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writer-and-artist27 · 5 years

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Appreciate Otoha Day

Why am I doing this drabble thing again? Because after a certain late night and seeing a certain enby’s reaction via writing, I had to bring along the fluff. Because it’s the only way I know that could bring a positive insight on things. Because friends deserve appreciation, and it’s the least I can do.

I can’t take away all the pain, but I can try to alleviate it. Because we’re friends and I want to.

The themes this time are Theister’s piano cover of K-On’s U & I and RWBY’s Let’s Just Live. Because it’s about time I used them.

@langwrites, you’re tagged because you gave me the idea.

And @owlsofstarlight? This is just for you. <#

It had become easier for me to get used to the feeling that something was wrong. Even if ninja were secretive and constantly used, “Confidential information,” like Mikuru Asahina almost all the time when it came to specific situations, they were still human.

And when most of your friend group were ninja, you noticed things.

Even if Kei didn’t say it, she seemed to give enough hints to where I already knew what I wanted to do.

It was still a few months too early, but Appreciate Kei Day could get a sequel in its own way. Back in the old world, Presidents’ Day offered homage to both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, last I checked, and I could take a few cues.

Otoha needed a day too.

Chip.

The crack of an eggshell. Breaking down mixed nuts with a food processor.

Syrup.

Pouring the melted butter into the mashed bananas.

Whip!

Mixing the flour and baking powder into the banana batter, making it thick and gooey in the way banana nut muffin batter was supposed to be. A small smile was already showing up on my face from seeing the batter temper itself with the dry ingredients before settling into something that smelled and tasted good.

That old, three-word saying from Shugo Chara was still catchy. And helped with keeping myself on task with completing this recipe.

“Tomo?”

In any other case, I probably would’ve jumped at the call of my name, more so since it came from behind me. But here? Nope. I already knew it was coming from the window and it didn’t have a screen like my old house back in the old world. Not to mention, I’d know that voice like the back of my hand. We’ve known each other for years now. Without turning around, I picked up a nearby spatula to try getting some of the flour lumps out of the muffin batter. “Hi, Kei.”

“Yo.” With a soft tap of the tile, I already knew my reincarnation buddy was in the kitchen. She paused in her walking over before adding a musing, “You seem busy,” and a huff was all the indication I had to know that she was both curious and apprehensive. Once someone was looming over my shoulder, I absently reached over to pat the top of Kei’s hair. “What are you up to this time, Tomo?”

“Baking.”

“I can see that,” Kei mused in that same even tone. “But for what occasion?”

Pft. I decided to humor her while going back to my task of handling the muffin batter. Now, where were those nuts? “You can read my chakra like I’m an open book, Kei, why don’t you guess?”

My best friend snorted while poking my cheek. “I’d rather hear it from you?”

Well. She got me there. I turned around to give her my best smile. “Appreciate Otoha Day!”

If Kei was intrigued before, the raised eyebrow in my direction said everything else. “Appreciate Otoha Day?” she echoed.

“Appreciate Otoha Day!”

“Like,” Kei raised her hands to do air quotations too, “’Appreciate Kei Day’?”

“Essentially.” I couldn’t stop smiling.

Kei snorted softly, a wry smile on her lips. “Tomo.” Her voice alone was caught between fond acceptance and a slight bit of disbelief, and I already had my hackles up, just in case. “I get that you want to help, but you might be pushing yourself—”

“Nope.”

Kei blinked at me. “Bwuh?”

“Nope. None of that. Don’t pull the overworking statement now, Kei, please.” I gave her a wry smile while turning back to the muffin tins. The mochi and cheesecake were already sitting in the fridge, and this was all that was left. My legs could hold. “Today’s another day off. I asked Mama and Papa for it, and really, I’m not trying to push myself that hard. You’ve seen me bake before.”

“For stress reasons, yes,” she deadpanned.

“Your point?”

Kei sighed as her forehead met the inside of her palm. “Tomo, just…” she trailed off, and I turned my head to look at her. She had on that same wry smile. “Just take care of yourself too.” Her eyes said everything.

That was it. I put down my spatula, turned on the heel of my foot, and opened my arms to gesture in her direction. “I know, I know, now come over here and let me hug you, you doof.”

My reincarnation buddy was giving me a raised eyebrow before shrugging her shoulders. “What the hell,” she muttered before shooting me a more genuine Kei-smile. “Sure.”

The hug didn’t take that long to initiate, and once I could rest my head on Kei’s shoulder, I shook my head while squeezing her. “I’ll be okay, Kei. I wanted to do this. Otoha’s been in and out of the cafe these days, and I’ve had a weird feeling. I’ll be okay.”

“You better be,” was the whisper atop my head, and a hand was pressing on my shoulders. I pulled away, and Kei was smiling. “You push yourself too hard sometimes, and there are limits.”

A giggle left me. “Well, that’s who I am. Now then.” I walked past her, careful to not push against her shoulder before putting a hand on the handle of the fridge. “You did show up at a good time. Do you want to do some taste-testing?” A big grin was growing on my face once the recognition and anticipation started showing in Kei’s stare in my direction. “I have mochi!”

“I wouldn’t turn down that for the world.”

“Yay!”

The oven’s timer was already reading five minutes left. The scent of baking, fresh muffin was already flooding the house, and Kei’s smile was big enough to the point of filling me with pride. “You did good, Tomo.” She inclined her head towards me. “You did good.”

“Not yet,” I wiggled a finger towards her as she bit down on another piece of red bean mochi. Even if I tried to be neat, there was always the occasional sweets straggler, and well, Kei was more than happy to eat those. Or save some for Hayate and Obito. It could work. “We’re still missing someone.”

Kei’s eyes widened before softening to understanding. “Ah,” she said quietly. “They’re around, from what I can tell. On the roof?”

Mulan reference. Then again… “Probably,” I said, before getting up from my chair at the dinner table, trying not to focus on the soreness of my legs. Standing for so long baking did things, but oh well. It was a necessary sacrifice.

That same evergreen tree was still standing outside the kitchen window, and I pushed the glass pane aside before poking my head out. “Kuroha-san? Kuroha-san, are you there?”

A few seconds, and then a wind lightly brushed my face from the roof, barely rustling my hair.

Hee hee. There they are.

I opened my mouth and called again. “Could you come down here for a bit?”

The wind stopped as quickly as it came. The same silence from before.

My heart was in my throat, but I went on anyways. “Kei’s here too, y’know. And she and I have something for you!”

Another wind brushed my hair, this time softer. It wasn’t like the greeting or signal from before, but questioning almost.

Almost there. “Please, Kuroha-san?”

It didn’t even take a second this time.

WHOOSH.

It took both habit and sheer instinct to not yelp, and then Otoha was kneeling on the kitchen tile behind me, shoulders tense. It almost looked like a hero’s landing if not for the fact that they got up as quickly as they came in, and they dusted off their ANBU uniform before turning to meet my eyes. Or, to make “eye contact” from the looks of it. It was hard to tell with the white-red Owl mask covering their face. “You sure about this?” was the quiet reply.

“I’m sure. And you can take off the mask now, Kuroha-san.”

Otoha tensed. “Uh.”

“Nice mask,” Kei interrupted from behind me.

Otoha tensed before rocking back and forth on their sandals. “Thanks?” It was an unsure question before Otoha nodded to themselves. “Yeah. Thanks, Kei-Kei.”

The smirk was obvious in her voice. “No problem.”

“Well, uh. It’s just the three of us in the house and I don’t think you have to worry about the job when today’s a different kind of day and I wanted to give you something?” I added.

Otoha’s shoulders were tense, but their hands still went up in the air to grasp at their mask anyways. Despite the claws in their gloves, the mask wasn’t even scratched as they slowly took it off, revealed the brown eyes I knew as my other reincarnation buddy and the best enby friend a girl could have. “Is this better?” They averted their eyes.

“Yes. Now then…” Thank goodness the fridge was nearby, so I could reach over to grab the handle and pull the door open. “The gift.”

“Uh, To-To, you were actually serious—?”

I was already pulling out the plate of green tea mochi to offer in their direction while putting on my best smile. Honesty was the only way out here. “For you, Kuroha-san.”

Their eyes were wide as a surprised roar left their throat. Something along the lines of a dinosaur noise or a screech, it was hard to tell. “To-To?”

“Like I said,” with plate in hand, I walked over to gently place the sweets in their arms, grinning all the while. “For you. There’s banana nut muffins in the oven too. And a cheesecake back in the fridge.”

If Otoha’s eyes were wide before, they now resembled saucers with how big they got.

Ding, ding, ding.

“Perfect timing!” I mused, turning on my heel to grab my oven mitts. Pressing the off button on the oven timer didn’t take that long.

Otoha’s stare was still trained into my back along with Kei’s wayward one as I turned back to the oven door to open it, pulling out the muffin tin. Slipping off one mitt, I gently poked a top with my fingernail. Poof poof, it seemed to go, bouncing back from my touch almost immediately. “Yay! Finished!”

“To-To,” an uncertain dinosaur squee followed the call of my nickname, and I turned to face Kuroha-san. They were still looking away, having put the mochi down on a nearby counter, and they gripped their left arm with their right hand. It almost looked like they were hiding. “Why—”

I took a breath and let my heart take over. “Because I wanted to.”

Otoha was looking at me in deep surprise once a small smile came over Kei’s face.

“I know I’m not the greatest person to be around. I can get emotional, moody, kinda out there sometimes, and my chakra doesn’t help. I know I can sulk too, and I’m sorry. For all the emotional things that can get ugly.” Heat was flooding my face from the rambling, but I continued anyways. “But, Kuroha-san, you’re still here. You’re still here, with Kei, being my best friends in the whole wide world, so…” I picked up the muffin tin to display to them. “Thank you. For guarding me, for looking out for Kei when I can’t,” Kei snorted, but I went on anyways in spite of the blush on my cheeks, “for being my best friend, and, um.” Darn. Ramble ending. I closed my eyes and offered the muffins anyways. “Just, thank you. For finding me and Kei, and for staying. Today’s, well, um.” I swallowed the lump in my throat to finish. “Today’s ‘Appreciate Otoha Day’ to me, so…”

“T-To-To…” A soft dinosaur roar. “To-To, To-To.”

I kept my eyes closed because I was already an oven from how much I was blushing. I didn’t know whether it was from embarrassment or shame from my saying all that cheese. “I-I mean, I know Appreciate Kei Day is on Lang’s birthday, and your old birthday is still really far away, but I didn’t want to just limit our interactions to wind and feathers! I wanted to give you something, something you’d like, just because you matter and you’re so important in my life, and I’d like you to stay, and um,” my voice cracked, but I kept my grip on the muffin tin, “if this isn’t enough, I can play piano—”

A few footsteps was all it took for the muffin tin to leave my hands and for someone else to lightly barrel into me instead. My eyes flew open, and past the new shoulder, all I could see was tussled brown hair.

“Kuroha… san?”

The person in my arms shuddered as the grip around my waist tightened. Something wet was starting to grow on my shirt shoulder — Oh.

I couldn’t say the three words I wanted in the ramble, just because of trigger reasons, but I thought them anyways. With a warm smile and a warm squeeze to return the hug.

“A happy day, just for you, Kuroha-san. Happy Early Birthday.” The thought occurred to me, and I reached over to pat the back of their shoulders. “I’ll make sure to make more sweets when your birthday does come by. Because I wanted to. You matter to me, okay?”

Otoha gave me a soft and muffled, “Mrrrp,” as Kei came around and joined in on the hug. “Second that,” Kei finished finally.

Another day, with my best friends.

The white feather tucked behind Otoha’s ear was a good enough sign for me.

#silent feathers #writing #hoshino tomoko #otoha kuroki #keisuke gekko #no angst here #fluff

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