[Hypnosis Mic] Cooking Together

Phyllo Dough

Riou reentered at that moment, and the other two looked at him. When he saw, Dice, he smiled and-- was that a laugh? No, no, it must’ve been Doppo’s imagination, because Riou still sounded as stern as ever. “You can eat the shoots raw, but they stain your mouth black.”

Dice flushed. “No way…” He got over any embarrassment quickly, though. “Guess I can't hide how hungry I am, hah!” He returned to the washing, though now he wasn't even bothering to hide the fact that he was eating what he was supposed to be working on.

Riou pulled out a variety of other mountain vegetables, and they all worked together at preparing them while they waited for the dough to chill. Once it had, they finished the tarts, spooning helpings of Riou's hardy kiwi jam into pockets of pastry.

“That one looks full. I want that one when they're done,” Dice said, pointing to a pastry on the end that probably shouldn't have gotten as much jam as it did.

Once they were all put together, Doppo realized something. “Busujima-san… How are we going to bake these?”

Riou was-- what was he doing? Soaking some sort of carved wooden plate in water in the sink. He turned the spigot off and tapped it free of droplets. “Follow me,” he said. “Bring the tarts.” He left the building. Doppo and Dice followed.

Around the back, there was a structure that must’ve been new. It was a little different, but the shape of the clay, the flames inside, it was easy to tell what it was. “You built an oven?”

“You said you wanted to learn to make pastries,” he said, like that explained or necessitated the amount of effort required to build an entire oven by hand.

“You made this just to teach me to make tarts? That's not- I don't- I'm really not worth that level of effort. You didn't have to do this. They- they probably won't even be very good, I'm really not that good at cooking, what if you never use it again? Then you'll have gone to all this work for nothing and I'll have just been such a burden on you, it won't-”

Riou cut him off with a clap on his back. “I'm also going to make hardtack,” he said, looking into his eyes as if he'd just said something profound and moving.

Doppo didn't know how to respond, so he just shut up. Riou turned around and went back inside.

Dice silently handed Doppo a stalk of butterbur before he followed suit.

It took him a minute of processing until he rushed back in after them.