To love a sword

Chapter 16: Contract

Beta read by Shigiya, Paragon of Awesomeness and Darklord331

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-Sainan,Yuuki Residence-

With the early rays of the sun shining upon Sainan, Mikan once again found herself preparing lunch for her family. As it was the weekend, she already made sure to finish up her homework and menial chores around the house so she could enjoy her time off to the fullest. 

The pan sizzled, and the aroma of cooked garlic, chili, and fish wafted around the room. Her tongue salivated slightly until her mind forced her back to focusing on thinly slicing the vegetables for another dish she personally wanted to try out after watching a movie with her brothers about a certain chef rat and his quirky human. 

Her attention span did not manage to hold on for long; golden-brown eyes stole glances at the man next to her, silently standing there with a rare relaxed expression, occasionally scooping up the melted butter from the pan and basting the fish with it. His movements were so fluid, comparable to that of the best professional chefs she saw on TV. The enticing fragrance he always managed to create in all his dishes made her wonder just who in the family he got his talent from when it came to cooking. Their father barely knew how to fry an egg and boil some instant noodles. Not much better could be said about their mother, who despite traveling across the world, couldn't cook that many dishes aside from the simplest ones, and they were nothing special. 

As for Rito… that boy was a wild card, sometimes he would show an adequate amount of mastery in the kitchen but at other times he would be nothing less than a constant safety hazard with how accident-prone he could be in any given situation, let alone when in the vicinity of a kitchen. One time he helped their brother with a meal with enough skill to earn a compliment from Shirou, which was an incredibly high bar to achieve,  but on another days he had proven himself to hold what could only be described supernatural abilities in the realm of bad luck since the boy had somehow managed to turn the simple task of heating up the leftovers and boiling water into incidents that almost caused the whole house to catch fire that were it not for her older brother’s timely interventions with the help of a fire extinguisher. 

An enigma that gave her a never-ending headache to this day. 

"Shirou, I can do it by myself you know…" she spoke, having taken the responsibility for cooking this morning's meal for everyone upon herself. "I was planning on making some braised beef and potato—mmf!" 

Chopsticks holding a small piece of cooked fish met her tongue. Her dismay momentarily turned into blissful delight as the taste and texture melted inside her mouth with the satisfying crunch of the skin acting as the small cherry on top. A small addition of spice she didn’t recognize was present, which he must have added to elevate the overall taste, and she could confirm it worked as intended. Fortunately, despite being fresh off the pan, it did not burn her tongue, being cold enough for her to safely eat it and hot enough to entice her taste buds. Her brother could take a handful of simple ingredients and somehow make them dance so perfectly together, a task she still failed to replicate to this day.

If she couldn't beat him when it came to European dishes as it seemed he was better in that department, then Mikan swore to elevate his Japanese culinary skills beyond his in the future.

Hopefully…

"Ah!" Wait, did he just try to shut her up in his own way? He tried to distract her! "Shiroooou!"

"Do you like it?" The redhead spoke gently, wearing the apron she brought him last year as a birthday gift, and his hair combed backward as usual with mirroring golden brown eyes turning over to meet hers. "I personally feel like it needs a bit more salt."