Tomorrow was Valentine's Day, Ace had wanted to make a small surprise, make Marco's favourite dessert.
So how... how is there more dessert covering the cabinets than he has left in his bowl!
He needs help... specifically some professional chef's help to save him...
Ace and Marco are together, but the main focus of this story is Ace's and Thatch's friendship!
Ace was staring at the mess in front of him, trying to think of how this had happened. All the cabinets were smeared in chocolate, specs of beaten, and not beaten-up, egg whites in between and dripping down the kitchen island. He himself was covered in the substance, as well as sugar sticking to it all. The only thing he had wanted to do was make a surprise for Marco, but everything failed and now he is dirty and almost crying and it all resulted into nothing. How did this all happen!?
Tomorrow it was valentine's day and they would officially be together for two years now, Marco having asked him out on their valentine's date... two years ago.
It was Sunday today, normally Marco would have been home, but due to a lot of sick staff, some kind of virus going around or something at the workplace, he had been asked to work today too. It wasn't fun, with Marco always working long shifts at the hospital, and with Ace finally working on opening his own glasssmith, they were both extremely busy and only had the weekend to really spend time together. It's not that they didn't see each other in the evenings or something, but both were always extremely tired so it was often a take-away dinner, maybe a quick cuddle on the couch if it wasn't too late, and then they quickly made for the comfort of their bed to literally only sleep to survive the next day.
So, while not fun, it was actually pretty convenient today since it now gave Ace the time to prepare at least something small for tomorrow. While Ace could give himself a free day from work on valentine's day, it was useless since Marco himself had to work, which the man himself was pretty sad about, but well people don't just not get injured on valentine's day sadly... Marco even said the amount of people coming into the emergency room increased the 14th, most being for ….. unknown object stuck in... well... let's say places where those things should never have been close too in the first place.
Ace would never have been able to keep a straight face if someone came in with that, bonus points for Marco on that.
Either way, what was I saying the beginning? Ah yes, everything is now a mess of too many different ingredients splattered everywhere and he didn't know what to do. He was out of options, he had already tried again from scratch and it somehow failed in almost the last step, he didn't have the time, or the ingredients, to keep trying again. Marco also would be home eventually and even if he knew the man wouldn't be mad at him, hell, he was sure he would probably kiss Ace for his efforts before thanking him and even helping him clean. It isn't what he wanted Marco to spend his evening on. No, he was doing this to thank Marco for everything and celebrate being together for another year.
He was really starting to freak out, holding back tears, he just wanted to surprise his lover. He's always so nice to him and does so much and Ace just …. he just makes a mess! He only had one more option... if this didn't work, he would certainly be found by his lover as a crying mess on the kitchen floor still covered in chocolate, egg and sugar once he got home.
He didn't want to have to resort to this... his last resort also having had a busy day yesterday with it being so close to valentine's day, and tomorrow would probably be hell for him too being the actual day of love... he needed his rest... but Ace really didn't know what else to do. With this in mind he took his phone and called his best friend.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Urgh, who's calling me at this ungodly hour." Grumbled a person with long brown hair on the couch "It's only... 3 in the afternoon aaaah" the man turned around and put a pillow over his head, wishing the sound away. When his phone wouldn't stop after it had gone off twice already, he groggily got up, scratched his goatee and without much effort picked up his phone from the nearby coffee table, balancing it on his cheek. No need to hold the thing himself.
"haaah Thatch speaking, to whom do I owe the pl-" Thatch suddenly shot up mid-sentence, catching his phone before it could meet the floor like all his pillows and blankets had done, he was awake in an instant.
"Wow wow wow, calm down, calm down. Ace? Ace right, that's you?"
"Y-yea."
"Why are you crying bro, what's going on? What happened?" All Thatch's annoyance at being awoken on his day off, especially in this busy month, was forgotten the moment he heard his baby brother crying on the phone. The teen sounded very much upset and seemed like he didn't know what to do with himself while he babbled on while choking on his words and sniffling all the time.
"Ace, Ace, stop, take a breath, blow you nose for a moment and just breath, I can't help you if I can't understand you."
He could hear Ace do as he was told, emptying who knows what out into –hopefully- a tissue and not his shirt, before breathing a few times and talking again. It was still a bit choked up and out of breath, but at least Thatch could understand the younger now.
"I-I-I just, it looked so good Thatch and then I combined them and it just became soup!"
"Soup? What became soup Ace? What were you even trying to make?"
"Y-you know. That cake not cake thing that Marc-co likes."
"With those ladyfinger-cookies at the side?"
The teen sniffed again "Ye-ea"
Thatch by now was sitting up straight, far more awake and reaching into his inner chef library of all his recipes. "What steps did you take?"
"Well, I put butter in that kitchen robot thing that spins on his own before doing anything else." Sniff "Since you always said it needs to be beaten for a while."
"Yes, that's good indeed, what was next."
"I measured the other ingredients and then split the eggs. The orange part went with the butter and the other parts, I beat them until they became mountains."
"Mountains? You mean until they got stiff peaks?"
"Yea, mountains."
Thatch had to hold in a small laugh, his brothers made up some funny names for steps in cooking, as long they knew themselves what they were doing it was all good. He was also glad his little brother seemed to be calming down while giving the explanation, no longer chocking on his words or crying.
"Alright, you're still doing good Ace, nothing I could have done better."
"Hmm, then I put the sugar with the butter thing and …. well... the recipe said to melt the chocolate in water. But I didn't want to do that, who wants watered down chocolate you know?"
"I... I don't think they meant for you to put the chocolate directly in water, they probably meant for you to temper the chocolate in a double boiler with water."
"What?"
"Nothing Ace, what did you do instead?"
"I put it in the microwave."
"Did it work?"
"..."
"Ace?"
"It did the third time."
"... And the first two?"
"ehm the first try it got stuck in the bowl... and was black. And the second time... it ehm exploded."
"E-excuse me? Exploded?"
"I... I don't know how it ha-happened!"
Oh no, Ace was crying again.
"Ace Ace, it's fine!"
"N-nohoo, I don't know, I just took it out and it was bubbling a bit and it was very hot, but you always said to not put it extremely hot in th-the other mixer because, because it would split or something. Ss-so I tried cooling it do-down with cold water. And and IT JUST EXPLODED!"
"Aw sh*t, Ace are you oka-"
"And now it's all over the cabinets and I can't even reach it to wipe it off and and-"
"Ace, brother, please listen to me. Are you okay? The glass exploded too, didn't it? It's the shock from hot to cold, please don't do that again Ace, let it cool down naturally. But don't think about that for now, it happened and now you know it for next time. But are you okay, you didn't burn yourself or cut yourself?"
"N-no."
"You sure, really sure?"
"Yea, it was a bit hot, so I put my hand under some water, but nothing stayed red."
"Okay that's good. Damn Ace, you're scaring me.
"..."
"Ace?"
"It's just.. It's just" the teen at the other end was crying again, hard "I wanted to surprise Marco, because we will be together tomorrow for two years and and he's always working so hard and so nice and and I ….I can never do anything useful... I am just wasted space!"
"No, no, no, no Ace, please don't say that. That's not true. You'r-"
"It is! L-look at me, I am covered in chocolate and eggs and the kitchen is too and and this whole thing didn't even need an oven or anything and I still managed to screw it over!"
"Ace, brother, please. This doesn't say anything about your worth! Not everyone can be good at everything, and that's okay Ace. Do you like me less because I can't do glassblowing like you?"
"Wa- of course not, you're my best friend and you never even learned glassblowing, how could you possible do it."
"See, so if that's okay, why wouldn't it be okay for you to not be able to do something from the first try either?"
"But... this... you make it all the time, without looking, it it-"
"Because I've done it a million times Ace, I literally cook for my work, as a living. Of course, I've learned how to do it quickly and such over the years. But that doesn't mean I can do everything either. Even this week, I wanted to make a new kind of dessert and it sucked! I wanted to puke after tasting it! It was a complete failure, and that's okay. I've learned from it and will use the info for next time, that one fail won't determine who I am or what my worth is, just like this won't do the same for you. And besides all of that, you wanted to do this for Marco, as a surprise because you love him. Even if it completely failed, it will still show how much you care and Marco, and everyone else, will love you and appreciate you for it."
Ace sniffed up some tears and Thatch could hear the ruffling of a shirt, Ace probably wiping his face "I... Th-thank you Thatch"
"Don't thank me Ace, don't worry about it. You want to finish something before Marco comes back from the hospital, right?" An affirmative hum was heard from the other side of the line. "Alright, how about this. I'll get ready over here, grab some stuff and come over to help you. You'll still make it on your own, so it will fully be your surprise, but I'll supervise and tell you how you can do things best, okay?"
"But … it's your free day. And tomorrow is going to be busy, you need rest..."
"I've rested enough Ace, and if I didn't want to spend time with you, then I wouldn't have offered to come, so don't worry about a thing. Now, do you still have enough ingredients should we need to start over?"
"Ehmn yea, I think so, only for one more try though."
"That's good. What about decorations?"
"Decorations?"
"Yea, some hearts or stuff."
"Ehm..."
"I'll bring some things I can miss. You should take a shower and sit down for a min. I'll be at your front door in a bit and we'll clean the kitchen together and finish whatever you were doing, okay?"
"Okay... Thank you Thatch, see you in a bit."
"See ya."
Thatch ended the call and stood up "Yooosh, let's go save my baby brother's dessert!"
Not even an hour later was Thatch standing at the door of his youngest- and oldest brother's apartment. When Ace let him in, he could see that the teen's eyes were still a bit puffy and red from crying, but Ace was clean and freshly washed, seeming to be calmer than on the phone.
The kitchen though... he almost let out a whistle at the state of it, Ace really didn't lie when he said the cabinets were covered. Holy Pops, it was a wonder the floor was still visible... He however decided not to mention too much about it and focus on the main things, the dessert.
"Alright, when is the pineapple coming home?"
"He said he would be late, so around 20 o'clock."
"Ooh that's great, time enough to make whatever you want Ace!" He hit Ace on the back "We even have enough time to make a full-on cake in the shape of a pineapple, as a tribute to your lovers' whole existence!"
Not that they were going to do that, not today... he did need to write this down for later, it was brilliant, but it got a laugh out of Ace so it was all good.
Taking two aprons out of a bag he brought, he gave one to Ace and put one on himself before washing his hands, instructing Ace to do the same.
"Before, on the phone, you said you made soup. What is it?" Maybe Ace made some kind of dessert soup or something.
"ah... ehm..." Ace went over to the refrigerator and took out a bowl filled with... definitely not soup.
"..."
"..."
"You know... those ehm peaks of the eggs, when I put them into the chocolate-butter mixture, it just... it became this... It became very flat and runny instead of like cloudy and soft."
"Hmmmm, how did you combine them" Ace explained how he slowly put the two together while stirring. In the meantime, Thatch had taken a small spoon to taste the mixture.
"hmm, hmm, alright, do you remember what the recipe said. Exactly what the recipe said on how to combine them?"
"Ehm, wait a sec." Wiping out his phone, Ace opened a random folder where he saved the recipe "ehm it says to slowly fold the beaten egg whites into the other mixture."
"Ah yeap, there it is. You didn't fold it."
"But... I mixed them? That's the goal, right?"
"It is, it is, but when you fold it in each other, you add air into it, it's what will keep the whole thing fluffy and soft. While stirring it will take out all the air, making it look like a normal batter."
"oh... So I just couldn't even follow simple instructions."
Ah, Ace suddenly looked dejected, and where those tears again!? "No, no, Ace, it's okay, it's not an easy tech-"
Ace sniffed "It's okay Thatch, you don't need to try and make me feel better, I just couldn't follow simple instructions and that's it."
Thatch let out a sigh, his baby brother could be so headstrong and talk down on himself for simple things like this. "Ace, really, the folding, even if you know what is was and how you needed to do it, it's not simple. - ah ah, don't interrupt me. I mean it Ace. It's difficult and you only learn when you've done it a lot of times. it took me a while to figure it out too, and even now it's still a delicate process that easily goes wrong."
"Really?"
"Really Ace. Also, have you tasted this, the … soup?"
"No..."
Thatch grabbed another small spoon and put some of the mixture on it before giving it to Ace.
"What do you think?"
"... it's... it's good."
"See, and you made that all by yourself didn't you!"
"Yea... But … it was supposed to be fluffy."
"Alright yes, but those are only small details. The taste is the same as how you wanted to have it right?"
"Yes. But ... how? I screwed up, I-"
"You made a small mistake, you didn't screw it all up. Your ingredients and everything were done correctly, the only thing you missed was keeping the air in there. Meaning, it's just heavier now."
"Heavier?"
"Yes, ehm how do I say this... before you mixed the two, the egg whites where probable a whole bowl right?" Ace nodded so he continued "and now it's only half a bowl, but the amount is actually the same. So, we say it's heavier. It looks like you are eating less and will feel fuller quickly compared to when it would be still fluffy. Eating a quarter of this mixture would be the same as eating half a bowl of the fluffy mixture. Making this one 'heavier'."
"Oh, I think I get it."
Once more Thatch hit Ace on the back, almost knocking him over "That's my baby brother! Now, you know what this means?"
"Ehm...?"
"We don't need to start over! We can use this."
"But it's not fluffy, I can't make the cake with this right...?"
"A cake will be difficult yes, but we can simply present it in another way! You have those fancy square glasses right?"
"Yea, in the living room closet."
"Good, we can put the mixture in there and look" Thatch rummaged into his bag and took out several small containers, putting them on a clean spot on the counter.
"Woooooooooow!" Ace his eyes had opened wide seeing what Thatch had brought out, there were sprinkles in different shades of pink and also once shaped like hearts or roses. There where even edible sugar flowers! Big red roses, smaller golden one too, even lil' green leaves!
"Pretty, aren't they?" He said smugly.
"Yea, I... we... I can use these?"
"Of course! It's why I brought them! We can use them to decorate the mixture in the glasses and it will look as if you've always planned for it to be this way. And even if it doesn't have the shape of Marco's favourite dessert, it will have the exact same taste, you'll even pleasantly surprise him!"
"Surprise Marco?"
Thatch just hummed a positive answer, happy that Ace was finally starting to smile again. The thought of it all going to work out starting to process, plus a nice bonus of surprising the stoic pineapple man! What more could you ask for!
"You grab the glasses while I clean up a small space to work."
About 10 minutes later was Ace seated in front of six, quarter filled, glasses. Thatch was next to Ace and had a single filled glass in front of him too. He would show Ace how he could use the materials and then leave it all to Ace to decorate the rest, this way it would 100% be Ace his present and he would even have a glass to taste himself haha.
He showed Ace different ways he could arrange the flowers and use the sprinkles, as a small finish or even make it a whole top layer without it being too much. Once Ace got it and looked confident, Thatch left the teen alone to decorate, he was very concentrated at his tasks but seemed to be having fun so it was all good. In the meantime, Thatch ate his own glass, removing the only dessert that he had touched himself. He must say it tasted really good, Ace actually did a really good job on the mixture and it would have turned out perfect if he had known how to fold. He'll maybe teach him some other time.
Once Ace was done decorating, they put it into the fridge to harden. Ace's looked a bit wonkier than Thatch his version, but Ace was proud of it and it still looked great and it showed that they were made with love. Thatch was sure that Marco would love it. After everything had been put away, they cleaned the kitchen together. Thatch being taller focused on the higher up cabinets, while Ace focused on those lower and the floor. Together they cleaned it all in no time.
Thatch was very glad nothing too bad had happened and simply using some other way of presentation and cleaning a kitchen had worked and Ace was happy. Even if he would be tired tomorrow, not that he'll ever tell Ace this, it was a day well spend. He had had quality time with Ace, got him happy again, and he knew that he even, indirectly, helped to make sure Marco will have a nice evening too. They were closing in on Marco's time to come home though so he had to leave.
"Ace, it's 19:30 now so I'm going to take my leave, wouldn't want to run into Marco on my out you know!"
"It's okay, you helped, you don't need to keep it a secret"
"Pffshh, I barely did anything in the end, cleaning the kitchen was more work haha"
The teen blushed at his remark, aah teasing Ace stayed fun.
"So don't worry Ace, and don't you dare tell him I even came today alright! You made it all by yourself, and if he asks where you got the decorations, well, I know you can't lie so you can say you got them from me. But you still did everything yourself. I didn't touch anything that went on those 6 glasses, now did I?"
"No..."
"See! Well then, Ace. Thank you for calling me, please don't hesitate to do it again, I'll always be there for you okay."
Ace looked towards the ground, shuffling in place "O-okay, thank you Thatch"
Aww, he was so adorable "COME HERE YOU!"
"Wha- THATCH!?"
Thatch had suddenly engulfed Ace into a hug and was cooing about how lovely and sweet and adorable and cute and …. his baby brother was. It all making Ace a sputtering and blushing mess while trying to push the chef away.
After a minute Thatch let go and smiled at Ace "Well, have a nice evening Ace, let me know how it goes alright?"
Ace smiled softly "Yea, I will, thanks again Thatch"
Picking up his bags Thatch turned around to leave, but not before acting as if he had forgotten to say something "aah, right, Ace! Those pink hearts, they're from a special valentines series called 'Heated nights', I've left you a small bag of it in the kitchen drawer. And" Thatch smirked at the next part, making a certain way of use for said chocolate very clear "Body heat alone can melt them, you know."
He didn't know it was possible but Ace turned ever redder than he was before in an instant, spluttering again but no words leaving him.
"Hhahhahahahaahah, good night, bro!" with a wink he turned around and left behind a red-faced teen in his own doorway. Thatch was laughing all the way to his car. Today was a good day, especially now Ace is going to think weird things while trying to enjoy his dessert with Marco. He wished he could see it. Ace wouldn't know where to look hahahhahah. Aaah anyway, it's gotten late, he'll go home, take a shower himself and go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a busy day at the restaurant.
The next day
! ! ! ! -You've received a text message- ! ! ! !
19:03 - He loved it. Marco was very surprised that you could make his favourite dessert in a glass too, he didn't suspect a thing that it wasn't planned. Thank you.
19:05 - We used the small bag of hearts too.
19:08 - It was fun.
"What's so fun? who texted you? Thatch?"
"Bahhha, it it it, IT'S ACE! Oh boy hahahhaah" Thatch had been sitting on the coach, drinking some wine with Izou. Now though, now the chef was rolling on the ground, wheezing at his baby brother's messages.
That kid is amazing. The pause in between the messages too! Aaah he can't survive this, he's going to go hoarse from laughing. He just knows Ace is probably fully red on his cheeks while typing out the messages, taking minutes to look at it before pressing send, Marco probably questioning him while standing next to him, asking what's wrong! Hahhahha aaaaah, Ace is really just too much, his own consciousness making him feel obligated to not only thank him for the dessert, but also mention and thank him for the …. extra dessert... afterwards hahhahahaha. Man, he wished he could ask Marco about the chocolate hearts, his eyes would probably widen too at his knowledge of them, if he was lucky he would see a blush on the pineapple too if he caught him off guard enough hahahhaha
First, figure out if Ace told Marco he got the decorations from me. If so, he'll need to make a plan of action. Yes, he'll get more fun out of this then he would have ever thought. Aaah he's glad Ace had trouble with the desert, he wouldn't want to have missed this chance for a minute.
"You good Thatch?"
"Hmm? Yea yea, everything's fine." He wiped his tears and sat down besides Izou again, restarting the movie the other man had so kindly stopped when he had fallen off the couch. February the 14th couldn't have ended on a better note.
Bonus points for anyone who figures out what Ace tried to make. I made it today, which is what prompted this sudden story.
The ingredients for what Ace made are, for a normal size: 250 grams of butter (room temperature), 7 eggs, 250 grams of sugar, 200 grams of chocolate, +/- 2 packs of ladyfinger-cookies.