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“Noct, no!” Prompto protested, stepping back with a laugh and bumping against the counter as a thick blob of still too liquid whipped cream hit him across the cheek. “It goes on the cake, not me!”
“Well the cake is for you, so that counts too.” Noctis chimed. Satisfied with his assault, he went back to his task of whipping the cream, side eyeing his friend for any possible retaliation for his sticky crimes as Prompto also resumed his task a little further on the counter.
They had agreed to make a cake earlier this week for Prompto’s birthday. Noctis had of course offered to order one specifically for him, anything he wanted, but Prompto had preferred to keep things simple and decided they should stay home playing video games, watching lame Halloween movies and why not try baking their own cake instead? This sounded like a great idea until they started looking up what would be needed and how to bake a cake from scratch and then realized how much more complicated anything that wasn’t made out of box mix could be to make.
Black forest cake couldn’t be that difficult to make, could it? There were simpler options out there, but Noctis had insisted that if they were to make a cake, it had to be Prompto’s favourite.
Their saving grace had been Ignis who, upon being informed of their plans, had been generous enough to provide them with some tips and tricks and cooking advises as well as lend them the tools they might need that Prompto didn’t have at his apartment so their endeavor had some chance of being a success.
Noctis wasn’t a chef in any way shape or form, but Prompto knew his way around a kitchen well enough that Ignis trusted they should be able to pull this off if they could stay concentrated on the task long enough.
“So far so good” Prompto thought to himself, glancing at the timer. Two minutes left. Nothing has been set on fire yet and limbs were still attached where they should be; this was encouraging enough.
A sweet aroma of chocolate hung in the air as two cake pans sat in the oven with a couple seconds left to go before they could be tested to confirm if they were cooked through. Noctis was in charge of the whipped cream and shaving some chocolate Prompto took care of the cherry filling and trying to keep Noctis’ sticky fingers out of the cherries bowl. As much as the prince hated veggies and anything green, it was surprisingly challenging to keep him away from most fruits. A blessing considering how abysmal his regular diet would be otherwise.
The timer dinged on the counter and Prompto padded off to the oven- cherry bowl and all- to crack the oven door open and stick a toothpick in the cakes to check if they were cooked enough. Thank the Gods for Ignis telling him about this trick to check for doneness or else they probably would have simply have had to pray and hope. Satisfied, he slipped on some mittens and pulled the pans out to rest them on the of the oven and allow them to cool.
Pushing the cherries to a far away corner of the counter by the fridge so they could hopefully be safe for a few minutes until Noctis took notice he wasn’t guarding them, Prompto joined his boyfriend to see how the cream was coming along.
Noctis proudly stepped aside to show off his creation of perfectly raised and fluffy whipped cream, of course using the occasion to stick his index in it and paint a white line on Prompto’s other cheek.
This meant war.
In the blink of an eye, Prompto reached for the bottle of chocolate syrup sitting near them on the counter thanks to this morning’s decision of having some chocolate milk with breakfast, squeezed a generous dollop of it into his palm and ran his hand top to bottom over the middle of Noctis’ face, smearing it well and good from forehead to chin.
Noctis froze for a few seconds in disbelief, just long enough for Prompto to sprint to the other side of the island counter in a feeble attempt to shield himself before Noctis shoved his hand in the bowl of whipped cream and jumped over the top of the counter for the most epic war of whipped cream vs chocolate syrup to erupt in their kitchen.
They laughed and tussled for a few moments with Noctis slapping cream wherever he could reach and Prompto using his syrup bottle as an impromptu squirt gun until Noctis grabbed the back of his shirt, pulled back and kicked his legs from under him. He followed his boyfriend to the floor to sit over his hips and pin him where he lay. Try as he might, Prompto was helpless to do anything that would have dislodged his him off of him. Noctis was both stronger and heavier, and slippery hands did nothing to help his caught or get any kind of purchase on anything.
Instead of struggling for an impossible escape he figured he might as well do the next best thing and abandoned his bottle of chocolate to rub both hands together and reached up to smack his palms squarely on both sides Noctis’ face with a grin. Noctis replied in kind with his weapon of choice by reaching up to the counter and successfully scooping up half of the bowl of cream into his hand to slather it all over Prompto’s face, hair and neck. The prince then reached for the shaved chocolate and sprinkled a handful on top before deciding to fetch the abandoned bottle of syrup to squirt some anywhere he could for good measure.
Prompto reached up to wrestle the bottle out of his hand, earning a generous dollop of syrup to the forehead for his troubles before it was sent flying across the open space and both boys were left sitting there weaponless and laughing so hard Noctis eventually wheezed, then laughing even harder after the undignified sound escaped him. Prompto hadn’t laughed to the point of tears many times in his life, but today definitely was one of those days.
When their laughs gradually lessened to giggling, he noticed Noctis looking down at him and biting his lip to stifle a second laughing fit. He realized he must be quite the sight.
“I probably look like shit.” He thought out loud, amusement shining in his eyes.
“Nah.” Noctis reached down gently, clearing some of the mess away from Prompto’s face. “You just look like a weirdly shaped cake. Probably just as sweet too.” He bent down at the waist to steal a kiss, planting a second one on the tip of his nose. “Needs some cherries, though.” He declared. Prompto snorted at that.
He gave a pat on Noctis’ thigh, wordlessly prompting him to get up. “Say what you want, highness, but I still want a real cake.”
They got up and off the floor, miraculously not slipping in the mess and removed their socks so they wouldn’t drag it everywhere or slip once they were clear from the gooey puddle.
Prompto looked down at the mess on both of them and the floor and heaved a sigh at the sight, Noctis threw an arm around his waist, gently pulling him away from the crime scene and distracting him with a kiss. “We can clean later. Let’s shower first while the cake cools. We can clean up and finish the rest after.”
Prompto deemed this to be acceptable and allowed his boyfriend to drag him to the bathroom without a fuss.
***
After a much welcomed hot shower where they had to wash Prompto's hair twice to get all of the sugar and syrup out of it, the boys returned to the kitchen, or more specifically, their battle scene. Noctis encouraged Prompto to work on the cake and finish preparing the cherry filling and whipped cream to replace what had been thrown around earlier while he cleaned up the mess in the dining area- a miracle! When they finally sat down to finish decorating the cake together Prompto heard his phone buzz on the counter and went over to pick it up. It was Ignis and Gladio wishing him a happy birthday. By the time he came back to the table from this impromptu distraction, he discovered that more cherries had disappeared from the bowl before they ever had a chance to make it to the cake. Cheeky Noctis. He had thankfully planned ahead and gotten more than needed specifically because he knew his brat of a boyfriend wouldn't be able to keep his hands away from them no matter how hard he tried.
The end result of the cake didn’t look anything like the cooking website promised it would; a bit crooked, the icing applied in layers that were too thick here but too thin there and the little spirals of whipped cream on top looked like anything but their intended shape, but they were proud enough of their masterpiece to snap a photo of it and send it to Ignis for approval. This also doubled as proof they had managed make do it and hadn’t burned Prompto’s place down in the process.
Finally sitting in front of his plate with the prettiest piece of the cake in it, Prompto pushed his fork in it around and heaved a content sigh.
"Hey, Noct?" he asked, fork pausing halfway between his plate and mouth.
"Yeah?" Noctis peered up.
“This was hands down the best birthday ever. Thanks.”
“Anytime." He reached out, taking Prompto's free hand in his and giving it a light squeeze. "Happy birthday.”