Work Text:
“What are you doing?”
“None of your business”
“It is my business if it involves you holding and using a knife.”
“It's not like I don't handle these everyday-”
“Yeah, on the job , not on the kitchen.”
And Rei has the audacity to turn his head and tsk, Kazuki swears he has to physically grab his hands so that he doesn't kill the man. So instead, Kazuki just sighs and walks over to where he found Rei trying to- he looks down at the cutting board, and squints, hard.
His eyes wander around the kitchen counter, landing on the half made bento box stationed in the middle of the cutting board. A riceball to the side barely holding itself together with a few ginger strips sprinkled on top, two black olives next to each other just under the ginger and a wonky line of ketchup made to look like smiling lips... very big smiling lips. Lettuce leaves lined the bottom of the container and some... sausage things laid on top of it... Kazuki noticed that Rei was in the middle of trying to cut the sausages into little octopus for the bento. "Is that... Supposed to be Miri?"
Rei further turned his head, but Kazuki could see the tip of his ears turning red. He just laughed in response. He could hear the pitter patter of Miri's feet running around the second floor gathering her things for school. He bites his lip and looks around to try and see what he could salvage out of the wreck Rei made. "I..." His head snapped to where Rei still had his head turned, knife now abandoned in the counter in order to have him gripping the counter, "Miri said that I couldn't do a bento like you..." he coughed, "Um, I wanted to prove her wrong..."
"Right..." Kazuki smiled, even if he knew that Rei wasn't telling the whole truth, it was still a start, way more than how he was before Miri came into their lives; A something was a something and Kazuki was a fool if he was to start walking back on their progress. "Here, let me help-" Rei turned his head with a frown, "And- it's not cheating since I'm using what you already did, and am merely instructing you..." He grabbed the knife and one of the few sausages left, sidestepping closer to Rei so that he could see what he was doing.
"Okay..." He heard Rei's voice near his ear, a warm heavy presence by his shoulder and a tuff of black hair on his peripheral vision was all that he needed to start carefully cutting the sausages in a way to make do with what Rei had done, instructing him as he did. He put the finishing touches by making two sesame seeds the eyes, he held the little octopus on his hands towards Rei, "Ta-dah... A little octopus. Now your turn."
He handed the knife to Rei, guiding him by his elbows to stand in front of the cutting board, now being the one to stand behind the man and watch him work. Rei worked with deft fingers, more unstable then not and Kazuki winced internally when Rei barely missed his finger and almost cut the sausage in half. Rei huffed, and Kazuki thought that he looked like a grumpy cat at that moment.
"Here" Kazuki snuck his arms around Rei's, grabbing his hands with his own, a little awkward positioning considering Rei's arms and how he seemed to freeze when Kazuki moved, but he tried to make himself more comfortable by slotting his head on Rei's shoulders. He gripped his hands and started moving, Rei's hands somehow were entirely more stable now and with Kazuki's directioning they slowly reshaped the little sausage into a little octopus and when they were done Kazuki laughed and gripped Rei's shoulder, "Great! Now for the finishing touches..."
Rei slowly positioned the sesame seeds for the eyes, and just stopped to look at the little funny shaped octopus on the cutting board. Patting feet were heard coming down the stairs, and both men turned their head towards the very energetic child running down the stairs.
"Miri! Be more careful, no running down the stairs!" Kazuki berated, Miri stopping just by the last step bobbing up and down, all ready for school and waving a slip in her hand.
"Miri forgot!" She said, a little frown in her adorable face, Kazuki cooed, "Me and some of the girls decided to meet up earlier today to talk about-" Miri suddenly stopped, and put her hands behind her body, kicking the floor with one feet, "Papa Kazuki, please take Miri early today..." She pouted her lips and looked towards him with big bearly eyes.
Kazuki tried really hard to not just immediately say yes towards her, his hands unconsciously gripping Rei's shoulder tighter, before just giving up and shaking his head, "Do you have everything ready?" Miri smiled and nodded, jumping up and down at the imminent yes. Kazuki turned towards Rei, "Pack the bento, I'm going to get ready to take her." Rei turned his head towards him, looking him in the eye, before nodding once and turning to finish the bento.
He stopped the bike just by the daycare gates, steadying the bike and hopping off to unbuckle Miri, whom he noticed was giggling and clutching a bento close to her chest.
"Miri! You could've dropped that, put it in your bag."
"But Papa Rei made it just for me, I want to show my friends" She pouted, and Kazuki's heart did little backflips both because awwww Miri's so adorable and what about when I do her bento? "Papa Rei said that he did it aallll alone and that he's a thousand percent sure it's better then yours!!" She giggled and Kazuki's smile froze, a vein popping in his forehead.
"Did he now..." he shook his head, "I can see your friends waiting for you, you should go" Miri hugged him and went past the gates, never looking back towards him. He waited until she entered the daycare to hop back on the bike and cycled home, going through the market just to get some things. I should teach Rei how to properly do a bento, if I'm ever not available... He tensed his jaw.
"I'm home," He opened the door, groceries bags in hand, "Rei get out of the PS5 and help me put this away please- we should also go visit Kyuu-Chan for a job today and make fit before the end of the week comes and-" He froze when he walked into the open section, Rei standing there with a Bento in hand, looking at him and... presenting the bento to him, "whaaat is happening..?"
"I made a bento..." he made a bento "for you" for Kazuki, "I hope you like it" for Kazuki.
Kazuki blinked, once, twice, then deposited the bags in the floor and took the bento from Rei's outstretched hands. the bento was closed, wrapped in a blue cloth with white dotted patterns. "huh... thank you" He looked up, Rei awkwardly shuffling in place, "um, do you want me to eat it now?" Rei just looked away, which was enough of an answer for him, knowing the man for as many years as he has now.
He walked over to the table and sat down in his respective seat, Rei right in tow and just waiting for a reaction from Kazuki, the latter who carefully unwrapped and opened the bento. Two orinigis with cat faces placed next to egg rolls and small cherry tomatoes placed around, it wasn't prefect but... Kazuki looked up, Rei was starring intently at the table, as it if he willed it enough it would start a fire at the tiny spot.
He placed his hands together, "Thank you for the food" and took the chopsticks in his hands. One bite of the onigiri, it was bland, definitely should've added more vinegar, and the egg roll could do with more shoyou... But it was good. Kazuki hummed, Rei's head snapped up towards him eliciting a laugh from Kazuki. He gulped the last of his bite, and nodded, "You're not as bad as a cook as you make yourself out to be" he laughed at how Rei's ears got a slight color to them, "You should help me more sometimes, then I can properly teach you how to season somethings, he idly picked on the egg roll with the chopsticks, "How about it, wanna start cooking with me?" Kazuki leaned his chin on a hand, smiling.
Rei's eyes searched all over Kazuki's face for something, ending on his eyes and dragging out something akin to a starring competition, before giving up and looking to the side, "Yeah, I would like that."
Kazuki laughed and went back to eating the rest of the bento, "Good good," He ate more of it, "me too."
It was a good day outside, the sky was blue and cloudless and the sun was shining. The atmosphere was calming and good and Kazuki had no complaints for anything, groceries long forgotten on the floor.
"Ten thousand percent huh" Kazuki sneered.
Rei frowned, "What"