[fic] Dolcificanti
Happy birthday, Question! <3
Title: Dolcificanti.
Summary: A cooking lesson seemed like a good idea, at least, that was until the walls were covered in flour, dough was in her hair and her first kiss was stolen. She was going to be dead when the illusion wore off.
Rating: PG-13.
Word Count: 3226.
Pairing: Takeshi Yamamoto/Chrome Dokuro.
AN: My first collaboration with dragoness21! Thank you, so, so much for agreeing to do this crack pairing with me. It really means a lot... especially after losing our last piece. Yamamoto was by dragoness21, while Chrome was by me.
As a gentle gust of wind travelled in through the open window, the ticklish feeling at the back of her nose became apparent again. Wrinkling it slightly, Chrome turned to the male next to her, stating weakly, “I don’t think this is going to work, Yamamoto-san.”
“Don’t worry, Chrome, I’m sure Tsuna will love it!” Even saying that, the room was covered wall to wall in a mixture of flour, sugar, butter and what suspiciously resembled pink frosting lingering on the walls and floor. The result of the battle scene before them sat in a bright blue bowl, with an electric mixer abandoned and mixing spoons discarded to the floor.
Now armed with a rolling pin, Yamamoto guided Chrome to the mixture to assure her that it was not out to get them.
“...Yamamoto-san,” Chrome interrupted quietly, taking a discreet step away from him. “We haven’t kneaded the mixture at all; that’s what the site said to do.” The purple-haired girl shot a significant look to the sheet of paper on the counter beside them, finally noticing that it, too, was covered in flour. They had made the frosting before hand, simply to save time, before realising that it might have set. So, trying to be quick, they were making more of a mess than they had anticipated. “Why is it split into two parts?” she murmured, mostly to herself while resisting the urge to grip her hair.
The idea seemed far too easy to work. Maybe, that should have alerted her in the beginning that she should have given up. Approaching Yamamoto had been nerve wracking, simply because she was looking out for Hibari to swoop down out of nowhere and reprimand her for trespassing within the school.
“Maybe it would be a better idea if you mixed it instead.” His eyes darted around the room sheepishly at the mess he created. “I’ll just sit and watch.” He took a seat, hopping over the flour dusted counter top as more of the ingredients smudged onto his black pants. Resting his elbows on the edge of the counter, he watched with fascination as Chrome picked up a new mixing spoon from a drawer to her left and gently began mixing the batter.
She felt awkward doing so, mostly since she was nervous it would go wrong; after all, baking wasn’t her hobby, most of the time. In fact, the idea had struck her on a whim, not what she would’ve normally gone for to show her gratitude to someone. Yamamoto deserved something, too, she concluded, glancing in her peripheral vision quickly. “Are you sure I should be stirring like this?” Chrome asked, nervously.
“Yup, you’re doing fine!” Yamamoto’s grin stretched brightly across his face. “Do you want any help? I just don’t want to make another mess again.” His sheepish laugh seemed to echo through the empty, flour dusted room.
From the reassuring smile, Chrome smiled softly to herself, her face feeling somewhat warmer than before from the action. It might have been from the flour within the air-since it was certainly making the air thicker than before-or simply the comfortable atmosphere. “I think I’ve got this,” she said quickly, before nodding to her own words. “It just needs to be at a good consistency, right?”
Laughing again, Yamamoto went from resting on his elbows to leaning on his upper arms; his chest almost pressed against the counter. “Unfortunately, I wouldn’t know. The only thing I know how to make is sushi.”
She blinked, thoroughly surprised by the news. “Eh?” she said loudly by accident, dropping the spoon to cover her mouth the next moment. Flushing in embarrassment, Chrome averted her eyes before removing her hand, mumbling, “Sorry, that surprised me, Yamamoto-san.” Assuming he had experience in cooking wasn’t one of her best thoughts, apparently, especially since she could have easily gone to Haru to ask. But, then again, that meant explaining who exactly the confectioneries were for-Haru didn’t seem the type to help other girls, who she hadn’t known for a long period of time, to supposedly woo her love.
Yamamoto was initially surprised by the amount of strength such small, thin arms could produce. She mixed the batter with ease while her body shifted back and forth producing quiet shuffling sounds from her apron and clothes against the counter. He automatically assumed that the Mist Guardian was getting tired. While Chrome continued to stare down at the mixing bowl, Yamamoto made his way around the counter until he was perched on her left. “You can take a break if you’d like. I’ll be extra careful to not make a mess, I promise.”
“I can?” Chrome blinked, glancing beside her hopefully. Although it was passing on work that was meant for her, if Yamamoto was offering, it would have been rude to reject him. “I’m almost done, I think.”
“Then maybe we can start rolling the dough out.” He grabbed the rolling pin after emptying the contents of the bowl out onto the already floured surface. Resting his chin against Chrome’s shoulder, he gently placed her hands onto the rolling pin and rested his hands over hers.
From the contact, Chrome stiffened before attempting to look over her shoulder at him. It didn’t work, clearly, due to his head resting upon her. Her genes came back to annoy her at that moment; the blush flooding her cheeks before she could help it. Damn it, she cursed, not entirely comfortable with how easy she was to become embarrassed. “Wouldn’t it be easier if you rolled it?” she asked, tentatively. “I don’t think I could do it properly.”
He shook his head, determined to make sure that it was Chrome who was making the baked goods and that he was only an assistant. On top of that, it was quite comforting to have her small body contained like it was.
“...Really?” She blinked, surprised again. Yamamoto was comfortable with her at that point; or, at least, it seemed so in her eyes. Normally she would’ve felt pressured to finish yet as she stared at the dough, Chrome gnawed on her bottom lip. Cautiously, she moved her hands forward, Yamamoto’s moving with hers, watch the dough expand curiously.
He leaned onto Chrome, careful to not knock her over. The fragile girl was always trying so hard to work her share or impress the Tsuna whether it was in battle or baking cookies for him. The relaxing atmosphere and steady rolling was beginning to put Yamamoto to sleep. His mind began drifting and before he knew it, he had stopped rolling and leaned all his body weight against Chrome’s back.
Surprisingly, Chrome fell forward, almost pressing her face into the sweet dough that had been completely rolled out; the texture was smooth at that point, yet as her hand fell from the rolling pin to grasp onto the counter-to stop herself from making a fool of herself-she pushed the dough apart instead, stretching it into two. “Eh?” Chrome drawled.
Yamamoto was fast asleep by then; a week of five o'clock in the morning baseball training finally taking its toll.
“Y-Yamamoto-san!” Chrome called loudly, trying to keep herself from falling forward. When he woke up, seeing her with dough and possibly other ingredients upon her face was definitely going to be confusing.
He could only mumble incoherent things as he dozed away soundly.
“Yamamoto!”
He sighed; what a nice dream. If only Chrome would call him like that on a regular basis; they were in the same family after all.
...Her words weren’t shifting him from his slumber at all, Chrome barely being able to stop from falling over at that moment. Searching her mind quickly, she pondered what she could do to wake him up; maybe, just maybe, the shock tactic would work instead. Ignoring her flaming cheeks, Chrome called, “Takeshi.”
His body shifted at the sound of his first name.
Chrome quickly realised that she had been rude, murmuring someone’s first name without permission. She moaned under her breath for a moment before shifting, noticing how heavy Yamamoto was against her back. It was to be expected, since he was an active baseball player, yet she had never had him so close before.
Yamamoto managed to roll his body over, colliding with the tiled floor, off of Chrome. As he sat up from the awakening impact, he groaned and blinked the sleep out of his eyes.
“Y-Yamamoto-san,” she stuttered, panicking for a moment before she was resting upon her knees on the floor. Leaning forward, she looked at the taller male curiously, expecting him to groan again. “Are you okay? You... fell on the floor.”
“Ah... sorry. I guess I’m not getting enough sleep.” His arms shot upwards;stretching and revealing a sliver of toned stomach as his shirt rose with his movement. He wasn’t sure, but Chrome’s gaze on him seemed to have...changed.
Turning her head away quickly, be it to hide her embarrassment from being too close or calling his name, Chrome willed herself to be normal. Yamamoto had simply needed to sleep, that was all; there was nothing else to it. “...Why don’t you go to sleep?” she offered, pointing towards the door shyly. “The infirmary is just down the hall, right?” The flour and pieces of dough were brushed off Chrome’s apron, falling onto the floor silently. “I’m sure I can cut out the pieces and then place them on a tray, alone.”
“Ah, but that would mean I’ll have to leave you alone.” His expression shifted from his usual carefree expression to something more caring; more mature. “You always look so lonely so I can’t have that.”
For a moment, surprise flickered within her violet iris before she covered it up. “I’m not lonely,” Chrome said with a nod, believing her words. “I have Mukuro-sama, so there’s no way I can be lonely.” Although he’s not here at the moment, she added within her head.
“Really?” One of his large hands found its way up to her chin, lifting it slightly. “Is Mukuro allowed to things like this, too?” He leaned in slowly, not completely sure what he was doing, but somehow, it just felt right.
“...Cook with me?” Chrome asking, trying to hold back a small spout of laughter. It didn’t seem to bother her at all that Yamamoto’s hand was touching her face, the image of Mukuro in an apron, however, was what was making her smile. “No, he doesn’t do that with me.” Still, she wished he was there, anyway.
Yamamoto decided to fall back. It seemed that Chrome’s denseness was apparent as ever. “Well, we better finish up if we want to give these to Tsuna before it starts raining.” Holding Chrome by the hand, he pulled her upwards and they continued the cookie production smoothly until the timer rang for the last batch.
About to thank Yamamoto, Chrome looked to her side, only to burst out into a small spout of laughter. It had built up from before, but seeing Yamamoto with flour within his black hair, making it appear gray, was a humorous sight. “Y-your hair,” she choked out quietly, raising her index finger to point. “I’ll get it for you.” Reaching up, Chrome brushed her fingers through his bangs for a moment, making the white powder scatter into the air. Beaming at him afterwards, Chrome realised that the atmosphere wasn’t uncomfortable around them. Before that day, honestly, their contact had only been for a few minutes, never alone together for an extended amount of time.
Yamamoto laughed and shook his head the same way a dog would after swimming. The white powder flew freely around them and settled on the surfaces around them. He took the chance to wipe a bit of frosting from her rosy cheeks. “And your cheek.”
Initially, surprise was the first expression across Chrome’s face. She hadn’t known the icing was there, but, most likely, there was more than that across her face, within her hair, too. “...We probably look a mess.”
He grinned, pleased at the thought. “I guess we do.” After looking around the room at at the sheer destruction they caused and chuckled, wiping his hands on his powder stained pants. “What should we do about the room?”
“We can’t leave it.” Chrome gulped, practically seeing her life flash before her eyes. If Hibari caught her at that moment, she was done for; tress passing on school property, purposely making a mess and, most of all, not wearing the correct uniform. “Do you know where the towels are to clean up, or something like that?”
“If you leave now, you can catch Tsuna before he leaves school. I’ll stay back and start cleaning up.” Rolling up his sleeves, he grabbed a roll of paper towels out from under the sink and started with the counter top.
Debating her choice within her head for a moment, Chrome shook it quickly. “No,” she said, courageously taking the paper towels out of his hand, placing them behind her back. “I’ve got a better idea, if you want to hear it.”
He cocked his head to the side, confused, but definitely curious. “Go on.”
Fiddling with the end of her skirt, since she’d discarded the apron, Chrome debated whether changing her mind. “I could... cast an illusion.”
Yamamoto glanced around the room once more, but sighed in defeat. They would have been here for days cleaning up. “Hibari is going to try to destroy us once he finds out, won’t he?”
“...We’d be long gone,” she explained hopefully, with a shrug of her shoulders. Reaching down into the bag that she had carried-which had been cast aside, out of the way behind a stool-Chrome grasped her trident, fully prepared to cast what she needed to. “That’s all we need to do, isn’t it?”
“I guess so.” He braced himself, also grabbing his school bag. “Ready when you are.”
“It’s best if you go first,” Chrome said, eyes darting towards the door. To be on lookout, she added in her head. “I’ll be there in a minute; just wait outside.”
“Right. Just, one last thing.” Unlike last time, Yamamoto didn’t stop. He leaned forward as he grasped Chrome’s hand gently, making it so they were almost on the same level as he made eye contact. Surely, the eye smile that he had heard about was in full swing as he looked at her. Taking advantage of the element of surprise, Yamamoto pressed his lips softly against hers, not aggressive at all, as he waited to see what her reaction would be.
Her first reaction was the most dominant; shock was etched across her expression as her face became flooded with red, mouth opening but no words coming out coherently until she gave up, willing herself to keep her dignity by staying quiet.
He smirked deviously into the kiss and slipped his tongue into her mouth gently, not wanting to scare the smaller girl off. Just as expected, she tasted like the cookies they had just prepared, icing and Chrome. His hand seemed to grip her hand a bit tighter from the sheer suspense of whether or not she would push him away. After all, he was almost certain that there would be no one else for her except for her precious Mukuro.
The hand that was wrapped around hers was comforting, but that didn’t stop the fact that embarrassment was flooding into her expression. When Yamamoto deepened the kiss, Chrome felt her breathing hitch before she favoured dropping her trident-wincing inwardly at the low thud it produced-to slowly push him away. Her face was a bright shade of scarlet, eyes wide, too, as she stared up at him in confusion.
Yamamoto grabbed his things and shot out the door, unsure of what to do. As he excused himself, he couldn’t help, but let a smile slip out from the sheer cuteness of Chrome.
As she leaned down to retrieve her trident again, Chrome shook her head to get rid of the heat that had built up. It was embarrassing, to say the least, but she had to focus for a moment. Closing her eyes, she cast the illusion, willing the room the look how it had before they had came in... and destroyed it, practically. The interior seemed back to normal when she had allowed herself to look, a small, but certainly smug, smile slipping onto her lips before it was gone. Reaching for her things, Chrome clutched the small bag of biscuits in one hand as she reached the door, peering out cautiously.
The current person of interest was crouching and leaning against the wall opposite of the door. He slowly raised to his feet, unsure of whether or not to make eye contact with the illusionist. “Are we ready to go...?” Thunder continued to rumble; rain threatening to fall at any given moment.
Jumping slightly at the sound of the thunder, Chrome nodded, keeping her eyes firmly on the ground. Though, she averted them one time to look over her shoulder to see if her illusion had worked or not. Thankfully, it was still in tact, meaning her sanity would at least stay for awhile longer. As they walked down the corridor, Chrome decided to act on impulse. “Yamamoto-san,” she called, still timid.
At the sound of his name, he looked over like an eager puppy. His hands that rested in his pockets clenched into fists as if they instinctively prepared for rejection.
“You...” Chrome had started before cutting herself off. “You can have these, if you'd like.” With her eyes, she motioned down to the biscuits she was holding, raising them up just enough to be in offering.
His eyes opened wide in shock as his hand shot up, as if they were forming a barrier between himself and the cookies. “If it’s because of what I did, you don’t have to give them to me!” His expression softened to something pained. “You did make them for Tsuna, after all.”
“I-its not because of that,” she stuttered, trying to avoid making herself more embarrassed. “How do I say this?” Chrome murmured, mostly to herself.
Yamamoto carefully took a step forward, to not scare the girl off. “I guess I should have just said it to begin with as well...”
“I’d like it if you took them,” she amended her last statement, finally making eye contact. Though, it didn’t help her cool down.
By now Chrome’s face was scarlet red, her violet eyes were practically beginning to tear up and all of the sudden; neither the cookies or the girl could be resisted any longer. His long arms reached out and pulled her in for an embrace. The slight crunching of the sweets could be heard between their chests, but as the first few raindrops began to fall, their downpour was only beginning.
“...You just smeared frosting on my nose.”