Chise had just walked into the yard, with Ruth at her side, when she saw Hazel on his way with the mail.

"Busy morning?" he asked, nodding at the basket of tetterwort she'd already gathered.

Nodding, Chise didn't elaborate that she'd overdone it a bit with the last batch and Elias had taken her work to incinerate before any curious neighbors took an accidental nibble. That had been embarrassing, but it was probably better that she make mistakes now, while she was learning, so that she knew what not to do as well.

"It's a nice day," Ruth added.

"And those are always appreciated," Hazel replied, smiling. "I'd hand the mail off to you two, but there's usually something outgoing."

There usually was, and Silky seemed to like Hazel's near-daily visits anyway. She seemed to get an interesting amount of mail, though Chise knew quite a bit of that was just things the household, or its residents, needed.

They walked up to the house beside Hazel, Ruth unconsciously seeming to try to match Hazel's rhythmic steps. And yes, Silky had something going out, and there was a bit of an exchange that Chise partially missed as she and Ruth headed over to the door.

"We're home, Silky," she called. "But you probably saw us walking with Hazel..."

She set the basket down and took off her shoes as Ruth wiped his paws. Probably, she should take the basket up to her room and put in a cupboard until she was ready to use it. Most creatures would know better than to disturb the tetterwort when recognizable, but after she'd done a bit more reading on it, Chise thought she'd rather take a few more precautions.

Ruth vanished into Chise's shadow as she went up the stairs with the basket, and she lingered in her room once she realized there was a new shirt waiting for her, and a lovely scarf. Those she put away as well, and then peered out the window for a moment. Elias hadn't called out to her, so he was probably busy with his own work.

There was a knock at her half-open door and Chise turned, expecting Elias. Instead, it was Silky, holding a small, open box.

"Is that the mail?" Chise asked, and Silky nodded. Curious, Chise walked over to see. She was not expecting sets of colorful lacquered chopsticks, however. She looked from the box to Silky, and smiled at her expectant expression.

"They're lovely," Chise said. She couldn't remember the last time she'd used chopsticks. Possibly while in the city one day with Alice, when she'd found a small place offering an interesting version of sushi? That had to be it. At least she wasn't entirely out of practice.

"Chopsticks?" Ruth had swirled up beside her, in his human form, and was peering over her shoulder.

"Are you learning to make more Japanese dishes?" Chise asked Silky. Silky was an impressive cook, and while most of her repertoire seemed to be English, she did suddenly treat them to Indian curries and Mediterranean and things Chise honestly didn't know the origin of and often had to look up afterward. They were all delicious, and she'd never really felt like she was missing anything. But a Japanese meal now and then would be nice, especially if she could share them with Ruth and Elias.

Silky nodded and then offered a note.

Chise took it- 'I also have a cookbook.'

"Should I look through it with you?"

Again, Silky nodded and turned to head back to the kitchen.

Before she followed, Chise made sure to grab her dictionary, just in case. It wouldn't be perfect, especially with food, but it would likely help.

"And thank you for the clothes!" she added.

"I don't think I'll be able to eat with those," Ruth said before turning back into a dog and trotting off after Chise.

"You can try," she said. That would be enough. He did well enough with a knife and fork, after all.

Silky had indeed received not just one new cookbook, but a stack. Obviously, she was in a mood and Chise couldn't help smiling.

"That's a lot of options," Chise said as she reached for the top one. She'd looked through a couple of Silky's cookbooks before, but they'd felt more complicated than some of the recipes Elias gave her. She knew enough to help out with things and could follow along with Silky's simple instructions, but there was an entire vocabulary of cooking that she still needed to master.

Her English was good now, certainly, but not perfect and often the more technical words were, the more difficult. Japanese words written in English were surprisingly awkward as well. Chise remembered having to sound out parts of the sushi menu, much to Alice's amusement.

The first cookbook was impressively fancy, with glossy color pictures of meals that Chise didn't think she'd ever eaten.

"I mostly remember simpler things," she explained as she set it aside. "Noodles and rice, miso soup, tofu and whatever was on sale for meat and vegetables. I think there was more when my whole family was still together, but I still don't think it was anything like the meals we have here every day."

Silky was watching her closely, and Chise wondered if she needed to explain more.

"Let's look at the next one?"

She was curious why Silky had decided now was the time for this, but it was possibly the anniversary of something, or just something that suddenly felt important. So many things Silky did were for Chise's own comfort but things had been good lately... They'd actually been really good. Maybe, Chise thought, that was the reason.

The next one was quite a bit more casual, and thankfully had miso soup in it, and some simple noodle dishes. Half of the food she identified by the photos and then tried sounding out the names in her head.

"Some of this should be okay. We might not get far today..." Chise flipped another page and there were rice balls.

"These," she declared, turning the book to show Silky. "Not for dinner, but they're good for snacks, or for picnics. They're pretty easy to make and eat."

She mimed eating one, bringing it up to her mouth with both hands and taking an invisible bite. "We can put whatever we want in them, if we don't have what the book suggests."

She shuffled over to stand beside Silky and look at the ingredients listed, but after a moment she realized she'd need her dictionary. Ruth shuffled along beside her, his tail wagging and brushing against her thigh.

"You don't need chopsticks for these," she explained. And Elias could probably just eat them in one bite if he wanted, which would be entertaining to watch.

"What else?" she wondered aloud, flipping another page, and then another, explaining more and more of the food to Silky and Ruth.

She didn't even notice she'd gained another audience member until she got absolutely stuck on a word and again reached for her dictionary. Then she saw him, standing in the doorway, absolutely quiet.

"That might be the most I've ever heard you talk about Japan," Elias commented. "It was incredibly interesting and it made me feel unexpectedly warm."

"Oh, I..." Chise knew she was blushing. She had been talking quite a bit, and while some of it had been personal, quite a bit of it hadn't. It was just memories in general, and how things were.

"He's right. It was very interesting," Ruth said. His contentedness had been obvious, however, from how his tail had continuously tapped against her, even after he'd put his front paws up on the table to see what she and Silky were looking at.

Silky hadn't even gently bonked his paws to remind him not to do that, or to at least encourage him to please assume a more polite form.

"So please, continue," Elias added. "I'm finished with my own work for the morning and I'd like to hear more."

"While we work," Chise declared after a moment. She glanced toward the window again. The day still looked nice, which meant they could probably manage a nice, timely rice ball picnic.

Luckily, Silky had obtained the right kind of rice, and there were leftovers in the refrigerator that worked perfectly as fillings, even if they'd certainly be a bit of a curiosity in Japan. Chise didn't mind that, nor did she mind the lumpy and misshaped collection of rice balls that slowly filled a large platter. Silky's managed to be proper triangles, and Chise thought her own looked decent, while Ruth had transformed and given it a shot and Elias...

Chise no longer felt any guilt about the tetterwort. Practice would make perfect and while at least Elias's attempt at riceballs would be edible, they also certainly were threatening to make her giggle.

But she was also filled with the same warmth that Elias had mentioned. She understood.

Here she was, home, making lunch with the people who meant the most to her. It was something she never thought she'd have again in any way, let alone like this.

With the preparation finished, Silky waved them outside. Chise knew Silky would do all the clean-up and with nothing in return, though Chise did eel one of her own rice balls aside onto a single plate to leave behind, just in case.

Ruth spread a blanket on the ground, not too far from the house.

"That was a different experience," Elias said as he sat. "But it was enjoyable."

"I like cooking together like that," Chise replied. "I'll need to be sure on a few other words before doing more, thoug."

"I think you gave the Silver Lady a good beginning point." Elias looked at the platter as Chise set it down on the blanket. "Is there a proper way to do this?"

"Not today," Chise replied. Onigiri as a word had been difficult enough and she'd defaulted to rice ball after the second attempt, though she said a silent itadakimasu of her own. "Just take one that looks good and eat it."

Both Elias and Ruth were clearly watching her, so she reached for one of the few Elias had made. It required both hands to keep it together, and the first bite was exactly how she'd mimed earlier. It was delicious, both because of and despite its creation.

Ruth and Elias soon each took one of hers, and quietly, happily, they ate.

It was Ruth who ended up with the last rice ball of the collection, but by that point Chise didn't think she could eat any more anyway. There was always so much food and this had been no exception.

"That was a good experience," Elias noted before reaching over to pull Chise up into his lap. She leaned back against him and nodded. She wasn't quite at the right angle to nuzzle at his skull, but she could feel him warm against her. She'd kiss him before the picnic was over, and she'd answer his questions as she always did.

"We'll have to do it again," Ruth added a moment later. Quietly, he leaned and then sprawled, his head on Chise's lap. She tangled her fingers in his hair.

"And again and again." Chise smiled. This was more than she'd ever expected from her life, and it was wonderful. She had not expected to find two unique other halves, and especially not ones like this. But-

"But first, did you gather more tetterwort?" Elias questioned.

"We did," Chise said. Yes, that would be the afternoon.

And she'd get it right, for sure.