Smells Like Family [Erica, Ranma]

Usually, Ranma wouldn’t leave the bed this early. Erica’s embrace and comfort was magnetic, too good to let go of if he couldn’t help it. But…

He saw the stars. He wasn’t able to tell exactly when the day would come, but his aunt and uncle would notice a certain arrangement of stars in the sky at night inviting the special day. Then, they’d begin preparing, and by dawn’s rising sun, Ranma’s nose would catch on to the distinct, strong scent of bakery…

The stars appeared tonight, too. That meant it was the day… but… fuck. He just kinda sat up on the bed, glaring straight forward without making a sound. Erica was still asleep next to him, so he’d let her continue to rest while slowly making his way to her mum’s kitchen.

…

“Oh no…” he exhaled in confusion, laying his eyes upon the scene – how many pancakes did he make? He’d eaten quite a few, too… but none of them tasted good. Not at all! What was this bullshit?! How’d his aunt make them?! He couldn’t… he couldn’t just ask her anymore. FUCK! He should’ve… he should’ve asked her…

Wearing the white apron over his Shihakushō wasn’t going to get him out of trouble. “Why’d I even try?! I never get these things right… no, no, no, no, I-I was- it was an attempt, I can still try again… I-I didn’t make that many? No, wait, maybe Snuggles can help me eat them all…”

Snuggles couldn’t help but raise his head and ears when mentioned, visibly not really wanting to deal with the piles of pancakes in the kitchen. Where’d he even find the amount of recipes needed for this? His hands worked in mysterious ways, sometimes…

“Uhm… E-Ericaaaaaa? Ericaaaaaa… I, uh… I did an oopsie…”

Soon enough, the sounds of soft footsteps could be heard as the healer entered the kitchen. She didn’t look quite with it yet which wasn’t all that far from the truth. The pink haired woman had thought it was an emergency and so had gotten up without doing her makeup or anything like that. She looked and felt like the monster of a blue lagoon, with her eyes a little bleary. Still, Erica was able to muster up a smile for her boyfriend and wandered over to him, an eyebrow raising as she looked at all the pancakes.

“Mmm. Morning. What happened here?” It was obvious that she wasn’t quite with it yet and as she yawned, placing a hand over her mouth, she’d tilt her head to the side. “Are we having guests over for breakfast or something?”

As she spoke, Snuggles would approach and start rubbing himself around her ankles, causing her to giggle lightly and pick up the ginger beast. He started purring like mad, nestling up against her as the healer stroked him. “Good morning to you too, Snuggles.” The cat would respond in his own way, running his rough tongue against her cheek.

Oh lord, there she was… okay, hopefully she wouldn’t mind the mess. Ranma had stacked a lot of pancakes on top of each other over the counter in the kitchen, and some stacks almost touched the ceiling. It was a sight to behold for sleepy eyes, much more for eyes of a night creature like Snuggles – Ranma hadn’t yet gotten used to the zoomies, so Snuggles was as awake as a cat could be.

And his eyes were filled with marvel at the sight… or maybe, it was the scent of dairy products.

Poor Erica hadn’t had time to get ready at all before meeting the sight, so Ranma knew he had to explain this… really, really, really well. Twiddling his indices, moving his eyes around the kitchen, then finally fixating them on his girlfriend… he took a deep breath and elaborated: “N-No, we’re not… I was-“

Now, now… no panicking. Erica wasn’t one to get angry at him for his… say, impulses. He was enigmatic by nature, as much as he hoped to deny it himself. A spice of life.

“I saw the stars, there’s… uhm, oh, the sun’s already up, b-but earlier last night – I saw the Plough stars… here, lemme show you,” he tried his best to explain his predicament, looking around for something to draw on. Ultimately, he grabbed one of the tasteless pancakes and simply poked seven holes in it, forming the constellation that he was talking about.


“I saw these stars last night, so… Auntie used to bake me pancakes the following day. Problem is, I can’t get the recipe right – these pancakes don’t taste like anything!” He’d demonstrate by actually taking a bite out of a random pancake, almost feeling the need to spit it out – waste of flour, eggs and milk! “I should’ve asked her for the recipe when I had the chance! Fuuuuuuuu-“

Snuggles was trying to claw for one of the pancakes and ended up pawing his face, sort of indirectly telling him to quiet down – it was still morning. “Sorryyyyy… I’ve tried this year after year, but some things Auntie could just do. Like, magically and shit.”

Funny… this was the first time he ever brought up Auntie to anyone in the Gotei. As far as he was concerned, he never disclosed his Rukongai roots to anyone back in Squad 8, although his very demeanor and attitude often made people guess. Just not something he was particularly proud of, but… he’d discussed his past a little bit with Erica. She knew how he got his mouth scars, but… not much else.

“I was considering asking for help, but… y-you know, it’s like a family custom. It’s supposed to be special, just for us. Every time we saw those Plough stars.”

Ranma wasn't exactly at 100% capacity either, since he'd also skipped a few hours of sleep to do this.

As she listened to Ranma explain the situation, Erica would curiously take a piece of one of the pancakes and place it in her mouth. The expression that crossed her features was priceless and while she did her best not to upset her boyfriend, eventually she had to cough and spit out the piece into the bin. Having to take a sip of water, she’d then walk back to her boyfriend, putting down the struggling Snuggles who’d had enough hugs for the moment. “I’m sure she’d be proud that you tried to keep the tradition going…even if it hasn’t turned out as well as you hoped.”

Wanting to look on the bright side of things, she’d smile and after a few moments of thought replied. “I haven’t made pancakes for a while but how about we make some together and keep the spirit of it all going? I’m sure your Aunt would appreciate the thought and I’d like the chance to do something other than spar with you. Besides, you’re a member of my family now, we should start a tradition or two of our own.” Her tone was as sweet as sugar.

Snuggles seemed to approve, as he jumped up onto the table and started to purr loudly before the pair. Maybe he wanted to help too?

Such sparkly eyes shimmered at Erica’s suggestion, beaming as always with optimism and encouragement. It sounded like a tradition that she wanted to integrate into the Tolvan family too – and he was one of them now… that resonated deeply within him. Made his heart ring like hitting an small iron bell.

“We can make pancakes together, then! Uh, just gotta clean up here- you can go get ready, I just need a few minutes…“ he decided, quickly ridding the kitchen desks of all the tasteless, rude pancakes- good lord, he tried so many times… but a helping hand couldn’t hurt that much. Besides, it was a helping hand from family! His aunt wouldn’t mind that one bit…

After his work was done, the kitchen was clean – now, on the desk was a bowl, and next to it were the recipes he had memorized – seemed that the family had access to flour, salt, milk, and butter. And… uh, the flour did what, again? Something, something, dusty, making it puffy- and the salt gave it flavor, if he remembered correctly.

The milk and butter was supposed to make the pancakes moist, but they ended up tasting slimy instead. It was clear that he was missing two crucial elements – the most obvious being sugar, the next-most obvious being what actually added puffiness to the batter, baking powder… and egg. The egghead missed an egg – oh the irony.

“…” Ranma’s brain was churning something up, trying to think if he’d missed anything, “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-and I’m kinda lost on this part. I got all the recipes, but… maybe not in the right order? Should the salt in there first?”

Snuggles, ever vigilant to lend a paw, slowly pushed the salt container away from Ranma’s approaching hand. “… Oooooooooooookay, Snuggles, I get that you wanna help, but it’s not like you know how to bake pancakes.”

Snuggles replied by pushing the flour over to him first, getting his paw a little dusted up. “… I’m… I’m not losing in the baking game to a feline, am I?” Ranma asked, his voice revealing a tint of actual uncertainty. Was he that lost?

“He thinks he’s so clever.” Erica would reply, picking up the cat and moving him slightly so that the two Shinigami had space to work with. “If you behave then you can have one but if you trip one of us up or cause trouble then it’s a no.” Her tone was friendly enough but the warning was still enough that the cat would move to a safe spot, watching the fun with a purr. It did seem as though he was almost human in the way he could understand things. He didn’t even appear upset, the thought of pancakes enough for him to simply do as she asked.

Returning to Ranma, she’d then say, glancing at the ingredients. “It’s pretty easy if I remember right but it’s been some time as I said. I think what we need to do first is handle the dry ingredients first and then deal with the wet stuff. How about we start with the flour? We’ll need about a cup and a half of it, so if you measure it out, I’ll sift it into the bowl and we can go from there.” She hoped it would turn out alright but part of the fun was cooking was just having a go and seeing what happened.

With Snuggles drawn away from the kitchen desk, Ranma and Erica could focus on the task at hand – breakfast! Breakfast pancakes! A favorite of his, but a rare occurrence due to the whole star thing… but he was happy that his aunt and uncle remembered what the sky looked like the night they took him in. Pancakes were on the line that night.

Erica suggested they start with the dry ingredients, so flour would be dumped down the bowl first! A cup and a half… Ranma wasn’t really good with just pouring it directly down the bowl, letting his gut feeling tell him when to stop – no no no, Erica was right next to him, so this had to be top-notch. He actually picked up one of their cups and poured flour down its space, until the cup had been filled… and then he filled up half of another cup. Perfect!

Slid towards Erica’s side were two cups filled with flour, one only filled up half. His sheepish, scarred smile portrayed a sense of pride and accomplishment from measuring the amounts correctly, even if… even if there was likely an actual measuring cup available nearby. “… Is it a Rukongai tradition? Pancakes and all?”

“I’m not sure to be honest but it’s not something we eat here all that often. Mum is always busy and with me at the hospital all the time, we just conjure up whatever we can think of.” Erica replied with a small smile. “I’ll admit though that she always comes up with something nice for my birthday though. She made a lovely chocolate cake for me last year and I couldn’t stop eating it. Dad loves chocolate too.”

As she started to sift the flour into the bowl, almost as if she was figuring out medicine to give a patient, the healer would chuckle. “I’ll be honest with you. My first time making pancakes wasn’t a success either. I overdid it just a bit and ended up burning them. There was me sitting in the middle of the kitchen, with a big grin on my face, eating something that looked like charcoal.”

While sifting, she’d glance at the recipe besides them, before smiling at her boyfriend. “I’ll need 3 and a half teaspoons of baking powder next. Just pop them in the sieve and I’ll do them and the flour together.”

I mean… it left food for thought. Why pancakes, exactly? Maybe Auntie just really loved pancakes… but Erica then mentioned her birthday, which caused Ranma’s eye to stretch towards its very corner to pay extra close attention. Chocolate cake?! Now that made his mouth water a little- wait, no, not near the kitchen desk, that was bad manners…

Collecting himself immediately, he simply made sure to remember that – Erica and her parents loved chocolate. Should be a blast when her birthday came up… wait, when was her birthday? Dude barely even knew his own, despite the obvious implications of his Auntie’s tradition with these pancakes. And it wasn’t like his actual parents ever told him…

…

Fuck that, maybe. “Damn… like biting down raw pepper, right? I speak from experience,” he commented with a pointy nose, remembering the few times his ‘mistake’ was overbaking the pancakes and ending up with pitch-black flour buns. “Say… when exactly is your bir- oh, baking powder, on the way!”

3 and a half teaspoons… Ranma had to be more precise this time. Cups wouldn’t do – he’d need an actual teaspoon… check. With the teaspoon in his hand, he’d simply pick up and count out loud to not lose track, since they just needed 3 and a half teaspoons… why was he counting out loud?!

“One… two… three! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand a half ya go,” he declared upon fulfilling his side quest, “Okay… so that was baking powder… huh… that’s new. What’s that for, again?” Letting his curiosity get the better of him, he picked up the container and took a sniff… smelled like nothing, really.

“Ooooooooooh, maybe this was what I was missing! The missing link! Solid advice, Erica – what would I do without you~?”

“It helps with the texture.” The healer replied, continuing to sift the flour and the baking flour too once he brought it to her. It wasn’t all that hard and soon enough the bowl would begin to fill up with the finely powdered ingredients. There was more to be done of course but Erica didn’t rush it, hoping that her boyfriend would keep an eye on what she was doing in case he wanted to make his own one day.. “None of the ingredients are hard to find or anything and I guess that’s what makes the pancakes so nice, I hope. Simple but tasty.”

With a giggle, she’d then answer his previous question. “My birthday is the 14th of February. Makes sense for me, right? Mum always said that’s why I’m always so sweet but I think she’s just trying to embarrass me. What about you? When’s yours?”

As she continued to sift, she’d perk up after a little bit. “A tablespoon of sugar now please. We’re almost done with this first bit. Just need that and then a tiny bit of salt afterwards. We can get to the fun part afterwards.”