Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin or any of its characters.

Rurouni Kenshin:

Cookie-taster

She gazed at him expectantly; patiently waiting until he had finished swallowing the thing that she had just gave him. Still, he was taking such a long time! Surely eating chocolates didn't take more than ten seconds… Why was he looking at her like that, anyway?

"So?" she queried excitedly after two minutes of silence.

Yahiko sighed; she would never give up, would she? After several months of making it, he'd thought that she should've known the answer by now. Sure she didn't expect him to spell it out for her every single time, did she?

"Misao," he began, frowning lightly when she moved closer to him, "You're a terrible baker."

Her smile faltered.

"What?" she cried out, sounding a bit disappointed as well as annoyed, "But the deadline is next week! I can't possibly give the guy I like cookies that are definitely not edible!"

The guy she likes – truthfully, Yahiko didn't know why she referred to him that way. After all, he knew that 'the guy' was Aoshi. Mostly everyone knew of that, and Misao realized it! So why didn't she just call him Aoshi, for god's sake! Sometimes, it got on his nerves, though he didn't really know why.

"Why don't you just buy him a gift and be done with it? Or if you still want to give him food, buy him chocolates. Besides, it doesn't have to cookies, right?" Yahiko asked, but Misao shook her head in disagreement.

"I don't want to buy things for him – it's not special enough. Chocolate's a possible choice, but I don't know how to make them! I only know how to bake cookies!" she exclaimed.

Yahiko snorted. Yeah, right. What was Misao's definition of knowing how to do something, anyway? So far, all she ever presented him were half-burnt cookies, and all of them tasted kind of odd. If you asked him, that was not knowing how to bake cookies.

"Well, it's better than giving him food that he would throw away the second he got it," he reasoned.

Misao pouted, failing to find a good remark to counter his statement, "He wouldn't do anything like that."

"You think too highly of him."

Misao frowned at him, though she didn't say anything. There were more things that she needed to worry about, like trying to find a way to bake the most delicious cookies in less than a week. It seemed… impossible… but she wasn't about to give up! It wasn't in her nature to do something as pathetic as that.

Besides, they were only cookies. It couldn't be that hard… right?

Secretly, Misao suspected that her cookies didn't taste as bad as Yahiko said they did. She never tasted it, of course, because she was much too afraid to taste her own cooking. Still, whenever she gave Yahiko some cookies to taste, she noticed that he'd always finish every single one of it, even if he did say that the taste was much more than he could handle.

She eyed the boy again, and sure enough, he was taking another one of her cookies from the container.

Finally, she took a deep breath and grabbed one of her cookies. It was about time that she had started tasting them herself – she couldn't depend on Yahiko forever. She eyed it cautiously before slowly putting it into her mouth and munching it.

Misao almost choked.

"Yahiko, what am I supposed to do?" she asked him, distraught. The taste was absolutely horrible! Seriously, how did Yahiko even manage to finish all of them!

"Why're you asking me?" he questioned, "You know I have no idea in these kinds of stuff."

"But you've been my most loyal cookie-taster for over six months now! Who else should I turn to for help?" she made a face, trying to get him to help her out. She didn't care how.

"No one else would eat any of your cooking, stupid. And the only reason why I'm doing this is because you forced me into it," he stated, ignoring the glare that she received from her.

"Whatever… Can't you think of anyone who could help me?"

"Well…" he looked thoughtful for a few seconds, before replying, "I suppose Tsubame could –"

"Of course, Tsubame-chan! Why didn't I think of her earlier! Thanks, Yahiko! I'm off to get some baking lessons from Tsubame!"

And with that, Misao rushed to who-knows-where, leaving him to stare at her retreating figure. He didn't understand why she wanted to try so hard to impress a guy who barely acknowledged her existence. There were loads of other guys, why'd she have to choose him? He found it utterly confusing.

Still, it was none of his business. What right did he have to want to know more about that?

… But he couldn't help but just feel interested.

Yahiko shook his head. Jeez, why would he want to interfere in another person's love life? He could barely manage his own.

Then again, what was there to manage? His love life was nonexistent.

It all started when Kaoru decided to bake some cookies for Kenshin.

She thought that it was pointless at first, but when she saw how much Kenshin appreciated her efforts to bake him those (Kaoru's cookies were way too sweet, but he loved them all the same), she decided to try it out herself.

Of course, it never occurred to her that baking was so… complicated.

Hey, it wasn't her fault that she never once entered the kitchen before!

So she decided to give herself half a year before giving her cookies to the guy she likes. She actually thought that it was more than enough time… now she wondered why she didn't give herself a year to prepare.

Once she was at home, Misao examined her oven. The oven had exploded earlier that day, and she was hoping that it might still be workable, despite the fact that it looked completely destroyed… They did say to never judge a book by its cover.

After several minutes of looking at it, though, she finally admitted that it was damaged beyond repair.

Misao sighed; Tsubame had better be a good teacher. For some reason, she felt like she could never bake anything good if Tsubame failed to teach her.

"Yahiko!" Misao said excitedly, grinning from ear to ear, "I did it! I baked cookies, and they actually tastes good!"

The day had finally arrived. Truthfully, Yahiko didn't know why he even bothered to remember the exact date. Then again, after suffering from Misao's baking skills for almost six months, he supposed it would be impossible for him to not remember.

"… Really?" Yahiko replied, sounding somewhat doubtful.

"Oh, so you don't believe me, huh? Well, the proof is right here!"

Yahiko sweatdropped as Misao took out a huge container and handed it to him. When he took them, she waited expectantly for him to eat it. He took one of them and eyed it carefully; it didn't look like it was burnt.

Slowly, he put one of the cookie in his mouth…

"How is it? Delicious, right?" Misao said confidently.

He frowned at her, "It's way too sweet."

"Huh?" She grabbed the container from him and ate one of the cookies. She frowned in confusion, "What are you talking about? It tastes just right."

"Well, at least it's better than the ones before," he admitted.

Yahiko rolled his eyes as Misao squealed in delight when he took another one of her cookies. As if that had never happened before. But he didn't blame her for feeling happy. It was the first time that her cookie had looked the least it presentable.

"So did you give it to him?" he asked curiously.

"Who?" she quirked an eyebrow, looking genuinely confusedly.

"Aoshi," she still seemed confused, so he added, "You know, the guy you like."

She blinked a few times, seemingly puzzled. Then, something clicked in her mind and she laughed out loud, causing Yahiko to become slightly annoyed. Honestly, what was so funny? He didn't hear anyone cracking a joke.

"Jeez, you dolt! What makes you think that I'd give them to Aoshi?"

"Other than the fact that you had a crush on him since forever, I don't know," Yahiko remarked sarcastically.

"I gave up on him years ago! Seriously, I thought you, out of everyone else, would have noticed!" Misao was clutching her stomach, still not able to stop herself from laughing.

Yahiko's cheeks turned red… what an embarrassing mistake to make.

"So you didn't give it to him, then? The guy that you like?"

A small – almost mischievous – smile appeared on Misao's face, "Oh, but I did. You saw me giving it to him."

"I did?"

"Uh-huh!" Misao nodded enthusiastically, "You were even there when I gave it to him!"

"I don't think so…" Yahiko denied, somewhat confused, "Perhaps you mistook someone else for me."

Misao giggled girlishly before moving closer towards Yahiko and whispering to his ear, "The person I like is eating the cookies that I made for him now, right in front of my eyes."

Then the truth finally dawned on him, and he felt heat rising to his cheeks. Beside him, he could hear Misao giggling again before lightly kissing his cheek. His face turned redder, if that was even possible, and he lowered his head to stare at the floor.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to find Tsubame-chan to thank her for her delightful lessons! How about chocolates next time, Yahiko?"

Without waiting for him to answer, Misao went out the door. She laughed when she remembered his reaction towards her little confession. Really, her little cookie-taster was so cute!

Inside, Yahiko smiled to himself.

Six months of eating burnt cookies was definitely worth it.

And he wouldn't mind if he had to taste her disastrous chocolates next time.

Author's note: This is awfully pointless… not to mention that I'm not sure whether the characters are IC or not! I haven't seen Rurouni Kenshin for such a long time already! Oh yeah, and the pairing is slightly unusual… But really, YahikoxMisao deserves more attention. I think they look cute with each other… R and R please!