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A slightly cracky friendship fic. It continues from ‘In Search Of’, but could still be a standalone fic. Also, got about a page of new stuff added in compared to when it was first posted. Here we have Shin Kuroi doing his best to teach the art of baking. How would he fare? Read on and find out! Imagining him talking in a slightly squeaky Alan Rickman voice is either totally awesome or totally fucked. Or both.

---

“You want me to what?”

Shin stared at the three standing before him, not sure he was hearing things correctly.

Kounosuke put his hands behind his head, grinning. “Teach us how to bake!”

Shin shook his head to clear it. He would’ve tried pinching himself to see if this was all a dream if it didn’t make him look undignified. The cat had spent most of his morning on the balcony, rereading ‘Murder In A Hearse’ when his butler walked up to him, reporting that three of his friends were at the front door. Shin had sighed at the interruption, thinking that this had better be good before he went to the front door where he had found Juuichi, Kounosuke and Tatsuki awaiting him.

“C’mon, Shin! Please? We know you’re good at this sorta thing!” That was Tatsuki, who was trying to give off a puppy-dog look with his eyes and failing miserably.

The cat paused. Truth be told, he never expected these three to show any inclination in learning the culinary arts. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to share the joy of baking with others, but still… “Suppose I do teach you, why do you wish to learn how to bake?” Shin raised an eyebrow at Tatsuki.

The giant dragon gave him a huge grin, as if Shin had already agreed. “I wanna send some sweets to Hiroyuki, of course!”

Kounosuke gave a matching grin. “I want to make some cakes for me and Yukiharu!”

Shin blinked at that. That was a surprisingly normal response coming from the tanuki. “Huh. I thought for sure you only tagged along to taste the finished product.”

The tanuki chuckled. “Well, that too. But I wanted to make some for Yukiharu and that little kid he’s been hanging out with.”

The three then looked at the only person who hadn’t spoken. Juuichi looked away from their scrutiny for a moment before speaking. “I want to make pastries that use honey.”

Kounosuke snorted. Tatsuki gave the bear a smug smirk. “Oh? Are ya sure it’s not because ya wanna make something sweet for a certain stripey stud?” Shin noticed the bear’s fingers twitch, and could guess that the bear was restraining himself from performing a judo move on the rude dragon.

Juuichi shot the dragon a glare that could freeze lava. “No, I’m not going to bake anything for that idiot. Why would I want to do anything for him?”

Tatsuki’s grin became lewd, and Shin placed a hand on his forehead. ‘Honestly, does Tatsuki have no self-preservation skills whatsoever?’ “Yeah, guess not. But I bet he’d be happier if you gave him something sweet from this instead.” With that, he quickly gave the bear’s crotch a few gentle pats.

Shin sighed.

Kounosuke burst into laughter.

Juuichi executed a flawless shoulder throw.

Tatsuki went flying.

---

Despite his earlier misgivings, Shin had agreed to teach the trio how to bake. Partly because the cat knew that the three (particularly Kounosuke and Tatsuki) would have kept asking him to reconsider, but mostly because he felt that ‘invading one’s kitchen’ was not a good enough legal justification to get the three incarcerated. The cat sighed at that; the law was very near-sighted at times.

As he led the way to the kitchen, Shin eyed the huge bag that Juuichi was carrying suspiciously. Kounosuke must have seen the look on his face because the tanuki explained. “About that, we thought that it’d be bad form to ask you to teach us and then expect you to provide the ingredients as well, so we bought our own ingredients.”

Shin knew from experience that the tanuki would’ve done his best to get things for free. “Maybe you mean those two thought about it,” he deadpanned.

Kounosuke gave him a grin but admitted nothing.

Still, the cat thought that it was a bit suspicious that the three would bring a huge bag’s worth of baking ingredients. Shin tried to push away the nagging feeling that he was getting into something way over his head and opened the door to the kitchen.

---

Shin regarded his three ‘students’ coolly with one hand on his hip. “You’re here to learn the subtle science and exact art of baking.” Seeing the three give him their full attention, the cat continued. “As a beginner’s course, you will first learn how to bake a cake. I don’t expect you to understand the beauty of a gleaming stainless steel bowl while mixing the cake batter, the delicate aroma of the liquids used to enhance the flavor of sweets, bewitching the nose, making one’s mouth water…I can teach you how to work with chocolate, caramelize butter, even create icing – and that is, if you listen closely to my instructions.”

A small silence followed this little speech. The three looked at each other. Finally, Tatsuki piped up. “Wow, Shin. That was a nice speech. You just, uh, kinda got a little creepy at the end.”

Shin shot the dragon a glare for this slight against baking. “What did you say?”

Tatsuki looked trapped. “Er, I, uh…”

“Because if you do not wish to learn, then I suggest you go outside now.”

The dragon gave a nervous laugh and quickly backpedaled. “Uh, I mean, uh, of course we’d be happy to learn from an expert!”

Shin nodded, feeling satisfied. “I’ll be right back then. I’ll get us some aprons.” He stamped out the room with his head held high, the sound of Juuichi berating the dragon for his rudeness sweet music in his ears.

---

It took Shin a while to get back. According to the servants they did not have any aprons that would fit Tatsuki and Juuichi, so Shin had to wait while the servants made something the two large males could use.

By the time he arrived back in the kitchen, aprons in hand, Shin knew he had made a serious mistake. From the doorway, he could see that the three had started without him. Flour was everywhere, what seemed like egg yolks were smeared on the ceiling, chopped ingredients were scattered haphazardly, empty bottles lined the counter and something that Shin suspiciously thought was soy sauce was dripping onto the floor.

Taking deep breaths, lest he start to cry, to shout at the top of his lungs, to have a mental breakdown, or all three, Shin silently made his way towards the trio. They were too busy arguing over the…mix (the cat resolutely refused to call it cake batter) that they never noticed Shin.

“I, uh, forgot to get us some yeast, but I think I heard someone say that alcohol has some, so using a little bourbon and whiskey should be good enough.” That was Tatsuki, who looked a little flushed. Shin suspected that the dragon had been taking sips from the liquor bottles.

“Nice idea, Tatsuki! I think I remember reading that cakes need vanilla too.” Shin closed his eyes and tried to fight off the headache forming. Kounosuke’s next words, however, made him welcome the pain. “I, uh, got us some vanilla ice cream. It, uh, it should work just as well, right?” The cat heard the two give vague grunts of approval so the tanuki began scooping in the ice cream into the mix.

Shin silently prayed to any god out there that the bear at least had a small modicum of cooking skill. All hope Shin had that Juuichi knew anything about baking was dashed when the bear pulled out a large jar filled with honey. “I think it needs a little sweetness to it.” Shin felt his gorge rise when the bear poured all the contents of the jar into the mix.

Deciding he’d had enough of this travesty against baking, Shin snapped into action. “That’s enough!” The cat had the satisfaction of seeing the three jump in surprise. Shin pushed past Kounosuke and Tatsuki to examine whatever they had made.

Shin stared. Even from a glance he could tell that this was a…flop (the other four letter words he could think of using were those he usually heard from Torahiko and Kouya’s shouting matches). The mix did not look like it had been mixed well. There did not seem to be enough water in it, judging from its consistency (which was impressive, considering the amount of liquor and honey poured earlier). Broken egg shells were sticking out like a sore thumb. Various chopped or whole ingredients were sticking out (‘Is that…is that an[I] onion[I]? And chili pepper? And caviar?’). To top it all off, the mixture’s color was a sickly-looking yellow, not unlike mucus.

“Looks good, doesn’t it?” Tatsuki was peering at their creation, pride gleaming across his face.

“No, it’s not. This is inedible at best, toxic at worst.” Shin felt a small pang of remorse at the disappointment on the trio’s faces but quickly squashed it. They did ask him to teach them, but mostly, because he felt that no one messes with the baking arts and gets away with it. “As I have mentioned, baking is a science. You do not just throw in ingredients at random and hope that it would turn out well. You need to use exact measurements for its ingredients and not just throw everything in.”

The three looked properly chastised. Kounosuke looked at the cat with an awkward look on his face. “So, um, I guess, we won’t be using this mix, huh?”

Shin placed a hand on his head and grumbled. “We’ll create a new mix. And I won’t hear any protests, got it?” To his relief, the three had agreed without complaints.

---

In the end, they had to use a new mixing bowl. Shin had to give the one with the failed mixture to the servants, with instructions to completely incinerate it. There was nothing the cat could do about the mess, though the three argued that Shin should leave the clean-up duties to them instead of the servants. After that, the cat had an easier time teaching Juuichi, Kounosuke and Tatsuki, their enthusiasm making them hang on to Shin’s every word. He had to admit, they weren’t doing badly either.

Granted, there were a few mishaps. Shin had to tell the dragon not use his full strength when mixing the batter. He also had to drill into Kounosuke’s head not to haphazardly guess the amount of ingredients he should put in. And he had to dissuade Juuichi from the idea of using an entire jar’s worth of honey in making cakes.

“Gotta admit, we’re learning loads today.” Tatsuki grinned, with icing clinging on his belly.

Kounosuke nodded; the tanuki had a good chunk of the cake mix on him. “Yeah! We never learned this much when we tried at Torahiko’s place.”

Shin raised an eyebrow at that. He knew Torahiko knew how to cook, but had no idea that the three approached him first. “I’m sure I’ll regret asking this, but what happened?”

“Well,” Kounosuke dragged out the ‘l’, looking sheepish. “We asked him to teach us how to make okonomiyaki. He told us to just try making one immediately.”

“Just like that?” Shin was not surprised. Annoyed, yes, but not surprised. He had heard tales from Kouya about Torahiko’s teaching methods from last summer.

Juuichi folded his arms, looking a little annoyed. “We told him we had no idea how to make one, but Tora insisted that anyone could make one. So we did.”

“Well, one thing lead to another,” Tatsuki continued. “Next thing I know, Juuichi knocked out Torahiko again.”

“H-he was being rude!” Juuichi blurted out, sounding less confident than before. “H-he should’ve known better than that.” At this the bear started mumbling to himself, though Shin swore he heard the words “sausage” and “eat”.

“Anyway,” Kounosuke cut in, “we continued what we were making. Tatsuki was convinced that the fish and meat need to be pounded thoroughly, Juuichi was in charge of preparing the okonomiyaki batter and I wanted to see how many we could make in 15 minutes so I set the heat to ‘High’.”

Shin stared in disbelief. Perhaps the bear had seen the appalled look on his face and took mercy on him, because he stopped Kounosuke from saying more. “I’ll spare you the details, Kuroi. Suffice to say, it failed, and Tora’s father banned us from setting foot in their kitchen for life.” The bear was flushed in embarrassment.

“Did Torahiko ever say how they cleaned it all up?” Tatsuki asked, looking at Kounosuke.

The tanuki nodded. “Yeah, he shouted at me over the phone for hours about that. He told me it took half the day and a pressure hose.” The tanuki suddenly looked guilty. “He also got grounded for three months.”

Shin just shook his head and groaned.

---

Ever since hearing the story, Shin had his students double-check what they were doing. Juuichi poured the cake mix into the pan, looking fine and without any lumps. Kounosuke, under Shin’s watchful eye, set the oven correctly. While the cake was baking, Shin served them some iced tea and they talked about various things that happened to them.

While they were talking, Shin had been pondering about Juuichi’s motivation for learning how to bake. Or rather, the person the bear would bake something for. It wasn’t that he had anything against Torahiko, but Shin just couldn’t understand how anything romantic could develop out of that dynamic. ‘Juuichi-san, I wonder…why do you like Torahiko-san? ’

“What do you mean by that?” Juuichi was staring at the cat, not angry or anything, but merely confused.

Shin blinked. He hadn’t realized he’d spoken out loud. Meeting the bear’s eyes, Shin decided to be honest. “What I meant is that I have trouble understanding how you could view Torahiko-san as a romantic interest.” From the corner of his eye, the cat caught Tatsuki steering Kounosuke away from him and Juuichi to the far side of the room (Shin knew that the dragon was more tactful than most people would give him credit for). “Your usual interaction with Torahiko-san involves you reprimanding him for his rudeness, usually with violence. If all he ever gives you is frustration, then I fail to see how a relationship could work out between you two.”

Juuichi looked at him in silence. As the silence grew, Shin was starting to feel fidgety (not that he’d ever show it outwardly, of course). Usually, the cat knew he could be as blunt as he liked with the bear and he wouldn’t take offense; Juuichi’s maturity ensured that he could see the point of Shin’s words. But in this case, Shin felt that maybe he should’ve picked his words with care.

The cat was starting to try and come up with an apology when Juuichi smiled wryly at him. “You’re worried about my feelings, aren’t you?”
Shin flushed and coughed. Before he could make a remark, the bear held up a hand and continued.

“I can understand what you’re saying, Kuroi. Tora does irritate me with his obnoxious behavior at times. But,” Juuichi frowned, and Shin thought he was struggling with his words. “Tora’s…well, I think he’s…cute. His eyes, they’re really blue. Like the sky.”

Shin was still trying to wrap his head around the idea that Juuichi used the word ‘cute’, much less apply it to someone like Torahiko. It was almost…surreal. Deciding he’d rather not think about that for now lest he break his brain, Shin focused on a different angle of their discussion. “However, Juuichi-san, what you have mentioned are merely physical traits. I highly doubt that’s enough reason for you to like him. And I’m aware you’re much more mature than to decide to like anyone based on their appearance.”

Here, the bear crossed his arms and Shin could see a small smile (something that could be best described as…sweet) form on the bear’s expression. “I see your point, but it’s more than that. Tora’s…warm…and bright. He has this spark in him that comes from how he enjoys life so much. And just being near him makes me see how good life is after all.” The bear coughed, and Shin could tell from the blush on the bear’s cheeks that he was embarrassed to say this much. Juuichi met his eyes and added, “And I want to protect that light.”

Seeing the determination in the bear’s eyes, Shin nodded and offered the bear his own smile. “I understand. Then, I shall hope the best for you.”

When Juuichi ruffled the top of his head, Shin huffed and went to talk to Kounosuke and Tatsuki. He’d never admit it, but he did like those brotherly gestures the bear made. Well, if Torahiko made Juuichi happy, then the least the cat could do was give Juuichi his support. As well as make him learn how to bake tasty cakes.

---

The cake was finished baking. Thankfully, nothing caught on fire. Not even a faint smell of burning, which Shin had resigned himself to. And the cake itself? Tatsuki helped spread the icing all over it, though in Shin’s opinion it looked more like a blind man tried throwing the icing at it from across the kitchen instead of using a spatula. The cake had sunk a little bit in the middle, but Shin thought it was pretty good for beginners.

“Looks awesome!” Tatsuki grinned.

Juuichi frowned at the cake. “I think we could’ve done better, Tatsu-san.”

The dragon chuckled good-naturedly at that. “Don’t worry about it, you’ll just have to practice some more to bake that cake for Torahiko, right?”

For a moment, Shin thought that Juuichi would get angry again, but the bear just sighed in resignation and gave the dragon a small smile. “I suppose you’re correct.”

Kounosuke was smiling as well. “And we owe it all to Shin here!”

Shin huffed, turning his back on the three. “It’s nothing. You wished to learn, so I merely taught you accordingly.” The cat nearly yelped when he felt a large scaly arm wrap itself around his shoulders.

“So modest, Shin!” Tatsuki grinned at him. “But that’s why we all like you, even if you are kind of a prick at times.”

Shin coughed, feeling blood rush through his ears and cheeks. “L-let’s just eat the cake!”