Chapter Text
Knock, knock. A loud thud on the door startled Riku. Who the hell is knocking on my door? When Riku cracked open the door, he saw Cherry. Oh yeah, right. For Chloe’s birthday, she insisted on her cake being made by Cherry and Riku instead of a bakery, so they had agreed to make it on Saturday, a day before the party started, and document it for their psych final.
“Are you ready to go?” Cherry said, shifting his weight to lean on the door frame.
“Yeah, just let me put my shoes on.”
“Kk, I’ll be in the car; don’t forget to bring the egg.” They had agreed to make it at Cherry’s house while the girls were out getting their hair and nails done, so they wouldn’t have to transport the cake after they baked it, but before that they had to go to the store and pick up the ingredients.
As Riku fastened his seatbelt, he made a small noise of realization “I’ll text you the list.”
You
All-purpose flour
Sugar
Eggs
Milk
Butter
Vanilla extract
Baking powered
Salt
Cherry picked up his phone with one hand, glancing at it once every second, trying to read the list. “Well, we already have eggs, milk, butter, and salt, so you can check those off,” he finally replied after hitting a red light.
“You could’ve just asked me to read it to you instead of almost killing us.”
“Oh, come on, you were fine; I’m the best driver you’ll ever meet.” Riku couldn’t help but let out a slight giggle; yeah right. “Hey! Why’re you laughing? It’s not like you could drive any better than me”
“At least I follow the law.”
“Hey! I follow the law.” Okay, that got a chuckle out of him. He could admit that Cherry wasn’t the WORST driver ever (though he’d never tell him that), but saying that he was a safe driver had to be a joke.
Cherry let out a grumble, "At least I didn’t hit a trash can while pulling into my driveway.”
“THAT WAS ONE TIME!” They went on bickering for another 10 minutes or so until they arrived at the grocery store.
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“Okay, the baking section is over there,” pointing and walking in a random direction while reading the instructions off his phone. Cherry closely followed behind like a lost child. He knew Riku loved to bake; hell, he probably could get to the baking section with a blindfold on.
As Riku started picking out ingredients, Cherry stood there offering to carry everything. He didn’t know the first thing about baking, so he was pretty much only useful for his muscles at the moment, but Riku didn’t seem to mind too much; at least he wasn’t the one carrying them. After they (Riku) picked out the main ingredients, they headed over to the frosting and cake decorations.
Once they got there, he turned to Cherry. “Do you know the theme of the party?”
“Uhh. I think it was some kind of show or something? I just know it was really pink and girly.”
For the next 30 minutes or so they debated what toppers and icing to get. They ended up agreeing on red, light pink, and white frosting, silver pearls, some frosting bag tips, and Cherry had the idea of putting strawberries on top. After they paid (thanks, Cherry), they headed home.
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Once they got home Cherry changed into a plain tee and shorts while Riku set up everything.
“Okay,” Cherry clasped his hands together, “let's do this. How hard could this be?”
Very hard apparently, in the first 5 minutes Cherry had managed to get kicked out of the kitchen three times and both the boys were covered in flour.
“Okay, just fold the dry ingredients into the wet,” Cherry tilted his head to the left and he stared at Riku “You know, like fold it” Reiki tried again but this time with hand motions. Still nothing, “You know what, just preheat the oven to 350,” Reiki said as he shoved him out the way.
The oven was ready just in time as Riku finished pouring the cake patter into pans. They ended up using two pans, because Cherry added four cups of flour instead of two, so to even it out Riku doubled the whole recipe.
After they put the cake in the oven Cherry leaned over the countertop and let out a big sigh, in the process covering Riku in flour. “What the fuck man!” Cherry burst out laughing, in return Riku grabbed a fist-full of four and threw it right in Cherry’s face. Oh this meant war. In the end they were both covered head to toe in flour giggling like little kids.
After Cherry let Riku borrow some of his clothes to go shower while he cleaned up and watched the cake to make sure it didn’t burn. Just as he was finishing up Riku appeared from behind him. “Cherry…”
“Mmm” Cherry mumbled as he tried to scrub a stain off the counter.
“Your clothes don't fit”
“What?” What the hell was he talking about- oh. Riku had on Cherry’s pink hoodie and some black shorts. The hoodie fell off one of his shoulders exposing his collar bone, while also hiding most visible parts of the shorts. Fuck he looked hot. He didn’t know how long he stood there staring like an idiot.
“Cherry?”
“H-huh, oh, y-yeah, umm, well that's all I have so…” Cherry stood there scratching the back of his neck. “W-well I’m gonna go shower,” he said while rushing out of the room. Shit. He hadn't noticed, but somewhere in that awkward interaction he was given a little problem down south. What the hell, this is Riku I’m thinking about, so then why am I reacting like this? Cherry refused to think about this any longer, so he quickly hopped in the shower and turned the water on the coldest setting possible, determined to forget about this.
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After he washed up and rendered himself stable enough to go out there he saw Riku cutting the tops of the cake off. “Oh, you’re back, I started smoothing the cakes out so it’ll be easier to stack, and after that we can start decorating, so start thinking of how you want to decorate it.”
“Okay.” Thankfully Riku didn’t bring up how fast he rushed out of the room. After Riku placed the second tier on the cake and added a crumb coat of light pink icing, he hoisted himself up on the counter, making room for Cherry to finish the rest.
After another hour of decorating and small talk, the cake was finally done. Surprisingly, it actually looked really good. After they took a picture of it, with the egg, of course, Cherry gently placed the cake in a container and put it on top of the fridge so Chloe wouldn’t see it before the party. Since they still had a few hours before the girls would be back, they settled on watching movies in Cherry’s room.
After about two hours he heard the door unlock, “Chewwy!” Chloe practically jumped on him, “do you like my hair?” Her once curly hair was now straight and put up into a braided half-up-half-down style with glittery tinsel in her hair.
“Of course, you look like a princess.”
“Mom, did you hear that, I’m a princess!” She giggled excitedly.
“Yes I did honey, now go get ready for bed you have an exciting day tomorrow." After Chloe ran off, she double-checked to make sure the coast was clear and whispered “Were you boys able to finish the cake.”
“Yup, we put it on top of the fridge.”
“That's great,” she said turning to Riku, “Riku, dear, will you be staying the night, you know you’re always welcome.”
“Ah, I’d love to, but I should get home and prepare for the party.” He tried to say as politely as possible.
“Oh yes of course, Cherry will you be taking him home.” He knew it wasn't really a question, but he’d already planned to anyway.
“Yeah, we’re about to leave now.” He said, typing something on his phone.
“Great, well I’ll see you tomorrow then, I hope you’ll enjoy the party Riku!”
“I’m sure I will Ms. Ariti.”
“How long have we known each other now? Just call me Maureen.” Yeah, there was no way he was ever going to do that, but he nodded his head anyway to be polite.