Black Pepper Buns (Food Wars, Yukihira/Isshiki, M/M)

[GroundIntoDust]

Hello! I just finished watching Food Wars, and it's easily one of my favorite shows of all time. Isshiki is absolutely my favorite...so serene and lighthearted...and I want to break him. In a vulnerable sneezy manner, of course. 😈I don't think you need to have watched any of the show in order to enjoy this story, though!

I couldn’t be bothered to research how Japanese name suffixes work, or to look at a recipe for black pepper buns, so my apologies for any inconsistencies or errors there! I’m just using the two character’s surnames with no suffix.

Anyway, here goes!

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Isshiki Satoshi was crawling above the ceiling tiles of Polar Star Dormitory again. Sometimes he liked to go from room to room, never intending to eavesdrop or spy, but just to enjoy the feeling of community in the dorm. It warmed his heart to crawl above Marui’s room to hear the laughter of people playing cards surrounded by bookshelves, above Yoshino’s room to hear the chittering of her various animals, above Yukihira’s room to hear the mumbling and sizzling that came with the underclassman’s recipe-testing.
 
Yukihira… As Isshiki passed above Yukihira’s room, he heard something that made him pause.
“Hh-NNGXT!”
 
Was that...a sneeze? Normally Isshiki had no reason to stay above someone’s room any longer than it took to traverse it, but this time he couldn’t help his curiosity.
 
“Heh...ugh.” A false start.
 
That’s right—Yukihira was preparing to make Taiwanese black pepper buns for the upcoming Moon Festival. He must be testing his recipe. Sounds like using pepper over and over again as he perfected the buns was finally getting to his nose. Isshiki smiled to himself and took a swipe at the dust on the ceiling tile underneath him before sitting down, having decided to stay a while.
 
“Heh—NNGKHT!”
 
Curiosity was getting the better of Isshiki. He knew it was risky, but he wanted to be able to watch and not just listen. Carefully, he slid the tile in front of him over by a few centimeters.
 
On the opposite side of the room from where Isshiki was perched, Yukihira’s face had fallen into a faint grimace as he cooked. He idly scrubbed at his nose with his wrist before giving the meat filling another stir.
 
“Eh...heh...” Oh. Isshiki was glad he was getting to see this. Yukihira’s nose was twitching insistently, and his hands shook as if in conflict between his need to keep steady the pan he was holding, and his bodily desire to bring a finger to his itching nostrils.
 
“Heh...Nnk-TCHOO!” Yukihira sneezed off to the side, unable to smother this one fully. The contents of his pan lapped at the edge, shaken by his movements.
 
He turned to pick up the pepper beside him, his apprehension clear on his face. Isshiki smiled in anticipation. Yukihira’s nose was already quite irritated from the repeated use of the pepper. What was going to happen when he released another cloud of it into the air?
 
Yukihira slowly—reluctantly—lifted the pepper grinder over the awaiting meat. With a sigh, he began to grind the pepper. He turned his head slightly, trying to look out of the corner of his eye while breathing away from the pepper, but he quickly found that doing so did not allow him to focus his senses enough on his cooking.
 
As he stirred the meat, his nostrils began flaring—only slightly at first, but it was only a moment before the twitching of his nose was uncontrollable. Every once in a while, he lifted his arm to rub his nose against his wrist, but he was too intent on completing his dish to give his nose anywhere near the amount of soothing that it required. He couldn’t both keep up his pace of cooking and quell the fiery itch in his nose, as much as he tried. His eyes began to squint, his chest puffed, and his lips parted in preparation for a sneeze. 
 
The sight was...enthralling.
 
His hands shook as he continued to prepare his dish for as long as he possibly could. His breath hitched, and his hand twitched up towards his nose, but he quickly shook his head and returned to his task. That didn’t last long, though, and his next inhale was huge, answering his body’s urgent need to sneeze.
 
“HATCHHOOO! Heh—Eck-SHOOO! TCHOOO! Heh...eh...ESSHHOO!”
 
Yukihira sighed. He set down his cooking equipment and removed his headband. He began to move across the room to get a cloth to blow his nose into, but as he got up, he happened to look up as well. Isshiki laughed lightly as Yukihira saw the misplaced ceiling tile and realized what was going on. He shifted the tile further to poke his head through.
 
“You caught me!” Isshiki said with a serene smile.
 
“Wh-what are you doing?” Yukihira balked.
 
“Just satisfying my curiosity.”
 
“Huh...okay. Well, you can come down here and help me taste my dish!” Yukihira put a chair beneath the shifted ceiling tile, and Isshiki lowered himself into the room.
 
“Aren’t you bothered that I was spying on you?” Isshiki asked.
 
“Oh! Should I be?” Yukihira put his chin in his hand thoughtfully. “I don’t think I mind. But I don’t think it’s good for you to be spying on people either. Well, you watched me make a mess of myself with my sneezing, so how about,” he grinned, “now I get to see you sneeze too?”
 

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Hope you enjoyed! I'm working on a part 2, so hopefully I'll be posting here again soon!

[Tassielli]

Yessss

[Akahana]

NICE!!  This is super cute, I've always loved anime with these scenarios - they're so easy lol.  I haven't watched food wars in a while but I remember enough to enjoy this

[Diamond_Promise]

🤤 That was gorgeous 

[sneezyfeather338]

That was amazing. I definitely want to read what happens next if you’re going to continue it. If not really good stuff.