A/N: This one is for TopazDragon. If you have a request, you can send me a pm or put it in a review. This is actually an idea I thought of while I was writing the list. Animebestie… I will be publishing something for your birthday, be on the lookout. Enjoy!

FYI… I wanted to give all of you fair warning. I am going to be gone a good part of October. I am going to Comic Con in Virginia and will be staying with my sister for a couple weeks. About a week after I get back, I will be headed to the Mayo Clinic for a week. I will be updating, but it will be sporadic. Sorry about that, but it can't be helped. I will be back full time in November.

#84… Stir cake batter – if you don't have anything else…

A special day was coming up and Hunny and Mori had decided they would back the cake. It wasn't anyone's birthday or anything like that, but tomorrow the Host Club would be celebrating the one year anniversary of Haruhi walking into music room three and breaking the vase. Ok so they would leave out the vase part… maybe. Tamaki was actually in charge of the party planning and knowing him, he would probably say something about the vase… or have a replica… or make her reenact the entire thing again. Hunny and Mori decided they needed to be on guard so that nothing untoward happens. Knowing Tamaki, a reenactment could consist of a real vase and then Kyoya would start a new debt. No, they needed to keep an eye out and protect Haruhi. The last thing Mori wanted was for his friends to drag his fiancée into some needless situation.

Now, as I was saying dear reader…

Tamaki had decided the Host Club needed to celebrate this auspicious day with a party. There would be cake and streamers and… well Mori and Hunny weren't exactly sure since the blond president said that he had a surprise to unveil.

For his part, Hunny wanted to bake a cake for the only female host, the only host to ever bake him homemade cakes (dear reader, the other hosts' cooking abilities was in question and they had people to do that for them… why would they bake Hunny a cake? I know we would, but not the hosts) and begged his cousin to help him. Mori readily agreed and thus, they stood in the Haninozuka kitchen (they figured it was less likely Haruhi would make a surprise trip to Hunny's home than Mori's) and read the recipe.

After this… they ran into a small bit of trouble (dear reader, you may want to re-read that as a lot of trouble… and I will give fair warning for the next section… this is going to get very messy).

The cook and patisserie offered to help, but Hunny rejected their assistance. This had to be done by his and Mori's hands… no other; therefore they kicked out all staff members and commandeered the kitchen for themselves. They were ready to bake a cake.

One by one, Hunny called out the list of ingredients and his cousin would then search for them. Sometimes finding the required item rather quickly like eggs, butter, milk; and yet, other times it took him a while to find an objects location like the flour, sugar (powder and granulated), vanilla, etc.

Finally finding the last ingredient on the list, Mori shook his head. Haruhi always whipped up a cake rather quickly and always made it look easy. They hadn't even started yet and already it felt like a daunting task, and currently he felt like he would rather face any number of foes than bake a cake from scratch. Cracking his neck, he took in a deep breath. No, he would do this because it was for Haruhi and he would do anything for her… including baking a cake. He just hoped Hunny didn't eat the batter or the cake before it was presented to its intended target.

This was a cake. A cake was sweet. A cake had frosting. A cake was spongy and good and something he loved. Hunny was excited and they hadn't even started yet. However, the excitement might have been their downfall.

Grabbing the flour, Hunny ripped the lid off of it with so much force, the container went crashing to the ground and landing upside down spilling its entire contents. That was the first problem.

"Takashi, I think we need more flour," Hunny grumbled as he started to scoop up the flour off the floor with his hands and dump it in the trash bin.

"Ah," Mori sighed and went searching for more flour. Surely with as many cakes as his cousin ate, they had a stockpile somewhere. Which was the other reason they had picked the Haninozuka estate: that kitchen was sure to have all the items necessary to bake the desired cake.

Finding a new bag of flour, the wild host returned to the kitchen where he found his best friend covered in flour. Hunny looked more ghostly than he did Loli Shota at the moment. "Mitsukuni, let me put the flour in the bowl. You can do everything else."

"Hai! I will finish cleaning this up and then wash my hands!" Hunny grinned, flowers appearing around his head.

Mori used a measuring cup and placed the right amount of flour into the bowl and then frowned, "Mitsukuni, this recipe says it yields eight servings of cake. Should we double it?"

"No, let's triple it!" The shorter man exclaimed.

Nodding, the raven haired man added in additional flour before adding in the rest of the dry ingredients. It wasn't until he was done with this task that he heard the sink turn on alerting him to the fact his cousin was finally done cleaning up the flour mess. "You do the wet ingredients. I have already done the dry, but do it slowly"

"Okay!" Placing everything that was considered a wet ingredient based on the recipe into a bowl, Hunny began to mix them together… at a sedate pace. The problem then came in when they had to mix the wet and dry together (now dear reader, we all remember when he made green tea and over mixed it… yah). Realizing that it was harder to blend wet and dry together than just the wet ingredients, Hunny put forth more speed and strength into the task. Soon batter started to fly everywhere and the kitchen looked like a giant blender had been turned on without the lid. The yellow substance coated everything, and the amount remaining in the bowl amounted to less than a cup of batter.

Mori placed his hand on his cousin's shoulder and said, "Mitsukuni, too much."

Hunny stopped mixing and looked around. They were both covered in batter and the kitchen looked more like a war zone than a kitchen. Peering into the bowl, he noticed there wasn't much left. Large crocodile tears started to form and drop from his eyes, "I'm sorry Takashi. I just…*sniff*."

"I know Mitsukuni. Let's try again. We need to mix more ingredients. Slow this time. Be careful."

Again, they added ingredients to the bowls. Mori sifted the dry ingredients together, but when it came to Hunny, none of the utensils were clean. And then an idea struck him. Running out of the kitchen, he came back in with a brand new shinai (he wasn't going to say, but it was supposed to be a gift for Haruhi, but he could always get her another). He put the bowl on the floor, put his feet on either side so that it wouldn't move around, and then proceeded to mix the wet ingredients with the shinai.

Mori sweat dropped. The weekend before Satoshi had been joking (this is before the list was published dear reader) that he could probably use a shinai to make dinner… or at least do the stirring, and here was his cousin taking that suggestion to heart and stirring cake ingredients together. Well, it was too late to stop it now. Kneeling beside the bowl, he started to add the dry ingredients as Hunny kept stirring.

The shinai had worked. The batter had been mixed and now they were pouring it into a multitude of cake pans. It wasn't much longer now and their cake would be complete.

"Mitsukuni, shower," Mori ordered. The maids could clean up the kitchen, and they would help when they were done, but they were also both covered with batter. If they tried to help now, they would probably just make a bigger mess.

"But what about the cake?"

"While it bakes, take a shower."

Casting his eyes upon the ovens, Hunny finally agreed, "Alright, but just a quick one. We have to watch them bake!" He turned to his best friend, "Do you think Haru-Chan will like the cake?"

"Yes."

"Ok Takashi. You take one too. Your hair is more yellow than black right now."

Mori nodded, "Hai."

Showers complete, cakes removed from oven and cooled, and an hour later, they were spreading frosting onto their masterpiece(s). Sure it was a little lopsided and not professional looking at all, but they had made the cakes with determination and love.

The next day, they presented their creation to their friend… right after rescuing her from breaking another vase (dear reader they had been right, Tamaki decided to reenact the first day they met). She was truly touched and immediately ate a slice. It was a little bland and dense, and not as sweet as it should have been, but she proclaimed with a wide smile, "This is one of the best cakes I've ever tasted. Thank you Hunny-senpai, Takashi." When others started to try the cake the two hosts had made, she dared anyone to say otherwise. The look in her eyes promised pain to anyone that contradicted her review.

And to this day, everyone still agreed that it was a fine cake indeed (and dear reader, it was the highlight of the party since it didn't include her breaking a vase or incurring a debt. Plus, it was made by her fiancé and a good friend).