Chapter Nine
After Tadashi had a few slices of pizza, Hiro ran off up to his room to work on his 'robots', Hana began cleaning up the coffee table. Neatly, she stacked up the plates and put them in the empty salad bowl while Tadashi put the left over pizza slices into one box. She didn't even need to ask him, he had just got up and started helping her clean up. Unlike a certain someone…Hiro. But, this was probably part of his scheme too.
"Sorry about my brother. He usually helps with cleaning up." Tadashi apologized, shaking his head at his little brother.
"It's okay. The two of us were able to get it done." She smiled sweetly as she placed the dishes in the sink. There weren't many dishes so it didn't take her long to clean them and place them on the drying rack. In the meantime, Tadashi had put the garbage away and used a damp cloth to clean up the coffee table. It was weird how natural it seemed, as if this was a really normal thing for them.
"So what're we baking?"
"Hm?"
Tadashi chuckled, noticing she had been in deep thought before he interrupted. He felt kind of bad, but he also thought her questioning look was kind of cute. "Sorry, I mean, what kind of cookies are we baking?"
"Oooh." Hana laughed too as she dried her hands on the kitchen towel. "I brought over some dark chocolate chips so…how's dark chocolate chip cookies?"
"That sounds perfect. Let me get all the baking stuff out." And like the gentleman he was, Tadashi began bringing out all the things they'd need as Hana read out the material list. Together, they neatly put them on the island and got the oven pre-heating.
Taking out the measuring cups, she passed him one and scrolled down her phone for the recipe. "Okay, so, I'll get the butter melted while you measure out two cups of flour and half a cup of sugar?"
"I'm on it." He grinned and rolled up his sleeves. Hana couldn't help but stare as he did so, admiring the way his forearms look. Actually, his arms were really nice and he looked like he worked out a little. Probably from building his robotics projects too.
Once she put in the melted butter along with the other ingredients, she turned on the mixer and let it all incorporate. Then, when it was done mixing, Tadashi took a spoon and picked some of the cookie dough up.
"You're going to eat that?" Hana asked curiously.
"Yeah. I used to do this ever since I was a kid. Aunt Cass would let me taste some cookie dough before she popped them into the oven." He smiled and ate the dough, nodding in content.
"Is it good?"
"Mhm, it's really delicious. Sweet, but not too sweet. Wanna try?" Hana could only look at him with a slightly worried face and a huge smile stretched across his face. "You've never tried, have you?"
She shook her head fast, some of her hair flying around with the motion. "Never, ever."
"You should try it. It's really good."
"Is it okay? I won't get sick?"
Tadashi chuckled and shook his head. The sound of his laughter was so heartwarming she almost melted right on the spot, just like the butter from earlier. "A little bit should be okay. The eggs were bought yesterday so they should be fresh."
There was hesitation in her eyes as he spooned a tiny bit of cookie dough, making sure to get a chocolate chip as well. Hana knew some people liked to eat it and other cookie dough flavoured things, but she had never tried any herself. To be honest, it never occurred to her to try it. The look in Tadashi's eyes, though, made her want to give it a shot. It never hurt to try new things anyway. So finally, she leaned forward to the spoon Tadashi was holding out for her and tentatively ate the mixture.
"Good, right?" Tadashi grinned, looking hopeful.
And surprisingly, he was right. The sweet taste of the dough filled her taste buds and the dark chocolate chip tasted perfect inside. There was that subtle uncooked flour flavour, but the chocolatey and sweet flavour masked that well. When these cookies were baked, they would taste wonderful.
"Yeah, you're right. It's actually pretty good." She grinned too, then reached out to poke his side playfully. "But I'm only doing it this time."
"That's what you say now. But you'll probably steal a few bites when we make cookies next time." He chuckled as he placed the spoon down. 'We', he said, because he hoped that they would do this again sometime. It wasn't often that they spent time together outside of her work time and his school time. So something about tonight, about right now, seemed right.
"Oh yeah? We'll see if you're right about that." She winked in a light-hearted manner.
The cookie dough was formed into little balls on the cookie sheet and Hana popped it into the oven. It would be awhile until they were finished so the dishes could be washed in the meantime. Luckily, there weren't many dishes to wash so Tadashi finished the rest himself.
Suddenly, an idea hit her.
Inching close to his side, she pretended to watch him a little and made sure he was concentrating on the washing. Then swiftly, she scooped up some bubbles with the tips of her fingers and blew it against his cheek.
There was a pause. He looked stunned before loud laughter poured out from him. Both of them laughed together, Hana giggling over his previous expression. She hadn't thought it would be that funny, but his look got her.
"So that's how you wanna play, huh?" Tadashi gave her a wicked grin and he put the whisk he was washing down. He stuck his hands under the running water to wet them even more before he turned to flick all of his fingers at her.
"Ah!" Hana squealed loudly, trying to shield her face from his water attack. That only fueled him to flick more water at her. Before he knew it, she was sticking her hands under the water and flicking him. It was an all-out water flicking war. Tadashi laughed again because it was fun and because he liked this side of her too. The more he spent time with her, the more he got to see all sides of her. It was really nice.
"You won't win this one, Hana." He grinned teasingly.
She squealed again to block the water. "No fair. Your hands are bigger than mine so you can get more water." She was going to pout playfully, but she couldn't help the giggle that spewed out instead.
"Ahem."
Hana and Tadashi froze.
"You're wasting water." Hiro deadpanned, his eyes half-lidded to show how unamused he was. As if his words were a spark, Hana and Tadashi sprang away from each other and averted their eyes elsewhere. The young boy watched as both of their faces turned red and he swore, he had never seen Tadashi's cheeks flare up that bright. Not even when he got mad at Hiro.
Without even saying a word, he continued watching them finish whatever tasks they were trying to busy themselves with before trudging back upstairs. The moment he was in the safety of his room, the most knowing and most smug smile spread across his face.
"Tadashi has a crush. Tadashi has a crush." Hiro sang under his breath. And as all genius little brothers do, he filed away that little tidbit for the future. It will definitely come in handy.
Hey all,
It was a long time coming, but here's part two of babysitting night. This chapter took me forever to write and I have no idea why. I'm hoping the next chapter will be better! There will be more to come, I promise. Evan will make another appearance! We haven't seen the last of that cute cellist.
Thank you all for the kind and encouraging reviews! Thank you for the follows and favourites too! You guys are seriously amazing and I wish I could hug each one of you :D
~Mari
