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"Mm~! The cookies in this coffee shop are delicious!" Tsukasa exclaimed after he took a bite from one of the cookies he and Leo bought to go along with their coffees after their lunch date.
"Really? Feed me one, please?" Leo asked while keeping his eyes on the road and hands on the steering wheel.
At the start of their relationship, Tsukasa would easily become flustered and shy whenever Leo directly asked him to do intimate things like this, which made the former leader laugh and poke fun at him. However, as time passed, being openly affectionate with his boyfriend slowly became a natural thing for Tsukasa, and although Leo wouldn't admit it out loud, his heart would almost always flutter whenever Tsukasa openly showed affection to him.
"Ok, here. Say 'aah'." Tsukasa held the cookie he had just bitten in front of Leo's mouth.
"Mm! That's yummy, alright! Wahaha!" Leo's eyes lit up after taking a big bite into the cookie.
Normally, Leo would claim that he had been struck with inspiration for a new melody, however, this time he was struck with a different kind of inspiration: he wanted to try making cookies for Tsukasa.
"Right? We should get these again sometime." Tsukasa smiled and slightly swayed in his seat.
"So, what time do you get off work later again?" Leo asked.
"Hmm.... Maybe around seven? Hopefully I can leave earlier though, since I need to do homework too..."
"Aww... Guess I can't see you again later.." Leo pouted.
"Well, if you don't mind me just doing homework, you're always welcome to come to my room." Tsukasa tried to console him.
"Haha! We'll see! I don't want to keep you from finishing your stuff earlier, after all!"
"Hmph! I can work just as efficiently with or without you around!" Tsukasa scoffed.
"Wahaha! Whatever you say, Tsukasa~" Leo teased as they approached the ES building. "Ok, we're here!"
When Leo stopped his car by the entrance, he swiftly leaned towards Tsukasa to give him a light peck on the lips, which the leader happily reciprocated, before he unbuckled his seatbelt and stepped out of the car.
"Bye, Leo." Tsukasa gave his former leader one last smile.
"Bye, my little King~" Leo waved and waited for his boyfriend to be out of sight before driving back to their dorms.
As soon as he arrived at the dorms, he made a beeline for the kitchen, and immediately looked up a recipe for chocolate chip cookies online. Thankfully, almost everyone else either had school or work that day, so Leo was likely the only who had time off and pretty much had the entire dorm to himself for the afternoon.
Once he found a recipe that had many good reviews, he skimmed through the whole process before bringing out all the necessary baking ingredients, pan, and tools
"Melt butter and leave it at room temeprature... Ok, I can do that! This'll be easy!" Leo confidently declared to himself, but as expected of a first timer who went in without anyone to properly guide him, he made several mistakes that cumulatively caused the cookies to turn out bad.
Firstly, Leo was too lazy and impatient to sift and properly measure the ingredients, so he ended up adding more than necessary and had many clumps in the dry mixture. Second, although the recipe didn't ask for much of it, the milk Leo used actually had a faint spoiled stench, but he didn't notice until the ingredients were already mixed together. Third, he tried to crush and mix in the clumps of flour for an excessively long time, thus overmixing the batter. Lastly, Leo completely forgot about preheating the oven, so by the time he was ready to bake his cookies, it wasn't hot enough, leading the baking time to increase an unknown amount of time, so Leo had to constantly bring them out of the oven to see if they were ready yet or not.
Although the cookies smelled nice enough, Leo was no longer confident that they tasted even half as good as they smelled. While waiting for them to cool, he begrudgingly kept all the ingredients and put the used baking tools into the dishwasher before waiting by the dining table while using his phone.
Nearly thirty minutes later, Leo checked that the cookies were cool enough to touch, so he took only a small bite knowing that he messed up badly. Sure enough, they were tough to the bite and bitter and very mildly sour from the small bits of clumped flour that he failed to mix, as well as the slightly spoiled milk.
"*sigh* I should throw these away... Why did I think this was a good idea...? Tsukasa would never like these..." Leo spoke to himself with a sad frown.
Just as Leo stopped in front of the trash bin with the tray of cookies, a familiar voice yelled from the kitchen entrance, "Leo, no!! What are you doing?!". The cookies nearly jumped along with Leo at the startling shout that came from none other than his boyfriend.
"Oh, Tsukasa...! You're early..." Leo tried to mask his sadness and hid the tray of cookies as best as he could.
"Yes, the meetings today were rather short, so I wanted to come back as soon as possible. Anyway, what exactly were you about to throw away? Did you make them?" Tsukasa asked as he approached the former leader.
"N-no..." Leo subconsciously backed away with each step Tsukasa took towards him and felt his heart race with fear.
"Then...why are you hiding them from me..?"
"Y-you just shouldn't see it...! Pretend you never saw anything..!" Leo protested desperately, still retreating from his leader.
Sooner than he would've liked, Leo's lower back hit the counter and all he could do was push the tray as far back into the shadows as he could.
"Leo-san." Tsukasa stopped directly in front of the older boy and looked directly at him, even though Leo opted to gaze down at the floor. "Did you..bake those?" the leader asked once again, carefully uttering each word.
Leo felt cold sweat trickling down his back, and without looking up at his boyfriend, gave a small nod in response. A few seconds of silence fell between them until Tsukasa placed his left hand on the counter behind Leo and used his right hand to reach for the cookie Leo had bitten into. While he was bringing the cookie out of the shadows, Leo shakily grabbed the leader's forearm and looked up at him nervously.
"Don't... Y-you won't like it..." Leo pleaded with tears slowly falling down his cheeks.
Tsukasa was stunned, to say the least, to see his boyfriend so distressed and worried about disappointing him that part of him regret walking in on him destroying the evidence of what he had made. When Leo's crying started to include hiccups and choked sobs, Tsukasa gently pulled him into a hug and planted soft kisses on his forehead and cheeks.
"Leo, I hope you know that you'll never disappoint me, no matter what you do. Even if it's true that your cookies aren't good, how can I not want to try them knowing you made them with me in mind?" Tsukasa gently stroked his former leader's back while whispering lovingly to him.
Leo desperately squeezed his boyfriend tight while burying his face in his shoulder, trying to muffle his increasingly loud sobs and to avoid seeing Tsukasa's reaction when he tried his cookie. After a few more soothing rubs on Leo's back, Tsukasa finally bit into the cookie with a rather loud 'crunch' sound, making the former leader wince and push his face into Tsukasa's neck. The younger boy took his time chewing the tough cookie and made sure not to outwardly react, despite how...flawed it tasted.
"Come on, just say it tastes like crap..." Leo muttered weakly.
"Leo, no matter how bad anything you cook or bake may taste objectively, I will never say or even think that it's bad as long as it was made by you." Tsukasa smiled at his former leader, who still hid his face from him.
"There's spoiled milk in there, you know...?!" Leo protested, not sure if he wanted to laugh at the stupidity of it all or cry even more.
"E-even so! I'll treasure everything you give me and every thoughtful act from you... I just..love you that much, Leo." Tsukasa muttered with increasingly red cheeks.
"..." the older boy didn't say anything, but instead hugged him even tighter and clutched the fabric of his shirt tightly in his palms.
"How about we make these together this time? I'm sure it'll be fun!" the leader suggested.
"...Aren't you still busy with homework, though..?"
"W-well, yes, but it's ok. I can accomplish whatever I can't finish tonight tomorrow morning."
"...I'm not a good influence on you, after all..." Leo's comment initially sounded self-depricating, but when Tsukasa felt him smile against his neck and shoulder, he knew his boyfriend was slowly returning to his usual self.
"That's not true... I wouldn't be how I am today if it wasn't for you."
"Haha... Whatever you say, leader..." Leo slowly peeled himself off of his leader and sluggishly looked for a glass in one of the drawers and poured himself some water.
"Leo."
"Hm..?"
Right as Leo raised his head from the glass, his leader abruptly pulled him close by the waist and kissed him gently, which Leo reciprocated generously.
"I hope you believe me when I say that I'm happy you wanted to do this for me..." Tsukasa smiled fondly at the older boy while rubbing soothing circles around his waist.
"Right... Thanks, Tsukasa, really." Leo thanked sheepishly.
"Of course. No need to thank me. You know I'll do anything to make you happy." the leader gave him one last peck on the cheek before walking off to retrieve the basic ingredients for cookies.
Quickly enough, Leo had returned to his goofy, bubbly self. He and Tsukasa then agreed to reuse the recipe from the first batch, but this time thought to be more creative and add marshmallows and/or hazelnut spread to some of the cookies as well. With the two of them working on it together, there were very few and minimal mistakes in the process this time around; but most importantly, they were having fun together.
"Tsukasa~, there's flour on your cheek! Come here, I'll wipe it off for you." Leo beckoned from across the kitchen counter.
"Hm? Oh, ok." Tsukasa obediently approached his former leader.
".....Oh-" Leo froze after attempting to brush the flour off his boyfriend's cheek, but instead smudged it over almost half of his face.
"...Leo...."
"Ehehe~"
"Did you just make it worse...?"
"Uhhh.... No?" Leo flashed a cheeky grin.
Tsukasa squinted and gave him a deadpanned expression before smearing a line of flour from his own fingers on Leo's nose bridge.
"Hey! What was that for?" Leo jumped back in surprise.
"Well, you spread mine instead of removing it, so this is payback~"
"I had good intentions, though! Hmph, take this!" Leo huffed and roughly patted his flour-coated fingers on Tsukasa's forehead.
"Wha-?! You...!"
Their little flour fight filled with playful teasing and giggles lasted nearly ten minutes until they loosely wound up in each other's arms while laughing at how silly their fight was, as well as how much fun they were having. Their laughter slowly died down and when it became silent, they momentarily gazed fondly at each other until Leo leaned in for a kiss, which Tsukasa gladly obliged.
"Oi, oi. This is a public area, you know? Keep that crap in the bedroom." a very annoyed and disgusted Izumi entered the kitchen and dining area along with Ritsu and Arashi, all of whom heard the couple from outside.
Tsukasa immediately retracted his arms on instinct and tried to step away from Leo, but the older boy held him securely around his hips, making him unable to escape.
"Wahaha! Someone here's jealous~" Leo teased with a mischievous smirk.
"Ew. In your dreams." Izumi groaned.
"Um.. Hello, everyone." Tsukasa awkwardly greeted, still trapped in Leo's embrace.
"You guys are baking without me...? I'm hurt... You all know that this is my specialty, right..?" Ritsu sulked.
"U-uh...! I- We-" Tsukasa tried to defend him and Leo, but failed to form even a single phrase.
"Fufu. I'm just joking. I'm sure this is just another one of your guys' silly date ideas." Ritsu teased.
"So, are you two almost done with them?" Arashi asked.
"Not quite. We haven't combined the wet and dry ingredients yet." Tsukasa explained.
"Let us taste them when they're done." Izumi said expectantly.
"No! These cookies are filled with mine and Suo~'s love for each other, so there's no room for other people!" Leo jokingly huffed.
"Ouch. We've been forgetten already..." Ritsu pouted.
"Leo-san..!" Tsukasa lightly whacked Leo's arm, still being held in his embrace. "Of course you guys can try them!"
"Hehe! Thanks, King~" Arashi chuckled at their little banter.
While Leo and Tsukasa finished up their cookie batter, the other three chatted and waited for them by the dining table, and when the cookies were put into the oven, the couple joined them. However, right as Tsukasa was about to pull out one of the chairs for himself, Leo grabbed him around his waist and pulled him onto his lap.
"Agh..! Leo...!" Tsukasa winced at the sudden action.
"Ugh... It's disgusting how you two are already on a first name basis..." Izumi groaned in annoyance.
"Sena~, just admit your jealous. The four of us already know you are anyway." Leo teased.
"For the nth time, I am not!" Izumi yelled, angrily enunciating every word.
"It's ok, Izumi-chan. The three of us will have our turns in the future." Arashi assured, albeit teasingly.
Their light-hearted, playful conversation went on until the timer from Tsukasa's phone rang loudly and he and Leo jumped from their seat to dash to the oven. Upon bringing out the trays and placing it on the cooling rack, the fragrance of freshly baked cookies wafted throughout the room, prompting the three other Knights members to take a look at the finished products.
"Wow~! I can't wait to try them!" Arashi admired excitedly.
"Huh. Not bad considering you two made them." Izumi commented.
"Hehe~. Let's wait for them to cool first before eating them." Tsukasa said with anticipation, leading them all back to the dining table.
Ever since the two first brought out the cookies, Tsukasa didn't fail to notice the way Leo became quiet and stared at their cookies fondly and with a subtle smile on his face. While they made their way back to the table, Leo reached for Tsukasa's hand, intertwined their fingers, and gave his boyfriend's hand a gentle squeeze to silently express his happiness and appreciation. Tsukasa immediately squeezed back and without being prompted to this time, he once again sat on Leo's lap while still holding his hand, causing Izumi to roll his eyes while Arashi and Ritsu chuckled at him.
Thirty minutes later, the cookies were cooled enough to the touch, but warm enough to eat. The five of them each took a cookie and took a bite simultaneously.
"Mm! This is so good! You guys really outdid yourselves!" Arashi praised.
"Mhm. Even though they look plain, you guys did a good job." Ritsu added.
"Your...creations...are just too wild, Kuma-kun." Izumi refuted.
"Hehe. I'm glad you all like it." Tsukasa smiled proudly.
The conversation and taste testing continued for the next five minutes until Leo, who was once again quiet the whole time, held Tsukasa's hand and glanced up at him. The leader gradually faded out of the conversation and turned his attention to his currently silent boyfriend. To Izumi's dismay, he quickly caught on to the way the couple was looking at each other and deduced from Leo's subtle body language that he wanted some privacy.
"Thanks for the cookies, you two. I gotta sleep early tonight since I have a shoot tomorrow." Izumi used his work the next morning as an excuse to leave prematurely. As he started to turn around, he side eyed Ritsu and Arashi and mouthed a "let's go" to them.
"Mhm! Ritsu-chan and I also plan to do homework with Mika-chan tonight, so we better not make him wait for us." Arashi thought of an excuse for them on the spot.
"Yeah. Thanks, you two. See you guys tomorrow." Ritsu smiled and waved lazily.
The couple said their goodbyes to the three and watched them leave with Ritsu mumbling a "I don't wanna do homework, though..." and Arashi going, "But we don't want you to fail now, do we?". Their voices soon faded away and the two were once again left alone.
Leo immediately pulled Tsukasa into a tight hug and burried his face into his neck. The leader was initially startled at the sudden gesture, but was quick to reciprocate the hug.
"I really love you, Tsukasa..." Leo muttered to his boyfriend.
"I love you too. I'm glad this made you feel better."
In that moment, Leo held so much love and affection for Tsukasa that one "I love you" was nowhere near enough to express himself. Not knowing what other words he can use, Leo lifted his head and swiftly surged forward to desperately kiss his leader. Tsukasa gasped in shock, but promptly returned the kiss, as always. However, Leo's messy kisses soon shifted into more hungry ones, leaving Tsukasa breathless when he finally managed to pull away from the older boy.
"Whoa... What's up with you right now..?" Tsukasa asked fondly while still panting slightly.
"I just... I love you... I love you so much! Ugghhh! Just saying "I love you" doesn't feel enough to express myself right now! Why are words so difficult?!" Leo griped as tears pricked the corners of his eyes.
Tsukasa gently cupped his former leader's face and kissed away the tears.
"I adore you, Leo... I'm eternally grateful to have you in my life." the younger boy whispered while encasing him in a loving embrace.
"Uuuee... You're so unfair, you and your smooth words..." Leo whined, firmly returning the hug.
"But you know what they say: actions speak louder than words, right? I admire how open you are through your actions."
"...You're still unfair, though... Always turning me into an emotional mess with your cuteness and honesty..."
"Haha. It's the same on my end too, you know?"
At that, Leo no longer knew what to say and silence fell between them aside from their soothing breathing, yet rapid heartbeats.
"Oh, have you had dinner yet?" Tsukasa asked after a minute of silence.
"Nope. I could just get some food for us at the convenience store, so you can do your homework already." Leo suggested.
"Are you sure? I still need to shower beforehand anyway, so I could go with you right now."
"Nah, it's fine. You go do your thing, ok?"
After keeping the remaining cookies in two tupperwares and putting all the baking tools in the dishwasher, Tsukasa went to shower while Leo bought them sandwiches, sushi, and iced teas from the convenience store.
By the time Leo came back to his room, Tsukasa was already hitting the books and papers by himself since Nazuna was busy with college and hadn't had the time to come back anymore at night lately, while Natsume was currently out with the rest of Switch for idol work and wouldn't be back until much later.
"You're back! Thank you, Leo!" Tsukasa looked up from his schoolwork and exclaimed happily at the sight of both Leo and their (not so healthy) dinner.
"Yep, yep! Of course, my little King~"
They ate their dinner in silence as Tsukasa focused on his homework, while Leo entered one of his composing episodes and nearly forgot about his food unless the leader nudged it towards him or directly fed him.
"Have you showered yet?" Tsukasa asked without looking up from his worksheets after they both finished eating.
"Nope..." Leo replied while his hand refused to cease itself from transferring the melodies in his head to his music sheets. "Just lemme finish this piece first."
To Tsukasa's surprise, he didn't need to intervene with Leo's usually non-stop composing this time and actually got up after his current piece was finished. Nearly twenty minutes later, Leo returned in his loungewear with a towel on top of his damp hair. Although the leader had already seen Leo with his hair down a good number of times ever since they became a couple, this was his first time seeing it down and wet, which served to do nothing but horrible things to his heart.
"Oh, you're back." the younger boy tried to sound as calm as possible.
"Mhm!" Leo hummed as he flopped back on the floor where he left his music sheets.
Even though Tsukasa had turned his back on him, Leo could tell that his boyfriend seemed stiff and fidgety in his seat. After writing another new song, he looked up to see the younger boy still rigidly hunched over the table almost unmoving aside from the flipping of pages or the sound of his pen scribbling away on paper.
Leo put his towel down, then carefully and quietly stood up to tiptoe towards the younger boy. When he stood behind the unsuspecting leader, he bent down and wrapped his arms around his shoulders. To the former leader's surprise, Tsukasa didn't verbally react nor try to push him away, but instead became frozen stiff under his touch.
"...Tsukasa~?" Leo whispered after a moment of waiting for his boyfriend to say something.
"Y-yes...?" Tsukasa finally spoke, but it sounded like he was choking on his words.
"Why are you so quiet? And stiff? It's just me!"
"I-I know..."
"Then look at me?" Leo pleaded.
Tsukasa robotically turned around just enough to face Leo, but refused to make eye contact or even look at his face. Although Leo began to feel a little anxious about his leader's behavior, he immediately took note of the fairly deep blush that spread across his boyfriend's cheeks and ears.
"Tsukasa." Leo said with a knowing smirk.
"Don't..."
"Are you embarrassed right now?" Leo asked, his smile now showing in his eyes as well.
"..."
"Hahaha! Aww~! What did I do to make your heart burst, my little King?"
Tsukasa remained silent and continued to look anywhere except at Leo. After a few long seconds, he steeled himself to finally look into his boyfriend's face and slowly lifted his hand to hold a small portion of Leo's damp hair in between his index and middle fingers.
"You....look good...like this...." Tsukasa muttered under his breath.
"Oh..." was all Leo managed to say as his face gradually flushed a very dark red. Quickly enough, he regained most of his composure and took the opportunity to tease his boyfriend, "So having my hair down and wet like this is a turn on for you~? Gotta write that down! Wahaha!"
"N-no, it's not?!" Tsukasa tried to deny, but his words came out as more of a question than a statement.
"Huh~? Then I suppose you won't mind if I leave to blow dry and tie it, right~?" Leo gradually retracted his arms, but before he could stand up, Tsukasa had grabbed his wrist and pulled him down to kiss him fiercely.
"Please stay...." Tsukasa pleaded softly after pulling away.
"Haha! Whatever my little King wants, he shall get~" Leo was initially shocked, but he couldn't help but laugh at how cute his boyfriend was being. "Guess I'm right about this being one of your turn ons then~?"
"..." Tsukasa remained silent and, instead, pulled Leo onto his lap. "How about you help me with my homework instead?"
"Hahaha! You know I'm hopeless when it comes to school stuff, though! Oh well, I'll try just for you~"