Author's notes: Belated Christmas gift to all my wonderful supporters out there; Buttons and Horseshoes, Just a Little Spark, Nap Team Captain, ayinvui, stubbornheroine, BabyAngelStar101 and so, so many more. You guys have made this the best fic to write, and I'm truly happy and grateful for all your encouragement even when my writing skill wavered, or my updates were slow. So, Merry Belated Christmas, and Happy New Year!
(I wrote this at 2.35 am at night, so pardon me if the characters are OOC. Do include how you think I should alter it if possible? Thank you!)
P.S. I'm a little curious on what makes Tomadashi special to all of you. If you have the time, do include your answers in your reviews!
P.S.S. Tomadashi is special to me because the dynamic of their relationship is fun to explore. GoGo's harsher while Tadashi is kinder, and I think they can teach each other a lot. Also, their bond reminds me of something I share with someone else in real life.
17.
"Are you sure about this?"
GoGo shifts uncomfortably in the kitchen, tugging at the purple and black apron strapped around her. It's the one Tadashi got her for Christmas – he got Honey Lemon a matching one as well – and she remembers pretending to scoff at it. Why would she ever need an apron? Then karma decides to bite her in the neck, because it's sent a messenger in the form of one of her best friends. Honey Lemon beams at her in reply, enthusiastically leafing through the cookbook in her hand.
"Sure! It's Christmas, so it'll be optimum for them to come over for dinner!" The taller girl answers, with 'them' referring to their male companions in the nerd lab – Fred, Wasabi, and Tadashi Hamada.
"We already had dinner at your place last week," GoGo points out. Cooking isn't one of her strongest suits, despite the fact that she lives alone (when Honey asks, mildly dumbfounded, GoGo simply gestures to a few discarded takeout boxes in the trashcan).
"Exactly!" Honey Lemon continues, undeterred, "That's why we should have dinner at your place this week."
GoGo sighs. She's never going to get out of this, is she? To her, Honey Lemon is almost the physical embodiment of persistence.
"'Cept for the fact that I can't cook," she mutters, crossing her arms. GoGo hopes her words are enough to convince Honey that having her make dinner is a very dangerous idea (Maybe even worse than the first time Honey had dabbled in baking, GoGo shudders). But Honey merely scoffs lightly at her words.
"Of course you can! Here–" Honey Lemon hands the brand new cookbook to GoGo, who almost drops it from the sheer weight. She absent-mindedly flips to the last page of the book, which is marked with a minuscule three hundred and ten at the bottom corner.
"I've dog-eared the simplest recipes,' Honey Lemon is saying as she grabs her bag and starts heading to the door. GoGo follows after her in slight surprise. Her best friend has been here for merely an hour – a pale comparison to the length of time she usually stays (which ranges from one and a half hours to twenty four). This time, she's only around long enough to give GoGo a few recipes for the christmas dinner she'd forcefully set up. GoGo doesn't mind that idea when Honey Lemon's been the one doing the cooking. It's a different story when she's the one standing behind the kitchen counter with a brand new cookbook pushed into her hands.
For a while, GoGo entertains the idea of calling off the whole thing. It's not like she agreed to the idea in the first place. Not officially, anyway. It's only when Honey Lemon was mentioning how nice it would be if they could have dinner together again that GoGo had voiced her agreement – which, in hindsight, has prompted the bubbly blonde to interpret their exchange as an invitation to GoGo's house.
GoGo wishes she can take back her words now. But it's rare that everyone is free on the same particular day, and unfortunate that all restaurants and cafes will be closing early on said day. GoGo sighs yet again. Now that she has looked for alternate routes, she's starting to realise that she doesn't have any other choice in the matter.
"You're leaving already?" She's been nursing the secret hope that Honey will be staying around to help out.
"Yep, I promised Tadashi I'd meet him for a coffee. Bye!" Before GoGo can as much as raise an eyebrow, Honey Lemon is gone.
GoGo sighs – again – loudly, even though there's no one around to observe her exasperation. She stares at the cookbook left in her hand balefully before setting it down on the counter with unnecessary force. GoGo flips to the dog-eared pages that Honey Lemon has marked, and starts to read them. However, her eyes start glazing not long after and her mind starts to wander – until she realises that she's been on the same line for a few minutes ("Combine potatoes with milk, butter and salt.")
But even after glancing through all of the recipes, GoGo still doesn't understand why there is a sense irritation stirring in the pit of her stomach when she contemplates Honey Lemon meeting Tadashi for coffee.
The doorbell rings just as GoGo shoves the glazed ham into the oven. Her fingers are moist with mustard, honey, fat and glaze, and she hastily runs it over soapy water before rushing to get the door.
"Come in," GoGo grunts, trying not to sound breathless. Even without a mirror, she can tell that her hair is sticking to her forehead, and her face is flushed red. Her initially pristine apron is streaked with eggs, water and what not, and she's still dressed in an old too-large shirt and a pair of exercise shorts.
GoGo is distractedly considering how to wash her apron clean and clear the dirty dishes in the kitchen sink and set the table for her four guests and change into something more presentable when she raises her head and realises she's just opened the door to Tadashi Hamada.
Tadashi looks equally surprised at her frazzled state. They stare at each other for a few silent seconds before he mumbles something and GoGo snaps out of her trance.
"T– The house is messy," GoGo mumbles, finding an irate need to explain that she does not normally live in such conditions. She's vaguely aware of the fact that it is Tadashi's first time at her apartment, and it currently looks like a pigsty.
"It's still cleaner than my room," Tadashi muses, trying to sound assuring. GoGo knows that he's lying – Aunt Cass would never settle for dirty socks strewn across her nephew's room, and Tadashi isn't as good at being untidy as his younger brother is. She rolls her eyes, but can't help thinking that it's still (just a little bit) nice of him to try.
"I'll help lay the table," Tadashi volunteers, as GoGo looks into the kitchen and tries not to cringe. She offers him a stoic nod before entering the disaster zone to tackle the mountain of dirty dishes and utensils resting in her sink. It takes a while, but when said mountain diminishes to half of its initial height, GoGo allows herself to heave a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, Tadashi has not only set the table. He has wiped her kitchen counters and placed all unused ingredients back into the fridge. GoGo flushes when she realises that he's done a lot more cleaning up than she has. Tadashi's supposed to be a guest for dinner – not someone who should help her clean up. Besides, what kind of cook causes such a big mess when she's only completed a handful of recipes?
"You're not supposed to be the one cleaning up, y'know?" GoGo points out casually. She hates causing trouble for her friends, even if they don't mind. Her pride refuses to let her impose on anyone.
"I wish Aunt Cass would say that to me once in a while," Tadashi laughs easily. He seems unperturbed for someone who's just helped to clean up half a kitchen. GoGo debates what to say next, but Tadashi changes the subject. "Hey, you're really using the apron I got you,"
GoGo stares down at her dirty apron and frowns at how damaged it looks. "I probably should have taken better care of it," she mumbles.
"Nah, the fact that it's dirty means that you actually bothered to use it." The ridiculously pleased look on Tadashi's face makes GoGo smile slightly for some reason. Before she knows it, Tadashi's smiling at her with that gentle look in his brown eyes–
The door bell rings.
GoGo tries not to blush three different shades of red and tells herself to woman up. She succeeds (mostly, anyway) and sends Tadashi to open the door for who she expects to be Honey Lemon, Wasabi and Fred, disappearing into her room to change into a purple pullover and a pair of loose jeans. When she returns, everyone's already seated at the table, chattering brightly. GoGo tries not to chortle at the mismatched chairs she has set up for the event – two dining chairs, taken by Tadashi and herself; one scruffy-looking foldable chair (freshly dug out from her storage room), occupied by Fred; and finally, two chairs on wheels, that Wasabi and Honey Lemon are sitting on.
"Sorry for the trouble, GoGo," Wasabi apologises, though he looks equally agonised at having to occupy a seat so out-of-place. GoGo nods silently at him before serving up bowls of fluffy mashed potato. They look almost edible in the petite white bowls she's dumped them in.
"Mashed potatoes," Fred whoops. He digs into his mashed potatoes enthusiastically – only to set off on a coughing spree almost immediately. Tadashi has to slap his back and hand him a glass of water before he finally wheezes to a stop.
GoGo tells herself it's purely accidental that Fred has choked. But when she starts to consume her share with a lot less enthusiasm, the reason behind Fred's sudden choking becomes startlingly clear. GoGo swallows hastily despite the burn in her throat. She hurriedly excuses herself from the table to get more drinks, and pretends that she doesn't hear her friends' hushed whispers.
"It didn't taste that bad…" She thinks it may have been Honey Lemon, trying to salvage the situation.
"Speak for yourself…" Probably Wasabi.
"Yea, I mean," It's Fred talking now. "I just don't get how she made it with sugar instead of salt."
GoGo returns with an entire water pitcher – just in case – as well as the glazed ham. It's just a little charred, and they get through five bites of itbefore simultaneously reaching for their respective glasses of water.
"GoGo, I thought–" Honey coughs a little raspily. "That it said 2/3 cups of butter,"
"2/3 cups?" GoGo repeats, frowning. When all eyes turn to her at her surprised tone, she flushes just the slightest and mumbles a string of words
"Maybe I didn't see the /3 sign."
When they finally get to dessert, there's a tensed atmosphere lingering in the air. Honey Lemon and Tadashi are already at their fifth glasses of water, and so is Fred. Wasabi is at his seventh-and-a-half. All the dishes so far have either been too salty, too flavorless, overcooked, or undercooked. But the chocolate pudding that GoGo brings out of the fridge looks unusually decent. It's dome shaped – a dark brown confection drizzled with syrup and dusted with a fair amount of powdered sugar.
"It's like the calm before the storm," GoGo thinks she can hear Fred hiss. She rolls her eyes and sets it on the table, not bothering to deposit any on her plate. Everyone reserves rather small helpings for themselves – even Fred. There's a tentative note in the way they slice into their desserts at the same time.
GoGo watches as her friends lift a forkful of pudding into their mouth–
And widen their eyes.
"It… It tastes good!" Honey Lemon stutters, only realising her surprise is a blatant giveaway after a few seconds. "I mean–"
"Save it," GoGo mutters tiredly. She's right in not reserving any for herself. Upon realising that dessert is the only thing that tastes normal – or decent, even, Fred attacks it brightly, and the four of them manage to demolish the pudding into crumbs within minutes.
"It tastes brilliant–" Honey Lemon praises encouragingly. GoGo rolls her eyes again.
"The powdered sugar was a nice touch–" Wasabi volunteers, an unusually pleased smile on his face.
"It's chocolate," Fred says in bliss. "It's dense, warm, sweet, chocolatey perfection. Where'd you get the recipe, GoGo?" She can tell that he's trying to make up for his insensitive comments from earlier.
"It's store bought." GoGo flatly announces. She almost cracks a smile at the awkward and abrupt silence that follows. Quietly, GoGo rises from her seat. She retrieves the now empty pudding plate and mumbles something about getting more dessert. She doesn't remember her exact words; she just wants to get out of here.
GoGo scours her fridge for more desserts, until she comes across an unopened tub of peppermint ice cream. Prying it open a little harder than necessary, GoGo nearly falls back when the lid pops open. She ends up stumbling into someone instead, before regaining her balance.
"Need help?" Tadashi volunteers cautiously. GoGo can feel his eyes on her, trying to gauge her reaction and say something appropriate to salvage the situation.
"No," she replies shortly, still burning with a mixture of embarrassment and disappointment. "I screwed up. Nothing you say will change that." Nothing Tadashi says will change the fact that she messed up on the one day all of them could have dinner and fun together. GoGo feels uncomfortably warm in her thick pullover. Her face feels hot, and the disappointment leaves an acrid taste on her tongue that far overpowers the blemished flavours of the food she made.
"Okay, it wasn't the best meal–" GoGo shoots Tadashi a look. "Okay, it was a bad meal," he amends. When GoGo deflates even more at his words, he hurriedly backpedals. "But the results don't usually mean everything. The process can be far more important."
GoGo glances at him. Her unimpressed expression is enough to remind him that she rarely believes in sentiment. Tadashi pretends to huff in annoyance as she sets the ice cream tub on the kitchen counter.
"When I was eight years old, I decided to–" Tadashi pauses for a moment before continuing. "I decided to make my parents a meal. For their anniversary. Hiro was too young to cook, so I did it alone. I borrowed one of their cookbooks, read through all the recipes I wanted to make, and I got to work." The strain in his voice eases, and he laughs at the memory. "I ended up overcooking at least half of the food – the entire event was a big mess. But despite all that, my parents didn't get upset. They were just happy that I cared enough to make an effort and go through all the trouble."
"I know 'the thought that counts' doesn't really mean much to you, but I think it applies to the situation. I know that you worked hard to prepare for today–" Tadashi gestures around him, at the few Christmas decorations plastered to the walls. It's a rather half-hearted attempt at decorating, GoGo thinks, given that she lives alone, but it's something her friends would appreciate.
"In short, you went through so much effort despite the fact that it was outside your comfort zone and expertise. So, even if the dinner wasn't a great success, you still cared enough to try so hard. That's why I think the process is far more important than the results this time." Tadashi's ears turn a pale red as he trails off a little awkwardly, and GoGo almost smiles at the thought that she's not the only one bad at hiding her embarrassment (There's also the fact that Tadashi's embarrassment was a little cute, but she will deny it if ever asked).
Then, GoGo stays quiet for a moment. She can count the number of times that Tadashi's brought up the topic of his parents (this makes five, so far) and even though he's starting to open up a bit more about it, she knows each time is never easy. She looks at Tadashi – whose warm brown eyes flicker with slight hesitance – and sighs. This time, the sigh is not one out of exasperation, but of acceptance.
"I get it. I messed up, but it's okay–" Tadashi grins and GoGo feels her heart skip an uncomfortable beat, "–And now, the ice cream's melting." Turning away, GoGo stops fighting a smile and mumbles a soft 'thank you'.
She thinks Tadashi hears her, because she can feel him smiling too.