(A/N) According to the internet, today is Kurama's birthday. So happy birthday, Kurama-chan! *throws confetti*
I made rose cupcakes for him (managed it without all the mayhem described below). Had one for breakfast this morning. Plus I was alone at the time, so I could sing Happy Birthday to him without sounding insane!
I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or any of the characters portrayed below. This is my first shot at YYH, so be forgiving.
"Yusuke."
The spirit detective jumped, surprised to see a miniature fire demon perched upon his front window still. Letting out a little huff, he smiled.
"Hiei? What's up?"
The little youkai fidgeted, but then his gaze sharpened. "I need to use your kitchen."
"?" Yusuke planted his hands on his hips, looking at his visitor in blatant disbelief. "You… need you use my kitchen? For what gory task? My mom won't be happy to come home and find monkey guts all over the-"
"Not for any meal prep," Hiei cut him off, looking uncomfortable. "Tomorrow's Kurama's birthday."
Understanding dawned in Yusuke's eyes. "You want to make him a cake!"
Again Hiei looked down, embarrassed. "Something like that…"
Yusuke grinned. "No prob! I'm headin' over to Keiko's for an hour or two, so the kitchen's yours! Just… don't destroy anything," he added with a wary look.
Finding himself alone, Hiei looked cautiously around the kitchen. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the crumpled recipe he had taken the liberty of ripping out of Kurama's mother's cookbook.
"Cupcakes, hmm?" he muttered, and then began rustling around in Yusuke's cabinet. "Let's see… a bowl… and… flour?" Finding the bag, he observed that it had yet to be opened. Irritated at the inconvenience, he pulled sharply at either corner of the bag. With a surprisingly loud poof! a huge cloud of flour spilled from the bag and proceeded to settle over everything, including a fiercely sneezing Hiei (Hiei's sneezes, for anyone who cares to know, are quite similar to those of a cat).
Throwing the bag down in a fit of anger, he grabbed the bag of sugar, hoping it would be more agreeable. Managing to get that into the bowl with little trouble, he tried the flour again, somehow measuring it out and getting it the dish. Whipping his forehead with the back of one hand, he surveyed his progress with something like satisfaction.
"Baking powder… and salt." Finding the ingredients after ransacking the cupboard- littering the floor with anything that wasn't useful to him –he dug up a spoon from the drawer. A… teaspoon…? Staring at the two sizes of utensil, he decided that, logically speaking, a teacup was smaller than a table, so the smaller must be the teaspoon. Messily measuring out the required amounts, he added it to the mixing bowl.
"What the hell is shortening?" he asked no one. When a thorough search of the kitchen turned up nothing labeled as such, he decided to skip it. "Milk… and vanilla." The cap on the milk proved to be stuck, so the carton was soon sliced neatly in half by a sword stroke, the white liquid splashing everywhere. The vanilla, upon a sniff, smelled too interesting to resist tasting. "Blech!" Spitting furiously, Hiei lolled his tongue in an attempt to rid it of the obnoxiously strong taste, and so added the vanilla to the mixture.
Beat.
"How does one beat a mixture?" the demon wondered aloud. He tried punching it; that didn't work, at least not too well. So in the end he decided it would be logical to stir the batter, rather than beat it as the instructions so idiotically suggested. Wiping his hands briefly on one of Yusuke's towels, he pulled out the now soiled sheet of paper.
"Alright…" Consulting the instructions, he went to the refrigerator and pulled out the carton of eggs. Eggs… Observing the smooth white object in his hand, he vaguely remembered liking robin's eggs as a child. How did I… get them open…?
Tapping at the shell with one pointed nail, he felt no weak spots. So, with a swift motion, he slammed the thing down on the counter. Naturally, it splattered everywhere. Annoyed, the demon lapped egg yolk from his palm. Gentler, then… It took him three more tries to perfect the technique, and then three eggs joined the other ingredients.
Preheat the oven… It took him a good minute but, by observing the dials on the oven, Hiei determined that he needed to turn the strange machine on, then set the other dial to 350. He then mixed the eggs into the batter, making sure it was smooth, as the instructions dictated.
Laying out the cupcake papers in the cupcake tin- as per the picture –it took him a minute to get the hang of pouring the batter. But soon he did, and then opened the oven.
The wave of heat that met him took him by surprise; he jumped back, foot landing on the carton of oatmeal he had tossed carelessly onto the floor. He slipped, lurching backward in an undignified fashion, and the trey of cupcakes in his hand fell with a clatter right into the oven. The batter, upon striking the heated metal, burst into brief flames and then blackened, filling the whole room with thick smoke. Hiei, more annoyed than anything once he had picked himself up, wrenched open the window.
That was, of course, when the fire alarm went off.
Alarmed and confused- for he had never heard a fire alarm before –Hiei lashed out at the strange, shrieking device on the wall, taking it for some strange demon he had woken. It fell to the ground in pieces, and the fire youkai nodded, satisfied.
After the smoke had cleared, another batch of cupcakes was slid into the oven, with more success this time. Then, closing the door and turning back to the task at hand, Hiei began to prepare the frosting. As the picture dictated, he wanted to make the cupcakes rose shaped; that was what had sparked the preposterous idea to back Kurama cupcakes to begin with.
So, taking the three cups of butter cream frosting- which he had stolen on recommendation of the clerk at the store –he emptied them into a bowl. Then in went a dollop of red food coloring, for the sake of having red roses. The little demon was starting to get the hang of mixing things- although a good bit of frosting did end up outside of the bowl –so in almost no time he was holding a bowlful of rich red frosting.
Then, as the cupcakes came out of the oven, a mad fit of decoration began.
… … …
Unfortunately for Yusuke, his mom beat him home. But his subsequent bumps and bruises and hours spent cleaning up Hiei's mess belong in another story.
… … …
But Hiei did, in the end, chicken out. For Kurama came home that night to find his room covered in cupcakes; they decorated every flat surface in his room, the roses that adorned them shockingly perfect, carefully and artfully sculpted. Upon his pillow rested a note that simply read:
Happy Birthday, Fox.
Hiei
And Kurama had simply smiled, surprised and not surprised, and picked up a cupcake.
(A/N) Hope you guys liked it. ^^ Reviews help to pay for repairs to Yusuke's house.
