You know, I was thinking about how much you're like the moon. You're a beacon; a bright, steady presence to guide everyone in the darkness. → about ←
if anyone wants to see when they signed up for tumblr, visit the above post. it displays your registration timestamp when you view the post itself, but when you reblog it, it’ll copy that timestamp.
that blog is a little bit of chaotic tumblr magic i built for april fools a long time ago.
originally posted on twitter and it's well past the actual date now (no pun intended), but nevertheless — happy 6th anniversary ikesen EN! thank you for helping me get in touch with my sappy side. i hope i can support the game for years to come. c:
i'm the last person in the world to read this book lol, but i got the secret history by donna tartt yesterday and i'm using the koyuki-themed bookmark from @akaneukitake to mark my progress as i go along (*´▽｀*)♡ it's so pretty...!!!
Realised I never uploaded this piece here, so- here it is! Got to draw the sweet JuniThena, and definitely had a lot of fun working on this <3 Thank you a lot for letting me participate!
Tags: sengoku era, established relationship (married), slice of life (aka nothing happens), fluff, huge historical anachronism (see my note at the end for details)
Word Count: 1190 words
Summary:
“What's this?”
Koyuki stared at the small wooden box on the table. Inside it were tiny, podlike beans of a rich, brown shade, the origins and purpose of which she couldn't make heads or tails of. She thought of a crude comparison to them, but found it inappropriate to voice it out—even if she knew it would have her husband snickering in childish amusement.
“Chocolate,” Masamune enunciated in accented English, picking up one of the coated beans to examine it in the light.
“What's this?”
Koyuki stared at the small wooden box on the table. Inside it were tiny, podlike beans of a rich, brown shade, the origins and purpose of which she couldn't make heads or tails of. She thought of a crude comparison to them, but found it inappropriate to voice it out—even if she knew it would have her husband snickering in childish amusement.
“Chocolate,” Masamune enunciated in accented English, picking up one of the coated beans to examine it in the light. “The merchants dropped off a few crates of these in the port—samples of a new potential business venture, or so they say. Apparently it's a delicacy in the far west, and I do remember reading mentions of it in books and letters, but it was always described as a drink rather than an edible treat...”
Koyuki hummed thoughtfully. Given her husband's affinity for all things foreign, she was surprised to hear he didn't seem too familiar with the supposedly favored indulgence of the western lords; if even Masamune was clueless, it had to have been a recent invention. “You haven't tried it, then?”
“No, no one has. I'm the only one with a trade deal with this particular merchant. Picky guy; makes it a point to get along with whoever he does business with.” Masamune grabbed a handful of beans and all but shoved them onto his wife. “Here, you try some.”
“Oh.” she blinked. “Uh...”
Koyuki considered it, perhaps more seriously than one would expect. She supposed the logical action upon receiving samples is to, well, sample them, but she always found herself so apprehensive when foreign goods are concerned. It wasn't that she distrusted their intentions, or thought their culture beneath her; rather, it was the novelty of being able to witness, touch and digest something so entirely unknown to her, the mind-bending state of knowing there's entirely different civilizations out there that she can somehow take a glimpse into just by having a taste of what they eat for dinner. It excited her just as much as it terrified her.
Masamune's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. “Come on, what's life without trying out a few questionable-looking treats from beyond the sea?” he nudged her, and that was the final push of confidence she needed. His grin widened when Koyuki finally relented, watching with keen interest as she gingerly took one of the beans from his open palm.
“Did they at least tell you what it would taste like?”
“Nope.” he smirked. “Guess we'll have to find out for ourselves.”
The rugged, oval-shaped cacao bean was surprisingly soft to the touch, due to the layer of melted chocolate coating its exterior. Koyuki rubbed her fingers on its surface and found them stained with the same shade of brown that tinted the snack; it seemed that the treat was prone to dissolving when exposed to heat, and she could not waste another minute to ponder about its shape.
Not knowing exactly what to expect, Koyuki popped one in her mouth. She chewed slowly, as people do when they want to discern the taste of a delicacy they weren't yet familiar with and, based on that information, whether they like it.
The feeling hit her abruptly; the moment, the millisecond it melted in her mouth, the instant the crispness broke down and gave way to the rich, velvety goodness within, her eyes lit up at once. “Mm—”
Koyuki covered her mouth, slightly embarrassed by her overt display of pleasure, but her raised brows and glittering eyes betrayed any sort of reticence she was feigning, any kind of shame she might have felt, for no one should feel ashamed of indulging themselves in such a heavenly delight.
”...Well?” Masamune watched, clearly amused.
“It's...” Koyuki grappled to find the words. “...Bitter, but not in the way medicine is; it has a strong, sort of intense taste, but once it melts it's sweet and creamy and- and exquisite, I haven't tasted anything quite like it... Oh, and here I thought they were rather unfortunate-looking...”
That earned her a laugh from the one-eyed dragon. “That good, huh?” he leaned over to touch the left corner of her lips, where some blots of chocolate had apparently found their way outside her mouth. “It must be really good if you've even got some here.”
“Oh,” she cleared her throat sheepishly. She let Masamune's fingers brush the splotches of melted chocolate away, dirtying his own fingers in the process, though he never seemed to mind this in the slightest. “Beloved, it's just... oh, I don't even know where to begin. You simply must try it.”
“Yeah, now I really need to see what the fuss is all about,” her husband gleefully reached out to help himself to the treat, the afternoon's metaphorical belle of the ball. Contrary to Koyuki's own experience, hesitation was absent in his movement. “...Mm. Hmm...”
Masamune's reaction was nowhere near as blissfully pleased as Koyuki; his one eye narrowed, brows furrowed, and each time he swallowed he seemed to take a longer time to do it than the last. Even so, Koyuki knew him well enough not to mistake his tells for displeasure.
“You're thinking of all the ways you could possibly incorporate this into your cooking,” she pointed out with a smile.
“It's divine,” Masamune all but sighed, much to Koyuki's amusement. “If we could just tone down the bitterness a little for the general public, we could give konpeito a run for its money.”
“We?”
He laughed. “What we're looking for is something that could help neutralize the bitter taste to make it palatable for the sugar-crazed folk. And yes, we, because I'm going to need someone to be my taste-tester. Let's see, I've got a few ingredients in mind...”
Just after a single taste, Koyuki thought. Masamune rattled off a few of his ideas, some she could've made an educated guess out of (sugar, wine and berries), some not so conventional (sea salt and cheese), and she listened and watched in marvel as he spoke and speculated, carefully weighing every option, dismissing every initial hypothesis once he found a better ingredient of choice. He'd walked into the room that afternoon carrying a box of strange-looking beans he didn't have the slightest clue what to do with, but after just a single taste, he was all but ready to experiment with its possibilities, put his own spin on it and introduce it to the motherland.
This would be the first time Koyuki noticed a pattern she would later still take joy in observing even many, many years later; whatever new foreign delicacy he discovered, whatever new apparatus he'd been made privy to—Masamune's first instinct would be to think of other people, his people, and all the ways in which he could present these wonders to them in a way that still thoughtfully considered their own collective tastes and preferences. If he was in possession of something good, something that he earnestly thought would bring joy to others, the first thing he'd do was to share it with others.
He truly never ceased to amaze her.
---
A/N: as you can probably immediately discern, i took a lot of creative liberties with this fic. for one, chocolate wasn't brought over to japanese shores until the late 18th century, which was well after the sengoku period and therefore masamune's lifetime. second of all, while chocolate has long been a luxury treat in the western world, it was mostly consumed as a drink rather than an edible, solid food (something i had masamune lampshade, lol); it wasn't until the 19th century that chocolate started to be mass-manufactured as the bars we can all enjoy today. lastly, i'm not sure anyone in the 1500s would have the technology to store chocolates so that they would last through a months-long voyage.
on a lighter note i'm very happy i finally managed to finish something masayuki-related, as short as this fic was :] i hope you enjoyed reading it as much as i enjoyed writing it!
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