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Panda ordered away for a real gift for Maki, so Toge and Yuuta are pretty screwed.
To be fair, birthdays at Jujutsu Tech were pretty much a wash anyway- if you were lucky, the world (or at least a small township) wouldn’t try to end on the anniversary of your birth, but even if it didn’t, it probably already had the day before. Everyone here was used to being too exhausted to function and most celebrations were sort of an afterthought. Usually even the person they were supposedly celebrating was itching to cut the whole thing short and go to bed.
Unluckily for Toge and Yuuta though, no one in the first year class had been sent out on a mission all week. As a result, they'd been spending their time… a little less than fruitfully, depending on your definition of the word. There had been plenty of free time for them to plan for Maki’s birthday, but in their haze they had completely lost track of the date. They already weren’t used to having time to themselves, never mind having someone to spend it with. Panda and Maki had barely managed to drag them out of Yuuta’s room for anything besides class and training all week. Once, they got invited to a movie night in the common room, but were promptly kicked out for being too “cutesy,” whatever that meant. Whether that was Maki and Panda’s doing or Hakari’s, they weren’t sure. In fact, they couldn’t remember. They’d left too quickly to ask too many questions, grateful for the reprieve.
Despite all that, Maki was a good friend and Toge wasn’t about to let it go unrecognized. Luckily Yuuta, despite only having known her a short time, felt the exact same way. Since they didn’t have a gift (or any idea of what to get Maki as a gift- they couldn't exactly go out and buy her a cursed tool) they’d decided to bake her a cake.
They are beyond smug as they walk out of the grocery store with their pan and their box mix, holding hands and smirking like they’ve learned all the secrets of the universe. Yuuta leans down and kisses Toge right in front of the store for anyone to see. Toge’s heart practically flies. He’s never felt like this before, didn’t think he could feel like this until he met Yuuta. He understood better than anyone the restrictions that came with his cursed technique, and he certainly didn’t think they’d allow for a boyfriend. It was beyond his wildest dreams and Toge was soaking up every moment of it.
They’re still holding hands when they get to the dorm’s kitchenette with their bounty. Hakari and Kirara are loitering when they get there, chatting while they make instant noodles. Yuuta takes the lead and gleefully explains their plan to them.
“That’s so cute.” Kirara remarks dotingly.
“So… if you could do us a favor and not tell Maki that would be great?” Yuuta proposes, clearly nervous to be in the presence of the upperclassman and even daring to ask them for a favor.
“Shake.” Toge confirms in an attempt to back him up. Kirara and Hakari just laugh at them, collecting their things.
“Don’t worry kiddos.” Hakari tells them. “We won’t tell a soul.”
They’re still laughing as they vacate the kitchen, but Toge doesn’t put much stock in it. Those two never seemed to take anything too seriously. In fact, Maki had made some jab about them being high the other day that he thought was a joke, but now he isn't so sure. In any case, Toge is grateful that they’ve left him and Yuuta the kitchen.
They pull out the box and start reading. It becomes clear within seconds that neither of them have ever made a cake before.
“Preheat the oven.” Yuuta reads. “Do… do we have an oven?”
“Shake.” Toge tells him, even though he isn’t totally sure. About thirty seconds later, he’s able to point to something beneath the stovetops.
“Oh! Perfect!” Yuuta says, relieved. They stare at it. “So. How do we turn it on?”
That, Toge does not know.
It takes them an embarrassingly long time to figure out the bake button. They’re Jujutsu sorcerers. The fate of the world is literally in their hands. They don’t know how to turn on an oven. Toge decides to gloss over how scary that simple fact is and move on with the next step.
The first instruction tells them to mix all the ingredients with something called a hand mixer. Toge isn’t entirely sure what a hand-mixer is, but he is entirely sure that Jujutsu Tech’s dorm kitchenette does not have one. Instead, they find a blender- something Hakari probably used to make protein shakes- and decide to briefly commandeer for their cause. The box tells them to beat it for two minutes, so once they fish out a couple stray pieces of egg-shell in the mix, they set a timer and let the blender do the work. It’s unbelievably noisy, but somehow no one comes in to see what they’re doing- a win in Toge’s book.
The next step they know they can’t screw up. All they have to do is pour the batter in and put it into the oven. It was absolutely idiot proof.
“It needs like, 30 minutes.” Yuuta reports, reading off the back of the box. “What do you want to do till then?”
Toge can think of a few ways to pass the time.
After pulling down the muff that he used to cover his sigils, he hooks his arms behind Yuuta’s neck and looks up at him with a coy smile.
“Oh.” Yuuta says, understanding his meaning immediately. “That. Yeah, I think we could do that.”
They’re kissing within seconds. Seconds after that, Yuuta has lifted Toge up and placed him gently onto the countertop. They’re a tangled web of lips and hair and fingers, arms wrapped tightly around one another and mouths clasped together unflinchingly. They barely come up for air, barely want to. Toge’s hands are gliding up and down Yuuta’s chest in exploration, and Yuuta’s are wrapped firmly around the small of Toge’s back to keep him steady. They’re so close together and yet, if they had even an ounce of privacy here, they would be even closer.
They don’t even smell the smoke.
How long would they have had to be kissing for the cake to burn? An unimaginable amount of time, and yet here they were- smog surrounding them like machine-made fog at a rock concert. They’d somehow managed to make their screw-up feel like some hazy, romantic fantasy.
“What the fuck?”
They’re pulled out of their little world fast enough to give them both whiplash. When Toge breaks away, it is clear to him that the whole kitchen has been flooded with honest to god smoke. Their cake was long past burned.
“Oh shit.” Yuuta realizes. He springs into action, grabbing a dish towel and opening the oven to try to smother the flames. It doesn’t work. Actually, his motion is all wrong- from where Toge is sitting it looks like he’s making things decidedly worse.
“You are literally fanning the flames.” Maki criticizes, shaking her head incredulously. “Get out of the way.”
In an unbelievably fluid motion, she pushes Yuuta out of the kitchen and opens the cabinet beneath the kitchen sink, pulling out a fire extinguisher and making quick work of their supposed birthday gift. When the fire is officially out Yuuta and Toge are dumbstruck, staring at the ash and foam filled oven with complete disbelief.
“Oops.” Yuuta manages. Toge couldn’t have said it better himself.
“You fucking idiots.” Maki accuses. Yuuta and Toge can’t even argue. “What the fuck were you thinking? What were you even making anyway?”
They exchange looks, wondering if the truth is helpful or not. Yuuta decides for them.
“Well… I know we mucked it all up, but… it’s your birthday! And we really wanted to do something special for you, but we couldn’t figure out what so… we thought we’d make a cake!”
The silence that follows is one of the longest that Toge has ever experienced, and that is really saying something.
“My birthday,” Maki starts, a coolness to her voice unlike anything Toge has ever heard. “Isn’t till January .”
Oops indeed.
“Ikura.” Toge swears. Yuuta nods in agreement. Maki throws her hands up in exasperation.
“Which one of you absolute bozos thought it was my birthday?”
Never in the history of the world have two supposed boyfriends thrown each other under the bus so quickly. They point at the other without hesitation, obviously not even stopping to think about it first. Wait a second, Toge remembers as the two of them stare at each other. They’d been so preoccupied that they barely knew what day it was, never mind what day Maki’s birthday was.
“Panda.” Yuuta groans, getting to the explanation before Toge can. Maki shakes her head and laughs. “He… he told us it was your birthday today.”
“You star-crossed himbos.” Maki berates. “Obviously he was fucking with you. Even if he wasn’t- this is how you thought I’d want my birthday celebrated?”
They all stare at the blackish tar in the oven- it doesn’t even resemble a cake at this point. Honestly, it looked more like a curse.
“Consider it a test run?” Yuuta attempts. Toge stifles a laugh, knowing exactly how Maki will take this remark, but she shoots him a death glare to shut him up anyway.
“Okay, listen up because I am only going to say this once.” Chills run down Toge’s spine, and from the spooked look he spies on Yuuta’s face, he can tell her words have had the same effect on him. She has their full attention. “It’s great that you two are in love or whatever-”
Toge and Yuuta both blush shades that can’t even be described as red. Love was not a word they’d used yet, but not one that either of them were making any attempt to disagree with.
“But you can’t just ignore your friends!” She chastises. “Especially when those friends have to put their complete trust in you on the battlefield- the consequence of which could be dying. You fucktards can’t even pay attention to a cake, and you want us to lay our lives on the line for us?”
Welp. When she puts it that way.
“Sorry.” Yuuta tells her, clearly wracked with guilt.
“Takana.” Toge reiterates.
“I’m not saying you can’t be in love! That’s fine! Good for you, really!” Maki corrects herself, noticing how bad they feel about the situation. “But… the rest of us still want to hang out with you sometimes too, okay?”
Toge can’t believe how blind he’s been. It was one thing for Yuuta, who barely knew them, to disappear- but for Toge to ditch his friends of several months was an entirely different thing. He quite literally doesn’t have the proper words to apologize to her for his absence. He’ll just have to make it up to her with his actions over time.
They make plans to hang out tonight, just them, her and Panda. Somehow all seems forgiven. Maki takes one last look at the kitchen and turns on her heels.
“Good luck cleaning that up.” She calls, already halfway down the hall.
“Okay,” Yuuta ventures when she’s safely out of earshot. “We’re assholes." He agrees with her. "But to be fair! One day, Maki’s gonna get a super cute boyfriend and then she’s totally going to understand.”
Toge wants to correct him, tell him that a boyfriend was not quite what Maki was interested in, but decides against it. Yuuta still had a lot to learn about his fellow classmates, as it turned out. Better for him to get to know them himself.
Later that night, they all gather in the common room with their favorite pajamas (or in Toge's case, Yuuta's crewneck that he's now stolen and claimed for his own) and an assortment of snacks. Toge and Yuuta don’t have much to contribute to the pot, but somehow the can of frosting and the accompanying set of plastic spoons they’ve managed to put together is a hit. When you literally almost die in front of each other on the regular, sharing germs didn't seem like such a big deal.
Hakari and Kirara wander through at some point. Much to their chagrin, Gojo is actually taking them on a mission. They’re all jealous, but Maki especially looks pissed about it. They take a long pause to comment on the state of their movie night.
“Aww,” Kirara coos. “Everybody’s friends again!”
“Yeah, yeah.” Maki sneers, unamused.
“We never doubted you for a second.” Hakari says theatrically, boasting like he’s a mob boss from an old Hollywood film.
“What, like you two didn’t stir the pot?” Yuuta accuses. Every jaw in the room drops as Yuuta turns bright red. “I- I take it back! Oh my god. I didn’t mean it. I’m so sorry, I-”
“Now that’s some fever.” Hakari smirks. “You might not be a useless piece of shit after all, new kid!”
“Umm… thank you?” Toge and the other first years would usually have laughed at Yuuta’s blatant confusion, but today they can’t. None of them had ever gotten explicit praise from Hakari. They eye each other nervously as the second-years make their way out of the dorms, taking big spoonfuls of the sickly sweet frosting to avoid having to say anything about it as they do.
The movie ends and they all start cleaning up, but Yuuta stays still.
“Now, I don’t know exactly how Toge feels,” He ventures, “But I think I speak for both of us when I say we never meant to exclude you guys, or make you feel like we didn’t want to hang out with you. I can assure you- it’s quite the opposite! We just got, uh… a little caught up.”
Panda snickers, but he and Maki seem to take the apology in stride.
“And Maki, when it is your birthday, Toge and I promise to go to an actual bakery for your cake. If that’s what you want, of course!”
“I don’t care what you do for my birthday, but as long as you two stay far away from an oven, we’re good.” She tells him. They all share a laugh, but Panda looks genuinely confused, taking in the situation.
“Wait…” He says, eyeing Maki. “It’s not your birthday?”
They all look down to see a wrapped present in Panda’s lap and manage to keep it together for about .7 seconds before cracking up. Toge and Yuuta laugh like nothing has ever been funny before in their lives while Maki gives him a piece of her mind. Panda winces.
When it’s all said and done, the night cementing itself into their minds with a certain sheen, Yuuta laces his hand in Toge’s and walks him back to his room.
“So.” He whispers when they reach his door. “I don’t think we're destined to be cake makers. But… I do think we can be good friends?”
Instead of responding, Toge leans in for a kiss.
“Good friends to them, I mean.” Yuuta corrects before they can collide, his brain kicking into overdrive in the way it is wont to do. “I mean obviously we can be good friends to each other, but also like- it’s not like we’re just good friends? I don’t want you to think that I think of you as just a good-”
Toge cuts off Yuuta’s overly anxious lips with his own, certain that he won’t be able to mistake his meaning. He opens the door for them both.