40.
Ice Cream
"Shizuru, you busy?" Natsuki plopped herself down on the bed next to her spouse.
"Do you mean in general, or at this particular moment?" Shizuru didn't look up from the papers she was reading.
"Well, to be more precise, do you have any plans for 4p.m. this afternoon?" Natsuki wrapped her arms around Shizuru's shoulders.
Shizuru hid her smile, "Well, I'm not certain. I'd have to check a few things. Is this a surprise for me that Natsuki has arranged, or is it the sort of thing where you can tell me in advance what we're going to do?"
"Well, it's more for the kids," Natsuki nibbled Shizuru's ear, "But I wouldn't mind it being a surprise for you, too. But if you insist, I'll tell you what it is."
Shizuru sighed, allowing her smile to rise to her face, "Natsuki gets so few opportunities to surprise me. So, I won't insist that she tell me. And I am not so busy that I can't make time for my family."
"Excellent. Oh, and make sure you're not full when we go."
"Ara, ara, is Natsuki treating us to an expensive dinner?"
"For the two pickiest appetites on the planet?" Natsuki laughed, "I can't even get Saiyuri to eat a sausage unless I cut it into little octopus shapes. Do you know how hard it was for me to learn how to do that? No way are the kiddies ready for a five star restaurant."
Shizuru sighed, "You make a valid point. How did the two of them inherit your palette?"
"Because your palette is all acquired tastes, which means you have to give them time to acquire them," Natsuki kissed Shizuru's cheek, "I lost my family when I was a little kid. There wasn't anyone to force me to eat anything but instant junk until you came along, so I got an appetite for things that are just simpler.
"Give 'em time, Shizuru, and they'll start eating, and enjoying, the things you do. The only reason it seems like they eat the stuff I like…"
"Is because Natsuki has the palette of a five year old?" Shizuru grinned.
"Yeah, well…keep that in mind when we get where we're going, tonight."
888888
"An ice cream parlor? Well, Natsuki did say to keep in mind that she had the palette of a five year old," Shizuru smiled, "But in this case, perhaps that's not a bad thing."
"Well, we're here for a few reasons," Natsuki grinned, "First of all, according to Nao's pediatrician, her little ankle biters are old enough for their first taste of ice cream."
"Oh," Shizuru smiled, "That would be enjoyable to watch. That's why you had Reito and Nao follow us."
"Yep. Second, the girls have been very good. So this is a treat for them."
"They have been very good," Shizuru conceded.
"And third, I kept thinking back on all of our times together, and it occurred to me that I have never seen you, Shizuru Fujino, on any occasion, eating ice cream."
"And you decided that you'd like to see that?" Shizuru blinked.
"I think it would be cute. But more than that, I think that I, your beloved wife Natsuki Kuga, can even guess, without ever having seen you consume ice cream before, your favorite flavor."
Shizuru's eyes twinkled, and she grinned, "Oh? A challenge, then. And how will you know that I'm not deceiving you?"
Natsuki grinned, "Write it down on a slip of paper. And hand it over to our fourth reason for being here."
"Our fourth reason?" Shizuru blinked.
"She means me," Alyssa Sears rose up from behind the counter, wearing the black and green uniform of the ice cream parlor.
"Alyssa, you're working a job here?"
Natsuki grinned, "Dad told her she needed job experience so that she'd understand the way her decisions would impact the people who worked under her. Besides, it's not a super huge burden on her. Is it, Alyssa-neechan?"
"Th…That's none of your business," Alyssa growled.
"Now, is that any way to talk to a customer?" Natsuki smirked at her half-sister.
"Hey, Alyssa! Looks like we're working together, again, today!" Hiroyuki Sagano came out of the back, wearing his own uniform.
"Oh," Shizuru smiled, "I see. You're so very bad, Natsuki."
"Me? I'm just here to support my little sister on her first foray into the working world," Natsuki said with perfect innocence.
Shizuru wrote on a scrap of paper, and then folded it up and handed it to Alyssa, "Please pocket it without reading it. Something of a wager between Natsuki and I."
"Now, I'm going to order everyone's ice cream based on their favorites," Natsuki grinned, "Demonstrating my amazing talent as the unexpected big sister and even more unexpected designation of mommy."
"This," Reito looked amused, "Should prove interesting."
"I'll start with you, then, Vice President Kanzaki. Nice job on getting that title once again, by the way."
"Impress me," Reito smiled.
"Orange sherbet for Reito."
He blinked, "Wait, that's…how did you know?"
"Your favorite tea was mandarin. It was clear you had a thing for orange flavor," Natsuki grinned.
"Nao, sorry I can't actually order your favorite, but to share with the kiddos…"
"I need a plain one, I know. Nothing with bits or chunks or anything," Nao shrugged.
"So, we'll go with Strawberry," Natsuki said, "Something with a nice mellow sweetness."
"Not bad," Nao grinned.
"Now, since they probably don't want to wait any more," Natsuki turned to her children, "For Saiyuri, peaches and cream."
"That's my favorite!" Saiyuri said excitedly.
"And for Naomi, Chocolate," Natsuki pronounced.
"Choc'ate," Naomi agreed.
"And now, for the elusive tastes of Shizuru Fujino," Natsuki began to walk around her wife, "' Imagine a flower: A climbing orchid, to be exact; the one of some twenty thousand varieties that produces something edible. Now imagine that its blooms must be pollinated either by hand or a small variety of Mexican bee, and that each bloom only opens for one day a year. Now imagine the fruit of this orchid, a pod, being picked and cured, sitting in the sun all day, sweating under blankets all night for months until, shrunken and shriveled, it develops a heady, exotic perfume and flavor. Now imagine that this fruit's name is synonymous with dull, boring, and ordinary.' I'm quoting Alton Brown, of Good Eats, and the topic of discussion is none other than my wife's favorite ice cream flavor, the deceptively simplistic flavor of vanilla."
Shizuru blinked, then smiled lightly, blushing a tiny bit, "Of course, my Natsuki really does know me."
Alyssa pulled the scrap of paper from her pocket, then sighed and crumpled it up, "Showoff."
Then, she got a wicked gleam in her eye.
"Oh, but Shizuru, do you know Natsuki's favorite flavor of ice cream?" Alyssa said, "It would be so romantic, to learn that after all these years together, the two of you really did know each other so well. Natsuki's proven her devotion, I think. What about you? Can you name her favorite?"
Nao grinned, "I actually know the answer to this one. And there's no way that Shizuru will get it wrong. Because I know that she knows, too."
"Natsuki, to ensure that Alyssa is satisfied, you must also write down your favorite flavor on a piece of paper," Shizuru closed her eyes, her smile confident and serene.
Natsuki thought a moment, then wrote on the paper, and handed it to Alyssa.
"Natsuki's favorite ice cream flavor? The truth is that Natsuki doesn't have a favorite, as far as flavor goes. She's happy with whatever is set before her. But, I also know that because of the nature of this challenge, she picked a flavor to write down. The flavor she wrote down was what she always got when she was a small girl, and her mother would take her to a place like this when she had a bit of free time. It isn't that she enjoys this flavor more than any other. It is just that it reminds her of a happier time. The flavor on the paper is pistachio. Her mother used to tell her it reminded Natsuki of the color of her eyes."
Everyone looked at Shizuru in awe, and Natsuki walked over and embraced her.
"Does Sagano know your favorite, Alyssa?" Natsuki grinned.
"Oh, we don't actually serve Alyssa's favorite flavor," Sagano said, "Her favorite is one they serve in America, a chocolate chip cookie dough flavor. There's a few shops here that carry it, but not us, I'm afraid."
"Oh, he does know," Natsuki nodded approvingly.
"Sagano's favorite is Cherry Vanilla," Alyssa looked sheepish.
Natsuki smiled at her and set down some extra cash, "Get yourself a treat when you're done. On me."