[PROMPT] Mochi Master

Dan teaches him how to make dango, which then obviously means that he comes knocking on his door again because now he’s curious about how mochi is made. To Tomoki, it was only a matter of time to get nosy about it. After all, he sees the mochi often enough to pique his curiousity. It’s free food and he’s on decent terms with Dan. 

That’s why he’s knocking at night rather than during the day. 

When Dan does open the door, he’s met with a sigh of resignation as if Dan always knew that Tomoki would be back. 

“It’s about mochi,” Tomoki explains, which really explains everything about his curiosity. It only makes the other doll sigh again. 

“Is this for a book then?” is Dan’s only reply before gesturing to him to come in. 

“Maybe.” 

Dan looks at him, face unreadable. “Right. What type of mochi were you thinking of making?” 

A beat. 

Tomoki looks at him, sheepish. Really, he likes to think that he’s someone with a sense of making contingency plans except Tomoki didn’t think he’d make it this far in the first place. 

“Gold dusted mochi does sound nice,” he admits later on. “Nice colours.” 

Dan nods before pulling out everything that they’ll be using to make said mochi. Or at least the ingredients for the dough. 

Then, the other doll turns to him. “Do you want to pound it first or would you like me to do it? So you can add water.” 

Tomoki looks at the mochi hammer, then back at the ingredients so that the colouring of the mochi will be right. “I think I’ll stick with adding water and mixing for now.” 

“We’ll swap later.” Somehow it sounds like a threat. 

But for now, he watches as Dan pounds the mochi dough with the hammer while he slowly mixes in the ingredients. Bit by bit, the mochi dough comes together as well as the red tint that the gold dusted mochi has. 

And then they swap positions where Tomoki’s the one with the mallet. Really, what he’s worried more about is accidentally smacking Dan’s hand while they finish mixing the dough. It’s easier said than done and to say that he’s paranoid is a bit of an understatement. He does think that he’s going to fuck this up somehow even though last time – last time the dangos came out fine. But apparently in his mind, mochi is an exception. 

“You think too much,” Dan remarks. “It’s not good for you.” 

Tomoki snorts before finally pounding the dough itself. “Everyone tells me that these days.” 

“Maybe you should sit back and relax one day then.” 

“This is relaxing,” he deadpans as he slowly pounds the mochi dough. Tomoki watches as the dough goes down, watches as Dan folds it before gesturing at him to continue. Rise and repeat. 

What Tomoki said about it being relaxing isn’t him lying, not really. Just because he’s bad at ‘chilling’ as others say, it doesn’t mean that he can’t find said relaxation elsewise. This happens to be one version of it even though Tomoki wonders if he could ever go on stage to get out of his head in much the same way. 

One day, he’ll figure that out as he slowly pounds the mochi dough. 

Then when Dan finally tells him that it’s good enough, Tomoki looks at the red dough that they have created. It’s quite close to the exact mochi that they’re making. Except, well, they’re not done just yet. 

There’s still the gold glitter that they have to add into the dough before they add in the actual filling. He watches as Dan adds in the glitter like bright lights falling onto the red dough to make it seem just a bit more festive. 

It’s only after that’s done that they start making the actual mochi itself with Dan showing him how it’s done. Namely ensuring that the dough is rolled into a ball then flattened before adding in the filling. Tomoki finds the whole ball rolling process to be quite calming. He could do it for hours if you let him. 

“Not bad for your first time,” Dan comments as they place the finished mochi on the table itself. They’re all red with gold bits on them and Tomoki has never quite seen something this pretty. 

“Would you like to take some home? To eat while you work on your manuscripts,” Dan asks, quiet. “You look like you need it.” 

He pauses for a moment and thinks. “Maybe. I’d like to try some before I go though. It gives me a will to live, Dan.” 

“Of course it does.” 

Rather, any sort of sweets gives him a resurgence to keep on working. Or at least before the sugar crash eventually gets to him but that doesn’t happen often enough for him to worry. 

That’s for Tomoki to deal with later.