Shizuka and I stood in front of the small house, dressed in heavy jackets and scarves.
"Are they gonna let us in yet?" I grumbled. "I don't like the cold!"
At that moment, a harsh wind swept through the air. I shuddered.
"I don't think Mother Nature cares what you like or not," Shizuka said, completely unfazed by the huge breeze.
The house was a nice, small, brick house surrounded by fancier homes on all sides. The roof was covered in snow. There were three gray steps made from what seemed to be cobblestone leading up to a white door that had a small triangular roof sheltering it. A lantern was placed on the poles supporting the small roof, illuminating the area. Other than that, it was pretty simple. Two small windows were on either side of the house, and the curtains were pulled closed.
Voices suddenly came from the other side of the door.
"KAORI, GET YOUR LAZY BUM OVER HERE!" That was Hina.
I couldn't really make out the other voice, so I guessed it was Kaori, since Hina replied with, "It's Christmas! C'mon, you can't just curl up in your room on Christmas. It'll be fun, I promise. When's the last time you've interacted with people aside from me, my mom, or Mosu? Yeah, hardly ever. What, do you not like Ryo and Shizuka?"
"It's not that. I just...I don't know them well."
"I guess you're gonna get to know new people, then!"
The silver doorknob twisted, and the door flung open, revealing Hina, who had her hair in plaits and was wearing a red Christmas sweater with black reindeer silhouettes as the design. Kaori was sitting on the couch far in the back of the living room, wearing a matching sweater.
"Sorry for the long wait! Come in; Merry Christmas!"
"Merry Christmas to you too!"
We stepped in, drying our feet on the mat, and put our shoes on the rack as Hina closed the door behind us. We hung our jackets, and I took a moment to scan my surroundings.
The living room was spacious and had spotless wooden floors. The leather couch Kaori was sitting on was placed across a large TV perched on a spruce wood dresser, a smooth, red, circular rug between them. Kaori waved slightly, still staring at the ground. He had a Nintendo Switch in his hand.
I stretched my arms. "Nice house you've got! Say, where's your tree?"
Hina sighed. "We... didn't really wanna get one this year."
"Aunt Ahmya didn't like any of them, she's picky," Kaori mumbled, pressing a few buttons on the Switch. "We just opened presents without a tree."
"Yep, pretty much. Kaori opened his early, though, 'cause he just COULDN'T LISTEN. He's been playing Breath of the Wild for, like, four days. He's already done two divine beasts. He got a head-start, which he wasn't supposed to get."
Kaori shot an intense glare at his cousin; it was unusual to see someone like him so angry.
I laughed. "It's okay, I remember I opened my presents early for three years straight when I was a kid. But dang, you're that impatient?"
Kaori moved further towards the end of the couch. "Well...I was just excited, I guess." He looked more absorbed in the game, but he still paid mind to us.
"What're you doing? I've only got one divine beast done in Breath of the Wild," Shizuka spoke up.
"It really took you a month to beat Vah Medoh," I teased.
"Look, the weird pully-cart-ride-whatchamacallit thing confused me, that's all. And I couldn't understand how Windblight's mini-rocket things worked. Also, Revali was annoying me during that fight; didn't even help."
"Windblight and the pully puzzle were easy! How'd you suck at that? The only thing you're right about is Revali - stupid bird brain kept sassing my ass during the fight instead of helping. Still not an excuse to suck, though, the whole thing was easy."
"Was not."
"Was too."
"Was not."
"Was too."
"Was - alright, whatever." Shizuka peered over Kaori's shoulder, and her eyebrows rose. "You're fighting Lynels? I still haven't fought any. And you're really good at it."
"Lynels?" I ran over.
On the screen, Kaori's character - which was Link, of course - wore the simple blue Champion's Tunic and the beige-green-ish pants you got at the start of the game. He was facing off against a Lynel with a blue body and a lavender-colored mane. The Lynel was a creature with the face and body of a lion but had the legs and stripes of a zebra, and its arms were slightly human-like.
The Lynel carried a sharp Lynel sword - which basically looked like the large head of an ax - and it swung its weapon at Kaori. With a couple taps of a few buttons, he dodged and got a flurry rush. That was basically a chance to let out a bunch of attacks on the enemy, and it happened in slow-mo.
Kaori had what seemed to be a Royal Broadsword (HOW? Where’d he get that from?) and he slashed it at the Lynel. It only took a few moments for the Flurry Rush to be over and the monster reared back in its hind legs, roaring and then dropping to the ground, turning into a black silhouette and then fading, leaving loot in its place.
“That’s cool! You’re good!” I exclaimed.
“It’s only a blue one - the hardest ones in normal mode are…the silver Lynels, I think. So it’s not really impressive.” Kaori paused the game, saved it twice, and then closed the game and turned off the console.
“Aren’t there gold ones, too?” Hina asked.
Before Kaori could answer, Shizuka said, “That’s Master Mode. You have to buy a DLC to see those.”
“Oooh, okay. Anyway, Ryo, I think we were going to make food or something, right?”
“Oh yeah, right!” I jumped up with excitement.
"Ryo, you're not cooking," Shizuka said.
"Why not?" Hina and I both said - except that Hina said it in a more curious tone while I whined.
"You know why, Ryo. Hina, you...you shouldn't trust him cooking anything."
"Oh. Well then, Kaori can cook; he's really good at it. Right, Kaori?" Hina eyed her cousin.
Kaori sighed and got off the couch. "Guess so. We planned to have rice and a baked chicken, right? With sugar cookies on the side?"
"Yep!" Hina nodded.
"That sounds really good! Maybe if we all pitched in, we could cook faster," I suggested.
Shizuka shot me a look.
"The rice and sugar cookies are already made, and we just need to marinate the chicken and bake it. The sauce for the chicken is already made as well." Kaori walked over to the kitchen, and we followed him in.
The kitchen had the same floors as the living room. The walls were painted a muted green, whereas the living room had bright blue walls. A long oval table sat off to the side of the kitchen, near the back, in front of long red floral-patterned curtains draped over what seemed to be a glass door that led outside (to the yard, I guessed). The stove, oven, and white fridge were lined up and on the left of the oval table, The marble kitchen countertop stretched from where the stove was to the end of the wall. A small, simple chandelier-like light hung from the center of the ceiling.
"You've got a really nice kitchen," I said.
"Thanks," Hina said as Kaori opened the fridge door, pulling out a tray covered in a plastic wrap that had four chicken legs on it - one for each of us. He set it on the counter and then lifted out a bowl (that was also covered) and set it next to the chicken.
I hovered over the bowl. The wrap was foggy, but I could see what seemed to be...teriyaki sauce? Or was it barbecue? Or something else?
"It's a mix of teriyaki and barbecue, pretty simple, really." Kaori must've caught the curious look on my face.
"Sounds good, though. You sure you don't want help?"
"Ryo," Shizuka said.
"What? Look, I'll never get better if I don't try, so that's why I'm taking every chance I get to cook."
"I mean...he's right." Kaori unwrapped the chicken and the bowl, and then mumbled to himself, "Probably stupid of me to freeze the sauce too...oh well."
"Has he ever set anything on fire?" Hina asked. "That's my only concern. My mom wouldn't like it if that happened."
"Well, no," Shizuka replied. "He's burned food, though never started an actual fire, if that makes sense."
"Then he could help. Hey, maybe Kaori could teach him! There's really not much left to do, anyway, so he can help. And besides, maybe it'll allow him to talk to different people."
Kaori paused, and then said. "Fine..."
"Yay! I'll be a good student, promise!" I jumped up with joy.
Kaori had shown me how to marinate the chicken thoroughly, and he was a pretty good teacher, too. Even if he got nervous and fumbled with things or stammered or just trailed off because he forgot what to say.
The chicken legs had been marinated for a while now, and I slipped the tray of them into the oven. I set the oven to the temperature that Kaori had told me to put - yes, he was actually trusting me with that.
"Alright, good...you can press start now." Kaori nodded.
I hit the start button. "I did it!"
"Good job." His voice wasn't filled with much joy or emotion, but I took the compliment.
Kaori apparently had had an extra account on his Switch that he never used, so Shizuka was playing Breath of the Wild on the couch while Hina observed, learning more about the game.
I barged into the living room. "HA! I DID IT! I DID IT JUST FINE! SEE, SHIZUKA?"
"Not now, there's a Guardian and it's targeting me and I'm so close to dying and I can't even parry right-"
PEW! went the Guardian's laser.
The piano melody that signaled that the player had died played shortly after.
"Oh, Guardians?" Kaori walked over and looked over Shizuka's shoulder. "Press 'A' when they're charging up their laser and you hear a beep. It'll give you a perfect parry. If you ever try Master Mode, though, that won't work so well, because the game purposefully makes the laser lag a bit and you won't be able to time the parry right. Parrying in Normal Mode is fine, but in Master, you should probably attack them head on or use Daruk's protection when you get it."
That was probably the record for the longest Kaori had spoken.
"Daruk's what?"
"It's one of the Champion Skills - you know, like Revali's Gale. You'll get it once you beat Divine Beast Rudania. You can only use it three times, though."
"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind." Shizuka nodded as she selected the 'Continue' button.
"You know, you talk a lot more when it comes to gaming," I commented.
"I do?"
"Yeah, you do."
"Oh. Sorry, I try not to geek out or anything."
"Sorry?" I laughed. "Why sorry? No, it's better to hear you talk more! Not that you have to be super talkative, but it's nice when you say more."
"Oh...Okay." Kaori still held a deadpan expression.
A while passed as we watched Shizuka play. And by 'play' I mean running from Guardians whenever the Guardian theme song played and then turning around, making multiple attempts at parrying. Kaori guided her along the way, and she eventually killed one Guardian.
Shizuka moved around Link (the person you played as) through the Lanayru Wetlands, a place near the mountains surrounding Kakariko Village that had a couple thin birch trees here and there, though it was mostly grass and a couple thin bridges hovering over the shallow patches of water.
"Killed my first Guardian, finally," Shizuka said. "You know, in the cutscenes they showed of the past, they could move, right? Well, it's relieving that they can't now-"
She stopped mid-sentence as a Guardian, a robotic spider-like mechanical giant with a single round eye and a bucket-like head with intricate designs, strolled across the wetlands, it's white spider legs hurrying across.
It then turned and the battle theme played once again.
"I spoke too soon."
In a few seconds, Shizuka had died in the game. And, also in a few seconds, the smoke alarm went off.
We all jumped.
It did smell like smoke though. We all dashed to the kitchen, Shizuka dropping the Switch on the couch.
The smoke was rising up from the oven.
“Ryo, what did you do wrong this time?” Shizuka asked, sounding worried.
I didn’t know! “I followed all Kaori’s instructions - put the chicken in, set it to one hundred seventy-six degrees Celsius for forty minutes-“
”FORTY MINUTES?” Kaori shrieked - shrieked, I tell you. I nearly ran because it sounded like some demon had screamed instead of Kaori.
“I…”
”It was twenty-five, Ryo!”
“Okay, forget that, we gotta put this out,” Hina spoke up. “Well, we actually can’t do much - wait, Kaori, don’t just stand there! Turn off the oven!”
”Right! Should’ve done that from the start!” Kaori quickly hit the stop button and grabbed a pair of kitchen mittens.
Right, what was I doing just standing there? I grabbed a towel from the oven handle and swiped at the seeping smoke violently.
Kaori said, “We might just have to let the fire burn out on its own….”
“It’s….I think it’s out.” Kaori’s voice was trembling. 260Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsjyg0kRl2Z
“Sorry, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to-“
“No, no, it’s okay.” Kaori opened the small kitchen windowz260Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwMGqzT0vne
”I don’t know what Mom’s gonna say about this….” Hina paced around nervously. “She’s coming home at around nine, though not exactly, from a. Christmas party with her co-workers. We burned the chicken.”
”We still have the rice and other things, right?” Shizuka pointed out. “Though, I guess without chicken, it might taste a little bland.”260Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqickn3RZhH
“Wait, what time is it now?” I asked before checking my wristwatch. “Eight…holy crap.”260Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuobDnWsgOB
8:57. 260Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwmcO594WVa
“Um…”
And then from the living room, a click resounded and so did the sound of a doorknob turning. We exchanged frantic glances. 260Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLoLM0vlwBJ
The door opened, and we rushed to the living room. 260Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw4ffTQqIWp
A woman with brown hair in a messy bun, bright brown eyes, and wearing a red dress with black leggings stood at the doorway. That was Hina’s mom? Kaori’s aunt?
”Hey kids, how was your little hangout?”
We had a lot to explain that night.
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