The food experiments

VIII

What exactly did he mean by that? Hal wasn't sure of the answer —was his voice really that powerful towards him...?—, but it cheered him up to know David appreciated his presence. He offered him a hug, which happened to be longer and tighter than what he would've expected from him. Not that he was complaining..., but it still worried him the source of this sudden clinginess.

—Are you really okay? —Otacon insisted.

—As good as I can be —he replied—. I just need to focus on other things, that's all.

They remained still, Otacon waiting for him to recompose and Snake voidly staring at the snow, with his mind occupied.
Snake lifted his arm as to hold Otacon's head, after which he immediately moved closer and kissed his lips. He kissed him slowly, but with enough energy in his movements. He let go a long exhalation after leaning back, allowing his intrusive thoughts to leave his body.

—It's good that you kissed me a while back.

—...huh...? —Hal stuttered, visibly caught by surprise.

—If you hadn't, I don't think I'd've ever done that. Not sure how to explain it, but it's like you took a weight off my shoulders.

—...

—You're a great guy, Otacon. It'd be fine by me to spend the rest of my life with you..., in whichever way that might be.

Hal lost his equilibrium because of the chaos happening inside his mind and fell back, the snow freezing his neck. David lifted him with ease, patting away any remnant of snow both on his hair and his clothes. He could see Otacon was blushing and hadn't yet figured out what to do nor how, so he picked him up the same way a knight would with a damsel in distress and brought him inside the house.

_____

Snake decided to groom all of his dogs to really stay busy and fully distracted with their foolishness, that way he wouldn't think about the past - he'd just worry about how many mountains of fur would cover his floor and how tired his arms would end up feeling.
He had built a small shed a few years ago where he kept his dogs' belongings, some tools, and a few items he didn't know where to place. He called his huskies and they followed him there, entering one by one when asked to.

Otacon felt somewhat upset with himself - he wasn't supposed to still act so shyly at this point, he was supposed to act more confidently. He had gone through enough with David to have achieved a certain amount of intimacy despite his avoidant personality, and yet he failed not to blush at any minor word or caress he'd receive.

He had been updating the cooking forum for a while, but grew bored of it. He closed the windows before turning off his computer and walked into the kitchen, where he stood for 5 minutes debating what to try this time. Preparing something sweet might cheer Snake up... A cake could be nice.
Amongst the people who had talked about desserts, someone had mentioned the Himmelstorte. Its name (“Heaven Cake") sounded good enough to convince him, and it didn't seem to be too difficult to do.

Otacon picked up the DIY recipe book he had inside his personal cabinet and looked for the instructions to follow. He was growing comfortable in this kind of thing, so it didn't take him too much time to go from the prep work to the cook time, except...

—Where are the raspberries?! —he said out loud to himself.

He left everything as neatly as possible and ran outside looking for David - he was on a smoking break from all the grooming, with a face that showed he was getting physically tired.

—Snake! —Hal called him, panicking—. Did you eat all of the raspberries? I can't find them, but I need to use them right now!

—No —he answered, unbothered—. Did you look behind all those Japanese colored teas you have in the fridge? I think I saw some reddish tupper back there.