These drabbles contain slash between Roxas and Sora. If this offends you, please turn back now. I respect any desires not to read such material and wish no offense; therefore, you have been warned about the potentially offensive content of this story. Thanks for your understanding!
14: A way to a man's heart Rating:
Genre: Fluff
Pairing: Sora/Roxas
It was a rainy evening in July as dish clattered in Sora's kitchen; his incoherent mumbling could be heard in the background. Everything had been covered with white flour and the tables were full of broken shells of eggs and sugar that glittered in the light. Kairi was huffing and running all around the room with wipes and dusters, trying to clean the mess Sora had left behind.
The young man in question had been thinking about a perfect birthday present for his secret crush for months. He had mused and pondered everything, but every time he had come up with a good idea, he had thrown it to rubbish the next second because it wasn't original or interesting enough. He didn't want to give something boring, he wanted to be seen!
Sora wasn't even sure if his crush knew he existed. Probably not, but it was about the time for him to reveal himself. The only problem was that Sora wasn't confident or brave enough to inform his crush. Or at least he hadn't been before this day, but now he had decided to do something about it. And what would have been a better day than his crush's birthday?
Sora had been following his crush from afar and trying to find out what he was interested in. It was clear that the boy was interested in sports, but Sora didn't know a thing about skateboarding or struggling (he had only tried blitzball once!), so he couldn't really buy anything related to that. After eavesdropping the boy a few times, Sora had come to the conclusion that he liked good food just like everyone else. The problem was; Sora couldn't cook even if his life depended on it.
Where could Sora learn cooking in such a short time? He could have asked for help from his mother but he didn't have time for that right now because she lived on Destiny Islands and Sora's apartment was in Twilight Town. But luckily Twilight Town also had a big library so he could find cookbooks!
And the library didn't betray Sora. He took several promising and easy-looking books with him and locked himself in his bedroom to read them through. One of the books was made for him because it had a very precise recipe of a chocolate cake. And because he was making something for a birthday, that fit him perfectly.
The next step was practicing. Sora still didn't trust his skills; the cake would have to be nearly flawless. He couldn't possibly bring a pathetic excuse of a cake to a boy who had never even paid any attention to him. No, it couldn't happen. This was the only chance to make the boy interested.
When Sora had bought the right ingredients, he decided to call Kairi. He was sure she would love to help him with this if he asked her nicely. Besides, what were friends for? Sora had helped Kairi many times with her crushes and now it was time for her to do the same for him.
Just like Sora had thought, Kairi promised to help his doomed attempt at baking, and he was very grateful for that. His first cake had a few eggs with their shells and looked predominantly like a cement lump. But Sora didn't let it depress himself, especially since he didn't have to clean up his own mess. Every night he tried again and he got better each day.
But this time he wasn't practicing anymore, this was the real thing. Sora did everything as precisely as he could; this time he wasn't going to mess up. He had had some problems with measuring the ingredients because he had accidentally poured flour to the floor and slammed his elbow in the sugar pot at the same time. But mainly everything had went well.
Now the finished cake was on the table and Sora was looking for decorations and thinking of his plan. He had thought very carefully of what he was going to do. He couldn't just march to the boy's door and offer him a cake, congratulating him. Of course he could give his cake at school, but somehow it didn't feel right, either. There were far too much people. Finally he had come up with a good place.
Sora had found out that his crush loved chocolate, so he iced the cake with it. He examined his achievement with scepticism. It wasn't perfect but he wasn't a professional, though. He was actually kind of proud. His crush would definitely see that he had put effort in making it. When Sora glanced at the clock, he yelped with surprise. He would have to run or the most important part of his plan would be wasted.
"Kairi, I'll go now!" he exclaimed at the tired girl who nodded her head, relieved. Sora packed the cake carefully and thanked his best friend once again before running out of the kitchen with his present.
The boy ran through the twilight streets and to the struggle field. Twilight town's team was still there. Apparently their practice hadn't ended yet. Fantastic! He wasn't late after all. Sora stayed in the shadows watching as the team ran around the field a couple of times before saying goodbye to the coach and walking towards the locker rooms. Now or never, Sora thought. If he lost his courage now, he would ruin a good chance and would have to wait another year before his crush's next birthday. He couldn't let this go now.
"Roxas...?" Sora called out when the boy walked past him. Roxas turned around, looking quite surprised, and blinked at Sora. Sora was so taken aback because of that gaze that he almost forgot what he was doing. Finally his crush was paying attention to him! For a while Sora opened and closed his mouth without forming a sound.
"Did you want to talk to me?" Roxas demanded.
"Erm... yeah... I mean... I heard you have a birthday today and I thought, um..." Sora sputtered. His hands were sweating.
"Yes?"
"I baked you a present, here." Sora thrust the cake to Roxas too quickly and the boy didn't have time to react before Sora loosened his hold. The consequences were fatal.
"Ohmygoshohmygosh!" Sora prattled, staring at the mashed cake on the ground. He was terrified. Tears formed in his eyes. He had spent two months practicing! It had all been in vain! It was true that Roxas had noticed him but he would just laugh at Sora and his clumsiness and wouldn't want to be with him. Oh, he wished the ground would swallow him! But because it wasn't possible, he turned and prepared to run away.
"Clayton, wait."
"Just call me Sora," Sora answered automatically before the words struck him. He stopped and almost lost his balance. "How do you know my name?" he asked without looking at his crush. Had Roxas known about his existence after all?
"I've heard it somewhere," Roxas replied shrugging but smiled kindly all the same. "Thank you for the present."
Sora flushed slighty. "But you didn't even get it."
Roxas tapped his forehead and grinned. "It's the thought that really matters. And the day's not over yet. You can bake me another cake."
Sora didn't know what to answer. He had imagined this many times in his mind but none of those dreams matched the reality. He hadn't even hoped that Roxas would know his name. But Sora wasn't complaining. The most important thing was that his present had been accepted after all.
"I'll go take a quick shower and change my clothes and then I can come with you," Roxas explained and Sora couldn't help but agree. It seemed like this day was just getting better every passing second.