Mochi with friends!

“Ah, she is back again” Dan thought as he opened the door, there stood Ayano accompanied by another doll, one he was slightly less annoyed to see.

“Dan~! I brought a friend this time! You promised to show me how to make rose mochi remember?” Ayano pushed her way inside blabbering on about how Dan had PROMISED to show her how to make mochi, a promise he was now regretting.

“Rosewater mochi” Dan corrected with a grumble, gesturing for the second guest to come inside. Might as well get this over with, at least there was another doll with him to deal with Ayano and her excessive talking.

Latte nodded, stepping inside and taking off his shoes to switch to indoor ones, a step which Ayano had completely skipped, much to Dan’s dismay. “Ayano, shoes” Latte pulled Ayano back to the entrance where she quickly apologized and switched to her indoor shoes.

“It completely slipped my mind hehe! I guess I’m too focused on the mochi~!!” She giggled as if it were the smallest slip-up, though Dan knew she would be making plenty more.

“Okay, Latte can you come pound the mochi?” Dan rustled through his cabnets looking for an ingredient, where did he put it? He knew he set some aside for this occasion and- Ah! He found it- the most important ingredient in the mochi, the rosewater. “Ayano, come here” He said rather bluntly, setting out a bowl and some other ingredients.

Latte got to work with the mochi mallet, pounding rhythmically at the soft rice dough. Really he only came along so he could take some mochi home to his imps, it took Ayano a total of 2 days to convince him to tag along though. Initially he told her he was busy at his cafe, which he was, but mostly he knew how much of a hassle Ayano could be and didn’t want to add to Dan’s stress with two dolls to direct. Still, at the very least pounding the mochi was easy enough, so Dan could focus his attention on guiding Ayano to make the filling.

“Oopsie~! Tehe!” Ayano’s giggling snapped latte out of his thoughts, he glanced up to see what mistake Ayano had made this time. From Dan’s scolding he gathered that she had added too much rosewater to filling, and now they had to add more of the other ingredients to balance it out.

“Mochi making is an art form” Dan scolding, pouring something into the mixture, “You have to be delicate with it, use a gentle hand”

“Okay okay~! I get it!” Ayano practically pushed Dan aside to stir in the new ingredients, “I can do it! Really I can!” She insisted, stirring so violently that the filling splashed out the sides of the bowl.

Uh-oh, this wasn’t gonna end well.

Latte set the mallet down, walking over to the two doll’s to help resolve the issue. He gently grabbed ayano’s arm and guided her to stir slower, “Like this.”

Ayano’s face turned red, she jumped back “Okay okay!” Visibly flushed, she began to stir slower, “I- i get it i get it~!” She turned away from Latte, holding the bowl close to her chest, “Is- is the dough done?”

“It should be” Dan had made his way over to the wooden barrel that Latte had previously been standing at, it seemed the dough was stretchy enough to be worked around the filling, “Ayano, the filling”

Ayano quickly walked over to Dan, her face still visibly red, “here!” She handed dan the bowl.

“First you take a small ball of dough, press the center in with your thumb like so” Dan demonstrated, “Then take a scoop of filling, and work the dough around it” He moved deliberately slow to show the two dolls how to finish the mochi.

“Place the finished mochi’s here, now you two try”

“Easy! I got this!” Ayano was so confident, she took some dough and worked it around the filling, “Ta-da!” For once, she didn’t mess up.

Latte was quite proud of her.