this is me trying (to bake) [chaubrey]
When Aubrey arrived home that evening, she didn't really expect to be met with a cloud of smoke when she walked in.
While her first instinct was to run in and check on her girlfriend, it was easy to spot Chloe in the kitchen, surrounded by pots and parchment paper and a messy array of ingredients. The windows were already wide open and despite her girlfriend's desperate attempts to fan the smoke away, some of it still managed to spill out into the hallway.
"Aubrey!" Chloe squeaked, dropping the baking sheet she was using in an attempt to wave the smoke out the window. "You're home early."
"And you seem to have started a fire," she raised a pointed brow at her girlfriend before offering a quick, sympathetic hug in greeting.
While Chloe wasn't the best cook, she also wasn't bad enough to have ever started such a smokey mess. It must've been one messy recipe to get her girlfriend to ruin it that bad.
"No, no! No fire, Bree, promise! This is, well," Chloe's lips pursed as she looked for an explanation, a cute crinkle forming by her brow that made the mess in their apartment seem much more excusable. "This is me trying!"
"Trying? To recreate Frankenstein's monster?"
"Hey! I was trying to make you a cake," Chloe pouts, half-offended and half-amused.
"This is you trying to make a cake?" Aubrey laughed, pulling Chloe in by her hips. Chloe's pout deepened despite the closed distance. "Baby, you don't need to win me over with food. I'm already yours."
Chloe grumbled half-heartedly in reply and Aubrey gives in to the urge she's had since she found Chloe fanning smoke out their kitchen window. She kissed her deep and slow and sweet and relaxed at the knowledge that Chloe was safe, even if their kitchen was not.
She'd live through a thousand ruined cakes if it means she'd get to come home to this.
