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“How many eggs was that again?” Rex asked his fiery haired blade from across the kitchen, standing next to a countertop cluttered with different ingredients to make a basic white cake.
“Just three, and don’t forget that you only add the white of the egg!” Pyra was busying herself with chopping strawberries to add on the top of their cake, humming quiet tunes to herself as she did so.
“Right: three eggs, just the white. Got it…” Rex went ahead and cracked the first egg, doing his best not to let the yolk fall out into the mix, and of course failing to do so. He silently cursed to himself and tossed away the empty egg shell, shouting over to Pyra, desperate and frustrated as he was. “Pyraaa! I think I might’ve just ruined the entire cake mix…”
Pyra halted her chopping to walk over to her somewhat disheveled Driver, immediately noticing what he was shouting about. “Oh! Rex, this isn’t a problem. Here-” Pyra simply grabbed a spoon and scooped the egg yolk out of the mix, tossing it into the garbage. Rex looked on in disbelief.
“But- but won’t it be contaminated now, or somethin’? I mean you said just the white of the egg and-”
“Rex, the mix will be fine. The yolk won't do any harm, it was just a simple mistake.” Pyra laughed softly at Rex, who looked absolutely disgruntled.
“Well then I coulda done that!” He huffed, gesturing his arm out towards Pyra’s spoon and the garbage, his cheeks coloring in quiet embarrassment. “If I’d known it was that easy…”
Pyra shook her head in amusement “As the old saying goes, ‘There’s no point in crying over spilled milk’”
“I’m not cryin’! I just-...” Rex let out a long sigh and scratched the back of his head, a nervous habit of his. “You know i’ve never baked before..”
Pyra gave Rex an understanding smile and grabbed herself an egg from the carton. “Here, let me show you a little trick I learned to keep the yolk from falling in.” She cracked the egg and brought it over to the bowl, opening it and moving the yolk from one half of the shell to the other, letting the excess white of the egg fall into the bowl below. “Use the shell to your advantage. Move the yolk back and forth while also pouring the white of the egg that you need into the bowl.” After all was said and done, she tossed the shell and the yolk into the garbage. “That way you can never go wrong.”
Rex’s mouth opened into a small ‘O’ shape. “Wow, that’s brilliant Pyra!” Rex beamed at Pyra with childlike wonder and a big grin on his face, causing her to now be the one whose cheeks colored a soft shade of pink.
She gave Rex a shy smile before grabbing another egg and handing it to him. “Want to give it a try?”
Rex wasted no time in taking the egg and giving this handy trick a go, his efforts concluding in success, no yolk scooping necessary. Pyra gave him a celebratory round of applause and he bowed deeply to his audience of one.
“Thank you! Thank you! I’d like to thank to my wonderful blade Pyra, for her unending support in all of my baking endeavors! She’s truly.. an inspiration..” Rex sniffed and wiped away a fake tear from his eye. The two of them fell into a short bout of laughter as they continued mixing everything together for their small cake.
There was no real reason to be baking this cake. It was no one’s birthday, wedding, etc. It was just something to pass the time on one of these rare slow days, and an excuse for Pyra to teach Rex a thing or two about baking. If there was a reason for the cake, you could say it was to celebrate the unification of Alrest’s Titan’s after the fall of the World Tree, or for the survival of everyone in Rex’s band of friends-turned-family after their long trek to Elysium.
Things had fallen into a state of peace ever since then. Even Uraya and Mor Ardain had stopped getting at each other’s throats, if only for a short time. Inn’s all around Alrest were bustling with new patrons that now had the opportunity to travel. It seemed to be that everyone was taking advantage of this new beginning. This new Elysium, if you will.
And that didn't exclude Alrest’s heroes. The whole lot was staying at the Argentum Trade Guild’s Inn, winding down with the highest quality food, beverage and entertainment in the whole of Alrest. Currently they were all seated at a large table (excluding Rex and Pyra), waiting to eat what they ‘hoped’ would be a good cake.
In the kitchen where Rex and Pyra waited for the cake to bake, the oven gave off a long chime, signaling that their creation was done.
Rex put on the oven mitts that Pyra handed to him, pulling out the fluffy white cake and setting it on the counter. He gave it a once over to check for any impurities, then gave it a big whiff, sighing contentedly at the fresh, warm smell. “Ah, man! It smells amazing! I hope it tastes just as good though.”
“I bet it tastes wonderful, Rex.” Pyra came up beside him and started cutting individual pieces of cake for everyone. “You did everything by the book, and you did it much better than I would have expected from a beginner!”
“Oh! Ah- Thanks, Pyra.” Rex gave a bashful smile and scratched the back of his head again. “But I couldn’t have done it without my awesome teacher, ya know.” He lightly bumped his shoulder against Pyra’s, shooting her a toothy grin.
Pyra smiled back at Rex, another wave of pink coloring her cheeks and ears. “Thank you, Rex. You’re too kind.”
Rex’s smile grew a tad bigger. He had to admit that, in this moment while he looked at her, she truly was beautiful. Her heart shaped face, her petit nose, a smile so bright it put even the sun to shame, and her rosy cheeks. Pink was a good color for her.
When he noticed Pyra’s confused expression, he suddenly realized he had been staring, and probably for an uncomfortably long amount of time. Rex quickly looked away and cleared his throat.
“S-so uh, should we go ahead and serve the cakes?” He picked up two of the plates that Pyra had prepared and was about to walk out with them until Pyra grabbed his arm.
“Whoa, hold on Rex! We still have to add the frosting.” Pyra walked over to one side of the kitchen to pick up two piping bags of white frosting and handed one to Rex.
He set down the two cakes in his hands and grabbed the piping bag from Pyra. They began applying frosting to the slices of cake in silence. Rex felt mildly awkward about having stared at Pyra, and quickly became distracted worrying about it.
Did she notice me staring? He thought to himself. What am I saying, of course she did you idiot, you saw her face! She probably feels all weird now! Great. Way to go, getting all distracted by her cute nose, her… beautiful smile, and her… man, how are her lips so glossy-
Rex snapped himself out of his train of thought when he noticed that he was once again looking over Pyra’s face, luckily she hadn’t noticed. He quickly averted his gaze again and continued piping frosting onto the cakes. Still in complete silence. Quit getting distracted, you moron!
---
After finishing up one of the last cakes, Rex took a step back to look at his and Pyra’s work. It was painfully obvious which cakes were frosted and decorated by Rex, as his were very sloppily covered in frosting and the strawberry slices were askew in all sorts of places. Pyra’s cakes on the other hand were smooth and cleanly frosted, with the strawberries placed carefully and accordingly to look as good as possible. The obvious work of a professional.
“Looks like I still have a lot to improve on, yeah?” Rex laughed and placed a hand on his hip, feeling proud of his first baking attempt even above all of the different mishaps.
“Well of course! You don’t think I got this good all in one day, do you?” Pyra finished up the final cake and took a step back next to Rex, nodding her head in approval. “I think we did good work today.”
“I couldn’t agree more!” Rex lifted a hand to give Pyra a celebratory high five, and she answered with a gentle high five of her own.
They stood there for a short moment, appreciating the work that they did together. Against Rex’s better judgement, he snuck another glance at Pyra. She had a proud smile on her face, her hands clasped together and held near her chest. She was truly the epitome of elegance, but there seemed to be something… off about that.
Rex took a moment to look himself over. Today he had replaced his usual salvaging gear for a more comfortable, casual look. He sported coal black cargo pants, a tank top that matched the blue of his salvaging gear, and blue striped socks. His pants and tank top were completely covered in flour and smeared with frosting. He looked like he had been rolling around in cake mix all day, which isn’t too far from the truth.
Then he looked at Pyra, who looked spotless and completely untouched by all of the messy ingredients they used. She really is a pro, he thought. Even so, he wasn’t satisfied with the fact that he was the only one who was messy between the two of them, so he decided to take it upon himself to fix this problem.
“Hey Pyra, you’ve got a little somethin’ on your nose.”
“Hmm?” Pyra snapped out of her reverie and placed a delicate finger on her nose. “Do I really?”
“Yeah,” Rex gave her a mischievous grin and grabbed her hand, moving it away from her face. “Right… here! ”
Rex took the end of his piping bag and ran a stream of frosting from between Pyra’s eyebrows to the tip of her nose.
“ Ah! Rex!!” Pyra reeled away from Rex who was now hunched over in a fit of laughter. Her face burned red and hot from minor frustration, but mostly because she was trying to hold back her own laughter. She wasn’t able to hold her composure for long however and quickly ended up like Rex, bracing herself against the kitchen counter as she fell into a bout of giggles.
“You- Heheh! Y-you’re face- Hahaha! You’re face was priceless!” Rex gasped as he continued to laugh. Pyra let out a soft snort that only renewed their giggle fit. While Rex was occupied trying to regain oxygen, Pyra took her own piping bag and smeared a long line of frosting on Rex’s cheek.
“ Ooh , I see how it’s gonna be!” Rex lunged towards Pyra, squeezing more frosting onto her face as she squealed and continued to used her own frosting against Rex. The two of them went at it until Rex’s piping bag was empty of frosting, and Pyra took this as an opening to run away from her sugary attacker. She made a run towards the exit of the kitchen, but before she made it Rex had wrapped his arms around her waist and locked her against his chest. She let out a surprised gasp that quickly formed into elated laughter.
Pyra could feel and hear Rex’s laughter next to her ear, and it sent a small shiver down her spine when she realized how close together they were. As their laughter started to die down and Rex continued to hold an iron grip around her, she let out a long sigh and allowed herself to relax against Rex, closing her eyes and feeling content in his arms. She could feel Rex’s body go stiff and his arms begin to loosen up, but she grabbed his wrists and kept his arms in place.
“A-ah.. Pyra?” Rex’s voice cracked from nervousness. He was caught off guard by Pyra’s sudden affectionate actions towards him. He had suspected he may have gone a bit over the line, holding Pyra like this, but she seemed to be… more than okay with it. “Are you- I mean, do you want me to-”
“Hm?” Pyra let go of Rex’s wrists to turn around and face him, her face now mere inches from his. He was not expecting this.
A nervous lump formed in Rex’s throat, making him go completely silent. His face felt hot and he knew he must have been as red as a tomato. She’s so close!! He screamed in his head. He was sure he had stopped breathing and that time had frozen in this moment. Thoughts were running through his head at a million miles a second, his heart felt like it was pounding out of his chest. What’s wrong with me all of the sudden!?
Rex found himself- for probably the hundredth time that day- admiring Pyra’s facial features once again. The questioning crease of her eyebrows, the scrunch of her nose, those fiery red eyes that he could lose himself in forever, and her mouth. Her lips were pursed and pink and irresistable. He had the sudden urge kiss her here and now, and he felt his own mouth go dry at the thought of her kissing him back.
But he hesitated to make the move, as he always did.
Then he felt one of Pyra’s hands move up towards his cheek, and her face started to move agonizingly slowly towards his. He could feel her warm breath over his face, and for a moment he believed he would be getting what he hadn’t known he’d been starved of for so long. He found himself moving his hands to place themselves on her hips, and to his pleasant surprise she didn’t object. Her thumb ran along his cheek, her other hand balled his shirt into a fist, she tilted her head just so, and then finally -
She moved back.
She moved out of Rex’s arms and brought the thumb that ran over his cheek to her mouth. Frosting . Pyra gave a low hum of approval. “The frosting tastes really good, Rex!” She turned away from Rex to grab a cloth from one of the drawers, proceeding to wipe the frosting from her face. “Well, I suppose we should serve the cake now?” She handed Rex the cloth, which he took slowly and dazedly. She picked up the first two cakes to be served and made her way out of the kitchen, as if nothing had even happened. Rex watched after her and-… did her hips always sway like that? Only when she passed behind the wall did he take his eyes off of her, shaking his head and lightly slapping his face to get his bearings straight.
His knees felt weak and his stomach felt as though there were thousands of butterflies inside. He took a deep breath to calm himself down and started wiping the frosting off of his face. I would have never thought, he began in his head, that Pyra would be such a TEASE!