The first time Akaashi meets Bokuto for the taste testing, he finds Bokuto cooking in his kitchen.
"I promised I would cook for you, didn't I? I figured you would use a hearty lunch after spending all morning dealing with those rascals you call students," Bokuto says as he stirs fry vegetables in the wok.
"You shouldn't be calling young kids rascals, Bokuto-san," Akaashi says, amused.
"Have you seen the way they move, Akaashi? They move like a hurricane destroying everything in their path. We once hosted a birthday party at the bakery. I am telling you, they destroyed the whole place. We needed to buy new chairs," Bokuto tells him.
"You mean they are exactly like you," he teases Bokuto. He hasn't failed to notice how Bokuto can be like a young child most of the time.
"Akaashi, you shouldn't be mean to your host," Bokuto says, mockingly pointing the ladle at him.
"I don't see a host, I only see a friend here. I don't need to be formal, do I?" he replies smiling slightly at Bokuto.
"You don't," Bokuto beams at him. The joke between them is forgotten. The timer beeps, breaking the trance between them. "That's the pastry done. It needs to cool down before I can assemble it into a dish, but first, lunch!" Bokuto declares.
They eat their lunch of teriyaki stir-fry vegetables discussing their day so far. Akaashi has to admit that Bokuto can cook savoury dishes just as well as the pastry, if not better. "That was good Bokuto-san. You do know how to make savoury dishes," he compliments Bokuto as he helps him clean up.
"I told you, I can cook savoury well, too. Suga made sure of that. He and Kaori are better than me. It's like they have magic in their hands. I can't recreate that magic in the savoury dishes. I can, however, work with flavours," Bokuto tells him as he starts arranging various piping bags together.
Akaashi has to agree with him. Now that he has tasted food made by all three of them he can safely say that Suga is by far the best out of the three. It doesn't mean that Bokuto is bad, only that Suga is a lot more dedicated to savoury food as Bokuto is to pastry.
He watches as Bokuto takes a tart shell and fills it with yuzu filling before piping green cream on top of it and dusts it with a brown powder. He moves on to three green coloured pastry and stacks them up with pipped yellow filling and what he thinks is a meringue in between each layer. Finally, Bokuto starts filling the doughnuts he was frying when Akaashi had arrived with a red cream and dust it with powdered sugar.
Akaashi is blown away by the care Bokuto puts into his dishes. It's the first time he is seeing Bokuto in his element. Technically he has known all this while Bokuto is an excellent baker, what he didn't know until now is how Bokuto turns soft while he works in his zone. His movements are gentle and delicate. He makes sure to pay attention to individual details. He truly looks like the image of a star that Akaashi has of Bokuto in his mind.
"Here, this is a yuzu tart with pistachio cream and cinnamon dust. This one here is a french dessert called mille-feuille. The pastry has matcha powder in it. The filling is of lemon curd and white chocolate meringue. Finally, the doughnuts are filled with red bean paste," Bokuto introduces each dish to him.
Akaashi cuts into the mille-feuille and takes a spoonful of everything. He might not know what criteria he should be judging the dish on, he does know that what he is tasting is delicious. The mille-feuille doesn't have the bitter taste of matcha that he was expecting. The lemon and white chocolate have countered the bitterness of matcha to make way for something delicate.
Next, he tries the yuzu tart. The crunchiness of the tart, tartiness from the yuzu and the creaminess from the pistachio cream compliment each other really well. The cinnamon gives a nice earthy tone to the dish. This is probably going to be his favourite out of the three.
He tries the doughnuts next. The texture is the perfect ratio of crunchy to chewy and the red bean paste is a welcome change from the usual flavour profile he sees in doughnuts.
The depth of flavours that these dishes have amazes him. Bokuto is right, he concludes. He knows what flavour works well together. "You have that magic too," he finally says.
"What?" Bokuto looks bewildered at his words. It looks to Akaashi that he has managed to confuse the man.
"The magic that you were talking about earlier. You have it too. The only difference is your magic work in pastry because that's your thing. This is what makes you happy," Akaashi stares right into Bokuto's eyes, daring him to contradict him.
"Thank you, Akaashi," He didn't expect Bokuto to have teary eyes instead. He has a huge smile on his face. He can see that Bokuto is holding back his tears. He decides he isn't going to mention it. He doesn't know what he said to get that emotion out of him but he can gather that something important happened between the two of them right now. Something that he feels is going to change them for the better.
The next day Bokuto boldly declares "It's crepes for dinner," as he walks into Akaashi's apartment, arms full of ingredients. They had decided to do this in Akaashi's apartment today instead because he didn't have the energy to go anywhere else other than his comfortable sofa.
"You didn't have to bring all of this. I already told you that you are welcome to use my groceries," he says as he looks at all the ingredients Bokuto is pulling out in the kitchen.
"The dishes are still in trial-and-error mode right now. I am not going to waste your groceries. You should use them to make yourself something every once in a while," Bokuto dismisses him easily. In the past month, they have made enough progress in their friendship that they can freely call each other out.
"I do cook for myself," Akaashi pouts at the accusation that he doesn't feed himself. He makes himself meals all the time.
"Instant ramen and coffee don't count," Bokuto teases him as he gets to work.
Akaashi lets out a little laugh. Bokuto has him there. He takes a seat at the island and watches Bokuto work. "How did the world pastry cup become your dream?" he asks curiously.
"I follow all the pastry chefs out there on social media. Their creations inspire me to make my own and to keep improving. One day I saw Kazuhiro Nakayama post about his silver medal at the world pastry cup back in 2015 and I thought, wow that's so cool. I want to be like him, only better. I want to be the best pastry chef baker out there in the world. Ever since then it has been my dream to win the competition," Bokuto answers as he chops plums. "What about you? Why the world of dance?" Bokuto asks him as he grabs pears to chop next.
"I want to be the best in the world too. You and I are similar in this aspect. I have been winning dance competitions all my life. From the small ones in schools to the national stage. There's nothing left for me to win in Japan anymore. It has left me wanting more. I want to see what challenges are out there in the world for me. I want to conquer them and show the world that I can dance. I guess I am hungry for more wins," Akaashi replies.
His hunger for more recognition is what drives him to keep dancing every day. It is both his biggest strength and his biggest flaw. He doesn't know when to stop and that makes his life hard. He has numerous injuries to attest to that. Heck, even his relationship with Kuroo is a symbol of that.
Akaashi looks at Bokuto to see him looking at him admiringly. "Akaashi, that is so ambitious of you. I am so proud to be your friend. It takes guts to dream big," Bokuto tells him.
Akaashi blushes under the praise. Never has anyone praised him for his ambitions before. "I am proud to be your friend too, Bokuto-san. I am glad we met," he replies to the man.
"Same here, Akaashi," Bokuto has his back turned to him as he starts preparing the dinner for them to eat.
Akaashi takes that opportunity to study the videos he has been putting off. He watches the dance videos and starts taking notes to discuss them with the crew later. He is so lost in the videos that he doesn't notice anything else until Bokuto is putting down plates full of food in front of him. The smell is already making his mouth water.
"This crepe is made of chestnut flour and sauteed plums with hazelnut and vanilla syrup. This is an almond flour crepe with Asian pears that is spiced with black pepper, nutmeg and ginger. There is toasted macadamia and raisins in the mix. This one is served with honey," Bokuto explains each dish to him.
"I am starving," Akaashi says as he digs into the pear crepes. The taste of the crepes is warm, earthy and not too sweet. The sweetness is exactly how he prefers in his crepes.
"This is nice. I won't have minded a bit more ginger and maybe some cinnamon or clove too," he says thoughtfully.
"Hah, this is the first time you said something that I can work with. You are always Bokuto-san, this tastes so good. This is delicious and all that," Bokuto says, moving his hand around to make a point.
"That's because whatever you make tastes delicious. I never seem to find any fault with it," Akaashi argues. He doesn't think he is wrong in praising Bokuto's dishes.
"That will not help me improve. I need something more," Bokuto whines. "Here, tell me what this one is missing," Bokuto passes the plum crepes to Akaashi.
Akaashi takes a bite of it and honestly tries to find a fault in it even if he doesn't think he can find one. He does find one. "The plums are sweet, and with the syrup, it makes it extra sweet. It could use something to cut through it," he tells Bokuto.
"Now you are talking," Bokuto smiles at him and starts listing all the things he can add to cut down the sweetness while Akaashi enjoys his food.
The next time they meet, Akaashi enters the kitchen to find Bokuto mixing bowls of liquid.
"Hey Akaashi, we are testing mochi ice creams today. The ice creams will take a while to churn. Do you want to watch a movie and order takeout meanwhile? We
can order from that sushi restaurant you wanted to try," Bokuto says as he focuses on dropping the correct amount of essence into the mixture.
"That sounds like a plan. Can I also pick the movie?" he asks. He is eager to watch one movie in particular tonight. He thinks it will be perfect for the occasion.
"Sure you can. Go ahead and order takeout for us while I put these into the ice-cream churner," Bokuto tells him.
Akaashi does as he is asked. He places the order for their dinner and pulls up the movie he wants to watch on screen and waits for Bokuto to finish. He is strolling through his social media when Bokuto flops down next to him. He takes one look at the movie title and starts laughing hard.
Akaashi grins at his reaction, "I thought it is perfect for the occasion."
"It sure is. I love this movie," Bokuto declares. Akaashi can't blame Bokuto. Who doesn't like watching Ratatouille?
They watch the movie discussing their favourite parts from the movie and eating mediocre sushi. "You can probably make better sushi than this," Akaashi says as he forces himself to finish his share.
"Don't worry, I can definitely make them better than these," Bokuto is struggling to finish his share too. They decide to give up on finishing eating it and choose to eat popcorn instead.
Halfway through the movie, they pause so that Bokuto can finish making the mochis while Akaashi answers some of his messages. Once the mochi is in the fridge to cool down they resume the movie.
"It would be so cool if I had my own Remy," Bokuto says wistfully once the movie has ended.
"Why? I think you are doing fine without Remy. You don't need Remy to tell you how to bake," Akaashi is confused as to what brought it on.
"I don't know Akaashi. Something is missing in my skills. No matter what I do it's never enough for me to show that I have it in me to take on the world," Bokuto replies.
Now, Akaashi can't have Bokuto badmouthing himself. He grabs Bokuto face in his hands in an impulse. "Listen to me carefully Bokuto-san. You don't lack skills. I have personally seen the technical stuff you can pull off. You have everything it needs. You lacked experience which you have now. You have been growing as a baker with each day you bake more stuff. You will get there in no time," he reassures Bokuto.
"You think so?" Bokuto sounds so vulnerable that it hurts Akaashi's heart.
"I do Bokuto-san. I believe in you," Akaashi firmly tells him. "Now let's go and get those mochi ice cream out," Akaashi pulls Bokuto to the kitchen. He is not willing to let Bokuto stay in that mood for long.
"This one here is a coconut and mango mochi ice cream. That's apple and cinnamon, a classic combination. This one is guava and strawberry. Finally, this one is lychee and ginger," Bokuto proudly shows his creation to him.
"I am not sure of the lychee and ginger one," Akaashi eyes the last one sceptically.
"You will love it. I promise. These are the flavour combinations I know for sure work. Come on we can watch a documentary or something while we eat," Bokuto tells him as he leads them back to the living room.
Bokuto is proven right. He does like all the flavour combinations. "It's hard for me to decide which one is my favourite. You will have to make them for me again," he tells Bokuto, hiding a yawn behind his hand. They are bundled up in a blanket as they watch an owl documentary.
"I will make them as many times as you want," Bokuto tells him, fixing the blanket on Akaashi's shoulder.
"I will look forward to it," Akaashi smiles at him.