higuchimon | [fanfic] Digimon Adventure 02: Taste Test

Title: Taste Test
Characters: Daisuke, Jun
Word Count: 500||Status: One-shot
Genre: Family||Rated: G
Challenge: Diversity Writing Challenge, A88, fic with every letter of the alphabet used at least twice; Digimon Flash Bingo, #401, delicious
Summary: Daisuke wants to know what Jun thinks about what he's made. She's being so slow!

Daisuke leaned forward, teeth clenched, nails digging into his palms. He'd gone after the Digimon Kaiser and faced BelialVamdemon with more nerve in his spine than he felt now.

“Well?” The question burst out of him without restraint. He had to know!

Jun gave him a very cool and dismissive look. “I'll tell you when I'm done,” she promised. Daisuke suspected she did it just to annoy him. She knew how much he wanted his answers.

To show how much he didn't care, he threw himself on the couch, and stared at the ceiling. He absolutely didn't cut his eyes toward where she ate a bowl of his new ramen, taking so much time that he wondered if she expected to find a gold nugget when she finished.

If she had it would be his anyway, since he'd been the one to fill the bowl. But she didn't have to torture him like that!

Finally, she put the bowl to one side and leaned back, tapping one finger against the side of her lips.

“Well?” Once again Daisuke couldn't hold himself back. She was done; he wanted to know!

“It's not bad,” she said at last, the side of her mouth quirking. He stared at her for a heartbeat before he flopped back down on the couch and groaned out loud. “What's wrong?”

“I can't do 'not bad'. It has to be great! It has to be wonderful!”

Daisuke threw one hand over his head and pondered what he could do to improve his ramen. Jun wasn't his best taste tester by any means – that was Iori, of all people – but if she didn't consider what he had to serve amazing then he wasn't going to stop until it was.

Building up a clientele wasn't very hard. Most people he knew were very willing to tell other people all about his ramen. It was finding people who didn't know him and who would be willing to give his ramen a try that turned out harder than he'd expected.

Not impossible. Just harder. Creating new flavors and variations helped with that, which wound back to figuring out what he needed to do to improve this particular dish.

Jun's hand rested on his shoulder. “You're pushing yourself too much. That's not like you.”

He knew she was right. Failing wouldn't be the end of the world and he'd worked himself to a frazzle already. He just wanted to make the kind of noodles he'd always dreamed of making.

“Have you thought about trying different spices?” Jun suggested. “Or maybe try making something else for a while? Give yourself a break. I know this place that makes some great curry. You could give that a try.”

“Maybe.” A small rest from ramen wouldn't hurt. He'd come back better than ever when he made it again. Who knew what new ideas he could have from this? His ramen would be spectacular again! He couldn't fail!

The extra taste of curry helped in the end.

The End

Note: Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the story. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.