[PRP] Cupcake Party! ...Well, sort of. (Erebus & Tomoko)

[Melodine Cantus]

Conclusion: Erebus, middle brother of the Cerberus triplets, was horrible at baking.

Somehow, the boil had managed to burn batch after batch of cupcakes. It probably had something to do with him and his fire ability. And yet, Erebus wasn't one to give up. Finally, when he was completely exhausted and half covered with cupcake mix, he slid out a tray to find that one had survived. Just one.

And it honestly didn't look like the one in the recipe he was referring to. But it looked a lot better than all the charred and black ones he had seen, and so, Erebus figured that this one cupcake passed. Sort of.

He tried decorating it with purple frosting and candy stars, except Erebus was also sort of horrible at decorating neatly. It was sloppy and really not a model of perfection, but it was his best effort.

He only hoped that she would like it. He hadn't seen her in quite a while, and Erebus had somehow heard that Tomoko had advanced to Year 2 now! It was something warranted a celebration, at least to Erebus.

And so Erebus knocked on the door to Tomoko's room. And immediately panicked, wondering if he should hide the cupcake behind his back for a surprise or just hold it in front of him outright, but what if someone bumped into him and the cupcake flew out of his hands.

Erebus was starting to think that he didn't think this through carefully enough.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

What if Tomoko wasn't in?

A potential thought as almost a minute passed before a quiet, 'Oh, that was the door, wasn't it?' could be heard, some shuffling, "Just a minute!", then a sound of more shuffling, an 'oomph' as though she'd just tripped over something, and then finally the kitsune opened the door, smiling as brightly as she ever did. A radiating sun. With messed up hair and wrinkled clothing - it was possible she'd been taking a nap (and perhaps the most likely).

She opened her mouth as though to say one name, paused as if recalling a previous mistake, then grinned. "Erebus!" she beamed, "I haven't seen you in forever!" Smile smile smile smile. She hoped she had the right brother, anyways. It had been awkward to meet Thackery via 'Hi, I thought you were Erebus'. So she'd been trying to prevent vice-versa.

She stepped out as if to hug the Cerberus before she slowly looked down to what he was holding, her head tilting slightly. Then back up at him inquisitively.  

[Melodine Cantus]

When Tomoko opened the door, Erebus breathed a sigh of relief; it was the right door, and she hadn't been out! A smile grew on his face, tail beginning to wag, although he was still pretty much a bundle of nerves on the inside. "Tomoko! Hi! I uh... didn't disturb you, did I?" It looked as though she had just gotten out of bed. Had he woken her up?

Wow, way to go, Erebus.

"Uh... so this..." He stared down at the cupcake as she did, and met her gaze to give her a sheepish grin. "Is for you! It's not... really good or anything..." Erebus wondered if it was a good idea to tell Tomoko that this was the lone survivor of all the cupcakes he had made. "But I thought I'd give you something to celebrate! I mean, you have six tails now! That's awesome!" He really was quite proud of her, especially when she had mentioned that kitsunes had to be special to get more tails.  

[demon_pachabel]

Stare.

Stare.

Stare.

"For..me?" She actually seemed genuinely puzzled that he'd do something so nice for her out of the blue like that. There might have been sparkles happening. "You're so sweet to make me something at all!" she carefully edged around the cupcake, as squishing it might have been a bad course of action, wrapping one arm around Erebus' shoulders and leaning in to hug him.

"I'm actually...actually..actually...." as she trailed a few more 'actually's, she fussed with one of her tails, brushing the fur carefully to show him the tip where it was beginning to fork, "gonna get a seventh one soon." She looked very excited, before looking to him again. Then the cupcake. Then to him.

"Want to come in?"  

[Melodine Cantus]

"Yeah, I um..." Erebus reddened slightly as she came forward to give him a one armed hug, leaning down a little since she was shorter than him. "I felt sort of bad for not really being around, and I'm gonna get focused on stuff here and I thought it was a good idea to reconnect." Also, Tomoko was really adorable and she deserved it, for all the hard work she had been doing!

His grin grew when she confided in him about a seventh tail. Seven! Tomoko was really quite amazing. "From three to seven!" Erebus ruffled her hair gently with a free hand. "You've certainly grown a lot from when I last saw you." Unlike him. But he would! It was his resolution to work as hard as he could to catch up and be promoted to a Year 2 student.

"Um... okay. I should probably put this down somewhere anyway." Holding a cupcake with one hand was still quite worrying; what if a minipet decided to bump into him and he wasn't looking and he dropped it and...

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"I've been working really hard. Thackkun's been progressing even faster than me." she seemed to sigh.

Desades bumped into Erebus' leg as if on que of the thought, the bake-kitsune half-climbing up his leg and trying to snoop what it was he'd brought. Tomoko smiled, taking the plate from him with both hands. "I'll put it on my desk." she offered, nudging the door open with her foot before stepping in.

Tomoko's room was like a mix of a very neat anime-student's room - with a small fridge and a microwave and a very new addition of a lone stove-top burner that could be plugged in (so she could boil her water properly, darnit!) and an astral observatory, start charts, glow in the dark stars, purple paint, a few books on astronomy littering her shelves and walls. But outside of her rumpled bedding, it was organized for company with a low round table and four legless seats in the middle of it.

"Do you drink tea, Erebus?" she inquired, carefully setting the plate down as she began fussing through a very hefty collection of tea tins. Tomoko quite clearly did the 'tea' thing.

Melodine Cantus

 

[Melodine Cantus]

Ears perked up. "You've met Thack?" His tail hovered in the air, unsure of whether to wag (because Thack had met Tomo and they could talk about her) or droop (because he was somewhat anxious, for some unfathomable reason, to know what Thack thought about her).

He almost jumped when the bake-kitsune nudged him, but breathed a sigh of relief when Tomoko rescued the cupcake. Erebus glanced down and gave the minipet a small smile, reaching down to pat it gently on the head.

"Your room is nice." He said. Erebus' own room wasn't as neat, but wasn't really as messy either. He did have a penchant for stacking up his books in piles and organize them that way... but piles were piles and it made his room seem rather cluttered.

"I like tea." In general, Erebus largely preferred hot beverages. "I'm not too sure about all the different kinds though." It seemed like Tomoko had quite a lot of tea here!

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Tomoko smiled sheepishly. "I ah... actually nearly jumped him from behind thinking he was you." she admitted. "I kind of threw his boilfriend for a minor loop, I think. But Thackkun and I have become pretty good friends since." she assured. Despite any bumpy starts, she did a lot of confiding in the youngest of the triplets.

Unfortunately for Erebus, he picked up a shadow in exchange for petting Desades, the bakekitsune trailing after him in interest. After all. He might have been willing to drop food for him. The greatest joy of all, right there.

"You think so? It's nice to have my own space, I'll admit. Back home I shared a room with my two younger siblings." Three little kitsunes, cramped in a room too small for them all to fit. Especially with all the tail-action happening. Not that Tomoko's tails got in the way as she set a kettle on her little burner to start heating up, setting five tins out on the table for her guest to pick from.

"I have a Raspberry Earl, Wild Strawberry, Coconut Mango, Ambrosia Plum, and Chocolate Chai to pick from that I think would be good." she sat with her feet flat on the ground in front of her, leaning her arms on her knees and looking at Erebus expectantly for his opinion.

Melodine Cantus

 

[Melodine Cantus]

"R-really?" Erebus was surprised. Tomoko was probably the only one who would mistake Thack for him; Frost had mistaken him for Thack before, and he wouldn't be surprised if others did the same. But there was something else more pressing to worry about. "Boilfriend?!" He spluttered. It was lucky they hadn't yet started drinking the tea, or Erebus would have probably spat that out in surprise.

"Tell me about Thack's boilfriend! Is he nice to Thack? Is he a good boil? How long have they been together? Are they happy together?" He was nearly hopping from worry; Erebus wanted to know everything. After all, Thack was his brother, and if Thack's boilfriend did anything to hurt Thack, he'd-- !!!

"Sorry, I..." Erebus took in a deep breath and let it out, sitting down opposite Tomoko. "I think Ambrosia Plum sounds nice." Actually, all of them did. Tea was not something he was particularly knowledgeable about.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Well. She'd met Erebus first. So it made more sense for her to mistake Thackeray for him than vice-versa. At least at first meeting. They were easier to tell apart now.

As Tomoko set the tea bags in a pair of cups, she set about answering the bombardment of questions. "Anoooo..... I do not know Ash that well. I think, from what I can tell, Thackkun is pretty happy with him, and Ash treats him well, though." She motioned with her hands vaguely. "He's a really tall reaper boil, seems pretty strong from what I can tell. I don't know how long they've been together..... but I'm not sure why Thackkun didn't go with him to the last prom." The kitsune tilted her head a bit. "He asked me to go instead. Which was fun, we had a good time, but..."

Clearly Tomoko was a little bit puzzled on that front.

The kettle was taken off the burner to sit for a while, the kitsune trying to not watch it as she turned back to the table. "Water has to cool down a bit. This tea will burn if the water's too hot." she explained.

Desades was still pandering for pets at this point.

Melodine Cantus

 

[Melodine Cantus]

Ash. So that was the boil's name. And a Reaper too. Erebus made a mental note to keep a ear out for this boil. Either that, or question Thack about him. From what he gleaned from Tomoko, all seemed well, except for the thing about the prom. Hmm. Hmmmmmmm.

It certainly probably was every Cerberus' dream to go to prom with a kitsune, but in this case, it didn't really make sense. Unless... "Maybe they had a fight?" He suggested with a frown. It sounded like they had relationship problems, and Erebus felt bad for not being around for when that happened. And not knowing anything about it. At all.

But now he did, at least. He really hoped that Thack hadn't been hurt though.

"Alright." Now just noticing that Desades had followed him, Erebus grinned and acknowledged his request, stroking the bakekitsune. "It's cute. What's its name?"

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Tomoko looked shocked at the idea of it. "A fight!? That'd make sense." She thwapped her palm against her forehead in shame. "I just never asked because he seemed so excited to go with me..." and to be honest, she'd been tickled that she'd been asked.

"Oh, that's Desades." She introduced as the bakekitsune attempted to crawl into Erebus' lap, eyeing the cupcake on the table. "He's a food thief and will stick his face in your tea if you're not careful." As she explained this, Tomoko carefully filled the two cups, setting a towel over them both before carefully starting a timer for three minutes.

"Mononoke might come down eventually to say hi," she pointed to a black bakekitsune sitting on top of her shelves, looking down at them with judgement. "Kawadesu will attack your feet." She motioned to a pink paw poking out from under the bed, batting at anything that moved close by, "and Sune won't let you touch her unless you give her a treat." Another bakekitsune, this one white, sitting on Tomoko's pillow like a proper lady.

"That's it for introductions, I think..."

Melodine Cantus

 

[Melodine Cantus]

"Well, I'm glad you two had fun together!" Erebus said in an attempt to reassure Tomoko. And really, secretly deep down inside, he was glad that Thack had asked Tomoko and not someone else. Not that he would admit it. Maybe only to Thack when he got to talk to his brother. Maaaybeeee.

"Oh, hi Desades." The boil grinned, gently lifting the bakekitsune up and settling it on his lap. "Hey, wait, won't he scald himself that way?" A hand cupped over Desades' muzzle protectively. Erebus himself was used to scalding hot temperatures, but he wasn't quite sure if that was the same case for a bakekitsune. It never hurt to be too careful though!

He turned to glance at each bakekitsune as Tomoko introduced them, giving each a slight bow of his head in acknowledgement. "Mononoke, Kawadesu and Sune." He repeated their names under his breath, so hopefully, he wouldn't forget them. Four bakekitsunes and they were all really cute too! Erebus was honestly quite fascinated; he never had any minipets.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"The water won't be that hot. You asked for a white tea, so the water had to cool down anyways." Tomoko explained as she offered him a cup as well as a box of sugar cubes - she did like things a little bit on the sweeter side, after all. For his concern, Erebus's hand got licked as Desades investigated if it was edible or not.

"Yep. Mononoke is the oldest, Sune was my first pet from home that was all mine, Desades I've had since he was liiitttlle.. and Kawadesu...." she looked down towards the comforter before taking a sip of her tea thoughtfully.

"He broke and entered and never left again."

Melodine Cantus

 

[Melodine Cantus]

"Ah, okay." Erebus brightened slightly. Note to self: Read up on teas. He certainly needed to build up his knowledge on them... even as he took the cup from Tomoko with thanks and added a single sugar cube tentatively. "That tickles." He murmured slightly down to Desades with a laugh, hand now shifting to rest on the bakekitsune's head instead.

"That sounds... interesting." The boil's ears perked up as he followed Tomoko's gaze towards the pink paw that was a sign of Kawadesu. "I've seen minipets around but I've never had them... sneak into my room." Pause. Wait, this reminded him of something vaguely familiar... "Well, unless you count this one bakekitsune that seems to hang about when I'm reading in the common room, but then disappears when I try to pet her."

demon_pachabel