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Tsukasa had a serious problem.
He couldn’t bake.
Okay, no, that sounds bad. Can he cook? Yes, absolutely; he makes food for his siblings on a regular basis. Of course, he can cook!
So why, today, of all days, did Saki have the absolute fucking nerve to challenge him to make her and Ena some brownies??? She could’ve asked anyone else, yet it just had to be him.
“But, Saki-” He tried to protest, immediately being met with Saki raising her hand in front of him, signaling for him to stop talking, “Hang on a second, Mr. world future star, I wasn’t finished, you won’t be doing this alone!” She declared with a smile despite her brother’s puzzled expression.
Then the doorbell rang, Saki’s smile growing even wider as she ran to the door, saying, “I’ll get it!” without missing a beat.
She opened the door and was met with Shinonome Ena herself. Oh, that’s right, Tsukasa was supposed to make brownies for Saki and Ena, right, right, right, he was making brownies for both of them, got it, but… why was the door still open?
“Did you bring him? Did you bring him??” Saki asked while trying to look past Ena to find who she was looking for.
Ena nodded with a smile, turning her head in Tsukasa’s direction with a determined glint in her eye, one that could only spell trouble if you knew her well enough. Even still, he cocked his head to the side, unaware of what his younger sister and slightly older- and possibly soon-to-be- sister-in-law were planning.
“Tsukasa~ we have a surprise for you~” Ena lilted. She sounded happier and somewhat excited, a stark contrast to how she was when he first met her. It was good to see that she was doing so well.
She pulled the aforementioned surprise into his line of sight, “It’s your boyfriend! Saki asked me to bring him with me today to help you with baking.” Tsukasa feigned offense, putting his hand on his chest and gasping dramatically, earning a small laugh from Akito.
Saki gave her brother an unamused look, diverting her attention back to the siblings at the door and ushering them inside. “Yeah, no, he can’t bake for shit, it’s horrible. Please help him.” she practically begged, Akito huffing a breath of laughter, “You got it, boss.” he said as Saki pulled him into the house with Ena in tow, setting him right next to Tsukasa.
The two of them exchanged a brief glance before Saki shoved a recipe in Tsukasa’s hands, telling him to read the instructions carefully, which the latter didn’t do at all, sassily strutting into the kitchen to begin his baking adventure if he wasn’t stopped short by Akito fucking shinonome himself.
“Hold your horses there, Star. Are you sure you know what you need and what you’ll be doing?” he asked, tilting his head slightly, eyeing the recipe in his hands, receiving a mere nod from the peach-tipped blonde, which wasn’t convincing in the slightest.
“You sure you know how to bake?” he asked, the corners of his lips curving upwards in a soft and genuine smile, but Tsukasa wasn’t one to give up that easily.
“Yes, I do! How am I supposed to be a world future star if I can’t bake?”
He shrugged, sneaking the recipe out of Tsukasa’s hands, “Well, I mean… you have your ways...” he trailed off, scanning over the recipe before looking back at him. “You sure you know how to bake?” he inquired, you know, just to make sure.
“Yes!” Tsukasa declared, sounding very sure of himself. Saki and Ena watched from the kitchen table; they knew he claimed to know how to bake just to impress his boyfriend, and he was catching on quickly.
“Yeah? You positive?” Akito cocked his head to the side, giving him that stupid infamous sly grin of his, trying to catch Tsukasa in his bold-faced lie, but he wasn’t that stupid; Tsukasa is an actor, for goodness sake!
With a determined nod, he declared proudly, a little too proudly. Maybe if he lied to himself a little more, then it would come true! Being a little delusional never hurt anybody!
“Then, if you’re so sure,” Akito handed Tsukasa the recipe and led him into the kitchen, motioning to the room in front of the two. “Then have at it. I’m sure you won’t need my help,” he said with a shrug, leaning against the kitchen island and crossing his arms over his chest, watching the self-proclaimed world future star scan over the recipe for a few moments.
To say that Tsukasa panicked for a brief moment was an understatement. He got everything he needed, yes, but after that was done, he had no idea what order they went in, Saki and Ena watching in a mix of fear and amusement as Akito stood by his poor, poor, clueless boyfriend with a grin that screamed ‘i told you so.’
Tsukasa started with the wet ingredients, haphazardly throwing them into the mixing bowl, not once checking the measurements, just eyeballing everything. It could only be described as a mess that could only be made by Tenma Tsukasa himself.
Akito frowned, pushing himself off the kitchen island and walking over to Tsukasa, grabbing his wrist and stopping him from doing anything else momentarily, much to Tsukasa’s surprise and dismay.
“Star, I love you and all, but what the fuck are you doing?” Akito asked, his voice unusually soft.
Tsukasa cocked his head to the side, his brows knitting together in confusion, “Baking..?”
Akito blinked, lowering his head and shaking it fondly with a soft smile, raising his head and locking eyes with the self-proclaimed baking master (which was obviously a fucking lie.) that was Tenma Tsukasa.
“Okay, so why don’t we start with the dry ingredients, yeah? I’ll go melt the butter,” he said as he made his way over to the stove, beginning to open a stick of butter before Tsukasa said something so appalling, so devastating that even Mafuyu Asahina himself would be devastated to hear.
“The butter is supposed to be melted?”
Akito stopped in his tracks, slowly turning around with a dumbstruck expression, his actions causing their spectators to erupt into laughter at the sight. How did he not know that the butter should be melted???
“...What?” he asked, his voice just barely above a whisper as he looked at his boyfriend in disbelief.
Tsukasa nodded sheepishly, which resulted in Saki and Ena’s fit of laughter worsening, the duo coughing between giggles. It got so bad that Kanade managed to hear it and groggily stumble out of his room and downstairs to see their worst enemy scolding their older brother about baking. They had to do something!
And they did.
With mixed results.
Those results were Kanade quietly stomping into the kitchen and trying their best to move Akito away from their brother to no avail. They didn’t have enough strength or willpower. They were just someone who sat in their room all day composing, a stark contrast in comparison to their brothers’ boyfriend, who was much taller- and probably stronger than them.
So what did they do?
They gave up, promptly returning to their room instead of getting involved in whatever the fuck was going on in the kitchen.
That being Tsukasa struggling to keep up with Akito’s instructions and dropping three eggs on the floor, much to his dismay, Akito accidentally getting flour in Tsukasa’s hair of all places, and Tsukasa forgetting what temperature he put the brownies on and almost burning them and the house down.
After about an hour of all of that, they finally got everything in order. The two of them sat on the kitchen floor in front of the oven, arms linked, heads leaning against one another.
“Star, remind me to never let you bake again.”
Tsukasa glanced at Akito before directing his gaze back to the oven with a frown.
“Why can’t I? You literally got flour in my hair; seriously, how’d you pull that off??”
He scoffed, tilting his head slightly. “You can’t be talking when you don’t know how to bake.”
“I know now! I’m totally a baking master!” The world's future star declared proudly.
“Oh yeah? Then you try making these yourself next time.”
“No, wait, I still need your help.”
Before Akito could respond, he felt something prod at his leg looking up to see his older sister towering over him with her hands on her hips.
“Hey, lovebirds, can you stop flirting and hurry up and finish? Saki’s getting antsy, and your PDA disgusts me.” She demanded, nodding her head in Saki’s direction.
Instead of sending her his usual scowl, he gave her a sly grin, watching as her face morphed into a glare.
“Sure, Ena, they’ll be ready soon. You're still mad that Mafuyu is busy today, aren’t you?”
“Shut the fuck up.”