destinystrings | Cooking Quest

Entry tags:

Cooking Quest

Who: Nano Shinonome and Yukiko Amagi
Where: Pisces Ward, Apartment 10-02 (Nano's place)
Summary: Caroline wants Yukiko to take some cooking lessons from Nano. Yukiko gets to learn to cook, Nano gets to feel more human. Everyone wins.
Warnings: Yukiko will be attempting to cook things. Thankfully, robots are immune to poison.

To say Nano was a bit nervous about tonight would be a gross understatement. It's the first time she's had someone over to her apartment since coming to Hinoto-Ri, so she's spent the whole morning nervously shuffling around getting things ready. Yukiko seemed nice enough when they spoke briefly on the phone earlier to set up the meeting, but Nano wants to make sure everything goes perfectly. She's used to visiting with people back home, but this is her first time having to do it alone with none of her friends around. But it is important to make new friends, and that's something she'd resolved to work on since coming here, so she's decided to bite back her apprehension and just power through.

All that's left is to wait for her cooking partner to arrive...

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It was a surprise that someone was willing to give her lessons; mostly they taste her stuff, pass out and say 'nope, I'm done'. So when she talked to Nano, she felt a bit happy at the idea because she really needed the help.

To be honest, Yukiko was hoping that she didn't poison the poor girl after all the trouble she was taking just for this. Finally she reached the apartment and knocked on the door three times.

There's a bit of shuffling about from behind the door for a few moments before Nano opens it. When the door swings open, she's standing there wearing an apron with a cute duck on the front and looking ready to get down to business. Offering a bright smile and an only slightly exaggerated bow due to her excitement and nervousness, Nano steps aside to allow Yukiko in.

"Hello, Yukiko-san...!"

When she lays eyes upon the girl, the first thing Yukiko thinks of is how adorable she is. The other girl does have a good feeling about this encounter...I mean, Nano's the first to really teach her besides the staff back at the inn so she wanted to try and make a good first impression. So the heiress gave the girl a warm smile.

"It's good to finally meet you Nano-chan."

"Please, come in...! Everything is ready for you in the kitchen."

Nano steps into the apartment, gesturing inside for Yukiko to follow her. The place is somewhat sparsely appointed - the thing that stands out the most in the room is a daruma on top of the refrigerator. It's really all she's been able to afford apart from feeding herself so far. But the kitchen is spotless and ready for whatever it is they've decided to make today, various appliances and cooking tools lined up and at the ready.

Well, there might not be much in the room but seeing the daruma kind of made her think of home. Granted that this is technically part of Japan as well, it's also different.

"Alright, what are we going to try today?"

Nano knows she should have probably spent her money on a cuckoo clock for Caroline instead, but she just couldn't help herself. The daruma makes her feel a little more at home in such a strange place.

"I was thinking we could start with something easy, like omelette rice."

Oh, she remembers the last time omelette rice was involved in something. It'll be the last time she tries something from Rise though. Maybe this go there won't be any raw wheat gluten mixed in!

"That sounds good. Maybe this time it'll turn out better."

"Oh good, so you've tried this before. That should make things easier."

Well, at the very least, Nano's lined up all of the actual ingredients involved in this recipe, so that should be a big help all on its own. And she's familiar with people trying to put things into recipes that don't belong there - she lives with an impulsive eight year old girl, after all. That sort of thing is almost a daily routine.

"I've already got the rice cooker going. Do you want to work on the vegetables or the eggs, Yukiko-san?"

Easier...sure. It's best that they stick with those ingredients right now; Yukiko is not very proud of Mystery Food X and hopefully it'll turn out alright here. But the point is to learn and she'll do it by watching the girl. When she asks about which item she wants to work on,

"I'll take the vegetables if you don't mind."

"All right," Nano replies with a cheerful nod. "Slice the mushrooms and cut the onions and peppers into small pieces, and then heat them on top of the stove with some vegetable oil until they're soft."

She points over to the knife and cutting board as she's busy breaking eggs into a large mixing bowl, setting the shells aside in a bowl to throw away later.

Okay, cutting those should be no problem! Handling knives after her adventures back home and her training back at the inn is a piece of cake!

It's making sure she doesn't add too much oil to the mix to burn the place down.

Well, while they're here, maybe some conversation starters?

"How long have you been cooking, Nano-chan?"

Burning the apartment down certainly would put a damper on the evening, so hopefully it doesn't come down to that. Just in case, Nano will glance over to check every so often. Thankfully, she's in the habit of doing things like that already, having previously lived with an eight year old girl who loved to 'help' whenever she was cooking something.

"For as long as I can remember, actually!"

Which is technically true, since she's only been operational for about a year. Nano's come up with a lot of creative ways to avoid answering questions like that directly.

Yikes, that...must've been a feat in itself. But what Nano says makes the young woman believe that she has been doing it longer. And no, not questioning that wind up key.

"Whoever taught you must be really good. Or did you learn on your own?"

"I taught myself. I have a lot of recipe books and things at home."

Which is also true. And whatever else she can do is probably what she was originally programmed with, so there's that. Nano smiles as she beats the eggs together, throwing the shells in the garbage.

"Are the vegetables ready?"

"Ah, yes!"

Seriously girl, don't forget the mission at hand and cook a decent meal without anyone passing out.

"They're ready at any time."

"All right, the rice should be ready by now."

Nano heads over to the rice cooker, getting it out of there and pouring it into the skillet with the vegetables.

"Now all we have to do is stir-fry them together and put it in the middle of the omelette we make!"

Wait...so that was it? No fancy tricks or special ingredients needed? Granted it didn't take a lot like the now dubbed Mystery Food X did but it was such a small amount of things needed.

So don't mind Yukiko being in awe of all of this.

"Amagi-san...?"

Nano, on the other hand, isn't quite sure why this should be an occasion for that level of amazement. Instead, she seems mildly concerned, wondering why her cooking partner is just staring.

Trust her Nano, you don't want to know how cooking goes back in Inaba.

"I'm ok, really."

Whoops, sorry about that sensei. Spacing out is bad.

"I'll work on the vegetables, then. You know how to make an omelette, right?"

Nano's just making sure here, since Yukiko seems worried. All things told, it's probably the easier job, since it's really just spreading the broken egg yolk around the pan and waiting for it to solidify.

It's the fear of screwing up. Something WILL happen at some point in time because this...all suddenly too good to be true.

"Oh, yes I do."

Ok, making that will be easy. And Yukiko watching over it like a hawk.

Nano switches places with Yukiko, watching over the vegetables and rice in the other pan and beginning to stir fry them, adding little bits of vegetable oil and spices here and there as she takes small tastes along the way. She shakes the pan back and forth as she goes, lightly tossing the rice to mix it in.

Don't mind Yukiko pulling out something from her sweater pocket. It looks like a mini notebook of some sort and obviously writing something down.

It looks like she really wants to do this the right way after all...

And after a few minutes, Nano's all set.

"All right, it's ready! How does the omelette look?"

That...is one nice looking omelette. While the look is great, it all comes down to the taste. There doesn't need to be a reminder of Yukiko passing out after eating Rise's spicy omelette rice again.

"It looks really good! Now to try it and see how we did."

"Right! Just one more thing to do, and then it's all ready to eat."

Nano carefully lifts the pan she's been working with, pouring the rice onto one side of the omelette and folding it over.

"There! You can put some ketchup on top if you like to eat it that way. I like to draw little smiley faces on mine."

Smiley faces? That was something she hasn't really done since she was little. Instead of a big blob or a smiley face, she actually drew a cute little puppy face on it.

"How's this?"

For all her politeness and proper behavior, Nano can also be surprisingly childish sometimes. Blame the naivete of only technically being alive for about a year, and living with an eight year old girl almost exclusively during that time. She giggles a little as Yukiko draws on her omelette, smiling and doing a smiley on hers too.

"It looks wonderful!"

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Cooking Quest

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oh god so cute

she is adorbs

total adorbs

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orz i'm so late /dies

no problem, I love backtags

orz i suck at back tagging /cat crying

no worries, I love backtags and will answer them forever

sweet. now the hard part of having her screw up somehow

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