We walked into the kitchen together and looked around.

"Alright, what are we going to be making then?" Friede asked.

Sadie had already headed straight to the cupboard that we'd discovered contained vegetables when we'd been exploring earlier, and pulled out a large aubergine.

"Baba ganoush!" she exclaimed. "I'll just toast some bread to have with it, and maybe cut some carrot sticks as well-it's like hummus."

This clarification was in response to our quizzical looks-my own included, presumably. Though now she had made the connection, I remembered it suddenly-smoky and intense, thicker than I had expected, but filling too.

"You made that for my birthday last year, I remember." I said with a smile. "It was just the thing to have on a cold October evening."

"Oh yeah!" Moeka exclaimed. "I remember it now! Oh, that tasted so good, you really are such a good cook, Sadie-chan!"

"Yep, yep!" Sadie beamed, blushing slightly. "That's right, Yamamoto-chan! But that won't be enough on it's own…I'm thinking of doing some prawn skewers, and maybe coxinhas too…..then again, I want to make falafels again."

Coxinhas, I remembered, were some sort of chicken thing, though Sadie included cream cheese in them too. She'd made them for the Kishinami's birthday picnic just last month, amongst other things.

"Do all of them!" Osamu grinned, leaning against the kitchen counter. "I don't know about you, but I feel rather ravenous after…well, after that."

His admission sat heavily in the room for a moment while we all stared at each other, none of us wanting to acknowledge what we had been told in the hall of this strange school. I could understand it, not wanting to give the suggestion any power by directly mentioning it. But yet, it would always be there, wouldn't it? At least until we were rescued. Which we would be, I was sure. For now, though, we just needed to keep strong.

Or so I hoped, anyway.

"What ingredients will you need for these things?" Fumiaki asked suddenly, clapping his hands decisively. "We can all gather these things."

"Oh, right, well, for the baba ganoush, we'll need some garlic, lemon juice, any other herbs you can find…."

And so Sadie went on as I, Osamu, Fumiaki, Moeka and Friede followed her bidding. As we found things, and Sadie set us on tasks, she came up with other things she could make for ourselves.

"This is quite a lot, isn't it?" Friede asked.

"It is rather," Fumiaki wondered. "Will we even be able to eat all of it?"

"Oh, I will." Osamu said, smiling mischievously.

"Yeah, I know you will," Fumiaki muttered, rolling his eyes. "My dear brother will be exactly the same."

"Still, it does seem like quite a lot, Sadie-san." Friede said. "What if it runs out?"

In the midst of chopping chicken for the coxinhas, Sadie stopped abruptly, and bit her lip. She put her knife down and frowned.

"I didn't think of that…."

"I don't think it will," Moeka said, trying hard to be cheerful. "After all, I'm sure we will be rescued soon enough, right? There's no way nobody will notice we're missing!"

"Besides, this isn't enough to make a serious dent in our food supplies just on the first day." I added.

"Mmmm," Sadie frowned a little more, then allowed herself a smile. "In any case, we need to keep our strengths up, right? Can't do that if we don't have enough to eat!"

With this, she resumed her preparations, bustling as she instructed us with our different tasks. There was a comfortable hubbub for a little while as things went in and out of pans and the oven and gradually, this mix-and-match meal came to be.

"You're such a mother, Sadie-chan," Moeka commented at one point. "You're always cooking for us, and you never complain."

"I know, right?" Friede agreed, looking more relaxed than she had earlier.

"Oh, it's nothing, really." Sadie blushed. "I like cooking! Besides, I want to be a mother someday."

"Do you actually?"

Fumiaki's voice was surprised as he stared at her in surprise and I, too, regarded her in interest. Thinking about it, it didn't seem so strange that someone as accommodating and warm as Sadie would want to be a mother, yet it was still a bit of a surprise.

"Yeah," Sadie answered after a moment, still pink-cheeked but determined now. "I really do. I want to have my own family to raise, some day. Take care of them, watch them grow, all of it."

"I think you'd be good at it." I said.

"Oh, she definitely would be," Friede said. "Especially as she's wanted it forever, right?"

"Mmm, you're right, Free. But you don't think it's a bit weird?"

"Well, it feels a bit early for me to know personally if I want children or not, but if you're sure, then more power to you." Fumiaki shrugged. "Right?"

"Oh, definitely!" Moeka grinned. "Hey, Sadie-chan, what do I do with these?"

"Oh, let me have a look?"

The conversation momentarily paused as Sadie went to assist Moeka in assembling the falafels, and then getting Osamu to arrange the portions of bread slices and carrot sticks for the baba ganoush, before it picked up again.

"It's good to be sure of your goals," I said. "Is there anything else you want?"

Sadie's forehead puckered for a moment before she shook her head.

"Not really. I just want to dance, and I want to be a mother. That's all."

"What about you, Aozaki-kun?" Fumiaki asked suddenly, having been quiet for a while now.

I chuckled as Osamu stared at him bug eyed for a moment, Eventually though, he gave an exaggerated shrug.

"I dunno. Not sure it's my thing, I'd rather be the vodka aunt."

"The vodka aunt?" Moeka echoed.

"Vodka aunt?" I said at almost the same time, raising an eyebrow with the emphasis.

Osamu shrugged again, about to stick his hands into his pockets before realising that they were an absolute mess. Pulling a face, he went to wash them.

"Well, the concept of one, anyway."

"That's an aspiration I've never heard." Friede commented, half-smirking. "Well, I know who to be keeping an eye on if I have kids."

"Oh, it'll be fun really," Sadie said cheerily. "You'll all be great 'aunts' or 'uncles' to my future kids. I can't wait for them to meet you all."

"Oh my god, you're such a sap." Osamu laughed at this.

"Yeah, that was a bit mushy." Friede agreed amiably.

Sadie laughed too, and blushed more, before changing the subject to focus back on the food once again. With everything almost finished, we got plates and cutlery ready, and began taking it out to the canteen. Fumiaki, Osamu and I set these down, while the others put enough food on each table. Sadie then made sure there were glasses of water out for everyone before going to get them all.

"You'll all be great 'aunts' or 'uncles' to my future kids. I can't wait for them to meet you all."

Despite what we had been told today, and the fact that it was all so uncertain, as everyone exclaimed over the food and tucked in, worries suspended momentarily, I could not help but think: I can't wait to meet them, too.