Freshly Baked Friendship (Natsuki x Reader) (DDLC)

Freshly Baked Friendship

              You wake up to your alarm going off on your phone. You roll over in the bed to grab your phone and turn it off. You sit up on the side of your bed and check your phone. Today is March 30th, the day that Natsuki will teach you how to bake something. She didn't say what you were baking because she wanted it to be a surprise. It was also the middle of the Sakura Festival, where Mikishama High celebrates the falling of the cherry blossom petals from the sakura trees, "It'd be nice to invite Natsuki to observe the sakura with me." you say to yourself, "I'll ask her later on while I'm at her house." "But first, I have to get ready for school." You dress into your pants, followed by your white button-up shirt, then your brown school blazer. You head out the door and start walking to school. You meet up with Sayori and walk to school together like always. As you two are walking, she turns to you and asks "Hey (Y/N), can I..." she pauses, "...borrow your textbook?" you respond, "Why?" "Did something happen to it?" She looks down at her twiddling fingers and says, "Well... I was walking home from school when I decided to walk through the park to look at the sakura." "While I was walking through the park, I decided to sit down on a bench and finish the book I had been reading." "I had to take a few things out of my bag to retrieve the book. After a bit of reading, I kinda got tired and fell asleep." " When I woke up it was almost dark out, so I gathered my stuff and ran back to my house." Sayori sighed, "I guess in my rush to get home, I probably left my textbook on that bench." You turned to her and said, "Fine... I'll let you use my textbook in the meantime." "Yay!" Sayori said as she wrapped her arms your waist and hugged you. "I'll try to look for it when I'm out with Natsuki." After saying this, you both arrive at the gates of Mikishama High. "I'll see you at the club," you said to Sayori as you started to head to your homeroom class. The school day goes along as usual. You meet up with Yuri and have tea during lunchtime. After the dismissal bell rings, you head to the Literature Club. You open the door and step inside. Everything is like it usually is, Sayori is doodling on a sheet of paper, she looks up and waves, Yuri is reading her book, The Portrait of Markov, Natsuki is reading her manga, and Monika is writing in her journal while sitting at the teacher's desk. Natsuki looks up from her manga and notices you. "Oh, hey (Y/N)," she says "I just bought a new set of manga, if you want to read it with me." she quickly adds, "...Only if you want to though" "Sweet," you say as you set down your bag and walk over to Natsuki, "What's the name of it." Natsuki's eyes light up as she says, "It's called Blend X," "It's about five spy girls dressed up as maids that run an underground cafe that secretly fights crime." "Sounds cool," you say as you sit down beside her. "We can re-read from chapter one since I'm not that far in." You begin to read chapter one with her. It feels nice to be sitting next to Natsuki. After finishing that chapter, you move on to the next one. Right after you both finish the second chapter, Monika dismisses the meeting. You turn to Natsuki "Hey, I'm going to go home and change my outfit before heading to your house," "Is that okay?" "Sure," Natsuki says with a smile, "Just don't be late." "Ok, I won't," you say as you begin to head home to change. After a while of waking you arrive at your house. You walk inside and head up to your room. "What should I wear..." you ask yourself, "She said casual..." you think for a bit before deciding, "I'll just wear my Rirakkusu sweatshirt with my grey sweatpants. You get dressed and head over to Natsuki's house. After a while of walking, you reach her house. You ring the doorbell, and after a few moments of waiting, the door opens and Natsuki ushers you inside. You both make your way into the kitchen. She turns to you and says "(Y/N) I kinda..." she pauses, "...forgot to get the ingredients beforehand, so we have to go to the store and buy them." "It's fine," you reply, "Let's start to head over there." "The sooner we go, the sooner we can cook." with that, you both head out to the grocery store. With Kimchi-Mart being close to her house, it didn't take long to get there. You both enter the store and begin to look for the ingredients on your list. Natsuki looks at the list and says, "First on the list is... brown sugar." "That should be on aisle 3." "I've been here a few times before, so I know where most things are." You head over to aisle 3, locate the brown sugar, and put it in your basket. "Next on the list is baking powder. "That's on aisle 4." again, you walk to aisle 4, locate the baking powder, and put it in your basket. "Then there is cake flour, which should also be on this isle." "Right next to the baking powder." She puts the item in the basket. "The final thing on the list is, red bean paste." "I think it's on aisle 7." Natsuki says as you both head over to that aisle. After a bit of searching, you realize that the bean paste is on the top shelf. You see Natsuki desperately trying to reach the bean paste on the top shelf, but it's just out of her reach. "I'll get it," you say as you walk over to the shelf, reach your hand to the bean paste on the top shelf, and hand it to Natsuki. "T-Thanks," she says as she down, slightly flustered. "Anyway, let's go pay for this and head back to your place." You go to the self-checkout, pay for the items, and walk back to Natsuki's house. You enter the house and set the groceries down on the kitchen table. "Ok," Natsuki says as she pulls out her phone, "Let me just pull up the Manju recipe then we can begin." You spread the ingredients out on the counter. (½ cup brown sugar [packed] | 3 Tbsp Water | ½ tsp baking powder | ½ tsp water [For mixing with baking powder] | 1 cup cake flour [plus more for dusting] | 8.5 oz red bean paste | ) "Before we do anything, we need to wash our hands." You both wash your hands in the sink. "The first step is to roll out some parchment paper to put the manju on." "There should be some in the pantry." You retrieve the parchment from the pantry, hand it to Natsuki, and she rolls it out across the counter. "The second step is to mix the water and brown sugar in a saucepan." You grab the whisk and blend the mixture together. Then you set aside the mixture to cool. "The next step is to roll the bean paste into 12 equally sized balls, around less than 1 Tbsp each." You open the bean paste can and roll out the paste into 12 balls on the parchment paper. "Then you combine the baking powder and water" You blend the baking powder and water until it becomes a fluid white mixture. "Next, you mix the baking powder substance with the brown sugar substance." You mix the two substances. "The next step is a little long." "You have to sift the cake flour and then add it the brown sugar mixture. But you have to mix it with either a spatula, chopsticks, or with your fingers." Natsuki points to a drawer as she says, "I ordered Chinese food last night so there should be some chopsticks in the silverware drawer." You walk over to the drawer, open it, and retrieve the chopsticks. You then begin to mix the mixture with them. "Then it says to pinch the clumps together into a ball, and then to put plastic wrap over it and let it sit for fifteen minutes." You pinch the mixture into balls, cover them with plastic wrap, then you put them aside. "So what should we do for fifteen minutes?' she asks while putting down her phone. "I don't know, probably chill for a bit." You lay across the couch and browse on your phone while Natsuki sits on the floor and reads one of her mangas. After fifteen minutes have passed, you both head back to the kitchen Natsuki pulls back up the recipe and says, "Next we have to transfer the dough over to a floured surface and knead for 1 - 2 minutes." Natsuki spreads flour amongst the counter while you knead the dough. After kneading for about a minute or so you wait for Natsuki to give you further instructions, "Now you are supposed to roll it into a cylinder and cut it into twelve pieces. You grab the knife and begin cutting the dough. "Make sure they are equal." Natsuki says, looking up from her phone. Caught off guard from Natsuki talking, the knife slips in your hands and makes a cut on your finger. You sharply inhale through gritted teeth. Natsuki gasps, "Are you ok (Y/N)?" she said worriedly, "Did I distract you?" "I didn't mean to-" "It's fine, it was my fault for not paying attention." "I'll go get some bandages," Natsuki says as she dashes into the next room. While waiting, you wash the cut She quickly returns with some bandages. She grabs your hand and wraps the bandage around your index finger. She puts medical tape on the bandages so they don't fall off. "Thanks," you say to Natsuki as you finish cutting the dough. "You sure you don't want me to take over?" Natsuki asks. "No, I'm good. Just continue to read out the recipe and not worry about me." "Ok." Natsuki says looking at her phone, "Next, you have to flatten each of the pieces into flat, 6-7 inch circles." "Keep the center thick while you flatten out the edges of the dough." You flatten each portion of the dough into 6½ inch flat circles. "Now place the bean paste balls in the center and fold the outer edges of the dough over the top of the bean paste balls, and pinch the dough so it closes over the bean paste balls." "Now place each of the dough balls on parchment paper and cover them with a damp towel, and then put them in a steamer." You cover the dough balls with a damp towel while Natsuki retrieves a steamer from the cabinet below the sink. You put the dough balls into the steamer and set it to high, for 10-12 minutes. While waiting you decide to ask Natsuki about seeing the sakura with you. "Hey Natsuki," you ask, "Would you like to walk with me through the park and view the Sakura?" She looks up, "Sure, that sounds like fun." "We could take the manju to the park and have like a mini picnic." "Sounds good," you say as you take the manju out of the steamer and package them in a wrapped up bamboo sieve so they can cool. After that, you both head out to the park. When you arrive, the view is breathtaking. "It's beautiful," Natsuki says, " didn't know sakura could be this beautiful." The soft pink of the sakura trees contrasted against the clear blue sky makes a beautiful scene. The sakura petals gracefully dancing to a silent song in the wind, slowly falling to their own rhythm. Holding Natsuki's hand while strolling through the park, the light spring breeze flowing through your hair, it almost feels surreal. Every now and then, a sakura petal or two would land upon Natsuki's hair, almost blending in with her hair. Same goes for yours. You come across a bench with a textbook on it. "This must be Sayori's," You say to yourself as you pick it up. "What's that?" Natsuki asks, "It's just Sayori's textbook," you reply, "She left it here and she asked me to retrieve it for her." "That's nice of you," Natsuki says with a smile." You put it in your bag and continue walking. After searching for a bit you find a nice spot under a sakura tree to sit under. You lay out the blanket and both sit down on it, against the tree. "I can see Mikishama High from here." "Yeah," you reply, "I sometimes come here and read." "It's quite a nice spot." "We should come here more often." Natsuki says. After eating a few manju's, you decide to save some for Sayori. As the sun is ready to set, you both head back to Natsuki's house. She wraps her arms around you and says, "Today was fun." "Let's do this again sometime soon." You return the favor with a kiss on her forehead. "See you at the club tomorrow," you say as Natsuki enters her house. You then head back to your house. You fall back onto your bed. "This day was amazing, I can't wait to do this again."