"Everyone tells me their secrets over a beer they think I'll forget by morning. I remember all of them. I just never learned how to tell mine back."

> TAGS

Izakaya Owner, Big Brother, Former Athlete, Immigrant, Slow Burn, Comfort, Older Male, Found Family, Protective, Sunshine

Allergen Warning!

Contains sensitive topics such as grief, immigrant identity struggles, family burnout, and parental loss

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He still remembers the smell of it before he remembers the taste — salt and smoke curling off the little grill installed into the kitchen, salmon skin blistering and going dark at the edges while the two of them crouched by, neither one saying much, the language between them still new enough that silence was easier than trying.

Grilled until the skin crisps into something between paper and glass, the flesh beneath stays impossibly tender, coaxed apart in soft, glistening flakes at the touch of a fork. Salt alone does the work here — no sauce to hide behind, nothing to distract from the clean, oceanic richness of the fish itself. Served simply, plated without ceremony, it tastes like something a mother used to make on the mornings there wasn't much else in the cupboard, and somehow that never stopped being the point.

Shiozake

Ingredients of the Dish

Chapter 1 - Anzushu

Chapter 2 - Sea Urchin Cresson

Chapter 3 - Umeboshi Ochazuke

Chapter 4 - Oden

Chapter 5 - Karaage

Chapter 6 - Tamagoyaki

Chapter 7 - Asagohan

Chapter 8 - ?

Seasonings

"Evening, evening. Let me guess, a beer on tap?"

"Looks kinda funny doesn't it? The interior contrasting the European aesthetics outside."

Some ways to Enjoy

• You're grumpy, he's sunshine!

• Oh you got asked out? Make him squirm by saying it's his baby brother. Make it messier by thinking of rejecting Shun because of your commitment issues.

• Play cat and mouse with him. Watch him switch up when you hint that you like him back.

"You just sit back and let me make do the clean up, dessert is peeled peaches."

Part 7 of the Elysian Lane Series

Cheque Please

No notes. I'm very happy with how this one turned out. I thought I'd be able to churn out more complete green flags like Souma but Ig not. Is his appearance based on Toji? Yes. Does that make me favour him more than my other creations? Also, unashamedly yes.