Makoto

We partied hard, ate and drank, and even composed the beginning of a song.  I had so much fun, and looked forward to the next morning with my boys.  I knew that Shinva loved shrimp, and Hikaru loved lobster, and Kaoru liked anything with bread. Yukio liked soft foods. He had just gotten his braces out. I liked any food. I thought we should go to a seafood restaurant in the morning, so i reserved a spot. The party was going well, and then I suggested Spin the Bottle, but Hikaru and Shinva quickly refused. Kaoru seemed up for it, and Yukio was in the bathroom, so that idea backfired. Then I suggested Twister, and that seemed good. I beat all of them because I’m the tallest, and can stretch farther than the others. They all groaned when they lost, frustrated.

“It was super unfair. I should have thought of that.” Shinva whined. I expected her to start getting grumpy. She didn't usually stay up this late. I offered her a bit of chocolate milk, she needed caffeine to keep going. That was the wrong decision. She was now bouncing all over the place, almost knocking things over, just narrowly missing very expensive decorations. I winced whenever she did, happy that she was having fun, but very worried about my house. I decided to turn away and focus on Yukio. Her wrist was rapidly spinning with a whisk clutched in her hand. I gave her free rein of the kitchen, I had no idea what she was making, but she was currently grabbing something from the cabinet, putting in a few drops from the tiny bottle, and putting it back. He grabbed another one and did the same thing, but in a different bowl. Then he took the mixture and poured it onto a tray with specific circles. I remember somebody giving those to me, but I never knew what to do with it. He poured it so precise, and then just popped it in the oven. Half of the circles were blue, and half were green. He then started on something else, and then called to me without looking up.

“You could help instead of sitting there staring.” she suggested, and soon, I was mixing a teal filling, and he was grabbing something from her bag, it looked like strangely scented leaves. She grabbed a colander and put a small amount of the leaves in it, and then made a bowl of water and inserted the colander of leaves. She left the water there while she grabbed two packages from the pantry, laying it on the island, and she grabbed something from the freezer.  When all of this was on the island he went into the big family room, two rooms down. Everybody was in the lounge, but the family room was much bigger and luxurious. He came back, put the filling I had been stirring into a piping bag, took out the circles, which had expanded a bit. He took two of the circles, put filling on one of them, and laid the other on top.

“Repeat this with all of them, I'll go check on the eclairs.” He strode over to the oven and grabbed another tray out of it, but this finished product was very fluffy and airy, and they were rectangles. she took some other filling and inserted it into the eclairs. I was now done with the weird circles.

“Okay, tell the others we are moving into the family room. Make sure the fire stays lit.” she ordered. I walked to the lounge and told the chatting group what Yukio had said. We waddled into the family room, the fire lit, and a few minutes after we were seated around the coffee table, which had tea cups, and a warm teapot already on it. While we were sitting in comfortable chairs and sofas, Yukio came in with a circular presenting pedestal, with several layers.

“The first and third layers are eclairs, and the second and fourth are macarons.” she said as she set the beautiful baked goods down. She poured tea for all of us, and when I sipped it, it was the perfect temperature, and it had a twinge of mint, but it mostly tasted of chamomile and jasmine, with a bit of honey. It was the best tea I had ever had. Shinva was gazing in disbelief at all of the wonderful stuff around us. Kaoru was thanking Yukio, but very quietly, it was obvious he had something else on his mind. Hikaru was strangely silent. I ignored it, and took a bite out of an eclair. The batter was nice and soft, and the filling inside was creamy and lemony. I loved it. I ate a macaron, and even those were amazing.

“Yukio, where did you learn all this?” I asked her.

“My mother is french. She would bake these all the time, and I knew they were hard, so I helped my mother every night at dinner. I started when I was only seven, so I've had so much practice. I've prepared the ingredients to make an American dessert too.” she informed us. He took a fire poker thing, and stuck a marshmallow onto it. She stuck it close to the fire. she waited a few minutes, constantly rotating it. Once it was beautifully golden brown, she took a piece of chocolate and two graham crackers, and made a little sandwich with it. She handed it to me, and I took a bite, the marshmallow was melting and warm, the chocolate too. And the graham cracker balanced it all out with something that isn't too sweet. All i could say was

“Wow. Just wow.” Yukio looked sideways at Shinva, who had a bit of a pitying expression, but before Yukio could talk, Shinva spoke up.

“Yukio wanted to be a baker, own her own store, travel to Paris and learn more. She hasn't seen his mom since she was ten years old, she left to go back to Paris, because Yukio’s parents didn't approve of her.” Shinva said, just fast enough that Yukio wouldn't have to feel the pain of the memory too much, but just slow enough that we could understand what he was saying. Now I could understand why Yukio was always such a kind, comforting, motherly figure. She wanted to be like his mom, who was so gentle, but also scolded us sometimes. I was more of the dad, because I was more rough with the others. I wondered if this had been why Hikaru and Kaoru had been strangely silent, or maybe they were just awestruck. Either way, I had never seen Hikaru look so pale. His face was white as a ghost, his eyes darting from the plate, to Kaoru.

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