Chapter Seven: Pint-sized Taster, Chef, and Helper
He was so proud. Hinata had designated him the official taster of all potential new recipes, and he loved it. Of course it wasn't all fun and games, he had an important job to do, and he took his work seriously. He was also a very enthusiastic worker, and always showed up on time.
Today he was sampling a new treat called the pizza pocket. He liked the pizza pocket, all three flavors: pepperoni, sausage, and the five-cheese blend. They were tasty. She even let him help her make them! He got to seal the dough! She said that he did a very good job, and proved it by giving him a kiss on the forehead and a cookie. It was peanut butter, and tasty. He liked having a full belly every night.
The next day he was helping her make all sorts of treats in the morning. First up was the bread. She was showing him how to kneed it so that it would rise. It felt so squishy, and he liked the way he could shape it into funny shapes, like gourds. He began to giggle, making her look over from her dough.
"Just what are you up to, little mister?" she said with a laugh.
"Lookie! Tiny gourds, like mine!" he giggled some more. She laughed, glad that he was having a good time. To humor him, she let him make a few bread gourds for sale, and he got to keep one, but the rest had to be normal, for the sake of the business. He was very excited about that.
He was a good helper, just like she said. He used his sand to reach things that were too high for him or Hinata. He helped the customers out, and ran off any punks or would-be robbers. He also helped her carry things home from the market. To that end, he made them little floating carts out of sand. Several of the merchants selling fruit had made special deals for them, for things like bananas, berries, apples, just about anything really. She also now had good suppliers for flour, yeas, and other ingredients. Life was actually pretty good now. She was able to make her payments, and still make a profit. She was glad that Gaara had come around, because a good chunk of it was because of him, if not most of it.
Today they had a giant order to fill. Someone wanted fifteen pies, thirty loaves of bread, a giant sheet cake, four dozen rolls, and four dozen muffins. It was a tall order for just two people to work on. Gaara kneaded the dough for the rolls and some of the bread dough while Hinata made the cake batter and pies, since the pies would take forever to bake. After that, she helped knead the rest of the bread dough, and took all of the dough to a warm, not hot, oven to rise.
They both worked on the muffins, but Gaara was forced to leave when a customer came in. he helped her with her purchase, shooed away a pickpocket, and went back to the kitchen.
Hinata was able to take out the cake, but it needed to cool before she could ice it. In the meantime, she was able to check on the pies and muffins, and start kneading the dough again for the rolls, and divide it up, only to set it back in the oven to rise again. Gaara helped get the bread dough into pans, and slid them in the waiting ovens. The pies were pulled out, set on racks to cool, and boxes were brought out and labeled for them.
The cake was iced first with white icing and little red roses and green leaves were added in colored icing, along with "Congratulations!" in red cursive lettering. The cake was very carefully boxed and set aside. Gaara boxed the muffins, and labeled each kind. He also boxed the rolls. They both simply wrapped the bread up in plastic.
Delivering the order was almost as tricky as making it. Gaara made a cart out of sand, and used it to carefully secure the boxes, while the bread was secured in a different section of the cart. The delivery was made, boxes were unloaded, and they were paid. They returned to the shop, reopened it, and set about cleaning up the kitchen. Hinata made chicken soup in his little gourd shaped bread bowls, and they settled in for a well-deserved time of relaxation. Gaara took the night off from his studies, figuring that he deserved a break.
He liked it here, very much in fact. She had taken him in when no one else wanted him, and had given him a place to call home. No one had ever been this good to him, and he was very grateful. His loyalty was with Hinata, that much he was sure of, and had been the moment that she had taken him in. She was everything to him now, and he would do whatever he could to help her.
Gaara helped her make a new type of bread the next day, something she called foccacia. It had a bunch of different herbs in it, looked like a fat Frisbee, and was very moist. It was an instant hit, judging form the reactions of the customers to the free samples.
However, with the recent boom in business came several drawbacks. One was that they simply did not have the time to remodel the place like they wanted. The other was that, despite Gaara's efforts to prove the contrary, they needed help, badly.
So it was that Hinata was forced to hang a sign in her window that read: Now Hiring! Please Come Inside for an Interview!
Gaara still wasn't sure if he liked the idea of sharing his Hinata with anyone else, but there wasn't much he could do. The newbies had better not talk down to him! Munched his pizza with firm resolve, as if daring someone to tell him otherwise. Hinata smiled and shook her head, wondering what on earth got into him.