Chapter Text
Taesan has never claimed to be good at baking. He’s never even claimed to be decent. Still, how hard can following a ‘cake for beginners’ recipe be, he’d thought. Very fucking hard , as it turns out. He’s somehow even worse than a beginner. A disaster, maybe.
Now, covered in splotches of flour and with egg shells under his nails, it’s fast approaching 7am and he’s barely made any progress. A burnt and black failed first attempt sits in a tin on the kitchen side, and it’s really a wonder how the smoke and smell hasn’t woken Jaehyun up yet. Then again, he always has slept through anything. Taesan would have done this the night before, but moving in with his already clingy boyfriend has made it that much harder to escape Jaehyun’s clutches, and having enough time away from him to bake an entire cake is as impossible as it gets.
So, he’d had to settle on waking up at the crack of dawn, rolling out of Jaehyun’s warm arms and their warm bed in exchange for the biting cold of the kitchen. In December. The things he does for love.
He sits huddled in front of the oven, letting the small ounce of heat radiate through his cold, tired body. He watches the cake batter slowly rise in the tin of his second attempt. If this one fails, he’s giving up completely, because he’s already used up all the ingredients he bought from the store and had to hide away from Jaehyun’s prying eyes. The warmth almost lulls him to sleep, because the next thing he knows his eyes are snapping open to the sound of the oven alarm beeping loud and constant, and he quickly fumbles with cold fingers to shut the noise off.
He gives it a few seconds, strains his ears to hear if there’s any movements from their bedroom. Luckily, he’s met with complete silence.
Taesan hurriedly grabs the pair of gloves and flings open the oven door, because the last time he left it too long it charred his cake to dust. He flinches at the blast of hot air in his face and clumsily slips the tin into his hands and onto the side.
He takes a step back. Looks at it. Tilts his head. At certain angles and under good lighting it does somewhat resemble a cake. It’ll have to do. Any second Jaehyun could wake up and realise Taesan isn’t next to him and come shuffling out of their room a half asleep cuddle deprived monster.
At least it’s not burnt.
Next step; icing. His worst nightmare. He dumps all the ingredients into a bowl and, acutely aware of his time constraints, starts whisking frantically. Too frantically, because blobs of mixture come flying out the bowl and splash across his clothes. He swears he feels a bit land in his hair too. Slowing his pace, he somehow manages to mix it all together without any other unhappy accidents. He’s even pleasantly surprised when he dips his finger into the bowl and into his mouth and finds it doesn’t actually taste half bad. Maybe this is salvageable. Maybe.
He spoons the icing into a piping bag, pushing it down to the end where the nozzle sits, and starts to gently squeeze small swirls around the edge of the cake. They’re a little inconsistent, a little unshapely, but personally he thinks they look pretty cute. Cute enough, anyway.
He’s almost made it the whole way round the cake when he grips the bag too tight and it bursts in his hands, icing exploding all over the counter and floor, across his clothes and a lump hitting him square in the cheek. He yelps, louder than he meant to, and quickly scrambles with sticky hands to salvage whatever's left.
Then, he hears movement in the next room; the creaking of the bed and the shuffle of slipper covered feet across the floor. Taesan freezes in place as Jaehyun appears in the doorway, hair sticking up adorably in several directions and eyes squinted. He rubs a hand over his face, pillow lines streaked across his cheek.
“What’s going on? What was that noise?” Jaehyun croakily asks and glances blearily around the room, taking in the mess on the side, the burnt cake, the absolute state of his boyfriend’s clothes and, finally, the splash of icing streaked across the floor along with the last of Taesan’s dignity.
“Uh,” Taesan says, throwing his hands up in the air. “Happy birthday!”
“What…” Jaehyun takes another step into the room. “I mean, thank you, but what is all this?”
Taesan sighs dejectedly because there’s no use hiding this complete and utter disaster now. The evidence is damning. “I, um, tried to make you a cake…”
“You made me a cake?” Jaehyun says, eyes wide and full of stars, lips curling into a smile. “That’s so cute.”
“Emphasis on the tried to. Don’t get your hopes up.”
Jaehyun snorts and steps over the mess on the floor so he’s closer to Taesan. “You’ve got some, er, flour on your hoodie. Or, my hoodie, I should be saying. And icing in your hair.”
Taesan flushes and tries to dust the mess off of his (Jaehyun’s) clothes, the room suddenly too hot for a winter morning. Jaehyun laughs again, bright and loud despite still being half asleep. For a second it makes Taesan forget he’s been up for two hours with barely anything to show for it.
Jaehyun closes the distance between them until he’s close enough to press his face into Taesan’s neck, sneaking his arms around his middle. Taesan tries to protest, complains Jaehyun’s clothes will get dirty too, but he’s an unrelenting force when he’s fresh out of sleep.
“I don’t like waking up without you.”
Taesan’s heart aches with guilt, and he quickly wraps himself around Jaehyun. He’s soft and warm in his arms, like he always is when he’s sleepy. “I know. I wanted to surprise you.”
“You definitely surprised me. The noise you made, I thought someone died out here.”
Taesan huffs a laugh, warm with embarrassment. “Maybe not someone, but definitely something .” He slowly turns them around so Jaehyun’s back is towards the mess of a cake. “Don’t look at it. It’s horrific.”
“I’m sure it’s not that bad.”
“I don’t think it even passes as a cake.”
“Let me see--” Jaehyun says and pulls away to try and turn his head towards it, but Taesan grabs him and drags him back before he can catch a glimpse of it, pushing Jaehyun’s face into his shoulder.
“No. Don’t look. You should go back to bed. You can’t be awake this early on your birthday.”
“Just a quick look. I promise I won’t laugh.”
“Nope.” Taesan says. He crouches down a little, wraps his arms tight around Jaehyun’s middle, and lifts him off the ground. Jaehyun flails, hands clamoring to find purchase on Taesan’s shoulders.
“What are you doing--”
“Putting you to bed.”
“This isn't fair! You’re cheating!” Jaehyun exclaims as he wriggles in Taesan’s hold, trying to escape. Taesan can’t help the self satisfied smile on his face because usually, this situation is the other way round. He only hoists his boyfriend higher, stumbling across the room to try and avoid the stain on the floor. “I’ll only go if you’re coming with me.”
“I have to clean up first.”
“Do it later,” Jaehyun argues. “It’s my birthday and I say do it later and come back to bed now .”
“Wow. Invoking birthday privileges now, are we?”
“Well you used your tall privilege, sooo...”
Taesan laughs and drops Jaehyun down to the floor. He stumbles backwards, catches himself before he topples over. He pouts up at Taesan, who just shrugs, unbothered. “You wanted me to put you down.”
Jaehyun rolls his eyes dramatically. He eyes Taesan’s face, gaze lingering on his cheek. He steps towards him again, grinning mischievously and Taesan cringes back because whenever Jaehyun makes that face he knows he’s going to do something annoying. Jaehyun presses against Taesan’s front, snaking his arms around his neck and tugging his face down to meet his own. He kisses Taesan’s lips once, slowly, then presses his lips to his cheek. He lingers for a few seconds, and when he pulls back there’s a smudge of icing over his lips. He darts his tongue out over them and grins again.
“Tastes sweet.”
“Gross,” Taesan grimaces, scrubbing the back of his hand over his cheek. “Let’s just go back to bed. I’ve had enough.”
“So you’re coming with me?”
“It’s not like I have a choice, do I?”