Short Stories

Mealtime

Summary: Kokoro's been working for a long time, and now she's hungry. And there's a pretty good smell coming from down the hall.

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Kokoro had lost track of time again.

When had she started this? She didn't know. It was a long while ago, she knew that. 

Maybe she had started it this morning. Last night, maybe? Who knew at this point? Kokoro certainly didn't.

All she knew is that she'd been working for a pretty long time.

She stopped typing on her computer and leaned back in her chair, staring blankly at the ceiling. What was she feeling right now?

It didn't matter. Feelings didn't matter right now. She'd been working too long, and that was that. No feelings required.

Kokoro took a deep breath, then paused. There was a smell floating towards her from outside her lab.

It smelled really good. It was clearly food, Kokoro knew that. Delicious food, from the smell. 

"It looks like you've noticed that smell, Mother."

Kokoro turned her head. Alter Ego was on a nearby computer, looking bored and uninterested.

"I have. Are you able to smell it too?" She asked, despite already knowing the answer to her own question.

Alter Ego shook his head. "No, yet I can tell it's there all the same. I'm not even sure myself how that works."

"I thought so." Kokoro commented, making a mental note of that in her head. 

"Are you going to go investigate?" Alter Ego asked. "Because don't bother. It's just Father in the kitchen. Probably making something inedible."

"I don't think any food could be inedible with that smell." Kokoro noted. 

Actually, she should have known that it was Mikado causing the delicious smell. He'd always had an interest in cooking. While he normally just ate packaged foods, Kokoro could tell he'd been wanting to do this for a while.

She stood up from her chair and began to walk towards the smell. She could do with some food, anyway. She was pretty hungry.

"Don't say I didn't warn you, Mother!" Alter Ego called after her. Kokoro ignored him.

It didn't take long to walk into the kitchen, and when she arrived, Kokoro stood in the doorway, silently watching.

Mikado seemed to have a lot of things going at once, but he didn't seem to mind at all. He hummed a cheerful song as he dashed from one dish to another, adding this and that.

Kokoro watched everything while expressionless, unable to share Mikado's enthusiasm. Food was food. As long as it had energy and kept her going, it was fine.

Yet, all this food looked and smelled way better than the instant noodles Kokoro normally found herself eating. She couldn't help letting her eyes wander, taking everything in.

Now that she thought about it, she had cooked before. It had been nothing special, but the end result has tasted pretty good. The actual cooking part of it wasn't too bad either. A bit tedious, but still sort of enjoyable.

Mikado placed something from a pot onto a plate and set it on the table. Turning back around, he finally caught sight of Kokoro in the doorway.

"Ah! Ms. Kokoro!" He yelped. "When'd you get here?!"

"Not long ago." Kokoro answered simply. "So, you finally did it, huh?"

"Um- I guess so, yeah." Mikado hung his head. "God damnit, now my surprise is ruined..."

Kokoro turned her gaze back from the food towards her assistant. "Your surprise?"

"Y-Yeah, I noticed you'd been working so hard, so I thought I'd surprise you with a hot meal. But then once I started cooking, I couldn't stop... I got too carried away." Mikado admitted sheepishly.

Kokoro felt a flash of emotion inside her, gone too quickly to identify. Surprise? Happiness? She didn't know and didn't care to know.

Instead, she simply said, "That's thoughtful of you, Mikado. I appreciate it." with the tiniest hint of a smile.

Mikado blinked, then smiled back, his being a lot wider. "You're welcome, Ms. Kokoro! I don't want anything bad to happen to you! Here, have a seat- Oh, no!"

One of the pots on the stove had started smoking, and Mikado rushed to take it off and turn off the oven, staring crestfallen at the burned food inside.

Kokoro went up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's burned beyond saving. Go on and throw it away; it's not a big deal."

"It is!" Mikado argued. "I wanted everything to be perfect, yet I got careless, and now it's ruined all because of me..."

Tears were starting to prick at his eyes, and Kokoro felt another emotion that she couldn't be bothered to identify. Concern? Sympathy?

"You didn't ruin anything; I also had a part to play in that food being burned." Kokoro said simply, ignoring her emotions. "I was the one who started talking to you after all. Now clean it up and throw it away, there's no use crying over what's been done."

"It's still ruined." Mikado said miserably as he did what Kokoro said. "It was perfectly good food, now wasted."

"I can help you make another batch of that." Kokoro offered, surprising both herself and Mikado. Was she really volunteering to cook, of all things? And with Mikado?

Mikado stared at her, caught off guard. "Really? You're not joking, Ms. Kokoro? You'll actually help?"

There was no way Kokoro could back out now. "Sure, why not. At the very least it'll provide a good distraction from all the work I have to do."

There was another moment of silence, and then Mikado's eyes lit up in sparkles. "Wow, this is great! Here, I'll get you an apron, so you don't get any food on you! You can even pick, if you want!"

He dashed off towards a closet and returned moments later with two aprons. "Would you like this pink one, or this dark blue one, Ms. Kokoro?"

"The pink one." Kokoro affirmed. "By the way, where did you even get that apron that you're wearing? I would think it would be difficult to find one with ducks on it."

Mikado blushed in embarrassment. "I bought it off Amazon. I like ducks, and I saw this, so I thought it would be good for me, you know?"

Kokoro didn't respond, if only to save Mikado's dignity, and instead nodded and put her pink apron on, and Mikado quickly went and put the blue one back before returning, embarrassment forgotten and the sparkles back.

He didn't waste any time in getting the ingredients out, and Kokoro quickly looked up the recipe on her tablet without Mikado seeing before putting it aside. Now she could at least pretend to know what she was doing.

Mikado happily guided Kokoro through the steps, always making sure she was finished with what she was doing before moving on to the next thing. Kokoro ended up ignoring what she learned from the recipe she looked up and just followed Mikado, a small smile on her face.

The meal was completed a little while later, and Kokoro found herself smiling at Mikado's delighted expression. Happiness, that's what she was feeling. She enjoyed it.

That's what she was thinking about when Mikado dragged her to the table to eat the meal they made, along with everything else Mikado had made earlier.

Both of them ate until they were full, having conversations as they ate. They had enough food to last almost a week in leftovers once everything was done.

At least Kokoro wouldn't be eating instant noodles for a while.