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alchemicinkPosting another hanami project fic tonight to celebrate Three Weeks for Dreamwidth. Funny that this fic doesn't actually contain a hanami scene at all 😂
Title: Less than ideal is still pretty good
Fandom: My Hero Academia
Pairing: Uraraka Ochako/Ashido Mina
Wordcount: almost 1.2k
Rating: G
Notes: Established relationship; domestic fluff; cooking; cooking disasters; the working title for this fic was "Ashido Mina's Kitchen Nightmares"
Ao3 link: here
"Don't come into the kitchen," Mina shouts, throwing her arms out in front of the open doorway before Ochako can get past her.
Her girlfriend raises a questioning eyebrow.
"I'm working on a secret project," she continues, raising her shoulders up just in case Ochako tries to peek over them.
"I can't even have breakfast?" Ochako pouts.
"I'll get you a cereal bar," Mina promises and shooes her towards the living room.
"And an orange?"
"Sure, sure. Just stay out of the kitchen. And don't make any plans for today!"
Ochako still looks confused, but she doesn't argue as she settles down on the couch with a book to read. Mina grabs the food, passes it off to Ochako, and then returns to her project in the kitchen.
All the ingredients are spread out on the countertop in front of her. Mina just has to put them together and then pack them away in the bento boxes.
Should be easy.
Hopefully.
Cooking has never exactly been her strong suit – maybe she should have begged Bakugou for lessons back when they were in school – but Mina thinks she can at least put together two lunches for a flower-viewing picnic today. They've both been so tired and stressed from work lately that Mina wants to do this for Ochako. She wants to let her relax under the cherry blossoms and enjoy a homemade meal.
It's going to be perfect.
Mina has not spent the last two week covertly watching YouTube videos of people making bento boxes for nothing, after all! She can do this!
She throws some rice into the rice cooker, and then starts first with the things that need to be fried, because that should probably take the longest to complete. Maybe. She's not quite sure because the videos always cut out the boring parts.
Making karaage seems simple enough, but by the time she actually drops the breaded chicken into the frying pan, she's already coated in enough flour to fry herself too. Mina turns her attention from the stove long enough to rinse her hands and arms, and then shrieks when she turns back around to discover the chicken is burning.
"You okay in there?" Ochako calls from the other room.
"Fantastic! Never better!" Mina yells back as she tries to salvage the chicken. "Don't come in here!"
But her rescue attempts are a lost cause because, even though the outside is a blackened husk, the inside is still half-cooked. Completely unsalvageable. She hates wasting food as much as Ochako, but she'd rather they not end up with food poisoning.
"Okay, okay," Mina mutters to herself, "this was just one misstep. No big deal. The rest is gonna be perfect."
She clenches her fists in a "let's do this!" pose, and then moves on to the next plan.
Cutting up mini sausages to look like cute little mini octopuses should be super easy. She doesn't even need to coat it in anything while cooking. So they turn out edible when they're done, but they don't look cute like in the videos. They're like... like alien octopuses with weird tentacles instead.
Mina pauses, laughs quietly at her joke, and then returns her focus to cooking.
It's at this point she realizes she forgot to actually cut the rice cooker on. With an exasperated growl that would rival Bakugou on a good day, she presses the button and decides to work on a different dish while she waits.
Tamagoyaki omelets should be easy enough. She's made them plenty of times before for both of them.
Mina's mind wanders as she gets the eggs together and into the pan, imagining how cute Ochako will be sitting under the sakura blossoms as she eats. Sometimes, her cheeks make her look like a cute little chipmunk. Mina has been looking forward to this relaxing picnic for weeks – they both desperately need a good break from work – and she can't wait for what she's imagining to become reality.
But her musings turn out to be too much of a distraction because when she glances back down at the pan, her rolled omelet has fallen to pieces.
"Dammit," she mutters and hastily tries to wrangle the omelet back into its proper shape, but it doesn't look great. It's all blobby and misshapen, looking less appealing by the second.
Botching yet another simple task has Mina suddenly feeling frustrated and teary-eyed. She turns the stove off, pushes the frying pan away, and gives up. She leans over the countertop, burying her face in her hands.
The smell of slightly burnt egg haunts her as she sulks.
She's not sure how long she stays like that until she feels Ochako's arms loop around her waist.
"You okay?" she asks.
"You weren't supposed to come in the kitchen," Mina mutters.
"It got too quiet in here, so I thought I should check on you. Need a rescue hero?"
Mina uncovers her face and leans back into Ochako's embrace. "I'm not sure even you could salvage this." She gestures towards the sad mess that she'd created in the kitchen.
"Give me a little more credit than that," Ochako answers, twisting around to give Mina a quick kiss on her cheek before leaning over to look at the frying pan on the stove. "I think we can save the eggs by scrambling them."
"But first," Ochako continues, "you wanna explain what all this is? I would have been happy to help if you'd asked."
So Mina recounts her hanami picnic plans, and how she'd imagined surprising Ochako with a perfect box lunch to enjoy together, and how she wanted to give her girlfriend the chance to relax that she deserved.
"That's really sweet," Ochako smiles. "But maybe... it'd be fun if we cooked together instead? It's still relaxing because we'll be doing it together, you know."
Mina's frustration melts away. Ochako always has a way of turning things around so that they never seem as bad as she thinks they are.
The rice cooker beeps before she can reply, and it startles them both into laughing.
"Guess that's our cue to get started then," Mina says. "I do kinda wanna get to the park before sunset and we miss all the prettiest views."
"That's the spirit," Ochako grins.
Lunch prep goes a lot smoother after that, with Ochako handling the more complicated parts and Mina able to focus on the fun stuff (like cutting carrots into cute flower shapes – her absolute favorite thing). She's not even upset about ruining her suprise plans. Not when they have more fun dancing around each other in the kitchen, accidentally smearing sauce from their fingertips to their cheeks every now and then.
Finally, the food is packed away in the boxes, wrapped up and ready for their walk to the park.
"This is going to be a wonderful date," Ochako says, taking hold of Mina's hand.
The end result is still the same – Mina is so excited for their picnic under the pink blossoms – but she's glad things played out differently than what she had in mind.
Surprises are overrated anyway.
Title: Less than ideal is still pretty good
Fandom: My Hero Academia
Pairing: Uraraka Ochako/Ashido Mina
Wordcount: almost 1.2k
Rating: G
Notes: Established relationship; domestic fluff; cooking; cooking disasters; the working title for this fic was "Ashido Mina's Kitchen Nightmares"
Ao3 link: here
"Don't come into the kitchen," Mina shouts, throwing her arms out in front of the open doorway before Ochako can get past her.
Her girlfriend raises a questioning eyebrow.
"I'm working on a secret project," she continues, raising her shoulders up just in case Ochako tries to peek over them.
"I can't even have breakfast?" Ochako pouts.
"I'll get you a cereal bar," Mina promises and shooes her towards the living room.
"And an orange?"
"Sure, sure. Just stay out of the kitchen. And don't make any plans for today!"
Ochako still looks confused, but she doesn't argue as she settles down on the couch with a book to read. Mina grabs the food, passes it off to Ochako, and then returns to her project in the kitchen.
All the ingredients are spread out on the countertop in front of her. Mina just has to put them together and then pack them away in the bento boxes.
Should be easy.
Hopefully.
Cooking has never exactly been her strong suit – maybe she should have begged Bakugou for lessons back when they were in school – but Mina thinks she can at least put together two lunches for a flower-viewing picnic today. They've both been so tired and stressed from work lately that Mina wants to do this for Ochako. She wants to let her relax under the cherry blossoms and enjoy a homemade meal.
It's going to be perfect.
Mina has not spent the last two week covertly watching YouTube videos of people making bento boxes for nothing, after all! She can do this!
She throws some rice into the rice cooker, and then starts first with the things that need to be fried, because that should probably take the longest to complete. Maybe. She's not quite sure because the videos always cut out the boring parts.
Making karaage seems simple enough, but by the time she actually drops the breaded chicken into the frying pan, she's already coated in enough flour to fry herself too. Mina turns her attention from the stove long enough to rinse her hands and arms, and then shrieks when she turns back around to discover the chicken is burning.
"You okay in there?" Ochako calls from the other room.
"Fantastic! Never better!" Mina yells back as she tries to salvage the chicken. "Don't come in here!"
But her rescue attempts are a lost cause because, even though the outside is a blackened husk, the inside is still half-cooked. Completely unsalvageable. She hates wasting food as much as Ochako, but she'd rather they not end up with food poisoning.
"Okay, okay," Mina mutters to herself, "this was just one misstep. No big deal. The rest is gonna be perfect."
She clenches her fists in a "let's do this!" pose, and then moves on to the next plan.
Cutting up mini sausages to look like cute little mini octopuses should be super easy. She doesn't even need to coat it in anything while cooking. So they turn out edible when they're done, but they don't look cute like in the videos. They're like... like alien octopuses with weird tentacles instead.
Mina pauses, laughs quietly at her joke, and then returns her focus to cooking.
It's at this point she realizes she forgot to actually cut the rice cooker on. With an exasperated growl that would rival Bakugou on a good day, she presses the button and decides to work on a different dish while she waits.
Tamagoyaki omelets should be easy enough. She's made them plenty of times before for both of them.
Mina's mind wanders as she gets the eggs together and into the pan, imagining how cute Ochako will be sitting under the sakura blossoms as she eats. Sometimes, her cheeks make her look like a cute little chipmunk. Mina has been looking forward to this relaxing picnic for weeks – they both desperately need a good break from work – and she can't wait for what she's imagining to become reality.
But her musings turn out to be too much of a distraction because when she glances back down at the pan, her rolled omelet has fallen to pieces.
"Dammit," she mutters and hastily tries to wrangle the omelet back into its proper shape, but it doesn't look great. It's all blobby and misshapen, looking less appealing by the second.
Botching yet another simple task has Mina suddenly feeling frustrated and teary-eyed. She turns the stove off, pushes the frying pan away, and gives up. She leans over the countertop, burying her face in her hands.
The smell of slightly burnt egg haunts her as she sulks.
She's not sure how long she stays like that until she feels Ochako's arms loop around her waist.
"You okay?" she asks.
"You weren't supposed to come in the kitchen," Mina mutters.
"It got too quiet in here, so I thought I should check on you. Need a rescue hero?"
Mina uncovers her face and leans back into Ochako's embrace. "I'm not sure even you could salvage this." She gestures towards the sad mess that she'd created in the kitchen.
"Give me a little more credit than that," Ochako answers, twisting around to give Mina a quick kiss on her cheek before leaning over to look at the frying pan on the stove. "I think we can save the eggs by scrambling them."
"But first," Ochako continues, "you wanna explain what all this is? I would have been happy to help if you'd asked."
So Mina recounts her hanami picnic plans, and how she'd imagined surprising Ochako with a perfect box lunch to enjoy together, and how she wanted to give her girlfriend the chance to relax that she deserved.
"That's really sweet," Ochako smiles. "But maybe... it'd be fun if we cooked together instead? It's still relaxing because we'll be doing it together, you know."
Mina's frustration melts away. Ochako always has a way of turning things around so that they never seem as bad as she thinks they are.
The rice cooker beeps before she can reply, and it startles them both into laughing.
"Guess that's our cue to get started then," Mina says. "I do kinda wanna get to the park before sunset and we miss all the prettiest views."
"That's the spirit," Ochako grins.
Lunch prep goes a lot smoother after that, with Ochako handling the more complicated parts and Mina able to focus on the fun stuff (like cutting carrots into cute flower shapes – her absolute favorite thing). She's not even upset about ruining her suprise plans. Not when they have more fun dancing around each other in the kitchen, accidentally smearing sauce from their fingertips to their cheeks every now and then.
Finally, the food is packed away in the boxes, wrapped up and ready for their walk to the park.
"This is going to be a wonderful date," Ochako says, taking hold of Mina's hand.
The end result is still the same – Mina is so excited for their picnic under the pink blossoms – but she's glad things played out differently than what she had in mind.
Surprises are overrated anyway.
