12DoD #4: Natsuki Stays The Night and More

"Anon are you sure about this? This place seems expensive..." Natsuki says as I park my car in front of the restaurant that we're having dinner at tonight. It's a nice place called the King's Isle that I like to eat at when I celebrate things.

"Natsuki it's fine. The place isn't that expensive really, and even if it was I'd still pay for whatever you wanted." I state plainly. It really is true, even if she can be difficult sometimes I would still do anything for Natsuki.

"A-all right. Are you sure I won't stand out in this outfit? I feel like it's too cutesy." Nastuki plays with the hem of her her dress which is adorned with some tasteful pink frills.

"Well do you like the dress?" I ask

"Of course I do! I bought it! Why would I buy something I think looks bad?" Natsuki pouts

"Well you like it and so do I, and that all that matter." I say as I open my door and begin to step out. Turning back I look at Natsuki
"Now let's get in there so I can show those people how cute my girlfriend is!"

A blush adorns her small cheeks as Natsuki gives a affirmative nod and also exits from the passenger side. Taking her by the arm I lead the way into the restaurant and are then led to our seats. The waiter brings us water and luxury bread sticks soon after sitting. Natsuki takes a bite of one of the bread sticks and looks at me.

"This bread is delicious, I wonder if they use any special techniques to bake it..." Natsuki trails off into thoughts presumably about bread dough, thrilling.

"Have you ever tried baking bread Natsuki? I know you usually do sweets but it's the same concept right?" I've never heard her talk about making bread before so I'm curious about if she's been practicing in secret.

Natsuki's face lights up at the chance to get to tell me about baking, "Well I've been reading up on it recently and I'd like to try there's all kind of ways that different countries have and..." Natsuki continues to inform me about bread and the many ways to prepare it until the waiter returns for our orders.

Both of us realize that we were so busy talking about bread that we forgot to look at the menu, and I can see Natsuki's eyes scanning through it very fast. Since I've been here before I decide to buy her some time and give my order first. It's the same thing I got last time I came here, but I enjoyed it before so I don't mind. As the waiter turns his gaze over to Natsuki I see that she's still looking at the menu. Under the pressure to decide, she points at whatever she was looking at when the waiter turned. The waiter leaves with our orders and we're left in silence, Natsuki seems slightly upset.

"Anon I know you said you'd buy anything I ordered...but I got the first thing I saw and it happened to be a 25 dollar steak." Natsuki nervously says like she expects me to be mad.

"Natsuki it's fine as long as you like the food." I say, but part of me wonders how a small girl like her will be able to eat what must be a large steak.

Relieved that I'm not upset Natsuki moves onto a ramble, "And anyways what was that waiters problem? I'm trying to look at my menu and he's just staring at me like he expects me to know what I want! Can you believe it?"

"Well sweetheart we did have several minutes to look at the menu." I place my chin on my hand and give her a sarcastic smile.

"Well what does he expect us to not talk when we're on a date? I'm not going to sit here and look at a menu when I could look at the guy I love!" Natsuki's face grows red when she realizes what she let slip in public before glancing around at the other customers, who of course didn't hear and don't care. Nonetheless Natsuki still tries to cover for herself, "I-I-I-I meant to say that...um." she seems to have drawn a blank.

"I love you too Natsuki." It's not the first time we've exchanged 'I love you's but, but the chance to do it anywhere but in my house is rare. Before she can reply I see our food coming behind her. "Oh here's our food, I hope you'll like it sweetie." If Natsuki has any complaints about the last 2 things I've said to her(she does) then she doesn't vocalize it in front of the waiter.

Both of our dishes look amazing, and Natsuki seems to forget any problems she had with my PDA as her mouth waters immediately upon seeing a jumbo stake placed in front of her. I watch her tear into it like a predator and I'm almost too intrigued to start eating my own food. Well almost, this stuff is too good to let get cold. The rest of the dinner passes mostly without talking but not in silence, as the sound of Natsuki devouring her steak is constant. We both finish our food at about the same time which is impressive considering how much more Natsuki had to eat than me. She leans back in her chair and pats her stomach.

"That was pretty good." she says matter of factly.

Something tells me that's not what she wants to say but I don't bring it up, I'm full too. I pay the bill as much as it pains me and we both leave the restaurant to find that snowflakes are falling. I watch Natsuki catch one on her tongue and smile at how cute she is. When we get back into the car I set the radio to the weather to see what we should expect from the snow. The man reading seems to be mid sentence when I turn it on.

"-snow we're getting tonight is expected to be at least 4-7 inches by the morning."

I feel Natsuki tug on my sleeve and look at her to see pleading eyes.

"Anon could I stay at your house tonight? I don't want to make you drive any more than you have to in the snow."

"Well my parents aren't home but I'm sure they won't mind, so sure!" I happily accept her proposal. Any more time I get to spend with Natsuki is good in my mind.

On the drive home I can already see the snow beginning to stick everywhere, and by the time we pull up to my house there's already what looks like 2 inches everywhere. Natsuki and I hurry into the house to escape the cold. When we get inside I turn to her and see that the heavy snowfall has put several snowflakes on top of her head. I reach over to brush them out off of her and she flinches for a moment, but as I make contact she graciously accepts the contact.

"Are you cold? That dress really doesn't suit the temperature, I could make us some hot cocoa if you want." I propose

"You think I'm going to just drink your hot cocoa? You probably use premade mix and water!" Natsuki puts her hands on her hips confidantly. "I make the best hot cocoa in the world!"

"Really? Let's make it a competition then, I drink hot cocoa made by you and you drink hot cocoa made by me. That way we can judge the other person's"

"All right, but don't expect me to go easy on you just because you're a novice!"

Little does she know my parents both taught me how to make hot cocoa as soon as I could use a stove, we practically have a family recipe nobody knows but the 3 of us.

"You're on!" I confidently say.

We both walk to the kitchen and I could swear I hear Natsuki say something under he breath when she sees it. It sounds like "I love the beach" but that doesn't make any sense so I must have simply misheard.
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Both of us set up our halves of the kitchen, with enough ingredients on both sides to make a cup of cocoa. On the count of 3 we both start preparing. I immediately set a pan of milk on the stove at a low broil, then begin mixing the cocoa powder with sugar and a pinch of salt. Looking at my peripheral I see Natsuki doing the same, but she's seems to be adding a ridiculous amount of sugar to her mix. I try to take my focus off of her and back to my own creation, because now comes the special part. I pull out some dark chocolate and add  a couple pieces to the steaming milk, then turn up the heat. Once that's done I simply wait while mixing the dark chocolate in until the milk is not enough and mix it with the cocoa the standard hot chocolate way. But that's not the end of the Emous family's secret recipe. Taking a knife and a vanilla bean I slit it along the length and place it into the stirred hot chocolate for a good minutes, then stir and dispose of the bean.

"All right Natsuki I'm done!" I announce as I turn around expecting to see her back to me still preparing, but she's leaning on the counter in the center of the kitchen with a smug smile and a mug of cocoa full of marshmallows.

"I've been done for a few minutes you know." she says with a larger smirk. "I just wanted to see how long it would take you to do your thing, a vanilla bean is an odd choice but I can respect not just using the extract."

I silently place my cup of cocoa on the counter and push it towards Natsuki, who does the same in return. Taking a closer look at this cocoa it seems...familiar? I wrack my brain trying to think of where I've seen this before when I realize. Parfait girls volume 5! They had a cocoa off just like this in that volume, it had a really important character arc with the main girl learning that sometimes she can't win competitions.

"Are you just going to stare at the cup or are you gonna drink?" Natsuki snaps me out of my thoughts and I pick up the cup.

We both take our first sips at once and the first thing I notice is now sweet this is. The second thing I notice is that this is a really, REALLY sweet drink, to the point that it's all you can taste. This is what I should have expected, but it's not to my taste, the Emous family likes to taste same bitter chocolate in their cocoa. I can probably already guess her reaction, but I put down my cup and look at Natsuki to see her recoiling slightly from the drink I gave her.

"You don't like it do you?" I ask, knowing the answer.

"It's not bad or anything...it's just not to my taste!" Natsuki clearly tries to convey that she hates the flavor without hurting my feeling.

"Well, you're is good if you really like sweet flavors but sometimes it's nice to have others y'know." I shrug

"What's that supposed to mean!? You think my cocoa is bad?" Natsuki seems taken aback.

Before this can escalate to a fight over some cocoa I take matters into my own hands. I lean over the counter quickly and pull Natsuki into a kiss. She tastes just like my cocoa, bitter with a hint of sweet, and I imagine she's getting the taste of tons of sugar from me.

"Was that sweet enough for you?" I ask as I pull back from the kiss.

"Y-yes..but at least give me a warning next time!"

I chuckle as I take the cocoa that she sampled and have myself a sip, it's perfect.

"I guess this is a lesson that not everyone has the same tastes or something. Kind of like a kids show really." I say as I take another sip.

Natsuki laughs."More like a lesson on how you have shit taste in flavors!"

We banter back and forth for a while from across the counter until we've both emptied our cups. Then Natsuki lets out a cute yawn.

"Do you want to go to sleep? I can sleep on the couch and you can sleep in my bed if you want."

"I want to sleep in your bed with you. It'll be warmer that way!" Natsuki tries to rationalize her decision but I know she just wants to cuddle.

"If you want. But you shouldn't sleep in that dress. I'll try to find some of my clothes for you." saying this I head up to my room with Natsuki following and begin to search my drawers for some clothes. I find an old shirt and a pair of shorts from when I was a kid, and hand them to her.

"These might be a bit big but it shouldn't fall off you too easy, just tie the shorts tight."

Natsuki nods and I leave the room to let her change.

"Ok Anon I'm done! You can come in!" she calls from inside and I open the door.

She looks adorable with my shirt so loose on her, it hangs low enough on her that you can barely see the shirts at all.

"Stop staring at me you pervert I wanna sleep." Natsuki pouts.

Grinning, I decide to grant her wish and turn of the lights before rushing her and manhandling her small body into the air and onto the bed as the little spoon.

"Goodnight sweet pea, I love you." I whisper into her ear, using the nickname I only ever use in our most private moments.

"I love you too" she says before her breathing slows and she falls asleep, then I follow suit.

~The Next Morning~

I wake up to strangely find to Natsuki in my arms, searching for where she went I rub my eyes as I finish coming down the stairs and enter the kitchen where she seems to have laid out some supplies.

"I wanna try something Anon, and since you proved yourself to be a decent enough cook last night you're going to help me!" Nastuki says with energy that I, as someone who woke up 2 minutes ago, do not have.

"Yay." I give a weak reply.

Natsuki lets out a grunt of disapproval but still begins to set things up.

"I'm going to be making a gingerbread house and I need you to pass me ingredients and maybe mix some stuff ok?" Natsuki looks up to me from the ingredients she's sorting.

I give a grunt of approval to her. I'm sure this will be a good way to wake up fully.

"Ok then, let's begin." Natsuki says as she mixes some ingredients together in a bowl.

I've never made a gingerbread anything before so I watch cluelessly as she goes through the steps following orders when given them and gradually becoming less sleepy. By the time the walls are finished I'm as sharp as ever and starting to pick up on how to mix the gingerbread to be solid without collapsing, however Natsuki still handles the mixing.

The house is almost complete when Natsuki decides that she also wants to make some gingerbread men.

"How many are you going to make?" I ask.

"Just 2. It's all I need"

She uses a cookie cutter to cut out 2 gingerbread man shapes and bakes them along with the pieces to make the roof. When all of them are done we begin to assemble and decorate everything. Natsuki makes quick work of it, decking the gingerbread house out with cute designs and colors everywhere.

"Aaaaand done!" she exclaims as she puts frosting on the last corner.

"It looks really nice Natsuki." I say, the house is the usual shape but the decorations make it stand out. "Those gingerbread men look familiar though..." I say as I reach toward the one decorated with pink hair. "I think I'll eat this one first."

Natsuki's satisfied smile break and she yells, "ANON DON'T EAT ME YOU ASSHOLE!" while trying to reach the gingerbread now held above her head.

Taking the chance when she's looking at the gingerbread I lean down, taking care to place gingerbread Natsuki gently back in her spot and plant a kiss right on human flesh Natsuki's mouth.

"You did a really good job Natsuki. I'm proud of you!" I say as a blush takes over Natsuki's face from the praise.

"Y-you too." Natsuki holds me tight, like she never wants to let go, and I have no intentions of doing that.