A/N: Word count: 1,141
Tags: Canonverse, Established Relationship, Fluff

Flour, yeast, water, salt, sugar, and love. All the ingredients were set out on the clean countertop - and held in their fingertips - beside the required baking utensils, but one thing was missing: Makoto's confidence.

"Are you sure we'll be able to pull this off?" he asked as Haruka fastened the green apron at the small of his back. "I've only just mastered toast, eggs and bacon. Don't you think homemade bread is a bit too advanced for me?"

"You worry too much. I'm here to help, aren't I? Or rather, you're here to help me," Haruka said as he put on his own apron. "If you follow my directions, you should be fine. This recipe uses both salt and sugar though, so be careful not to mix them up."

"I've learned my lesson: salt is in the shaker, sugar in the pot," Makoto recited what Haruka drilled in him after his previous blunder. Although he was certain he wouldn't mess that up again, that didn't mean there weren't heaps of other mistakes waiting to be made.

When Haruka asked him this morning if he wanted to try to bake a loaf of bread using his grandmother's recipe, he'd been pretty excited. Grandma Nanase's fresh bread was always a delight and he had fond memories of eating it together with her and Haruka on the porch as the cherry blossoms whirled on the breeze. But now they were about to begin, his enthusiasm had turned into apprehension.

His hesitancy didn't go unnoticed and Haruka sighed. "If you're scared you'll get the measurements wrong, I'll take care of that. You can knead the dough."

Haruka added the yeast and a pinch of sugar to a bowl of warm water. That was all he did and Makoto frowned.

"Shouldn't you add the rest too?"

Haruka shook his head. "Wait until it bubbles."

"Ah," Makoto said, glad Haruka was here to guide him. If he were left to his devices, he would put everything in at once and start kneading immediately. It was clear Haruka was the true chef between the two of them, while Makoto was a novice at best.

Soon, small pockets of air formed on the surface and Makoto watched with wonder as Haruka poured the flour, salt and a couple of teaspoons of sugar into the mixture. Then he handed him the wooden spoon. "Keep stirring this while I add more flour."

Makoto did as he was told, afraid to stir too hard and spill half of the contents over the rim.

"You can be a bit more rough," Haruka said, "This isn't an egg."

"Haha," Makoto said sarcastically, but he picked up the pace anyway. Accidentally smash one egg to pieces when trying to make an omelette roll and your boyfriend never let you live it down.

The mixture slowly turned solid and once the sticky dough had Haruka's seal of approval, he dusted the countertop in a coating of flour and dumped the dough on top of it.

"Now knead it. You don't have to be gentle with this either, because it won't explode like a carrot or a tomato if you use too much force."

"Can we stop using my past cooking failures as examples?"

Haruka tried his best to maintain a stoic expression, but a hint of a smirk played at his lips. "Past mistakes are a good learning reference."

Makoto rolled his eyes and briefly considered flicking flour at Haruka, but he wanted to keep the atmosphere light. If Haruka got annoyed at him for real, they would never finish this bread.

"You're pretty good at this," Haruka said as Makoto tugged at and folded the dough over and over.

"Really?"

"Hm. It's probably because you have such big hands," he said, "It's good to know that if your career as a swim coach flops, you could be a bread-kneader at a bakery. As long as you don't touch anything else."

Makoto had a hard time deciding what part of that remark to get the most offended by. "Why would my career flop?" he settled on. If Haruka could tease him, then he could jab back. "The only reason I can imagine is if I get assigned disobedient swimmers."

"If you give bad instructions, anyone would disobey you."

"When have I ever given bad instructions?" Makoto asked, stilling his hands on the dough to shoot Haruka an incredulous look. "My backstroke instructions were super helpful when you were training for the individual medley, you said so yourself!"

"Fair enough," Haruka said, "Now keep kneading, otherwise this bread will never be done. I'll let you know when you can stop."

"Yes, yes."

After a few more minutes of thorough kneading, Haruka gave the green light. He put the ball of dough into a greased bowl and covered it with saran wrap.

"Now what?" Makoto asked as he began to clean off the counter, but Haruka stopped him.

"Don't clean it up yet, we'll still need some flour later," Haruka said, "Now we wait until the dough rises. It'll take about two hours, but we'll have to check in regularly. If it's gotten twice as big, it's good. Then you can punch the dough and put it in the form. After about another hour, it's ready to go into the oven."

"That's a lot of waiting," Makoto said in surprise.

"You need to be patient. The result will be worth it."

"I know, but next time, let's make brownies. They don't take even half this long to make."

Haruka snorted. "You just want to lick the spoon, don't you?"

"That's what makes baking fun."

"You've grown so much, but on the inside, you're still a child," he said with a shake of his head. "You're going to get sick one day."

"Nothing you say will ever make me stop licking the spoon," Makoto chuckled as he untied the string at his waist. "Now, what do you want to do to pass time while we wait?"

Haruka quirked one of his eyebrows. "I know," he said, piquing Makoto's interest. He took off his apron and went inside, over to his tv and he grabbed a controller. "Want to play some Deep Sea Crossing?"

"Sure!"

They plopped down on the floor together, backs against Haruka's bed and watched as the game booted up.

"Hey, Haru?"

"Hm?"

"The weather is so nice today, how about we go to the park to eat the bread once it's done baking?"

Haruka smiled. "Sounds great."

They engrossed themselves in the underwater world while the dough kept growing in the kitchen. Eventually, the sweet scent of fresh bread filled Haruka's apartment and before they knew it, they were enjoying slices of Grandma's recipe on a sunlit park bench. Makoto was certain that, with all their effort and love, her culinary legacy would never be lost.

A/N: This fic was inspired by one of the recent Spotlight Color Magazines in which Makoto said Haru and he baked bread together. Cue me googling how to bake bread from scratch, haha.

Thank you for reading and I hope to see you again tomorrow!