Author Note: So I really love Roselia. Also Yukina doing nice things for Lisa sustains me.
"That's enough for today." Yukina's voice echoed through the studio sound system, signaling the end of a long practice.
Ako, sitting at the drums with a few beads of sweat on her face, released the tension out of her back. She allowed herself to slouch forward, placing her sticks on one of the drums and reaching for her bottled water. The cool liquid brought relief after an extra hour and a half of rehearsal.
"This drink!" Ako exclaimed, lifting the bottle and almost spilling it on her drums. "It fills me with… um…" She brought it back down, somehow coming close to dripping the liquid out again. "Rin-Rin?"
"Maybe p-passion?" Rinko suggested from where she was packing up her keyboard and music.
"It fills me with passion!" Ako took another swig, draining most of the remaining liquid. Now that she had cooled off, it was time to pack up her drum sticks. This particular drum set belonged to the rehearsal studio, so she only needed to take the sticks home with her.
Once the sticks were safely stowed in her bag, Ako hopped over to Rinko. The older teen had finished placing her keyboard in the bag and was in the process of zipping it closed. Ako cheered Rinko on in her head, giving a silent wooh with every tug of the zipper.
"Excuse me." A low and quiet voice sounded from behind Ako. She'd been way too absorbed in the zipper race to notice Yukina's approach. She turned abruptly, lifting one hand over her face in a pose to cover up her surprise. "Do you two have a minute?" Despite the heat, Yukina still looked immaculate as always. In addition to her guitar on her back, she also held a small bag.
"Of course!" Ako let her hand drop; the pose had served its purpose. Rinko nodded, stepping up to stand next to her. "What's up?" They were the only three still in the studio; Lisa and Sayo had already left.
Yukina opened the bag in her hands, drawing Ako's eyes down to the contents. "Do you mind tasting these? They are chocolate chip." Yukina pulled one of the cookies out, holding it out towards her bandmates. The shape wasn't quite round, though it was still about the right size for a cookie.
Ako took it without hesitation. She didn't know if Yukina was good at baking, or even if she had made them herself, but she would never turn down free cookies. Rinko took one as well, and they both took a bite at the same time.
The cookie was… how could Ako put this, a little crunchy. It tasted distinctly burnt and left an odd texture in Ako's mouth. The taste was almost bland, except with an aftertaste of salt. As soon as she started chewing it, Ako wanted to spit it out.
"What do you think?" Chewing the first bite of cookie took long enough for Yukina to take out a small notepad and pen. She looked from Ako to Rinko, seeming just as interested in hearing their opinion on this as on what they thought of a new song.
"It's um…" Ako couldn't find the words to describe the experience she just had.
"H-how long did you bake them for?" Rinko saved her from having to speak.
"30 minutes." Yukina flipped to another page of her notepad. "Was that not long enough?"
"Maybe it needs less time." Rinko replied quietly. Ako considered taking another bite of the cookie, but decided against it.
"Less time then." Yukina wrote a few words as she spoke, looking at the notepad intently. "Anything else?"
"They could use more sugar?" Ako said as if it were a question, not even sure if that would help the baked goods.
"Indeed." Yukina wrote that down as well though. "Thank you for your time, see you tomorrow." She nodded at the pair before taking her leave of the studio.
As soon as Yukina was out of sight, Ako dropped her cookie in the studio trash can. Rinko followed suit, though a bit reluctantly.
"I-I wonder what that was about?" Rinko asked as she hefted her keyboard case up.
Ako shrugged. "I don't know. I wonder if she's trying to level up her baking skill."
"I suppose."
Sayo stood on the sidewalk on a normal looking street, looking at a normal looking house. She confirmed that the house number matched the one listed on her cell phone, as well as the family name on the gate. It said "Minato" so this had to be the right place.
When Yukina called and said she needed Sayo's help, Sayo had not hesitated to head her way. After all, Yukina would only bother her with music problems, which Sayo was happy to assist with. If it were anything else, certainly the other teen would look to Lisa for assistance.
That was how Sayo ended up walking towards Yukina's house and ringing the doorbell. She only had to wait a moment before Yukina answered the door.
"Please come in." Yukina still wore her school uniform, but on her hands were a couple of odd looking gloves. She gestured Sayo into the house with them, and as Sayo walked by she thought they kind of looked like oven mitts. "Thank you for coming."
"You're welcome." Sayo slipped her shoes off in the entrance. "So, what do you need help with?" At an even close look they were indeed oven mitts. How odd, Sayo thought to herself, but didn't comment on them.
"If you could follow me." Yukina led the way into the house, weaving through a couple hallways. As they walked, Sayo could smell something in the air. It grew stronger the farther they went, and when Yukina stopped them in the kitchen, Sayo recognized the scent of baked goods.
There were a few piles of cookies out on the kitchen counter, as well as a ticking egg timer and various baking supplies. Empty counter spaces were covered in flour. Yukina stopped at the counter, placed her oven mitts on it, took one cookie from a pile, and gestured to hand it to Sayo.
"What is this really about?" Despite her hesitance, Sayo took the cookie anyway.
"Please try it and tell me what you think." Yukina responded, not answering Sayo's question.
Whatever, Sayo thought to herself, the music could wait for one cookie. She took a slow bite out of the small pastry, but quickly regretted it. It was burnt, didn't have nearly enough sugar, and had certainly been mixed wrong.
"This is terrible."
"I know." Yukina frowned. "That's why I need your help."
"What?" What a waste of time, Sayo thought she should say. "What makes you think I know how to bake?" Was what she said instead.
"Please." Yukina wasn't a terribly expressive person, but to Sayo she almost seemed to be pleading. "I need to get these right, but I don't know how to fix them." They did seem to need a lot of fixing. Sayo didn't have a lot of baking experience, but she'd helped in the kitchen often as a kid and at least knew how to measure things. Anyway, Hina was hanging out at home tonight, so it would be best for Sayo to spend time out of the house.
"I guess I don't need to be anywhere." Sayo sighed. "Do you have the recipe?" Hopefully Yukina had one.
"Thank you." Yukina handed over the paper, and Sayo dusted the flour off and looked it over. It seemed simple enough and should make just regular chocolate chip cookies.
As it turned out, Yukina had been having trouble with every stage of the recipe. She couldn't sift the flour, couldn't measure in teaspoons or cups, and couldn't figure out how to set her timer the right way. Sayo walked her through the steps, and within half an hour they had another batch in the oven with the timer set correctly.
"So what are these cookies for?" Sayo asked while they waited for the time to tick down. If she was helping she might as well know why they were making them.
"A thank you gift." Yukina said simply.
Sayo wasn't able to get anything else out of her before the timer dinged and the cookies were done. Yukina pulled the tray out of the oven with the oven mitts and they let them cool for a couple minutes.
Once the cookies were cool, Sayo tried one.
This time, they were much much better. Way more edible and maybe even a little good. Yukina seemed pleased with them as well. She declared them good enough and laid the rest out to finish cooling. She offered to feed Sayo dinner, but Sayo had already stayed long enough and decided to head out.
"Thank you so much." Yukina said as she saw Sayo out the door.
Sayo cleared her throat. "It was no problem." She managed to say. "See you at practice." This had been more fun than expected.
As Sayo walked away from the house and back onto the normal sidewalk, she again wondered who the cookies could be for.
Every morning Lisa and Yukina walked together to school. This morning was no different.
Lisa woke up to her alarm and met Yukina on the street corner at the usual time. The sun was just peeking over the horizon, painting the trees with the warm pinks of early morning.
"Good morning Yukina!" Lisa called and waved as she approached.
"Good morning." Yukina returned the greeting. The two started walking towards school without any other prompting. "Did you have a good evening with your family last night?"
"I did." Lisa nodded enthusiastically. They had some extended family over for dinner, which had been busy but nice. "How about you?"
"It was a success." Yukina said in her usual low voice. Lisa wasn't fully sure what that meant, but it sounded like Yukina had a good evening.
The pair fell into silence as they walked. For Lisa it felt comfortable and familiar. With Yukina, Lisa didn't always feel the need to fill the empty space. It was nice to enjoy the silence sometimes.
They walked for a while and had almost made it to school when Yukina stopped dead in her tracks. Lisa made it another couple paces before fully noticing, stopping to turn and look back. Yukina had opened her bag and seemed to be looking for something inside of it.
"What's wrong?" Lisa asked worriedly, "Did you forget something?" Yukina wasn't really the kind of person who forgot things, but Lisa supposed it was possible. Why else would she be rummaging through her bag?
"That's not it…" Yukina muttered quietly. After a moment, she seemed to find what she was looking for. She pulled out a small plastic bag and thrust it towards Lisa with both hands. "Please accept this as a token of my gratitude." Yukina said seriously, making direct eye contact the entire time. "Thank you for all of the times you baked for me."
Lisa was, honestly, ecstatic. Yukina was thanking her and giving her a gift? This was great!
"Thank you so much!" Lisa accepted the package enthusiastically. Once it was in her hands, she saw that it contained cookies. "Wow, Yukina did you make these?"
A slight flush rose to the other teens cheeks. "Yes, I did."
"Amazing!" Lisa lifted the bag to her face to get a closer look. They looked like chocolate chip, though they could've been oatmeal raisin instead. "Can I eat them now?"
This brought a smile to Yukina's face. "If you would like."
That was all the approval Lisa needed. She opened bag carefully as not to rip it and removed the first cookie. They were definitely chocolate chip. It looked pretty good, though she didn't think Yukina was very skilled in the kitchen. She always messed up with the basics. Maybe she finally mastered the art of measuring? However Yukina made them didn't matter; Lisa wanted to try them.
She took the first bite. It tasted… pretty normal. Chocolate mixed with cookie with a decent level of hardness. Nothing too special but nothing out of the ordinary.
"These are great Yukina!" Any cookies Yukina made would've been great; Lisa would've said that even if they were awful. "What an honor, I can't believe I get to taste Yukina's homemade cookies."
The smile returned in full force. "I'm glad you like them." Yukina seemed to glow under the rising sun. As they resumed walking, Lisa at the rest of the first cookie. She carefully closed the bag to save the rest for later.
When the pair made it Roselia practice later that day, Lisa bragged about getting to eat Yukina's delicious homemade cookies.
None of the other members told her about the burnt ones.