A/N: Hiiiiii audience! Wow. This one is, like, beyond the reasonable amount of late. Not gonna' lie, I really don't have an excuse other than solid writer's block. This prompt kicked me around (also, winter break is over, so I got roped back into the whole 'life' thing) like a ragdoll, so I had a lot of work to do! But it's finally done, and I hope you like it! Enjoy!

"Hey, Makoto?" asked Labrys as they walked into his apartment, after a long day at work. Nothing special had happened, but Makoto was still relatively tired. Of course, as she always did, his girlfriend had offered to accompany him. He was bored, and she was bored, so it seemed like an ideal opportunity to solve both their problems. Of course, it was an excuse to hang out with Makoto, too, so there was that. On the way home, they discussed ideas for what to do, but with no luck. They were having a bit of difficulty trying to pick something to do. Makoto, of course, just wanted a nap, but he decided to humor her for now.

"What is it?" he asked, kicking his shoes off by the door.

She cleared her throat, trying to disguise her embarrassment as she asked the question. "Uh, d'ya think maybe, sometime, you could . . . uh . . . teach me a little about cooking?" She scratched her cheek as she spoke, glancing away. I hope that didn't sound too random. . .

Makoto raised an eyebrow at the prospect. "Uh, sure, but why?" It was a question completely out of left field. They'd never even discussed cooking, let alone dabbled in it together.

"I dunno', I just . . . kinda' wanted to learn how to cook, y'know? It might be useful sometime. . ." She tried her best to disguise her blush and ask normally. Truth be told, the only reason she was asking was because she wanted to be able to make things for Makoto from time to time. He had to work almost all day, and then to top it off he had to do all the housekeeping too. Anything to lessen his load sounded like a good idea to her.

"I guess so." He shrugged, walking towards the kitchen. He pulled his jacket off and threw it towards the chairs in the center of the room. "How about right now?"

"R-Right now?" she asked, a little taken back. She hadn't really planned on him saying yes, let alone offering right now. Regardless, her face curled into a wide smile, whether she was aware of it or not. "Uh, I guess we can do it now," she said, trying to fake aloofness. "What're we going to make?" she asked, approaching the kitchen as well.

"Hmm. . . What sounds fun?" he asked, opening up a cupboard. "I've got a few ingredients laying around. . ."

"Ooh, how about a cake?" said Labrys excitedly. Her eyes glittered at the idea. Evidently, she had quite a high opinion of it. She had a perfect cake pictured in her brain; western style, three-layer cake, with white frosting, and strawberries all across the top of it. . . I bet that'd be delicious! she thought, completely entranced.

"That's baking, but I guess we could try. . ." Makoto took a moment to gather some ingredients, before nodding a couple times.

"See? We've got all the stuff for it, let's do it! I'm sure it'll taste awesome! O'course, you gotta' be the taste tester." She giggled infectiously, causing Makoto to smile as well.

"I've never made a cake before, so why not try?" He grinned.

"Alright!" Labys planted a quick kiss on her boyfriend's cheek, practically bouncing with excitement. "What do we gotta' do first?"

"I guess we'll preheat the oven. . ." Makoto scratched the back of his head, pulling out his phone. "Let me look up some directions. . ."

"Oh, c'mon, how hard can it be?" She walked towards the oven, and turned the temperature up as high as it could go. "I bet I can do this without looking at the directions, who needs 'em?" She laughed a little, her excitement getting the better of her as Makoto let out a nervous laugh.

Turns out, it was a lot harder than she thought.

Makoto opened the oven, blowing the smoke away as he coughed. "It burnt," he said, disappointment evident in his tone. The cake, intended to be light and fluffy, wound up brown and burnt. He silently saluted the wasted ingredients as the money he had spent on them metaphorically took flight from his wallet, into the beyond.

"What? I coulda' sworn I got the time right! I set the oven to the right temperature, right?" she asked, looking over her work with disappointment. "I dunno' what coulda' happened. . ."

"I guess we'll just have to start over," he said, tossing the burnt one in the trash. He rolled up his sleeves and grabbed yet another mixing bowl for them to work with.

"Guess you're right." She let out a disappointed sigh at her failure. She had wanted to make the cake without Makoto's help, as if she was a prodigy of some kind, but it turned out she was going to need it anyways. Guess you gotta' start from somewhere. . .

"But hey, this is kinda' fun, don't you think?" She laughed a little, trying to dispel the gloomy mood. "At least, I'm havin' fun. Even if we messed up. . ." She threw the dirtied mixing bowl they'd used for the previous cake into the sink, wrapping her arms around her boyfriend's neck from behind playfully.

"Yeah." He laughed, as he began to spray the pan they'd be using for this one. "But this time, let's use the directions, alright?"

"Okay," she said, trying to mock disappointment. She reluctantly let go of his neck, letting him go about working. She leaned over the pan, looking down into it with curiosity at his procedure. Whether he'd done it before or not, he clearly had a pretty clear vision of what the procedure was supposed to look like, at the very least. She found herself infatuated with her boyfriend's ability when it came to almost anything; work, combat, cooking. He really did have it all. Even if he is ridiculously lazy. "Anything I can do to help right now?"

"Nope," he said, flicking some flour onto her face jokingly as he spoke. She flinched backwards, before her face curled into a mischievous grin.

"I'm not gonna' let you get away with that one for free!" She intently scooped some flour from the large bag on the counter into her own hand and threw it at his chest, leaving behind a large white puff of smoke in the air as the flower found itself coating his dark blue shirt. Some of it wound up underneath his chin, making him look even paler than usual. He, too, grinned, and the flour fight began. He scooped some of the substance into both hands and dumped it out on top of her hair, to which she responded by hurling her own handful at his face. The fight continued for a good five minutes, each strike dirtier than the last. The white powder was scattered across the ground by the time they were done, and almost every inch of Makoto and his clothes was covered in white. It dusted his hair, his face, and all of his attire. Labrys was wearing white, so it wasn't as noticeable, but she, too, was drenched in flour.

Labrys was laughing madly, doubling over. "Makoto, you look ridiculous!"

"I could say the same to you," he said, dusting a little extra flour off of his face, grinning widely. "But let's actually get to work, alright?"

"You're just saying that because I won!" she said, standing on her tip toes and poking him in the nose with her finger. He grinned.

"Whatever you say. But we should finish soon."

"Alright, alright. But I totally won, no matter what you say!" she said, giggling the whole while as they set about actually cooking. The process was rather dysfunctional, as Labrys was more set on having fun than actually getting things done, but after several more spills and ingredient fights, the cake was finally in the oven.

"That was pretty fun!" Labrys let out a hearty laugh, dusting together her hands. "I did a good job for my first time, huh? Not including all of the mess."

"Well, if you want to be technical about it, your first time is in the trash." Makoto cracked a sly grin at his joke. Labrys, however, put on her pouty face.

"That probably wasn't even my fault." After her fair share of pouting, she hopped up on her tip toes and kissed her boyfriend's cheek. "Thanks for lettin' me make a mess of your kitchen. I had a really great time."

"So did I," he said, kissing her forehead. "I'm gonna' go get cleaned up. Keep a close eye on the cake, okay?"

"Alright, but don't take too long. I dunno' if I can take care of it all by myself!" she said, laughing as she spun around in the flour-filled kitchen, shaking some off of herself.

"I'll try, I'll try. But this'll take a while to clean up. . ." Makoto sighed regretfully as he entered the bathroom to get cleaned up.

"So, how is it?" Labrys asked, as Makoto bit into their "masterpiece". In reality, it was a simple white cake with some plain frosting, nothing special, but she felt honored at having been involved in the process of making that little thing. It's a lot harder than it looks, huh. . . It was the first "successful" thing she'd made, after all.

Makoto nodded a few times as he registered the taste. Although the cake looked pretty bland, it tasted just like it should have. Maybe even a bit better than he was expecting. Labrys was practically shaking with anticipation, so he decided he shouldn't delay his answer any longer. "Pretty good." He gave her a thumbs up, skewering another piece of the fluffy cake with his fork and bringing it to his mouth.

Labrys jumped up into the air, both hands raised over her head. "Yes!" She jumped at him, arms wide open for a hug.

He just barely managed to avoid having the cake sent sailing through the air, while still managing to get the full enjoyment of the hug. Labrys had a joyful expression plastered to her face, looking up into Makoto's eyes. His heart warmed up every time he got to see that expression on her face. He felt his own warm smile forming, as he ate yet another forkful of the cake as casually as possible.

"I'm really glad you like it." Labrys stepped back, placing a hand on her hip. "I worked pretty hard on it, after all!"

"It paid off." Makoto planted a kiss on her forehead, before returning to eating the cake. A light blush dusted her cheeks as she looked at Makoto's expression. I don't get to see him smile often enough. He wasn't depressed or anything, but very rarely did he smile all-out, with pure joy in his eyes. Right now, that was all she wanted; to see those pure smiles, all the time.

"So from now on, can I make dinner for you?" she asked enthusiastically, bouncing up and down yet again.

Makoto chuckled. "Maybe once you've gotten a little bit more practice, you can start cooking dinner around the house."

"What? But I'm tootally a better cook than you right now!" Labrys faked being flustered, before both of them laughed.

"Sure, sure." Makoto took yet another fork filled with cake to his mouth, savoring the taste of a meal cooked by the woman he loved.

"Fine, fine. If you're not gonna' help, I'll just ask Fuuka-san!"

Makoto cringed a little. "D-Don't do that."

A/N: Woo! I liked that one enough. Not going to lie, it was really, REALLY hard to write. I was suffering a little bit of a writer's block through this one, but tonight I had a burst of inspiration and decided to finish it up! I really like what I did with it. I think it's pretty good! Of course, you can always tell me what you think in the review section! And, as always, review and favorite if it's your favorite! Follow because, I want you to! Isn't that a good enough reason?

Audience: "No."

The next prompt is in battle, side-by-side! Woo. I look forward to seeing you there!