Chapter Text
"Sorry, I'm late!" Mei Mei appears at the door, clearly in a hurry to join the session.
"I am as well." A man's voice echoes. "I got lost somehow, sorry," Atsuya utters behind Mei Mei.
Mei Mei scans at everyone and sees Utahime, understanding passing between them. Utahime looks at Kyoko, a smile on her lips. "I can happily pair up with Mei Mei, Kyoko."
"Alright, if you really insist," Kyoko says, resigned.
Utahime beckons Mei Mei to stand beside her. She then pulls Mei Mei to her side, her eyes glinting as she faces Gojo, apron strings now tied, "Sorry, but I have a new partner now."
"Utahime, that's not nice at all! I'm looking forward to our partnership." Gojo says in a mock despair, shaking his head as he moves to the table behind Utahime and Mei Mei.
Gojo tries to busy himself looking at the tools in his station while eavesdropping at the ladies in front of him.
"Why are you late? I've been waiting for you for this pairing," Utahime whispers to Mei Mei.
Mei Mei, glancing at Atsuya, replies, "Sorry, just a minor...detour." She smiles.
"Argh! Atsuya, why do you have to ruin this for me!" Gojo groans, "I had the perfect partner already!" He sounds defeated.
Atsuya just stares at Gojo, "Huh?" clearly oblivious.
Kyoko instructs them to collect a list of items from the pantry. They take what they need and place it neatly in front of them at their tables. From under her workstation, she takes out an impressive-looking pastry that looks like profiteroles and is stacked like a pyramid.
"Here you can see what we aim to cook today, she announces, “a 'Croquembouche' from French that translates as 'crunch in the mouth'. This is a beautiful showstopper to impress your friends and family. Now we'll start with the butter and the flour."
A chorus of "Whoah!" resonates across the room. The crowd clearly is impressed with their instructor's creation.
She leads the class so that they're following alongside her step by step. It looks doable, but as Utahime stirs the mix vigorously, Gojo can't seem to keep his focus. Utahime is jiggling in all the right places, and he feels his blood heat to a rolling boil. He completely lost the thread on what Kyoko is saying. Gojo likes to say Atsuya is keeping them on the path, but he seems to be suffering similar issues.
They end up looking at the girls in front of them to instruct them in the ways of puff pastry. They look to be doing a good job, but Gojo and Atsuya's is starting to look lumpy and off-color. Gojo is pretty sure they lost their way about ten minutes ago when Utahime was wiping some mix off Mei Mei. It sure is a shame that Mei Mei got some mix at the top of her cleavage, but seeing Utahime take a damp cloth to clean the chest has Gojo's eyes watering.
At his worst, Utahime snaps a glance at Gojo. She catches him completely off guard. Her glance turns to a hard stare, "Can I help you, pervert?"
Gojo finds his mouth open. With a quick clearing of his throat, he replies, "Ah, yeah...Um... You know... I think I might have a smudge here as well." He points to his nipple.
"You're so disgusting!" She snears.
Rintaro speaks above the interruption, "Ok everyone, finally we have the moment of truth. Let's get your trays in the ovens and get cooking. Set your timers for 30 minutes.
"And let's get in on cleaning those stations. You should be leaving your station the way you found it." Kyoko adds.
At this, everyone slots their trays in the ovens. Gojo and Atsuya are in agreement that whatever comes out of their oven won't be safe for human consumption.
Everyone stays busy cleaning, collecting more ingredients, and reorganizing. The caramel is prepared for the next stage, but Gojo and Atsuya have completely lost interest in glazing their 'Frankenbouche'.
Lastly, they prepare the cream for piping into the puff pastry. Gojo and Atsuya have whipped a litre of cream, before waiting to hear the full instructions. Their whipped cream is apparently four times more than they should have.
The groups open their ovens to reveal the result of their bake. Utahime's looks exactly like Kyoko's which doesn't surprised Gojo at all.
Meanwhile, Gojo and Atsuya have an unexpected result. The puff pastries have spread into each other and created some kind of inflated pancake. Kyoko approaches their station with a quizzical expression. Utahime and Mei Mei have their hands up to their mouth, eyes squeezed tight in a fit of giggles over their invention. Rintaro tries hard not to burst out laughing.
Gojo and Atsuya pipe ample cream into their pancake with plenty to spare. Mei Mei turns to them, "So sorry, boys, but we've run out of cream and noticed you've loads left over. Can we borrow some?" She says with a flirty side glance. At this, Atsuya states, "Hmm, I don't know. It'll cost ya." Without much hesitation, Mei Mei skips over to Atsuya's side of the station and pecks his cheek, "There!" She says as she takes the cream. Atsuya is not capable of removing the smirk from his face.
Gojo glances at Utahime. She is already looking in Gojo's direction, clearly anticipating his next play, and she is not amused. "Well?" Gojo says, raising his eyebrows, suggesting that Utahime pecks his cheek to complete the transaction.
"No cream is worth that! Anyway, we already got it." Utahime takes the whipped cream from Mei Mei. She raises it in the air and triumphs. "Thanks!" turning to her cream puffs.
Over the next ten minutes, the groups finish off their masterpieces. Gojo and Atsuya take a weary look at their creation.
"Ok, now, for the best part, the tasting! Make sure to get a pic of your lovely pastries, and if you could add our handle in any social media posts, we'd really appreciate it." Kyoko announces,
Gojo and Atsuya pick up spoons and commit to trying their pastry. The 'pancake' creation takes them both by surprise; it doesn't taste terrible. Not great either, but they take it as a great success.
Gojo loads up a fork with their 'happy accident'. He travels to Utahime's table with a big smile, "I think you'll be pleasantly surprised, Utahime!" He says as he moves to give her the cake. "Open your mouth" He sings.
She turns her head in disgust, "Fork off! I'm not eating your malformed mutant cake." Scowling at him.
"Is that any way to respond to an offer of cake? And to think I filled your cake with my cream!" Gojo replies in equal disgust as he turns back to his table.
Atsuya howls laughing, and Utahime smirks with a little blush.
Standing in front, Kyoko talks over the groups, "Thank you so much for attending this evening. Please take a paper plate from the corner and bring your masterpiece home to impress your family and friends. Please clean up and again remember to add our handle to your social posts about this evening."
At this, everyone starts to clean up. Gojo and Atsuya half their cake and take pics of its beauty. As they move to leave, Gojo notices Mei Mei stops by to talk to Atsuya, "Thank you for your cream, Atsuya," and gives him a wink. Atsuya lets out a cough of surprise, "Ah, anytime," he says with a goofy grin.
Once again, Gojo glances at Utahime to hint at her, "Any thanks coming from you?" Gojo asks. Utahime laughs at Gojo's advance, "You're so pathetic!"
She walks over to thank Kyoko and Rintaro for hosting the event, then faces everyone. "Thank you all so much for attending today. I hope you all feel excited about starting this journey with T&B, and this evening's class has set you up for a very successful week. Since I head events in the office, you'll see plenty of me in the coming weeks and months, or perhaps years if you enjoy working in the company, which I'm sure you will." A big smile on her face. "Have a good night and take care making your way home."
Gojo is impressed at how well Utahime communicates when sober and not asking for an umbrella thingy. In school, she was pretty and plain, but time has made her more slender and elegant. Gojo feels his blood get hot around her as his infatuation intensifies.
They leave as a group, mostly chatting about baking and food. Although Atsuya wasn't Gojo's first choice as his baking partner, he seems to struck up a friendship.
The baking wraps up, but it gives Gojo a warm glow that night, knowing that he filled Utahime's cake with his cream.