Big Book of Writing

Gingerbread and Nutmeg (Void, SDRA2)

Prompt: https://otpprompts.tumblr.com/post/154281394028/a-is-trying-to-bake-their-familys-traditional/amp

"A is trying to bake their family's traditional Christmas cookies, but realize they're missing a crucial ingredient. All the stores nearby are closed for the holiday, so they sadly decide they'll just have to make them AFTER Christmas. B hates seeing A like this, so they decide to go out and search for any store that's still open so they can buy the missing ingredient. Bonus points if it's freezing cold/snowing hard outside."

And here is a fic to celebrate the holidays! Merry Christmas, to those who celebrate it!

Warning: spoilers for members of Void

***

Hajime didn't expect some parts of the Void's shared house to be alert by the time he finished his shower. It was already late in the evening, with supper already been made and eaten. It was still strangely lively, which caught the boxer's curiosity.

"They better not be breaking something," he chuckled, knowing that Mikado would be angry if his kitchen was trashed. He didn't want a repeat of Nikei almost blowing up the microwave, the blondes of the team nearly had collective heart attacks that day.

When Hajime went downstairs to check out the commotion, he noticed that the kitchen was lively. He walked over and poked his head inside, smiling at what he saw. Mikado, Iroha, and Emma were all setting up the kitchen with materials and ingredients, which Hajime guessed were for baking.

"Emma! Mikado! I found the cookie cutters!" Iroha announced, holding a metal frame up.

"Wonderful! Put them next to the cutting board, I need to preheat the oven," Emma replied with a smile.

"Hold it, we have to make sure we have all of the ingredients first," Mikado interrupted. "Check if we have baking sheets and parchment paper, I'd hate to waste butter on this."

Hajime chose that moment to leave the kitchen and head to the living room to relax. As he turned the corner to sit on the couch, he spotted Nikei reading nearby. "Hey, Nikei. What's up with the commotion in the kitchen?" the boxer asked, sitting down beside him.

"The blonde bastard announced that he was making gingerbread, and the girls immediately flocked to him. He said it was a recipe from his childhood, some kind of orphanage," the journalist grumbled, not even looking up from his book. Hajime's smile fell slightly, knowing that Nikei was still bitter over his position as leader being taken.

"Well, you don't like sweet things, right? Homemade gingerbread isn't overly sweet, maybe you'll like it," Hajime suggested, patting the other man's shoulder. "You wanna split some with me after they finish in the kitchen?"

Nikei's face flushed slightly, but as he opened his mouth to reply, they heard Mikado suddenly swearing in the kitchen. "Hey, what's going on?" he chose to say instead.

"We don't have any goddamn nutmeg!" Mikado called back. "And the stores are closed for the holidays too..."

"Hm? Can't one of us just break into one?" the actress suggested, immediately moving to calm the agitated wizard. "You can teleport, it isn't hard for you to do..."

"After our last mission, we're supposed to lay low," the taller blonde groaned. "What a pity. If I'm needed, I'll be in my room."

"So, we're not getting cookies?!" Iroha called after him as Mikado went off to his room to sulk. Nikei let out a small chuckle, but Hajime noticed that the girls seemed to be as depressed as Mikado was.

Weighing his options, the boxer sighed and stood up. "Hey, where are you going?" the journalist asked, finally looking up from his book.

"I'm gonna see if there's a store open. There's probably at least one open right now," Hajime replied, walking towards the door to get his boots and coat.

"Are you stupid?! There's a blizzard out there!" Nikei exclaimed. Seeing that the boxer wasn't going to stop, he grumbled and stood up as well. "Guess I'm coming too," he muttered, bookmarking his page.

When Hajime was about to open the door, he noticed Nikei putting on a warm coat behind him. He decided to not question why Nikei was going against his own words, but he decided not to question it. The journalist's motives were always a mystery, and he would never get a clear answer anyway.

As Nikei said, the weather was outside was extremely snowy and freezing cold to boot. It looked like the snow was too thick to drive in, plus the time to shovel out the car would take too long. Hajime and Nikei hurried to get to the barely-visible sidewalk, heading in the direction of the nearest grocery store.

Thankfully, their house was near a plaza full of stores, so they arrived at the grocery store. "Shit. This one's closed," Nikei commented, pointing at the store hours sign. "Should we try another store?"

"Yeah, Mikado said that the convenience store over there has spices," Hajime answered. The cold was starting to get to him, so he kept his pace brisk. As he expected, the smaller man was shivering more, being frailer than the boxer was. The convenience store was only a couple buildings over, and thankfully still open.

The men hurried into the building, where the heating began to drive off the cold in their bodies. "Oh, thank fuck!" Nikei sighed. "Right, we're finally here. You get whatever the fuck Mikado needed, and I'll wait here by this heater."

"Pfft, right. You do that," Hajime laughed, ignoring the journalist's offended look in his direction as he began searching the aisles. Mikado rarely took any other Voids shopping with him, so the boxer had no idea where the spices were. After three minutes, he found a rack of bottled spices in a small shelf near the register. Pausing to look them over, he spotted a bottle of nutmeg and smiled triumphantly as he picked it out.

It didn't take him long to pay for the spice, which he then pocketed. "Come on. Let's go back," he told Nikei, who reluctantly left the heater and followed Hajime back outside. The snowstorm outside was even thicker now, but that just filled their motivation to get back.

When they stepped inside their house again, they were practically covered in snow. "We're back!" Hajime called, taking off his coat and boots. While Nikei fussed with trying to shake the snow off his coat, the boxer went to the kitchen and put the nutmeg on the counter. "Someone call Mikado back," he alerted, leaving the kitchen as the girls came back in to investigate.

Hajime decided to head to the living room to read a thriller novel that Emma had recommended for him, and it was then that the grumpy journalist caught up to him. Sitting down beside the boxer, Nikei opened the book he was reading before while leaning against him. Hajime looked at him in amused curiosity, and received a "Not a word" in return.

He could hear the sounds of Iroha talking to Mikado and dragging him to the kitchen, and Mikado's excited shouts when he saw the nutmeg. Within minutes, the commotion in the kitchen had picked back up to the pace it was before, and the boxer smiled to himself as he went back to reading. 

About twenty minutes later, the cookies were taken out of the oven and a delicious smell filled the air. "Mr. Makunouchiiiii! Mr. Yomiuriiiii!" Mikado called. "If you want any gingerbread, I suggest you get over here before Ms. Nijiue eats it all!"

Hajime and Nikei shared a glance with each other, then stood up and made their way to the kitchen.

***

Art credit: _Free_Day on twitter