[AQ]Baking Treats[Aoife/Mitsuo]

[Mitsuo Takahashi]

SPOILER: Click to show

 Cooking Mama
+ Description: The Cooking Club wants to hold a big bake sale to help fund raise some of the many clubs' activities but they're lacking in numbers. They're never going to make enough pastries and goodies with so few helping hands, especially with the ones they do make disappearing so suddenly. They have no idea where their baked goods are going but they keep making new ones only to have them stolen. In a last attempt at having their bake sale the members of the cooking club have been going around trying to get volunteers to help them bake a big batch of snacks so they can hold their bake sale.
+ Lend a helping hand, the least you can do is try: +2 Guardians, +1 Faberge, -1 Roost
+ Take them up on their offer and show them all up!: -1 Guardians, +2 Faberge
+ Cooking's not really your thing but you wouldn't mind buying a few snacks to help out: -1 Faberge, +2 Roost
+ This definitely isn't your area but maybe you can help out and advertise their sale!: +2 Faberge, -2 Roost
+ Something's not right...where are all the snacks going?: -1 Guardians, +1 Faberge, +2 Roost
Requirements: Minimum 2 participants, tag an X-mod if doing 'Something's not right...where are all the snacks going?'
Submitted by kingmochi

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As soon as the bell rang for the end of school, Mitsuo had immediately thrown everything into his bag and dashed out quickly, avoiding the hordes of students that were rushing home. As he weaved in and out of the groups of students, he was trying to remember the directions to the room where they had their cooking classes, stopping at every hallway to try to see if it fit his memory, before turning away when he was sure it wasn't this particularly corridor. The Cooking Club had been requesting for student volunteers to help out make goodies for their bake sale at the end of the week - and Mitsuo had signed up to do so. Though honestly, he wasn't sure if he wanted to help out at first, for he didn't particularly enjoy baking - but the smell of baked cookies was just far too enticing for him not to at least take a look-see at what the Cooking Club was doing.

And maybe he could steal eat some of their baked goods. You know, just to make sure that they really tasted good for the sale.

Walking briskly down yet another hallway, looking up as he scanned the hanging name plates up at the wall - until he finally spotted the one that indicated the cooking facilities. Bounding down the corridor, he soon stopped right in front of the Home Ec room, smiling wide. He found it!! Grabbing the sliding door with one of his hands, he pulled it open quickly, waving into the room without checking if anyone was there. "Hi there!!" he said merrily.


Aoife

[Aoife]

Aoife had already been avoiding her last class - she was very bad at Japanese so she tended to avoid the class entirely. So there she was helping in the Cooking Club instead. She was best at baking, considering she'd never even thought about learning to make anything else. So she'd made a good amount of food - or at least she'd thought so until a good portion if it had gone missing.

Now - the first thought that had popped into her head was that just...somebody else in the clubroom had just tried it and that everybody else had as well, just to make sure it was okay or whatever but then after she'd finished off her second batch and a good amount of that had gone missing too she figured that maybe it was something else all together. 
Obviously her first thought after that was that it was faeries. Considering they were what she'd first started making the treats for in the first place she wouldn't have been that surprised if that had been the case. 

Her head lifted from the few cookies she was decorating as a boy stepped into the room - a second year. Who she'd obviously never seen before. She heard a few greetings from a couple of people at another station and followed up with her own 'Hello' really - she should have been more enthusiastic - as she usually was, but she was trying to concentrate a little on what she was doing. She was sure her tongue would have been sticking out the corner of her mouth as she iced a particular corner with as much procession as she could. 

Aoife wasn't really sure where the boy would be heading - so she finished off what she was doing before gathering a few more ingredients to start of the next batch.  

[Mitsuo Takahashi]

Oh wow there were loads of people in here! Mitsuo gave a wave and a greeting back towards everyone in the room. Maybe they didn't really need his help after all? Since...well honestly, he wasn't at all that good in baking. But hey, since he was here, he might as well take a look around right? And maybe even help them being their taste tester or something; every cooking class needed a good old taste tester right? He stepped right into the classroom, closing the door behind him as he did so, before taking a look around. Oh wait, maybe there was somebody in charge? He probably should introduce himself to that person first right? And ask if they needed help?

He took another look around, frowning a little. None of them seemed like the leader...in fact, who was the President of the Cooking Club, now that he thought about it? Honestly, considering that he wanted to join the Cooking Club, knowing who was its President and its Vice-President sounded like a good detail he should know, but instead here he was, unsure of the hierarchy and the ranks. Ah well. Maybe he should ask somebody first?

He spotted a girl on the nearby table - a...foreign-looking girl with springy hair and...was it just him, or was she just covered in freckles? Oh man but the goodies she made smelled absolutely heavenly; and he soon gravitated to her table without much of a thought. "Hello!" he quipped with a grin. He pointed to one of the iced cookies. "Did you make all of these?"

[Aoife]

"Uh - hello." She gave the boy a quick smile - she was already stirring, her hands gripping at the hand mixer. She glanced down at her previously baked goods. Ah - was it just her or had some of them already gone missing? Although, she supposed it didn't matter considering. They were going to get eaten one way or another. Aoife was not entertaining the idea that tiny faeries were in the school stealing treats that she might make. 

"Those ones? Yeah." She nodded her head a little. Aoife finally actually looked at him in that moment - and noticed that at least his face also had a decent amount of freckles. The first other person in Japan she'd ever seen with freckles as well. She wondered why he wasn't offering to help out but it wasn't that much of a surprise, some people were coming in just to taste what was being made. 

The girl continued to stir her mixture till the point it all started coming together. Cookies were the easiest things to make in such an unfamiliar place. Had she been at home she'd have made something totally different. She had no real interest in joining cooking club - so she had no reason to really learn about how the ovens really worked or the exact things about each of them. She was only helping out for the day. 

"Are you here to help out?" She settled down the bowl and her mixer, spreading flour down on the side. "Or are you here to steal things people are making?" The girl rose and eyebrow at him, not sure of which he might be. 

[Mitsuo Takahashi]

"Ohh!" was all Mitsuo said, looking back down at all the iced cookies on the tray. All of them looked so delicious! It was hard to just not to nab one! Oh but he couldn't do that! He was here to help, not to steal even more of their baking goods away. "They look really pretty! Do you bake often?" he asked, tilting his head in query. Looking at how well-made they were, he was sure that the freckled girl was probably really good at it! Unlike him....ahem.

"Oh," Mitsuo suddenly quipped, before smiling sheepishly at the girl. He was here to help out, not to stare down at the cookies looking like he wanted to eat them! But his eyes soon widened at the other's words, and he quickly brought his hands up to wave them frantically, trying to dispel the notion. "No no no of course not!" he said, giving a slightly flustered smile. Then again, he did think of munching on the baking goods earlier, but he really wasn't going to dwindle their resource of baked goods right now! Bad Mitsuo, bad! Honestly he really should be more aware of these things. "I'm here to help, honest!" he began, trying to give the other a reassuring smile. He didn't need to say that the real reason why he was here was only because he was very much enticed by the aroma wafting in from the kitchen...

"...Or so I say but." He gave an embarrassed laugh. "I'm not very good at baking," he admitted with yet another sheepish smile. He watched as the girl spread down flour on the table, before realising how he could potentially help. "Oh but I can totally like roll the dough out or cut out shapes using the cookie cutters and stuff! That should do it right?" He could only plea that he wasn't given the task of making the dough. Or bake them in the oven. Or even to decorate them. Any of them would be a disaster if he did them.

Until he realised he was being rather rude. "Oh, I'm sorry I should have introduced myself right?" He gave yet another laugh. "I'm Mitsuo! Mitsuo Takahashi! You?"

[Aoife]

Aoife let out a hum - and gave him another smile. "Thanks." Honestly - she felt a little bad for automatically just assuming that he was there to steal all the nice things everybody had made so she indicated to the plate. "I bake...everyday?" It was one of her favorite things to do and her house was usually filled with baked goods that could never really been eaten by just her family members and often got taken to school with her younger siblings. "If you want to try one - I'm not sure how good these ones turned out yet."

The girl let out a snort of laughter and turned her head away. What was the point in him coming in if he couldn't really bake? Ah - well she didn't really mind it all that much. If people were just walking in - well it kind of offered some kind of publicity to the bake sale that would happen later right? She wouldn't have been there for that part but -

She looked back at him from the corner of her eye - he seemed suitably embarrassed so she supposed she'd have to cut him some slack. At least he was still offering help even though she'd basically accused him of coming in to steal. She smiled at him - a teasing note to her voice as she spoke again. "Ah? You can do that much huh?" If he could do that then she could prepare the next tray with some baking paper and sort it out ready for the shapes that he cut out. "Hm - well if you can cut some shapes out how about you help me out over here then?" 

She picked the dough out of her bowl - placing it on the flour that she'd spread out. There was already a rolling pin and come cookie cutters around the table so he'd be able to just use those. "Lets see you not mess that part up then, right?" She was still clearly teasing him and she had to hope he didn't mind.

"Ah - nice to meet you." She nodded her head a little - finding the tray she'd been using previously. "Nagumo Aoife - but just call me V, yeah?"

[Mitsuo Takahashi]

Mitsuo's eyes widened a little - before he beamed back at the girl in front of him. "You bake everyday?" he said in awe, glancing down at the treats on the table. If that's the case, then all these baked cookies must be good! "That's impressive! Every time I try to bake, the texture's always wrong..." he frowned at his words, remembering the few times that the pastry was undercooked, or overcooked, or the dough didn't raise in the oven...the list of problems went on. But he suddenly perked up at the girl's suggestion, his eyes sparkling at the idea. "Really?! I can?" was his eager reply, before he looked back down at the cookies on the desk, admiring the decorations on them. They looked and smelled so good. "Don't mind if I try one then!" he said with a grin, taking one and biting a chunk out of it. "Oooh it's so good!" he said.

The boy tilted his head a little to the side in confusion at first when the other laughed; and then realised why. He grinned in a slightly embarrassed way back at her, giving a sheepish shrug. "I know, silly right? Me who can't bake am here to try and help out." Actually now that he thought about it, it really did sound stupid. Still, it made him glad that she laughed; he always felt laughter made the atmosphere a lot better, and eased any kind of tension between strangers.

He perked up at her words, giving an enthusiastic nod at her words - and laughed a little at her teasing. "I'll totally not mess it up!" he replied with a dramatic flair, quickly walking around the table so that he would be on the same side as she was. But he soon paused; he should grab an apron first right? To prevent from getting onto his clothes? Quickly, he walked over to the free aprons hanging by the entrance, grabbing a bright yellow one - he really didn't care how it would look on him to be honest - before he put it on. Once done, he went back to the girl's side again, grinning. He took up the rolling pin to start flattening the dough out - but he paused. "Wait, how thin do you need this be?" he asked, pointing at the dough on top of the table.

The freckled boy nodded at her answer. "V!" he said at first - before he furrowed his eyebrows in a slightly confused manner. "Oh is that a nickname?" he asked.

[Aoife]

Aoife nodded her head - giving the boy another smile. "Yeah - my house constantly smells like baking." She was pretty sure that her family were a little bit annoyed over the fact and although she cleaned very often and carefully she was pretty sure she never really got all of the flour from the counters. "Baking can be really hard...you have to practice lots and lots and then you have to get basically everything exactly right." She nodded again, it had taken like 7 years of practice to get as good as she had. 
She gave him another wide smile at his reaction to the cookie. "Ohhh - I'm glad!" That had been one of the batches she'd been a little bit worried about - but obviously she'd been wrong and it was totally okay. She felt a little more happy for it and started bouncing around a little more as she continued to make her next batch. 

She let out another snort of laughter - and finished off weighing her fresh ingredients. "Ah - silly for sure! Yup! But also like a really nice thought!" She continued to move quickly around the space she'd been given, grabbing her recently cleaned bowls. She thought it was nice at least that he'd come to offer his help even if he couldn't really bake himself. Plus - he was gonna help her out now, right? So he was actually being really helpful!

A few second later - just before she actually replied to his next words she moved away from her fresh set up to place some baking paper onto the tray she'd up out. It was ready for him to actually put the cut out dough on now. She watched as he moved to put on a apron and almost let out another burst of laughter at the one that he'd picked out. Once he asked his question she moved a little so she could show him holding her fingers at a centimeter distance from each other. "Just around a centimeter will do." She patted the dough a little bit, it was some good dough. "Don't forget to flour the rolling pin." She gave him another smile. 

"Huh? Oh, yeah." Aoife nodded her head a few times fast. "Most people have some difficulties pronouncing my name...so it's easier for them to use V." She didn't really like making it so difficult for people but also she kind of got tired of trying to help people out with the pronunciation. A lot of people just gave up and it just...wasn't fun for either party. 

[Mitsuo Takahashi]

Mitsuo laughed at the imagery in his head, but at the same time he couldn't help but be awed. A house that smelled like someone was baking everyday...! Wouldn't that be a grand place to live in? "I bet your family must be happy with all of the sweets and pastries and bread you make!" he said with a smile - though honestly he was just guessing what she actually made at home. Did she mostly made dessert-type treats, or did she make bread too? "Yeah," the boy said with a frown, sighing a little. He really only baked something every once in a while...well actually he rarely baked to be honest, but still. "It's something that comes with practice I'm sure," he said with yet another sigh. But it perked him up a little to see how happy she was after he said the cookies were good. It made him glad too, if anything.

He laughed again. She was a funny girl! A funny girl in a good way that is. And she had a cheerfulness to her that he appreciated. "I suppose so!" he chimed with a toothy grin.

The freckled boy moved a little to the side, watching her fingers measure out a centimeter, and he nodded at her words. Okay, he better lodge that into his mind now. He nearly placed the rolling pin back down onto the dough - until her next words stopped him. "Oh right," he said, moving the rolling pin off to the side where the flour was. He stared at the bag a little in a bit of a comtemplative frown before he shook his head and grab a - rather big handful - of flour. Raising his hand, he tried to sprinkle the flour onto the rolling pin with the dramatic flair of those on the cooking shows but; needless to say that it ended up with clumps of flour in several places and not as evenly spread out. "Oh - oops," he said, before giving Aoife a sheepish smile. He quickly rubbed the flour all over the rolling pin. There! That should do it. Finally, he placed the rolling pin down onto the dough, pushing it down hard to try and flatten it. He began to roll the dough out as much as he could. "This thin enough?" he asked, looking back at the first-year.

"Oh I see," he said, nodding at the girl's answer. Looking back at it, the name did...sound difficult to pronounce. He didn't really catch it fully the first time either. The freckled boy gave the girl a sheepish smile. "I have to say that I don't think I'll pronounce it right either," he said, laughing in an embarrassed manner. "Is it a Japanese name?" he asked, curious. Though it didn't sound particularly Japanese to him, but hey, who knows, right?

[Aoife]

The girl patted her face - faintly embarrassed. "Ah - honestly they complain they're going to get fat, like, all the time." Which...was kind of a compliment? Or not, she wasn't really sure. She let out a low sigh - but there was still a wide smile on her face. "They like soda and potato bread the best." She wasn't really sure why considering they had basically no flavour - but there was her family. Weirdos. She always liked making sweeter things though. Be it down to her sweet tooth or her...very out dated beliefs. Honestly - she could have complained about how she'd only just gotten use to her oven in Ireland and then she'd been forced out to Japan and damn, even five years later she still wasn't quite sure how to work it quite the right way.

As she continued to watch him from the corner of her eye she let out a quiet snort as he sprinkled the flour. If she hadn't already been told not to make the kinds of jokes she'd made with her friend back in Ireland she'd have already cracked a pretty rude one already. "Don't worry about it. Most normal people just do it like that -" With that she started moving around again - peering at the rolled out dough and answered him with a nod. "Perfect!" And it was - she wasn't just saying it but...Aoife didn't think it took all that much to actually just roll out the dough. 

"Even my Grandad gets messed up when he sees the spelling." She let out a small huff of laughter. Honestly. If anybody could get it right first time she'd have to bless them. Why she couldn't have gotten something easier she didn't know. "Ah - no." Sometime she kind of wished she did have more of a Japanese sounding name - but her mom hadn't had much of a choice in her naming so - "It's Gaelic - or Irish rather." She went back to her own section of work. If he was going to help...she was really going to put him to work.

[Mitsuo Takahashi]

Mitsuo blinked at her words - before he let out a bit of a chuckle. "Doesn't that mean that your cookies and stuff are so good that they can't stop munching on them?" he said laughing. He honestly thought it was a nice problem to have; after all, wouldn't be nice not just to have a house smell of baking, but also to have tasty snacks lying around for him to take and eat?! But he suddenly paused, blinking once more in a confused manner. "Soda bread...?" he asked tentatively, as if he wasn't sure if that was even truly a thing. He wasn't sure if he had heard of potato bread either, but right now he was focusing on something that he thought never went together. All he could think of was Coco-cola flavoured bread. "You mean like actual soda in bread?" he asked puzzled.

The boy didn't seem to mind the snort at all, finding it funny to himself too. The moment the other had given him the nod, he grinned at her in acknowledgement, and he would move his arm to grab some of the cookie cutters on the table. For just a second he stared at the dough, flitting a glance at the star-shaped cookie cutter with an intense expression - before he slammed the cutter onto the dough. There! That should do it. They had to put it in with force, so that they actually cut out the dough properly right? Oh, and they had to shake it to get the excess dough off, right? He shook it vigorously then, before he pulled out the cookie cutter - and a satisfied smile lit up his face the moment he saw a star-shaped dough come off cleanly. "Is this good enough?" he asked with a beaming smile, proudly showing Aoife his handiwork. Okay sure, it wasn't a big job, but he did it and that meant something to him!

"Really?" he said, and he couldn't help the chuckle when he saw her laugh. He pushed another cookie cutter into the dough as he listened. But at Aoife's later words, he looked up with knitted eyebrows. "Oh," he said. "Wait does that mean like-" He brought up a flour-covered hand as he pointed at the freckled girl. "You're like Irish or something?" That could have explained the freckles. Unlike him, where he had no idea where his freckle genes came from. Weren't they were common in people with red hair or something? Or basically non-Japanese. Then again, he didn't care too much about it.

[Aoife]

"Ah - well yeah I guess." All of the things she made were eaten quickly yes and but half of the time some of them ended up outside. Just to make sure that if their were...well if the other people were out there. Although she didn't say any of that out loud. Talking about faeries if they were real was not something that she thought would be good. It might just scare the boy off and considering he was helping her out she really didn't think it would be good to do that. "Uh, soda bread...no." She shook her head a little bit and turned her head to look at him. "Like with bicarbonate of soda." It was a simple enough thing to make - and it was pretty fun when her siblings joined in with making it. "I...don't think you could actually make bread with soda." Maybe with soda water? Aoife wasn't too sure about that.

Oh wow - his action and words were kind of adorable. She wanted to reach out and pat his head but considering he was actually taller than her, well it would probably have been odd to do so. The girl gave him a big grin and nodded her head a little. She was really glad for the help - but really if he was going to cut them like that every time it would take forever to actually get it done. "Yeah. Thats a good one." She almost laughed - but he seemed happy with himself so she didn't really want to ruin it or anything.  

She shot him another smile and turned her attention to her own bowl, finally finishing off the new dough - if he wanted to cut this one later he could do that too. She nodded her head a couple of times. "Yeah, yeah." If she didn't dye her hair...it might have been a little more obvious that she was a foreigner. Or at least...half? "I'm from Ireland." Being covered in freckles had a lot to do with the naturally ginger hair. She was a little more tan than most of the stereotypical Irish people but it didn't change the matter that freckles appeared all over her skin. It was usually the ginger hair and light skin that caused them to appear. Although her mother would usually just say it was sun kisses which seemed nice until you realized that it was actually the suns rays damaging a persons skin.  

[Mitsuo Takahashi]

Mitsuo only laughed at her answer. He reached for the metal tray, pulling it towards him and tapping the cookie cutter to let the dough slide out. Mercifully for him, it slid out easily enough onto the tray. But at the girl's answer to his question, he looked back at her again with slightly furrowed eyebrows. Until a sparkle of understanding flashed before his eyes. "Oh!" he said, before laughing at himself. Yeah that made sense; why would someone want to make actual soda bread anyway? ...Before he stopped. Actually that might be an interesting challenge to both make and taste. "Wouldn't it be cool if we could though?" he asked her, laughing once again. "Like - Coca-cola flavoured bread! Or Sprite-flavoured bread! Or something like that!"

Holding up the star cookie cutter again, he once again slammed it back down onto the dough - though it was with less force than with the first one. He didn't seem to care about it however, and as he shook it once more and pulled it up, he beamed at the nicely cut star-shaped dough right on the tabletop. He picked it up - and for this particular part of the job, he was uncharacteristically gentle, laying it down onto the metal tray, as if he was afraid of squashing it somehow. As soon as it made it safely next to the other star-shaped dough that he had first cut out, he smiled brightly at it, before he resumed cutting out more shapes.

"Oh!" he said as he turned to look back at her again. "Oh, that's in the...UK right?" he asked, eyes shining bright. Wow, so she was from so far away! He didn't know too much about countries outside of Japan, except for brief introductions in classes and rumours and small talk from people in school. "Is it really as cold as people say it is?" he joked, half-laughing. He wanted to know how different it was from Japan! The cultures and people and everything! And better yet, what kind of food did it have?

[Aoife]

"Um..." She blinked at the boy before a small smile lit up her face. Okay yeah, she had to agree with him. Soda bread was very good yes, she really liked making it and her family liked it. But the idea of actual soda bread was kind of amusing. She supposed there was like...strawberry flavored bread in Japan but the thought had her wondering just how something like that would actually taste or if they could actually make it. "I guess...it could be good." She nodded her head. "Coca-cola...I think it might make it look a weird colour. But Sprite bread might be good." It would just be like lemon lime bread right? So it would be totally okay.

"Um, not quite." Almost right though. Aoife - like a lot people in the Republic of Ireland she was mildly offended by the connection to the British. Considering the hundreds of years of oppression it was something that was difficult to just put away. Although she wouldn't say that out loud. Not considering this was a light conversation. She did not want to make it weird. "North Ireland is - but the Republic where I live isn't anymore."

She let out a small snort. "I mean...it's not that bad? Theres plenty of wind and stuff, but mountains cut it off a lot so it's not awful." She gave the boy another grin. It wasn't exactly warm either but where she lived was way better than people living in the middle of the country - they were open to all different kinds of weather. She put plastic wrap over the top of the bowl of fresh dough and moved back over to where her previously made cookies were and swiped one for herself. Ah - yeah they were pretty good actually. She wished she'd put a little more icing onto some of them actually - they would have been a little better. 

[Mitsuo Takahashi]

Mitsuo paused in his cookie cutting, leaning his head back a little as he stared up at the ceiling in thought. And he soon cupped a flour-covered hand to his chin, his eyebrows furrowing as he tried to imagine a Coca-cola bread. And a Sprite bread. A weird colour huh...? "Hmm, maybe," he said, imagining a light brown coloured bread before he beamed back at Aoife. "You're the baker, so I guess you know about it more than I do! Then again, it might even taste great despite the odd colour!" He started to laugh once more. "I'd love to try though! Actual 'soda' bread, don't you think it's awesome?!" He flashed her a grin. "Oh oh! Maybe we could even bake one right now! I mean we have the ovens here and everything! Oh wait, I don't have a Sprite bottle though...Oh wait, I'm sure we could get one from the vending machines outside!" He stared back excitedly at her, waiting for her answer.

The freckled boy blinked at her answer, raising the cookie cutter in his hand. "Oh!" was his response, before he furrowed his eyebrows in a bit of a confusion. For a moment he seemed to pause, a hand raised in the air as he mulled over her words. "Wait so-" he started, blinking as he stared at her. "There's two Irelands?" he asked, holding up two of his fingers as he looked at her with a puzzled expression. Wow, was his world geography that bad?

"Oh really?" was his response, laughing as he - finally - plunged the cookie cutter back into the dough to create more star-shaped patterns. He seemed to finally resume his work, cutting (well actually, the word punching was more accurate, given how he was literally slamming the cookie cutter into the dough, causing some of the flour to come up in small puffs) out more of the dough. "Well tell me more about where you live then!" he said grinning, as he slowly transferred some of the cut out dough onto the tray again. "Like, what makes it different from Japan? And you gotta tell me about the food! It must be wayyyy different from here, right?"