Another prompt from the Captain's Cookbook fanzine Discord, and a friendly reminder that the organizer does Inazuma fanfic commissions over at InazumaFocus on Twitter-! Anyway, this one is for "imbaby". The prompt is rather long for an author's note, so I'm not going to paste it like I usually do, haha.

I wrote the entire thing on mobile. Sorry if there are more mistakes than normal.

Disclaimer: This story is not associated with the fanzine.

"Are you sure you don't want my help?" Kirino asked.

"I won't be doing anything by myself if you're helping me," Shindou replied. It felt weird to have Kirino standing at his front door, and for once, not inviting him inside. "You picked out the recipe and helped buy groceries."

"You're the one who bought them…" Kirino muttered awkwardly.

He continued mumbling something about how he hadn't done anything except push the cart and put things inside. Finally, Shindou cut him off with what he hoped was a reassuring smile and a promise that Kirino would be the first person he called if something went wrong.

Inside his family's enormous kitchen, their personal chef had laid out all of the tools he would need. Much like Kirino, she hovered over his shoulder asking if he needed assistance until he explained that he would be fine by himself; he was in a Home Economics class at school and wanted to practice what he had learned.

That was a lie.

In reality, Shindou hadn't seen a lot of kitchens in his life. His house was big enough to have a dining room, which, apparently, wasn't that common. He had, however, helped Raimon's managers cook a hotpot recently, then been laughed at by Kariya for not knowing the difference between a paring knife and a potato peeler. At some point, Aoi suggested he try setting the table instead, and afterwards she'd gently informed him that he'd been removed from cooking duty, but it hadn't looked that hard.

The memory of Kariya laughing and comparing him to a princess waiting to be served was still fresh. And it stung a little. Actually, a lot. Shindou wasn't one to speak poorly about teammates, but if even Kariya knew the basics of cooking, he was sure he would be proving Kariya wrong in no time.

According to Midori, it wasn't "anything harder than following directions and trying not to burn yourself", after all. He tried not to think about how Midori was the only person who seemed to have any faith in him. Even Kariya went from teasing to a mix of concerned and surprised as soon as Shindou announced his intentions.

Reluctantly, the chef nodded and left him alone. Now that he could finally work without distractions, Shindou began reading the recipe card Kirino had loaned him. Browning the meat was the first step. Well, he didn't know what "browning" meant, so it was probably best to skip that part and revisit it later. Learning how to cook was like learning any other subject, right? He would start by reenforcing what he already knew and work his way to the harder parts later.

Step two was mixing chopped vegetables into a pot of boiling water. The problem was, all of his vegetables were completely unchopped.

"Shouldn't that be step one?" He muttered to himself.

As soon as he picked up the knife - the only one on the table, thankfully - it occurred to him that he'd never held a knife before. It felt heavier than it should have, somehow. He picked up a carrot with his other hand, wondering where to start. The picture of the completed stew on Kirino's recipe wasn't very helpful, but he noticed there were no green parts in the stew. Chopping off the leaves at the top of every carrot seemed like a good idea.

A few minutes later, Shindou was making a panicked phone call.

Not to Kirino. Despite what he'd said to Kirino, if he called Kirino now, the other boy was definitely going to worry and invite himself over.

"Tenma, I think I messed up!" He yelled as soon as the ringing stopped.

"W-what?"

"I was cutting carrots with a knife, and-"

"Are you okay?!" Suddenly, Tenma sounded even more panicked than he did. "Where are you bleeding? No, wait, how many stitches?"

Shindou looked at them to make sure, but his hands weren't bleeding. Nor did they have any stitches. They looked the same as they had five minutes ago.

"My hands are fine, Tenma. But I think I forgot to peel these carrots."

They were harder to peel once they were chopped up, but he'd only remembered the vegetable peeler after he'd chopped them. There had to be a solution. One that didn't involve gluing the pieces together and starting over.

"That's it?" There was a pause long enough for Shindou to wonder what he meant by that. "Uh, I don't think it's necessary to peel carrots."

"Amagi and Hikaru did when we made the hotpot," Shindou pointed out.

"But I don't think it's necessary? As long as you peel the potatoes, if there are any potatoes… Actually, you might not need to peel the potatoes either… Want me to ask my mom?"

Shindou declined. He trusted Tenma's judgement, and more importantly, he was tired of chopping and peeling already. The less he had to do either of those things, the better.

"What else is going to be in the stew?" Tenma asked.

Shindou read the list, imagining the way Tenma was nodding along until he reached the last ingredient. For some reason, "onions" resulted in a very strong reaction from Tenma. It sounded kind of like an attempt not to scream.

"Ah, I just remembered - um, I'm allergic to onions! Please just throw those away! Don't even think about cutting them up!"

"I understand," Shindou replied. The onions were on their way to the garbage as he spoke.

"Call me if you need anything else, okay?" Tenma offered before they hung up.

A few minutes later, Shindou was back on his phone.

"How do I know when the broth is boiling?"

"It'll start bubbling?" Tenma replied, but he sounded almost as confused as Shindou did. "When the water gets really hot, it will start going glub glub, and that means it's boiling?"

"Thank you, Tenma."

Shindou hung up again, setting a pot filled with a water and broth mix on top of the stove. Since Tenma had said the water needed to be really hot, he should probably turn the heat all the way up.

There were multiple buttons and dials on the stove. Shindou had no idea which one was for the temperature.

The next time Shindou picked up his phone, he didn't call Kirino or Tenma. They were already worried, and when those two worried too much they simply couldn't rest. Shindou cycled through a list of possibilities - Akane, Hayami, Amagi - before he finally remembered that Midori had been the only person who'd shown any confidence in him. She wasn't the worrisome type either.

He dialed her number.

After listening to her voice mail twice in a row, Shindou stopped trying to reach her. More accurately, he was too frustrated to try again.

Nishiki was pretty reliable. His skill set outside of soccer seemed well-rounded, and he might even know something about cooking - except if Midori wasn't answering her phone right now, there was a chance it was because Nishiki was with her. Regardless of what they said, everyone knew the two spent a lot of time together outside of practice.

Eventually, Shindou settled on Hayami. He was a bit skittish, but made up for it in smarts, and he sounded only slightly surprised when Shindou began to interrogate him the instant he answered.

"Which button turns on the heat?!"

"Wh- what?"

Shindou took a deep breath, and forced himself to explain from the beginning. About Kariya's earlier comments, about wanting to make stew for the team and prove Kariya wrong, and even a few honest confessions about how he'd managed to do everything else wrong so far.

Hayami didn't sound like he knew how to react to that, but he certainly tried.

"Uh, w-well… it depends on the stove, I guess? What kind of stove do you have?"

Shindou examined it carefully.

"A black one," he said finally.

He probably should have admitted he had no clue what Hayami meant, because Hayami didn't sound convinced in the slightest. "I mean, like gas or electric- " his voiced hitched suddenly, like he'd just remembered something. "Shindou, how did you cook the stew meat?"

Shindou bit his lip. He hadn't. He hadn't cooked it, because he didn't know what browning meant. Then he'd gotten sidetracked by the vegetables, trying to make his stupid water boil, and most recently, the realization that his stove could be one of several types.

When Shindou didn't answer, Hayami tried to fill in the silence by himself. "Oh, maybe it's a vegetarian stew?"

"It isn't," Shindou mumbled. "I forgot about the meat."

"Maybe you'd be better off looking it up online," Hayami admitted reluctantly. "It sounds like there's a lot you need to know, and I'm not really the best person to explain these kinds of things…"

It wasn't the answer Shindou had hoped for, but he thanked Hayami anyway, and a minute later they both hung up. He was just about to take Hayami's advice when his phone rang.

"Shindou!" Midori's voice on the other line was cheery and casual, even though they didn't normally interact much. "Whatcha up to?"

"Cooking."

"Ah, you're going to show Kariya after all. That's the spirit!"

"It's not going that well," Shindou admitted.

He was so frustrated his face felt warm, but the news didn't bother Midori at all. "Ah, well, that's easy," she replied. "Cooking is all about making things that taste good. If it's not going well, just add something that you know will taste good."

"And what if I don't know how to turn the stove on?"

"Press every button until you find the right one!"

Muffled in the background, he could hear Nishiki's exclamation of "Midori, what're you - give me the phone!"

At least Shindou had been right about one thing so far.

Nishiki was, thankfully, able to walk him through turning on the stove more clearly than Hayami or Midori had. He explained how all stoves had one dial or button per burner, what the burners were, and how to make sure he had the right one. He even gave Shindou some advice on how to boil his water faster, by putting a lid on top, and informed him that browning meat just meant cooking it in oil until it turned crispy and brown in color.

Shindou thanked him, and once more he heard the words, "Just call if there's anything else you need, okay?"

"I will," Shindou promised, knowing that was definitely a lie.

His face felt hot and his throat was tight. There was a tremble in his hands, but he was not going to start crying, nor was he going to ask for more help. Shindou was going to finish this stew by himself. He was going to…

Scream as the water in his pot began boiling over, apparently.

He yelped again as hot oil splashed his arm while he tried to brown his stew meat. The resulting meat also looked nothing like the delicate mignons and filets that Shindou normally ate. One side had burned to the pan, the other side was a little pale, and both left Shindou wondering if it was even safe to eat.

The meat joined the onions in the garbage, and he bit his lip as he looked at what was left of his stew. A handful of poorly chopped vegetables, some hot water that was half covering the top of his stove now, and a small array of spices he had yet to use.

Midori had said to add things that tasted good if it wasn't going well. It definitely wasn't going well, and Shindou opened the kitchen's gigantic fridge with that in mind.

It contained plenty of things Shindou didn't know how to cook: eggs, more meat, squares of tofu, and fish. He skimmed over those, and began reading the labels on cartons of juice instead, but those weren't quite what he was looking for. Apple pomegranate probably tasted better in a cup than in stew.

At some point, he noticed the rows of condiments lining the inside of the fridge doors, and hesitated only before making another call.

"Do you like mayonnaise?"

"Is this about that stew you promised to make?" Kariya replied, quick to catch on.

Shindou had hoped he somehow wouldn't, but Kariya was smarter than he let on. And since Kariya was the reason he was making stew in the first place, it unfortunately made the most sense to ask for his opinion.

"Yes, I like mayo," he continued, before Shindou was able to respond. "Any other questions, Captain?"

"Only why I said I would do this," Shindou grumbled.

"I didn't quite catch that?"

"Nevermind."

"All right, Captain. Then I'll look forward to eating your stew tomorrow!"

Click.

Mayonnaise. Mayonnaise was the secret weapon that was going to save him and this stew. Shindou uncapped the bottle and wondered how much he should add.

He emptied the bottle.

It did not save his stew.

The next day at practice, Kariya was not the only person anticipating his stew - Kirino, Tenma, Hayami, and Nishiki were all staring at him with equal looks of concern. It was Kariya who finally broke the silence.

"So where's the stew?"

Every muscle in Shindou's body tensed. He had anticipated this question, but somehow he'd always been able to avoid answering it in his head. In reality, with Kariya confronting him about it in a room filled with people, he recognized that there was no way out.

"Oh no," Kariya faked disappointment, "don't tell me you lied to us?"

"It was delicious!" Shindou countered, actually lying this time. "It was so delicious that I… accidentally ate all of it by myself...!"

That wasn't exactly what had happened. In reality, he'd taste tested it and then cried.

Kariya burst into laughter. For some reason, Midori also seemed amused. Nobody else appeared to take what he was saying seriously.

Kirino made an "oh" sound, and patted his shoulder. "We'll make it together, next time," Kirino promised. "So you don't, uh, eat all of it again."

Next time, Shindou would gladly accept the help.