I don't own Hetalia; all rights go to Hidekaz Hirumaya.
"Here! Take it and go away!" Chiara shoved the cupcake tray into Gilbert's hands, then attempted to walk out of the classroom they had detention in.
She tried in vain, as Gilbert quickly set the cupcakes down and grabbed her wrist instead.
Chiara sighed; it looked like she wasn't going to get out of detention with the idiot that easily.
"I finished my end of the deal!" She said. Hell, who ever said she would give up without a fight? If there was one thing everyone could say about her, it was that she was stubborn as hell. "Now get me out of detention!" Not that she minded detention-it was a calm place without her sister. It was detention with a person she loathed that annoyed her.
The senior smiled innocently at her, releasing his death grip on her wrist. "Not yet, you haven't. I still have to taste these, remember?"
Chiara grumbled. "Ugh. Fine." She sat down in one of the chairs beside him, watching him peel back the cheap paper liners she found in the baking closet. Luckily, they had detention in the cooking classroom, and in the World Academy, whichever room you had detention in, you could technically do whatever you want. Well, except walk into other rooms.
"My cooking is damn wonderful, by the way. I don't think you need to taste them."
"Well, we'll just see how awesome it is, won't we?"
That was one of the reasons she hated him! As if there was a better cook in the school then her! She had gotten a scholarship here for that very reason! For God's sake, even the cooking teacher (the only cool teacher in the school, in her oh so humble opinion) couldn't teach her anything new! Besides, it was the only thing she could do better that Feli…not that she'd admit that to anyone. And how dare he sit there, with her chocolate cupcakes all over his face, testing to see if they were tasty! Like he would know tasty, all he ever ate was weird German food.
Chiara snorted. German food was much too simple for her complex, gourmet taste.
Gilbert looked at the girl just then, as if reading her thoughts. "These cupcakes," he said, "What's in them?"
The girl shrugged. "What you would expect to find in cupcakes."
"Hell no. These are way too awesome for that." Gilbert suddenly leaned forward, staring into her eyes, making Chiara blush. "And I don't even like chocolate that much."
Chiara glared. "What do you want me to say, that they were made with love?"
He snorted. "Like you'd make me anything with love. I'm starting to think you hate my guts!"
"Well it took you long enough, bastard." She muttered.
He went on, seeming to ignore her comment. "I need to know the recipe."
"What? No, make your own cupcakes."
"You can kiss freedom goodbye, then."
Chiara stiffened. He had a point (for once in his miserable existence). He was the only one that had seen what happened last Friday, and he was the only one who could get close enough to the Vice Principal (only because they were related, it had nothing to do with his people skills!) to tell him why she was innocent. The nerve of the woman grated her already friend nerve cells. Fancy framing her for the prank she pulled! If Gilbert hadn't come around the corner at that exact time, she would have no chance to get out of a months detention whatsoever.
"Fine." She relented. "Flour, sugar, butter, vanilla, an egg, milk, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, and potatoes."
Gilbert stared at Chiara.
She blushed.
"Well, there wasn't enough starch, so I had to use the next best thing! And don't look like that, you must've saw me with them at some point."
"Actually I just took a nap." Gilbert said, "I had an awesome dream."
"I don't care." Chiara interrupted. "I gave you the recipe, can you bail me out?"
"No, not yet. You're going to make more of awesome cupcakes." He paused, and then added. "And I want to see you make them."
"Will you get me out?"
Gilbert smiled. "Have I ever broken a promise?"
"How should I know?" She snapped. "Anyway, pass me that bowl."
LINE BREAK ~
"Okay," Chiara said, tying an apron on her waist. "Listen right now and listen closely, I'm going to do this once, and once only. Understand?"
"Of course the awesome me understands."
She rolled her eyes. "Uh-huh, sure." She turned around to face Gilbert, all sarcasm gone from her amber eyes. She was cooking, and cooking meant business. "Alright, first step is to preheat the oven, and make sure all the stuff that you need is out, prepared, and at the correct temperature. You should also line the muffin tin now."
"Check, check, and check."
Chiara nodded. "Next, you beat the butter and sugar, and when it gets light, add the egg."
Gilbert jammed his whisk into the pink mixing bowl (Chiara had said the blue one was hers), sugar puffing around him like a cloud. He attempted to start mixing of the bat, which Chiara couldn't help but laugh at. He just looked so stupid!
"No, that's not how you do it!" She set aside her (already mixed and ready for the egg) bowl, and took his whisk in her hands. "Watch and learn." Chiara broke up the butter into smaller pieces, Gilbert watching over her shoulder. Then, slowly at first, then gaining speed, she whisked, first clockwise, then the other way 'round. After a couple of minutes, the mixture looked like proper batter.
"Well, if you want to do it the boring way." He muttered.
She smirked. "The proper way." She handed him an egg. "Mix this in -slowly- I don't want you getting it everywhere."
"Aw, come on." Gilbert broke the egg, letting it drip down into the bowl. He picked up his whisk and (at a glare from Chiara) started slowly. "I'm not that bad."
"I'll see that when your cupcakes are done."
After the eggs, they added milk, vanilla, and (to Gilbert's (awesome) surprise) mashed potatoes. He had thought Chiara was pulling his leg, but to true to her word, the potatoes were added in, and mixed in with everything else.
"Okay, you have to sift the dry ingredients before you mix them in with the wet." Chiara stood up on tiptoes, straining to reach the sifter. Gilbert snorted, put his hand on her shoulder and reached it for her.
"Were you like, born short, or were you not just gifted with an awesome growth spurt like me?"
Chiara blushed, snatching the sifter from Gilbert. "Were you like, born stupid, or were you just dropped on your head as a child?"
"Hey!"
She pointed the sifter like that really weird blonde kid pointed his gun (which was illegal in every other school but theirs). "Measure the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Then sift it into that bowl."
"Fine." He grumbled. He paused, holding the shifter at arms length, like one would hold a dangerous weapon. "…How do you do that?"
"Have you ever cooked?"
"Ludwig does all that stuff!"
"And yet, he's still manlier than you are." Chiara sighed, taking the sifter back. "Watch and learn, potato bastard."
She measured out the dry ingredients, dumping them all into the sifter. Shaking the sifter back and forth, the fine mixture fell down into the silver bowl. Chiara stiffened when she felt Gilbert hand wrap around her own, his chin on her shoulder. "What the hell!"
"What?" He asked.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Sifting, obviously." He smirked, his peripheral vision noticing the colour that stained her face. "Are you blushing, Chiara?"
"I am not!" She said, despite the fact that she was. She put down the sifter, reaching for the bowl of wet ingredients.
He spun her around, placing his hands on the counter behind her. Chiara was stuck between the counter, and none other that Gilbert. She internally groaned, what kind of a detention was this? They stayed in that position for the longest time she could imagine (read: about two minutes).
"You totally are." He said.
"I'm totally what?"
"Blushing." He leaned closer. "Are you blushing because of me?"
She snorted. "I'm not blushing, and if I was, it wouldn't be because of you!"
He leaned even closer. She could smell the previous chocolate/potato cupcakes on his breath. Which caused her to pull out her last ace. "Do you want to finish these cupcakes or not?"
Gilbert grinned. "Nah, I'd much rather find out why you're blushing around me."
So much for her last ace.
"I am not - umph!" Gilbert pressing his lips against her own cut off Chiara's exclamation. Unconsciously, she tilted her head back, allowing him more access, without thinking about the fact that she was freaking kissing Gilbert Beilschmidt, whom she absolutely loathed.For someone she hated, he was a surprisingly good kisser.
Taking that as a sign that she wasn't going to brutally murder him, he moved his hands on her waist, applying more pressure on her (really soft, Gilbert wondered if she had put on chap stick recently) lips. Her hands draped around his neck, toying with his silver hair.
They broke apart, the need for air making itself apparent. Gilbert was about to mention something, but before he could open his mouth, Chiara had torn her apron off and ran from the room, leaving him to wonder:
What the hell did I just do?
It wasn't that he hated Chiara; Gilbert had a crush on her ever since she had walked into W Academy, swearing at everyone who dared look at her (she was wearing a skirt, and she was hot as hell. Could she blame the guys?). But he had a chance with her, and he had kissed her, and then she had run out of the room. Not the reaction he would have hoped to get, something along the lines of her going in for another kiss would have been awesome. And he hadn't even got to tell her he liked her!
He sighed. "Tomorrow." He announced to the empty room. "I'll tell her everything."
He pondered on how to go about doing such a thing. He couldn't exactly walk up to Chiara and proclaim his undying love, that would just get him kicked in a painful place. He didn't want Francis or Antonio to tell him for him, she would probably take it the wrong way. And besides, Francis had a girlfriend, and Antonio was airheaded.
His gaze fell on the cupcakes, and the recipe she had scrawled out for him (she said she wasn't going to make them for him again). Gilbert smiled. She had even left a suggestion (more like a order) for him to frost with chocolate icing.
Gilbert had a plan, involving cupcakes, notes, and Chiara's stubbornness.
Oh yes.
This would work awesomely.
~ LINE BREAK ~
Chiara stormed into the school the next morning, bags under her eyes, hair a mess, and no makeup.
It was Gilbert's fault anyway! Bastard had to kiss her. She hated him for that, making her melt into a puddle of emotion. She was Chiara Freaking Vargas! She shouldn't be blushing around him, or at the thought of his kiss! She did not like him, no matter what anybody said. She didn't need a boyfriend anyway, unlike Feli, always hanging off of Kiku.
She wrenched her locker open, ignoring Bella's confused look. She stared at the offending site. Textbooks, her laptop, novels, and her pencil case were all pushed to the side. Where her favourite novel (a copy of Dante's Inferno, they weren't kidding when they said she came from Hell) usually had the place of honor, a small cupcake sat.
And not any cupcake, a replica of her potato/chocolate cupcake.
Gilbert.
And not only that, a note was folded underneath. Well, she wouldn't read it! As if she cared what he thought, or what he wanted her to know. She had enough teasing for a lifetime, and Gilbert mocking her about her running away was not something she wasted to deal with.
Against her better judgment, she ate the cupcake. She was hungry, because Feli had taken forever to get out of the washroom this morning, and then they were going to be late if she had gotten her toast.
The note stayed in her locker, and however much she would like to say that she didn't think about it all, the note stayed in the corner of her mind the entire morning. Or, to be more accurate, the note danced right on the center, singing, "You don't know what I sa~ay!" Hey, what could she do? She was curious.
By lunch, she was desperate, but she was busy with her cooking club, so she couldn't exactly leave. "Fine." She thought. "I'll see what he wants at the end of the day."
For Chiara, the end of the day came either much too fast, or much to slow. She couldn't decide which.
Rushing (and simultaneously looking as if she wasn't) to her locker, she noticed the note wasn't there. That peeved her. Who the hell knew her locker combination? It was easy to push in a note, but to get it out?
"Hey, leibling."
She should have known.
"What do you want, Gilbert?" She didn't turn around, choosing instead to stare at her locker. Why hadn't she noticed before how pretty of a grey colour the locker was? It was a nice, soft, safe, grey, unlike the harsh red of Gilbert's eyes. She mentally slapped herself, why was she thinking about that? Oh yeah, because after he had freaking kissed her yesterday, she saw how red his eyes really were.
"Are you listening to me?" Gilbert asked.
"No." Chiara replied.
He smiled. That was Chiara, all right. "Well, can you turn around?"
She scoffed. "What, so you can kiss me again?"
"That would be awesome," That reply didn't surprise her. Feli had gotten lucky and turned out baby cute. She, on the other hand, turned out ugly unless she wore more figure flattering clothes, which caused men to assume she wanted to make out against the bleachers- or worse.
"But I have something more important to tell you." That surprised her. He didn't even use the word awesome.
Chiara turned around, leaning against her locker. She checked her watch. "I have ten minutes before Feli leaves and I lose my ride. Make it quick."
Gilbert gulped, this was now or never.
"You're really pretty!" He blurted. His eyes widened. "No, I don't mean that! No wait - yes I do, of course I think your pretty, but that's not the only thing I like about you, because I like a lot of things about you, 'cause I think your really awesome, andireallylikeyou!"
Chiara blinked. "Wait, say that again?" He didn't just say…that he liked her?
Gilbert groaned. "I'm no good with this!" He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. Chiara was just so cute, with her red face and messy hair! He mentally slapped himself, he sounded like Antonio gushing over the turtles at the pet shop.
"I really like you." He said, looking into her eyes.
Chiara blushed, putting her face in her hands in a vain attempt to conceal it. Her shoulders shook, and for a split second, Gilbert was terrified that she was crying. She looked up, blush still visible and a smirk on her face. "You idiot! You ask a girl out before you kiss her!"
He grinned because she wasn't rejecting him. And she was smiling (well smirking), something only select people got to see her do.
"Well," he said, as inspiration struck. "I've kissed you once, so I'll have to take you on a date! How does Friday at seven sound?"
She leaned foreword and kissed him. Hey what could she say? As her grandmother said, when a guy teases you, he must like you. She was right for Gilbert, anyway. "I kissed you too, so don't be late."
Gilbert smiled. "I'll take you to the Italian place near the park."
Chiara smiled as well. "Sounds good." Gilbert grabbed her hand entwining their fingers. He had never believed Francis about 'love at first sight', but he wouldn't mind trying with Chiara.
"Come on," he said, pulling her to the cooking classroom, "I want to show you a recipe for German Chocolate cake."
Chiara grinned. "Oh, I bet my tiramisu can beat that any day!" She smiled softly as she heard his snarky comment, to think this all started with cupcakes!