Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon
Please read and review, your feedback helps me to write better stories.
Note: For those who are fans of slash over femslash, just replace all instances of Mimi with Tai and all instances of Sora with Izzy. ;)
Digimon Adventure: Notice Me!
Sora stood panting in the doorway, a smiling Mimi looking at her. This in itself was a fairly normal occurrence. Mimi would call her telling her there was some type of emergency and she needed her to hurry to her house right away. Sora, never wanting to trivialize such a request in case it was actually an emergency, would rush over as fast as she could on her bike, which was pretty fast due to knowing the path there by heart. Then, leaving her bike tied out front of Mimi's apartment complex she'd run up several flights of stairs to get to where Mimi and her family lived. Knocking on the door she'd be greeted by a smiling Mimi about to introduce her to whatever the latest 'crisis' was. Sora didn't really mind, the crises only came during times she wasn't busy with soccer and she liked hanging out with the other girl. While she hadn't gotten to mentioning it to Mimi yet, she liked Mimi a lot more than as a friend, so seeing her crush more often was good, if slightly stressful.
Now she saw something she'd never expected to, and could only gawk, blinking quickly to be sure she was seeing this right. Mimi was standing in the doorway in a frilly pink apron, her hair tied back into pigtails, a bandanna to keep stray hairs up and the largest smile her face could manage without splitting itself in two. Sora was surprised to see a Mimi that regularly visited her in her dreams and fantasies, although this one had more clothes on than fantasy Mimi generally did.
"Oh good, you're here!" said Mimi excitedly. "Come on in and let's get you ready!"
Mimi reached over the threshold, grabbing Sora and pulling her through. She closed the down behind Sora and then brought her into the kitchen which was packed with baking supplies. Pots, pans, tins, bins, molds, cookie cutters, another apron (this one light blue with less frills), flour, chocolate, sugar, chocolate, eggs, chocolate... Sora just looked at the still smiling Mimi in wonder.
"What is all of this?" she asked.
"Baking supplies," Mimi replied happily. "There's an apron for you right there."
"I see that they're baking supplies, why are they here?"
"Baking of course!"
"Ok….why all of the chocolate?" asked Sora, looking over everything again.
"Because, today is the 13th," replied Mimi simply, looking kind of miffed that Sora wasn't understanding things easily.
"The 13th….," then after a moment of thought she understood. "Valentine's day is tomorrow."
"Correct!" cheered Mimi happily. "Tomorrow will be the day that I finally win against Tai!"
Sora just sighed, aware of the long running battle that had been going on between her two close friends for the last several months. "Wouldn't it just be easier if one of you just went and confessed to Joe instead of doing this weird competition? I don't think he even knows that you both have a crush on him."
"That's part of what makes him so adorable," said Mimi with a wink that caused Sora's heart to flutter. She wagged an admonishing finger at Sora. "And are you really one to talk? You told me months ago that you had a crush on someone but you've refused to tell me who or make any progress. This is to help you as much as me. We can both give these to our crushes at school. Tomorrow will be the day that our loves finally come to pass!"
"But Joe goes to a different school," pointed out Sora.
"I'll just go over there and give it to him then, no problem!" replied Mimi, beaming brightly.
Sora just gave another sigh and put on the blue apron, price tag still attached. "Fine, what do we do first?"
"I was actually hoping you would know how to do this," admitted Mimi.
"You expected the tomboy who spends all of her time playing soccer to know how to bake?" asked Sora incredulously.
"Well, you're secretly talented at a lot of things, so I was kind of hoping this would be one of them."
"It isn't, sorry."
"Then we'll just have to work off of these recipes I printed out!" declared Mimi, taking out a large stack of paper from underneath a pile of butter. The butter toppled onto the counter and slid about on it. The top paper was covered in melted butter so making a sour face Mimi took it and threw it in the trash before handing Sora the rest of the stack. "Just choose one you think looks good and we'll go from there!"
Sora started the arduous task of browsing through the large stack. Several recipes contained ingredients they didn't actually have and were sorted into another pile. Half way through the pile they finally found a recipe that seemed simple enough for them to actually manage. They made sure to each read the recipe through completely three times, separating out all of the ingredients that they would need and putting the extra away. That took a little of work as they needed to jam everything into spaces that had not held them before since Mimi had just bought everything at the store before Sora arrived.
They then took out all the different pans, measures and other things they'd need. It took a little bit of work as they'd only cooked in school and were used to the exact equipment they used there. Right when they were about to start they realized that the recipe had been translated from English and used weird American measurements that made absolutely no sense to them. They tossed the recipe and found another similar recipe that they were pretty sure would work. After sorting out the ingredients and measures needed for that they started by preheating the oven and going from there.
What followed was a series of manic preparations and a flurry of activity as the two girls moved back and forth in the kitchen, occasionally bumping into each other and dropping stuff on the ground. There was a lot of discussion between them about what was what, what an instruction actually meant and the like. Finally after an hour of work they got their trays into the oven and baking, remembering to set the timers only several minutes after doing so. The kitchen was covered in flour and other cooking debris and would be a chore to clean up, but at least they were done, assuming their chocolates turned out correctly and they didn't need to do it all again. The two girls spent the first ten minutes of the baking period just staring into the oven, watching the food slowly bake. There was still quite a while to wait though, so Sora decided to talk to pass the time instead.
"So," started Sora, leaning up against one of the kitchen counters. Mimi was sitting on a space of counter that had somehow managed to stay clean throughout everything they had done. "We're finally done. I hope everything turns out well."
"Yeah," replied Mimi. "I hope Joe and your mystery crush enjoy them. It would be a shame if they didn't. But at least I don't have to worry about Tai out doing me in this. There's no way he or any of the other guys could figure this out."
"I don't know, Izzy's pretty smart. He could probably do something. It's really just following directions, although that is apparently harder than it seems. And couldn't he just ask Kari for help? I know she knows how to bake."
"I asked Kari not to help him today," said Mimi with a mischievous wink.
"And you really think she won't help him if he asks?"
"I told her that if she helped him win his love like that then it wouldn't be real, I'm pretty sure she's enough of a romantic that she'll buy it."
"That's pretty devious," said Sora, surprised how far Mimi had been thinking in advance. "Wouldn't having me help you count as 'the love not being real'?"
"Oh, but we just happened to be working together to make chocolates for the people we love," replied Mimi. Then she leaned forward on the counter and looked right at Sora, a devious look on her face. "So come on! Spill it!"
"Spill what?" asked Sora, confused.
"Who are you going to give these chocolates to? There's no reason to keep it a secret at this point, I'll just find out tomorrow anyways."
"Couldn't you just wait until tomorrow then?" countered Sora, having trouble not staring at Mimi's chest as the apron hugged her body.
"But that's no fun!" complained Mimi. "Couldn't you at least give me a few hints or something? Who is he?"
"No guy you know," replied Sora as cryptically as she could. She didn't want to risk that the surprisingly-observant-when-she-wanted-to-be Mimi would figure out that she was lying about something.
Mimi just observed her silently for a moment before a look of comprehension dawned on her face. "You're in love with a girl, aren't you?!"
"Uh, what makes you think that," asked Sora, worried at how close Mimi was getting.
"You said it was no guy that I knew, and you've never said that this mystery person doesn't go to our school. You would have told me earlier as an excuse to get out of baking if they didn't live nearby, correct?"
"Somehow, yeah," replied Sora, dumbfounded by such a correct assumption, although she wasn't sure that the logic was actually sound, or logic.
Mimi just looked proud of herself for figuring such a fact out. "So who is she? Is she our age? Older? Younger? Is she a tomboy like you? Another girl on the soccer team?"
"Uh," muttered Sora, overwhelmed by the questions. "She's our age, and she's not on the soccer team, or a tomboy. Very girly I guess."
"So, that's your type," said Mimi with a sly grin that set Sora's heart aflutter again. While Mimi always made her heart beat just a little bit faster, today she was setting it into overdrive. She was acting way more adorable than usual and Sora couldn't help but agree that apparently she had a type and Mimi seemed to be it to a T. Mimi wasn't done with the questions though. "Is she prettier than me?"
Before Sora was forced to answer the kitchen was filled with the sound of their timers going off. They scrambled to turn them off and to clear space for their tins as they put on oven mitts and took the hot trays out of the oven. Luckily both of their creations seemed to have turned out perfectly and there would be no need to do everything again. While the chocolates cooled they went about and cleaned up their messes. They jammed the rest of the supplies into the cabinets and refrigerator and washed everything in the sink. Eventually they settled into a rhythm of Mimi drying while Sora washed, since there wasn't enough room on the drying rack for all the stuff they had made a mess on. Counters were wiped down and chocolates were removed from pans to cool better.
They had made chocolate cupcakes so they would have to decorate them before they were done. While the cupcakes continued to cool they got back out several of the supplies including the chocolate, milk and powdered sugar. Making a mess, they followed what was supposed to be a simple recipe to make frosting but ended up taking half an hour and all of the powdered sugar. They kept getting the wrong consistency and had to add either more powdered sugar to thicken it up or more milk to get it smoother. Occasionally they'd need to melt more chocolate to pour into the mix when the bit they had put in got too diluted. Finally they got a product that both girls were happy with. When the Cupcakes were cool they started to frost them. Sora was glad that they had made so many cupcakes as they kept messing up and ripping off the tops or some other mishap.
Finally, after a long process that included eating several of the failures, both girls each had a perfect cupcake ready to be given to their crushes. They wrapped them up in decorative containers that would hopefully stop them from shaking around too much and then started to clean up, yet again. Clean up was complicated by the fact that they had extra frosting, more than twice of the original recipe, still left in the mixing bowl. They had no room to keep the concoction so both girls decided to sacrifice for the greater good. Soon the bowl was emptied of the frosting and both girls felt good and done with chocolate for a while. With everything clean, they surveyed the fruits of their labors.
"Well, that didn't turn out too horribly," commented Sora, aware from the lack of light outside that it was now night. The whole thing had taken a surprisingly long period of time to make considering that they had started at noon.
"Yeah!" replied Mimi happily. "With this I'll surely get Joe to notice me!"
"Probably," replied Sora kind of absentmindedly, not exactly thrilled with the prospect of Mimi and Joe actually dating. She felt kind of horrible that she'd never considered that Mimi winning their older friend's affections as a possibility, but now that she was faced with it she was worried that it would happen. She'd have less time to hang out with Mimi who would no doubt want to hang out with her new boyfriend instead. There would be less times to just be silly and have fun like they had today baking. Maybe she was being clingy or selfish but she really wanted Mimi to fail and that made her feel bad.
"And you make sure to give that to the girl you like too," said Mimi, winking. "If you don't tell her how you feel how do you expect her to know?"
"I guess you're right about that," sighed Sora, smiling slightly as something occurred to her. Mimi was once again being her oblivious but strangely wise self. If Sora didn't tell Mimi she liked her, then how was she supposed to know? She knew that Mimi was fine with lesbians, although she'd never shown any attraction to other girls. She'd even kindly turned down two confessions from other girls. Her holding in her crush had been her own selfish desire and fear.
"So, when are you going to give it to her?" asked Mimi excitedly.
"Well," said Sora, thinking things through and screwing up her courage. She took off the apron and put it on the counter. "I was thinking of doing it right now."
"You're going to give it to her tonight!" gasped Mimi. "And you're going to confess when you do?"
"Yeah," replied Sora, picking up her cupcake.
"Well then, who is it?! Where does she live?"
"Right here," said Sora with a smile and holding out her cupcake. "Happy Valentine's day Mimi. I love you and hope you can accept this."
"Sora…" replied Mimi, looking stunned.
"I'm sorry for not telling you sooner and springing this on you right now. You don't have to accept and I'd still love being friends with you if possible."
"I…Sora…." stuttered Mimi. "Just…give me until tomorrow to think, ok?"
"Sure, no problem," replied Sora with a smile. Mimi tried to hand her back the cupcake but she refused it. "No, keep it, it's yours no matter the answer. Good night."
Sora walked out of the apartment and slowly down the steps. She felt a weird type of satisfaction at a weight she had been carrying for a long time was finally lifted off her chest. The relief was almost intoxicating. She was so happy to finally have said something that she barely cared what the answer would be. Mimi had had a crush on Joe for a long time. He was handsome, reliable, smart and responsible. Despite his busy schedule of studying he was always there for his friends if they needed it. He deserved some happiness and if Mimi wanted to be that and he wanted her, then good for both of them, Sora would feel honestly happy for them. She made it down to her bike and started to unlock it when she heard the elevator open up from the apartment. She saw Mimi, flustered, running out of the elevator and towards her.
"Sora, wait!" yelled Mimi. She stopped short in front of Sora and held out something she had been cradling in her arms. The cupcake she had made earlier. She looked up at Sora, smiling awkwardly at her. "I hope you don't consider me shallow for doing this, moving to someone who confessed to me after I spent so long fawning over another crush. I mean, yeah I like Joe; he's who I was obsessing over and I still like him but you're also cute and I always spend so much time with you and you're great and it's why I always want to spend more time with you and I thought long and hard about your question and then I just remembered you in your apron and you were so cute and then you were in just the apron and really, really, really cute and I remembered that you always take the stairs so I rushed and tried to catch up to you and here we are now so HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!"
"I can't believe I just heard all of that…" gasped Sora. "So…does that mean if I asked you to be my girlfriend you'd say yes?"
"Did anything in my earlier speech sound like a no?" asked Mimi.
"I, uh, only understood half of it because you were speaking so fast, but it all sounded like a yes. You'll need to repeat it all to me later though."
"I can do that," smiled Mimi. The two girls moved into a hug, careful not to smash the cupcake. Mimi then surprised Sora by gently cupping her chin in one hand and pulling her gently into a kiss. Sora happily responded by kissing back. Eventually they broke apart, smiling stupidly at each other.
"Well, I should probably head home before I worry my mother anymore," said Sora.
"Have a good night," smiled Mimi.
"Oh I definitely have."
Author's Notes: This was originally written much farther away from Valentine's Day but editing and then making the changes took a while. For a free 2 fics in 1, just switch Mimi and Sora with Tai and Izzy. My head canon while writing this is that Tai and Izzy are basically going through the exact same events as above, just changed a bit to fit their personalities. Also instead of making chocolate cupcakes they made a black bean cake, no flour needed. Take a can of black beans, drain out the liquid, and throw the beans in a blender. There's more to it than that, but that's the first actual step to making a black bean cake, it tastes pretty good too. If any one is curious I can give the recipe. ;)