Short Stories

Bakeries and Birthdays

Summary: Emma wants to celebrate Kokoro's birthday with her, and she always enjoys baked goods on her own. Maybe Kokoro will as well.

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"Come on, Kokoro! I know you'll enjoy this!" Emma said happily as she led Kokoro down the sidewalk, hand and hand. "You deserve to have something good on your birthday!"

Kokoro didn't agree with Emma's logic; if anything, she wanted to forget that it was her birthday at all. She had never liked it.

Sure, there were a few upsides to it, as far as Kokoro could tell. But those upsides were all for other people, she had never received them. Why should she start now?

Well, for one, she'd be making Emma happy. And also, the fact that Emma would not leave her alone until they went for one of these so-called 'upsides'.

Kokoro didn't see the part in this one. Sure, baked treats could be nice sometimes, but it seemed excessive to get an entire cake just for a birthday. there was no way the birthday person would be able to eat it all in one day, and it could get too sugary and end up thrown away.

Emma didn't seem to care about that at all though, she happily led Kokoro through the streets to the bakery.

Honestly, Kokoro wasn't surprised. Her girlfriend was always like this, whether she liked it or not. While most days this was a positive, Kokoro wasn't sure if that applied here today.

But Kokoro didn't have the will to pull away or reject Emma's idea, then she'd have to deal with an upset Emma. An upset Emma was never a good thing to deal with, Kokoro had learned from experience.

At Least Emma wasn't throwing a party for her. That much Kokoro was grateful for.

"We're almost there!" Emma excited proclaimed as the two finished crossing the street to where shops were all lined up in a row. Kokoro surveyed them one at a time, curious about each one.

Kokoro didn't get a chance to find out more about each store, as she was quickly pulled away from them and made to stand in front of their destination, a small yet good-looking bakery.

"We're here!" Emma announced excitedly. "This place has always been one of my favorite places, and I know you'll love it too, Koko!"

Kokoro studied the bakery for a moment and decided to give it a shot. "Alright, we'll see."

"Good enough for me!" Emma chirped, and led Kokoro into the bakery, both of them suddenly being attacked by the delicious smell of baked goods.

"Hello! Welcome!" An employee called from the front desk. "Take your time picking out what you want, no rush!"

"Thank you!" Emma answered and led Kokoro up to where the baked goods were on display. "Just look at them all, Koko! Don't they all look delicious?"

Admittedly, Kokoro had to agree with Emma on this. There seemed to be everything from donuts to cupcakes to freshly baked cookies, and they all emitted a delicious smell.

"They do all look quite nice." Kokoro commented. "They smell good too."

"I know, right?" Emma asked, beaming down at Kokoro. "And now you get to pick something! Maybe even somethings! Take your time deciding, you heard the nice employee, and it's your birthday so you should make sure what you pick is extra special!"

Kokoro didn't respond verbally to Emma and instead just nodded, looking over her options. While Kokoro wasn't a big fan of sugary treats in general, she decided to humor Emma a bit and get something. At least Emma wasn't making her get a big birthday cake.

Cookies were a no-go for her; as good as they smelled, Kokoro had always found cookies to be either rather bland or just too sweet for her, and she never usually ended up finishing more than one or two bites.

Donuts were messy, especially if they had frosting on them. The ones that didn't were okay, but Kokoro found herself looking past them for whatever reason. She supposed she just wasn't in the mood for them,

That only left one option, and Kokoro looked them over, trying to decide which one she wanted.

Cupcakes were a type of birthday food, she supposed, and that's why she felt drawn to them at this particular moment. Maybe on another day she would have chosen something else, but for now she felt that cupcakes were the way to go.

A simple vanilla one would do, Kokoro didn't want to get too complicated, and as for the icing, Kokoro decided on vanilla as well, and she looked towards those kinds of cupcakes.

The cupcakes with vanilla icing seemed to be the ones with the most color, which made sense to Kokoro since it would be hard to dye a different flavor or color of icing, and she eventually found a decently sized cupcake that had a magenta-like icing.

She quickly got Emma's attention, who had been looking at the donuts, and pointed to the cupcake. "I'd like that one, please."

Emma followed where Kokoro's finger was pointing and clapped her hands together, smiling. "Wonderful choice, Koko! That does look delicious!"

Kokoro looked away. "I suppose."

The actress suppressed a giggle at her girlfriend's shyness and quickly waved down the employee. "Can we please get that cupcake there, and also a chocolate frosted donut? In two separate bags, please!"

The employee nodded and quickly got to work, extracting both the cupcake and a chocolate frosted donut, which Kokoro could tell Emma had picked out for herself, and bagged them in two separate bags and put them on the counter. "That'll be 522.24 yen, please!"

Kokoro began to reach for her wallet when Emma held out a hand and stopped her. "It's your birthday, so I'll pay!" She informed her as she got the money out and handed it to the employee. "I have the money to spare anyway!"

"...Thank you." Kokoro said quietly, unprepared for the gesture. It seemed that no matter how long Kokoro was dating Emma for, she could never get used to her random acts of kindness.

The employee took the money and gave Kokoro and Emma their bags, smiling at them. "Enjoy, you two!"

"Thank you!" Emma called out while taking Kokoro by the hand again, and she led her out of the bakery.

"Wasn't that fun, Koko?" Emma asked. "Now we both have a nice treat for us to enjoy! And I know the perfect place to eat them at as well!"

"Ah, the park again?" Kokoro asked, smiling. "At the spot behind the tree with the burrow near it?"

Emma giggled. "You know me so well, Koko! Let's go!"

The two quickly traveled to the park that they both enjoyed being at and found their usual and favorite place behind a tree. It was always peaceful there, no one could interrupt them while here.

Neither of them had a blanket to sit on, but they didn't care and just sat down on the bare grass, and Emma took out her donut while Kokoro almost hesitantly took out her cupcake.

Emma didn't waste any time in taking a bite out of her donut. "Mm! Delicious!"

Kokoro didn't say anything, just stared down at her cupcake, still a bit reluctant to take a bite. She didn't know whether the cupcake would be decent, or if it would be too sweet, and she wasn't sure she wanted to find out.

"Come on Koko, take a bite!" Emma encouraged. "It's delicious, you'll see! Plus, you picked it out, so you should eat it!"

"...Alright." Kokoro responded, deciding to take a chance, if only for Emma. She hesitantly put the cupcake to her mouth and took a small bite, getting a bit of icing on her face in the process.

...Oh. The cupcake seemed to be almost perfect, not too sweet, but also not flavorless, and it was moist too. The icing was nice as well, it added a bit more flavor to the cupcake, and it tasted good.

Emma smiled and giggled a bit at seeing Kokoro's face morph from surprised to content quickly. "I take it you like it?"

"Mmhmm." Kokoro answered as she ate a bit more of the cupcake, not wanting to speak with an actual comprehensible word as she savored the taste.

Maybe she'd have to go back to that bakery next year for her birthday too.