ONIGIRI ROMANCE

Yukishiro's Mansion
Boooring….it's sooo boooring here….. Kaoru yawned as her eyes glided past the pristine crystal blue coastline, all the way surrounding the stately white mansion.

'What shall I do? There's no bokken, there's no Yahiko, no oro-ing Kenshin, no Rooster head and Kitsune..only that condescending silver-haired peacock was around…drat!' Her thoughts whirled toward the particularly fine human specimen that is Yukishiro Enishi.

If only he's not so Jinchuu-crazed…he'd make such a fine bachelor… She slapped her forehead immediately, clearing her perverted thought. Deep in her thoughts, she suddenly found that her feet has brought her to the spacious area of the kitchen. Hmm…why am I here? She pondered, her eyes darted around the place. 'Maybe I should cook, it's nearing lunchtime anyway…'

As she was looking for ingredients, out of the blue, she spotted a small, battered red coloured notebook by the food storage shelves.

'Kore…nani?', she frowned before she took the book and flipped it open.

On the first page, it is written: 'Nishi's favourite recipes'

'Huh?'

Curiosity got the better of her, and she kept going.

…Oyakodon, Donburi..

Now Kaoru was enchanted.. 'Wow…a real recipe book…is it Yukishiro Tomoe's ! Now I can actually practice cooking…mmmhm…what shall I make?'

She flipped the book impatiently, looking for something simple..

'…Chawanmushi, Sakana shioyaki…' and the list goes on..

"Ughh…they all seem so difficult to make", she frowned at the neatly scribbled recipes..

'And how am I going to find all these ingredients, anyway?'

She flipped back to the previous pages, and something caught her eyes.

Onigiri a'la Tomoe

"Ah-ha! This is simple enough..I surely can make this!", she exclaimed happily.

With the recipe book tucked in her hand, she began to roam around the kitchen. Rice..check! rice vinegar…check! Yosh…let's start!

The azzure-eyed girl began to pour out her concentration on her newly found task.

Two cups of rice…cook…

'mmm…o-kay….a couple spoonfuls of sushi vinegar…stir rice constantly….

Then..what?

' let the rice cool down, fan it with bamboo fan..' bamboo fan? Huh? she scanned her surrounding, looking for something that resembles a fan… there's nothing in the kitchen…til' she spotted the rice's sack made from woven jute. Ah-ha!

She diligently poured the left over content of the rice sack and, with a smug smile, fanned the cooked rice on the wooden hangiri. Who says Kamiya Kaoru isn't creative? Hah! She boasted inwardly…

'Now..prepare filling…' her eyes quickly scanned the recipe before her.

"Oh, that's right, filling!" She opened the food storage shelves and found a few things.

Great! I've got ume-boshi, cucumber,…what else? what else? oh, yeah… tsukemono! Where did it go? I saw it somewhere here before… Kaoru was busy searching high and low for the jar of pickle that she saw earlier in the kitchen.

'Yatta! Found it!' A victorious smile made way to her lips as she was holding the pickle's jar triumphantly. Just as she made her way to prepare the filling..

"Just what do you think you're doing?", the cold, heart-stopping, nerve-wrecking tone of her captor's voice stopped her. She shrieked as her heart jolted from its place and the prized jar of tsukemono slipped off her grip.

Crash! Splat…

Yukishiro Enishi, clad in his training clothes that accentuate his toned muscles, stood stoically tall close to the kitchen bench, arms passively crossed as he was watching the drama unfolds before him.

Kaoru cursed un ladylikely.. and glared at him before proceeding to clean up the mess on the floor. The pickle's jar broken to pieces and its content scattered about on the floor.

"Why do you have to always do that?", she pouted as she hastily tried to grab the piece of broken glass jar. Damn…now the tsukemono is wasted!

"You haven't answered my question.." he said simply.

'Damn condescending, pompous peacock!' She grimly noted, doing her best to ignore him and his question.

She never knew, and would've never guessed that in all of the sudden, the pompous peacock she was referring to, knelt down and grabbed her chin none too gently. "…. you were saying..?"

'Double damn…did I just say that out loud? Kami..save me!'

She gulped as the jerky movement of his hand startled her so, and her hands on the floor jerked back in surprise, causing a piece of broken glass to painfully scraped her fingers… She winced quietly, biting her tongue to stop herself from crying out loud. Iyayayaya….itai!

Enishi observed the girl closely, and noticed the slight narrowing of the girl's eyes and her restrained outlook. He looked down on her hand to see trickles of blood flowing down her hand. He sighed as he pulled her on her feet and silently dragged her to the sink, and held out her hand under the running water.

If she wasn't confused before, she is now.

Kaoru stood speechless as he dragged her once again to enter a room that's probably his bedroom, efficiently taking a roll of dressing for her wound at the same time, his death grip on her wrist kept her still.

"Sit down", he calmly instructed, looking at the direction of the rattan chair at one corner of the room. She sat down instantly, as if in a trance, looking down at her hand being dotted with ointment and carefully wrapped with the roll of bandage.

A feelling of disbelief suddenly clouding her mind. 'He's attending to my wound…the formidable Yukishiro Enishi?'

"I didn't hear what you said before…", a clear turquoise gaze pierced her eyes now, and she looked down to see a neatly tied bandage around her slim hand. She looked up with a renewed nervousness, seeing how close his face really was in front of hers as he leaned his body forward towards her sitting form.

"A..a…anou…I'm just..cooking..for lunch.." she said in a small voice.

"I thought I told you not to..", he said with somewhat a dangerous edge to his voice.

"…b..but, I ..want to..", she managed to say, stubbornly.

He twitched his eyebrows questioningly, half-amused. "Is that right..? hmm…just what are you cooking exactly?", he said, slightly mocking.

Her pout came back at full force, azzure orbs glaring at him, a hint of nervousness bellied her confidence as she voiced out stubbornly "..won't tell you"

"Is that so?", his face was an inch away from hers now, and his warm breath caressed her cheeks, which are now mottled with pinkish hues. "Very well..

sooner or later I will know anyway…" he stood up haughtily, leaving her breathless in all of the sudden.

" Just make sure you don't get into anymore...accidents.." his voice was clearly mocking now, as he turned around and left the her alone in the barren room.

'Damn him! What was he trying to get at anyway?', she absently fingered her bandaged hand and felt a rush of heat flooding her cheeks once again.

Kami…his face was so freaking close!

She shook her head forcefully as she stood up, suddenly remembering about her neglected cooking…As she enteredthe kitchen, she saw that the mess on the floor was gone. Eh? He cleaned it up? I never would've thought….'

Her thoughts sobered up. Darn, that's right..now I don't have anymore tsukemono, well..guess I'll just make do with umeboshi and cucumber...

Humming a cheery tune, she shaped the onigiri into some sort of fancy shapes, stuffing the purple umeboshi inside with vengeance, the small, battered red recipe book was completely forgotten.

Meanwhile..

Kuso! Why did I even dress up her wounds…. Why did she have to be part of Jinchuu…Onee-san….

A gleaming azzure orbs shot back at him with such an awed expression..

Why did she even probe into Nee-san's recipe book and I let her get away with that, shaking his head at seeing the telltale red recipe book with the corner of his eyes as he walked off the kitchen.

He contemplated his previous actions, pondering quietly at her existence. She has been around for three weeks, yet, he has not heard any news from Battousai. Strangely enough, he has grown quite accustomed to the funky taste of her cooking…

There's nothing quite like that in Shanghai…he reflected the distinct burnt flavour of rice….Even that good-for-nothing Heishin could probably cook better than Kamiya…

And beyond that…it was as if he was oddly drawn toward the girl by some unknown forces. Must be the side effects of her cookingl..

He threw a sidelong glance at his peaceful surroundings.

It's almost lunchtime…

He suddenly smirked… Let's see what poison the girl has concocted this time…

It's a good thing that his stomach was harshly trained in Shanghai, otherwise he wouldn't survive eating the meals that have been put on tray for him on a daily basis, for three whole weeks!

He ascended the stairs back into his mansion and straight into the kitchen.

There was a distinct gleam in her eyes as she placed the black sesame seeds on her onigiri. Yatta! What a creation! She looked down at her masterpiece in front of hers. One, two, three….six onigiri! In cute animal shapes too! Oh, Kamiya Kaoru sure has a natural arty streak in her! Her chest puffed up in pride.

"Finished cooking?", his amused voice was heard clear across the room. She jolted off the floor, literally. Without waiting for her reply, he stepped into the kitchen and saw her creations. She's been spending the better half of the day to cook…

A plate- full of strangely moulded…um…are those.. onigiri? He eyed it skeptically.

Kaoru suddenly felt self-conscious about her cooking…what the heck..she's been feeling self-conscious about her cooking since…forever! And this man, be damned if he insults her cooking once again…her fists were balled up at her sides as she braced herself for his remarks.

Her eyes flew to her creations, why is it that those onigiri don't appear to look so grand in her eyes anymore…she grimaced.

"Oh…onigiri…", he said, earning a hopeful look from the girl. 'He wouldn't say anything bad, he wouldn't say anything bad…' .she chanted.

…..

"What is it? a lizzard?", his voice was laced with amusement, finger pointing at one of the onigiri.

Kaoru was seeing red. Her face, for one, was flushing a deep beet root colour, or so she felt. "….No! it's isn't!", she said between clenched teeth.

"What is it then?…oh, I know.. Godzilla!", he guessed as his hand came up to pick the said onigiri up.

Kaoru was incredulous. Lizzard…Godzilla….G-o-d-z-i-l-la! How dare him! "No!", she snatched the onigiri off his hand, and yelled out "Don't eat it, you jerk!"…

As quickly as her hand came toward his, Enishi's other hand halted its movement mid-air. "And why is it that I can't eat it?", he said, his face inched closer toward hers. "I thought you cooked lunch for me..", he huskily added, a rare small grin was etched on his otherwise stoic features.

She gasped, suddenly feeling breathless. …"N…no…I…don't cook..for you", she managed to utter.

"And I thought you've copied my sister's recipe…how did it end up like this?", he spared a glance at the red recipe book on the benchtop, completely ignoring her words, although he did feel a slight pang of hurt because of .. only Kami knows why..

Kaoru seethed, "That's why I told you not to eat it, pompous man!…but if you insist…here!", without further ado, she shoved the onigiri that was in her hand blindly to the direction of his mouth, and alas…it made it straight to the right path, right into his mouth.

If Enishi was astounded, Kaoru was horrified at her own action.

…..

He forced himself to chew on the Godzilla-molded onigiri, as the poor onigiri struggled to find its way to his throat, when suddenly his numbed senses came alive due to the plentiful ume-boshi she stuffed into the onigiri.

He winced at the extreme sour taste, then choked at it, as his grip on Kaoru's hand loosened a little. But Kaoru didn't realize that, for she started chuckling at seeing his facial expression. Her chuckles got louder and she even laughed outright at seeing his shocked expression followed by the sound of continuous choking.

….."..I…told you..not to eat..it", she said, rubbing tears of mirth off her eyes, as she grinned at the silver-haired man. Enishi frowned, feeling the last of the ume-boshi crawled into his stomach and was thankful for the torture has ended..at least those damned ume-boshi's gonna be destroyed by his stomach acid..or so he hoped.

…"Let..let me get you some tea..", she didn't try to hide her grin, albeit feeling slightly pitiful for his struggle…after all, he did eat her onigiri! She took her hand off his as she turned around to get the tea.

She felt her pulse jumped as she unexpectedly felt a strong grip on her wrist. "N…nn..nani?", her fears promptly increased tenfold.

He smirked evilly…

"Not yet… I don't even have my dessert yet..", he replied cooly, then swiftly closed off the space between them as he pulled her close to him, then his lips descended, catching hers unaware, and assault her senses with new, foreign sensations…before it settled more snuggly against hers, gently kissing her lips..suckling, nibbling, soothing all at once…

It felt nice, really nice….and…with just a hint of ume-boshi…

Kaoru's eyes went wide before they were shut tightly automatically, as she inhaled his aroma…. there was a pleasant, goose-bump sensations that ran all over her skin. Hmm…what a pleasant feeling…being embraced, being held, being kissed by….Yukishiro Enishi?

…She tastes so sweet…her scent is intoxicating…Nee-san…have I...fallen in love with her all this time.. in this short span of time, without even realizing it? He pondered inwardly as he held her close to him, feeling her pulse raced against his, felling her black shiny tresses with his hand..

Her eyes flew open as realization dawned on her… 'Yukishiro..Enishi..has just kissed…me?' Her face flushed five shades of pinks as she was struggling to find her voice.

"A…anou…."

Her words were cut off by his calm voice.

" I'd love to eat your onigiri again…Kaoru"

She was taken aback. 'He..called me..Kaoru? He wants…to eat more onigiri? These don't make sense anymore…'Why am I so happy?'

"H-hontou?", she said meekly, her hands fidgeted slightly.

"Just as long as you promised me dessert each time after that..", he smiled, as his lips captured hers once again in a gentle kiss.

A/N: I don't know whether you like it or not, heheh..anyway.. just written for the sake of the onigiri challenge…and becoz' I quite like onigiri myself…(just not with umeboshi though!)

Vocab:

Yosh/Yoshi : ok

Chawanmushi : Steamed egg custard that contains additional pieces of food such as chicken, shrimp or fish cake.

Sakana shioyaki: Grilled fish cooked and sprinkled with crystals of sea salt

Donburi: sweetened savory stew on rice

Oyakodon: chicken & egg rice bowl

Ume-boshi: savory pickled plum, commonly found in onigiri.

Tsukemono: pickles (usually eaten as snack on its own, or as condiments)