde already nearly driving him to the point of insanity. Had his personality been just a tiny bit less relaxed, he would have been pushed past that point due to the sight that greeted him.
The owner of the cafe was just as he had left him, staring intently at the box of mix as though focusing enough on it would force it to give up its culinary secrets. However, the steady geyser of flames emanating from the pancake in the frying pan on the stove was certainly not there when he had left the room.
"Dude," He said, somewhat in awe of just how badly his friend had managed to screw up, as he walked over to stand beside him, "now I'm no expert here, but I'm pretty sure that's not how you cook pancakes."
Sanae glanced over his sunglasses at the other man, giving him a look that read 'This is what happens when you leave me like that', and replied dryly, "Oh really?"
"Yeah," The Reaper responded back, pointing his lollipop at the fire both of them seemed far too calm around, "pretty sure flames aren't involved here." He turned his head to glance at his hopeless friend. "So now what're you gonna do? You know that little cousin-in-law from Hell of yours is not gonna be happy about this."
The other male pondered to himself for a moment before coming up with an idea. "Say, Kariya, do you happen to have access to graham crackers?"
—
Joshua snapped out of his thoughts that he had lost himself in after that Reaper had left him as Sanae returned with a plate that definitely did not hold a pancake. "Sanae," The blonde began disdainfully, glaring down at the plate placed in front of him that held some disgusting-looking mixture of graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate as though it was an affront to humanity itself, "what in the name of me is this?"
"S'mores." The man explained simply, noting his Composer's instant dislike of the food, probably because they appeared to be oozing unhealthiness in place of the chocolate in his mind. "We were out of pancake mix." He lied, hoping that the teen didn't call him out on it.
The smaller man hummed to himself, knowing full-well when his Producer was lying to him, though decided to confront him about it later rather than immediately. He carefully picked the odd piece of food on the plate up to take a wary bite, but paused as he really noticed his Producer for the first time he entered the room. "Sanae, darling, your hair is on fire."
The older man looked over at his reflection in a window, seeing that the top of his hair did indeed have a small flame burning away at it. He lifted his hand and crushed the fledgling fire between his index finger and thumb. "Oh, don't worry about that. Now then, if you'll excuse me, I need to go back into the kitchen for a reason totally unrelated to that fire in my hair." The barista said hurriedly, retreating back to the kitchen before his Composer could respond.
The blonde sighed and shook his head, allowing a rare small smile of genuine happiness to lift his lips. Finally taking a bite out of the s'more, his smile widened as he discovered that Sanae could actually cook them correctly. "I suppose I can forgive him for today." His smile took on a bit of a dark edge. "Just this once."