rekindleme | [Closed] Operation: Cheer up Junpei and Avoid Stomach Ulcers

Who: Junpei Iori, Fuuka Yamagishi, Shinjiro Aragaki, Akihiko Sanada, any other purse owners...?

Where: District 1: Convenience Store and Shirijo/Akihiko's Apartment.

When: November 22th, afternoon and evening

Summary: After finally finding out Junpei's been living on noodle cups since the festival and realizing it's a certain bad anniversary for him, Fuuka offers to cook him dinner. Hilarity and Shinjiro saving the day (and Junpei's stomach) ensues.

Warnings: Possible swearing, angst and bad food.

[Afternoon: District 1]

This timey wimey bullcrap messed with Junpei's head in a few different ways. Other than Fuuka, everyone else from his world came from different points in time. Which already made the 'hey Minako went into a coma and then died and she's already been cremated' discussion sort of unbearably uncomfortable. And then, because they'd been dragged into this world he'd lost half a year's time, from March to October.

Which meant that November 21st and 22nd crept up on him in a way that made his stomach turn, the realization only hitting him when he'd glanced at a calender earlier that week. As such, he'd kept to himself mostly, not wanting to bother his senpai, Fuuka or any of his new acquaintances with his ...well, depression, honestly.

He felt a bit cheated; didn't he deserve a bit more time to come to grips with what happened to him? To Minako? To Chidori? He'd just lost his best friend not even a month ago, and now he was getting a firm, punch to his gut (shot to his gut?) reminder of the death of his girlfriend. It was made all the worse when he was stupid and gave himself a paper cut the morning before while looking through the job section of the paper. It healed just a few seconds later, but that made it even worse in a way; an every day reminder of what he'd lost that day, of what he'd gained, and sometimes, in spite of himself, he wondered if he was worth that sacrifice.

Junpei'd promised Chidori he'd keep on living and wouldn't waste the second chance she gave him, but that didn't mean it ways easy to keep going. Not that he was going to do anything, of course! Just... it all weighed a bit heavily on him, is all.

But he had to go out; he'd run out of noodle cups, and he was starving. He'd only managed to pull himself out of bed, get showered and dressed sometime in mid afternoon, though his eyes showed he hadn't gotten any sleep. He'd managed to get to the convenience store and grab what he needed (though he was so goddamn SICK of cup noodles now), so now all he had to do was make it back without meeting up with anyone he knew.

Easy enough, right?

[Evening, Shinjiro and Akihiko's Apartment]

It was still a few hours from when Fuuka had told Junpei to come to her apartment for dinner; so why was she knocking at Shinjiro's and Akihiko's door with such a desperate look in her eyes?

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"Let's see what you have." Shinjiro needs to sort this food, as well as refrigerate what's perishable, like milk and cheeses. Fuuka's purchased a wide variety of ingredients, but most don't work well together at all. Phyllo dough, olives, chocolate syrup, blueberries, tomato sauce, rice...

Wait, maybe there is something here. He has a few ingredients to pull it together. He remembers a recipe he wanted to try back at the dorm called Stuffed Peppers. Fuuka's rice and tomato sauce along with some meat and fresh peppers that Shinjiro has in storage are the main ingredients. Heck, he can even make them a simple dessert; a little apple pie filling in phyllo dough cups shouldn't taste too bad.

"Wash the peppers under the sink." Time to get cracking on dinner.

Standing beside him as she helped him unpack, she realized she might not have picked the best ingredients. She had been kind of panicked when she had gone shopping, and grabbed whatever she could. Glancing at Shinji through the whole process, she tried to gauge his reaction. It was pointless though, his expression never seeming to change, besides a twitch here, or a wrinkled brow there.

So when he commanded her to wash the peppers, she was surprised. Had he really thought up a recipe without even looking at a book? In awe of him, she rushed to do as he asked, pushing up her sleeves.

There is no cookbook this time, unfortunately. He's going with his own instincts and general knowledge. But if it turns out right, he can write it down. The instruction keeps coming, but he's helping out as well, getting some ground sausage ready for cooking and checking the sauce ingredients for the spices that they contain.

"Your knife skills any better? When you're done, we need to cut off the tops of these peppers, and scoop out all the seeds."

Finished with the peppers she quickly dried her hands and looked over at Shijiro. Her knife skills had improved thanks to Minako...but suddenly the idea made her nervous. But she would never get better if she didn't keep practicing!

"I can do that," she said with a smile, turning back to the peppers, then promptly turning back around.

"...um...where do you keep your knives?

His look of stern determination softened. So far so good, but he can't let his guard down just yet. Shinjiro reaches into one of the drawers and presents the knife to her, handle face her so as to prevent injuries.

"When you're done with that, get some water boiling for the rice."

"Thank you~" she said as she carefully took the knife. She had cut herself enough to know how not to handle one at least. Holding the first pepper firmly, making sure her fingers were safe, Fuuka slowly sliced off it's top. As the knife hit the counter with a soft thunk, she let out the breath she had been holding.

The next four were just as easy, and pulling out the seeds was even easier. Rinsing them out a second time--just to be thorough--she lined them neatly on the counter. Now came the hard part; boiling. As she looked for a pot, she recalled how everyone always told her it was easy to boil water. But she still had visions of the water boiling over and sloshing all over her.

'Not today,' she thought, encouraging herself as she pulled out a large pot, 'Not today.'

Speed is not a worry at the moment. Everything will cook evenly at the end and be the right temperature when the dish is ready. No injuries is a good thing. He continues supervising the skillet while always checking on Fuuka quietly.

"...Sprinkle some salt in your water, it'll boil faster."

"Y-yes, sensei!" She chirped, almost feeling like she needed to salute. Grabbing the pot, she hurried to the sink to fill it up. Watching it fill, she wondered when it would be too full. Or not enough. And how would she know? A little over half way, she turned off the water, deciding that looked about right. She guessed. Should she be using cups? She probably should.

Carrying it carefully to the stove, she set it down, pleased that only a few drops sloshed over the side. Scanning for the salt, she picked it up and held it over the pot, just about to tip it over. How much was a sprinkle? Biting her lower lip, she remembered many past attempts of cooking where her meals had turned into dishes too salty to eat. Retracting her hand, she held the salt shaker to her chest.

"...how much should I put in...?" she asked, looked over at him, her eyes dropping to his skillet. He was already cooking...he was amazing.

"Shake it once into your hand, then sprinkle it into the water. The package has the ratios of water to rice that you need." He would need to continue to stress to Fuuka that food packaging and cookbooks were to food as manuals were to computers.

She could do this. "This is for Iori, right?" If she remembered that she was doing it for a friend, maybe she would think a little clearer.

[Closed] Operation: Cheer up Junpei and Avoid Stomach Ulcers

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