The shy one (Pucca fanfic)

Chef Slump

It's a normal day here at the Noodle shop. Customers eating all of the noodles in their plates, some even leaving a tip. Dada and Ae-cha are walking around the restaurant, picking up dirty dishes and saying 'Thank you for eating at our Noodle shop! Have a wonderful day!'. Well, Ae-cha tries to, but when people couldn't hear her, she simply gives them a friendly smile, bowing a bit. That got the message through, getting polite smiles in return. With the stack of plates getting too high, Ae-cha and Dada go into the kitchen where the three chefs are currently cooking at a leisure pace.

"Dada, you're getting better at balancing the plates." Ae-cha complimented, noticing the lack of broken plates.

"O-oh, why thank you, Ae-cha. I haven't noticed it myself." Dada says, scratching the back of his head in bashfulness. It's true, he's so focused not not messing up that he didn't notice the progress he's made with it.

"Huh, Pucca hasn't come back from her delivery round. Ae-cha? Could you deliver this to Garu?" Uncle Dumpling asks, handing Ae-cha the to-go noodles.

"Sure. But Garu doesn't talk after taking the vow of silence. How did he make an order?" Ae-cha asked out of curiosity and confusion.

"He sent us a messenger bird." Uncle Ho answers, gesturing to the messenger resting at the window. Ae-cha 'ooh'ed, leaving shortly after.

Dada proceeds to put away the dirty dishes, preparing them to be washed. As soon as he puts one plate on top of another, there was a squish sound. That sound caused the three chefs to freeze, including Dada, who's now shaking from nervousness. He moved out of the way, not wanting to get in trouble.

"A noodle left unfinished!" Dumpling exclaims in horror.

"It's a disgrace." Ho says sadly, his frying pans flames extinguished from his sadness.

"I shall never cook again." Linguini says in a defeated tone (with tears), letting go of his rolling pin, dropping it to the ground.

The rolling pin rolls over to Dada, who's still shaking, saying, "What did I do this time?!"

~*~ mini time skip~*~

Pucca comes to the empty noodle shop, bowl in hand, ready for a delicious lunch after her round of deliveries. Her three uncles are packing up, probably for a long trip. She doesn't notice this, walking up to dumpling, holding her bowl out to him.

"Pucca, you're in charge now until we can regain our honor." Dumpling says, pushing Pucca's empty bowl back wile looking down at the ground in shame. All three chef uncles walked out without any further explanation on why they're leaving. Dumpling looked back to see Pucca with a frown on her face, upset that her uncles are leaving. Dumpling looked forward again, catching up with Ho and Linguini. At this point, Pucca has a few tears leaking out of her eyes. The sad, dramatic moment didn't last a second for the customers hunger.

"Where's the food? Where's the food? Where's the food?" they all chanted, banging onto the tables after every word (so like 'Where's *bang* the *bang* food?*bang*' very annoying to type out over and over TTnTT). Pucca knocked herself out of her depressed state, looking all over the room for any friendly familiar faces. She spotted Santa and Ching. PERFECT! They'll make the perfect team! But where's Ae-cha?

~*~ to shameful chefs~*~

The three uncles walk pass the forest to the edge, looking over to the next mountain. The next mountain shows an old temple with golden roof parts, green rails at the edges of the roof,

"Great master chefs of old! Please forgive our shameful cookery! Let us entry so that we may regain our honor!" Dumpling calls out, holding a noodle as the wind picks up.