Title: Mom Knows Best
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, Dee.
Rating: PG
Setting: After Vol. 7.
Summary: Ryo is trying to emulate a dessert his mom used to make, but it doesn’t taste right.
Word Count: 400
Content Notes: Nada.
Written For: Challenge 321: Amnesty, using Challenge 54: Spicy.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
A/N: Quadruple drabble.



Ryo had been disappointed the first time he’d made bread pudding. His mom had used to make it and it had been a family favourite, but his own first attempt left a lot to be desired. The bread was well smushed, there were plenty of fat, juicy raisins in it, and it was sweet enough, but it somehow just tasted… bland.

He couldn’t understand it; he’d followed the recipe exactly.

“Don’t know what you’re complainin’ about,” Dee said. “It’s good; I never would’a thought of usin’ stale bread to make a dessert.

“It’s just not spicy, not like the bread pudding mom used to make.”

“Maybe ya didn’t use enough spice.”

“The recipe said half a teaspoon of mixed spice so that’s what I used.”

“Well, next time just use a whole teaspoonful or somethin’.”

“I guess I could experiment.”

But later, when Dee was asleep, Ryo lay awake thinking, trying to remember back to when he was a little kid helping his mom in the kitchen. She’d soak the dry bread and let him squeeze the excess water out before adding the fruit, the spice, and the other ingredients. How much spice had she added though? He fell asleep still thinking about it; maybe that was why he had the dream.

He was in the kitchen with his mom, only he wasn’t a kid; he was a grown man, although his mom looked just the same as she had back then.

“This was always your dad’s favourite,” she was saying as she mixed the ingredients together before reaching for the jar of mixed spice. Removing the lid, she scooped up two generous dessert spoons of spice and sprinkled it over the mixture before stirring it in.

“Do you always use that much spice?”

His mom smiled at him and winked. “Always. The recipe says half a teaspoon, but that’s no good; you’d never taste it. Bread pudding should be spicy.”

“It should,” Ryo agreed.

The next time he made the dessert he did what his mom had done in his dream, adding two large spoonfuls of mixed spice. The aroma as the bread pudding baked in the oven swept him right back to his childhood again.

“What d’you think?” he asked as Dee sampled the second attempt.

“Wow! That’s way better than your first one; really spicy.”

Ryo tasted it himself and smiled.

“Just like mom used to make!”


The End