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“Should the racks be in the top and bottom third of the oven, or positioned so that the rack is the divider that splits the oven into even thirds?” Kakashi’s voice carried easily from the kitchen and Iruka frowned down at the recipe sitting on the table next to his grading. It… didn’t really clarify which.
“Does our oven really have enough options to do both of those things?” He still wasn’t very familiar with the new Western-style oven himself. Iruka looked over the recipe again, quickly. It was marked as ‘easy,’ and Kakashi had agreed to try baking the gingerbread cookies while Iruka caught up on grading papers. There was really no reason for Iruka to get up and go help.
“No, it’s more of the second one, but I thought I’d ask in case that was a problem.”
Iruka rolled his eyes, and said “It’s fine. So, the oven needs to pre-heat, go ahead and set it to 350.”
“Got it.”
“Okay.” Iruka moved on to the next line of the recipe before stopping, backtracking, and calling out. “350 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s 175 Celcius.”
“Of course,” Kakashi said, but Iruka heard movement and clicking noises, as if Kakashi were changing the oven settings again.
Iruka idly wondered if the oven temperature even went that high, and what Kakashi might have originally set it at, but called out instead, “Okay, next sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, salt, and pepper through the sieve into a bowl.” Hearing movement from the kitchen, he turned back to his grading, getting through a couple more papers before Kakashi asked for the next set of instructions.
Iruka scanned through the next paragraph of the recipe, raising an eyebrow at the wording. It was a simple enough process, though the recipe author didn’t make it sound that way. He read it off to Kakashi anyway, and returned to his papers for a while, confirming the refrigeration length for the dough - three hours - with Kakashi when he checked in.
Soon, Kakashi wandered into the room and flopped onto the couch near Iruka, reaching for a book, and they settled into a familiar routine. Kakashi quietly reading nearby while Iruka graded his papers, pausing here and there to share an egregiously incorrect statement they could laugh over together.
After a little while, Kakashi lifted his head and asked, “Does the oven actually need to pre-heat for that long?”
Iruka looked up from his work to Kakashi, then down at the recipe still sitting on the table. “No! No it really doesn’t, please go turn it off!” How ridiculous to put that at the start of the recipe rather than when the actual baking happens, Iruka thought, glaring at the paper.
Kakashi rose with a chuckle to do as asked, then returned to settle back on the couch with his book. Eventually, Iruka stretched, yawning, and looked at Kakashi, and at the offensive recipe appraisingly. “Would you be okay to finish the cookies alone if a take a nap for a bit?”
Kakashi hummed an affirmative and Iruka decided that it couldn’t go too horribly wrong. He moved to lay on the couch, feet tucked behind Kakashi’s back, and quickly fell into a doze.
__________
He woke to the smell of gingerbread filling the house, and a fuzzy blanket covering him. Iruka listened quietly for a moment, enjoying the cozy warmth of the blanket, the aroma of Christmas cookies, the soft noises of Kakashi moving around in the kitchen. The domesticity of it all made him smile, and he pushed the blanket off, getting up to go join Kakashi in the kitchen.
His smile dropped immediately upon entering the kitchen and seeing the disaster Kakashi had made of it. Iruka gaped in dismay at the mess of dishes piled in the sink, the flour that coated everything from the countertops to Kakashi’s clothing, and the scraps of gingerbread dough strewn about on every free surface. “What… how? What on earth happened here?” He looked to Kakashi incredulously.
Kakashi swallowed the bite of gingerbread cookie he was chewing on and gestured with the remaining cookie in his hand at the wreck of a kitchen and said, “I finished baking.”
“Yes, I see that,” said Iruka, eyeing the racks of cookies set out to cool on the oven and every free countertop space that wasn’t already occupied. “Did it have to involve destroying the kitchen?”
“Maa, it’s not really destroyed, is it?” Kakashi scratched idly at the side of his face, smearing a streak of flour there. “It’s more like collateral damage.”
“Collateral damage,” Iruka repeated, tonelessly.
Kakashi picked up a piece of paper that Iruka recognized after a second as the recipe. “It’s labelled as ‘easy,’ but I’d classify it as C-rank at best, possibly a B-rank.”
Iruka blinked at him for a moment, considering the absurdity of the situation - Kakashi covered in gingerbread dough and flour, having wrecked their kitchen in the interest of baking Iruka cookies. Sharingan no Kakashi, Jounin Hatake, the Copy-Nin, with dozens of S-rank missions to his name, complaining about the difficulty of a cookie recipe. He huffed a small laugh and said, “Well, are they at least good?”
Kakashi proffered the remains of the gingerbread cookie he was holding and Iruka reached for him, wrapping his fingers around Kakashi’s wrist instead to tug him close, catching him around the neck with his other hand to pull him into a kiss. Kakashi’s soft noise of surprise melted into a pleased hum and his mouth opened under Iruka’s. Iruka could still taste the lingering gingerbread flavor on his tongue, sweet and spicy, and smiled as he pulled back. He plucked the cookie from Kakashi’s fingers and popped it into his mouth. It tasted good - Iruka was mildly surprised considering the state of the kitchen.
“It is good,” Iruka said, and smiled at the almost imperceptible way Kakashi relaxed with the statement. “Let’s get this mess cleaned up and then I’ll help you with decorating them.”