#nincas

:*:

Friday was a favorite day for the Lucas, because the midday school class was a session of home economics. The students in the class were assigned a food item to study at the end of every Friday, had a week to research how to make it, and returned the following Friday to create it as best as they could. Most of the students in the class made passing meals, a few were somehow continuously disastrous on the kitchen floor, and only Lucas was the one who went beyond excellent. While he made delicious lunches, he made heavenly snacks that he gladly shared with his teacher, peers, and cooking partner if he had one for the week. Therefore, he was always asked to share a cooking tip or two with at least everyone in the class. Never before was he asked to participate in sharing a whole lesson with another person, until now.

After another class day, his friend Ninten, who shared a friendship and many other classes with him for so long, rushed up behind him with a playful hug.

"Lucaaas!" he sang. "Can you help me bake something after school?"

"Huh?" Lucas squealed. "Today?"

Ninten nodded, "Yeah!"

"But I've got to get home early today," the blonde protested. "My mom wants me to help cook dinner tonight."

"Aw, please?!" Ninten quivered, letting go. "I don't have anything else to cook by tomorrow, and I really want to make these snacks!"

Lucas turned around. "What is it that you're making?"

"Oreo cakesters!" Ninten answered.

"Cakesters…?" Lucas repeated. "Aren't they those soft-cake oreos?"

Ninten nodded, "Right! If I can at least make one, I'll pass the class this week! But the thing is, I don't know how to start making them."

"And you haven't practiced making them for the past few days, because…?"

Ninten conspicuously froze on the spot. "Uh…research took more time than I thought?"

Lucas squinted, "You slacked off, didn't you?"

"…Yes. So please, help me today!"

The blonde sighed, "Fine. Lemme call my mom, and then I'll meet you at the classroom after school."

"Yay!" Ninten threw another hug around Lucas. "Thank you! I owe you big time!"

Lucas nervously smiled back after the other boy pulled away. "You're welcome."

:*:

Adhering to their agreement, they decided to meet after the last class of the day that afternoon, having everything they needed in the home economics classroom. Lucas expected to be there first between them but when he arrived, he found all sorts of supplies spread out on his favorite workstation, assuming only Ninten could do such a thing.

"Hey!" Ninten greeted, popping his head from behind the table. He ducked back down and dug through the workstation's cabinet for a last item, which was a box of dark chocolate cake mix. He looked at everything on the counter and invited Lucas to come in. The blonde set his backpack down by the room's empty wall beside the only other backpack. He grabbed an apron and headed over to his station with Ninten.

"So why'd you ask me to help you?" Lucas asked.

"Because you know how," Ninten answered like it was obvious.

Lucas shrugged his shoulders, wondering why he asked such an easy to answer question. "Well, I mean, why not our teacher, or even your mom?"

"Oh…" Ninten closed the cabinet and stood up. "Because learning how to bake from you is more comfortable to me. I'm not good at baking because I never really learned. Even if my mom makes the best prime ribs, she can't really bake," he added. "It's confusing to me, too."

"It doesn't have to be," Lucas said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, which had a list of ingredients on it. He looked over the list and compared it to what was already laid out on the island. "At least you've got everything here. You're already at a good start."

"The recipe is where I got lost though," Ninten said as he handed his friend a new piece of paper. "Sorry."

Lucas lightly shook his head, "It's okay." He skimmed through the recipe a few times while thinking for a moment. "So this is basically…a cookie sandwich. And the cream here won't need to be refrigerated, too. All right, here's what we'll do. I'll make one small batch of cookies with the instructions, and then while mine are baking, you make a batch too."

Ninten's eyes widened in panic. Lucas lightly giggled from the sudden expression change on his friend's face. "I'll help, don't worry! And if it doesn't work out, we'll keep trying. Once you know how to do it, it'll be easy."

"If you say so," Ninten said. "We only get two hours here though, I hope I don't screw up too many times."

"With me here, you won't need to worry about that," Lucas told. "Just focus only on finishing what you need to do and just let time fly by."

Ninten nodded. "All right!"

"Let's get started then," Lucas announced with a smile. "So, all our ingredients are here, minus the eggs which are in the fridge, so we can start the oven and then…"

Ninten ran for the eggs as Lucas made a final check on everything that was present. As Lucas reorganized the whole setup of ingredients and equipment and began with a bowl, Ninten kept a close eye and took note of how well ordered the approach that Lucas was taking. His ability to focus in learning was often not reliable, but in some situations he was successful and this was apparently one of them. Lucas wasn't sure how much of the information Ninten was keeping in mind, but remembered that he was here to learn, so he had to believe he was doing good for starters.

Lucas mixed the first ingredients: cake mix, oil, and eggs. He decided to save the electric whisk for the cream, and whipped the mixture by hand.

"I never know how much mix I need to add," Ninten commented as he watched.

"It depends on how many you want to make," Lucas told. "For now I'll make two sandwiches, or four cookies, so we each can have one. So for that amount, we put in just this much."

Lucas provided him a quick review of how much mix he used with and measuring cup, then continued on. Once he finished the cookie mix, he prepared them onto a sheet and set them into one of the available ovens. Taking off his mitts, he looked back to Ninten.

"Now it's your turn." Ninten nodded, and took the leftover ingredients for himself. He did his best to consider each step his friend took and carried them out while the other stood to the side, watching. Occasionally as he gathered the things he needed, Ninten looked back to Lucas to check and see if he was doing anything incorrectly, but so far, Lucas always gave back praise. As Ninten finally began to whip the ingredients together, he looked like he'd been inspired to finish without help, so Lucas didn't try to interrupt.

There was yet to be a disaster as they both initially imagined. Even though Lucas had to speak a few times, it always encouraged Ninten to continue, and not the opposite. Soon enough, Ninten's cookies entered the oven and Lucas's were out. The two boys carried on the lesson with creating the oreo cream.

"Oh boy, my favorite!" Ninten commented.

"Making cream is always the best part," Lucas added, laughing.

Lucas carried on by taking another bowl and added butter and powdered sugar to it, whipping it all on low speed using the electric whisker. Taking advantage of its speed, the sugary cream mixed well into a thick, but smooth looking substance. After reaching a good point, Lucas added a bit of vanilla extract, salt, and a bit of milk to the mixture and whipped everything together again for another minute.

"It looks so good," the raven-haired commented as he watched. Once Lucas stopped, the blonde poked his finger and licked the cream for a taste test, with the other boy following suit. Both of them smiled at the perfect sweetness.

Lucas continued by finally beginning to create the cakesters. He grabbed two of his cookies, noting their slightly cooled temperature, and slapped a light amount of cream onto one of them before sandwiching it. The cream did not overflow as Lucas expected, so the first cakester was a success. He decided to let the other two cookies cool a bit more so it could be enjoyed with more cream.

As soon as Lucas cleaned up his mess aside from the bowl of cream, the timer bell rang for Ninten's cookies. Both of them perked up and spotted the oven. Their creator rushed to the oven with his mitts and took them out, slow and quietly. Lucas cautiously examined them.

"They look okay…maybe," Ninten said.

Lucas leaned forward, and hummed. "They smell good." Then, he poked them carefully with a toothpick. "They feel fine, too."

Ninten nodded. "Okay, my turn to make the cream?"

"Right, go for it."

Ninten followed Lucas's instructions again, adding the ingredients to a new bowl. He used the same electric whisker and whipped his ingredients thoughtfully. He took a little longer making sure the cream felt thick and mixed enough, but Lucas assured him that it looked okay. Ninten added the next few ingredients and resumed mixing, although his finger slipped.

Instead of low speed, the mixer began at high speed. The whisk was already deep into the mixture as well, and so the vortex that rapidly spun out had quickly splashed for one moment until Ninten hurryingly shut off the whisk. The cream had jumped around the table, onto the boys' aprons, faces, and some on the floor.

"Sorry, my bad!" Ninten exclaimed, putting the whisk down.

"It's okay," Lucas chuckled. He swiped a bit of cream off his cheek and licked it. "The cream tastes good."

Ninten poked his mixture and sampled it. "Oh, you're right!"

"You did good," Lucas praised. "Let's clean this up, though."

"Right—where are the paper towels…" Ninten looked around the room for said item and saw that they were on the other side of the class, sitting at the island installed into the wall. Before Lucas turned around for them, Ninten took the first step in heading towards them first. However, he forgot where the cream had landed on the floor, and he easily slipped onto it.

"Whoa!" Ninten lost control of his friction and panicked to grab onto his friend's shoulders for support. Unprepared, the blonde panicked and tried to step back, but slipped onto the cream as well and fell as well. Both of them headed towards the floor, sounding a loud thud.

Lucas instinctively reached to comfort his head with his hands, where he wanted to groan in pain. He tried to move his head to let his hands reach for the impacted area, but as soon as he moved his lips, he sensed something touching them, which was an extremely unfamiliar feeling. He opened his shut eyes and saw that Ninten was laying on top of him, who still did not see what was happening.

Ninten crunched his eyes throughout the fall, and kept them closed for a while after the landing. It wasn't until he first felt his hands keeping his self on the floor that he regained the senses of the rest of his body, starting with the touch of his torso, and then his eyes, and then his lips.

As soon as Ninten saw where he was, he pushed himself away and sat up, covering his mouth with his hands. Lucas did the same to hide his deep blush, suddenly losing sense of the discomfort at the back of his head.

"I—I'm so sorry!" Ninten quickly said behind his hands. "I didn't mean to—"

"It's okay—I mean—it was an accident—it's okay!" Lucas responded.

They sat silent staring at each other for a moment more, unable to avoid each other's gazes even though they tried to avert their eyes to something else. Ninten finally realized that he could get off of Lucas' body and stood up, helping the other boy stand up. After the blonde returned to standing, he turned away while carefully walked towards the towels. Ninten turned to his bowl of cream and awkwardly reached for the mixture, continuing to whip it.

As Ninten finished up, Lucas wiped the areas where there had been a spillage of cream, followed by his face. Even after he finished cleaning quickly, the raven-haired boy was still attending to his mixture. He was afraid to face his friend again after that embarrassing moment, and Lucas didn't realize how fearful he was for a while. Half of Lucas's mind was absent, still thinking about the collision of their lips, and only miraculously returned to a full focus after watching Ninten mixing for a moment more.

"That's enough mixing, I think," Lucas blurted.

"Right, okay," Ninten nodded, still looking at the bowl.

Ninten reached for his cookies and began creating the cakesters. Half-remembering the steps as Lucas took, he successfully recreated the sandwich without a problem. He set the finished one beside Lucas's first finished cakester.

"Well, moment of truth," Ninten said. Almost hesitating, he finally looked at the other boy, who nodded back at him.

They both took their own cakesters and had a soft bite. Their eyes widened at the extraordinarily sweet taste. They covered their mouths again, but only not to let a crumb slip by them so that they could savor the experience.

"It's delicious!" Ninten exclaimed.

"It is," Lucas agreed.

They finished their own cakesters, satisfied with their own work. Then, they recreated another cakester using their respective set of mixtures, but gave it to each other to compare the tastes. At the new first bite, they found a similar sense of delight.

"It's great," Lucas told. "Yours came out really well."

"Yours too!" Ninten smiled.

It had only been just a little less than an hour that the two of them spent their time cooking the cakesters. After cleaning up everything and Ninten volunteering to take home both leftover amounts of cream, they left the classroom after making sure everything looked pristine.

Both of them were on their way to walk home. They have yet to left the building, but it was the least of their concerns as they made their way to one exit of the school. As they walked, each were deeply focused on the results of their day together. While Ninten was happy he could finally make cakesters on his own to present to the class tomorrow, he still had lingering thoughts about the slip up he made just not too long ago. Lucas was thinking about the same thing as he unconsciously put his fingers to his lips, not yet noticing he put them there until he glanced over at his friend who seemed spaced out. They both wanted to try the feeling of their first kiss again, as that sudden moment created an aura of awkwardness that prohibited them from relishing anything more than just their sweet cravings.

"Hey, Ninten," Lucas blurted.

"Yeah?"

They both stopped walking, and Lucas looked left and right down the hallways to make sure no one was nearby. Then, he looked at the other boy straight in the eyes. "You said you owe me, right?"

"Yeah, I did…?" Ninten nodded slowly.

Lucas stepped forward and grabbed one shoulder with his hand. He leaned forward quickly and collided their lips again, with the intent of pressing them forward. Ninten froze on the spot, first with his eyes wide open, then shut tight out of panic, and slowly relaxed into comfort.

Lucas pulled away first, shyly staring at the other's face. "There, we're even."

Ninten opened his eyes slowly, unaware that his blush still showed his embarrassment. "Okay."

They both started walking again, with the absence of inconvenient thoughts. Ninten smiled as he looked to the other boy under his hat. He hoped to remember their kiss for a long while.