Pounding Mochi

Limon had talked nonstop about Dan's confections and selling the small mochi bites in her parlor as ice cream toppings. She had explained how they had been quick to sell out and that her customers had loved her dangos she sold from time to time with her leftover fruit jam, paste, marmalade or puree. It had gotten to the point where Ione wanted to go to Dan's Dango themselves to have a word with the prideful doll. Sure they had eaten his dango from time to time but the two barely talked at all. Only hello, an order, goodbyes and that was it! Ione hated making small talk.

With a soft sigh, the brown gluttony bun left their residence and headed toward the store that sold dangos and where Dan would be found at: Dan's Dango. Ione only hoped they got something productive out of this experience as they simply wanted to stay home and continue to experiment on their dishes for their cafe, Daily Grind. When they arrived, it was fairly quiet at the store apart from Shibani snoring at the counter. With a deep sigh, Ione moved further inside only to pause at sounds of something being pounded. Frowning, the gluttony bun wandered deeper until they came across a scene of Dan swinging a mallet into some dough in a mortar. Oh so that explained the sounds.

"That explain the sounds I heard from the entrance. Are you preparing mochi dough?" Ione eyed the other bun who looked up from swinging his mallet. The prideful bun swing the mallet over his shoulder and nodded gruffly. "Was there something you needed, Ione?"
"Oh, Limon would not shut up about your confections and how you two had done a trade of your recipes. She keeps encouraging me to come here and learn some more about your craft." Ione sighed and Dan huffed in amusement
"That doesn't surprise me. She is passionate about food and she does adore you. Anyways I'm working on new mochi. Want to help? A spare mallet's over there." Dan nodded toward a wall where another mallet rested.
"Careful through, it can be heavy."

Ione squinted at Dan as they approached the mallet to take hold of it. Dan was right, the mallet had some weight to it. Carefully adjusting their hold on it and making small swings to get used to it before they returned to the mortar where Dan was working his magic on the glutinous rice inside. When the prideful blue bun stepped back, Ione took a deep breath to center themselves before swinging the mallet toward the mortar. Perfect hit and the pounded rice shifted a bit as Ione lifted the mallet away before swinging again. Soon the pair got into a rhythm of taking turns swinging mallet at the rice to pound it into lovely mochi paste dough. After several minutes, Dan called for a break so he could inspect the dough while Ione took a breather.
"This is hard work. I can see why you take great pride in your confections." Dan gruffly nodded at Ione's compliment as he turned over the dough.
"Still needs more working..." he murmured as he stepped back.
"I'm good to keep going."
"You sure, Ione?" Dan sounded skeptical.
"Yeah. Not a problem." Ione was certain and with that, the pair resumed their rhythmic pounding of the rice until it turned into perfect dough. It would take them great amount of time but the results were always worth it.. Once Dan had inspected the dough and was satisfied with it, he had Ione sit down and relax while he prepared some mochi for them both to munch on.
Ione noticed a certain bag somewhere in the kitchen. It was one of their coffee blends. One of their more sweet flavours actually.
"Did Limon give you that coffee package?"
"She did. Also shared some tips in using coffee in confections as well." Dan explained and Ione hummed in thought. Shibani soon wandered over and plopped onto Ione's shoulder with a gentle yawn. Ione raised an eyebrow at the sloth but otherwise didn't complain as Dan came back out carrying a tray of mochi that looked to have been dusted in cocoa powder.
"Cocoa powder dusted mochi with chocolate and coffee filling. Go on." Dan encouraged Ione and Shibani who took one each to munch on. Shibani's eyes lit up and he licked his lips as Ione quirked a small smile at the mochi.

"Delicious, Dan. Do think you should sell this. It'll sell well!" They complimented as they took another bite out of the mochi and Dan huffed quietly.
"Thank you. Took me several attempts to perfect that."
"Yeah. Coffee can be finnicky. Too much and it's bitter. Too little and it's overtaken." Ione nodded and Dan hummed.
"It's also difficult to balance with other flavours depending on the coffee I buy." Dan pondered as the trio enjoyed their mochi.