Digestion
A Princess Tutu fanfic by Klondike Aura
Despite the size of Gold Crown, Duck was no good at directions. How she was able to stumble upon her intended destination was a mystery to her, especially with all the thoughts going through her mind.
It didn't seem fair to Mytho, finally getting to dance with Rue after the Fire Festival only for her to run off so suddenly. And just when he got back the heart shard of affection. The first time he would be able to enjoy spending time with Rue and it was short and bittersweet.
She steamed at the memory of yesterday. Some of that was stupid Fakir's fault! Whatever reasons he might have had, they weren't enough to justify locking Mytho away from Rue. Maybe Mytho not having a heart was the best defense against Fakir being a stubborn jerk.
"Oh, I remember you!"
The voice shook Duck out of her mind for a moment. She looked up to see Miss Ebine standing in front of her restaurant.
"You were the young girl who came by to eat with that handsome young man not too long ago," Ebine continued. "I wanted to thank you for eating here. Things started picking up after your visit."
"Oh! I'm glad things are going better for you, Miss Ebine!" Duck said with a smile. "Are you busy now?"
"Not really; it's the afternoon lull between lunch and dinner. Would you like something to eat?"
"Actually, I was wondering if you could help me with something."
Duck blushes and toys with her fingers as Ebine waits for what the girl has to say.
"Would you...will you help me cook something for the boy I was with?" the girl got out.
The woman smiled widely and answered, "Of course!"
Duck couldn't remember if she'd ever been in a kitchen before. If she had, it surely wasn't as nice as Ebine's. Mostly-clean counters were lined with cutting boards, bowls, mixers, and tools. Shelves were stocked with dry ingredients and serving platters. The whole room was warm and smelled of yeast and flour, the result of bread dough rising in a nearby bowl.
"What does your friend like?" Ebine asked.
She could see it in her head:
'Mytho, what's your favorite kind of sweet?'
'I don't have one.'
'Well, do you like cookies?'
'I don't know.'
'What about cupcakes?'
'What about them?'
'Chocolates?'
No. Duck was sure there wasn't going to be an easy answer to that.
"He doesn- I mean, he'll eat anything," Duck answered, hoping Ebine missed the verbal change in gears.
"Then what do you like to cook?"
The girl toyed with her fingers again.
"I...kinda sorta never cooked before..." she admitted.
Ebine smiled sympathetically. Everyone was once new in the kitchen, after all. She remembered it all too well herself, her eyes briefly traveling over to her recipe box. She began bustling about her space, moving bowls and fetching whisks.
"If that's the case, then we'll try something simple," she said with confidence. "How about cupcakes? It's hard to go wrong with cupcakes."
Duck smiled at the idea and rolled her sleeves up to begin helping.
An hour and a half later, Ebine was curiously pulling apart one of the cupcakes, wondering why the texture was off. She took a bite and her lips puckered.
Duck was crestfallen at that.
"I think we used the wrong flour," Ebine explained. "And definitely not enough sugar to go with the chocolate."
"I'm sorry!" Duck said, her head bowed down. "I guess I didn't grab the right stuff! And I thought chocolate was sweet already!"
The chef put the cupcake down and patted the girl on the shoulder.
"Don't get discouraged. Mistakes happen to everyone. We can try something else tomorrow if you want."
Ebine gave Duck a bright grin. Tomorrow would go better.
Duck crunched into her attempted cookie and her mouth went into a straight line before searching for the nearest refuse bin.
Ebine picked a cookie up and carefully dropped it on the counter. It clattered and cracked down the middle.
"They've spread a lot and baked crispy, even though they don't look burnt. We over-creamed them. Or added too much salt."
"Salt?" Duck asked once she had spit her bite of cookie out. "That wasn't sugar?"
Ebine winced as she imagined the taste.
"Don't worry. There's a lot left to try."
"Be careful with those!"
"Whoaaaaa!"
Splat!
"That's a shame," Ebine commented, looking at her blueberry-stained floor on one side and the pecans that spread in a big gloopy mess on the other. "I was sure we would get those to work."
"At least I'm good at cleaning floors," Duck mumbled.
"Well, those pies were too big, anyway. Your friend wouldn't have been able to eat them all."
"Wow! This turned out really great!"
"You did a wonderful job, Duck!"
"Mytho's gonna love this," Duck said happily over her bowl of strawberry sorbet.
Well, figuratively speaking, anyway.
"Are you going to bring him by to have it?" Ebine asked.
"I dunno if I can bring him over here again, 'specially since he wasn't here for the field trip, so I was gonna bring it to him myse-" the girl began before looking at her bowl.
Then at the woman across the table.
Then at the bowl.
Duck then put her head on the table as Ebine reached over to pat her back.
Duck whimpered as Ebine carefully tended to her burn.
"Owowowowowowow," the girl let out.
"Shhh, it's okay. Candy is difficult stuff and sugar burns are the worst. But it looks like it didn't get you too bad. And on the bright side, the caramel is looking really-"
The chef sniffed at the air after bandaging Duck. Her face fell as the room began to fill with the smell of carbonized sugar.
"Burnt. We must have left it on. I hope it didn't boil over the side."
Duck's eyes welled with tears.
"I'm never gonna get this right."
"That's not true," Ebine said as she carefully but swiftly took the pot off the heat. A trip to the sink later and she placed it back on the stove to melt out the ruined caramel. "You did well with the pies and the sorbet. We've just had a streak of bad luck. Sometimes you get a whole week like that in the kitchen."
She carefully hugged Duck, the front of her apron getting damp as the discouraged girl let out her frustrations.
"I just wanna do something nice for Mytho! Why is that so hard? Why can't I do anything right?"
"There there, you'll get it. No one is good at cooking overnight, not even the best chefs. You're doing better and better each time, you really are. And... and, well, I kind of like that you're here with me every afternoon..."
Duck looked up at Ebine, her face red from crying as the woman sheepishly smiled down at her.
"It's almost like teaching a daughter how to cook."
"Is it really?" Duck asked.
The chef nodded and the girl's lips couldn't help but twitch into a small smile that she wished would reach her eyes.
"How about we give the cupcakes one more try tomorrow?" Ebine suggested. "I'll show you how to make chocolate flowers to go on top and everything."
Duck rubbed at her eyes with her sleeve before giving a little nod.
For the first time since they began their culinary endeavors, sounds of utter delight filled the kitchen. It took all of their combined willpower to keep from devouring all of the delectable chocolate cupcakes themselves.
("Which one will taste better?" Ebine had asked, pointing out two cupcakes. "You or you?"
"You," Duck answered, pointing out the one on the right.
"Then we'll save that one for your friend," she said, taking the other and halving it for them to share.)
"Now Mytho's really gonna love these!" Duck said, carefully holding the wrapped up cupcakes close to herself.
Ebine nodded and, just as Duck was about to leave, made a small sound of almost protest from the back of her mouth. The girl stopped and turned back to the chef.
"Ah, Duck? I know you're done with cooking for your friend but this had been so nice. Do you...do you think you would come by and cook with me again?"
And even though the answer was clear in the redhead's beaming countenance, she went ahead and answered, "Of course I will, Miss Ebine!"
The hard part was over. Or that's what Duck thought before she tried delivering the cupcakes. Fakir would stop her if she tried to take them to the boys' dormitories. Someone would spot her if she tried to sneak them into the boys' locker room. And the last thing she could ever do is get Pique or Lillie to do it; they would make it into a big production.
There was only one possible solution: go as a duck.
The cupcakes were carefully tied in a kerchief slung on her feathered back as Duck carefully but swiftly made her way from the girls' locker room to the boys'. The treats were heavy on her as she climbed and fluttered her way up to Mytho's locker. But it was all worth it when her gift was sitting there, waiting to be discovered. With one last pat of her wing to the package, Duck made herself scarce, just barely missing an encounter with the intended recipient.
It's been a harrowing few days for Mytho. New feelings, the arrival of Princess Kraehe, the personal discovery that it is not Princess Tutu he's afraid of but rather the thought that he might not see her again, and somewhere in all of this he's had to fit in ballet classes. It's a shame he doesn't have his curiosity back or he might be more interested in where the chocolate cupcakes with no name but one yellow feather came from. Usually sweets from admirers come with a name or at least a heartfelt note of confession. But cupcakes are cupcakes and they are meant to be eaten, so Mytho takes them with him.
"Where did you get those cupcakes?" Fakir asked after dinner.
"They were in my locker," Mytho answered.
"Idiot. You shouldn't just eat food you find in your locker for no reason. What if someone did something to it?"
Fakir picked up a cupcake and took a bite, more willing to risk his own neck or digestion than Mytho's.
"Guess they're all righ-"
The last letter refused to leave Fakir's mouth. If it did, it would turn into him admitting that yes, this actually was a really good cupcake. Not only would that negate all of his warnings before but it would justify the actions of Mytho's wannabe admirer.
So he tossed it back to the table with a slight reluctance he didn't dare show and said, "Don't eat too much in one sitting."
fin
Author's Notes: This story is really just a personal interest piece. Cooking is something I've done since I was a kid blah blah blah. (This is a fanfic, not a biography. XD) I had a lot of fun writing Ebine in her element since it's one we share. With the exception of replacing ALL the sugar in a batch of cookies with salt, most of the cooking and flaws are things I've encountered either in others' cooking or my own. Chronologically, this takes place in the time right after Akt 5 and just before Akt 8.