ficlet; 003: birthday cake
pairing: aizawa kosaku/shiraishi megumi
word count: 871 words
note: A second episode of Shiraishi's adventures in the kitchen. More notes at the end.
Shiraishi studies the recipe book carefully, and then she turns back to the array of baking ingredients on the kitchen island. Her forehead wrinkling in concentration, she measures the flour carefully, and puts it into the mixing bowl, followed by sugar, salt…wait.
"Salt?" she mutters to herself, reading the recipe again, and yes, it says salt. She blinks in confusion, and then shrugs and dumps the required amount into the bowl. She then adds the softened butter, some milk and then she cracks the eggs in. Using a spatula, she stirs the bowl, mixing the ingredients together as instructed by the recipe.
This is a lot harder than it looks, she thinks. She's been stirring for ten minutes, and it doesn't look right. Bits of butter are clumping together, forming individual balls of flour with runny egg running through it, and it looks kind of gross. It's not definitely the smooth, velvety batter that the recipe said would materialised after she mixes it. Maybe she should try using more strength.
Shiraishi applies extra force, practically mashing the butter into the flour as she tries combine everything to form the batter that is to be her cake. But it really isn't working out, it's not smooth, it's wet and clumpy. Frowning, she grabs her phone, and taps at it. Surely the Internet will know why her batter isn't the way it's supposed to be.
"Ah hah," she says out loud, as she stops scrolling. "Use more liquid. More liquid…milk, or eggs?" Technically speaking, beaten eggs are somewhat in liquid form, right? She really had no idea. Maybe the best idea is to use both. Satisfied, Shiraishi nods to herself as she cracks another egg into the bowl, and adds a cup of milk.
She stirs it vigorously, and to her relief, the consistency starts to change, and the lumps even themselves out, and it finally looks right. Shiraishi then mixes in the cocoa powder and chocolate chips, before pouring everything into the cake tin. She sets the timer on the oven, and puts her cake to bake.
It'll be done in forty-five minutes, according to the recipe book, and Aizawa's birthday cake will be ready for him when he comes home from his shift.
Shiraishi makes a frustrated noise and throws away yet another batch of watery icing. For the life of her, she couldn't figure out what she's doing wrong. It's supposed to be easy. Sighing, she gathered the ingredients again. This is her last bit of icing sugar, if she messes up again, there will be no icing on the cake. Maybe she should go slow on the milk.
She adds the milk, teaspoon by teaspoon, and to her relief, she finally manages to achieve the consistency she wants. At that moment, the oven timer pings, and she quickly pulls her cake out of the oven.
It looks…right. It looks like a cake. Happily, she grabs a spatula, and starts icing the cake.
Which is actually a bad idea, because the cake is still piping hot, and her icing starts melting in runny streaks.
Shiraishi groans.
Aizawa comes home to a kitchen that looks like it has been hit by a hurricane (bowls and cups piling in the sink, flour and sugar everywhere, milk and remnants of eggs on the kitchen counter), and a wife covered in flour and other baking ingredients, holding out an albeit misshapen cake, covered in some kind of runny cream, and decorated with candles.
"Happy birthday, Kōsaku!" She beams at him, kissing him quickly on the lips.
He's quiet for a moment, and then he takes the cake from her, setting it down on the dining table, and then he kisses her properly and thoroughly.
"I can't believe you baked me a cake," he says, a note of wonderment in his voice. Shiraishi never ceases to amaze him, with the things she does.
She ceremoniously hands him a knife, and he carefully cuts the cake, putting a slice on a plate. He gives it to her before cutting his own. There's a little sparkle in Shiraishi's eye – this is the first cake she has ever baked, and she's excited about tasting it.
Aizawa takes a bite, and then he gives a little cough, before swallowing it. She takes her own bite, and she nearly chokes. The cake is much too sweet, and the texture is dense yet claggy. To put it mildly, it is not good.
She heaves a huge sigh, staring at the cake, and instantly, he slips his arm around her waist, pulling her close to his side. "Don't say a single word," he orders. "The cake is fine."
"It's not," she mutters. "It tastes like a mixture of glue and mud."
She looks so disappointed, and he can feel his heart swelling with love for her. "Megumi," he says, "it doesn't matter. All that matters is that you made me a cake, and I love you for it."
Shiraishi looks at him gratefully, squeezing his waist lightly. Sighing, she looks at remainder of her failed cake, and frowns. "I honestly think performing abdominal surgery is easier than baking."
Aizawa laughs, and presses a kiss to the side of her head.
A/N: I had trouble ending it because it was getting to be exactly the same as the last one-shot I wrote, i.e. repetitive and I had a problem with that, but in the end, I couldn't end it any better, Aizawa is just going to have to keep reassuring Shiraishi and eating all the bad food she makes, hahaha.
There has been some requests for more domestic!married!Aizawa/Shiraishi and I think I'll probably keep exploring that in this ficlet collection. If a plot bunny really hits, it'll get turned into a longer one shot, but I think it's fun to explore them in snippets, too. But do throw any domestic prompts you have my way. 😊
Please do let me know what you think! *loves*