Log; COMPLETE

[mizrahigirl.livejournal.com]

When; After this.
Rating; G is for gigglefest
Characters; Elena [lady_turk] & Sakura Mizrahi [mizrahigirl]
Summary; Elena and Sakura bake up a storm, and Elena decides throwing flour is a good way to get Sakura to lighten up.
Log;

It wasn’t often that Elena spent a great deal of time with Sakura. Sure she was friendly enough and made the young girl smile as often as she could, but simply hanging out and doing something together wasn’t something they did with great frequency. If they did spend time together though, there tended to be someone else around, mostly Jr. though sometimes it was Shelley.

However, Jr. was not one for baking, as he’d stated multiple times before, and Shelley declined, admitting that she did not know very little about what it would take to bake, nor did she have any interest in learning more. So that’s why it was just Elena and Sakura who were in the kitchen, with all sort of ingredients, bowls, and spices surrounding them. Elena had decided not to wear an apron, but her hair was clipped back, to avoid falling into her face as she looked over the recipes for the things they were planning to bake.

“… We’re going to need a lot of flour for this,” she murmured absentmindedly.


Sakura hadn't meant for this to have become quite the project that it had, she'd merely suggested it as something to do, really. Standing in the kitchen with Elena was a bit foreign suddenly, as the older woman read over the recipe book. It was usually Rubedo who watched her, or just herself making something to leave on a table or in front of his door. Having such an enthusiastic helper, while nice, was still...just a bit strange, when she thought about it.

Glancing around her at the assortment of bowls she'd helped to pull out earlier, Sakura tucked a piece of stray hair behind her ear. It was a little overwhelming, actually.

"Will we have enough? ...We don't have to make quite so much, you know."


Glancing at the mass amounts of baked goods that they’d already baked before their current venture, Elena couldn’t help but quirk her lips in wry amusement. It had only been the upside-down pineapple cake at first, and then onto some cookies. From there it was to some muffins and now Elena wanted to try her hand at making donuts. Between the two of them, they’d baked enough to feed, not only the people of the Durandal, but probably all the people they knew in the City as well.

“I think if we stop after this one last batch, there’ll be enough,” Elena stated with a small grin. The grin made the random bits of flour that had gotten on Elena’s face and on her arms stand out more than they already did. Somehow, Elena always tended to get flour on herself whenever she baked. For someone who could handle explosives without any kind of trouble or fuss, it was rather ironic that she couldn’t stay clean with a safe creation.

“I guess I was just enjoying everything so I got a little carried away.”


Sakura smiled quietly. She had started this, after all. Idly wondering who was going to eat all the things they'd baked already, she murmured in response, "Mm, I understand. It's nice to be able to make things sometimes."

The brunette picked up a bowl they'd used already and set it in the sink to clear some counter space, running water into it briefly before turning back to the counter, pulling a bigger bowl towards her. She looked up at Elena, who seemed inordinately both covered in flour and pleased with herself. Sakura herself had managed to keep herself relatively flour-free; her slower, more cautious pace keeping the flour in the bowl from fluffing into the air when she stirred. Not that much would show on the white dress she wore.

"What should I put in here? I haven't read this recipe." The pineapple-upside down cake had been stretch enough, but donuts seemed trickier to make, let alone the fact she wasn't entirely sure how they were supposed to turn out.


“It says to mix flour, shortening, sugar, salt, skim milk, eggs, and… Mashed potatoes?” Elena blinked at that last part, a little surprised at the additive of that last ingredient. Donuts had mashed potatoes in them? That… was a surprise.

Bracing her chin in the palm of her hand, not even noticing when her elbow ended up in another small pile of flour they’d missed during the quick clean-up they’d done, Elena’s brow furrowed when she tried to figure out if she was reading the recipe right or not. “I wasn’t expecting that… But… Well, first attempts are experiments.”

Looking up and going through the motions of brushing back her hair, though there wasn’t any to really brush back, Elena shrugged and only grinned. “It doesn’t say what order or how to mix them, just to mix them all together. So I guess it comes down to what ingredient do you want to handle?”


Sakura ticked off the ingredients in her head as Elena listed them, stopping as she did. Elena looked surprised at the inclusion of mashed potatoes, Sakura only coming up with a mild sense of bemusement- weren't donuts supposed to be sweet? but then, there hadn't been as much sugar as she'd expected in the pineapple cake either.

Elena had managed to stick her elbow in one of the few decent sized piles of flour. She had rather a lot of it on her already, she might not want more on her. "Ah- Elena, your elbow's in the flour."

"...I think usually you mix the wet things and the dry separately, and then mix those two together. I could do the eggs, milk and the shortening, then..." She trailed off, thinking. "Ah, but the sugar usually goes in with the shortening, so I could do that too."

Looking back up at the blonde curiously, Sakura relisted the ingredients in her head. "That'd leave you with the flour, the salt and...the mashed potatoes, right? Is that okay?"


Blinking and twisting around her elbow to look and see just for herself about the aforementioned flour, Elena couldn’t help but roll her eyes, not bothering to try and rid herself of the white powder. She was already covered so it’d be pointless… She’d just remember to get that spot later when cleaning up. “Thanks.”

Propping up the recipe book so that they could both read it at the same time, in case Sakura wanted to take a look at the instructions as well, Elena reached for another bowl. “Sounds good to me.”

With both of them well practiced by now in baking, the two girls set to mixing their respective ingredients together separately first. Elena, of course, being the one mixing the dry ingredients, managed to get even more powder on herself, some even finding its way into her hair. It wasn’t that she was rushed, but it just happened to the blonde Turk whenever she baked.

There was some mild and easy chatter between the two of them, Elena being the one who generally pressed points and asked questions, but still, conversation flowed easily and smoothly between them as they finished their separate parts and then mixed the two parts together.

“Okay, so now we have to kneed the dough.”


It was doing things like this it was easy to let time slip past her fingers, swirl its way past her in the talking and mixing of the batter, take it for granted that she could talk and do such a normal task. There was something comfortable in the simple conversation, answering questions and posing a few of her own, feeling light and carefree.

Sakura wiped her hands on the towel laying next to the sink, getting the bits of buttery sugar off the backs of her hands, dusting them off against her skirt afterwards. The brunette found that she'd kept a small smile maintained for that whole conversation. It struck her that perhaps that should be more normal than it was.

The dough, once mixed together, lay in the bottom of the bowl in a large lump. Sakura eyed the mass dubiously. "It'd probably be easier to split it up, right?"


Elena’s hands, while small, soft, and feminine, were also capable of breaking bones and snapping necks, the strength in her arms belittled by the way she appeared to look overall. Granted, there were people with much more strength in their arms, Tifa for example, but there was certainly more to her than what was seen on the surface. The lump of dough sitting in the bowl would have been something fairly easy for Elena to handle, but… There was the fun in if she split the task up.

“Sure,” Elena replied with an easy grin, reaching into the bowl and pulling out a sizable lump of dough for Sakura, leaving the bulk for Elena, but there was the whole difference in their ages and what they could do. A little like a big sister giving her younger one a smaller bit of work, but not in a demeaning manner.

It was just as she handed over the lump, a wicked idea came into Elena’s head as she looked at how clean Sakura had managed to stay during the entire time. “You’ll probably need some flour to keep it from sticking,” Elena advised with a small snicker. “Here.”

And then, reaching for a small handful of flour, she raised it above the brunette’s head and sprinkled it over both the dough and the little girl at the same time, to which she couldn’t help giggle as she did so.


Sakura reached for the dough that had been offered to her, noting that she'd gotten the smaller share but accepting that Elena could probably handle much more than she could, being weaker and smaller, attempting to mix the dough over once, but then a shower of white came down over her hands and head, raining down around her.

Wh-what?

Face looking stunned, she looked back up at Elena, who was ...giggling...? She stared at the older girl...she had been keeping herself clean! And then blushed bright red, one hand coming off the dough and up to her cheek to hide the color.

"Elena! Th-that's not-!" And she lost track of what it wasn't, because Elena was still giggling at her, and she realized that she'd just been coated with a mist of flour, paling her dark hair a shade, and realized the silliness of the situation, and pressed her hand over her mouth to keep from giggling herself.


That was better. Although Sakura smiled easily enough at times, the girl was not one to laugh openly at very much. It wasn’t that Sakura was depressing, but more like, she didn’t have that many carefree moments. Elena wouldn’t say that her own childhood was the easiest, she grew up in Midgar after all, but there was a short time when she had been carefree and laughed openly at whatever caught her fancy. She didn’t try to suppress her laughter…for the most part. So having that small bit of childhood herself, Elena wanted to see that someone as sweet as Sakura enjoy and laugh at what she could and while she could.

“Careful, but I think you got some flour on you,” Elena teased, taking a quick gentle swipe at Sakura’s nose, hoping to keep the young girl in light spirits.


Sakura tried to duck the oncoming hand, giggling, attempting to dust off her hair, succeeding in powdering the air around her, and failing at getting cleaner since her hands were just as floury as her hair.

Trying once again to dust off her dress- the white really hid quite a lot of flour in it, she sent up a thin cloud of white around her. Really, it was ridiculous.

In between giggles, she managed to get out, "You're... not helping, Elena! ...Just because you were all messy!"


Chuckling lightly, Elena simply gazed at Sakura with a fond smile. Her attempting to help dust off Sakura would have been rather fruitless, given she had started out as the stained one.

“Well now we can be a matched set,” she said with a wink, grabbing for another small handful of flour and tossing it up lightly in the air, giving them both a light dusting this time. It was like a small rain of thick fog or a very light bit of snow, making Elena’s already light hair, even lighter, and getting her even messier.


Ducking again as the flour rained down again, Sakura looked up as the last of the flour settled slowly. The kitchen was slowly looking mistier and mistier, the floor gaining a thin coating of the white powder.

Sakura made to protest again- "Elena!" but then gave the woman a second look- she was coated in flour, pale from head to foot, thicker spots of flour on her face, stuck in her hair, on her arms, and she dissolved in giggles again, unable for a moment to form speech.

"E-Elena...you're a mess..." She was probably an equal mess now, for all her attempt to stay clean.

It was hard not to smile widely as Sakura dissolved into giggles. Elena felt that it was an easy enough trade. A little mess to hear Sakura enjoy herself, her laugher light and sweet, a little reminiscent of the flowers that Sakura herself was named for.

“Nothing a little water and soap can’t fix later. Besides, I think it’s a good look. What do you think? A little creative make-up, if you will.”


Sakura was finding it hard to keep a straight face while looking at Elena. The sight of the older woman covered in flour baffled her young mind, and since she'd already started laughing once, it was hard to stop completely, mouth curving into a smile broader than normal, attempting to be serious, so hard when Elena was asking silly questions-

"It's a bit dusty." The most serious answer she could come up with; not serious at all. She could barely keep from giggling again. This was ridiculous really, they had been baking for ages, and now flour was being thrown everywhere...

"The dough's going to be all floury, Elena."


“You may have a point with that,” Elena mused, shaking her head slightly, causing some of the flour to fall off and coat her face even more than it had before. The slightly amused, but trying to be serious face that she had was at odds with her appearance, but Elena was feeling silly enough to pretend and follow through with it. “I guess I’d better stick with the normal kind of make-up then.”

Taking a look at the dough that had been completely forgotten, Elena noticed that, yes, the dough had gotten more than its own fair share of a flour topcoat. Ah well, a little extra flour couldn’t really hurt. Elena had been slightly serious about adding a little extra flour to help keep the dough from sticking. It just had been applied in a less than conventional manner.

“I don’t think a little extra flour’s going to hurt it,” Elena mused. “But maybe we can use all this extra flour and put it to good use.”


The girl attempted to brush off her hair, but judging by the cloud that fell around her and clung to her fingers, most of it had decided to settle in her hair. She shook her head instead, brown locks paled by the flour brushing back and forth across her face until she pushed it back behind her ears with the back of one hand. This was really...the silliest thing that had happened in a long time. Honestly, being covered in flour...? Rubedo would laugh if he could see.

Still smiling, the brunette stepped back towards the counter, picking up her smaller slab of dough, turning it on its side to let the extra flour fall off onto the counter. The counter around the dough was floury already, and the floor, and there was still a fine haze in the air...it would be a while before the kitchen was flour-free again. But with Elena still so covered, flour all over her face, it was hard to worry about how much time it would take to clean instead of laughing at the ridiculousness of it.

"I suppose not. It'll be hard to use some of the flour on the counter though, it's all over."


“If we need more, we can just shake out our hair,” Elena joked, finally turning the larger scope of her attention back to the dough in front of them. Thankfully, her sleeves were already rolled up and, shaking out her hands, Elena grinned.

“Okay! So lets kneed this dough… However that works.”