[Matentines] Treats

So. The Lady of Fog wasn’t beyond dipping her fingers into another sin’s honeypot for a spin, buuuut… this might have been a little too much.

Kaori stands in her apartment, after shifting from her doll form and tossing everything from her shopping trip and having ordered things online with express same-day delivery, of course, just shy of the very last minute. And! That’s not all! She’s exhausted but still has to complete what she set her mind to: making chocolates and candies, arranging flowers, and making sure everything is ready and delivered for Matentines so everyone on her list can enjoy. That’s simple, at least what her mind is telling her.

Yeah. That’s fine and all, but now she can’t reach the oven. So. More standing around until her blue eyes began to fisheye from too much excitement now turning into a little bit of anxiety. Gluttony? No! She’s Greed. Y. Greedy. Er. Scratch that; eyes focus again and cloven scritches against a fuzzy chinny chin chin. Calm down. Puff out more of that delicious cool mist, breathe it in. She’s ready to at the very least get everything down from the counters to Bun-level and hops about pushing chairs and tables meant for her smaller form, tail whipping about behind her while clinging to more items she’ll need.

Her clouds couldn’t keep up with her entirely with how quick she’s getting things ready, leaving lost bunches of them to fade away and leave behind her signature scent wafting about in it’s place and the clinking of glass and tablewares sounding off the beginning of a day of making treats! It’s baking time!

-

“Now it says to add egg? Why didn’t it ask earlier… oh, I have to separate the yolk, huh.”

Kaori mutters to herself, cloven paws wrapped around a whisk above a large mixing bowl in hand, the sticky mess inside it dripping off the wires and back into the bowl. The crystalline hell rabbit is squinting at a tablet nearby of a well-dressed and a chipper looking doll in a kitchen with instructions on how to bake something sweet. At the same time, the small table stove was heating up and boiling sugar, chocolate chips and pieces everywhere and colors of all kinds lay among bottles of flavoring. It’s more of a mess than a product at the moment. Makes Kaori feel like the effort wasn’t worth the outcome - which might end up unacceptable quality if this keeps up. The instructions aren’t the clearest, and she had to rewind the video back a few times since her attention is all over the place.

A chef she is not, but she’s also very stubborn at the moment.

So, putting down the bowl, she begins to separate the egg white from yolk and get back to alternating mixing and checking temperatures. Meanwhile, the portable oven is ready for the first batch of heart shaped cakes. There’s going to be heart, rose and carat shaped everything. From the cookies that she has yet to decorate to the chocolate. She’s got a long way to go and yet she’s determined to get it down even if things would be easier to do if she shifted back into doll form… but that would mean more time to take things over to the bigger part of the kitchen. Stubborn she is, yes, but she’s not about to do that when the sugar is already up to temp.

Using the flat side of her crystal spade tail, Kaori pulls the saucepan off onto a big glass coaster and after that, the molds of both the mini cakes and the rest of the cookies go into the oven. Satisfied with that, since she has to wait anyway, she gets straight to the food coloring, more mixing, more listening (and having to rewind for a repeat) to instructions on this Thing She Should Definitely Have Paid A Professional To Do… and make more of a mess in the meanwhile.

Food coloring? Cornstarch? Liquid sugar? All on her fur, table and floor. It attracts the attention of her pet now and makes an even greater mess when the little lunar mochi loving imp begins to snatch things off the table and lick sugar off the floor. Thank goodness that most of it could be replaced by pouring more out into the bowls and the rest slapped quickly into the oven as soon as there was room to, like a conga line of wrangling a screeching shadow thing the size of a tennis ball and making sure that it stays away from open bags and boxes of food.

It’s a hassle.

It’s a mess.

But hours into these shenanigans, the little bun managed to get her tasks done, give or take some snatched morsels that the even tinier rabbit-like rabebe managed to get. And now it’s just to wrap things all pretty in her signature colors and tiny dangling gemstones among the tulle, printed plastic and ribbons. Nametags on each, stuffing everything in little baskets and boxes decorated with hearts and roses.

She flops on the floor when it’s over, clutching her little imp and breathes out a long stream of flower scented clouds once again. Tomorrow is definitely a long day of making personal deliveries, all well worth it to get those needed and grateful smiles.

“Nap time, Icemilk.” She whispers, snuggling up to her pet and its full tummy.

It feels good to be a caring queen.