Misery [Dango 101]

Ezra let out a groan, crossing their arms across their chest as they stared down at the vaguely circular dango blob on the countertop. He furrowed his eyebrows and pouted his lips, glancing over at Dan in frustration.

“I don't get it, why can't I do it?” They huffed, blowing his fringe out of his eyes. He unfolded his arms and put his hands on his hips before reaching up and sorting out their hair and ears that they’d crudely tied back before starting.

Dan shrugged, looking at his own dango that just seemed to magically appear out of nowhere. 

“You're rushing.” He slid the dango ball onto the stick, resting it gently on top of the one below it. “Or you're thinking about it too hard.”

“You're faster than me! How am I rushing?!” Ezra sounded exasperated, sighing as he was abruptly interrupted.

“I've been doing this far longer than you, remember.-”

The pink doll just let out another groan and looked back down at the mess they had made.

“-Take your time, Ezra. We have all day.” Dan put the Mitarashi Dango he was working on to the side for a bit; moving over to Ezra who was now sulking, they even looked like they were on the verge of tears. That's how frustrated he was. 

“You need more rice flour. Possibly more sugar too. All you’ve done is added a little too much water. Easily done.” Dan moved away and picked up the Mitarashi Dango, taking a third ball out of an ice bath and putting it on the skewer. 

Ezra sighed and pouted again, wiping their hands on the apron he sported and then picking up the bag of rice flour. The doll reached in and scooped out a little more flour, sprinkling it into the sludgy dough and mixing it to combine everything, grimacing a little at the texture.

“You're not weighing anything either.” Dan piped up. Ezra grumbled.

“Fuck it, balls to the wall, I guess?”

“Absolutely not. I don't want you wasting my ingredients.”

“Come on, man. Look; it's looking better already!” They looked over at Dan who had now put multiple mitarashi dango skewers onto a grill pan. Ezra’s mouth was agape.

“You're not getting much done staring, Pinky.” He said, moving over to grill the dango. “Get to it.”

Ezra gritted his teeth.

“Yes sir.” He muttered sarcastically, putting his hands into the bowl and pulling out a decent sized amount of dough and rolling it into a bite size ball.

...

They got there eventually, looking at the pathetic, misshapen balls he'd butchered onto the skewer. But he'd finished… one. 

“Look, take some stuff home. Practice. Come back to me when you're satisfied with how they look. Because-” Dan also looked at the dango skewer. 

“-that is one miserable looking thing.”