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Bright and fanciful desserts wooshed by as Shoka skimmed her phone. A dark chocolate crunch cake looked extra appealing, but those layers? Hell no. Baking anything even remotely like that was way out of her field.
Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t dare torture herself by scrolling through the recipes of so many mouth-watering treats, especially when they were so miserably unavailable to her. However, Shiki’s birthday was coming up, and that made her suffering an exception.
Shoka had told Neku not to worry—that she’d pick out a cake for her older friend. But the honest truth was, she had every intention of baking Shiki something special herself—a way to show her gratitude for letting Shoka live at her apartment, and for being her friend, too.
A quick flick of her gaze to the upper corner of her phone told her she’d spent well over half an hour on this baking mission, yet she was still no closer to figuring anything out. Everything seemed too complicated. She knew Shiki favored matcha and desperately wanted to use it in her scrumptious present, but all the recipes she found only served to jumble in Shoka’s mind. She didn’t get the first thing about baking.
Thumbing past some extravagant wedding cakes, she found a few recipes using pre-made mixes instead. That would be easy enough, but… they weren’t homemade like the others had been. Her lips twisted into a frown. She really wanted to do this from scratch. Shiki deserved that.
Suddenly, a notification popped up at the top of her screen, disrupting her hunt. It was from Rindo, asking if she wanted to meet up to play a little FanGO.
Sighing, she let her phone flop against her chest. Maybe a distraction would help her start fresh later. Better than wallowing in frustration at her lack of baking skills. So she texted back.
< Sure. Sounds good :) >
She’d figure the cake out later. There were still a couple of days, so that should be plenty of time… right?
An hour later, and she was off on a heated search for the rare and elusive Amber Carbuncle with Rindo. The duo had gone from Hachiko Square all the way to Tokyu Plaza. In the end, their efforts didn’t pay off, and they lost track of the roaming monster.
“Are you kidding me?” Shoka whined bitterly.
“I know. It sucks, but that’s what happens when rare ones like this can flee,” Rindo grumbled, slumping against the nearest wall belonging to a shop. “Hopefully we’ll have better luck next time.”
“I guess,” Shoka huffed. “Would’ve been nice if something could go right today.”
“What do you mean?”
Shoka hesitated at her slip-up. “Nothing. It’s not really important.”
“Obviously it is if you’re complaining about it.” This earned him an annoyed glare.
“Like I said—it’s no big deal, so don’t worry about it.”
“C’mon Shoka, you know better than to hide stuff that’s bothering you.”
She puffed her cheeks. He was right, really, but that didn’t make it any less irritating when he called her out. “I sort of… wanted to do something for Shiki’s birthday.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Oh, yeah? Like a gift, or something?”
“Sorta? More like… a dessert, though. A birthday cake.”
The corners of Rindo’s mouth lifted into a subtle smile. “I think that’s a great idea. What’s wrong with it?”
“Nothing’s ‘wrong’ exactly… I just don’t know…”
“Don’t know?”
“How to make one,” Shoka shoved the words out of her mouth, cheeks tinted pink.
“You never made one in home economics?”
“No. I only did a little of that before… Y’know. The UG happened.”
“Oh… Makes sense.” Rindo lifted his phone. “Well… They’re not too hard depending on what you make.”
“Wait. You’ve made one before?”
“Yeah, we made cake bites as a class one time, and I’ve helped my mom bake some cakes before, too.”
Shoka watched in disbelief as he swiped a finger across his phone’s screen. That wasn’t something she would’ve ever pictured. “Wow. Didn’t know I’ve been hanging around a cake master. Why haven’t you made any since I’ve known you?”
“Because I’ve only made them a few times? And I’m not the Queen of Sweets like you are.”
“That’s no excuse. I can’t judge you on your quality unless you make me something.”
“You just want free cake,” he responded dryly.
“And what’s wrong with that? It’s your duty as my boyfriend.”
“Right. How about I help you make one for Shiki? There’s a lot of easy recipes on here.” He flipped his phone around to show her a website dedicated to simple cake baking. Each looked so delectable that she already wanted to delve right into one.
“I guess that’s fine. But you can’t tell any of the others, got it?”
“How are you going to work that? Shiki’s having a party, and everyone’ll be there. Hell, you live with Neku.”
“Well… Yeah, he knows, but only…” She floundered as her repertoire of snappy comebacks failed her.
“Don’t worry, okay? We can go get the ingredients for one now, then bake it together later.” He accepted his phone back. “Do you know if she’s gonna be out on her birthday at all?”
“I think she’s got a meeting the morning of it. Neku was planning to prep stuff for her party around then.”
“That’s perfect. We can just make it while she’s out, and it’ll be all ready for her party.”
“What am I supposed to do with the ingredients in the meantime, though?” Shoka questioned.
“I’ll take them home with me, then bring stuff over early.”
“So we’re ditching FanGO for grocery shopping?”
Rindo shrugged. “No one’s stopping us from checking things on the way. Right?”
“Hm… Alright, lead the way, O’Cake Master.”
Rindo cringed. “Can’t you just stick with ‘Fearless Leader’?”
“Nope. That one’s reserved for special moments only.”
Shaking his head, the blonde boy reached for her hand and grasped it gently before leading her off in search of the nearest corner store.
The next couple of days zoomed past, and in no time, the morning of Shiki’s birthday had arrived. Savory scents filled the apartment from the elaborate breakfast Neku had made for her before wishing her well with her meeting. While he cleaned up the last of the kitchen mess, Shoka continually checked her phone to see if Rindo would be here soon.
“Do you care if I go out and get the rest of what we need for Shiki’s birthday?” Neku asked, practically making her jump.
“T-that’s fine. I’ll be here.”
“You good?” the older boy asked, grabbing his wallet.
Shoka nodded hastily. “I’m just waiting for Rindo to answer my text. He was gonna help me… uh. With the cake stuff.”
Neku raised an eyebrow, but to her relief, didn’t ask anymore questions. “Alright, well text me if you think of anything we need.”
“Okay. I will.”
“See you in a little while,” he said, then shut the door with a soft click.
No sooner than Neku had left did Rindo’s text chime in. Finally, the slowpoke was on his way.
“About time,” Shoka groaned as she fixed her phone with a glare. “Hurry it up, Rindo.”
While she waited, she decided to get out any of the baking materials they’d need—bowls, a whisk, little measuring thingies.
Just as she finished her scrounging, Rindo arrived with bags of groceries strung across his arms—everything they’d purchased in order to make Shiki a strawberry matcha cake.
“You don’t know the hell my mom put me through having all this stuff at our house.” Rindo heaved the bags onto the counter. “First she thought I was making something for my ‘dear girlfriend.’”
Shoka snickered. “I mean, you probably should be doing that for your ‘dear girlfriend.’” She pulled a pouty, yet coy expression.
Though Rindo rolled his eyes, a hint of blush colored his cheeks. “Then she thought it was for a school project and I had to tell her I was just helping a friend.”
“Aww. Sounds like you really got the run-around,” she teased.
“Next time you can explain things to my mom.”
“Fine, whatever. We’d better get started. We’ve only got a couple hours to…” Shoka pulled her chosen recipe up. “To cream butter, crack eggs, and… sift the dry ingredients?” What did ‘sifting’ even mean?
“That should be enough as long as we work quickly.” Rindo set everything out beside all her scattered cooking gear. “Here, you can start by creaming the butter. You just need to—”
“Please. I know what that means,” Shoka cut him off. “You mix the butter with cream, right?”
“No—if you’d let me finish talking, I would’ve told you it means you beat the butter into a creamy consistency.”
Shoka bit the inside of her cheek at being reprimanded like a kid. She didn’t approve.
“Like this.” Rindo unwrapped and plopped squishy cubes of softened butter into a bowl, then grabbed a spoon and began whipping it up. “See?”
“I see it, Mr. Butter Expert.”
“I’m not an expert. It’s basic stuff.”
“Thanks. Appreciate that,” Shoka grumbled irritably, snatching the spoon from him so she could try.
“That’s not what I—never mind,” Rindo shook his head and moved onto the next task, rather than explain more. Shoka watched as he carefully measured out some sugar. “Keep beating that while I pour this in, okay?” His gaze met hers.
“Sure.” Shoka quickly looked away and kept up her work, despite the fact her arm ached from all of the stirring—whipping? Whatever it was called. Why did baking take actual physical effort?
Rindo poured the glittering sugar into the butter, and soon the mixture sparkled in such a way that it almost looked crystalline. The urge to swipe a small taste began to overwhelm Shoka, but just as soon as she’d thought of the idea, Rindo cracked two eggs into the bowl, effectively killing the temptation.
“Just keep mixing that a little longer.” He skimmed the ingredients list on his phone. “We also need to add some vanilla.”
“How much longer is longer? I feel like my arm’s about to fall off.”
“You sure you’re an Ex-Reaper?” Rindo teased sarcastically.
“Shut up. This isn’t like fighting Noise.”
“Yeah. It’s a lot easier,” Rindo said, drizzling in the vanilla. “Give that a few stirs, and we’ll be good.”
“To each their own,” Shoka retorted, finally letting her arm rest after the endless stirring. “What’s next?”
“Uh…” Rindo checked again. “We need to get the dry ingredients together. So, basically sifting the flour, adding baking powder, salt, all of that.”
There was that ‘sifting’ thing again. “What does it even mean by that?” she questioned.
“I think you’re supposed to mix the dry stuff then pour it into some kind of sifting thing that fluffs it all up?”
“Such a detailed description. You should write a cookbook.”
“Do you want my help or not?”
“Does flour really need fluffing?” Shoka asked, giving the powdery contents in the bag a single poke. “It’s already sort of… fluffy.”
“And you’re just going to ignore me, thanks. But I guess? It says to do it in the instructions, so…”
“Which translates to more stirring, doesn’t it?”
Rindo shook his head. “Actually, you should do the measuring this time so you can get a feel for it.” He nudged the flour, baking powder, and matcha her way.
Shoka bit her lip and read over the instructions list. There were only a few items she needed to measure out, and it wasn’t like she hadn’t done this type of thing before… But knowing this was for Shiki made her all the more nervous. “I need a cup and a half of flour first…” she mumbled to herself, memorizing the details as she grabbed the larger of the measuring cups and dipped it into the flour bag.
“Just be careful you don—” Rindo cut off as the sleeve of her hoodie tagged the inside of the bag, coloring it dusty white. “Do that,” he finished.
“Huh?” Shoka’s gaze fell to her sleeve, instantly taking note of the mess. “Seriously?” she whined, dropping her scoop of flour in order to save her hoodie.
“I’m sure it won’t be too hard to get off?” Rindo offered awkwardly, watching Shoka bat at the soft fabric. Her efforts did little good, as each whack only sent out more poofs of flour dust.
“Why didn’t you tell me to take it off first?”
Rindo frowned. “You couldn’t figure that one out yourself?”
“No? I almost never bake anything,” Shoka grimaced. Great, now in her efforts to get the flour off, she’d sprinkled some spilled sugar over her hoodie’s tail. Today’s recipe wasn’t supposed to be hoodie a la mode.
“Well, it’s still not my fault. You probably shouldn’t wear anything black while baking.”
“Some expert you are. I think your baking status needs a little downgrading,” she complained, back to swiping off her poor sleeves.
“Need a little salt to go with that sugar?”
Shoka barely had time to register his words as Rindo flicked a pinch of salt at her in the blink of an eye.
“You did not just do that.”
“I might’ve,” he said coyly. “You just called me a failure, so it only seemed fitting.”
Raising her arm, she gave it a swift pat right in front of him, creating a cloud of flour dust.
“H-hey! Careful, you’ll get that on my jacket.”
“Oh, dear. It’d be a real shame if your coat suffered too.” Her words dripped with sarcasm as she continued, “Maybe you should’ve thought to take your coat off first.”
“Mine’s not easy to wash.”
“And mine is?”
“Er—I don’t know, it looks like it’d be? My jacket has to be dry-cleaned.”
“Alright. Then, in that case…” Shoka snatched a fistful of sugar and made her best attempt to fling it at his head. Unfortunately, her small stature didn’t lend itself to his height, and the sugary grains simply landed all over his shoulders instead.
“You missed. But nice try.” This time, he scooped a bit of flour up and lightly sprinkled it over her head, dusting the cat ears of her hoodie white.
Further enraged, Shoka snatched the bag of flour away, bounced on her toes as best she could, and tossed a heapful at him.
Coughing and sputtering, Rindo backed up as this time she made her mark. “You got it in my face!”
“Serves you right for defiling my hoodie!”
“How? I barely got it on you, let alone on your face.” He brushed some of the white powder from his lashes then shook it free of his bangs.
“Too bad, so sad. You had it coming.”
A new spark formed in his eye and Shoka backed away with her bag. “Don’t you dare think about throwing anything else at me!”
“Why not? You turned this into a free-for-all.”
“Rindo! You’re supposed to be teaching me how to make a dumb cake, not turning me into one. Don’t test me!”
He snorted. “Maybe I should add a topper. Like a strawberry on top of your head.”
Just as she began debating whether or not he deserved to have more ingredients thrown at him, the door to the apartment clicked and Neku entered.
“I’m back.” Bags rustling, he made his way to the kitchen, only to stop short when he witnessed the mess that was Rindo and Shoka—or rather, the mess they’d made all over his once clean kitchen.
The silence between the three was deafening. “Do I want to know?” Neku finally asked.
“Er… Probably not,” Rindo answered sheepishly.
“What were you two doing? Trying to blow up the kitchen?”
“We were sorta baking a cake,” Shoka mumbled.
“Pretty sure this isn’t the right way to go about it.”
“Yeah—we know.”
“Right… I’m going to go focus on setting the party up and give you guys time to figure yourselves out. I’ll pretend this never happened if it goes away before I come back in.”
“Okay,” both answered a little awkwardly.
“Just don’t take too long, or Shiki’ll be back.”
Once Neku set to work on his party decorations, Shoka glanced up at Rindo. “I guess we’d better finish.”
He nodded, meeting her gaze. “We don’t have tons of time left, but… there’s one last thing I wanted to do.”
And before she could ask what exactly he meant, Rindo reached over and poked her cheek, dotting it with more flour. “There.”
This time instead of bubbling with annoyance, she felt her cheeks warm from something else. He grinned in such a way that made her heart give a little thud.
“It kind of makes you look…” he started.
“W-what?” Shoka snapped a little, flustered.
“Cute,” he finished, a blush coloring his own cheeks.
Shoka didn’t know how to answer as her pulse quickened, and Rindo just kept staring at her, so in the end she finally blurted, “So, what? I’m not usually cute?”
That was not what she’d wanted to say.
“H-huh? No. You’re always cute. You just look extra cute with flour on your face?” he tried, obviously struggling. “L-let’s finish the cake and clean up before Neku comes back in.”
“Y-yeah. Good idea,” she murmured, feeling warm enough to bake a cake herself.
They spent the next several minutes with Rindo showing her how to sift the flour. Sadly, they both sucked at it. So much that they wound up creating more of a mess, but somehow managed in the end and added the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Then it was time to pour the batter into the cake pan and stick it into the oven. The whole process wasn’t very hard, Shoka found out, but the disaster they’d left behind looked like a crime scene with flour as its victim. She cringed at knowing she had to clean it too.
“Now we’ve gotta let this bake, and after that, we can frost it and put on the strawberries. But for now, I guess clean stuff up.”
“Probably, or Neku will kick me out,” she joked.
“I’d rather not risk that. Not sure Uzuki would let me visit her place if you wound up there again.” Rindo grinned, teasing back. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”
Shoka found the small vacuum Shiki kept for cleaning and shoved it at Rindo. “Here, you’re on flour duty.”
“Aren’t you the one who got it everywhere?”
“What was that? I couldn’t hear you through the mess you made on my hoodie. Anyways, I’d better get to those dishes now.”
It took forever, but tackling each task together made the whole ordeal less daunting to deal with. Somehow, they finished with just enough time to spare, and once they had everything tidied away, it was time to frost the cake. Rindo helped her mix up the buttercream frosting, which she was unable to help but swipe a taste. Just to test it, of course. Shoka then spread its creamy contents across the cake in a thick layer and tossed on a sprinkle of matcha for added effect. Rindo sliced strawberries, munching on a couple as he did, before offering them to Shoka in order to finish off the last of the cake’s garnish.
Satisfied with their work, the pair slumped onto kitchen stools, both utterly exhausted.
“Let’s not do this again anytime soon,” Shoka let out an exasperated sigh.
“Sounds good to me,” Rindo quickly agreed. “I feel like I need a—” He stopped abruptly when they heard the front door open and close.
“I’m home!” came Shiki’s musical voice.
Shoka tensed. Worries of what she’d think of the cake flitted through her mind. Would it be good enough? Was it frosted enough? At least the kitchen wasn’t a disaster zone anymore. That was some small consolation to her anxiety.
“Time for the moment of truth, huh?” Rindo brushed at his bangs again, checking to see if he’d gotten all the flour out. Which… he hadn’t. Shoka could still see traces of it clinging to his bright bangs.
“Apparently.”
“Be happy the others aren’t here yet. It’ll be less pressure to give it to her separately,” Rindo tried.
“I still have to give it to her, though.”
“Well, yeah, that’s sorta the whole point of giving her a gift, isn’t it?”
“I know that! I’m just nervous.”
“It’ll be okay. You know she’ll love anything you make for her—she’s just that type of person.”
“You’re probably right...”
Shoka peered over the counter and into the living room as Neku greeted Shiki, then showed off the decorations he’d put out for her party. Pure delight covered her face, eyes shining at the set-up.
“What smells so good?” Shiki questioned after appraising Neku’s decorating skills. “It almost smells like a vanilla cookie scented candle? But much better than that.”
Neku directed his gaze towards the kitchen. “You’ll have to ask Shoka.”
“Shoka?”
Before Shoka had time to prepare or even mentally rehearse what she’d say, Shiki had wandered over with the curiosity of a cat. Though hopefully this curiosity wouldn’t kill her. Surely the cake hadn’t come out that bad.
“O-oh, uh... Rindo and I sort of baked you something. It’s not poisonous,” Shoka blurted out before she could stop herself.
“It was Shoka’s idea. I only gave her a little help.”
Shoka’s face flushed. He was seriously underplaying it. “I’m not sure I’d—”
“It looks amazing,” Shiki exclaimed, admiring the green and red cake. “You really made this for me?”
Shoka bobbed her head. “I just… you know, wanted to do something for your birthday, even if it’s just a cake.”
“A cake is plenty enough of a gift,” the older girl gushed. “Thank you so much, Shoka.” Shiki beamed then pulled her into a light hug.
Awkwardness seeped into Shoka, threatening to turn her into a puddle of embarrassment. She could hear Rindo laugh, and knew she’d have to get him for that later.
“S-sure. I hope it’s good enough for a birthday cake.”
“Of course it is.” Shiki stepped back. “I can’t wait to have a bite of it later.”
“More like a whole slice or two,” Neku chided.
“Yes, well. I have to enjoy all the hard work Shoka put in, don’t I? Let me just go get freshened up, and then I’ll be ready.” Shiki hurried off to her room.
Neku glanced back at the baking duo. “Nice save with the kitchen, by the way. You two could go into professional cleaning work,” he teased.
“No way,” Rindo and Shoka exclaimed at the same time.
“What about being the next epic baking couple on reality TV?”
“I’d rather choke on a strawberry,” Shoka was quick to say, face burning.
“I’ll pass too, but no choking on strawberries please.” Rindo shot Shoka a look.
Neku only chuckled at their reactions before leaving the pair be.
“Feel better?” Rindo asked after a moment.
“A little. I’m just glad she liked it.”
“I think it’s more like she loved it.”
“Yeah…” Shoka smiled. “I appreciated all your help… Like, you teaching me how to bake a cake and all.”
“Oh, uh, no problem… I didn’t mind.” Rindo tugged on the collar of his jacket. “I’m always here for you.”
There went her heart again. Why’d he have to say things like that? she thought, even though it filled her with as much happiness as it did nervousness.
“Thanks, Rindo.” She stretched up on her toes and pecked a kiss to his cheek, making the boy’s ears flare even more red. It may not have been his day to celebrate, but he deserved that much at least.
…and he also deserved the strawberry she slipped in his pocket.