[Mochi Master] It'll Have To Wait

“Oi, Bulan! Hurry it up! I’m already running a few minutes late openin’ up shop. You’re runnin’ on thin ice.”

“It’s your fault for waking me up at the ass crack of dawn, blue boy! I could’ve gotten at least an hour more of precious sleep…”

Dan was barking at Bulan from a whole other room within the confectionary cook’s shop. The white Pride bun was scurrying back and forth with boxes and tools for supplies of whatever the lesson was going to be today. Only about 2-3 days had passed since Bulan’s previous session with Dan; which involved learning how to make Burrowgatory’s most sought after sweet treats on a stick.

Bulan was one of the worst possible people you could call up to assist you in any form of food production. It wasn’t like he didn’t appreciate or even dislike making food, cooking, baking, etc. He was just genuinely inherently bad at it.

It was only because Dan took notice of Bulan visiting his shop very often when he got off of work, and he seemed intrigued by the process of making it when Dan would be behind the counter in between selling the dango and mochi. So on a whim, the confectionary artist gave Bulan his business card and they set up an appointment to learn the dango making process. It was fun! Well, for Bulan it was fun. He enjoyed using his hands for assignments, but it sure as hell was a mess for Dan to deal with. Bulan was very rambunctious and usually did whatever he felt like doing at any given moment (even when there was someone clearly more fitting for the job at hand present).

It came as a surprise to Bulan when he was invited back a second time. 

After setting down the final bag of rice flour, Bulan took a moment to catch his breath and stood up straight. “You know, I bet we could do this a lot easier if I turned into my doll form.”

Dan raised an eyebrow at him and crossed his stubby little arms; he questioned, “And what makes you say that?”

Bulan smirked and flexed one of his own tiny limbs, replying, “You haven’t seen what these babies look like in the flesh yet. Plus they’d be perfect for whackin’ that big ol’ hammer.”

After some thought, the blue Pride bun sighed and nodded. “Alright, fine.”

Within a few seconds, the both of them transformed quickly into their doll forms. Dan stretched to get adjusted to the humanoid limbs, and then his eyes almost bugged out of his head once he saw the sheer stature of the other man’s doll form. 

Bulan caught him looking and winked as he was rolling his shoulder. “Like what ya see? There’s more where that came from if you’re interested later…”

Dan couldn’t help but let out a short laugh, “HA! Y’know… If you actually follow my instructions this time, I might take you up on that offer.”

“Now now, don’t keep promises you can’t handle, Danny,” Bulan teased, picking up the larger hammer suited for dolls, swinging it around carefully before setting it to the side. Just to test out the weight. Of course, it was feather-light to him.

Dan shot the muscular doll a playful smile. “Who said I wouldn’t be able to handle it?”

The confectionary cook began showing his companion the ropes of making the mochi mixture, which was pretty similar to the dango-making steps. Only this time the ‘dough’ was larger and even felt thicker. Bulan helped mix the rice flour, water, sugar, and other ingredients in.

Dan nodded in approval and then spoke up, “Alright, before we actually get to the fun part… I want to show you some of the special ingredients we put in the seasonal mochi. Well, one of them at least.”

Out of a medium-sized jar, he pulled out some dark reddish-black colored peppers. When they emerged out of the jar, they began to emit a red flame from the stem. Dan made it a point to only hold the mysterious ingredients on its side to avoid it.

Bulan tilted his head and scrunched his nose up. “That… looks interesting… Oh! Is that-?”

“These are Demon Peppers. They’re the seasonal mochi I sell this month,” Dan informed his companion, bringing them over to the large wooden bowl they were mixing the mochi in. “You must be very careful not to touch the stems. I’m still unsure what causes this phenomenon, but when exposed to the air, their stems catch fire. It won’t actually harm you from experience, but it does feel like a nasty burn.”

Bulan smiled and held his hand out. “Okay, nerd. Gimme the demonic veggies and tell me how to mix em in.”

Dan gave the other Pride bun an unamused look before gingerly handing over the ingredients. Despite his carefree attitude, Bulan did heed Dan’s warning and used his thumb and index finger to hold the pepper. It was a rather fascinating ingredient; Bulan examined it with his eyes and turned it around to try and look at all sides. 

“Hmm… I wonder what it tastes like–” For a split second, Bulan mimed moving the pepper towards his mouth, sticking his long, demon-like tongue out.

Dan, as quick as a Sceil striking at a target, lurched at Bulan to try and grab the pepper away from him. “Nononono!! Don’t you dare! BULAN!”

The white Pride bun cackled villainously and held the spicy ingredient away from the shorter doll. “Chill your titties, Danny! I wasn’t actually gonna do it!”

Dan growled and shoved at Bulan, holding back the urge to give him a good old punch to the gut. “Do you want to learn how to make this or not??”

“Okayyyy okay!” Bulan laughed, trying to calm down. “I’m all ears, c’mon. Lighten up.”

After a few grumbles and mumbles, the two Pride buns reset their focus on the neglected mochi. Dan instructed Bulan on how to properly cut up the Demon Peppers with a knife; kind of like how you would chop normal peppers but almost like you were disarming a bomb.

Once that was done, they mixed the peppers into the mochi. Then came the part Bulan was especially waiting for. He picked up the hammer closest to him, and then Dan followed. They gave each other a nod, then began mashing up the mochi dough in a consecutive manner one after the other. Bulan would hit it, Dan would hit it, and so forth. 

The two Pride buns grunted and breathed hard as they beat it to a pulp masterfully. Dan was quite impressed with how good Bulan was at this, but then again it merely required stamina and strong arms. Part of him wondered how those muscles felt…

“Whew! You should invite me over to do this more often, Danny boy! This is a better workout than just crankin’ the dumbbells all the time,” Bulan excitedly exclaimed, wiping sweat from his brow and leaning on the large hammer. 

“Pfft, don’t get ahead of yourself, but you are pretty good at this. I could always use an extra hand at the shop,” Dan responded in amusement and a satisfied smile on his face. He couldn’t help but gaze at the beads of sweat dripping down Bulan’s temples, neck and upper chest.

When caught staring, Bulan smirked with his teeth and ran his tongue along his bottom lip for a second, tasting his own sweat. “Come on now, Danny, we aren’t finished yet, are we?”

Dan blinked, looked at the mashed mochi in the bowl, then swiftly reached over for some clear plastic wrap to cover the mochi. Before Bulan could ask what he was doing, the blue Pride bun grabbed him by the wrist, turned around, and began leading him towards the back room. A rather confused but simultaneously riled up laugh escaped Bulan’s mouth.

Looks like the rest of the lesson would have to wait a while.