KOF Extras

Christmas Vacation in Cannes (Part 6)

Sorry there wasn't a chapter yesterday, I was busy with something.

Since most of the city was on holiday, and it was getting a little crowded anyway, the three of them decided to retreat in the chalet and make some eggnog.
"Wait, are we drinking raw eggs?" Shun asked, a little grossed out by the idea of adding eggs into a beverage. "Are the eggs here even pasteurised?"
Shingo shrugged. "I'm not sure, but we are cooking the eggs, guys. We aren't drinking raw eggs."
"How do you even make this stuff?" Meiten questioned, picking up an egg and looking at it as if to see if it was good enough to be cooked. He placed it down in the bowl and turned back to Shingo. "Have you even done this before?"
"Nope," Shingo admitted rather bravely. "But we are still gonna try."
So they started off by beating the yolks with sugar. Shun worked on that while Shingo boiled a mixture of cream, milk, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg powder. Once that started simmering, they saw that the recipe told them to add the hot mixture in small amounts.
"You sure that would work?" Meiten watched, now crunching on some roasted-chicken-flavoured potato chips. "Wouldn't that... take forever?"
"Yeah, but we're supposed to add it in small amounts so that the egg doesn't cook too quickly," Shingo said.
Meiten looked sceptical. "Yeah... but wouldn't that just rapidly cool the spoonful before you even bring it to the eggs?"
Shun sighed. "I think that's pretty much the idea of it."
Meiten frowned. "But wouldn't it just be milk mixed in raw eggs?"
"Yeah, which is why we will be boiling it again later," Shingo said. "So yes, we will be cooking it slowly, after that we will heat it again so no chunky egg like rolled Tamagoyaki mixed in milk."
"Oh, but I like Tamagoyaki," Meiten grinned, leaning forward on the counter.
"Yeah, so we can make some with the egg-whites later," Shingo amiably added. "You like fried egg-whites, right?"
Meiten frowned slightly but shrugged as he straightened himself, clutching onto his beloved bolster. "Not as good without the yolks, but it will still be good with some soya sauce."
"Yay!" Shingo chuckled
Shun looked at Meiten, then turned Shingo in surprise. "You're being so patient with him. I would've just left him to ramble on."
Shingo smirked, constantly stirring while Shun added spoonfuls of milk. "I've been told that I'm very good with children. I even managed to go to an amusement with a baby once." He looked up at the green-haired lad for a moment. "And it wasn't just any baby, it was Saiki's baby."
"Saiki?" Meiten gasped. "The lunatic that proclaimed himself to be a god and tried to ruin the world during the thirteenth tournament till Ash had to erase himself from existence just to save the world? That Saiki?!"
"And he has a baby?" Shun was more surprised at that info. "Him? A father?!"
"Oh, so you guys haven't heard what became of him," Shingo snorted. "Wait, I'll fill you guys in over our finished eggnog later."
Meiten smirked. "Sounds like an interesting story."
"How is the weirdo now?" Shun asked, adding a rather large spoonful of the mixture into the egg.
Shingo shrugged. "Well, I can say that he's a lot more fun now. He's kinda close to Ash too." He realised that most of the mixture in the saucepan was gone so he stopped Shun. "I think that's enough. We can boil everything now."
To their surprise, he poured everything back into the saucepan and took it back to the stove to continue boiling it.
"Alright, now we can wait a bit before enjoying it," Shingo said, seating himself at the kitchen table. "You guys wanna gossip about Saiki?"
The two immediately nodded. Shingo chuckled and started telling them about how he started mysteriously stalking Ash, intervening with his relationship with Adalene by getting them both gifts and also impersonating Ash for good measure, and then how these guys caught him.
"So the three of them, Ash, Duo, and Shen, went to Shion's home in the middle of the night, since Saiki was staying wugh him, and forcibly made him drunk and carried him out," Shingo chuckled as he pictured how funny it would look. "Apparently, drunk Saiki also tortured them in that state by squeezing Ash because he thought he was cuddly."
Meiten laughed. "That's actually kinda cute. Like, they are family anyway."
Shingo nodded. "Yeah. And then he started visiting more often." He frowned slightly and took his phone out. "Wait, I'm pretty sure that Saiki's celebrating Christmas with Ash this year."
And he was right. Ash had put up a selfie he took with Saiki on his social media page. They were even wearing matching sweaters, Saiki looking a little confused while Ash looked very excited. He swiped to see more pictures of Ash with Elisabeth, Jacques, and even Mikia and his baby ancestor.
"Yep," Shingo handed them his phone to show them what Saiki was up to. "Kinda nice that they're spending time together."
Shun shrugged after looking at the photos and handed the phone to Meiten. "That's nice. For some reason, I feel like invading their home now."
"Wait, aren't they in Paris?" Meiten asked. "And Paris is in France. We're in France. How far is Cannes from Paris?"
Shingo frowned slightly. "Quite far, I think."
"About as far as Tokyo to to Hokkaido," Shun added, looking at his phone.
Meiten groaned. "There goes our plan of invading them."
"Come on, we gave our own nice Christmas here," Shingo chuckled.

The eggnog came out surprisingly good.
"It tastes like the insides of a crème brûlée," Shingo said in awe. "Why did we never try this before?"
"We should do this throughout the year instead of just doing it during Christmas," Shun said. "What do you think, Meiten?"
Meiten nodded in agreement as he sipped his eggnog. He placed his mug down on the table and smirked. "But I wanna know what crème brûlée tastes like. I've heard of it before, but never really tried it."
"How about we do that later?" Shingo suggested. "For dinner?"
Shun shrugged. "Sounds good."
They sat around most of the day, watching Christmas movies and even had a game of cards. When dinnertime came, they took the car over to a nice restaurant and ordered themselves a hearty meal of chicken cordon bleu and crème brûlée just as planned.
"Mmm cheesy," Meiten's mouth watered at the sight of the main dish on the menu. "I'll take it!"
"We already ordered, Meiten," Shun pointed out.
Meiten cocked his head in surprise. "Eh? Then why are the menus still here?"
"Waiter probably forgot them,"Shingo shrugged. "Either that, or it's just in case we order wanna something else later."
"Oh," Meiten nodded.
Just then, Shingo's phone started ringing yet again. He groaned and excused himself to take the call outside. It was Rieko again, and he was convinced that she wouldn't let him go until he answered he calls.
"Hello?" Shingo said as soon as he pressed the phone to his ear.
There was a brief pause. "Niichan?"
Shingo sighed. "Riri."
"Merry Christmas, Niichan," Rieko softly said.
"Thanks."
There was another silence. It was getting a little long and awkward
"You know what, I have to go," Shingo said, turning to go back into the restaurant. "See you soon."
"Niichan, wait!" Rieko quickly said, making him stop in his tracks. "I'm... I'm sorry for what I said last year."
Shingo was a little surprised at that. "Okay."
Rieko sighed. "I know, I went overboard that time, but I thought we were good! I didn't know it still bothered you, didn't we already clear this up?"
"Clear up what? How?" Shingo frowned. "Riri, all you ever did was act as if nothing happened and go back to being 'normal', this happened before too, but it just keeps on happening. You act like you're never wrong about something. This is the first time I'm receiving an apology."
It goes quiet on the other end, Shingo could've sworn he heard a sharp inhale, almost like a sob.
"Riri?" Shingo called, feeling a little sorry for her situation.
"Oh, Niichan," Rieko's voice was trembling. "I didn't mean that, I didn't mean any of that. I wish you would come home."
Shingo lets out a groan, shaking his head. "Riri, no. I can't come home now, my flight is on the 27tth, and I can't just leave these kids behind. They're counting on me."
Rieko sighed. "Okay. But you promise to come straight home?"
"Yes," Shingo sighed. "I promise that I'll come home as soon as this is over." He tried to smile to lighten the mood. "You wanna help with the mochi?"
"Sure," Rieko chuckled briefly. "Aya-neechan was thinking of baking a fruitcake as well. I was thinking of making something as well."
"What will you be doing?" Shingo was glad that the episode was over."
"Well..." Rieko sounded like she was grinning. "It's a surprise."
Shingo smirked. "Okay. It better not be a mud pie."
"Niichan!" Rieko groaned. "Why would I make a mud pie?"
Shingo shrugged to himself. "I dunno, it just sounds like something you would do to prank me."
Rieko scoffed. "Come on. You know me so well."
"Well, I watched you grow up," Shingo pointed out with a chuckle. "Anyway, I need to go. I'm actually at a restaurant right now."
"Send me pictures of whatever you're having," Rieko said. "I hope to see you soon, Niichan!"
Shingo couldn't help but smile. "I hope to see you soon too. Merry Christmas, Riri."
"Thanks, Niichan," Rieko said, sounding much happier than she did before. "I love you."
Shingo sighed. "I love you too."
He hung up with a smile on his face and took a deep breath before releasing it slowly, then turned around and reentered the restaurant. Their food had already arrived and the teen boys were patiently awaiting his return so that they could eat together.