Deep into the wee hours of the morning, Naruko sat frustrated on her bed. Around her were the bodies of her knights, all exhausted and already asleep. They'd started a game, first as a punishment for Shamal, but it'd quickly become too fun to quit, and eventually the "truth or dare" that had begun as a punishment game was spread around and turned into a fun collection of challenges. At least, they were fun to Naruko. It had become quite competitive for the Wolkenritter at some point.
Naruko absent mindedly left her bed, trying her best not to disturb her knights' sleep. It wasn't hard, they were sleeping like logs. Naruko then began to pace around her room. Fortunately, she wasn't stepping very hard, and the soft, padded carpet below her feet, a reminder of the fact that once upon a time, she could get hurt just by walking barefoot on wood, helped to make sure she didn't make a single noise as she walked around the room, picking up all the stray bits that had flown about. Whether it be clothing discarded in dares to remove it, or clothing willingly removed to be able to sleep better, she put it all in the same pile.
Once that was done, she moved about and collected three plastic bottles that had once held fizzy drinks. To think that Shamal had managed to drink all three of them without taking a single breath was astonishing. The fact that she couldn't contain the escaping gas that manifested itself as the loudest burping Naruko had ever heard was icing on the cake.
While she picked up the bottles, Naruko frowned as her ears caught a somewhat familiar sound. Vita's whines were, at this point, a language she understood very well. Far be it from the Knight of the Hammer to ever vocalize her pain if she could avoid it, but when she was asleep, she wasn't so much the fierce Knight she portrayed as she was a girl like any other. Perhaps a bit spoiled, Naruko amended, given that the whine she'd heard was interpreted as Vita missing a comforter in her sleep.
Well, that, and Zafira's movement had dragged the covers a bit, leaving her uncovered. Her body was covered only by a flimsy night gown, and it didn't provide near enough heat insulation to keep her warm in the chilly night air.
Naruko's eyes scanned the room, and quickly landed upon what she needed right now. While Naruko owned quite a few plush toys, most of them were simply there for decoration, because Naruko liked their aesthetic appeal. After all, if she wanted something to cuddle with, she had her knights, who were warm and made her feel safe in ways her toys never could. There were a few, however, which provided other functions. One was actually a pig that she used as a proverbial piggy bank, because she'd found the idea hilarious, so she had replaced its stuffing with coins.
But the one she was looking for was on the smaller side, and it was one that was very familiar to her. It wasn't very old, either, and it wasn't a common occupant of her bedroom, but it was the one she needed, and she was glad it was on top of her vanity for some reason. She grabbed the stuffed bunny and walked over to the edge of the bed where Vita lay back to back with the largest of the Wolkenritter, Zafira. It seemed that the knights found the most comfort in sleeping back to back with each other.
She wondered if it was because they'd guarded each other's backs for so long, depending only on each other, that they had such a strange custom… but she never complained. After all, it usually meant that she slept right in between.
Naruko put the stuffed bunny right in front of Vita, and after she seemed to stir a little, her hands shot forward and grabbed it, pulling it close to her and hugging it. The frown on her face turned to a smile, and she returned to sleeping soundly, murmuring something unintelligible. It was Belkan, but it was so horribly mangled by Vita's asleep brain that it was incomprehensible anyway.
With her free hand, Naruko had grabbed onto the covers and pulled them towards Vita, using them to cover her.
Patting the smallest of the Wolkenritter's head, Naruko smiled and walked off her room. She'd had her fair share of drink earlier, and was craving the use of the bathroom. Maybe once she emptied her bladder, she'd be able to catch a few dreams in the night.
Two hours later, Naruko had given up on sleep.
It just wasn't coming. She'd been lying on her bed, in between Zafira and Shamal's bodies, for the past hour and fifty minutes. The sun had begun to rise in the distance… and her eyelids weren't even heavy. In fact, she was actually starting to squirm in her bed, since her body asked for… no, demanded movement. She surged with energy from within, and it just would not let her sleep. She wasn't feeling mentally tired, either. Usually, even on days when she was energetic, she just could not go on because her brain was just that tired.
Deciding that enough was enough, Naruko finally abandoned her quest for sleep and left her bed once more, stealthily and subtly, not disturbing her knights' sleep in the least. It was a little harder, as now they were rested and the slightest brush would likely alert them.
Ten minutes later, Naruko was changed to start her day, wearing a traditional white apron over a simple orange skirt and black shirt. She'd foregone the use of slippers, which meant her white socks were stained dark on the side covering her feet from below, but she didn't really care. Washing them wouldn't be a problem, she had all sorts of stuff to wash along with them.
The reason she wore an apron would be easy to guess, as she was standing on top of a stool in front of the stove. Behind her, the table was full of ingredients she'd pulled out of her cupboards and the shelves. Flour, eggs, milk, baking powder, butter, sugar, vanilla extract, salt, honey, jam in several flavors, peanut butter… Naruko gave the ingredients one last inspection and nodded before turning around and inspecting the stove. Finding nothing to be out of the ordinary except a stain or two here and there which could be easily cleaned up with a wet rag, Naruko checked the knot holding the apron together behind her and found it satisfactory.
She grabbed a bowl from the cupboards directly below the sink and smiled at seeing it perfectly pristine. She gave it a wash, nevertheless, and then broke three eggs, depositing their contents within. Shortly after, she took care of the few pieces of egg shell that broke off and landed on the bowl, plucking them with her own fingers and tossing them away.
She also put a few pieces of butter in a small bowl, which she shoved into a microwave. Certainly, one of the greatest inventions created for those big on hunger and short on time. It also gave her a bit of patriotic pride, knowing it'd been invented in Konoha. She punched in about a minute thirty, and it began to do its work, humming softly.
Without waiting a further moment, she began pouring in the flour and baking powder, and sprinkled the mix with a little salt. She used no real measurements but her own eyeballs, and judged the amount she added as enough. Calculating the amount of flour she had poured in based on the volume it visibly occupied and knowing its density was faster than pouring it into a container that served to also measure, after all. Naruko didn't even question how she was capable of performing such a feat, because, were she to be quite frank, she didn't find it in herself to give a crap.
Even if she knew the answer now.
As the butter hadn't finished melting, Naruko moved back to the cupboards below the kitchen and pulled out a simple pan, which she again washed before putting it over the stove at a medium-low setting. As it began to heat up, Naruko used the last bits of butter to rub all over the pan. The combined heat of her hand and the pan served to quickly melt the butter, which made it easier to spread over the pan.
Naruko blinked in surprise when she heard the dinging sound of the microwave finishing.
It didn't take her long to remove the small bowl with melted butter from the microwave, which she then poured on top of the earlier mix she'd made, along with milk. She stirred gently, slowly and methodically, until she had the mix exactly where she wanted it, not quite homogenous, with visible yet tiny clumps of dry ingredients still visible.
Shortly after, she put her hand under the spray of water from her kitchen sink. A quick movement had a few sprinkles of water drops dotting the butter-covered pan. Nodding satisfactorily when she saw the water's interaction with the pan, Naruko grabbed the bowl with her mix and gently poured some of it on top of the pan.
Naruko smiled widely. It was already starting to smell delicious! She wondered… what else did she have? Her kitchen was fairly well stocked…