14AmyChan: I don't own Yumiere Patisserie! *^_^*

Ichigo: This is the first time you'll be writing a story on us, isn't it?

14AmyChan: Yep, even though I haven't even finished the first session, yet.

Kashino: WHAT? Shouldn't you finish it first?

Chocolat: Yeah!

14AmyChan: My story is my rules. *^_^*

Carmel: Everyone enjoy-desu! *^_^*

"AMANO! Don't let it burn!" Kashino, Makoto yelled at her. She was scatterbrained and klutzy, as usual. She hastily removed the pastry from the skillet. She was trying something new. Again.

"Saved it!" she cheered, while her sweets spirit looked at the damage. Vanilla nodded her head. "It's good" she judged.

"Don't you get that it almost burned?" Chocolat scolded them. She was getting really good at that, actually. So good that Café and Caramel knew by now to stop it instantly.

"Please don't fight" Café said, helping Caramel separate them before the utensils began clashing. Kashino just resumed working on his tempering. If he ever wanted to get as good as his uncle, he had to practice. He could faintly hear what was going on in the background. Multitasking is important to a patisserie, too.

"What are you making this time, Ichigo-chan?" Hanabusa asked. As king of candy sculptures and roses, he thinks he's the best thing since chocolate. He's not. He's just amazingly self-absorbed and has a little thing for Amano. Just a little thing, though.

"I wanted to try making a different type of strawberry tart. One by my own rules, not by my Grandma's" she said. Kashino could hear some footsteps and knew she was approximately three feet away from him. She was humming and he could tell without looking that she was probably smiling about something.

"Are you changing the design?" Andoh, Kashino's best friend since childhood, asked. He was the best at making the nice blend of Japanese sweets and cakes. Both Hanabusa and Andoh were always hovering over Amano like hawks. Or something. Kashino's hand almost slipped as he tempered the chocolate. He caught it and focused in on his work. When he got back in the rhythm of it, the rest of his team wasn't talking. He kept tempering.

They were practicing late again for the contest. The kitchens in the Paris wing of St. Marie were almost like the ones back home in Japan. But no matter where they are, they still need to practice. The Grand Prix was only at the highest level and they need to be at their best.

Amano stopped moving for a moment. Kashino don't know why, but she stopped moving. He wanted to ask what she was doing, but he still needed to concentrate on his tempering. "Um, Andoh?" he heard her whisper. "The strawberries are right next to Kashino. I don't want to get in the way of his practice, what do I do?"

"If you need the strawberries, then get them" he said loudly so she could hear. Honestly, he thought. I'm not deaf. I'm practicing my tempering. He could hear her get closer, then she stopped. Kashino could feel her reach by his side to grab the strawberries and then pull away. "Thank you" she said as she returned to her work station.

He kept tempering.

Chocolat looked over his work, shaking her head. "Non, non! You're too tense! Loosen up and it'll be better" she critiqued. At times he hated it, but he knew she just wanted everything to be just right, so he followed her advice. It started going a lot more smoothly. Kashino didn't even notice that he had gotten tense.

He could hear Amano chopping the strawberries. Judging on the speed of the chopping, she really was making a new design. Kashino decided that a couple hours of tempering were sufficient, and decided make his favorite chocolate drink, Choc-o-lait. There was enough for all of them to share, and it was easy to make. So he decided to make it.

Kashino could still hear Amano chopping, but he wasn't looking her way. To everyone else, it looked like he was ignoring her. Just like any other day. "What are you making, Ma-kun?" Andoh always called him by his childhood nickname, and sometimes it still annoyed him. He held up the five completed mugs of the warm drink. "Aren't you guys getting tired, too?" He asked, passing out the mugs.

Kashino handed one to the sweets spirits to share, then Andoh, then the mirror king, then Amano. He paused to look at her new creation. It certainly looked the part. The trouble was the taste. Most of the time, she had to make a pastry at least ten times to get the taste down, but she could tell when something was off just by eating it. "Here" he gave her her drink, still looking at the creation.

It had the pastry on bottom, slightly curved up. Covering it in a thin layer was a cream of some sorts, and on top were some finely chopped strawberries and a big one to top it all off. To be honest, it looked almost like that big-top circus they went to in Japan.

"Thank you" she said, taking the mug. She took one sip and smiled like she had been sent to cloud nine or something. It's just a chocolate drink. Even if it did taste smoother. Must be the tampering…he thought as he drank it.

Amano looked at her pastry and then at everyone. "Would you guys like to try this new strawberry tart?" she asked before adding. "I was thinking of adding a little bit of chocolate, but I thought that was a bit much."

Hanabusa, Andoh, Vanilla, Chocolat, Caramel, and Café all huddled around the tart. They cut it up so that way we could all have some and then dug in.

Kashino had to admit that it was pretty good, even to him, but he still had to point out the little things. He's the opposite of Hanabusa and Andoh. Where they would praise, he would be the critique, earning him the nickname 'devil' from Amano. "The pastry is a little thin for this and the cream could be sweeter. Also, the strawberries are too fine here, try using the juice and mixing it with the cream and see how that works out for you" he summed it up while watching invisible arrows pierce Amano. He wanted to laugh at the scene, yet he barely hid the laughter in.

Then she looked at the plate the tart had been on and smiled. "Well, it was only the first time, it gets better" she seemed to whisper to herself. They cleaned up and left the kitchens in the school just how they had found them. They walked to the apartment they were renting out for the Grand Prix, everyone else was talking about what the new topic for the finals would be, but Kashino didn't take part in the conversation.

They went to the apartment and Amano went to her own little room. "'Night" she yawned. "'Night" the boys all said back. As they all went to bed, Kashino thought I will never understand her.

14AmyChan: Hope you liked it, and for those concerned, I don't intend to stop writing Black Cat fanfictions, I just don't have any good ideas right now.

Hanabusa: What was with my introduction? You make it seem like I'm a narcissist!

14AmyChan: Who's the one that needs only to look in a mirror to feel better?

Hanabusa: That's beside the point, when something looks as good as I do, it ought to make you feel better!

Kashino: Freak…

14AmyChan: Please R&R. *^_^*