Notes: Since these were all finished way before I posted them here, I now present chapter 2. The prompt had been Kitchen/Ingredients.

Musubi

Chapter 2: Awaken

Written by: M. Mondsichel

田所 恵 xタクミアルデイニー

Rousing from his light slumber, Isami heard the banging of pots & clattering of utensils echoing throughout the house. He already knew who it was but decided to check it out anyway. It was clear that it would take a while before he'd be able to fall back to sleep again.

Even if the hallway was dimly lit, the darker haired twin was able to find the kitchen with much ease. He knew the place like the back of his hand and it also helped that the sounds got louder as he got nearer.

The door was slightly ajar, and since he had no intention of entering and disturbing the only occupant of the room, he chose to take a small peep instead.

His brother was busily preparing something on the counter and he didn't even need to see it to know what it was. He already figured that on nights when his older twin had really missed her, he would try to recreate the very first dish that he had helped her make.

Dorayaki.

It was often said that two people, who had suffered through something traumatic together, would almost always end up with each other. And that was what exactly had happened. Takumi and Megumi had fallen in love, and by the end of their first year, the proud Italian-Japanese guy and the meek Japanese girl, had started to date.

People from the Academy envied them. Their relationship was just too pure and sweet that every student in the campus, as well as faculty members, could not help but support them.

They were inseparable and in the very few classes that they didn't have together, Takumi would always seem to leave his in a hurry to wait for her outside hers. He was ever the perfect gentleman, but had a bad habit of showing her off whenever he could.

More often than not, their fingers would always be entwined as they walked through the large property of their academy. Their relationship seemed perfect, and on the rare moments that they did fight, they would resolve it almost immediately. They both made sure to not let the sun set on their anger.

They were the ideal couple and everyone thought that they'd get married right after graduation. But alas, it wasn't meant to be.

It was inevitable that they would separate, but both clung to the hope that they would make it somehow. Takumi was bound to return to his mother land and take over their family's trattoria, while Megumi would return to her place in the countryside and help manage her family's inn. That was the reason they went to Totsuki in the first place.

They had split amicably just a few days before graduation. Neither was willing to just let their families' businesses go to waste.

Takumi was the one who initiated the break-up, although he didn't think that they would actually go through with it. He had been under the impression that if he put their relationship on the line, the dark haired chef would relent and follow him back to Italy. It was a miscalculation on his part because he had been too immature, too blinded by his selfishness and too cocky over her feelings for him

He had expected her to leave everything behind in hopes of staying with him. He had been wrong.

Tadokoro Megumi agreed to part ways even if she had been tearing up the entire time.

It had been 3 years since then, and both of them tried to move on as they should be.

The blonde had reentered the dating scene quite abruptly and Isami surmised that his brother only did it as an attempt to forget all about the girl he had left behind. But the younger twin always knew that no matter how beautiful, smart, talented or refined his brother's new beau was, she would never be able to compare to his greatest love.

The older of the two didn't need to admit anything for him to find out that he never truly got over Megumi. Not when he'd catch the older Aldini cooking her favorite dishes on bad days and not when he'd find him holed up in his room, reading stained and worn out recipes that he had collaborated on making with Megumi when they had still been together.

Takumi had already memorized those by heart.

"It just doesn't taste right." The blue-eyed, blonde Italian pushed the plate in front of him away. He looked more tired now than when he first started to cook. It wasn't the first time he heard his brother say it, in fact, ever since they got back, anything that he had cooked from the recipes that his ex-girlfriend had left him never tasted right.

Isami knew, as he gazed at the collapsed, defeated figure of his older twin, that his brother would never get out of his slump.

No matter how hard Takumi tried to recreate the dorayaki that Megumi-chan made all those years ago, he would never be able to.

Even with all the fresh ingredients, the delicately done prep work or the perfectly mastered cooking techniques, his brother will always have something to complain about. He would never be satisfied.

The truth behind the success of the dish had been Tadokoro's endless warmth, and now that he was without her, it would never taste the same.

つづく