Still Vanilla
"What in tarnation," she mumbled out her first words of the day. "Who the hell drills walls so early in the morning?" She tried to get up, and the drilling increased. She groaned as she realized no one was drilling anything and it was all just a headache pounding inside of her skull. Then the whole last night came back to her and she groaned even louder, causing a sharp pain to shoot through her temples.
In all honesty, there was nothing surprising about the whole incident. Of course she found Tsukasa attractive. Anyone with a pair of two good eyes – or even just one eye – couldn't deny that the First Seat was delectable. But it wasn't (all) just physical attraction. He was smart and hardworking, and despite the fact that he could be selfish at times, he was always there for his friends. Not that he had many of them. Rindō was happy to be able to count herself among his friends, even if she did force him into this friendship when they were in middle school. Over the years their friendship became peppered with looks and touches that have long outgrown the label "platonic", but they never crossed the line. They were both too busy with their own cooking and the Elite Ten administrative work (although she liked to leave all her paperwork to him). At least that was the excuse she always used when thinking about it.
So basically, what happened yesterday was just a more intense version of everything that had been building up for years. Right?
She almost wrote it off as nothing until she remembered how much she liked his touch. How much she wanted to kiss him and run her fingers through his silky hair.
Rindō decided this was a good time to stop thinking and have a cold shower instead. And have several cups of water to help fight off the headache. She'd be like new in no time.
At about 11 a.m. there was an Elite Ten meeting she probably needed to attend. Luckily, the headache had subdued quite a bit by that time, but she still felt a little uneasy. For a second or two, she considered skipping the meeting. She wasn't scared of facing Eishi, not exactly. She half hoped the incident wouldn't be mentioned ever again – she wasn't ashamed of her behaviour, but she wouldn't like being reminded of how he ultimately turned her down. At least she could be sure that he wouldn't say anything in front of the other eight students.
But one part of her (it might have been her heart) was hoping they would acknowledge the chemistry between them and act upon it.
She was the last to arrive to the meeting and the others paid her barely any attention. Except Kuga Terunori, who muttered something about her being permanently late, and Tsukasa, who shot her a secretive smirk. She wanted to smirk back, but then she remembered that last night she'd said something about them being married – a line that seemed brilliant at the time (but was definitely not). What in the world was wrong with her? Of course, the only free seat left had to be the one on the left from Tsukasa. She slumped down next to him, and he gave no further signs of being aware of her presence.
About half an hour into the meeting she decided it was Tsukasa's turn to make a move. If he wanted to move this – whatever it was – forward, he would have to be the one to take the first step. She had embarrassed herself enough yesterday. She was never one of those desperate girls who threw themselves over the boys they liked. The boys threw themselves over her. Just because Tsukasa's her friend didn't mean he'd be getting any special treatment.
Happy with her resolution, she continued not to pay attention to the meeting. What roused her out of her semi-slumber was a gentle push against her knee. She opened her eyes. Eizan Etsuya was still babbling about this or that, and everyone at least pretended to care about it. Tsukasa looked like he was jotting down some notes, but then his leg moved again and made contact with her own under the desk.
Well now we're talking.
She pretended to adjust her seating, pulling her chair more under the desk and closer to Eishi. He smiled down onto his notes, still writing in his pretty cursive (well, pretty for a guy's handwriting at least). Her right thigh and his left one were now almost completely touching. He stretched out his leg so that it passed under hers and then raised it back into the sitting position, bringing her leg upwards along with his own. She was propped up on him now and his left hand was resting on her knee. But it wasn't resting for long and he soon began tracing lazy small circles on her skin, gradually progressing closer to the hem of her skirt. Her skirt itself had at this point ridden up quite high. Rindō suspected they would be rather obvious to anyone glancing in their direction, as they were sitting unnecessarily close to each other and at a weird angle. But no one said anything or seemed to notice. Saitō Sōmei was sitting on Rindō's other side and he probably did notice, but he was polite enough not to say anything. Maybe it was against the bushido code to publically expose unprofessional behaviour of your classmates.
"So what you're saying, Eizan," said Isshiki, "Is more paperwork?"
"Yes," Eizan said grimly, "More paperwork."
"Then I guess that concludes the today's meeting," said Eishi and Rindō quickly slid her leg down and clenched her thighs together. The rest of the members started getting up as he said, "Thank you all for coming."
"Catch you later, Rindō," he told her casually, and was gone before she could reply. Not if I catch you first.
"Kobayashi-san? Are you okay? You look a bit flushed." So much for no one noticing what they had been up to. Nakiri Erina was looking at her with worried eyes. Rindō had already noticed that the younger girl had been showing more feelings lately – the Ice Queen was slowly starting to thaw. Thankfully the girl was still oblivious to all things romance, so it was easy to come up with an excuse. "Oh, I still haven't shaken off a headache from yesterday," Rindō waved it off.
"Well, if you want, you can drop by the Nakiri Estate later. Hisako-san makes excellent medicinal teas, I'm sure she'll come up with something to ease your pain." Rindō was genuinely surprised at the younger girl's offer, but also thankful. Could it be that the Heiress was finally becoming more human?
"Thank you," Rindō smiled at her warmly, "I have a class now, but maybe later."
She wasn't particularly looking forward to the class in question. It was a patisserie class, whose nature itself didn't allow Rindō to really enjoy it – she was more into cooking crocodiles and snakes, so the ingredients they used in the Desserts 301 class were positively boring for Rindō's taste. Just last week, they had to make some jiggly-wiggly monstrosity of a dessert (which was much too sweet, even for a sweet, and utterly unexciting in terms of ingredients, but was apparently all the rage on the Internet at the moment). But at least Eishi would be attending the class, too, and watching him cook was an experience in itself. And after what occurred yesterday and again this morning... Maybe today won't be so bad after all.
Today was going to be terrible. Tsukasa Eishi knew it as soon as the Desserts professor announced: "You'll be doing pair-work today. Please find your partners and begin working on a dessert of your choosing. You're free to use any of the ingredients displayed." The professor motioned to the tables at the back of the kitchen, laden with a plethora of ingredients. At this point Eishi was barely listening because his brain had gone into overdrive. He was becoming lightheaded as he calculated all the ways this class could go wrong: he never works alone – his assistant will be clumsy for sure – what if they cut off their finger – or worse! what if they spray blood into Eishi's dessert! – or add too much sugar – too much vanilla extract – too much of anything – anything could go wrong – it's not going to be perfect –
He was suddenly brought back to Earth when someone's arms suddenly wrapped around him from behind. He hadn't heard anyone approach so it's safe to say that he wasn't just mildly surprised by being hugged. Hugged during such a time of crisis! His dessert - !
"Don't overwork your pretty head, Eishi," a female voice purred into his ear as she – he knew immediately it was Rindō – gripped him tighter. And though it might seem like a friendly hug (or just one of Rindō's usual stunts) to anyone else, the way she was pushing her soft curves against his back... And the way her fingers fanned out across his abdomen, slowly sliding downwards... Eishi's stance went even more rigid than before.
The professor coughed, "You have two hours. You may begin." With a chuckle, the she-devil peeled herself off Eishi and stationed herself next to him.
"I'm sure you won't mind us working together on this, partner," she said. She was looking very much like the cat that got the cream. He squinted at her, "You look way too enthusiastic. I've never seen you so excited about this class."
Her grin widened, "Oh, I'm just waiting for you to suggest that I be your assistant. Or a sous-chef. So that I can hit you on the head."
He decided to keep his mouth shut. But maybe...
She smacked him upside the head. "I didn't say anything," he grumbled, rubbing his ear.
"But you were thinking it!"
"Well technically, if we were to pull rank..." Eishi laughed when she lunged to slap him again, deflecting her, and catching her other hand which had attempted a sneak-attack from the other side. He placed a feather-light kiss on the inside of her wrist, "I'm just kidding, Rindō. I know you're a great chef." She was better than great, actually, and he was glad to have her by his side. Not just for her cooking skills. He hadn't been able to stop thinking about her since yesterday and their escapade from the morning meeting didn't really help ease his condition.
"Let's get the ingredients, then," she turned to leave, but he stopped her by gripping her high pony-tail. He wrapped her crimson hair around his palm once and gently tugged on it, exposing her neck. "But if I find a single red hair in our dish, it'll be the end of you," he breathed into her ear. As he inhaled the scent of her hair, he considered how appropriate it would be to give her a hickey on that perfect neck, with the rest of the class watching. Dismally, he conceded that it probably wouldn't be appropriate at all so he let her go. Heat had definitely coloured her face as she turned, "I could say the same thing about finding any of your stupid hair."
"So you like my hair, then?" he threw after her as she went to the ingredients table, laughter lining his voice.
As he watched her approach the ingredients, hips swaying, he absent-mindedly wondered if he would even survive this class. She turned to look at him and waved him on to hurry up and join her.
"Know any good French desserts?" Rindō asked him when he approached her. "French?" he asked her, pleasantly surprised she picked his forte as the theme for their dish.
She shrugged impishly, "I'm in mood for some French." He smirked at her and mentally went through the long list of good French desserts that he did, in fact, know. "How about Pierre Hermé's Ispahan?" he suggested a pastry that was essentially an oversized macaron, filled with rose buttercream, with a lychee in the centre and an edge lined with raspberries.
Rindō pondered for a moment and gave a nod of agreement, "I can find a way to spice it up."
"I have no doubt you can," Eishi said and they started picking through the ingredients. They were somewhat behind; most students have already started prepping. Akanegakubo Momo looked like she was already half-way done with the recipe (her cooking partner was trembling on the sidelines and was watching the small purple-haired girl with wide eyes). Soon Eishi was hauling all the ingredients they settled on back to their workstation (Rindō didn't want to carry anything and just pointed to the ingredients for Eishi to pick up).
As they began their preparation process, Eishi realized that he had probably never cooked with Rindō before. Sure, they'd cooked for each other often, and there was also a cooking battle or two – although no taste-taster ever dared to proclaim a winner of such a duel. But creating something together... "This is our first cooking time, you know?"
"I was hoping our first time together would be this evening," Rindō replied without missing a beat while chopping up their secret ingredients. She only turned to wink at him and size him up-and-down.
That vixen.
Eishi was pleasantly surprised at how well everything was going so far. Instead of each insisting on their own idea, they agreed on the dish, each contributing with what they excelled at. Still, Rindō was a wild card and her presence – both in cooking and otherwise – kept him on his toes. He knew this dish would turn out different than any he'd made before.
But it was certainly up to his standards in terms of how it looked. Some half an hour later, they were standing in front of a perfectly round pastry the size of a smallish cake. The pink macaron shell hasn't cracked anywhere; the buttercream coated the lychee fruit inside the macaron, and the berries held everything together. A berry and a single rose petal sat on top of the dessert as adornment.
"I want to try it," Rindō said and Eishi momentarily lost his cool again.
"Are you crazy? It has to look perfect for the presentation and grading!" But Rindō was already wielding a knife. She bumped him with her hip to get him out of the way and cut the dessert. Eishi sighed, knowing he wouldn't be able to stop her. Besides, he didn't really want to stop her anyway – he was dying to try the pastry they made.
He'd taken only a step back when she pushed him out of the way, and was now standing close next to her. He couldn't resist touching her neck and tracing his finger down her spine, going low, lower – not low enough. His palm settled on the small of her back just as she finished putting a piece of their creation on a plate.
"Well, are you going to try it, then?"
She handed him the plate and said, "Only if you feed it to me."
She. Was. Killing. Him.
She smiled innocently, waiting. Her dewy lips parted when he brought a fork closer to them, offering her a bite. Eishi watched her face while she tasted it for the first time. Her eyelids fluttered and closed, and a cherry tinge was blooming on her cheeks. The image of Rindō letting out a soft sigh, lips trembling, was now forever etched onto Eishi's eyelids. He couldn't wait any longer – he ate a bite of their Ispahan and barely stopped himself from groaning out loud. The taste reminded him of a late spring day, when the nature is at its prime and everything is so full of life, when summer was already permeating the air, but without the scorching heat just yet – it was the perfect balance between spring and summer. Had he been working alone, he would have probably done some steps differently, but this dish... Is this what people meant when they said chefs should pour themselves into their dish? Because this dish was playful and hot and he could feel it, not just taste it. It was simply -
"Brilliant!" the professor all but shouted, waving his own fork around. "I thought you wouldn't be able to pull off making the Ispahan, especially when I saw you replaced raspberries with blackberries. But these aren't blackberries at all, they are merely black raspberries! And they give this dish a whole other dimension. And the buttercream... It's not rose, it's vanilla and Cayenne pepper! How ingenious! And," he paused and closed his eyes, "the shells are coated with a layer of sweet rum on the inside, aren't they?"
"That's right," Eishi confirmed, putting some more space between him and Rindō, who still seemed a bit shaken.
"The taste transports me back to when I first met my wife..." the professor trailed off into his own memories and Eishi was worried the old man was about to reveal personal information to his students. Thankfully, the professor congratulated them both on getting excellent marks and left, saying he needed to call his wife and tell her he loves her.
By that point most of the students had cleared out. Eishi turned to Rindō, and caught her stuffing something into a pocket on her cooking uniform. She threw him a smile and swaggered by him. "Catch you later, Eishi," she blew him a kiss and left him to mull over their dish.
He took his bag in which he kept his clothes and made for the changing room. Only when he was back in his school uniform did he notice that he had been robbed. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find his tie. And there was only one person who could have taken it.
.
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Hi, everyone! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! If you stuck around till the end, please leave a review to let me know what you think about the story so far!
I guess I should also make another disclaimer: I am no cook. I don't know how their Ispahan cake would taste like (hopefully like a spring and summer day!). I was researching French desserts and the first result was (naturally) a Buzzfeed article, which I'll link on my profile. I'll also put a link to another Ispahan recipe I found, so check that out, too!
