With You, Under the Stars

IX. Bread

"I...I'm getting Taehyun." Soobin says.

"Nooooo," wines Kai, "we can do it! We don't –"

"I'm calling him!"

Kai gives Soobin his most heart-throbbing puppy dog eyes which Soobin forces himself to turn away from before he gets too sucked in. With a heavy heart, Soobin tells him, "I have to, Kai, it's what we must do." The younger drops his head and slowly waddles over to the kitchen sink to wash his hands.

Soobin looks around, barely able to see an inch of the hospital kitchen he and his fellow sweet-tooth-lover took over. Every surface was buried under flour, eggs, milk, dirty pots, pans, cooking bowls... you name it. He picks up one of the burnt blobs that lays around the stove. The strange texture, smell, and shape dissolves any confidence he has. It lifelessly slips out of his fingertips, plopping on the counter when strange sound it makes landing on the hard surface is unsettling. He sighs and reaches for a rag to wipe the counters when a smaller hand beats him to it.

"Arin, we should be the ones to –"

"No, it's fine. I don't mind, really." Despite her almost robotic tone, Soobin knows she is sincere and figures it's best not to fight a losing battle. He steps aside to let her work and walks over to the kitchen to wash his hands, too.

Kai pouts at the sink. 'Make bread with me' he says, 'it'll be fun!' he says...

"Heard that." Soobin says out loud, and Kai peeks over and sticks his tongue out at him. Soobin splashes over some water as his attack but before things escalate, Taehyun comes through the doorway. "Ya rang? Well, telepathically that is."

"Taehyun! Help!" Soobin cries out.

"We tried to make some sweet bread and it, well..."

Taehyun looks around at the mess. "It went horribly wrong." Taehyun adds, not even as a question. He raises his eyebrows looking more closely at the mess and would describe it as nothing short of anarchy against baking. "This has to be some kind of record for something; I don't even know what to say."

Heunging Kai appears and snuggles up right next to Taehyun, "Say you'll show us how it's done by making some new bread?" 

Taehyun scoffs, "Yeah, nice try." 

Soobin pops up on the other side of Taehyun and, before the younger vampire could try to get away, he oh-so-lovingly captures Taehyun in his arms. 

"Come on, please! If you, I mean, we  make a lot we can share, and I bet it would score some extra points with Beomgyu!" Taehyun freezes. He can't deny that it's definitely not a bad idea for one to make bread for their boyfriend whom they recently fought with... "Ok fine." and the two cheer.

It was like magic watching Taehyun work around the kitchen, adding a little bit of this and a little bit of that then stirring and tasting. Twenty minutes later, he's putting plastic wrap over the last of several bowls of dough to allow them to rise. The kitchen also somehow ended up becoming spotless by the time he was done, for Taehyun and Arin were in a perfect harmony of cleaning and baking. Kai and Soobin were planning to help with at least something, but it were like machines; Taehyun and Arin were on such a roll, they boys couldn't find a time to jump in without slowing them down.

-"Ok, so we can start shaping and put these in the oven in about thirty minutes after they've risen."

-"Ok, so give it thirty minutes for the dough to rise, then we can shape them and add stuff and put them in the oven."

Both Kai and Soobin's jaws are dropped, for they're still processing what they had just witnessed. Arin bows and shuffles out of the kitchen. Her work is done but an appreciative Soobin shouts, "We'll be sure to save you lots of bread!" The moment Arin is out of sight, a smile creeps over her face and she skips all the way down the hall.