Chapter 17
Hitomi was laying on her back, her eyes closed and the only thing she could hear was her own breathing, as well as her friend's. The flowery scent of the lavender oil was filling the air, making her mind and body relax as she inhaled it with every breath she took.
After having dragged her friend to a place that she desperately wanted to visit last week it seemed only fair to Hitomi that they would go somewhere her friend would like to go, and after telling Leifang as much the Chinese already had a place in mind.
The next day after discussing it they headed to the train station and drove out of the city to a small town, which seemed to be some kind of spa town, and one of the first things she wanted them to do was enjoying a nice, relaxing session of aromatherapy.
After the pair had checked in they were led to an area where they could change out of their clothes and then brought into a small room, big enough for four people, where they received a massage.
She had hoped for a nice, good looking guy to take care of that, but sadly she had gotten a middle aged, slightly obese man named Bao Jing while Leifang received her massage from a petite young woman.
But that man had hands!
Never judge a book by its cover she had chided herself silently as he massaged her with the relaxing oil.
After they had gotten their treatment the young woman put diluted lavender oil into a small pot, and they were left alone for an hour to relax.
Hitomi had to admit that it sure did what it promised, at least for a time, but now that she was lying here for – she opened her eyes to take a look at her watch – thrity four minutes it was getting a bit boring.
Turning her head to the right she spied her friend laying in exactly the same position as her, wearing the same citrus colored bathrobe that she did, looking like she had no care in the world at all.
This was part of her world.
Well no reason not to make conversation.
"Hey." she called her friend, waiting for a response but she was simply lying there, inhaling and exhaling in a steady rhythm.
Did she fall asleep? She wondered and called out again. "Hey."
"Yes?" Leifang answered, her eyes staying shut.
"So, uh, are you coming here often?"
"I actually found out about this place not too long ago. It's quite charming, isn't it?"
Well yeah, if not a bit boring she said in her mind. "Yeah, sure is!"
Neither of them said anything further and Hitomi looked to her feet, wiggling her toes as she inspected her freshly pedicured nails she had received just yesterday. She wasn't a big fan of such stuff but now and again she supposed it was kinda nice to relish in the same luxury her friend did regularly.
If only I had something to do.
She cast her gaze across the room, which was lit in only dim light as to help with the effect of the therapy, but it was enough for her to make out some its interior, but nothing interesting enough to keep herself occupied with until their session would be over in about 20 minutes.
Sighing she looked towards Leifang again. "You know," the Chinese let out a sigh at that, which Hitomi decided to simply ignore. "Maybe we could play a bit of I spy?"
"Or we could just lie here in silence."
"Oh come on," Hitomi made a face. "That's no fun and we have nothing to do anyway."
Leifang opened one of her eyes and shifted her head a little to look directly at her. "The point is that we're supposed to lay down and let the aroma have its effect on us. If we get distracted it might dampen the result."
"Where the hell did you get that from?"
Leifang hesitated for a moment. "I read it in an article once."
Hitomi could only snort at that.
"Hey it was from a legit magazine. And they encourage to do so here as well."
"Well while it might have a certain degree of impact on the effect," Hitomi explained, raising her finger and adopting her lecture voice. "The effect is still there. Especially since we received a massage with it as well. After all the important part is that it enters our body, or am I wrong?"
"No I don't think so-"
"Then I must be right." Hitomi finished, grinning cheekily at her friend, who had opened her other eye and was looking at her directly now upon hearing her use her catchphrase.
"Oh ha ha, someone things she's funny. Are you trying to make me laugh?"
"Maybe," Hitomi said looking up at the ceiling. "You have a nice laugh."
That garnered a small laugh from her friend and she smiled up at the ceiling, glad that her friend wasn't really mad.
"You know that you act like a total jackass sometimes?" Leifang commented.
"Speaking of that, now why did you want that cabbage again?"
"I-What exactly does that have to do with anything?" The Chinese exclaimed. "I don't see how that has any relevance right now!"
Hitomi chuckled to herself. "Careful or that massage will have been for naught."
"And whose fault would that be?"
"I think I can see some gray hair over there."
Whatever Leifang wanted to say was caught in her throat as she simply gaped at her friend, eyes wide open, causing the German to burst into laughter holding on to her stomach.
"That's not funny!" Leifang said, finding her voice again. "You don't joke about that!"
A hand flew up towards her hair, where it grasped one of her braids and moved it so that she could look at it, inspecting it cautionary and, when finding no trace of gray, flung her towel at Hitomi.
Still laughing the Karateka had no chance to dodge and was hit directly in the face, the towel covering her whole face and muffling her laughter until she calmed down.
Pulling it off her face Hitomi simply grinned towards her friend, who tried, with all her might, to stay serious, failing miserably as her lips curled into a grin of her own.
"Gosh, sometimes I wonder why I even bother with you." Leifang said, shaking her head.
"Because I'm such a cutie and I can kick your ass to kingdom come."Hitomi earned herself a playful snort from the Chinese.
"Yeah right, we're gonna have to put that under trial."
"Sure, come on right here." Hitomi said and got up, lifting her hand, which she had already balled into fist in excitement.
"Here? Are you crazy?"
"What?" Hitomi asked, blinking. "Wouldn't be the strangest place we've fought.
She watched her friend sigh as she shook her head and lie back down.
Pouting in disappointment she sat back down, closing her eyes and sighing, going back to what she did before they had chatted. With a start her eyes flew open, as she cursed inwardly.
Leifang had dodged the cabbage question again!
"Ok, now listen up, soldier!"
"Soldier?" Leifang tilted her head to the side, watching her friend. The Karateka had dragged her into the kitchen when she stated that she was slightly hungry and debating if she should call Zhen to make something.
"Yes, I'm gonna teach to how to cook something today." Hitomi said.
Leifang furrowed her brows at that. "And why would you feel the need for that?"
"Because you could need it one day." The Chinese rolled her eyes at that, but decided to indulge her friend. It could be rather fun after all, and she was a bit hungry after all.
"And what would we do, oh great Iron Chef?"
"Uh,"Hitomi tapped her pointer finger against her lower lip in though, before walking towards the cabinets, taking a few good looks into them for a few moments before grabbing something and pulling it out. "Aha!"
Before Leifang could ask what her friend had found it was already put into her hands. "Flour?"
"Mhm." The German hummed in confirmation, pulling out a bottle of oil out of the same cabinet and grabbing the flour from her, carrying it all over to the kitchen counter.
"And what are we going to make?" she asked, watching as her friend took a bowl and filled it with water. When it was filled up enough Hitomi took it and placed it into the freezer, then opened the upper refrigerator and took a good look.
"Tempura." She answered simply and took out a large eggplant. "Watch, learn and just follow my instructions. It's really simple."
She threw the vegetable towards her and the Chinese stumbled a step forward as she caught it. Turning it in her hand twice to look at it closer, she placed it onto the counter near the sink, then looked at her friend who pulled out another one as well as eggs, before closing the fridge and walking over, placing the eggplant and eggs next to one another.
"Ok," Hitomi said, nodding to herself. "The water in the freezer needs to stay in there for a few minutes."
"Why?" Leifang asked, pointing to where the cutting boards were stored when she saw what the Karateka was looking for.
"The water needs to be really cold for the batter, but how about we cut the eggplant before that?"
"Sure!" The two of them washed the vegetables, then cut them into even pieces, Hitomi showing her how she had to cut them exactly so that they would be small enough to be eaten in one bite, which was important if you wanted to eat them with chopsticks.
Since Leifang was cutting the smaller one she was finished first and was told to get the water out of the freezer. She got it out of the freezer and, as she walked back to the counter, some of the water sloshed over the edge onto her hand. It was predictably cold.
A small smile formed onto her lips, suddenly getting an idea. Hitomi hummed to herself, having just finished cutting her pieces and gathering them all up, placing them into a smaller bowl. Leifang made her way over her silently and put her fingers into the water, biting her lip at the cold, then held them over the back of her friend's neck, just above the gap between skin and clothing.
As soon as a drop connected with her skin Hitomi led out a hiss and became stiff while it made its way down her back, reflexively pulling an arm back to grab where it ran down.
Leifang backed away, putting the bowl onto the counter and raised her hand to her lips, hiding the grin that had formed on them as well as stifling her laughter.
"Shit!" Hitomi swore then looked to her, giving the Chinese a glare before smirking herself and punching her into the shoulder, though not so hard as to seriously hurt her, but it would leave a mark in the morning.
"Ow!"
"Stupid cow!" Hitomi said and stuck out her tongue, which Leifang replied in kind.
With that out of the way they continued to make the batter, with Hitomi doing the main part of stirring it together while Leifang added the water.
"Ok great, now put the frying pan onto the stove and put some of the oil into it, not much but enough that it's evenly spread, then set it to high temperature, we'll need it soon." Leifang did it while Hitomi was explaining, paying close attention to what her friend was saying so not to make any mistakes.
When she returned to her friend's side and saw that the batter was now a homogeneous paste, Hitomi pulled the spoon out and placed it into the sink, cracking her knuckles and turning to her friend.
"Now, normally we'd use special flour made out of rice for this," she pointed to the batter. "But you can do it with normal flour as well. So the next thing I want you to do is rolling the pieces of eggplant into the batter, like this," She demonstrated to her how it was done then let Leifang try it once. She nodded and gave her an encouraging smile when she got it right. "Good, I'm keeping watch on the oil, just place them onto the cutting board and I'll take care of the rest."
Leifang repeated the process over until she was finished. By that time Hitomi was already busy frying them, pulling them out with a pair of chopsticks and putting them onto a plate when they were crunchy looking enough.
The Chinese watched intently her friend as she carefully put in the next batch, placing them so that they wouldn't touch each other in the pan.
They moved into the living room after they were done, sitting down to enjoy the city view while eating. Leifang picked one up with her chopsticks and put it into her mouth, closing her eyes as she enjoyed the taste and crispy texture while chewing.
"Mmh, delicious, like always." she complimented Hitomi, who winked at her and ate one herself.
"You're welcome." Hitomi said and they shared a smile.
Special Double Feature today. More on that in the next chapter.