"The Cake Conspiracy"

"Listen very carefully, because I'm going to say it only once!" Rin said as soon, as the boys from the cram school were all around him and the girls were away.

"Okumura, what the hell were you watching this time?" Ryuji moaned and rubbed his temples.

"Oh, shut it!" Rin growled. "I'm sharing here my very complicated plan!"

"You and complicated plan?" Suguro snorted. "Heavens forbid, the world is coming to an end!"

"Oh, go back to your tower, princess!"

"Hey!" Bon protested. One could call him names all he wanted and get close to none reaction, but just use the "p" word, and here he was, eyes shining in rightful fury, hands closed in fists and shaking, ready to smash. It was indeed a powerful weapon and Rin should use it with great care… but sometimes he just couldn't stop himself.

"You begged for it," Shima pointed out.

Suguro grunted something under his breath.

"So, what is this all about?" Renzou decided, that he was more interested with what Rin was going to say. He owed him a little, after all.

"You guys know that the Valentines are close, right?" Rin lowered his voice, so there was no chance of overhearing him.

"Well, yes, what's about it?" Konekomaru raised eyebrows in confusion.

"I think we should do something for girls this year!"

"Dude, you got the genders wrong," Suguro pointed out. "The girls are the ones who cooks stuff, not the other way around."

"And why not?" Rin tilted his head to the left. "Besides, don't you think it would be nice to get something too?"

Doing something nice was actually his modus operandi. It all started with him thinking how much of a loner Eyebrows was and how nice it would to make her day a little bit better at least on valentines. Because Rin knew how the loneliness could hurt rather well and he really didn't want anybody to felt something like that if there was a way to fix it.

But baking a cake for only one girl from their cram school group would suggest a thing - and he really didn't like Eyebrows that way - so he decided to do something for Shiemi and Paku too. Even if the last one dropped out, she was still a part of the group, at least in his mind.

"He's sort of right, you know..." Shima smiled broadly. "Besides, everybody knows that girls love chocolate!"

"And throwing it in your face," Suguro rolled his eyes.

"Well, more chocolate for me, then," Shima merely shrugged.

It actually had happened once. He was following that one girl and pretty randomly decided to declare his feeling for her. It all was going well, until he opened his mouth and then... well, he came back home alone, rather sticky, but not hungry. "So, what are you planning, Okumura?"

"I'm going to bake cake. Cakes, for girls." Rin happily explained.

"You are supposed to put the chocolate in the locker. You can't stuff the cake in there, the locker is too small!"

"Yeah, well, that's why I'm asking for help!"

"Okumura, we can't make the lockers bigger..." Bon massaged his temples, already feeling like migraine was approaching.

"Yeah, but you can help me with getting them to their rooms, right?"

"And how in the world are you planning to pull that off?" Konekomaru gasped. "Especially if you don't want them to know about this?"

"Well..." Rin said slowly. "We can always use hairpin or something..."

"I am so not breaking into girls dorms!" Ryuji protested immediately.

"You know how to picklocks?" Rin blinked, looking at him strangely.

Suguro only grunted something under his breath.

"He can," Shima answered for him. "But that's... not a very good plan, pal. Just imagine the rocked if somebody would catch us in the act! They would think we are bunch of panties-stealers, or something!"

"We could always..."

"No!"

"But it worked before!"

"No!"

"But this is really important!"

"We are not crossdressing again!"

"Spoilsports," Renzou huffed, being probably the only one in the whole group, who found the idea funny.

"But if not this, then how we are going to get the cake to their rooms?"

Suguro scratched his chin.

"You can always ask Shiemi's mom, I guess," he finally shrugged. "But getting Izumo cake in the place is going to be tricky. I think we should just ask Paku for help."

"But that wouldn't be half as fun as little cosplay!" Shima protested.

"Man…" Ryuji shook his head. "There is definitely something wrong with you, but I'm afraid I don't even know where to start!"

"You're just a killjoy!" Renzou grunted. "You wouldn't recognize fun even if it would kick you in the rear, my friend! Poor soul, you're just like that old lady, who is all just grunts and moans and zero understanding of youth at all!"

"What the hell is up with putting me in feminine roles?!" Bon growled, standing up and grabbing the other boy by the collar. Konekomaru sighed and moved away from the pair.

"That's just what I'm talking about!" Shima waved his finger, completely ignoring the fact, that he was dangling in Bon's grip like a rag doll. "Fun! A foreign concept to you!"

"But I want to bake a cake for Paku too!" Rin protested. Mostly because it looked more and more like Suguro was about to throttle his pink- haired friend and he sort of still needed help of them both.

"Then what's stopping you? This asking her for letting you in much more safer than breaking in anyway," Konekomaru pointed out. "And it's not like anybody would say no to a cake. "

"But there will be no surprise!"

"You can ask her to act surprised."

"But that will be not the same!" Rin moaned. Then looked at Suguro with rather thoughtful expression on his face. Sadly, he already knew what it was about.

"I am so not teaching you how to pick a lock!"

xxx

Rin ended up talking with Paku. Mostly because Bon just wouldn't listen. Or help. Through he needed to ask him sometime where he learned how to pick a lock, because that definitely had some interesting story behind it… on the other hand, asking Shima would be a better idea. He might end up with the entire story, instead of angry Suguro chasing him through the whole campus.

"So, you see, since Izumo is always on her own or grumpier than Suguro, we thought that giving her a cake for valentines would be a pretty nice thing to do…"

"I think you got the genders wrong, Okumura!" Paku chuckled.

"Why everybody is saying that?!" he groaned, gripping on his hair with both hands. "I swear, it's like you people live in different reality than me!"

"Well, it's you who's trying to hit on her…"

"I'm not hitting on anybody!" Rin protested. "what even gave you that idea?!"

"The chocolate cake?" she pointed out. "On valentines?"

"But I'm not a girl, we went over this!" he sighed heavily. "Look, I just like to cook and this seems like a good idea. Maybe she would even smile, or something. So… will you help us? Just turning around and act like we are not bringing the cakes?"

"Cakes?" Paku immediately spotted the one thing Rin didn't want her to spot. Figures.

"Well, yeah!" he massaged the back of his neck, feeling slightly embarrassed. "We wouldn't just left you out, you know!"

Paku smirked and then shook her head. Rin bit his lip, feeling like he was dying a little on the inside. Does that meant she disagreed? That she refused to help and didn't want the cake?

"You are really bad at this, aren't you?" she asked.

"Um, what?" Rin blinked.

"Asking people to do something for you. You're really bad at this, you know!"

"Ah…" he laughed nervously. "I guess?"

He just never had much time to practice something like that. Back at the monastery, long, long time ago, when his life was still more or less normal and his ass tailless, he was usually way to proud to ask anybody for anything. No matter what the trouble, he could deal with them on his own. Usually using his fists. Which was a rather funny thing, considering how he switched to trying to talk things over now, when he was a fullblown satan spawn.

Still, it was new for him, it was awkward, he was feeling embarrassed and couldn't even see the reason why other people would decide to help him.

"Okay," said Paku with cheerful smile.

"Just like that?" he blinked, feeling more lost than ever.

"Just like that," she shrugged. "Well, if you could make it with raspberry cream..."

"You're awesome!" Rin grinned happily.

xxx

It was a very annoying day and Izumo found herself more tired than usually.

The other girls spend the whole day giggling and shrieking, when trying to being discreet while eyeing the male members of the student community. It was all very loud, very irritating and rather counterproductive, especially on the stealth side.

Why in the world these girls were making noises when they were trying to following somebody?

Izumo shook her head.

It was ridiculous. And would be through the whole next week, considering how strongly everyone was overreacting over stupid chocolate and idiotic crushes that won't survive even to the next month.

At least Paku was normal, so there will be comfortable silence in their room. Good thing that the cram school wasn't until tomorrow. Even if that girl was completely oblivious to most of the things, the guys were not. And boy, if they weren't a loud lot!

Just thinking about it was causing her head to ache. How was she supposed to survive Shima being even more annoying than usually? No mention all the comments the other would spat around the situation, treating it all like some strange joke. This was going to be one long, exhausting nightmare, she through and opened the doors to her room with a heavy sigh.

Then, an intense smell of chocolate hit her in the face.

"What is this?" Izumo asked, staring blankly at the cake that proudly stood on her desk. It wasn't supposed to be there. There was no reason for it to be there. But it was, quite big, round and with thick, reddish cream inside and a neatly done icing on top, but not enough for it to looks like a cake from shop. No, it definitely looked more… homey.

"A cake," Paku answered happily, stating the obvious while chewing on a piece of the second one. Because, apparently, the cakes were travelling in pairs.

"How did it get here?"

"Magic!"

"I still don't understand why there is a cake on my desk..." Izumo sighed heavily.

"Oh, do you really need to be so grumpy?" Paku moaned. "The whole dorm is jealous as heck because we get to have a cake and they don't!"

Izumo sighed and looked at the cake once more. She really didn't care what the other girls were thinking. She also knew pretty well where that cake came from and it was sort of... nice. She didn't really understood what motivated Rin to bake, because they definitely weren't friends, but she couldn't make the warm, tingling feeling in her chest go away.

"I think he made the whole group to work on it," Paku continued as if she was reading in her mind. "The boys were running yesterday for all the evening, back and forth, with bags full of stuff."

"Dimwits," she snorted. Then helped herself to the cake, because well, Rin was one hell of a cook.