"Oh shit."
Axel frowned and looked down into the bowl, staring at the eggshells floating in it.
"What happened?"
"I didn't crack the egg right ..."
Roxas snickered and rolled his eyes, "Use a spoon to get it out?"
Handing Axel a spoon, he watched on as his boyfriend fished the pieces of eggshell out out of mix.
"They keep moving."
"Try to go at it from the sides? Like push them to the sides and slide them up."
"Aha! ... Oh, nope."
Sighing in defeat, Axel handed the spoon over to Roxas.
Neither of them were fantastic cooks, but they could do it. Although baking was a different story. Axel was good at pre-made pop in the oven cookies and biscuits while Roxas was good at pre-made pie crusts and fillings. Why they had decided to make a cake they didn't know, but they found a recipe online and figured it didn't look so hard.
Walking around the counter, Axel picked up the bag of flour and the measuring cup. You can't really go wrong with pouring flour, and it was safer than getting the butter together. Being careful, Axel poured one cup of flour and waited for the okay from Roxas to pour it into their mixing bowl.
"There, all eggshells are out. Did you put two eggs in?"
"Yeah."
"Did the first egg get shell in?"
"Nah. I don't know what happened with that one."
Walking back around the counter, Axel poured the flour in and let Roxas stir. He was on stir duty since Axel didn't actually know how to stir without getting it everywhere. They found that out the hard way with their first attempt at mixing the ingredients. Four eggs and 1 ½ cups of milk later and they were getting somewhere.
"Okay, flours done and eggs," Axel looked at Roxas, "... what now?"
"Did you pre-heat the oven?"
"Yeah, why? Do we put it in like this?"
Shaking his head, Roxas walked over to the laptop and read the instructions.
"We still need to mix in the cocoa powder, baking powder, sugar ... oh shit."
"What?"
"Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl."
"Yeah, so?"
"We mixed egg."
Groaning, Axel looked at the contents of the bowl and twitched. Resting his head on the counter, he started to think about walking to the store and picking up a chocolate cake. He could even get their names and "Good effort!" on it in fancy writing.
"Just be glad we bought already made frosting, babe."
Lifting his head up and muttering, Axel nodded.
"That's just a lot of things wasted."
"Well, cover that stuff and put it in the fridge and we'll find somewhere else to use it."
"Good idea."
Putting wrapping over the top of the bowl and setting it in the fridge, Axel picked up the eggs they had put away when they had assumed they wouldn't need them anymore.
Setting them onto the table and getting another bowl, he glanced at Roxas and nodded.
"Okay. Ready."
Standing up and walking to Axel, Roxas picked up the flour and turned to his boyfriend.
"Oh!"
"Huh?"
"You ... nothing."
Smiling, Roxas poured the flour into the measuring cup and dumped it into the bowl, Axel following with the cocoa powder and baking powder.
"Do you know the difference between baking soda and baking powder?"
"No, do you?"
"No."
"Maybe one doesn't bake?"
"Probably."
Pouring the sugar and vanilla into the bowl, Roxas walked over to the laptop and made sure they did everything correctly.
"We poured the flour ... mhm ... okay, next step. Melt butter and add to bowl, add milk and eggs."
"So, we could have kept our other bowl?"
"Appears that way."
"Dammit. How much butter?"
"Uhm ... one stick and three tablespoons."
"That's a lot of butter."
"Seems like it, but I don't think it is ... not in baking terms."
Walking over to the fridge and getting the butter out, Axel placed it into their measuring cup and set it in the microwave, setting the timer and waiting.
"It doesn't say any specific instructions? Place butter gently into pot and let simmer or something like that?"
Snorting and shaking his head, Roxas scanned the recipe to see if it actually said that.
"Did we use powdered sugar?"
"Uh ... yeah! I remember because when we were picking up the ingredients you told me specifically to look for powdered sugar and I kept squeezing it when I found it."
"Oh yeah. Good."
Hearing the beeper, Axel opened the microwave and picked the measuring cup up. Walking over to the table fast, he poured the melted butter into the mixing bowl and put the cup down.
"Aff! That's really, really hot."
"Probably because it just came out of the microwave."
"Yeah, but why do you have to be like that?"
"Love you."
"Lies, all horrible lies."
"Add the milk and eggs, Chef Axel."
"I think it's best if you add the eggs."
"Right."
Axel poured the milk and stared down at the measuring cup.
"It's not going to burn you, it's cooled off by now."
"If I get hurt you're kissing it better."
Picking up the measuring cup, Axel sighed in relief as the cool glass touched his hand. Pouring the milk into the bowl, he waited for Roxas to crack the eggs.
"How do you do it so ... professionally?"
"Okay, don't laugh, but when I was younger I'd make French toast only to practise my egg cracking skill because I was tired of messing up."
Blinking and biting his lip, Axel nodded and tried his best not to laugh.
"Shut up, at least I can crack an egg without dropping the shell into the bowl."
Axel grinned and winked at Roxas, glad that at least one of them knew how to crack eggs.
"What's next?"
"Mixing."
"Again your job."
"Yeah ... hey, do you want to get creative?"
"Is ... that smart?"
"We'll just add chocolate chips to the mix."
Raising an eyebrow, Axel decided you can't actually go wrong with chocolate chips, and since the recipe didn't say: "DO NOT ADD ANYTHING ELSE," he decided that sure, why not? A chocolate overdose was a good thing, right? Reaching into the cupboards and bringing out the chocolate chips, Axel opened the pack and poured some into the bowl with Roxas was still mixing.
Axel blinked at his reflection in the spoon.
"... Why didn't you tell me I had flour on my nose and forehead?"
"You look cute with it there."
"How did that even happen?"
"When you put your head down on the counter."
"Do I have any more?"
"Yeah, you have flour spots on your neck."
Putting his finger on a patch of flour on the table, Axel dabbed it onto Roxas' nose and smirked.
"Do I look adorable?"
"You do."
"Good. Get me the cake tin."
Doing as he was told, Axel watched as the contents of the bowl were poured into the cake tin. Setting the pick in the middle, they each took one end of the tin and opened the over door, placing the cake in the middle.
"What time is it?"
"Uh, 10:34."
"So we'll say 10:30 ... should be done by 11, or 11:15."
Axel nodded and looked around the kitchen. He had seen kindergarten classes that weren't as messy.
"You want to clean up now or ...?"
Roxas shrugged and picked up the mixing bowl and measuring cup.
"I'll do the dishes, you do the rest."
Axel finished wiping the counter as Roxas placed the last dish into the dish-rack. Glancing at the clock, Axel nodded to the oven.
"It's 11:03. Want to check it?"
Nodding and grabbing an oven mitt, Roxas opened the oven door and pulled the pick out.
"It's dry ... that means it's done."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah ... I hope."
"Reassuring."
Taking the cake out of the oven and placing it on the counter, Roxas closed the oven door and turned to their masterpiece.
"It looks good."
"Yeah, but looks as deceiving."
Axel bit his lip and nodded.
"Wait, we have to wait for it to cool anyway before we put the frosting on."
"Stalling."
"Yeah, but with an actual reason."
Roxas shrugged and took Axel's hand, grinning at the flour all over his boyfriend's face.
"What?"
"You're still covered in flour."
"Ugh! I tried getting it off."
Wiping at his face with the back of his hands, Axel frowned as Roxas' laughter grew.
"What is so funny!?"
Axel looked at Roxas unamused as he tried to explain to Axel why he was laughing, but all Axel couldn't make many words out, he only managed to catch "hands" and "face."
"What? My hands?"
Looking down, Axel sighed and rolled his eyes at the flour still on the back of his hands.
"How is that even possible? I wiped the counter!"
"Yeah, but that only got the flour off of your palms and stuff."
Axel pouted and looked at Roxas, hoping he would help him remove some of the flour.
"What? I think you look sweet with flour on your face. Like a cake."
"I probably taste better than the one we made ..."
Giving their cake a glance, Axel bit his lip and resisted the urge to poke it. There was nothing special about the cake, it was a simple rectangle chocolate cake, but Axel felt that it would move any second.
Dragging Axel into the living room, Roxas sat on the couch and pulled his boyfriend down with him.
"Cartoons until it's cooled."
"Fine, fine ... But I still have flour on my face."
"Leave it until we taste the cake?"
Shrugging, Axel put his arm around Roxas' shoulder, making sure to get some flour on his ear.
Axel and Roxas walked into the kitchen thirty minutes later and stood in front of their cake. Turning the tin over, Roxas watched as it slid from its container and landed perfectly on the counter. Turning it over, Roxas shrugged and looked at Axel.
"It's as soft as a cake. Hand me the frosting?"
Reaching over and grabbing the container of frosting, Axel handed it to Roxas and stared at the cake.
"It looks really good and it smells good too. That's a good sign, right?"
"Probably not ... I think even if you mess up a cake it'll still smell good."
Grabbing two butter knives from the silverware tray, Roxas handed one to Axel and placed the frosting beside them.
"I bought chocolate frosting, but I also have these little tube things ... vanilla. I thought we could put our names?"
"Sounds good to me."
Getting some of the frosting onto his knife, Axel began spreading it onto the cake and felt his stomach and taste-buds crave for their creation.
It didn't take them long to frost the cake, or to get out the vanilla tubes. Holding their tube, Axel and Roxas stared at the cake.
"Are you trying to decide if you want to mess this beautiful thing up?"
Axel nodded and looked at the tube.
"Whatever, it's going to be in our stomachs anyway ... or in the trash. Whatever. You do my name, I do yours?"
Roxas nodded, "Deal."
Axel let Roxas go first and smiled at the lettering on the cake. After Roxas was finished, Axel took his time and made sure his lettering was just as nice.
"I think it looks great."
"I have an idea."
Roxas moved and made sure Axel couldn't see the cake.
"What are you doing?"
"Just a second."
Moving back, Roxas smiled and nodded to the cake.
"It's half a heart, and you do the other half and then I'll explain."
"There's more?"
Axel smiled and made his half of the heart, connecting it.
"Okay now, tasting time."
Grabbing the frosting knife, Roxas cut a square piece at the end, exactly where the heart was. Splitting the heart into two again, Roxas handed Axel the piece he had drawn and he took the piece Axel had drawn.
"Don't even say it."
Roxas opened his mouth and shut it quickly, smiling up at Axel.
"I don't know what you mean?"
"You know what I mean, Roxas."
Axel smiled and picked two forks up. Handing one to Roxas, he nodded towards his cake and took a piece onto his fork.
"Ready?"
Roxas nodded and held the cake inches from his mouth.
"Ready."
Shutting their eyes, Axel and Roxas took a bite of their cake and waited for the gagging to start.
"... This is actually really good."
Looking down at his cake, Axel nodded and raised his eyebrows, wondering if someone had snuck in and replaced their cake with a pre-made one.
"It is, yeah. Hey, we made a cake!"
Laughing and sticking his chest out, Roxas took another bite and hummed happily.
Leaning down, Axel tilted his boyfriends face up to his and gave him a kiss.
"You taste like cake."
Nodding and taking some frosting onto his finger, Roxas placed it onto Axel's nose and smiled.
"You sort of look like a cake."
Giving him a quick kiss and rushing out the kitchen, Roxas heard Axel's mutter of disapproval, but caught the smile that canceled it all out.