Sweat and Sweets

Somehow, Andi had never realized that Shibani’s house was attached to Dan’s shop.  Or was it that Dan’s house was attached to Dan’s shop and Shibani just slept there?  Well, it wasn’t that important.  The place belonged to whoever she was interacting with, that was as far as she was willing to think about it.

She’d only realized it when she woke up from the pillow pile to see Dan talking to Shibani with a mallet in his hand.

“Oh that mallet looks cool!” she enthused.

Dan and Shibani both looked at her, Shibani with a smile.  “It really is, especially when he’s using it.  It’s really nice to just watch him use it…”

For his part, Dan frowned slightly…though that shifted to a slight smile at Shibani’s words before returning to his usual neutral expression.  “You said the same thing when you were in the shop to buy that raspberry dango for your impup,” he reminded her.

“Well, it’s still true.”  Andi stood up and stretched, shifting her head side to side to crack her neck.  She looked down at the mallet again.  “How do you actually make your mochi with that?” she asked him, vaguely recalling that her friend had asked something about the workshop.

“I’ll show you,” Dan said, shrugging.  He wasn’t much for talking, which was fine by Andi.

She followed him as he headed into the shop, waving slightly to Shibani as he returned to the pillow pile.

It was pretty interesting and impressive to see Dan using the mallet to work the mochi.  Honestly, Andi didn’t understand a singular word he said when talking about how the mallet made the mochi work, or the talk about what made mochi and dango different.  But that didn’t really matter.  All she really wanted to do was try to use the mallet herself!  It looked fun, and like it would be such a good exercise for the arms.  Could she get her own mallet somehow?

She wanted her own mallet so badly…

“Do you want to try making some mochi too?” Dan asked, catching her attention to realize he had finished using the mallet and was making the dango shapes now.  “Or would you like to buy some sweets that aren’t for your imp?”

That wasn’t even a choice for Andi - not that, as a rule, she was willing to spend the time thinking that would be required to make a decision.  But even so, it wouldn’t have been a choice - mallet!  Mallet mallet mallet!  She wanted to use the mallet!  “Oh yeah I’d love to try using that mallet!”

Dan gave her a bit of a funny look, but handed it over.  “Here’s some of the rice…”

Andi was so excited.  The instant the rice dough (pre-dough?) was in place, she started swinging.

Loud sounds echoed through the shop as she enthusiastically pounded the dough.  It would be incorrect to suggest that she did a good job of it - when Dan finally got her to stop hammering and took a look at the dough, his look of distaste said volumes.

“That was so fun!”  Andi couldn’t contain herself much longer.  “Can I get a mallet of my own to use?  I bet it’s great for arm day and-”

“It’s a spare, just take it.”  Dan scraped the dough up, shaking his head.  “...you can put weights in the handle and head if you want it to be better for workouts.”

Andi’s tail swished.  “Ooo good to know!”  She flung her arms around him in an enthusiastic hug before running through the door again to go show Shibani - but a moment later, popped her head back in.  “Thank you so much, Dan!”

He shook his head.  “Welcome.”

Immediately, her head retracted, and the squealing to Shibani about how cool the mallet was began immediately.  Dan was going to need to get more spare mallets with how this kept happening…