simplerbox | Play with me

Okay! We start with the rice, grab a little and shape it...

[He holds a tiny bit of rice in the palm of his hand, carefully molding it into a rectangle shape before rounding the top a bit so the fish will stay on better.]

like this!

[He sets the rice down in front of him and turns to Gokudera. Come on, just copy him it's not like it's that hard.]

[Witchcraft. Gokudera reaches out and pokes the small ball of rice, where it promptly collapses. Too bad he's already taking some rice to try moulding it himself to see the omen of his sushi.

Just mould the rice.

If Yamamoto can do it he can.

A bead of sweat slides down his face as he places the rice on the bench. In another dimension it could be called a rectangle, perhaps the fifth dimension. This one however it's more like a mound that's falling apart. How did that not work?]

This rice is defective.

[Yamamoto laughs at him, it really is a pathetic pile of rice. And this is only the simplest part.]

You just need some practice. Let's try it again.

[He grabs some more rice, leaving Gokudera's earlier attempt aside. He hands it to Gokudera, covering his hand with his own to show him how to mold the rice.]

Whatever. [Gokudera is sure the rice is just malfunctioning. It should be recalibrated or something. He can work out the optimum angle for each grain. That will work. For sure.

But Yamamoto doing that might also be helping. Even if his ears are turning red.

He mutters something about baseball idiots disrupting the variables but keeps trying to press the rice into the right shape.]

[Yamamoto decides not to mention Gokudera's reddening ears, but that won't stop him from smiling at them.

He takes a look at his friend's second attempt, much better already.]

See? You're learning!

Of course. It's just rice.

[Shitty, terrible rice but it's bowing to his will finally and he does a much better job on his next one, without Yamamoto messing with it and making his ears burn some more.]

Sure, sure.

[He totally believes you, yep.]

Are you ready to move on to the fish then?

Yes.

[Fish isn't so hard right? You just put it on. No way to fuck that up.]

Okay then!

[He walks over to the fridge and takes out a slab of tuna and puts it on the table in front of them. He takes two huge, sharp sushi knives from the knife block on the counter and hands one to Gokudera hilt first.]

The trick is to cut it to be around the same size as the rice we prepared earlier, but you want to have the sides slanting so it looks like it's more.

[You can do this Gokudera, he believes in you.]

[Knife!

He's not good with knives, he likes the idea of knives, not the knife itself. They're controlled and precise but you've got to keep moving with them and find a way to slash the shit. Blowing it up with exactly the right amount of nitroglycerin is better.

He gingerly lifts it from Yamamoto.

If Yamamoto can, he can.]

Right.

[And hey, the first slice isn't even a disaster.]

[If Gokudera could manage to explode the fish into shape without screwing it up that would be totally fine with him.

It might make for a nice gimmick to show the guests. Or not, explosives are kind of dangerous and also illegal.]

You're pretty good at this!

[At least better than with the rice.]

[He could it would just take a concentrated week of calculations for a single piece of fish and by that point it would be rotten anyway.

He continues carefully slicing with his fingers out of the way. It's rough, but probably passable.]

Tch, it's not hard to be great at something simple.

Haha I guess so. It just takes some practice to make it look really nice. [He says as he puts down a perfect slab of fish on top of his equally perfect rice.]

[Gokudera twitches. He needs to study this phenomenon, that's simply not natural.

He reaches out, picks up Yamamoto's piece, pops it into his mouth, chews, frowns, swears, and swallows.

It's good and he can't get away from showing it with a tiny smile. At least it's not sitting there on the bench mocking him with it's perfect sculpted beauty.]

Not bad.

You shouldn't talk with you mouth full. [But he takes Gokudera's swearing as a compliment.]

Good! [He eyes Gokudera's sushi. It doesn't look nearly as nice as his own but it seems tasty enough.] Can I have yours?

[He balks, opens his mouth to tell Yamamoto where he can shove it but snaps it shut.]

Fine. [And he starts shaping another ball of rice. If he feeds that one to Yamamoto as well he can do a comparison.]

Thanks! [He picks up the piece of sushi like he has been doing this all his life. Which is, of course, exactly the case. He shoves it into his mouth in it's entirety and chews thoughtfully. He swallows and starts grinning widely.]

It's really good for a first try! [Was that a wink? It definitely was.]

[What does that wink mean. He does't know. Does it mean it was better than good for a first try? Does it mean it actually tastes like it was assembled by a horse? Shit. He should have just eaten it himself.

He snatches up another lump of rice to begin shaping it.]

I bet you can't even tell what's good or not as long as you can eat it.

[To be honest, Yamamoto isn't completely sure what the wink means himself. The guy is just acting on instinct as usual.]

Of course I can tell, I'm the expert remember.

[Stop that Yamamoto, you're going to mess up all Gokudera's charts.

He flicks a totally mature piece of rice in Yamamoto's direction before pressing the rice into shape, it holds it better this time, a little lumpy but not bad.]

Sushi isn't genetic.

[What charts would that be? Is he still trying to prove Yamamoto is actually an UMA?]

I'm not saying that. But having made sushi all my life pretty much makes me the expert, doesn't it?

[Those charts are secret. The evidence is currently inconclusive.]

'Pretty much' doesn't make you the expert. You're the baseball expert. [Gokudera's sure that guys like Yamamoto can only be good at one thing.]

[He thought there would be no secrets in the family.]

Well that's true. Can't I be an expert in more than one thing though? You are good at a lot of different things too!

[His data is inconclusive. He couldn't possibly share inconclusive data.

He taps his lip, thinking.]

Your expertise could extended to 'swinging things'. [Swords, baseball bats.]

Sounds good to me!

[Swinging things is really cool after all. And he is pretty good with swords and bats. He guesses making sushi is kind of like swinging with knives as well.]

So what about you? Is yours just 'blowing things up'?

(no subject)

derachan - 2013-05-06 04:22 (UTC) - Expand