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It was Cooper’s birthday and Harry wanted to surprise him. He had sent him out with Hawk, knowing all too well that Lucy wouldn’t be able to keep his secret.
Harry planned to bake his lover a cherry pie.
Thing was, he was by no means any sort of baker. But he had gotten the recipe from Norma — after a lot of convincing from Ed — it couldn’t be that hard, right?
The sheriff carefully followed the recipe, not wanting to mess up the thing his Cooper loved so dearly. He was making a mess of their kitchen, but it was worth it.
Cooper was worth it.
Harry began his baking escapade by mixing together some flour and salt — hobbling his way over with two bags in his hand, he grumbled as he sat them down onto the counter.
He — as carefully as he could — tried opening the bag of flour first, although despite his best efforts and a lack of awareness of his own strengths, the bag burst open sending a cloud of flour to poof onto his face and clothes, The sheriff quickly sputtered everywhere and quickly tried to clean up his mess.
“This is going to be a long day.” Harry thought to himself as he carefully opened the salt bag, letting out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding as the bag opened without any problems.
The measuring wasn’t going too terribly bad — or at least so Harry thought — he may have added too little to the mix and added just a tiny bit more that tiny bit being a lot of a bit but he figured it’d be fine, right?
As he finally had his dry mixture said and done, he put it in the refrigerator to chill for a bit — Norma said it was best that most of the ingredients for the crust was cold — and he wasn’t about to ignore such advice.
Now that the dry mixture was in the fridge, Harry began to work on the filling — he’d gotten a jar of fresh cherries to use just for this occasion, he got his knife and cutting board ready so he could pit and half the cherries.
Now, Harry was no stranger when it came to knives — but that doesn’t mean he was a master at using them. As he halved and pitted the cherries, he nicked his fingers multiple times — whenever he did he would immediately stop what he was doing and put a bandaid on the cut, he couldn’t let his Cooper’s pie be ruined by his little mistakes.
After a long and tedious hour of cutting cherries — Harry was finally able to move the little fruits over to the saucepan, he put some sugar and lemon juice into the mix as well- although he sort of halved what measurements to use and “made it balanced” as he would say to himself.
The sheriff turned on the heat of the stove and began to cook the filling mixture, occasionally taking his eyes off it while looking what to do next on the recipe paper Norma gave him. Harry then spooned the cherries out of the pan, pouring the juice into a little cup — he then added some cornstarch into the juice, mixing it together until the starch dissolved into the juices, he wondered if he used enough cornstarch as he poured the juice back into the saucepan.
He stirred the pan for a good few minutes — the sauce was supposed to thicken, but it didn’t necessarily feel like it had, so Harry went a few more minutes until he had something that resembled the thick texture.
Now it was time to put it all together — Harry, with such a large smile on his face, turned off the heat of the stove to let the sauce cool for a bit while he took the pie crust he made out of the refrigerator — humming to himself as he rolled out his dough, making the base of the crust first.
The sheriff took out the pie tray he’d use to bake it in, he took his rolled dough and laid it gently across the pan, trying to shape it into what he thought looked correct. Next he cut some strips of the dough to place over the whole pie when he was done filling it with the cherries he cooked — although the strips he cut were a little weird in size.
Harry now added his finishing strips of the pie crust, he let out a deep breath he didn’t even know he was holding as he swiftly turned around to preheat the oven.
After some time — an impatiently long time — Harry finally set the pie into the oven, closing the door with a huge grin on his face as he set a timer for the pie, oh he was so very excited to show Cooper this.
The sheriff unfortunately got caught up thinking about how Dale would react — he didn’t even realize the timer was going off for at least 3 minutes longer than it was supposed to. Harry quickly took the oven mitts and scooped the pie out of the oven, setting it down onto the counter to cool.
—
“Harry! You’d never believe the day I’ve had-“ Cooper paused, “Harry, I am terribly sorry, I believe I’m having a heart attack.”
Harry quickly spun around and into their living room, smiling at Cooper before processing the words that had come out of the beautiful man’s mouth, “Wait what?!”
“Oh! Nevermind! I thought I smelled burnt toast, what are you baking?” Cooper grinned upon seeing Harry — who had forgotten that he was utterly covered in flour and cherry filling residue.
“Oh, yes! I made you a pie!” Harry excitedly said, smiling from ear to ear.
Cooper followed his lover into their kitchen where the pie shaped dessert was set to cool on the counter, “Oh…Harry, you are just delightful!” He supplied as he noticed the man’s cheerful expression, not wanting to crush his spirits.
Harry happily plated a slice and poured a cup of coffee, handing them to his lover proudly. The expression brought a grin to Cooper’s face despite his cautious approach to his partner’s baking skill.
“How is it, Coop?” The sheriff grinned as Cooper took a bite of the thick and overfilled pie.
Cooper took a slow drink of coffee to buy him time to think through his response, “Well…Harry it’s not very good,” He said carefully, settling on the honest answer. “But I appreciate the gesture and think you are lovely for even attempting such a task for me!” He added with a grin before kissing — the admittedly defeated looking — Sheriff on his stained cheek.
Harry’s smile returned slightly at the kiss, “Sorry, Coop, I followed Norma’s recipe and everything!” He said with a faint frown.
Cooper moved to grab Harry’s hand and gave it a quick squeeze, “Don’t feel bad, Harry, as I said before this is incredibly endearing. And you look quite cute covered in flour.” He chuckled, moving his hand to cradle the man’s jaw to dust the powder from his cheek.
The taller man practically melted into the touch, a smile spreading from ear to ear matching Cooper’s own. Harry knew he was blushing. How could he not when Coop looked at him like that?
He let out a sigh as he gazed into Cooper’s bright and ever so loving eyes. “You’re too sweet to me, Coop.”
“I could very well say the same for you, Sheriff.” Cooper replied, punctuating the statement with a playful pinch to the man’s nose. “What do you say we get you cleaned up and we go to the R&R?”
“I’d love that, Coop.” Harry chuckled as the two walked over to the kitchen sink. Cooper stood in front of Harry — who was leaning back against the counter — dopey grin lingering as he gently swabbed the man’s face with a wet washcloth.
“Better?”
“Not quite.” Cooper said plainly before leaning up to place a chaste kiss to the man’s lips. He smiled before quickly returning for a longer second kiss.
Harry grinned into both, kissing him back. Cooper’s hand found its rightful place on the back of his neck as he pushed flush into Harry — effectively pinning the sheriff between himself and the edge of the hard counter top.
When they parted, they had matching flushed expressions and dopey grins.
“I love you, Harry.” Cooper said plainly, smile clear in his voice.
“I love you too, Coop.” He placed one last quick peck to the man’s lips just before he could step back.
The two tidied up the kitchen together before driving Harry’s beat up truck to the R&R.
“Didn’t go as planned, huh, Sheriff?” Norma teased upon seeing them.
“I’d rather not talk about it.” Harry conceded playfully.
“Best to leave it to the professionals, two cherry pies, I take it?”
“Yes ma’am.” Harry smiled, tipping his hat to her before taking a seat at one of the booths.
“Oh! I almost forgot, I got you something!” Cooper grinned as he fished a small pine cone from his pocket.
Harry smiled through a puzzled expression, “What’s this for?”
“I found it while hiking with Hawk, I thought it would be nice to plant in our yard as a reminder of our first year living together.” Cooper smiled.
“Aw, you sweetheart.” Harry grinned down at the seed then back at Cooper.
Soon, Norma had brought out their pies and coffees for the two to enjoy over Cooper’s retelling of his day.
—
“Thank you, Harry. This day was wonderful.” Cooper said as the two got ready for bed.
“Of course. Happy birthday, Coop.” Harry said, crossing the threshold of their bedroom to kiss the man once more.