Work Text:
Waylon and Eddie’s relationship had reached a rough patch just as many relationships do. It wasn’t that they were arguing or fighting a lot or anything like that. They just seemed to have very little in common activity wise. They tried to show each other their hobbies and teach each other but that didn’t really work out too well. Eddie tried to teach Waylon how to crochet and sew but the techie was impatient and easily discouraged when he double stitched or ran into complications with his loops or lines being too close together or not close enough. Often turning out disproportionately and he had a bad habit of sticking his fingers with the needles. Eddie didn’t fair any better when Waylon introduced him to the world of technology and online gaming. Something Waylon enjoyed doing with Miles. The larger raven haired male was flustered and confused when it came to the controls and spent more time staring at the controller then the screen when hitting the buttons, showing his hand eye coordination was desperately lacking.
They tried other hobbies as well, such as puzzles which Eddie was the quiet patient type. He enjoyed sitting over a 1000 piece puzzle for hours, looking over the tiny pieces and connecting them together. This drove Waylon mad. He prefered patterns most of all and puzzles didn’t supply the activity his mind craved causing him to lose interest within the first five minutes and walk away.
Nothing seemed to really be working out for them and Waylon feared it might further enhance the growing gap between them like a crack in the asphalt spreading to canyon proportions. It was a common fear in relationships, especially with people so opposite in personality and being of the same sex. He was running his fingers through his messy blonde locks as he left one of his classes at the local university, walking past the community board that was in the entry lobby of the building when something caught his eye.
The local community center was putting on a cooking class in the coming month, just in time for the holiday seasons and one of the sub-classes available was solely on baking. Waylon’s mind wandered to the many times they both went off on fond tales about helping their mothers in the kitchen, baking some sweet or savory delight and being giddy with the aspect of seeing their hard work result in a delectable treat enjoyed by the rest of the family or friends. He dialed the contact number into his phone and made a reservation for two. The class was meant for doing with partners so nobody would feel awkward and they could help each other out.
He picked up one of the flyers and hurried home to surprise Eddie with the news. The larger male was indeed surprised but also a little apprehensive to do it. It was an understandable worry since Eddie didn’t really do much baking aside from putting premade cookie dough on metal cookie sheets and watching them reach a certain consistency as depicted on the packaging. Mostly foolproof.
Despite Eddie’s apprehension, they found themselves sitting in the older male’s car outside the community building that next weekend. Eddie leaning over the steering wheel to look up at it and watch all the women and their friends rush into the center. There was only one other male entering the building for the class and he was with a very young and pregnant woman, presumably his wife. They almost looked like newlyweds.
“Nervous?” Waylon asked, glancing over at his boyfriend. Eddie was wearing his favorite red scarf and the dark blue petticoat that helped shield him from the chill in the air. He had on a button up dress shirt, this one was a cerulean pastel color. This being the one decided upon after changing it four different times. Waylon wore just a pair of plain jeans which matched Eddie’s own with a plain old dark green long sleeve thermal on. His grey hoodie was pulled on over top of it. He didn’t really care much for how he looked since he figured they were going to get a little dirty anyway or if they had aprons, they would just be covered up. He knew Eddie was nervous by the way he fussed over his appearance again and again, not spending much time in front of other people due to the scarring on the side of his face from an accident many years ago.
Eddie was so self-conscious of it that he tried to hide it behind make-up when he first started dating Waylon. He was petrified the first time Waylon had seen him without it and assumed his boyfriend would be horrified and leave him. Waylon reassured Eddie that he wasn’t afraid of his past wounds and loved him all the same. They had come a very long way since then but Eddie was still self-conscious about going out in public. Waylon slipped his fingers between Eddie’s and pulled his hand up to his lips, kissing his knuckles fondly. “Don’t worry babe, you’ll be fine. I’m right here.”
Eddie turned his head and gave his boyfriend a soft appreciative smile. Taking a deep breath, he released it slowly and relaxed a little bit. After a minute or so more of this, they exited the vehicle and rejoined their hands, walking into the building together. It was two stories and had many different rooms in it. Many of them could be reserved or rented out for public events, meetings and fundraisers. The majority of the time the lower floors were used for classes like these. Self-help sort of events that teach people basic needs or just give them a refresher course or an update on techniques being used today as compared to a few years ago.
The room they were in was huge and split up into many different miniature kitchen areas. There were 8 of them in all, the counters all facing the front where the instructor was. As they entered the room, they were gestured to pick a work space and put on their aprons. Coat racks were along the back wall if they needed to hang their things up. Waylon glanced around the room as they put their aprons on and noticed all of the pairings in the room were very young and around their age.
The instructor was a sweet elderly woman who reminded Waylon of the grandmother type and figured she was a perfect fit to be a baking instructor. She had a smile that lit up the entire room and was infectious, much like Eddie’s. Which he looked up and saw his boyfriend tucked up against the counter, his head turned in a way that hid the one side of his face from the view of the others. Waylon frowned for a moment then reached up and tilted Eddie’s face to greet him full on. Standing on his tiptoes, he was just barely able to leave a kiss on his boyfriend’s scarred cheek as he cooed. “You look handsome babe.” He cupped Eddie’s scarred cheek and stroked the marks carefully. “Come on, where’s that smile? We’re going to baking together. I want to see that smile. Pretty please.” He pouted, giving Eddie his signature puppy dog eyes.
Eddie couldn’t help himself when the smaller blonde male gave him that look. He groaned and huffed a sigh, letting his smile spread on his cheeks but it was small compared to his usual one. But Waylon resigned himself to accept it. Afterall, he had an hour to change that.
As the elderly woman began the lesson, she instructed them on basic baking rules and safety guidelines before having everyone preheat their ovens and prepare their ingredients. Everything was provided and lying out in the open, easy to reach. The measurements were up to them but it wasn’t very hard since they had the recipe typed out in front of them. Eddie followed it with his eyes fixed on it like a hawk as he whisked two eggs with a bowl of flour sugar and a few other ingredients. They were making cookies. The contents of said cookies was up to them to experiment with as a myriad of add ins such as nuts, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and candy bits.
Waylon helped with measurements and humored Eddie who double and triple checked the numbers on the page to ensure they hadn’t misread it. The smaller blonde thought his boyfriend was a little too tense for such a fun activity and decided to stick his fingers in a pile of flour which had spilled on the table top and smeared it across Eddie cheek. Eddie froze and looked up from the bowl and stared at his boyfriend. His features tilted into an amused smirk as he he got a dab of cookie dough from the bowl and smudged a dollop onto Waylon’s nose. Waylon grinned at Eddie and took the little dab and taste tested it. Sticking his tongue out at Eddie teasingly. “Needs chocolate.” Waylon remarked.
Eddie checked the recipe and realized they were at the point where they add in their flavor bits. “What do you think?” He asked, glancing over at Waylon.
He hummed in thought, feeling a bit hungry from working on all this baking, he reached out and grabbed a bowl that had chopped up bits of a milk chocolate candy bar. He picked a couple pieces up between his fingers and held them up to Eddie’s lips. “Here, taste. Decide which ones we want.”
Eddie blushed softly but obeyed, parting lips and letting Waylon place the piece on his tongue since his hands were busy mixing. He sucked on the pieces of candy as Waylon tried the same pieces. He hummed his approval then gestured to another bowl. “How about those?” His head tilted towards the bowl of peanut butter chips. Waylon picked that bowl up and popped a couple pieces into Eddie’s mouth then two for his own. They sucked on the candies as they decided rather or not to use them.
“I like it.” Waylon announced with a smile on his lips.
“Then we know what ones we want.” Eddie grinned as he started to dump half of the chocolate chunks in and then half of the peanut butter ones. He was so absorbed in working on the recipe, it allowed Waylon to sit back and admire his boyfriend. His strong muscular arms working the mixture into the thicker cookie dough. His eyes content, his posture was relaxed and he noted it was almost as if they were home alone in their own kitchen. Eddie hadn’t even noticed the other pairs in the room since they started. He didn’t have time to be self-conscious of how he looked or to notice the young college girls murmuring about how handsome the larger muscular male was and how adorable the pair looked together.
Waylon gave his boyfriend a break from his work and started using a melon baller to scoop out each individual circular glob of dough onto the cookie sheet with about an inch of space in between to allow the cookies to melt down and bake without cooking all together as one big row. Eddie leaned with his back against the adjacent countertop and watched the blonde male place the cookies into the oven and go back to doling out a second sheet. His arms folded over his chest, a loving smile resting on his lips. His face relaxed completely.
It only took a few minutes for the cookies to bake and by then Waylon had to rotate the sheet from the bottom of the oven up onto the top and once the top ones finished he took them off the sheet, set them out to cool on a metal rack then filled the sheet once more. This cycle continued until they had three dozen or so cookies. Allowing Eddie to enjoy the view of his husband working away in the temporary kitchen. Already imagining them at home doing these sorts of activities together. He couldn’t help himself when he walked up behind Waylon and wrapped his arms around the smaller blonde’s waist, resting his head on his shoulder and slowly swaying their bodies back and forth in place. “Thank you darling.” Eddie murmured against his neck.
Waylon grinned, crossing his own arms to cradle his boyfriend’s as they enjoyed the moment. “For what?”
“For being so sweet. For supporting me. For all of this.” He cooed lovingly.
Waylon’s features spread into a wider grin as he felt Eddie leave a soft kiss on his neck. “Hm, you know, next week we get to make a cake. You up for doing it again?”
“You know it darling.” Eddie purred into Waylon’s ear. “Though, I will say, none of these confections could ever amount to how delicious you taste.”
Waylon’s cheeks shifted from a soft pink to a deeper red of embarrassment as those words were uttered. He stumbled for his words but resigned himself to let it be, pulling out of his lover’s arms to retrieve the last of their cookies from the oven before they burned. He set them out to cool and to be inspected by the elderly instructor. Both males were standing side by side in a more presentable position when she taste tested one of their delights. Her wrinkled features drawing back into a wide warm smile as she remarked. “These are absolutely perfect dearies. I can taste the love you two put into them. And I can see the love you hold for each other. It’s a special kind of love.” Her wizened old gaze was fixed upon them in a way that left Waylon’s chest all fluttery with joy. He glanced up at Eddie who’s hand was resting on his hip and found that infectious adorable smile had conquered most of the larger male’s face. Easily outshining the blemishes that those scars left behind on handsome chiseled features.
“That really means a lot to us Ma’am. Thank you.” Eddie replied, his deep voice dripped with honey and sounded as sweet and comforting as the cookies they had created together. Waylon turned to hug his boyfriend affectionately, not even caring for public displays because he was damn proud of Eddie.
“I look forward to seeing you two next week.” The instructor chimed cheerfully, giving them a knowing look with a wink as she added. “We’ll be making cakes.” And with that, she flitted over to another table to check on the next pair who were finishing their cookies up. Leaving Waylon and Eddie grinning like giddy children and holding each other.