Daisuke stalked quietly out of the kitchen, two full plates of food in hand. Jun had told him on pain of death that he wasn't to touch the food she'd cooked until after she'd gotten out of the shower. However, knowing that his sister tended to take hour-long showers and that the food would be cold by the time she got around to getting out, he had decided his stomach won out over his life.
His guest was still sleeping on the floor, one arm curled around the pillow the brunet had used the night before, the other flung out over the spot Daisuke had vacated only thirty minutes ago. Since then, he had managed to annoy Jun, put the dogs outside, and take a shower.
With a grin, Daisuke set the plates on his desk and squatted down by Ken, then leaned down until his face hovered right over Ken's. "Wake up!" he yelled loudly.
Ken startled awake and moved to sat up, an action that cracked his forehead against Daisuke's. "Ow!"
Daisuke made a similar sound of pain and fell to his side. "Dude, remind me never to do that again," he said complainingly, rubbing his forehead.
"You shouldn't have done it in the first place," Ken said sharply, moving once again to sit up. This time he managed it without incident. It took him a moment to remember why he was laying on the floor, and a moment longer to realize that Daisuke had to have noticed. He closed his eyes, feeling his cheeks flame.
There was the sound of rustling cloth as Daisuke stood back up. "I've got food, Dude. And I didn't cook it, so no cracks about taking your life into your hands, or anything."
Ken looked up in time to avoid being hit on the head with a plate. He grabbed it automatically and watched as Daisuke resettled on the floor with his own plate. There was a moment's pause as Ken waited for the question that didn't come, followed by another as he scanned his plate for signs of recognizable food substances. "What is it?"
"Mm?" Daisuke mumbled around a bite of food. He politely chewed until it was gone before speaking. "It's like a scrambled omelet. Eggs, cheese, and whatever kind of meat we have in the fridge that will work. I think it's hot dogs today."
"Hot dogs?" Ken parroted, picking out a slice of pink meat.
"Don't complain until you've tried it. It's what I call the Daisuke Skillet, except that I didn't make it, and it doesn't have potatoes and onions. And Jun doesn't salt anything, so I had to add that and pepper."
Blue eyes stared at the food a moment longer as Ken weighed how hungry he was with how doubtful he was about the food. He jerked back suddenly when Daisuke held a forkful to his mouth.
"Ken, just try it. If you don't like it, I'll go make your anorexic little self some toast, okay?"
"I'm not-" Ken started, only to be cut off by the fork and food coming dangerously close to being shoved down his throat. He took a bite, mostly to keep from being stabbed than any thing. Daisuke waited, eyebrow raised, for his reaction. "It's edible," Ken said slowly, when he'd swallowed.
"Edible, he says." Daisuke snorted and grinned. "You know you like it. But if it makes you feel better, I'll tell Jun you refused to eat it."
"That... won't be necessary," Ken declined, offering a small smile of his own. "Thank you."
"No problem. Just hurry up and eat so we can figure out what we're doing today." There seemed something else he wanted to say, but he began to shovel food into his mouth instead, leaving Ken to eat his food at a much slower pace and wonder.
*****
"Do you want a ride home, Ken?" Jun asked a while later, when the boys finally made it out of Daisuke's bedroom, plates in hand. According to the clock on the wall, it was really only twenty-five after seven. Ken looked at the clock for a moment and tried to figure out why Daisuke was up so early. It was spring break, and Ken had expected Daisuke to sleep in during their vacation as he had on Sunday.
Daisuke was obviously full of surprises.
"No thank you," Ken declined softly. Daisuke was standing at the sink, his back to the room as he washed the breakfast dishes. The brunet had seemed to tense when Jun had made the offer, and Ken watched Daisuke's back for signs of surprise or relief as he spoke. "I thought I'd stay here and see what Daisuke wanted to do for the afternoon."
As it turned out, Ken didn't have to read the 'signs' in Daisuke's back: the brunet spun around when Ken said he planned on staying for a bit, brown eyes wide. Surprise warred with something else that could have been joy, and then Daisuke had turned back to the sink and was washing dishes once again, this time dancing to the beat in his head.
This time, the pleasant, fluttery feeling in Ken's stomach was more noticeable, and he put a hand to his abdomen as he stared at the brunet's back. A small smile curved his own lips and the feeling seemed to spread.
*****
"Oi, Vee, don't lick my toes!" Daisuke groaned in disgust as he pulled his foot up and held it away from his overly affectionate pet. Ken laughed and watched as the animal in question turned its sad-eyed gaze up to its owner. "And don't give me that look. You should be happy that I don't let you lick my toes. You don't know where my feet have been."
"I do, and I wouldn't lick your toes," Ken said, chortling gleefully at the dark look the brunet sent his way. Daisuke opened his mouth to retort, lowering his foot without realizing it, and his comment was left unsaid as he groaned and rolled away from his pet once more.
Despite his groaning and complaining, Daisuke was having a great time. The sun was high in the sky, Ken hadn't mentioned leaving once and in fact seemed to be having fun as well, and there was no one else around to treat him like normal. It was nice, having a friend, even if it was a temporary situation.
Ken started laughing again, and Worm, disgruntled from the shaking the human holding him was putting him through, whimpered and jumped out of Ken's lap. The genius seemed to realize suddenly that he was being rather loud with his laughter, and the sound died out quickly, his grin replaced by a small, sheepish smile that couldn't quite hide the laughter in his eyes.
//I don't think I've ever seen him smile like that, let alone laugh.// Dai noted the expression on Ken's face, saw the sudden change of emotion and the lingering happiness that couldn't be erased so quickly and easily. //I wonder if anyone else gets to see this? Surely someone is lucky enough.// Because Daisuke Motomiya couldn't be the only one special enough for such an honor.
Vee, realizing that his human wasn't going to lower his foot down for him again, trotted off in search of something else to do, and Worm followed the larger dog away, running to keep his short little legs caught up. Ken tilted his head and watched as they disappeared into the woods. "Is it okay to let them go that far?"
Daisuke leaned his head up to check on the animals' progress, then shrugged and lied back down. "They'll be fine. They play outside most days, and they know the places they're not supposed to go."
"So, what are we going to do today?" asked the genius, leaning back on his elbows, feet dangling off the porch.
"I don't know. What do you wanna do?" Daisuke asked in return.
Ken smirked. "I don't know. What do you wanna do?" He could see the grin starting to light on Daisuke's face, and knew he'd caught the joke.
"But seriously, dude. What do you want to do today?" the brunet asked, trying to sound serious.
"Same thing we do everyday?" Ken muttered, biting his lip to keep from laughing out loud again.
"We're not taking over the world," Daisuke informed him. A peal of laughter broke the serious mood he'd been trying for.
"Could do it," Ken told Daisuke. "I'm a genius. It wouldn't take much to be a megalomaniac. And for helping me, you could be my top advisor."
"Why do I get to be an advisor and not a prince, or something? Second in command?"
"Because it's always the second in command who leads the coup to overthrow the emperor. I'd have to be suspicious of you, and then I'd have to kill you as an example to everyone else."
That brought Daisuke's head up, brown eyes wide. He took a moment to form his reply, as Ken grinned at him evilly. "That's why... that's why you have to have someone loyal. Because I wouldn't betray a friend."
Ken took a moment to ingest that, and then sighed. "Just as well that we're not taking over the world, I guess. It'd be fun, though. We could enforce stupid laws and make everyone wear T-shirts with my face printed on them."
The brunet snorted as he sat up and gave Ken an odd look. "You're a genius on the edge of world conquest, and the best you can come up with is a shirt with your face? That's-" Daisuke grunted as Vee, appearing at a run from the corner of the house, barreled into his owner. "Oof!"
"I think that means that he agrees that the shirt idea is a good one," Ken said loftily, standing up. Daisuke was busy holding his dog at arms' length in an attempt to keep the animal's tongue away from his face.
"Oh, gods, Vee, stop breathing on me. That's so disgusting. What did you eat? Oh, stop!"
It took a minute more for Worm to arrive, running for all his little legs were worth. Ken held out his arms and picked the little dog up. "Hey, little guy," he crooned, cuddling the small pet.
*****
"Are you hungry yet?" Daisuke asked. Ken turned his head away from the television, and the movie that was still playing, and looked at Daisuke. The brunet appeared to be still watching the movie, but his attention obviously wasn't on it if he was asking Ken questions.
"A little bit," Ken answered, turning his face back towards the screen in front of them.
Daisuke stood up. "I'll go see if Jun has any more soup left from the other day."
Not wanting to be left alone with the movie that was playing (it was Daisuke's favorite and it gave Ken a headache), Ken stood up and followed after him. "What kind of soup?"
"I don't know. She buys all this weird stuff." He searched in the fridge, pushing containers around until it was obvious that whatever he was looking for was no longer there. "She must have eaten it all. Stupid Jun. We'll just have to make something else. What kind of food do you like, Ken?"
"I like chicken noodle soup. But only if it's home-made. I don't like the store-bought, canned stuff."
"Home-made chicken noodle," Daisuke repeated slowly. "Do you know, I've never had that?"
"It's good, if the right person makes it," Ken said informatively. He shrugged. "My mother has a recipe that's pretty good. It's actually chicken and dumplings, but it's the same concept and tastes just as good."
Daisuke made a noise in the back of his throat. "You know what, Ken?" He didn't wait for the genius to respond. "We could make it." He turned and grinned at Ken. "What's in it?"
"It's made from scratch, Daisuke. Even the dumplings are homemade. It's not something that you can throw together for a quick lunch."
"Fine. We'll get something to eat while we're shopping for ingredients, and then we can cook it for dinner." Ken opened his mouth to argue again, his hesitation written clearly on his face. "Come on, Ken. It'll be fun. We can have it cleaned up before Jun gets home, and you can have your favorite food and I can try it out."
In the face of Daisuke's earnestness and excitement, Ken could only give in, and he did so with a roll of his eyes and a small, answering smile. "Alright. I'll call my mom and ask her how she makes it. And if your sister finds a mess and gets mad, you get all the blame."
"It's a deal," Daisuke agreed. He held his hand out, and they shook on it. "I'll get money while you call your mom."
*****
Ken summarized Daisuke's method of shopping easily: hit as many stores for ingredients as quickly as possible, and pay twice as much for items that might have been cheaper elsewhere.
They couldn't buy the chicken from a grocery store, Daisuke had told Ken first thing after they left the house. The selection wasn't good enough and it wasn't as fresh as a meat market. While an individual might pay more for the meat market poultry, it would taste better in the long run.
And so Ken found himself standing beside Daisuke in the butcher shop, arguing about what bird Daisuke wanted and what price the brunet was going to pay for his chicken.
Part of Daisuke's reasoning was that he hated the store nearest his house, and he therefore refused to shop there willingly. Which was why the ended up walking two miles to the other side of town for the rest of the ingredients.
The celery and carrots had to be purchased from the supermarket, simply because there wasn't a vegetable market in their town, a fact for which Ken was thankful (since that was one place Daisuke couldn't drag him to). The flour and vegetables had to be bought together. Unfortunately, the poultry seasoning his mother had said to buy wasn't carried by the store across town, the store that Daisuke insisted they had to shop at, and they ended up going to the store closer to Daisuke's house anyway, meaning they wasted a two mile walk for nothing.
However, five minutes after they entered the store, Ken could understand why the brunet didn't want to shop there. They had made it no further than the second aisle in their hunt for poultry seasoning when a clerk started shadowing them. He would stand at the other end of the aisle, and would pretend to look busy when Ken looked at him. As soon as they moved an aisle over, the items in that shelf called to the clerk to straighten them, and he would appear once again at the other end of the aisle they were in.
Daisuke seemed to ignore it, but by the time they had made it through five aisles of chaos, the brunet growled. "Stupid jerk. It was one freaking display. It wasn't my fault they put the stupid thing in the middle of the floor."
Confusion and then understanding flashed in Ken's eyes, and he gave the clerk another look. "What happened?"
A sigh preceded the explanation. "There was this stupid display of pickled something, and I was pushing the cart around the corner and didn't see it. And the stupid manager was a jerk. I'm allowed to shop here, but they always watch me, like I'm a thief or something."
Ken gave Daisuke a considering look, and then paused as the brunet took a few steps further down the aisle. With a small smile, he picked a glass jar up from the shelf. "Hey, Daisuke." He waited for the brunet to look up, and then he tossed the jar in his direction. "That's not what we're looking for, is it?"
It was caught easily, reflexively, and Daisuke read the label before looking up with a confused frown. "No, it's not." Ken shrugged innocently and held his hands up. Daisuke tossed it back, and turned back to the shelves. It took two aisles, a jar of pickles, a jar of jam, and a jar of pimento for Daisuke to catch on. The further they went in the store, and the longer the clerk followed them, the farther they stood apart as they tossed the glass jars back and forth.
Daisuke almost missed the poultry seasoning, because he was walking past it when Ken threw a small jar of pizza sauce at him. "Found it!" he called, tossing the jar back so that Ken could replace it on the shelf. At his words, the clerk breathed an audible sigh of relief, and the two boys grinned at each other.
*****
"I am -not- reaching my hand in there," Daisuke said heatedly. The chicken, a whole, if small, chicken, was in the sink, and Daisuke was looking at the opening where the giblets and 'stuff', as he called it, had been stuffed.
Beside him, Ken shook his head and backed up. "You wanted the whole chicken, and you wanted -that- chicken. It's all yours."
"Ew." He took a deep breath, grabbed the legs in his right hand, closed his eyes, and drove his left hand in. He made more sounds of disgust as he pulled out any loose things his fingers found. When he was done, or as close to done as he was going to get, he dropped the chicken, stepped back, and opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was Ken leaning on the counter, elbows on the surface and his head down, laughing silently. "Oh, Ke~en," he called. The genius looked up, and Daisuke held his slime-covered hand. Still laughing, the genius backed away.
"You should have seen your face, Daisuke," he said. A laugh escaped, and he covered his mouth to hold it in as his shoulders shook.
Daisuke sighed and grimaced down at his hand. "This is so disgusting. This stuff better be great, or I'm going to be really mad that I went through this."
"Think of it this way: it's an experience you'll never forget."
*****
"Okay, my mother said that we just mix the flour with a bit of water, until it's wet enough to mold into shapes, and then we drop it into a pan of boiling water to cook," Ken said, reading the instructions he had written down. The chicken was boiling merrily away in a pan on the stove, the innards had been cleaned from the sink, and Daisuke was waiting with the bag of flour in hand.
At Ken's direction, the brunet dumped a large pile of flour on the counter, and they wetted it slowly with water from a measuring cup. Then four hands went to work, mixing the flour and water into a moldable, doughy substance. By the time it was ready to be rolled out and cut into chunks for dumplings, they were both covered to the elbow with flour.
Ken let Daisuke wield the knife, and he watched as the brunet did so carefully, fully concentrated on his task. He waited for Daisuke to put the knife down before he said, "You have a spot of flour-" he paused to point out a spot on the side of Daisuke's face with his fingers, and then he wiped the flour from his own fingers onto the spot. "-right there," he finished.
Daisuke's head jerked away, and the brunet stared at him in surprise before reaching out and swatting Ken on his shoulder, leaving a hand print. "Wow, Ken, you sure are messy," Daisuke returned, grinning at his own handiwork.
A flour-covered hand swept through Daisuke's hair. "So are you," said Ken, grinning.
The cover of nicety disappeared, and Daisuke swirled his hand in the flour on the counter before framing Ken's face with his hands. "Not half as messy as you."
*****
By the time that Jun got home, the chicken and noodle-clump soup was done, the mess from the flour-war was mostly cleaned up, if one didn't look too closely at the floor, and Daisuke and Ken were playing video games while they waited for her.
Since his outfit had been lost as a casualty to the flour-war, Ken had borrowed a pair of Daisuke's shorts, that hung too loose and had to be held up with a belt, and a T-shirt that fit pretty well, testimony to the fact that Daisuke had outgrown it in the shoulders a while ago. Both boys had showered, and even Ken's hair was almost dry. To an outsider, it might have looked like nothing had happened.
However, Jun wasn't an outsider: she was Daisuke's sister and had been around him too long not to notice the flour foot-prints on her kitchen floor, the tell-tale flour-covered clothes in the hamper, and the too-innocent smile on her brother's face.
She didn't say anything, though. When both boys stood in front of her and told her proudly that dinner was done, she could see the happiness in her brother's eyes, and the answering look in Ken's. In a few short days, they'd gone from being almost nothing to each other to being actual friends, and if her kitchen had to suffer, so be it. It was a small price to pay.
*****
Ken's mother came to pick him up at seven thirty, and he and Daisuke agreed that Ken would be returning by noon the following day, and spending the night again.
Daisuke watched as the car drove away and then disappeared over a hill. He shut the door and walked quietly to the living room, where Jun was sitting and reading a book. "He's a nice kid," his sister commented offhandedly.
"Yeah. I'm glad you didn't scare him off on Sunday," Daisuke said in return, voice serious.
"Somehow, I don't think he scares easily, Dai," she replied, looking at her brother over her book. She smiled slightly. "You might want to hose your clothes off in the back yard so that the flour doesn't clog the washer."
"Kay." There was a long pause. "I miss having friends like that, Jun," Daisuke admitted softly. He stood up before she had a chance to say anything to that. "I'm going to bed. Night."
"Good night, little brother," she whispered to his back.
His guest was still sleeping on the floor, one arm curled around the pillow the brunet had used the night before, the other flung out over the spot Daisuke had vacated only thirty minutes ago. Since then, he had managed to annoy Jun, put the dogs outside, and take a shower.
With a grin, Daisuke set the plates on his desk and squatted down by Ken, then leaned down until his face hovered right over Ken's. "Wake up!" he yelled loudly.
Ken startled awake and moved to sat up, an action that cracked his forehead against Daisuke's. "Ow!"
Daisuke made a similar sound of pain and fell to his side. "Dude, remind me never to do that again," he said complainingly, rubbing his forehead.
"You shouldn't have done it in the first place," Ken said sharply, moving once again to sit up. This time he managed it without incident. It took him a moment to remember why he was laying on the floor, and a moment longer to realize that Daisuke had to have noticed. He closed his eyes, feeling his cheeks flame.
There was the sound of rustling cloth as Daisuke stood back up. "I've got food, Dude. And I didn't cook it, so no cracks about taking your life into your hands, or anything."
Ken looked up in time to avoid being hit on the head with a plate. He grabbed it automatically and watched as Daisuke resettled on the floor with his own plate. There was a moment's pause as Ken waited for the question that didn't come, followed by another as he scanned his plate for signs of recognizable food substances. "What is it?"
"Mm?" Daisuke mumbled around a bite of food. He politely chewed until it was gone before speaking. "It's like a scrambled omelet. Eggs, cheese, and whatever kind of meat we have in the fridge that will work. I think it's hot dogs today."
"Hot dogs?" Ken parroted, picking out a slice of pink meat.
"Don't complain until you've tried it. It's what I call the Daisuke Skillet, except that I didn't make it, and it doesn't have potatoes and onions. And Jun doesn't salt anything, so I had to add that and pepper."
Blue eyes stared at the food a moment longer as Ken weighed how hungry he was with how doubtful he was about the food. He jerked back suddenly when Daisuke held a forkful to his mouth.
"Ken, just try it. If you don't like it, I'll go make your anorexic little self some toast, okay?"
"I'm not-" Ken started, only to be cut off by the fork and food coming dangerously close to being shoved down his throat. He took a bite, mostly to keep from being stabbed than any thing. Daisuke waited, eyebrow raised, for his reaction. "It's edible," Ken said slowly, when he'd swallowed.
"Edible, he says." Daisuke snorted and grinned. "You know you like it. But if it makes you feel better, I'll tell Jun you refused to eat it."
"That... won't be necessary," Ken declined, offering a small smile of his own. "Thank you."
"No problem. Just hurry up and eat so we can figure out what we're doing today." There seemed something else he wanted to say, but he began to shovel food into his mouth instead, leaving Ken to eat his food at a much slower pace and wonder.
*****
"Do you want a ride home, Ken?" Jun asked a while later, when the boys finally made it out of Daisuke's bedroom, plates in hand. According to the clock on the wall, it was really only twenty-five after seven. Ken looked at the clock for a moment and tried to figure out why Daisuke was up so early. It was spring break, and Ken had expected Daisuke to sleep in during their vacation as he had on Sunday.
Daisuke was obviously full of surprises.
"No thank you," Ken declined softly. Daisuke was standing at the sink, his back to the room as he washed the breakfast dishes. The brunet had seemed to tense when Jun had made the offer, and Ken watched Daisuke's back for signs of surprise or relief as he spoke. "I thought I'd stay here and see what Daisuke wanted to do for the afternoon."
As it turned out, Ken didn't have to read the 'signs' in Daisuke's back: the brunet spun around when Ken said he planned on staying for a bit, brown eyes wide. Surprise warred with something else that could have been joy, and then Daisuke had turned back to the sink and was washing dishes once again, this time dancing to the beat in his head.
This time, the pleasant, fluttery feeling in Ken's stomach was more noticeable, and he put a hand to his abdomen as he stared at the brunet's back. A small smile curved his own lips and the feeling seemed to spread.
*****
"Oi, Vee, don't lick my toes!" Daisuke groaned in disgust as he pulled his foot up and held it away from his overly affectionate pet. Ken laughed and watched as the animal in question turned its sad-eyed gaze up to its owner. "And don't give me that look. You should be happy that I don't let you lick my toes. You don't know where my feet have been."
"I do, and I wouldn't lick your toes," Ken said, chortling gleefully at the dark look the brunet sent his way. Daisuke opened his mouth to retort, lowering his foot without realizing it, and his comment was left unsaid as he groaned and rolled away from his pet once more.
Despite his groaning and complaining, Daisuke was having a great time. The sun was high in the sky, Ken hadn't mentioned leaving once and in fact seemed to be having fun as well, and there was no one else around to treat him like normal. It was nice, having a friend, even if it was a temporary situation.
Ken started laughing again, and Worm, disgruntled from the shaking the human holding him was putting him through, whimpered and jumped out of Ken's lap. The genius seemed to realize suddenly that he was being rather loud with his laughter, and the sound died out quickly, his grin replaced by a small, sheepish smile that couldn't quite hide the laughter in his eyes.
//I don't think I've ever seen him smile like that, let alone laugh.// Dai noted the expression on Ken's face, saw the sudden change of emotion and the lingering happiness that couldn't be erased so quickly and easily. //I wonder if anyone else gets to see this? Surely someone is lucky enough.// Because Daisuke Motomiya couldn't be the only one special enough for such an honor.
Vee, realizing that his human wasn't going to lower his foot down for him again, trotted off in search of something else to do, and Worm followed the larger dog away, running to keep his short little legs caught up. Ken tilted his head and watched as they disappeared into the woods. "Is it okay to let them go that far?"
Daisuke leaned his head up to check on the animals' progress, then shrugged and lied back down. "They'll be fine. They play outside most days, and they know the places they're not supposed to go."
"So, what are we going to do today?" asked the genius, leaning back on his elbows, feet dangling off the porch.
"I don't know. What do you wanna do?" Daisuke asked in return.
Ken smirked. "I don't know. What do you wanna do?" He could see the grin starting to light on Daisuke's face, and knew he'd caught the joke.
"But seriously, dude. What do you want to do today?" the brunet asked, trying to sound serious.
"Same thing we do everyday?" Ken muttered, biting his lip to keep from laughing out loud again.
"We're not taking over the world," Daisuke informed him. A peal of laughter broke the serious mood he'd been trying for.
"Could do it," Ken told Daisuke. "I'm a genius. It wouldn't take much to be a megalomaniac. And for helping me, you could be my top advisor."
"Why do I get to be an advisor and not a prince, or something? Second in command?"
"Because it's always the second in command who leads the coup to overthrow the emperor. I'd have to be suspicious of you, and then I'd have to kill you as an example to everyone else."
That brought Daisuke's head up, brown eyes wide. He took a moment to form his reply, as Ken grinned at him evilly. "That's why... that's why you have to have someone loyal. Because I wouldn't betray a friend."
Ken took a moment to ingest that, and then sighed. "Just as well that we're not taking over the world, I guess. It'd be fun, though. We could enforce stupid laws and make everyone wear T-shirts with my face printed on them."
The brunet snorted as he sat up and gave Ken an odd look. "You're a genius on the edge of world conquest, and the best you can come up with is a shirt with your face? That's-" Daisuke grunted as Vee, appearing at a run from the corner of the house, barreled into his owner. "Oof!"
"I think that means that he agrees that the shirt idea is a good one," Ken said loftily, standing up. Daisuke was busy holding his dog at arms' length in an attempt to keep the animal's tongue away from his face.
"Oh, gods, Vee, stop breathing on me. That's so disgusting. What did you eat? Oh, stop!"
It took a minute more for Worm to arrive, running for all his little legs were worth. Ken held out his arms and picked the little dog up. "Hey, little guy," he crooned, cuddling the small pet.
*****
"Are you hungry yet?" Daisuke asked. Ken turned his head away from the television, and the movie that was still playing, and looked at Daisuke. The brunet appeared to be still watching the movie, but his attention obviously wasn't on it if he was asking Ken questions.
"A little bit," Ken answered, turning his face back towards the screen in front of them.
Daisuke stood up. "I'll go see if Jun has any more soup left from the other day."
Not wanting to be left alone with the movie that was playing (it was Daisuke's favorite and it gave Ken a headache), Ken stood up and followed after him. "What kind of soup?"
"I don't know. She buys all this weird stuff." He searched in the fridge, pushing containers around until it was obvious that whatever he was looking for was no longer there. "She must have eaten it all. Stupid Jun. We'll just have to make something else. What kind of food do you like, Ken?"
"I like chicken noodle soup. But only if it's home-made. I don't like the store-bought, canned stuff."
"Home-made chicken noodle," Daisuke repeated slowly. "Do you know, I've never had that?"
"It's good, if the right person makes it," Ken said informatively. He shrugged. "My mother has a recipe that's pretty good. It's actually chicken and dumplings, but it's the same concept and tastes just as good."
Daisuke made a noise in the back of his throat. "You know what, Ken?" He didn't wait for the genius to respond. "We could make it." He turned and grinned at Ken. "What's in it?"
"It's made from scratch, Daisuke. Even the dumplings are homemade. It's not something that you can throw together for a quick lunch."
"Fine. We'll get something to eat while we're shopping for ingredients, and then we can cook it for dinner." Ken opened his mouth to argue again, his hesitation written clearly on his face. "Come on, Ken. It'll be fun. We can have it cleaned up before Jun gets home, and you can have your favorite food and I can try it out."
In the face of Daisuke's earnestness and excitement, Ken could only give in, and he did so with a roll of his eyes and a small, answering smile. "Alright. I'll call my mom and ask her how she makes it. And if your sister finds a mess and gets mad, you get all the blame."
"It's a deal," Daisuke agreed. He held his hand out, and they shook on it. "I'll get money while you call your mom."
*****
Ken summarized Daisuke's method of shopping easily: hit as many stores for ingredients as quickly as possible, and pay twice as much for items that might have been cheaper elsewhere.
They couldn't buy the chicken from a grocery store, Daisuke had told Ken first thing after they left the house. The selection wasn't good enough and it wasn't as fresh as a meat market. While an individual might pay more for the meat market poultry, it would taste better in the long run.
And so Ken found himself standing beside Daisuke in the butcher shop, arguing about what bird Daisuke wanted and what price the brunet was going to pay for his chicken.
Part of Daisuke's reasoning was that he hated the store nearest his house, and he therefore refused to shop there willingly. Which was why the ended up walking two miles to the other side of town for the rest of the ingredients.
The celery and carrots had to be purchased from the supermarket, simply because there wasn't a vegetable market in their town, a fact for which Ken was thankful (since that was one place Daisuke couldn't drag him to). The flour and vegetables had to be bought together. Unfortunately, the poultry seasoning his mother had said to buy wasn't carried by the store across town, the store that Daisuke insisted they had to shop at, and they ended up going to the store closer to Daisuke's house anyway, meaning they wasted a two mile walk for nothing.
However, five minutes after they entered the store, Ken could understand why the brunet didn't want to shop there. They had made it no further than the second aisle in their hunt for poultry seasoning when a clerk started shadowing them. He would stand at the other end of the aisle, and would pretend to look busy when Ken looked at him. As soon as they moved an aisle over, the items in that shelf called to the clerk to straighten them, and he would appear once again at the other end of the aisle they were in.
Daisuke seemed to ignore it, but by the time they had made it through five aisles of chaos, the brunet growled. "Stupid jerk. It was one freaking display. It wasn't my fault they put the stupid thing in the middle of the floor."
Confusion and then understanding flashed in Ken's eyes, and he gave the clerk another look. "What happened?"
A sigh preceded the explanation. "There was this stupid display of pickled something, and I was pushing the cart around the corner and didn't see it. And the stupid manager was a jerk. I'm allowed to shop here, but they always watch me, like I'm a thief or something."
Ken gave Daisuke a considering look, and then paused as the brunet took a few steps further down the aisle. With a small smile, he picked a glass jar up from the shelf. "Hey, Daisuke." He waited for the brunet to look up, and then he tossed the jar in his direction. "That's not what we're looking for, is it?"
It was caught easily, reflexively, and Daisuke read the label before looking up with a confused frown. "No, it's not." Ken shrugged innocently and held his hands up. Daisuke tossed it back, and turned back to the shelves. It took two aisles, a jar of pickles, a jar of jam, and a jar of pimento for Daisuke to catch on. The further they went in the store, and the longer the clerk followed them, the farther they stood apart as they tossed the glass jars back and forth.
Daisuke almost missed the poultry seasoning, because he was walking past it when Ken threw a small jar of pizza sauce at him. "Found it!" he called, tossing the jar back so that Ken could replace it on the shelf. At his words, the clerk breathed an audible sigh of relief, and the two boys grinned at each other.
*****
"I am -not- reaching my hand in there," Daisuke said heatedly. The chicken, a whole, if small, chicken, was in the sink, and Daisuke was looking at the opening where the giblets and 'stuff', as he called it, had been stuffed.
Beside him, Ken shook his head and backed up. "You wanted the whole chicken, and you wanted -that- chicken. It's all yours."
"Ew." He took a deep breath, grabbed the legs in his right hand, closed his eyes, and drove his left hand in. He made more sounds of disgust as he pulled out any loose things his fingers found. When he was done, or as close to done as he was going to get, he dropped the chicken, stepped back, and opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was Ken leaning on the counter, elbows on the surface and his head down, laughing silently. "Oh, Ke~en," he called. The genius looked up, and Daisuke held his slime-covered hand. Still laughing, the genius backed away.
"You should have seen your face, Daisuke," he said. A laugh escaped, and he covered his mouth to hold it in as his shoulders shook.
Daisuke sighed and grimaced down at his hand. "This is so disgusting. This stuff better be great, or I'm going to be really mad that I went through this."
"Think of it this way: it's an experience you'll never forget."
*****
"Okay, my mother said that we just mix the flour with a bit of water, until it's wet enough to mold into shapes, and then we drop it into a pan of boiling water to cook," Ken said, reading the instructions he had written down. The chicken was boiling merrily away in a pan on the stove, the innards had been cleaned from the sink, and Daisuke was waiting with the bag of flour in hand.
At Ken's direction, the brunet dumped a large pile of flour on the counter, and they wetted it slowly with water from a measuring cup. Then four hands went to work, mixing the flour and water into a moldable, doughy substance. By the time it was ready to be rolled out and cut into chunks for dumplings, they were both covered to the elbow with flour.
Ken let Daisuke wield the knife, and he watched as the brunet did so carefully, fully concentrated on his task. He waited for Daisuke to put the knife down before he said, "You have a spot of flour-" he paused to point out a spot on the side of Daisuke's face with his fingers, and then he wiped the flour from his own fingers onto the spot. "-right there," he finished.
Daisuke's head jerked away, and the brunet stared at him in surprise before reaching out and swatting Ken on his shoulder, leaving a hand print. "Wow, Ken, you sure are messy," Daisuke returned, grinning at his own handiwork.
A flour-covered hand swept through Daisuke's hair. "So are you," said Ken, grinning.
The cover of nicety disappeared, and Daisuke swirled his hand in the flour on the counter before framing Ken's face with his hands. "Not half as messy as you."
*****
By the time that Jun got home, the chicken and noodle-clump soup was done, the mess from the flour-war was mostly cleaned up, if one didn't look too closely at the floor, and Daisuke and Ken were playing video games while they waited for her.
Since his outfit had been lost as a casualty to the flour-war, Ken had borrowed a pair of Daisuke's shorts, that hung too loose and had to be held up with a belt, and a T-shirt that fit pretty well, testimony to the fact that Daisuke had outgrown it in the shoulders a while ago. Both boys had showered, and even Ken's hair was almost dry. To an outsider, it might have looked like nothing had happened.
However, Jun wasn't an outsider: she was Daisuke's sister and had been around him too long not to notice the flour foot-prints on her kitchen floor, the tell-tale flour-covered clothes in the hamper, and the too-innocent smile on her brother's face.
She didn't say anything, though. When both boys stood in front of her and told her proudly that dinner was done, she could see the happiness in her brother's eyes, and the answering look in Ken's. In a few short days, they'd gone from being almost nothing to each other to being actual friends, and if her kitchen had to suffer, so be it. It was a small price to pay.
*****
Ken's mother came to pick him up at seven thirty, and he and Daisuke agreed that Ken would be returning by noon the following day, and spending the night again.
Daisuke watched as the car drove away and then disappeared over a hill. He shut the door and walked quietly to the living room, where Jun was sitting and reading a book. "He's a nice kid," his sister commented offhandedly.
"Yeah. I'm glad you didn't scare him off on Sunday," Daisuke said in return, voice serious.
"Somehow, I don't think he scares easily, Dai," she replied, looking at her brother over her book. She smiled slightly. "You might want to hose your clothes off in the back yard so that the flour doesn't clog the washer."
"Kay." There was a long pause. "I miss having friends like that, Jun," Daisuke admitted softly. He stood up before she had a chance to say anything to that. "I'm going to bed. Night."
"Good night, little brother," she whispered to his back.