Smells Like Family [Erica, Ranma]

Ranma couldn’t help but rub his face against her hair. He never thought of himself as a sort of rival to her when it came to Kidō or literally anything else – okay, maybe in bed, but that was a different topic – so he just felt snuggle-ish now. But they had a dough to finish preparing… wait, butter?

“I’ll be fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine – just gotta melt some butter, is all,” Ranma reassured her with a grin before putting a pan over the stove top and drop- wait, he just noticed that Snuggles had returned to the kitchen table with the mini-Shakka-ball in his maw. If he was a dog, he’d be wagging his tail a lot right now…

“Oh, hello there- wait, my arm’s not a pillow…” Ranma groaned as Snuggles just decided to lay on his left arm right after he dropped a small block of butter on the heated pan. After a few seconds of realizing that he just had to wait, he couldn’t stop himself from nuzzling Snuggles’ face and neck, giving in to his inner cat father vibes. “Look at your sleepy, wittle face~ Look at your furry, wurry face~ Look at you nibbling – please don’t bite them, I really need those fingers~ Erica needs them too~”

Fetching an egg and small bowl to put the yolk into, Erica would smile as her eyes turned towards Ranma and Snuggles. The healer was so glad that her boyfriend had come to love their feline friend, after what had been a bit of a rough start. Snuggles was a part of the family and had made himself at home ever since. Demanding, playful but always loveable, Erica had come to love the ginger tom and she couldn’t think of life without him. The same of course could be said for Ranma too. All of a sudden, her family had nearly doubled.

Cracking the egg into the bowl with no issue, Erica would gently tip the contents into the mixture, which was almost ready to be whisked. All they needed now was the butter, which she asked for a smile. “How are things going over there? That is if you can take your eyes off of the cat for a second.” A chuckle escaped her lips, smiling at the two.

“Oh, yeah, the butter’s ready…” Ranma reported back to his girlfriend, the tip of his index finger being gnawed on by Snuggles like a carrot stick, “Me and Snuggles synced for a bit… I think he’s really grown on me.” Sync isn’t exactly the best word to describe the feline’s unwavering determination to stay hooked to his finger with his fangs, but Ranma wasn’t too bothered by it…

… Although, as lifting his finger up and down didn’t make Snuggles let go, he figured that the tom was some sort of attention-whore. “C’mon, Snuggles, you know paws can’t cook well,” Ranma tried to reassure the feline with logic – it was not very effective, “Besides, can’t you smell it? I can – it smells 100 times better than the dough I used to make… like, it smells good good.”

Snuggles noticed it too… the lingering aroma of fresh, sweet pastry in the air. Strange, they hadn’t even begun to bake the dough yet, but the scent was unquestionable – especially for the feline with a far sharper nose than him. “*Sniiiiiiiff*…” Ranma got a little preoccupied with enjoying the scent, even pressing his face against Erica’s hair, “… Oh, wait, the butter, yeah. It’s all melted!”

Chuckling sweetly at the two as they fooled about, Erica would reply. “Come on Snuggles! Ranma needs both hands in order to get the butter into the bowl. You can play with my hair later if you want.”

The cat seemed to acknowledge her at least, jumping down to the floor to watch the spectacle with a deep meow. He didn’t move any further though and insisted on rubbing his head against the legs of both Shinigami, purring non stop. It was hard to believe that he was the same cat that they’d found that day and he’d almost gone through a complete 180 in terms of personality since then. She was so appreciative though and was so happy that he’d enter her life. Her mother wasn’t always so pleased but she wasn’t going to say no to her daughter.

Turning to Ranma, she’d hold up the bowl. “Just use a spatula or something to pick up the butter and plonk it into the mixture. Ten points if you can get it into our little volcano.” It would be a small test of balance and control but she trusted her boyfriend and once it was done, they could move on to the fun and more messy part of the whole deal. Who knew that making pancakes could be so fun?

Aww, he wanted to play with her hair too – now Snuggles got capital over it… lucky bastard.

But alas, it made Snuggles stop distracting them on top of the kitchen desk, instead drawing the tom back to their legs with clingy meows. Little tom had gotten very clingy to the two of them ever since they picked him up from the woods far away. Maybe there were other cats just running about… and who knew? If the numbers matched, every Shinigami couple could have an obligatory feline companion. A pseudo-familiar, if you could call it that.

Okay… so now, he had the task of taking the butter-block half-melted on the pan and drop it into the flour volcano. Grabbing a spatula from one of the drawers below, Ranma took a deep breath, knowing that 10 good points from Erica were on the line. “Okay… be flawless, hand,” Ranma prayed, slowly lifting up the butter with the spatula and dragging it towards the other bowl with the other ingredients. His hand was shivering a little… just a little, but he couldn’t waste time – otherwise, his paranoia would rise higher.

*PLONK*

… Oh, he dropped the butter right on the edge of the dough volcano. “Ssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhi- wait, mhmmmm, wait wait wait, so is that 10 points?” he asked with a mixture of enthusiasm and bubbling dread.

“Perfect!” The healer replied with a laugh, looking down at the mixture that they’d created together. Everything was ready for the next part of the plan and as she took a whisk from the draw and started to mesh it altogether, the mixture would start to take a more appealing form. As far as she could remember, they’d put everything in and judging from the way the mixture was turning out, that seemed to be the case.

Snuggles was still insisting on making his presence known and unfortunately that meant rubbing his head against her ankles again. Even with that though, she was graceful on her feet and able to keep whisking without making a mess, at least for a while. Soon enough, it seemed that the cat desperately wanted attention and after looking down with a slight sigh, Erica would offer the whisk and bowl to Ranma. “Give this a stir, would you please? I think our feline friend demands attention.”

Once her hands were free, she’d scoop the ginger monster up into her arms, causing the big tom to purr again like mad, rubbing his face against hers. “We gave you the right name for sure.” She cooed with a laugh.

10 points- FUCK YEAH!

Ranma’s sudden excitement spiked through the roof, figuratively at least. No more breaking holes through roofs anymore… he’d learned his lesson from Beetle. However, somebody else was having a good time too – the snuggly tomcat kept demanding attention, so Ranma found himself holding the whisk and bowl a moment after. “…”

This was a new feeling- not so new, this was a recurring feeling. Absolute, seething jealousy. Oh, Ranma kept whisking away at the mixture, but his pained eyes were glued to the scene unfolding in front of him – Snuggles lived up to his name and snuggled tightly with Erica, clearly enjoying the attention he got now. Little rascal. Little homewrecker! Pussycat!!!

“…. Wish I was a fuckin’ cat, sometimes…” he cursed under his breath, acting a little childish and pouty, “Think you got it real good, don’t ya? Remember, I’m the one who found you first! Hmpf!”

Snuggles just meowed back at him, indifferent to his bubbling feelings. Ranma’s eyes grew more and more comical, stark and cat-like with slitted pupils as he meowed back, thinking that he could speak feline all of a sudden. Who on earth could take any of this seriously…?

Erica blinked in surprise at Ranma’s outburst, Snuggles still happily purring away in her arms. She wasn’t quite sure what it was all about at first but after a moment, she pondered whether her boyfriend was a little jealous of the cat. He couldn’t be, right? The healer had certainly shown Ranma plenty of affection since they’d become an item and pretty much every night was another chance for her to show how much she cared. Maybe she was just overthinking it though.

Not putting the cat down just yet, the pink haired Shinigami would smile as she pampered Snuggles, loving the feel of his soft fur against her. He was so loving and she just didn’t want to put him down, something that Snuggles didn’t seem to mind either, his rubbing becoming a little more firm. He was purring so deeply that she could almost feel it.

Smiling at Ranma as he whisked, she’d nod with a smile. “That’s the spirit. Just another thirty seconds or so and we can get to making the pancakes themselves. Hope we don’t end up making a mess.” She reckoned they’d be alright, as long as a certain furry someone didn’t interfere too much.

Ranma whisked away, holding himself back just enough to prevent the mixture from whipping out in all directions. The milk, the flour, the egg, the butter, and the milk… all the other ingredients were fusing into a single, wet, viscous substance – getting ready to be poured in intervals on the pan. Ranma could not only smell the fragrance… but also taste it. The air itself tasted like a real pancake – the real ones his Auntie used to bake as well.

Snuggles was still getting his namesake in spades from Erica, but surely, the tom loved Ranma just as much. He was the one who could comically turn ‘cat-eyed’ when intrigued or intimidated by Komugi, so Snuggles had to feel some sort of connection there… or rivalry. Speaking of-

“Snuggleeeeeeeeeeeeeeees,” Ranma reverberated quietly, “Why’re you glaring so hard at the mixtuuuuuuuuure? The milk’s gone, my fur-covered child of feline parts unknown – the dough drank it up. Look!” Ranma held the bowl up to Snuggles, who aptly sniffed at it… then gently poked it with his paw before licking up the mixture joyously.

“… Well, now our pancakes are gonna taste like cat too…”

Chuckling, Erica would reluctantly put the cat down again at that point, getting to work on getting the bits and pieces needed to cook the pancakes. She’d fiddle with the oven for a minute, placing a pan on top for when the mixture was ready, before getting the level of heat just right. There was definitely going to be a lovely smell in a minute and as she turned to Ranma, she’d smile. “When you’re ready, pour some of the mixture into the pan and we can get to some real cooking.”

Snuggles wasn’t going anywhere, his gaze locked on to the bowl that Ranma was holding. Without missing a beat, he’d start rubbing his body against the bandage wearing Shinigami’s legs, both as a sign that he did truly care about the boy, as well as the fact that he wanted the mixture for himself. He’d had a taste and now he was well and truly hooked.

Erica grinned again. “Come on, Snuggles, you’ll trip him up if you’re not careful.”