Chapter Text
“Howard I can’t hang out this weekend,” Randy said into the phone he was balancing between his head and shoulder, being as careful as he could. Holding a pipping bag of frosting, trying to write on the cake in front of him as neatly as possible.
“But whyyyyyyyy” Wined Howard through the phone.
“I already told you I’m spending the weekend with my mom” Randy sighed in annoyance, “You know it's her birthday, and it's her first weekend off all month. She's been taking a lot of extra shifts and it took forever to convince her to take them off”
“What the juice Cunningham! You’re always busy doing ninja stuff! How can we hang out if you're busy doing other stuff too”
“I’m the ninja Howard! It’s my job!”
“Fine, but you owe me” Howard grumbled
“I promise to spend next weekend with you and I’ll buy you a bunch of McFizzles”
“You better” Howard grumbled, “Now if you need me, I have some graves to punch!”
“Alright, see you later” Randy exhaled as he set down the pipping bag and hung up the phone.
He loves Howard but sometimes he can be hard to deal with. But Howard has stuck by his side no matter what. Randy smiled at that thought. Suddenly an alarm went off, shanpping Randy out of his thoughts.
“OH WONK” He shouted as turned to the stovetop to see a pot with liquid boiling out of it. He quickly ran over chanting “Oh no oh no oh no, please be ok, oh no”. He quickly turned off the heat and moved the pot over. Taking the lid off and looking into it he breathed a sigh of relief. The soup was ok. It is one of his mom's favorites and he worked hard to make it perfect.
Suddenly, he hears the garage door open and a car pull in. He quickly stuffs the freshly decorated cake, pipping bags, and any other ingredients left out into the fridge and quickly turns out the lights. He hides behind the wall next to the entrance to the opening of the kitchen.
“Randy? You home?” He hears his Okaa-san call out to him as he hears footsteps get closer. When the lights finally get switched on, he jumps out of his hiding place in front of her and screams “HAPPY BIRT-”
Before he can finish, a fist collides with his face. Causing him to fall over. His mom immediately rushes to help him back up. Cupping his face and crying out,
“Oh Randy are you ok! I’m so sorry!”
“It’s ok okaa-san, I should have remembered you don’t like jump scares,” Randy laughs as he gets to his feet, smiling. “That was so bruce though”
His okaa-san laughs. He loves it when his okaa-san laughs, she looks so pretty when she does. Her dark purple hair, slightly darker than his, bounces and her sapphire eyes light up. He thinks her eyes don’t light up as much as they should. So he does his best to make her laugh whenever he can. His mom has always been a tall, skinny woman. Many find her intimidating because of how tall she is, but she is the kindest person anyone would ever meet if they got to know her. Howard likes
to say he gets his kindness from her.
She looks around the kitchen and notices the mess. Sniffing the air to figure out what Randy could have made to make such a mess. “Did you make Kenchin-Jiru?” She asks curiously.
“Yep! I remember you mentioned it's one of your favorite comfort foods from when you were younger, so I made it for your birthday. Or it tried to” Randy admitted as he rubbed the back of his head.
His mother smiles warmly at him. “What did I do to deserve such a sweet child? Let's see how you did”
They walked over to the stove top, she took the ladle sitting next to the pot and tasted it. She started to tear up.
“Mom, are you ok? It tastes honkin’ shnasty doesn't it” He says in defeat.
“No, it's just….” She takes off, trying to come up with the right words. “It takes just like my ojīchans”
“Oh…” Randy wasn’t sure how to reply. His mom never really talked about her past, but he knows she had a close relationship with her grandfather. Whenever he suggests saving up to go to Japan, to visit her hometown, she refuses and states that she can’t. She never told Randy why she couldn’t, so he always tried to bring Japan closer to home. It's why he made Kenchin-Jiru.
“It’s a good thing koibito. Where did you get the recipe for this?” She asks.
“My online friend.” We’ll online is as close enough when it's a sentient book. He was so thankful that the Ninja Nomicon taught him some recipes, even though it turned them into ninja lessons and was taught via riddles. That thing loved to torture him.
“Ah yes, the online friend that you never tell me the name of, nothing fishy about that.” She chuckles, “If it wasn’t the fact that they have given you decent advice I would be more worried. Just remember what I told you about internet safety”
“I know okaa-san. Oh, I made some rice in the rice maker as well! It should be ready.”
“Then let's get some plates and dig in before everything gets cold.” She says as she starts to open the cabinets for the bowls.
After setting the table and getting the food on their plate (ignoring the smears of frosting and other bits of food on the table), they both said “Itadakimasu!” and dug in. They quietly enjoyed their food, the fluffy rice and the nicely cooked vegetables from the soup with the soft tofu. Happy to bask in silence together. Once finished, Randy started to gather their plates.
“Randy, let me clean the dishes. You have already done enough for me.” She said as she stood up to stop Randy.
“I’ve got it okaa-san! Besides, it's your birthday, and I still have one more surprise for you” He said as he put the dishes in the sink
“It’s not my birthday until tomorrow, and I think I can guess what the surprise is” She smirked as he eyes the frosting on the table.
“I know your birthday isn’t until tomorrow, but I was too excited. Plus, you have the whole weekend off. Which is SUPER AMAZENDINGLES!” He screamed the last part as he started to clean the dishes. While they have a dishwasher, they rarely ever use it. “But if it makes you feel better, we can save the other surprise for tomorrow”.
“That sounds like a great plan, I don’t think I can handle any more surprises today. Even if I can guess what it is” She said as they smiled at each other.
They continue to quietly chat, catching up on everything that they have missed over the past week. As Randy puts the last dish in the drying rack, the doorbell rings.