Irhaboggle Pride (2024) Pride Fourever

Four Course Meal

Irhaboggle AN: My friend, Hellis_Just_Aplace wrote this fic.

The rice had already finished steaming. In a large pan, Kaede Akamatsu poured dashi, and mixed in sugar, sake, soy sauce, and mirin. Once it began to boil, and she added a sliced onion, cooked it for a minute, then added chopped chicken thighs. While she waited on the meat, she beat some eggs in a bowl. Once the chicken was thoroughly cooked, she poured the egg batter over the chicken and onion, then covered the pan with a lid for 90 seconds. Her mouth watered as she prepared 6 bowls of rice. She slid chicken, onion, egg, and sauce over each bowl, and topped them all off with green onions. Her oyakodon was perfect.

On the second oven, Makoto Naegi was preparing miso soup for everyone. He brought a pot of water and kombu to a boil, then added katsuobushi. After straining the dashi, he mixed in sliced tofu and prepped wakame. He let it simmer for 1 minute, then took the pot off the burner and stirred in a mixture of red and white miso paste. After topping it off with scallions, he ladled the soup into 6 bowls.

None of this would have been possible if his family had only one oven. He and Kaede would constantly be in each other's way as they were preparing tonight's dinner. Two ovens ensured much less chaos. Makoto could focus on dessert and miso soup on one, while Kaede could prepare tonight's donburi main course on the other. To round out this four-course meal, she also had several bags of pickled vegetables marinating in the fridge. Any truly devoted-to-wellness Japanese family needed plenty of tsukemono in their diet.

The oven beeped. Makoto's wagashi was ready. He pulled it from the oven and set it on the chopping board to cool. Kasutera, he'd decided, just because. His spouses hadn't requested any dessert, but this was sure to please them after a long and stressful day of work.

"Aw, Jeepers," Kaede pouted, hands clutching her blue apron. "Between soup and dessert, you definitely had to do more of the cooking today, Makoto-chan."

Makoto chuckled, one hand rubbing his head and his maid's headband. "It's no trouble at all, Kaede-chan. You made dessert for us last week." They kissed, his lip gloss mixing with her lipstick.

"We really are blessed with your Ultimate Luck, to have four hardworking wives and husbands going out into the real world and managing such dangerous and important responsibilities, all so that we have a roof over our heads," Kaede gushed.

Makoto agreed. "They're the most swell spouses we could ask for, and I now know my proper place is in the home, doing my best to make their livelihoods easier. Cooking, cleaning, gardening, we don't really have to know much more than that, thanks to the four of them."

That was as far as Makoto and Kaede could keep it up, before they burst into laughter. They loved their four working spouses, and what the quartet did for the pair, but neither of them actually believed anything they were saying about being simple-minded Stepford wives. But Kaede, never one to shy away from silly, harmless fun, had a taste of sorts for roleplay.

Lately, she enjoyed pretending she was in some idealized Stepford housewife role. It was an amusing escape from her dual duties as a rising piano tutor/performer and a volunteer at Maki's daycare. She liked to indulge in the fantasy of temporarily relinquishing all responsibility and letting her cute partners share the role of head of household. All she'd have to do was make sure they came home to a nice house and a soothing meal. She'd throw herself at them when they got home, showering them with affection, and her heart would sing at how happy she'd make them.

She also took to this role to encourage Makoto to play along with her. No matter what, he was always going to have some lingering feelings of insecurity due to not having a well-paying career based on his talent. By making his daily life into more of a roleplaying game and an acting performance, she could at least help him have more fun, if not give his work a greater sense of purpose.