Cooking Adventures
Ami and Makoto
Well, this wasn’t how Ami had envisioned her weekend going. Makoto had invited her over for a cooking lesson. They had gone to the market and as they were walking back to Mako’s apartment, arms full with ingredients required to make Mako-chans amazing curry and fried pork cutlet, they had run into a couple youma. Ever since the defeat of Galaxia, there was a huge reduction in the number of youma around, but they still ran into one from time to time. So far, there hadn’t been anything major, or anything they hadn’t been able to easy handle. However, they couldn’t figure out where the youma were coming from, despite the number of scans she ran or analyzed.
Sailor Mercury watched from the side as she ran another scan, Jupiter easily keeping the youma busy. The monsters were never all that strong; any of the senshi could take care of them individually. Mercury always felt safer when she was with Jupiter though, like nothing would ever be able to harm her as long as her friend was there. She felt her cheeks warm at the thought. She couldn’t understand why she felt this way, but she did.
“Hey Mercury, you done or do you need me to toy with them some more?” Jupiter called, easily dodging the attack from one of the youma.
“Ahh, sorry.” She brought her attention back to her visor and the Mercury computer, feeling the blush from moments before deepen. Her computer was blinking at her, indicating that it had completed the scans.
I wonder how long it’s been finished. She had been too lost in her thoughts and hadn’t been paying attention.
“You’re good, the scan’s finished.” Her blush deepened even further when Jupiter flashed her a smile before destroying the youma. Gods, she had to be positively red all by now! They quickly slipped back into the bush where they had stashed their bags and transformed when they ran into the youma. Returning to their civilian forms, they made their way back to Makoto’s apartment.
“Did you get anything new from the scan?” Mako asked as they unpacked the groceries.
“Not that I could see while it was scanning. Let’s see if anything shows up when I add it to the rest of the data on the super computer later.” She could enter the scan data now and have it run a scan while Mako-chan was trying to teach her how to cook. It would take some time to enter the data and set the scan up, and she knew Makoto wouldn’t mind waiting, but oddly enough Ami found herself reluctant to do so.
“Alright,” Makoto said, pulling out a vegetable peeler from a nearby drawer and handing it to Ami. “First we need to wash, peel and chop the potatoes and carrots.” They worked together for the rest of the afternoon as Makoto slowly walked Ami through every step. The last time that Mako had given her friend a recipe written on a piece of paper, Ami had called her begging her to come over and help. When Makoto arrived, Ami’s hair had been turned white with flour. The cookies had been partially burnt and as hard as rocks. They’d discovered that as long as Makoto showed her how to do the recipe once, Ami was generally fine on her own.
“So once you’ve put the pork cutlet into the flour, dip it into the egg wash and then into the bowl with panko. Once that’s done, put it on the plate at the end till you’ve done all of them.” She waited and watched as Ami completed her task before continuing. “The best way to tell if the oil is ready is to put your chopsticks in the oil. If bubbles begin to come off the chopstick, you’re at the right temperature. Be sure to carefully put the pork in so it doesn’t splash back. Oh and only two at a time with this pot size. You don’t want to overcrowd it!”
“When is it ready to take out?” Ami asked, intently watching the meat fry.
“The meat will turn a golden brown and start to flat a bit. It’s good to touch the meat as little as possible while it’s cooking so the juices get locked in.” Makoto gathered the dirty dishes and began to wash them. She kept an eye on Ami as she carefully took the meat out of the oil and put it on the paper towels Mako had left out earlier.
They quickly put some rice on a plate and filled it with the pork cutlet and the vegetable curry they had made. As they ate, they joked around and caught up with what had been happening since the last time they had been able to hang out. Deciding to watch a movie, they moved to the living room, leaving the dishes to do later. Ami found herself pressing closer to her friend during the scary bits. She blushed when Makoto wrapped her arm around the smaller woman’s shoulder, drawing her closer. They spent the rest of the evening curled up together on the couch watching scary movies.
The End