Bowl of Flour

Astro stumbled through the door of the dango store, having placed one foot a little too close in front of the other right before entering. Before he could go crashing to the floor, he was grabbed by the back of the shirt, and he felt himself be lifted back into a standing position before being let go once the muscular man that caught him was sure Astro wouldn’t go crashing down the moment he was no longer held.

Brushing off non-existent dust, Astro gave a big smile, “Dan! Great to see you again. And be saved from falling by you again. I heard you’ve lately been giving dango making lessons!”

“Yes. I’m searching for an apprentice”

Astro gave out a long “Ooooooo” sound. “Well, that must be a difficult search for a man as talented as yourself! I’m sure you have high standards, as you should. Would you care to extend that offer of dango lessons to me?”

Dan huffed, but headed towards where Astro knew his workshop was, so he took that as an invitation to follow, sneaking a stick of dango from the store shelves into the pocket Meteor was currently occupying. If Dan noticed the missing product, he could always claim it was the uniqor that snatched the treat and stammer his way through paying the owed carats, please, take some extra for the inconvenience and see how sorry he was!

But the snatched dango wasn’t noticed, so he continued his way through the workshop space to the dango ingredients. Looked like the first step was to actually make the dough. Simple enough, he knows how to use a whisk.

…

“I’m impressed you manage to live alone”

Astro coughed from his position on the floor, a cloud of flour going into the air. “I’d say that’s rude, but I actually am as well… could I get a towel or something?”

Hearing the sound of wooden sandals against the floor before feeling something soft being placed in his outstretched hand, Astro ran the towel across his face, trying to get the flour out of his eyes. So maybe he should have mentioned that his poor balance and randomly blurring vision did not make handling flour ideal before getting into the workshop, but in his defence he hadn’t thought Dan would just shove the flour filled bowl in his hands. He’d been prepared to work sitting down, preferably at a table, not just having to hold the bowl of powder which was very prone to being dropped, so he may have stumbled over himself and inadvertently thrown the whole thing into his own face.

Wiping away what he hoped was the last of the flour, he opened his eyes to see his imp darting around in front of him, clearly having been spooked by the sudden tumble. It only took a couple seconds of staring dumbly for Astro’s brain to kick itself into gear and he got to calming the poor imp down until it relaxed enough to at least rest on his shoulder, rather than hopping about.

Once Meteor was calm, Astro looked up towards Dan, an embarrassed smile across his face. “So, err, sorry about that… I need to sit down or be against a table for stuff like that, wasn’t expecting for you to just hand me the bowl”

“I’m sorry for scaring you. I can bring us pillows to sit on while working”

“Oh, great! Thanks! I’ll just. Wait for you to do that”

Waiting until Dan was out of the room, Astro reached into his pocket to feed the remainder of the black sesame dango he had swiped earlier to Meteor, to make sure the uniqor was truly calm. When Dan came back with the pillows, Astro had a far easier time mixing together the dough without the risk of falling at any moment, combining the flour, sugar, water and matcha powder until Dan judged the resulting dough perfect and lead him to a table to cut apart and knead the dough into shape while the more muscular bun boiled a pot of water, Astro actually managing to get the dango mostly even and spherical in a reasonable time, dropping the matcha-flavoured balls into the hot water for them to cook.

The straining and cooling process went easily, and soon the two buns had a good amount of matcha dango skewers laid out in front of them. They weren’t as perfectly round as the ones Dan typically makes, but the treats definitely still tasted great, and the experienced confectioner agreed that Astro definitely had potential, so the spacey bun felt he’d done well!

Plus, Meteor and Astro now both had even more treats to enjoy on the inevitably long trip home, so really, the day was a success, even if he doubts he would become Dan’s chosen apprentice.