A Song For Another Time - A Hikaru Hitachiin Story

Chapter Thirty Six - Better on the Other Side

It wasn't often that sweet and savory smells wafted out of the windows and under the crack of the front door of the Hitachiin apartment. Honestly, it was a shame they had to pay for a place with a kitchen because, at this point, the stove and oven were just as much decorative pieces as the expensive vases and knock-off masterpieces on the walls. Scents of microwaved noodles and partially burnt toast were far more likely outside the apartment as were the appearance of food deliveries in plastic bags with yellow smiley faces.

The Saturday immediately following Lance's expulsion from Harvard was different though, as Rose, in a desperate attempt to feel some sense of normalcy, (and as the only way she could think to thank a bunch of boys) had taken over the Hitachiin apartment as if it were her own — set on cooking a stereotypical American holiday meal as a thanks to the group of boys who would be shortly gathered in the same residence.

Everything had gone alright for the first hour, filled with warm greetings, a brief tour of the kitchen's offerings and the rhythmic sounds of cutting vegetables. The second hour, though, Rose learned the hard way that she couldn't trust the twins with knives (now that they both had several bandages encircling their fingers from failed attempts at cubing potatoes), that when it came to food Hikaru had the patience of a five-year-old on Christmas morning, and that she herself is incredibly bad at multitasking. (Especially when it comes to attempting to cook while simultaneously holding a conversation on the phone with her foster mother and trying to keep a pair of devils out of the kitchen.)

It wasn't as if any singular part of those three tasks was particularly hard for her to achieve, but combining all three pushed her to her limits — which is how she found herself holding her cellphone to her ear with her shoulder, knife in one hand and spatula in the other, making miniscule swatting motions with the plastic utensil each time a mischievous head popped into her peripheral.

"Molly, please," Rose begged into the receiver. "Stop panicking. It's all over now and taken care of."

"That doesn't make me feel any better! I knew I should have done something when those boys finally told me what was going on with you," Molly lamented, worry slipping through her words in the form of anger. "This isn't the type of thing you keep secret from people who love you!"

"I know, I know," Rose sighed, swinging at Hikaru's head with the spatula as he attempted to push his head close to hers, struggling to hear the conversation he was not a part of. She muttered a sharp "quit it" to him before returning her attention to the phone. "I just wanted to handle it on my own. I didn't want you to worry."

"WELL THIS DEFINITELY ISN'T ME NOT WORRYING," her foster mother shot back, forcing Rose to drop her plastic tool in favor for holding the phone away from her ear. Kaoru made a grab for the device and she accidentally held up the knife that was resting near her right hand in a threatening warning with a pointed leer, completely forgetting that it wasn't the harmless rubber gadget. She and the ginger twin shared wide eyed stares (one in slight fear and the other in apologetic shock) before Kaoru backed away from her with his hands up.

Rose heaved out another heavy sigh, dropping the knife on the counter as she returned the phone to the crook of her neck and turned her attention to the small turkey in the sink. Molly had taken to a motherly lecture on the other side of the phone line and Rose nodded along (as if her foster mother could see) while she took to scrubbing at the skin of the bird to remove any lingering feathers.

"And another thing..." she continued and Rose started to zone out, instead focusing on patting the turkey dry with a few paper towels and then moving it to a prepared roasting pan nearby. Gently she used a basting brush to coat the skin in a layer of pre-melted butter before rubbing salt, pepper, and a smidge of garlic pepper into the skin with her hands. She tuned back into the conversation after washing her hands and grabbing a lemon to slice.