We are cooking, right?

I always have found a fic more squee-worthy if the moments seem to not faze the characters: no outburst of things like "I'm gay?" or "You're gay?" or "holy shiz we just kissed!". It almost takes away from the story. I mean, if you're going for realistic, then the love/make up confession shouldn't be so sudden after the (usually) accident kiss – which happens in the oddest ways now that I think about it – with TIME in between and that calls either for a multichaptered fic or a long one-shot. Hardly ever – with the slight exception of drunk college students – is spur of the moment sexuality so very easy to deal with, and when a small (or big) revelation comes about, hardly ever – drunk college students still being the exception – does one accept it immediately and without question. I find that, if anything, these random outbursts with their lack of time lower the emotions and the absolute loveliness that I want to see in a fanfic, especially cute shoujo-ai couples.

So with that rant written, I tried to follow it by making a (hopefully) cute and funny fic around Makoto and Ami. Though it could be seen either way, I didn't really see them "together" yet, but rather each separately knowing they like the other, hence the flirting… the massive flirting. And though originally written in 3rd person, I changed it to first person because my friend says there isn't enough 1st person fluff. *shrug*

Oh, and they may be a tad OOC, but I just loved their "subtle" flirting and inability to, as Nike says, just do it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon… good thing too, or else it would be full of drama and fluff and would have no repetitive sequences or corny actions lines. Phew!

This was going to end badly.

I rubbed my temples for possibly the twentieth time this afternoon. This whole cake thing was not going as planned. Coming back home around noon, I thought it would be a good idea to have scrambled eggs for lunch.

Worst idea ever.

And now I had to drag Ami away from helping Usagi decorate the shrine while Minako distracted Rei somehow so that I could have the two more egg yolks I needed to finish the cake. I would go get them myself, but the party was at four, and it was already one, giving me three hours to bake the cake, make the icing and cool it down, decorate and get over to the shrine from my apartment. Not nearly enough time.

Ignoring my constant desire to just succumb and buy a cake, I continued my baking. First I needed cake flour from the pantry. Whistling as I went over the door, the thought that maybe I'll be okay after all crossed my mind. And then I opened the door. Aw shit.

There wasn't enough cake flour. I was half a cup short and would need to use regular flour for the rest. Growling at the fact that the cake would be slightly grainy now, I wildly threw the fridge open for the half and half. Maybe that disappeared to.

A sigh of relief escaped my lips: I had more than the cookbook's required one cup. Feeling a little more assured that I was not completely unprepared and still had the basics, I scrolled my finger hastily down the rest of the recipe: Vanilla, sugar, chocolate, heavy cream, more vanilla….

My finger froze as my mind made a quick realization. I scrolled back up to the words "heavy cream" and glared at the fridge for deceiving me that I had everything. What was the chance that the half and half gave birth to a heavy cream? I threw the door open again. None.

I groaned again, picking up my cell phone to call Ami but was beat by the doorbell. Grumbling away about my inability to plan, I marched towards the door and opened it, ready to chew out anyone who dared to bother me. Seeing who was out the door, "chew out" was instantly changed to "eat and nibble and bite."

"Ami!" I said, trying to push my thoughts aside, "Thanks for coming. Please tell me you have some egg yolks for me."

"Here they are, Makoto" Ami replied, holding up a bag. "That's what you asked for, right?"

"Yeah, but last time I asked Minako to bring me more sugar, and she brought lip gloss instead." I took the bag from her and proceeded towards the kitchen. "Not that I thought you would bring the wrong thing, just, you know, checking."

Ami chuckled understandingly and spoke while taking off her shoes, "Is it really going that badly?"

I shot my head out from the doorway so she could see my wide-eyed, flour covered face. "Yes," I responded. "Just check out the kitchen. It's a sorry mess."

Ami followed me into the kitchen and sat down on a stool at the counter. Seeing the mess, she cringed. If it was a display of how things were going, "disastrous" may have the best word. A bowl of egg yolks and the eggs' respective shells were in a corner, next to a bag a sugar looking like it was about to tip over. The trashcan was open and overflowing with boxes of cake flour and butter wrappers. Blobs of cake batter seemed to be multiplying by the beating mixer, and my rushing around like a mad person definitely completed the picture.

The eggs pulled out, I continued whipping them as I recalled the heavy cream, "Do you happen to have heavy cream in that holy bag of yours?"

Snapping out of her inspection of the battlefield, Ami dug through the bag and successfully displaying one pint of heavy cream. "Here you go."

"Thank you so much," I said as I grabbed the heavy cream and put it by the chocolate, now diced for quick melting, and looked at the infernal clock: two on the dot. Maybe I would make it after all. That is, as I caught myself looking at Ami again, if I didn't get distracted. Focus, I told myself, on heating the chocolate. You don't want a repeat of last time when the chocolate exploded all over the kitchen and now all over Ami and myself.

Then again, a chocolate covered Ami would be delicious.

"Makoto?" I turned my head quickly towards her. "Do you need any help?"

Pausing so I didn't betray what plagued my mind, I looked around for something that Ami could do. My eyes spied the bowl of batter and smiled at my new taste-tester. Grabbing a spoon from a drawer and dipping it in the cake batter, I held the batter out to Ami, saying "Please tell me it's good."

Ami looked at it for a second. "Raw eggs?"

I let out a small chuckle. Of course, her mom was a doctor. Simply nodding, I explained, "Trust me, I've been eating an unhealthy amount of this stuff since I was little. It's something my dad did before… well, just try it."

She seemed saddened at the mention of my parents, but said, "If you want me to." She reached her hand out to grab the spoon, which tactfully dodged her grasping hand.

"No, no, no." I chided with a smile on my lips, "That's not how it's done." Pushing the spoon towards her mouth, I said, "Say 'ah!'"

Ami at first gave me a look but then just smiled back, "Really?"

Simply smiling more, I nodded. "Humor me."

Sighing, Ami compiled and opened her mouth, "Ah!" I took the spoon and dipped the batter into her mouth, very satisfied from Ami apparent pleasure.

"Good, huh?"

"Very good, surprisingly," Ami replied. "But you wouldn't guess by looking at the mess around the mixer."

I followed her gaze. "Yeah, well, it's been an off day for me." I smiled softly at Ami, who only smiled back in return, drips of batter still on her top lip.

And then – surprising both her and myself – I leaned forward, almost completely across the counter, with my chest leaning on the edge and my breathing much too short for such a simple action. I was drawn towards her and couldn't stop the magnetic attraction. Despite my mind screaming to turn away before I make a fool of myself, my body keep pushing forward way past her personal space bubble.

Yet she seemed anything but fazed, maybe she was even relaxed. A smile tugged at her lips, and he eyes were fluttering closed. We both moved forward slightly, lips almost touching in that magical way I've had so many dreams about. Our breath mingled as we both smiled and moved closer, both of us with our eyes closed. Finally, I thought.

And then the damn oven beeped.

The moment was quickly broken, and suddenly I found myself looking for an excuse for coming so close to her. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the few drops of batter on her lips. My finger reached out a slowly, gently wiped across her lips, collecting the remaining batter. She turned a light pink at my touch, making me smile to think that I was able to get such a cute reaction from her. Our eyes locked again, and the proximity felt more powerful than ever before.

Pulling back suddenly, I licked my finger and said, "Delicious." Oh yes, she was.

Ami still seemed out of it, so I tried to make light of what just happened, again. "Right! Time to put the cake in the oven."

I would like to say that this is the first occurrence of … encounters like this. That this was just a one-time deal and would never happen again and we would never again almost kiss. I wish I could say that we were just friends and that I wanted it to stay that way.

But then I would be lying.

This happened almost every week, sometimes even more than that. Every time we ended up alone an almost insurmountable force pushed us together. And sometimes it happened when the other were there too! There were several times when we just caught each others eyes across the room and shared a smile. When sitting down, we always sat next to each other, without fail, always in close proximity. Often we brushed hands or our shoulders or hips touched while sitting down. Once she even had to sit in my lap since there was no more room in the car!

The sparks that traveled up my body every time we were like this could no longer just be attributed to the fact that I'm the Senshin of Lightning. It was more than that. The gazes, brushes, contact, I longed for them all. I wanted to be able to hold her all day and never let her go, to cuddle with her at night, to hold her hand as we walked. She was in my thoughts constantly and refused to leave.

And that's just the way I wanted it.

Ami spoke, making me recognize that I've been staring at her since I'd put the cake in the oven, "Um… what else do we need to do?"

"Well," I responded, still unable to look her in the eyes, "Now we wait. Do whatever we want to."

Though possibly my imagination, Ami gulped at the thought. She stuttered out, "Whatever…?"

I didn't like where this was going. Trying to divert the attention away from couples or kissing or anything remotely romantic, I said, "How about you explain to me how Minako got out of doing a job."

Ami got a confused expression on her face. "Got out of a job…?" Then she froze as she understood what I meant. Hesitantly, she continued, "I think she does have a job, actually."

I looked up from the bowl I was cleaning. "Really? What?"

Not wanting to answer the question, Ami vaguely put it, "She's keeping Rei busy."

Nodding, I went back to scrubbing the remaining batter off the counter. This conversation was a lot safer than anything else I could come up with, though Ami did seem a bit flustered about the subject. Unable to come up with anything else, I said, "What's she doing, you think?"

This time Ami visibly gulped. Stopping midway, I put down the bowls and washed my hands: after all, I could always wash the dishes later. This conversation seemed more important somehow. I leaned on the counter yet again, but not nearly as close. Still though, Ami seemed to be leaning in as well.

She must of thought of someway to reply, since she suddenly had a sly smile on her face. Ami said, "For that answer, you may have to wait until your birthday."

I thought about my eighteenth birthday later this year. "You mean Minako is going to distract me?"

A flash of hurt passed along Ami's face. "Well, if you want her to, yeah."

Not really sure where this was going, I tried to explain, "Actually, I'd prefer you, but you said that I would have to wait until my birthday to find out what Minako and Rei were doing–"

I stopped talking when I realized Ami's beet red face and her inability to catch my eye. Simply because I felt I should, I started blushing as well, trying to figure out what I said that was so embarrassing. After all, Minako is probably out shopping with Rei or something.

Suddenly, a sentence Minako said the other day came to my mind, "Don't worry, I'll try not to make her too tired." That wouldn't have been suspicious, but then Minako winked, and Rei buried her blushing face in her hands. Now that I was thinking about it, Minako did have her arm around Rei too….

And then it clicked.

I felt all the heat in my body coming out my face as I realized what had said, and, more importantly, what Ami said.

"Wait," I turned towards her, who had an equally red face, "what?!?"

She lowered her head a bit and spoke so very softly, "I'm sorry, I just thought…" She trailed off.

It took me a moment, but I stated to smile at the situation. This time I leaned over the counter fully and didn't even think about it. Blushing at what I was about to say, I confidently said, "But Ami," she looked up and me and blushed at the close proximity. I continued, "I don't want to wait eight months."

I don't think I've ever seen Ami's face so red before, and it caused me to chuckle. Reaching my hand out to touch her face, I cocked my head and smiled at her. Though bright red, she smiled right back.

Then she leaned forward, and I followed her lead, softly touching her lips. Once it started, we couldn't stop the force we had let loose. After all this time with the brushes, eye shagging, and longing there was no way we could stop the explosion of passion. Soon I climbed over the counter, and we moved towards the couch, which we promptly fell on together. We giggled and touched and kissed, and several times we just stopped and looked right at each other and smiled.

And this time even the damn beeping oven didn't stop us.