Dagasho & Dan — Mortar and PESTER

“It’s about time you paid the piper, old man. I hope you’ve been practicing since you presented me with that horrible slop last time.”
“Hey hey, I never said I wouldn’t come around. Still, no ‘Hey Sho, you come by to make good on our promise? How’s things?’ as usual, huh. And I think last time’s attempt wasn’t all that bad, c’mon!”
“You really are such an insufferable old man, aren’t you?”

Begrudgingly, Dan nudged the door open with the tips of his shoes to let Dagasho into his dango shop, giving the “old man” a hearty, pointed scowl and receiving a similarly placed look back… this was all in good jest, of course. Festive dango and mochi went hand in hand with big fireworks to commemorate the event, so the two surly shop owners see each other in business on the regular… a sort-of rivalry eventually formed between the two (each being the prideful sort who wouldn’t live down a good round of headbutting) and they’ve been metaphorically at each other’s throats since Sho lended a hand to Dan during a fateful Mochi Moon holiday. The old man just wouldn’t let Danny-boy live that down.

“Aww c’mon! It wouldn’t kill ya to say hi when I stop by for a li’l visit, wouldn’t it?” The two pride buns wandered from the shop’s entrance to a nearby counter; Dagasho leaned easily on it while Dan crossed his arms whilst standing on the opposing side.
“Oh you rarely come by just for ‘a little visit’, Dagasho. Spit it out, what are you up to this time?”
“Well alright; you know how we got around to makin’ sparklers in our downtime at the last festival?” Sho paused, looking at Dan as if expecting a response… but simply continued after a brief moment of silence, “I thought it’d be about time to give your schtick a good ol’e try. Y’know, the whole pounding bit?”

Dan’s response to that was a simple bark of laughter that he had to quickly stifle… but no, that didn’t pass by Dagasho (and his pouty expression).
“Oh, so now it’s your turn old man?” The corners of Dan’s mouth twitched with amusement as he eyed Sho up and down. “Hmm… well if anyone’s got the guts to do it, it’d be you. If your arms were as thin as Shibani’s I would have sent you out the front door… but as you said, maybe it is time for you to show me what you have. I’d hate to break our little deal after all.”
“Darn straight, Danny-boy. Now c’mon, don’t keep me waiting — to the back room!”

With a hearty pat to Dan’s shoulders, Dagasho marched on forward… leading with such brazen confidence as if he were the actual owner of the shop. (Ignore the fact that Sho was marching in the completely wrong direction and had to be re-routed by Dan. Yeah, just ignore that point.)

…

“Of course I don’t expect you to be an expert after what you showed me all those days ago—”
“Hey, I’ve gotten better!”
“—but I think a man as thick-headed as yourself at least knows how to swing a hammer.”

In the back room where Dagasho spent most of his mochi-making hours, the two stood over a wooden mochi-tsuki mortar already filled with a blob of soft, pink mochi. Dan had explained earlier he was experimenting with different flavors, and that this particular batch would be filled with a mix of wild berries and cream… and that if Dagasho did a good enough job, he could POSSIBLY take home a batch… if Dan was feeling generous. Hey, who was Sho to deny free food? He has to feed his imp kids somehow…

“You DO understand what you have to do, right Sho?” Dan crouched low beside the basin, looking up at Sho’s short stature… the mallet seemed a tad bit too big for him, but Dagasho hefted the thing like it was nothing… Was it impressive to Dan? The bun didn’t let it show on his face if it was.
“Yeah yeah. Pound pound, you flip, pound pound, you flip, and we go fast. I swear we’ve done this before, haven’t we?” Sho hefted the mallet off his shoulder and assumed a wide stance in front of the mochi-tsuki mortar.
“Can’t remember… maybe during a festival?”
“Ehh, probably. Good enough for me. Anyways, on your mark… I’ll let ya do the yellin’, yer the one who’s sticking his hands in there this time ‘round.” With a playful smirk Dagasho wiggled the mallet in Dan’s face but the more serious bun simply pushed the jest to the side and let out a shout as he brought an open palm down onto the dough.

In truth, the process of pounding mochi goes by quick enough; Dagasho and Dan swapped between mixing and pounding jobs halfway through, and Dagasho only hit Dan’s hand about twice during the whole affair! Danny-boy took it like a champ—of course when someone who usually doesn’t take up the mallet has a swing, there’s bound to be one or two collisions… he’d definitely planned to get his hand smacked around and made it a point not to smack Sho’s hand at all whilst wielding the mallet just to prove his prowess. Typical pride bun behavior, of course.

“Well… you weren’t a complete wash, Sho.”
“Did ya think I’d hit yer hand more times than that?! I swear, give me a break!” With a huff of breath, Dagasho leaned the mochi mallet against a wall and took a seat as Dan hefted the dough up onto a counter, beginning to flatten it out with his hands. But alas… Dan returned the same smile he’d seen on the older man’s face earlier.

“Hey hey hey… just ‘cause I said that didn’t mean we were done. C’mon old man, we still have to divy up the mochi and fill it… or are you all tapped out?” Dan’s slightly-teasing tone lit a metaphorical fire underneath Dagasho’s ass, and with a huff of defiance Sho rolled up his sleeves and marched his way on over.

Oh, his body would absolutely hurt like a bitch tomorrow. But at least for today, he’d put in some extra elbow grease to show Dan that an old bun CAN learn new tricks.