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merryfortune · 9 months

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Playing (Gingerbread) House

Written for the Winter Holiday Bingo 2023

Prompts provided by @sweetspicybingo

Prompt: Gingerbread House

Title: Playing (Gingerbread) House

Ship: Amane/Ran

Fandom: Delicious Party Pretty Cure

Rating: T

Word Count: 3,248

Warnings: None

Tags: Post-Canon, Crushes, Flirting, Confessions, Food as a Love Language

This year, all Rin and Run wanted for Christmas was a gingerbread house,

Given that they didn’t typically get Christmas presents and were a little bit older now, being eight years old now, and that money wasn’t quite as tight as it used to be, and the fact that Christmas was actually weeks and weeks away despite the flight of fancy… Their parents were more than happy to oblige. Just so long as Ran was in charge of it and she didn’t mind one bit.

She was the eldest daughter after all. Spoiling her little siblings should be her one and only job. Not to mention, Ran could attest, when it came to western style foods and desserts, her parents were very much better off not in the kitchen. Before Rin and Ran were born, Ran had had a couple birthdays where her cake had been a bit of a mess. Also, with all the patisseries and cafes in the area, it was better to support fellow small businesses anyway.

Therefore, Ran was happy to provide. It sounded fun to bake all that gingerbread then construct a house out of it – and of course a garden full of lollies and other sweets and gingerbread people to live in said house and garden. Already, Ran could feel her hopes for the project skyrocket and her mouth water. She was up to the challenge. In fact, she was more than ready for it.

So long as she had her best friends in tow giving her moral support. A couple phone calls later, Ran discovered no. No, she did not.

Yui was down for the count. She was in bed with a terrible cold and her mother was not going to let her go anywhere further than the refrigerator to get water. Kokone was also getting ready to go visit her grandparents for a family weekend holiday and was also unable to make it. Takumi had accepted an invite put out first by his male friends and that just left Amane…

“Desserts and sweets are my specialty,” Amane said over the phone, “it would be my pleasure to come around and help.”

Ran could have squealed in delight at Amane’s reply but to save her friends ears, she politely bit her lip. Though she did reply, “See you soon.”

Now, not to have favourites among her friends, no, never Ran would absolutely never do that, but it was Amane. At least for this particular instance. After all, Amane was an heir to a dessert focused café. If any of Ran’s friends had an advantage when it came to making good sweets, then it would surely be Amane. Because Kokone only began to learn to cook last year and both Yui and Takumi were inheritors of savoury cuisine.

But also because, well… Ran may have a teeny-tiny, really small, totally and utterly insignificant, incredibly ginormous crush on Amane.

To be fair, who didn’t?

Being the school’s president and council leader, Amane was the apple of many an eye.

Amane was beautiful and graceful. She was skilled at many things Ran wished she could be skilled at, like penmanship and courtesy, and time management. That last one especially, Ran envied. She was considerate of others and empathetic. She was, best of all, a good friend, too, and an even better heroine. How she had fought against the brainwashing that had caused her to become Gentlu, that was quite heroic Ran thought – and something only Ran, and the others, knew.

That last thing was a bit special and made Ran’s crush on her a whole lot less cookie cutter.

Ran wasn’t sure when her crush on Amane had begun but it had her head over heels nonetheless. She thought about Amane late at night, her pretty smile and how dependable she was. It put butterflies in Ran’s stomach. Usually they hung out as a group – four or five of them, more if Rosemary and the fairies were visiting – so to have someone on one time, Ran was sure to enjoy it.

Even if she had to share Amane with her younger siblings.

Half an hour after she and Amane had hung up, Amane arrived at the Hanamichi residence and was welcomed warmly. It was cold out. Not so cold that it would snow but cold enough to have Amane in mittens and mufflers. Both of which she took off as she was shown inside and upstairs to the small, homely kitchen where the Hanamichi family ate meals from.

She looked it over with keen eyes and with her hands on her hips Amane said, “Let’s get started.”

“Sounds good.” Ran agreed whilst her younger siblings did a hip-hip hooray in unison around her.

In preparation of fulfilling Rin and Run’s desire for gingerbread, and to keep them entertained, Mama and Papa Hanamichi had already gone and bought the ingredients ahead of time. That made Amane’s job far easier. She whipped the three Hanamichi siblings into shape after that.

Amane and Ran handled the main bowl of gingerbread dough they were making whilst she let the twins mix and knead what would become the gingerbread folk they intended to bake. This was the easy part, of course. Measuring things out, slapping down flour and rolling the dough. It was all by the book whilst the refrigerator chilled their hard work.

It was what came afterwards which was the hard part. The boring part. The dough had to be cooled for three whole hours! Rin and Run found that ridiculous. Though not as ridiculous as their sister who distracted them with arts and crafts and a bigger plan.

They needed to figure out what the gingerbread house would look like and as it so happen, Rin and Run had a lot of ideas. Like, a lot of ideas. Whether or not they would be feasible, it was hard to say but for now, drawing out their fifty storey baked good dream house kept them busy and that’s all either Ran or Amane could ask for.

The expectation management could come later.

For now, they had the fun part. The dough was chilled and ready to be rolled and flattened and squished and squashed. Cookie cutters came out of the drawers and it was time to play. Amane handled the planks of dough which would become the house itself whilst Ran had fun with her siblings, making gingerbread people and other decorations they might need.

It was really hard to keep themselves from sampling the dough. The time it had spent wrapped in glad wrap in the refrigerator had quashed some of the pungent, spicy-ginger smell but it was still really tempting but it smelled even better when it went into the oven. The whole of the Hanamichi flat began to smell beautifully as the biscuits began to bake.

Luckily, the turnaround for baking was much, much quicker than the refrigeration of the dough first. It actually barely gave them enough time to make enough icing and they were going to need a heap of it.

“So,” Amane said, looking at the children’s drawings, “I don’t think we can have this many storeys on our house. Let’s just make a cute box with a roof.”

Rin and Run complained audibly.

“It’s still a fun box!” Ran piped up. “Filled with all kinds of goodies.” She shook a bag of hard candies in front of them.

The rattle of the lollies insides distracted Rin and Run briefly enough to agree to Amane’s revisions. Together, the four of them got to hard work with Amane doing the trickiest bits. The twins had fun sticking lollies onto the biscuits themselves whilst Amane and Ran busied themselves with sweat on the actual construction of the gingerbread house.

It was a lot harder than the recipe and pretty pictures made it seem. Though that could only be said about the gingerbread house. Rin and Run were doing plenty of fine working on the gingerbread people. They had made a whole stack of them and they had bags upon bags of icing mixture and lollies to decorate with.

Some turned out to be masterpieces. Especially if Amane had helped but others, like if Rin or Run had been left to their own devices, or even if Ran had been helping, they looked more of the Picasso type of masterpiece than a da Vinci. But they were having fun, that was the main thing.

They probably spent another hour or so, putting those finishing touches on their biscuits. Whether it was extra gumdrops on the house or putting as many chocolate buttons on the gingerbread folk as possible, they had biscuits coming out of their ears. A whole family of gingerbread people and a big house, with a garden full of candy canes and musk sticks out the front. The four of them should be really proud as they looked at the whole scene upon a thick charcuterie board.

“Let’s dig in!” Rin announced.

“Yeah, yeah!” Run agreed

“What, no?!” Ran exclaimed.

“But I’m hungry…” the twins complained.

“Aww but it's so cute, it’s like we have dolls now.” Ran snickered as she picked up one of the gingerbread folk to admire. “How could we possibly eat it?”

“Yeah, it’d be a shame to eat them right away, wouldn’t it?” Amane said.

“Aww but we wanna eat them.” Rin and Run chorused, not in those exact words or exact synchronicity.

“I wanna show Mama and Papa our hard work.” Ran pouted.

That stuck to her siblings. They supposed yes. They had done really hard work all day whilst their parents were downstairs handling the restaurant.

“But then Amane won’t get to try some.” Rin pointed out.

“That’s okay, I don’t need any. These are for you and your family.” Amane graciously replied.

Rin and Run continued to stare at her imploringly. The two children clearly thought this was the height of unfairness and injustice. Their cheeks went red and their chins pruned.

Amane sighed and glanced at Ran, who was still holding one of the gingerbread people they had made. That one happened to be the woman that Rin had made and an idea came to mind. She smiled at Ran and Ran had no idea what she was thinking as Ran picked up a gentlemanly gingerbread man.

She walked him closer to where Ran was and announced, “Honey, I have to go to work.” Amane lowered her voice and put on her best 1950’s businessman voice as a joke. It sounded bad but it got the attention of the twins.

Though they, and Ran, stared, bewildered.

“I have to go on a business trip far, far away and need you to look after the kids for me.” Amane continued, trying to prompt Ran into playing with her.

She jostled the gentleman gingerbread man to make it look like he was walking on the musk stick road that was iced into place. That’s when it finally dawned on Ran and her heart skipped a beat. She had said it herself, maybe that’s even where Amane had gotten the idea from: the gingerbread folk was just like a bunch of dolls. Delicious, edible dolls.

“Oh, honey,” Ran replied, pitching her voice upward to sound dramatic, “I’ll miss you very much but I understand, you have to go. You are the CEO after all.”

Amane laughed, “I’ll bring home lots of gifts and money, you make sure the kids eat well whilst I’m gone.”

“I will honey, I’ll make the most delicious soups for them whilst you're gone - and freeze some for when you get back.” Ran continued to play along.

Amane’s eyes flashed. Oh, now there’s an idea, too. She smiled and Ran felt good.

“And make sure the house is in good order until I’m back. Your parents are visiting later.” Amane said.

“I know, I know, and I will, thank you, honey.” Ran replied.

And she didn’t know why but now that their little play had reached a fever pitch - the businessman couldn’t dawdle with his wife all day, after all - but Ran couldn’t help herself. It just felt right to the scene somehow. Her body language jittered, right down to her fingers with which she held onto the dolly gingerbread woman and she pushed it forward.

Their gingerbread faces met in a kiss. Flat to flat, chocolate facial features bumped together. It was a crude and rudimentary kiss… On the outside but to Ran? It was as good and sweet as the real thing.

“Mwah, stay safe honey.” Ran bade Amane in the play. She was red in the face as she vibrated, the gingerbread wife trembled in the door frame of her and her husband’s gingerbread house.

“I love you too, goodbye.” Amane said and she trotted the gingerbread man back off the other way.

Amane laughed it off again but Ran’s heart hammered. Her more than little crush on Amane resurfacing. She couldn’t believe she had done that. She had had an indirect kiss with Amane! They had been calling each other honey!

But, with that… End scene. Or was it?

Amane and Ran set down their gingerbread husband and wife duo. Amane flashed a smile at Ran.

“Thank you for cooperating, Ran.” Amane told her. “Your a good actress, on the fly.”

“Haha, thanks, you too.” Ran replied, blushing. Though more out of modesty of being complimented than anything else.

“I think you would make a good wife, for real though. Your good with kids, can bake and cook, clever as anything. Anyone would be lucky to have you.” Amane told her and that was like water in a pot boiling over.

Ran went red as anything whilst the twins exchanged a look. It was one thing to flirt as gingerbread spouses but this was another thing entirely. Though Ran took it straight to heart, turning into jelly as she cooed.

“Aww, you really think so?” Ran said, less modest and just as blushy as before.

“I do.” Amane goaded her.

“You really, really think so?” Ran asked, becoming more and more singsong, too.

“I do?” Amane said, a touch confused this time.

And right before Ran could go into this routine a third time, her younger sister interrupted. “Okay, okay, we get it.” Rin said.

“Ah, sorry.” Ran squeaked, colour draining from her face and snapping her out of her reverie between reality and her crush.

“You can take… this one!” Run said and he picked out which of the gingerbread people remaining - the kids - that Amane could take home with her. “I made this one.”

“Thank you, Run.” Amane replied, grateful. Even if it was the most lopsidedly iced and decorated of the bunch. She glanced at her watch and smiled sympathetically. “It really is time for me to go.”

“Aww… But we’re having so much fun!” Rin complained.

“And you will continue to have fun, with or without me.” Amane assured her as she accepted the gingerbread boy. “Thank you all for having me.”

“Our pleasure!” Ran chirped with a salute then hurried herself along, “If you gotta go, let me escort you to the front door.”

“Thank you.” Amane replied.

Rin and Run would be alright unattended for a few minutes, whilst Ran took Amane downstairs and into the restaurant. She had walked here earlier and she was going to walk again. They passed by their parents - hard at work behind the counter, taking and fulfilling orders - and were thankfully too busy to get more than a goodbye in.

So, together, on the street corner, Ran and Amane said their last farewells. The street itself was quiet with traffic and lit up with amber streetlights. The road itself was dim, however, made darker by the weather and how late in the afternoon - or early in the dusk - that it was. Winter made nightfall descend faster than usual and before Ran could worry aloud, Amane rugged up once more - and then some, too. A cold wind blew and it had snow sugar sparkles on it, both of them could swear. Or maybe they had just mixed up too much icing from before and were seeing things.

“I’m going to walk to the closest bus stop, don’t worry.” Amane assured Ran before Ran could get a word in.

“Ah, okay, that’s good.” Ran replied stiltedly. Then awkwardly adding, “I had fun today.”

“Me too, thank you for inviting me around.” Amane said.

“I’m glad, I couldn’t have done it without you. You were so helpful wrangling Rin and Run, getting everything ready…” Ran rambled. She fidgeted, too. She couldn’t help thinking about the gingerbread kiss and Amane telling her that she would make a good wife someday.

It was the sort of compliment that Ran was certain that she would be thinking about all night tonight. Her heart raced to even think about it in passing.

“Ran, excuse me but…” Amane said gently, interrupting Ran’s stream of consciousness. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

Ran’s entire body stopped, all of it except her brain, anyway. It zoomed with a zillion impulses, of things she could say. She could say that she thought that she was the prettiest girl in the whole wide world. That Amane was the best person ever and that Ran wanted to spend the rest of her life with her and had been crushing on her for the past year or so.

Instead, what Ran managed to muster, all whilst feeling like a deer caught in headlights was, “Did you mean it?”

“Pardon?” Amane blinked.

“When you said I would make a good wife to someone someday.” Ran clarified, her tone of voice serious and her eyes gleamed with amber determination.

“Yes, of course…?” Amane said and then she realised. “Oh.”

And then the levee broke. A deluge of words followed that had all of Ran bristle as she clenched her eyes so tight as she made her confession.

“I have a massive crush on you and want to be your wife. Please go out with me!” Ran blurted it all out in one, huge go.

She exhaled deeply and Amane stared in stunned silence.

Ran’s face went red. Oh no. Uh oh. Her stomach felt queasy as her knees knocked. She shouldn’t have confessed. There went her and Amane’s friendship right out the window. But there was something else too. In all her garbled intensity, Ran had used the wrong word.

“I, um, er… I mean girlfriend! I want to be your girlfriend!” Ran corrected herself just as loud as before.

Amane’s stunned silence melted and laugh lines appeared in the corner of her eyes as she smiled with gentle amusement, “I would be honoured to have you as my girlfriend, Ran.”

Ran couldn’t believe her ears as she functionally had an out of body experience because of what followed. Her heart and spirit was soaring whilst Amane reached out, taking her hand and leaning in.

“Mwah,” Amane whispered, audibly kissing Ran’s cheek, “see you at school, honey.”

“Y-Yeah, see you at school tomorrow…” Ran replied, starstruck.

Amane giggled impishly as she shimmied away from Ran. She really ought to be going if she was going to catch that bus but wow. What a day. Ran reached up to touch where Amane kissed her and she swore she could still feel Amane’s soft lips and the warmth she emanated right there. She watched as Amane left and looked forward to tomorrow.

#femslash #precure #delicious party pretty cure #delicious party precure #delicious party #amaran #amane kasai #kasai amane #cure finale #cure yum yum #hanamichi ran #ran hanamichi #writing tag #playing (gingerbread) house

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