Work Text:
On the morning of his thirteenth birthday, Tomura Shigaraki requests a cake.
But not just any cake— it must be a cake that he gets to bake himself, Tomura insists. He's a big kid now, old enough to handle the oven and all the fancy appliances that Sensei had previously said he'd have to wait to learn how to use, and he's fully determined to prove that he can do this.
And who is Kurogiri to deny Tomura this one simple thing that he asks for on his birthday, after all? The request could have been far worse, or far more expensive, or far more troublesome — he internally almost shudders at the thought of attempting to decipher the instructions manual in order to assemble and install that new gaming system that had been heavily talked about over the past few weeks.
Yes, it could be so much worse. How hard can baking a simple cake be?
One dubiously-legal shopping trip to and from the convenience store later, they're ready to find out.
And, oh, find out they do indeed.
Barely two steps in, it is determined that Tomura is awful at distinguishing between the differently-sized measuring cups and various units of measurement. Kurogiri learns this the moment he reads off "one quarter cup of einkorn flour" and turns around just in time to see Tomura enthusiastically dump a packed solid half cup of flour into their thankfully larger than necessary mixing bowl.
(Never mind that Kurogiri himself read the instructions wrong; that was supposed to actually be 1/3 cup, not 1/4. Oh, well — half a cup is close enough that he can let it slide this time. Surely they won't mess anything else up if they're extra careful, right?
The next mistake is Kurogiri's fault entirely. The isntructions say to beat two whole large eggs into the mixture, and he does exactly as asked — only to be stopped by a horrified shout from Tomura that no, he wasn't supposed to put the entire egg in, eggshell and all, what is he even doing???
In his defense, the instructions most definitely hadn't said anything about taking out the shells, and he even read it over two more times to make sure.
But it should be okay. Nothing wrong with a little extra protein, right?
When he accidentally substitutes baking soda for baking powder a few minutes later, Kurogiri is beginning to doubt the success of this cake. Although, when he thinks about it, baking soda and powder must just be two forms of the same compound — why else would they be so similar and even be sold right next to one another at the store?
Besides, the most important thing is the flour and sugar. As long as they have sufficient amounts of both ingredients, nothing can go that horribly wrong.
And then Tomura pours in two tablespoonfuls of salt before Kurogiri can realize that he should've been using sugar and had been scooping from the wrong container.
Oh, dear.
Lukily for them, they're able to scoop out most of the salt and dump enough sugar in to balance it out. Their mixture looks a little lumpy when they're finished, but all in all, Kurogiri almost wants to feel a bit proud — they'd made it themselves, after all, and baking was hard. Extremely. Very much.
Plus, the recipe had declared itself foolproof. They would certainly be putting that label to the test, but they could definitely hope.
While the cake bakes in the oven, Kurogiri carefully helps Tomura whip up two batches of turquoise and magenta icing to decorate the top. Miraculously, whether it's the triple-checking of every instructional line or the snail's pace at which they work, not a single error is made during this portion. By the time they've placed the icing bags into the fridge to set, the cake is finished.
"Patience, Tomura."
"I wanna eat it now!"
"You must wait for it to cool so that it will not burn your mouth, and the icing has not been in the fridge for even fifteen minutes yet."
"It's too slow!"
At Tomura's persistent pleading, they take the icing out and do their best. Kurogiri attempts to write Happy Birthday Tomura Shigaraki in cursive, while Tomura makes increasingly unintelligible doodles around the edge.
The moment Kurogiri deems it cool enough to eat, they waste no time digging in.
The cake is… quite unique if only in its undertones of salt and slightly questionable texture and flavor balance…
But it is also theirs. Their very own creation.
"Happy birthday, Tomura," he says.
Tomura grins gleefully around a giant mouthful. He is happy, and truly that is all that matters.