The Morose Mononokean Oneshots (Mainly Abeshiya)-Warning

Abeshiya Week Day 1

Yeah, it's been 3 years, I know. But for this week, I'm going to finish this "book". It's going to hit 30 chapters and after that, I will be rewriting some of the older chapters. (I think they don't, "express my true talent") That being said, Happy Birthday Flower Child!

He opened his tired eyes to the sound of an alarm ringing.
Strange. I don't remember setting the- It's December 21. Oh shit shit shit shit shit I completely forgot!
Panicked, he flung off the blankets that lay on top of him and darted into the bathroom. When he stared into the mirror, he could see tired eyes running about, attempting to scramble him back to how he was the day before. Except this time, it was different.
He pulled out his phone.
"Good morning Abeno-san!"
"Good morning."
His chest bubbled warmly knowing how considerate Ashiya was. Every single day he'd tell him good morning over text, or just briefly pop in to say hi, or just send him a different flower sticker.
When he set his phone down, he stared at the table full of ingredients he had set up the night previously. Flour, eggs, salt, sugar, brown sugar, strawberries, measuring cups, a knife, and many other ingredients he had completely forgotten about. Did he have to do this? He didn't think so, or at least at first, until he remembered Ashiya's disappointed look that he had forgotten his birthday once again.
"You don't even remember my birthday! You're so rude."
Ashiya's pouting always seemed to get the best of him. It didn't matter that he did it or why, but it snuck up on his nerves and tore them out every single time.
Ashiya puffed out his cheeks.
Sighing, he stared a piece of paper left next to the food. A recipe. Of course. The man who has never really made food his entire life would attempt to make a strawberry shortcake for the one person who just might eat it.
Damn it.
First step, beat 4 egg whites with a small hint of lemon juice.
Easier said than done.
He had a dozen eggs with him. He could redo this three times. With a hefty sigh and a click of his tongue, he cracked an egg on the side of the bowl, allowing the contents to spill out into his container. Now how do you separate the yolks and whites? He grabbed a spaghetti strainer from his drawer, (which he forgot he had because Ashiya was the one who insisted he buy it when they made spaghetti together). When he put the strainer in and scooped up the yolk, he lifted it out of the mixture only to find a broken yolk just spilling into the egg whites.
Kill me.
For the next hour, he used a spoon to scoop out the yolk, tried to use a fork (like that will do any better), used a spatula, and then resorted to putting on gloves and tried to get them out. Turns out that a simple google search shows that you crack the egg and dump it from one part of the shell to the other before the yolk breaks. So he tried that instead.
Egg 2: Split. Egg 3: Dropped. Egg 4: Dropped the yolk. Egg 5: Spilled. Egg 6: Put the contents back into the same bowl. Egg 7: Dropped yet again. Egg 8: Dropped eggshells. Egg 9: Dropped more eggshells. Egg 10: Split. Egg 11: Double yolks. Egg 12: Success.
Now to do the re- And I have no more. Brilliant.
So he trudged to the grocery store and bought another dozen eggs.
He tossed the mixture of pure egg whites into his stand mixer and turned it on the fifth setting.
Toss the sugar into the mix when it starts becoming frothy? Wait no, gradually?
When the eggs started conjuring themselves into light yellow foam, he slowly tossed in the sugar, careful not to "deflate" the eggs.
Wait so stiff peaks? How do you do that?
With his knowledge that google actually worked, he realized that a simple test meant he could turn the bowl upside down on his head and nothing would fall out.
Easy enou-
And the meringue fell.
God fu-
"That's okay. Restart, and it'll be fine. You have eight eggs left, and an extra bag of sugar. Plenty more."
He tried not to remember his other failed attempt as he sent himself to his bathroom to clean up. Damn he smelled.
Let's try this again. Four egg whites with a snudge of lemon juice, beaten until stiff peaks with sugar slowly incorporated.
After another frustrating 20 minutes, he got it. Once finished, he set aside the meringue and grabbed his bowl of four egg yolks. Carefully and diligently, he removed two from the bowl and set those aside.
Now mix together two egg yolks and a teaspoon of vanilla.
He looked back at the recipe before using a mixer to beat the egg yolks and vanilla into a nicer, lighter, fluffier, yolk mixture. It surprised him how much lighter in color it was. Then he added in 7 tablespoons of milk and 3 tablespoons of butter to the mixture and beat the crap out of it.
Die.
Afterwards, he added in 120 grams of flour, allowing the flour cloud to leap into the air and dance right onto his clothes. At least it wasn't as bad as the eggs.
At least he thought.
So much of the flour was lost that he added more and more flour to "even out" the consistency. Problem was, he added so much and completely overmixed the ingredients and turned it into hard cookie dough.
Whoops.
Now he had to start from scratch. Again.
Now slowly scoop in the meringue and fold it in.
With extra precaution, he dumped a scoop of meringue, and just slowly incorporated the mixtures together. One scoop, fold. Another scoop, fold. Another scoop, fold. Another scoop, fold. Repeat. Once it was folded in, he grabbed two pans from his cabinet and greased them with flour, butter, and parchment paper.
He could not afford to mess up.
Carefully splitting the mixture in two, he dumped them into their separate pans before lugging them to his preheated oven.
Twenty to twenty two minutes later, he carefully pulled out the two cakes and pulled them out ever so carefully from their pans, before setting them to cool. When he put them down, he pulled out fresh strawberries he also bought from his second run to the store and chopped them up as thinly as he could. Well, they were uneven, but they were the filling.
Whipped cream.
He sighed, before pulling some heavy whipping cream from his fridge. It was unsweetened, and just looked like melted ice cream.
Beat the whipping cream until soft peaks form. Then add whatever you'd like to add to make it your own.
Got it.
Being a "master" at whipping up peaks, he tossed the cream into the mixture and set it on high for 4-5 minutes. It was coming together, so he let it run for a bit more. He licked the side of the spatula (which was something only Ashiya had the "privilege" to do) and immediately recoiled in the lack of sugar. Sure it wasn't that bad but if that were in a cake he'd toss it out immediately. Carefully, he kept adding sugar until it balanced out the sourness of the strawberries.
With all distractions and mishaps aside, he spread the whipped cream, added a layer of strawberries, and spread on some more.
Done.
--x--
Once he cleaned himself and his apartment up, he took out his phone and dialed a number.
"Oh, who is this?"
"Ashiya?"
A slight gasp was heard on the other line as a "squeak" was then heard.
"Yeah?"
"Hey, I'm summoning the Mononokean to your place to pick you up. Get ready."
He studdered,"s-sure!"
--x--
When he pulled Ashiya inside the Mononokean, he pulled out his present. His heart burst with pride when he saw Ashiya's smile the moment he opened his eyes.
"Wah~ It's so adorable!"
Ding ding.
They turned to look at the scroll.
"I didn't even know you made this Itsuki, let alone even try to!"
He blew out his breath.
"Come on Abeno-san! Eat!"
Why was he so hesitant? Was it because he just wasn't hungry?
"Abeno-san?"
He felt himself turn bright pink, "don't fill yourself too much."
"Huh?"
"I kind of, sort of, maybe, need someone to help me eat a bunch of omelets later."