Work Text:
Kokomi Teruhashi was indifferent about Christmas. On the one hand she could see why people liked the holiday so much. Spending time with your family, or your friends, or that special someone in your life. And then there were the gifts of course, the ones that Santa brought, the ones given by family and friends, and in her case complete strangers. More often than not she ended up giving those gifts away, but sometimes she would keep them. Today however, she was ignoring all of that. It was Christmas Eve and instead of making presentations to spend time with her parents or brother she was heading over to the Saiki residence.
Every Saturday since she made the suggestion, Kokomi would spend the afternoon into the evening baking sweets with Kurumi. At first she did it to get close to Saiki through his sweet tooth, but after a month she realized she just generally had a good time baking with the older woman. She taught her things her parents never did, and she soon started looking forward to just baking with her. Occasionally there would be instances where Kurumi would double book herself and push the baking lessons onto Saiki, she found he was an exceptional baker, and other times she would have him join just because. Kokomi loved the way her face lit up whenever Saiki said he would join. They had a dynamic she couldn't describe, but it Is how she learned that Saiki was mischievous in the kitchen. He managed to get a swipe of everything they would make no matter how hard Kurumi would try to stop her son.
"Kusuo! Stop that, we won't have any for the recipe if you keep stealing!"
It was always said with the exasperation of someone who had long since accepted their fate, but someone who couldn't help but try to make a difference anyway.
'Why are you accusing me of stealing? I'm not.'
Though there was always an obvious smirk on his face, and that's when Kokomi realized that yes, Saiki could bake and he could bake well, but he was not allowed to bake with his mother because he was too mischievous to control. Even so, Kurumi continued to invite him to bake with them, and after 3 months he always said yes.
She rubbed her hands together as she got closer to the Saiki residence trying to keep herself warm.
Today they were making sugar cookies to decorate for the holidays. It was a basic recipe that she already knew how to make, but she wouldn't turn down time spent in the home that the Saiki's always invited her to.
"Kusuo please! It was an accident I— No no you don't understand, it's really important we do this!"
Kokomi slowed as she heard Kuniharu begging to his son.
"No no it's not your fault that I have poor planning skills, you're right, but out of the two of us I'm not the—"
'Hi Teruhashi.'
There was a bitterness in her voice that made her shiver. The only saving grace is that it wasn't pointed at her. When the boy did turn to her he gave her a very small smile, something that several months ago she would deem less than acceptable, but coming from him it might as well have been a full toothed smile.
"Oh wow, er um, I mean. Hi Kokomi." Kuniharu shifted to try and get a better look at her, but Saiki blocked him.
She gave a polite smile. "Hello Mr Saiki."
Kuniharu waved his hand. "Please, you know you can call me Kuniharu."
As she stepped into the foyer she noticed Saiki was still blocking her from his father's view. She frowned.
Am I. . . Am I being forcibly brought into their dispute by Saiki?
She giggled, only covering it up under the guise of needing to clear her throat.
"Hi Mr Kuniharu, it's nice to see you."
"Yes uh," he stood on his tip toes as Saiki once again moved in front of him. "Well it's nice to see you too." He tried to use Saiki as leverage to jump and see her, but instead Saiki moved so he landed on the wall. "In theory anyway." He mumbled.
Walking into the living room she found a semi-frantic Kurumi.
"Oh! Kokomi, hi my dear. I'm sorry, I'm a mess right now. I know I said we would be able to bake today but my lovely husband gave me an early Christmas gift."
"Oh?" She shrugged off her jackets and her mittens in a fluent motion.
"He's taking me to Hawaii!" The woman paused to smile at her before resuming the hurricane she was making of her kitchen.
"That's lovely!" My parents always said they would take us to Hawaii one day. No no Kokomi, there's no time for that. "I hear it is beautiful." She finished quietly.
"The only issue is when our flight leaves," the woman sighed, rushing over to her. "We have to leave right now to make it on time."
Ever the expert actor, Kokomi hid her dejection. "I understand."
'You shouldn't have to.' The bitter tone was back as once again Saiki and Kuniharu entered her vicinity.
"Ku," Kurumi began to tut, but Kuniharu cut her off.
"Kokomi?"
She turned to meet the man. "Yes?"
"I owe you an apology. Kusuo told me not to plan our trip for today and I thought he meant tomorrow. I know you enjoy baking with my dear Kurumi, but please don't blame her."
Kokomi gave him a disarming smile in an attempt to make him feel better.
"Really it's—"
'Don't lie to him.'
Kokomi felt her mouth close slowly as she wasn't expecting to be seen through.
"By the time I was trying to call your house you must have already left, I really am sorry." Bending in an exact 90 degree angle Kokomi quickly felt embarrassed.
"This isn't necessary! Please stand Mr. Kuniharu. I am upset but it's okay. Your lives don't revolve around me. It makes me happy you and Mrs. Kurumi are still so in love."
"Oh Kokomi." Kurumi grabbed her from the back and hugged her so tight she feared her back might break.
Kuniharu cleared his throat. "All that being said, I only have the two tickets."
Kokomi raised her eyebrows in silent understanding.
So Saiki got upset that his dad was forcing them to leave today and wanted to go with his mother instead as punishment. But why does he care so much?
"I see, well I think you should go."
"You do?!"
The older man was pencil straight before she could blink.
"Like I said, it's really nice to see that you two are still so in love. I don't want to intrude on that. I'll just head home."
"No, don't do that. Ku is staying here, I'm sure the two of you can manage to make sugar cookies."
Blue eyes glanced over to purple ones, and she felt herself flush.
On a technicality they had baked together several times, alone even. Realistically though they always knew someone would be around in another 20-30 minutes. Several hours alone with the pink headed boy made her nervous in a way she wasn't sure about. The fact she was nervous at all was reason enough to make her want to run. But when purple eyes met her, they had mischief in them.
'Yeah, we'll be fine. Leave two 16 year olds in your house unsupervised for several hours on end. I'm sure nothing will happen.'
"Wait Kusuo, what are you talking about?"
Brining both his parents to the door his face remained neutral.
'Every rom com ever surrounding teens starts like this, but I'm sure we'll be fine.'
"I thought you hated those movies honey?"
Both parents seemed to be becoming increasingly frantic.
'I mean you two were left alone at 16 for hours on end all the time. I'm sure nothing will happen. Right?'
"Kusuo I can't tell if you're joking or being serious."
Pushing them out the door a devilish smirk appeared on his face. 'Bye.'
"Kusuo wait wait wait!" Both parents yelled in unison but their pleas fell on deaf ears as the door shut behind them.
Walking over to her his face returned to its usual demeanor. Fidgeting she couldn't help but think of all the cheesy Christmas movies that she had ever seen.
As if reading her mind he turned to look at her from his spot in the kitchen. 'We won't be doing any of that. I just said that to get back at my dad.'
She relaxed, letting her head fall backwards. Slowly she felt the red in her cheeks lessen.
That's good. I don't know what I would have done if he was being serious. . . What I would have done. What would I have done?
As she brought her head back to where it should be she found the boy still staring at her. Unhelpfully her mind thought of mistletoe and being caught up in Christmas cheer.
No no no no! Bad Kokomi. You and Saiki are friends, and it's great to be his friend. You don't need anything else right now. Even if his smile makes your heart flutter, or his mischievous smirk makes you giddy, or surprisingly soft hands feeling so nice on yours. UGH! NOT THE RIGHT WAY!
She heard a snicker and whipped her head towards the offender of her thoughts.
He cleared his throat. 'Sorry, I sneezed.'
"You did not." She frowned, making her way to the kitchen and washing her hands.
He was quiet as he joined her but she made no motion to break the silence they found themselves in. Kokomi found that she wasn't as outgoing and talkative as she thought, it was only because of others that she let herself believe she was. But when it was just her and Saiki? Well, he knew how to appreciate the silence.
"Wait a minute," Kokomi paused as she took out the last ingredient to make the cookies. "We're making cookies."
Saiki nodded.
"I'm making cookies with you."
He nodded again.
"Your mother isn't here to stop you."
Saiki stopped rifling through the drawer he was in for cutouts, the words she was saying seeming to click. A wide smile began to spread across his face.
"You're going to eat all the batter!"
'If I eat all the batter I'd get salmonella.'
Kokomi grit her teeth, the need for perfection being overridden by her blooming anger.
"I have a strong feeling that's not going to stop you."
He shrugged.
"Ugh, I hate you." She froze after she said the words, ones that suddenly seemed so heavy in the air.
Saiki covered his hand with his mouth, body shaking with barely contained laughter.
Is he? Is he laughing?
'I think that's the first time someone's said that to my face.'
"Wait so if you know you're being a brat, then why do you still do it?!"
He didn't hide his laughter this time. Kokomi pouted as he found her frustration amusing.
'Hahaha, you're really upset about this.'
"Obviously!"
'We have cookies to make. The forecast called for snow, and I doubt your jacket is going to be warm enough.'
"THAT COMPLETELY DISREGARDS MY QUESTION!"
He ignored her, still snickering as he began to prepare the batter.
-
Cookies were the first thing that she learned how to make. They were easy to do and you could mess up the first batch and still have around 3 more. Cookie batter made a lot of cookies if you were careful and played your cards right, and though she wasn’t certain, she had a feeling the boy she was cooking with could make cookies with his eyes closed as well. After 20 minutes of baking in silence he tapped her shoulder. She looked over to him, keeping her eyes on the mixer as she continued to add the dry ingredients.
‘You know how to make cookies don’t you?’
Not feeling the need to lie she simply nodded.
‘Does my mom know?’
She shrugged. “If I’m being honest I just like having someone to bake with, I don’t really care if I know how to make the recipe.”
Tapping the bottom of the small bowl to get the last of the flour mixture out she set it aside.
‘Do you know how to make frosting as well?’
She nodded again looking through the cut outs he had found.
‘Are you competitive?’
The question drew her full attention to her crush.
“Why do you ask?”
‘Just curious to see if you can decorate christmas cookies at all.’
A spark of offense ran through her as she realized her baking expertise was being brought to question.
He’s bating you, Kokomi. Don’t let him. She bristled but rolled her shoulders to force herself to relax.
“I’ve decorated christmas cookies a lot. Usually the ones from the store, but the frosting design has always been mine.”
‘So you’re good at it?’
Good? Good! I’m perfect at it, no, better than perfect. People have fainted when they’ve seen my designs I’m able to make with frosting.
“Pretty good, yeah.”
On instinct she slapped his hand as he reached for the mixing bowl. He flicked his own hand as he set it on the counter.
‘You’ve gotten good at that.’
“Your mother is a great teacher.”
‘But you still think you’d be better at decorating cookies than me.’
She clenched her hands, slapping them on the countertop.
“Please do not put words in my mouth.” She was breathing heavily with barely contained rage.
‘So you don’t think you could decorate cookies better than me?’
“Oh I know I could! I could decorate 100 cookies better than you with my eyes closed! The fact that the frosting and the cookies will be homemade would only make them taste better than they already do because of my designs. You could not even begin to comprehend how good I am at decorating.” She pushed her pointer finger to his chest forcing him to look down at her. “You would lose before you could even blink.”
‘Is that a challenge?’
He looked down at her with raised eyebrows, clearly amused by her outburst.
She felt her face heat up but did not back down. “It depends. Do you feel threatened?”
‘Oh—’ He cut himself off but was still trying to keep eye contact with her.
In all the time Kokomi knew Saiki he never backed down from her stare. She was always the one to break first and would feel embarrassed for doing so, but this time, he turned away.
Was he about to say ‘oh wo—’
‘I guess we’ll see if you’re right.’ He mumbled.
“I guess we will.”
-
They talked peacefully about the things they hoped they would get for Christmas, though she purposefully was trying hard not to think about it. The one thing she wanted she couldn’t have, and she wouldn’t dream of asking for it anyway. New boots, another collar for her cat, some earrings, and maybe even a clip for her hair was all perfectly fine for her. She had long since given up on making the holiday as perfect as she was, which during christmas, didn’t feel very ‘prefect’ at all. Instead she took pleasure in the fact that Saiki’s top 3 gifts were all coffee jelly related.
“Wait, you said top 4. What’s the first one?”
She snatched the bowl with the frosting away from him realizing he had been eating it for a large duration of their conversation.
‘I don’t know the number 1 thing I want yet.’
The answer puzzled her. “You don’t? Did you want something and then change your mind?”
He was quiet for a long time as his eyes stayed trained on the oven.
‘You could say that.’
It seems like he’s fighting with himself. What about though? What does he want? Or does he not want to admit that he wants the thing in the first place.
As the question solidified on her tongue the oven beeped and the train of though came to a shuddering stop.
In unison both teens said the same thing. “The cookies are done.”
The calm energy that had been in the kitchen just moments before shifted, something charged taking its place.
“It only takes 5-10 minutes for them to cool.”
‘That’s an amateur mistake for someone who claims to be amazing at decorating christmas cookies.’
“Depends on how cold the frosting is and the design you’re trying to make. Sometimes not waiting for the cookies to cool completely might help.”
He huffed out a laugh. ‘You’re still awfully confident.’
“And you’re still confident you’re going to win, when we both know you’re going to fail.”
He turned to her and glared, in turn she gave him her best smile.
She let a slight amount of competitiveness seep out of her, smile turning genuine. “In the end it doesn’t really matter though, right? We both still get to eat yummy cookies!”
Glare softening Saiki nodded. ‘That’s true.’
-
“1 hour to decorate as many cookies as we can. Seems fair?”
He nodded.
“No cheating either. We have to just decorate as many cookies as we can with our own skills.”
He nodded again, cracking his wrists.
“Last thing,” he rolled his eyes but looked at her nonetheless. “You can’t eat anymore frosting.”
‘I make no promises.’
“If you eat anymore frosting and I end up not being able to properly decorate a cookie I’m blaming you.”
‘If your lack of planning is reflected in poorly decorated cookies that sounds like a you problem’
“You—”
‘Ready set go!’
“You didn’t even give a countdown. Ugh!”
Faster than either teen expected the other to go, they began decorating cookies. The cut outs they had were as follows: Snowmen, Christmas trees, snowflakes, angels, gloves, mittens, and a cat. There was only one and she had made it without thinking because she always made one of her own cat whenever she decorated Christmas cookies. Grabbing it and setting it aside she continued to decorate everything else she could get her hands on. Knowing better than to check on her opponent she resisted temptation for the first 5 cookies she decorated, but on her 6th cookie temptation and curiosity won her over.
Glancing at Saiki’s cookies she had to stop herself from gasping. Much like her he was able to create realistic looking cookies out of frosting. The snowmen looked like they were really made out of snow. The Christmas trees looked like they were decorated with real pine needles. The gloves and mittens lookedsoft, and the angels had a glow around them that took her years to master. She swallowed looking back at her own cookies.
This is fine Kokomi. You’re doing great. Just because Saiki is apparently a pro baker doesn’t mean anything.
It did, but she continued to frost despite her growing nerves. It was only when she saw a piping bag stop out of the corner of her eye that she relaxed once more.
See? He’s just as awestruck about your cookies as you were about his. You’ll be fine.
After 45 minutes both teens reached for piping bags to find them empty. Each looked around for another piping bag but found the rest were in a similar state.
“We’re out of icing.” she mumbled.
‘Yes, I guess we are.’
Kokomi let her shoulders relax, hands shaking from the strain they put on them. As she looked around at the now very messy counter she felt content. They had decorated all the cookies but one. She frowned as she looked at the naked cat cookie still patiently waiting for icing.
Eyebrows knitting together she frowned. Reaching for the cookie she held it gently in her hand.
“I forgot to frost it.” She whispered.
Saiki looked at her and then the cookie in her hand.
“It’s supposed to be my cat,” she felt silly as tears began to well in her eyes. “It’s a tradition of mine to always decorate a cookie that looks like her when I make sugar cookies.”
Setting it back down on the tray carefully she pressed her wrists to her eyes. “It’s silly, but she’s a part of my family. The only one who actually spends Christmas day with me most of the time, so it’s my way of saying thank you.”
Saiki didn’t say a word as he went to the bowl they had made the frosting in and gave it to her. Inside there was enough frosting for one more cookie.
‘I was going to eat it later, but you need it more.’
“Saiki is giving me frosting he was going to eat? It’s a Christmas miracle.”
‘I can still take it back.’
“No! I’m sorry. I meant to say thank you.” Taking the bowl from his hand she pipped the outside of the cat in and then scraped together black frosting for her eyes and pink frosting for her collar.
“Ta-da!” She did jazz hands laughing at herself.
‘It looks like her.’
“You know, you’re the first person to tell me that. Thank you.”
‘. . . Aren’t I the only one to see this cookie?’
“Yes,” She smiled, setting it down and turning “but it—” eyes widening as she realized how close they were. She tried to back up to put space between them but slipped on stray frosting that ended up on the floor instead of a cookie. “Ah!”
Reflexes faster than her own Saiki reached out and caught her, pulling her up until they were chest to chest. She felt his heart racing and in turn her own seemed to launch to her throat.
“Are you okay?” He asked, searching her quickly darkening face.
She nodded, trying very hard not to focus on how close they were.
Trying to look anywhere but his face, her eyes landed on the ceiling, face pailing fast enough that she felt faint.
“Mistletoe.” She gasped.
Saiki looked at her confused and then looked up at his ceiling. His own cheeks matching hers.
‘My mom must have put it up.’ He sounded irritated but his hold on her tightened.
“I can see her doing that.”
Both of them continued to stare at the greenery heartbeats beginning to match in pace.
Kokomi looked at him. Took a deep breath and then stood on her tippy toes and kissed him on the cheek.
Surprised, he jolted and let her go. She stepped backwards and then smiled at him.
“There. Now you don’t have to kiss me. I just figured you wouldn’t want to kiss someone because you were forced to.”
Glasses falling slightly off his face he was the picture of surprised.
“I don’t know if it would be your first kiss, but it would be mine. If someone is going to kiss me I want it to be because they want to. Ya know? The construct of mistletoe is really weird if you think about it. I mean, what if you don’t want to be kissed? What about consent?”
‘Th-’ She looked at him, confused as he seemed to internally struggle once again.
“Sai—”
“Then how would you ask?” His voice had a shake to it that she had never heard before.
She cleared her throat trying to calm herself down. “Well like I said I’ve never kissed anyone before, but I would probably just ask. ‘Can I kiss you?’ And then hope the person answers honestly.”
“Can I kiss you?” It was weak and small. He didn’t make eye contact with her and his cheeks were darker than his hair.
Is he asking me? There’s no way he’s asking me. But then why is he blushing? And that was definitely a stutter. Oh my gosh he’s asking me. I’m going to faint.
Her breath caught as she remained frozen in place.
“Okay.”
His eyes met hers and he closed the short distance to meet her. Lifting her head to look up at him he bent down slowly. Clearly he was waiting for her to back out, but her nerves won out and she stood on her toes to meet him halfway. It was quick, short lived and left her buzzing. Heart rate erratic she fully expected him to back away, but instead he leaned down, tilted her head up, and kissed her again. This time she let herself relax, linking her arms around his neck.
He tasted sweet like frosting and his lips were soft.
Was she going to freak out about this later? Absolutely. Was she going to think about this moment again and again for the next few weeks? Most definitely. Was she going to keep kissing him until he wanted to stop? Without a doubt. But right in this moment his lips were soft, he tasted like sugar and his arms wrapped around her like they belonged there. Any other pesky thoughts could wait. And at least for a little while, so could the sugar cookies.