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Their final year at PK Academy had at last come to an end. In no time at all, Saiki would be on to the next thing, college at a local University, and Aiura would be picking up more hours at her fortune telling gig. But those responsibilities would have to wait, as this evening, the day after graduation, Aiura stood on Saiki’s doorstep with a crumpled piece of paper in one hand and a grocery bag in the other.
Saiki answered the door before she ever had the chance to ring the bell. She smiled when she saw him. “Were you expecting me?” she asked with a wink.
Of course, he had heard her thoughts from a block away, louder and clearer than any other voice in the vicinity. Almost a year of dating had him sort of tuned in, always anticipating her chirpy, choppy ruminations. He didn’t answer her question, instead pursing his lips into a sort of grimace-y smile and taking the slip of paper from her hand. One of the final coupons from the coupon book he’d given her for their one month-iversary.
Baking Date.
When Saiki had written that coupon, it was probably the only one he was really excited to fulfill. It sort of chagrined him that it had taken so long for Aiura to cash it in, wondering at times if she had ripped the slip of paper from the stapled-together stack and lost it. It wasn’t like Aiura didn’t have her own sweet tooth, so what took her so long?
“Yeah, I figured that I would finally let you have your way,” she said, as if reading his thoughts. “I mean, I totally know that you made that coupon more for you than for me.” She kicked off her shoes haphazardly, sending one of her brown leather loafers into the wall with a thud.
So she hadn’t cashed the coupon in because of spite? Wasn’t she supposed to like him?
She giggled as she brushed past him, heading toward the kitchen. “I’m honestly impressed that you never asked me about it, Mr. Sugar-Addict.”
Saiki grumbled as he followed her. He really didn’t have any reason to complain. Over the last year, the two of them had enjoyed more than their fair share of desserts together. He was certainly never deprived of sweets in Aiura’s presence. Maybe he was more likely to suggest an outing for ice cream or cake, but she still asked plenty.
Always quick to make herself at home, Aiura slapped her grocery bag on the counter and began opening kitchen cabinets and drawers, pulling out anything she deemed necessary. “I thought baking a big cake would be, like, the most perf way to celebrate the end of high school. Doncha think?” With her arms over her head, tugging on a precarious stack of bowls, she gave Saiki one of her thousand watt smiles over her shoulder.
“I’ll never turn down a cake,” Saiki replied, pulling the bowl she wanted down with telekinesis, effectively avoiding a bowl avalanche.
“Thanks, boo,” Aiura said. She pivoted back to her bag of groceries and started pulling out ingredients: strawberries, vanilla, flour, sugar, bananas, chocolate bars, chocolate sauce, cocoa powder, milk, eggs, matcha powder, butter, heavy cream, and baking powder. Based on those ingredients, Saiki had no way to guess what kind of cake she was planning to make, and reading her thoughts didn’t really provide any clarity either. So, like, what should I put in the bowl first?
Saiki observed that she hadn’t pulled out any measuring cups either. People like to overplay just how precise baking is, and Saiki knew that, but still. Measuring would probably be a good idea, right? Was this a recipe she’d made a thousand times before? Unlikely, considering she’d never really baked him a cake in the last year. She’d bought him plenty of sweets. She’d made him a homemade milkshake. She’d dolloped whipped cream on a cup of hot chocolate for him, put strawberries and sweet cream on his pancakes. But, as he wracked his brain, he couldn’t think of a single time that she’d ever made him something totally from scratch. This seemed scary.
“Mikoto, do you need measuring cups?” he offered, opening the appropriate drawer and pulling them out.
“Oh. I guess?” she replied as she tore open the bag of flour.
His confidence plummeted as she took the largest cup and dumped three, heaping piles of flour into the bowl.
“I’ll cream together some butter and sugar,” Saiki offered.
“Um, okay,” she said, taking a smaller scoop of baking powder and dumping it into the bowl.
Saiki sighed. This was going to be more of a challenge than he anticipated. When she turned her head to start “measuring” the cocoa powder, Saiki removed about three fourths of the baking powder and deposited it back into the box, all while vigorously whipping the butter and sugar. He snatched the vanilla extract from her ingredient stock before she could get any ideas with that, and he poured an appropriate amount into his bowl.
Aiura, surprisingly, used a whisk to mix in her dry ingredients. Saiki assumed she’d probably think a knife would be the correct tool. Needs eggs, right? she thought, reaching for the carton. Before she could get to it, though, Saiki snatched them telekinetically and cracked three into his own bowl.
“Oh, you got it,” she said. “Should I go on and get the oven heated up?”
Saiki was relieved that he might not have to use pyrokinesis to get the cake baked all the way. So she knows how to preheat.
He watched her dial the temperature up, and when she stopped about thirty degrees short, he turned the dial the rest of the way. She used one of the sticks of butter to start greasing the circular pans that the cake batter would go in, and once again, Saiki was pleased. She’s only mostly clueless.
“Do ya think that we could boost the chocolate flavor with this?” she asked him, holding up one of the chocolate bars.
Saiki couldn’t think of any reason to protest, and weak chocolate flavor was one of his biggest dessert pet peeves, so he nodded, and, without abandoning his wet-ingredient bowl, got out a knife for her to start chopping up the chocolate bars. Little melted chocolate pockets inside of a chocolate cake sounded delicious. If Saiki could continue to do damage control, then he’d be able to have a pretty pleasant cake experience.
Measuring out some milk and hiding the matcha powder in an upper cabinet, Saiki finished with his wet ingredients. He started folding in Aiura’s dry ingredients, bit by bit. He enjoyed eating desserts more than making them, but he had still watched his fair share of cooking shows. To a person like him, it was the closest thing he could imagine to pornography. As such, he felt fairly confident in the batter.
Aiura handed over her cutting board full of chocolate chunks and he let her fold them in by herself. “What’s the difference between cake batter and brownie batter? And like, cookie batter? They all use the same ingredients, right?” she asked as she mixed. At least she wasn’t trying to pretend like she was some kind of baking expert.
He wasn’t sure how to answer the question himself, though. “I don’t know,” he replied. “But this looks right to me.”
Aiura beamed with pride, as though it was her cunning that produced the batter and not Saiki’s delicately executed control. She did buy the ingredients, though, and that counts for something. I totes cannot wait to taste this!
He narrowed his eyes at the yet unused ingredients while Aiura attempted to pour equal amounts of their batter into each pan. There was still heavy cream, strawberries, and bananas untouched. So he pointed to them. “What about that stuff?”
Bending to put the pans in the oven, Aiura looked over her shoulder. “Oh, like, I thought a whipped cream kinda icing with strawberries would be nice. Like a chocolate strawberry shortcake.”
It did sound good. “Bananas?”
“Oh, that’s just for a snack while the cake is baking,” Aiura replied, snatching one up and peeling it. She chomped down on the fruit and extended it to him.
He took a reluctant bite, but the indirect kiss seemed to delight her.
“Okey dokey,” she said around the mashed up fruit in her mouth. “Let’s get going on the icing. But like, the heavy cream has to be hella cold or it won’t work!” She looked at Saiki with pleading eyes.
Glossing over how surprised he was that she knew that, Saiki used a reverse pyrokinesis to chill not only the cream, but also the bowl they’d be whipping it in.
Hehe! So convenient! Aiura thought as she poured the cream into the icy bowl. She began whipping it with her whisk for about a minute before all her thoughts centered around how tired her arm was getting. She gave Saiki a look and he wordlessly took over for her. She smiled, then started washing and cutting the strawberries.
With a few more ingredients, the whipped icing was complete and in the fridge. Saiki ate another banana while he waited for the cake to bake through with Aiura leaning into his side, munching on the extra strawberries.
When the cake came out of the oven, Aiura caught herself thinking about letting it cool. Saiki’s impatience wouldn’t allow this, however, and he instantly cooled the sponge and popped it out of the pan, leaving no crumb behind. Aiura blushed when she realized that with Saiki around, waiting for things to cool was probably a needless step.
“Leave the decorating to me,” Aiura said as she leveled the cakes with a bread knife. “It’s, like, the one thing with baking that I’m actually pretty good at.”
Saiki put his hands up and backed away, leaving her to it. He started on tidying up the kitchen instead, noticing for the first time just how much flour and powder Aiura had kicked up everywhere. It was like the whole kitchen was covered in dust now. Ah well. A small price to pay for cake.
By the time Saiki had finished with the dishes, which didn’t take long, since he simply restored them to how they were yesterday instead of actually washing them, Aiura had the cake stacked up and layered with strawberries in a rather attractive design. Around the edge of the cake, perfect swirls were arranged equidistant from each other, each equal in height and diameter. It looked like a cake you’d see in a shop.
“Looks great,” Saiki appraised, genuine yet bland.
Aiura spun around with the piping bag in her hand and smiled. She oozed pride and excitement at his simple compliment.
“Can we eat it now?” he asked, the anticipation of a somewhat stressful baking session rendering him completely sugar starved.
“Duh!” she said.
Plates and forks were fetched in a literal instant. And, seeing no need to get out serving utensils, Saiki divvied up slices with the use of telekinesis. He wasted no time in moving to the table to eat, ready to vacuum up the cake while standing right there in the kitchen.
When the first bite hit his tongue, a feeling of relief washed over him. The cake wasn’t bad at all. In fact, it was kind of good.
“Yum!” Aiura said after swallowing her first bite. “Maybe I don’t suck at baking as much as I thought.”
No, you do, Saiki thought as he brought another bite to his mouth. But thankfully I don’t.
“I think it’s even sweeter ‘cuz, like, I made it with you,” she said, bumping her shoulder into his.
Well, he didn’t disagree with her about that.