Description: March 14 is both White Day and Pi Day. You're a sucker for puns, so obviously Felix has to make you a pie.
Warning: none
Word Count: 2,116
Pairing: fem!reader x Felix
Contrary to what his friends thought, Felix is not a complete idiot. Sure, he might be failing calculus, but he knows your handwriting like he knows the Pythagorean Theorem.
He knows it very well.
The note attached to the box of chocolates is not signed, but the sharp curves of your characters are a dead giveaway. He can't lie; seeing the store-bought box makes his heart sink. He hoped you had some semblance of romantic feelings for him, but he never saw an inkling. However, when he pulls off the white ribbon, he is ecstatic to see that his previous assumptions were wrong: the heart-shaped chocolate inside is hand decorated with lines of icing and carefully dotted with pink sprinkles, which means you are actually into him. He is smiling so much. He yells down the hallway filled with tired teenagers who couldn't care less about how he has a Valentine.
“My crush likes me back!” he shouts, earning him a few grossed-out looks.
He leaves the chocolate in his locker, but he tucks the note-- Happy Valentine's Day, Felix <3-- into his calculus textbook and thinks of less than 3's all the way to class.
However, last month's delight is now this month's dilemma. He almost forgets about White Day until Chan asks him what he is going to give you in return. His nervous laugh gets a sympathetic look and a well-intended but not helpful suggestion to buy an expensive box of chocolate. The two main problems with Chan's idea is that Felix has limited funds and anything store-bought just doesn’t show off what a great boyfriend he can potentially be.
Never mind that he doesn't even know when White Day is exactly.
Google tells him that it's on March 14. Felix has been stuck doing math for multiple hours per day, so his first thought is That's Pi Day.
Then it hits him.
He'll make you a pie. A pie so beautiful and delicious that it will make the relationship official. Instagram official.
He's jittery during the entire day. He has only a couple days to make sure his plan goes smoothly. The pie has to be perfect.
After school, Felix takes the bus to the grocery store and searches up apple pie recipes on the way there. His eyes grow wide as soon as he realizes how much work he has to do. To motivate himself, he opens the front cover of his calculus textbook and rereads your handwritten note from last month. This will all be worth it, he tells himself.
When he arrives at the grocery store, he heads straight to the produce section. Each recipe recommended different kinds of apples, so screw it; you are going to get an everything apple pie. Like an everything bagel, but apple pie.
Back at home, he has Chan in a Discord call with him as he dices up apples and cuts strips of pie dough. Chan's not doing much, just reading aloud pie making tips that Felix has seen over thirty times while looking up recipes. Felix tunes him out at what has to be the fifth mention of squeezing lemon juice on top of the chopped apples to prevent browning.
"I know already. I know what I'm doing," Felix says. "Why are you so worried anyway?"
Chan's voice is shrill and tinny as he practically screeches out, "Because you've never made a pie before, and you only have until tomorrow to get it done!"
"High risk, high reward?"
"That's not how it works!" There's a sigh from Chan's end. "Why did you choose pie? Chocolate would have been fine, too."
He considered just melting down and molding chocolate for your White Day gift. However, the homemade chocolate you gave him on Valentine's Day was so elegant and elaborate, a normal gift wouldn't suffice.
White Day also happens to be on Pi Day, and Felix knows how much you love a good math pun and a good apple pie. Hence why he is spending the night before White Day baking.
He tosses the diced fruit with the apple pie spice he picked up at the grocery store.The apple-and-spice mixture goes into the store-bought pie crust soon after, and then Felix searches up how to make a lattice.
Actually, why doesn't he put Chan to work?
"Chan, how do I make a lattice?" he asks, using the same tone he would when talking to Siri.
Chan grumbles, protesting that he's not his personal AI assistant, but Felix can hear him typing away. While Chan reads off a list of instructions and sends him video links, Felix wipes his flour-dusted fingers on his no-longer-white apron and checks his phone for messages from you. There's nothing new; the latest message in the chat between the two of you is still a picture of question 19 of his calc book with a big question mark drawn on. He sees that you haven't even seen the message yet, so you must be busy.
Felix picks up the strips of dough and follows Chan's instructions. It's easier than he expected, but the design still looks off.
Oh well. It's not too late to start over without ruining the entire design.
"Did it turn out okay?" Chan asks, breaking Felix out of his thoughts.
"It's… not bad," is the best answer he can give. He takes a picture and sends it to his friend.
Chan laughs at the crooked placements and the less-than-stellar job Felix has done at cutting the strips. "I can tell it's a lattice at least. Is it baking yet?"
"You're more anxious than I am," he remarks as he sticks the pie into the preheated oven.
"Well, someone has to be! It's your first White Day together! It has to go well."
"Which is why I'm making an apple pie for her!" Felix shouts. He realizes how loud it was and apologizes. "I didn't mean to yell at you."
"It's fine. I was being annoying, wasn't I?"
He says, "Yes," with no hesitation, and Chan laughs.
"She's your first girlfriend, and you're pretty much my little brother. I have good reason to be stressed out for you," he explains. Felix hears him typing again, and he has a feeling he's about to receive more unsolicited advice. "Anyway, did you put an egg wash on it? All these recipes are saying something about an egg wash."
"Chan."
"Right," he sighs. "I'll stop."
They switch topics to something not pie related. Felix complains about not understanding calculus, while Chan groans about how long his statistics problems take him. After a heated debate on whether calculus or statistics is harder, Felix phone buzzes with a message from you.
When he checks it, he sees a picture of your notes with a bright red circle drawn around a section labeled, "Partial Sum Decomp. When the Denominator's Power is Greater than 2."
His phone buzzes again, and a new message from you reads, "I gotchu babe."
He is so grateful that you pay attention in class. He sends back a heart emoji as Chan calls out, "You still there?"
"Sorry. Y/N texted me," he says as he reads another message from you.
Y/N <3: Wanna do homework together?
Me: Sure
Felix puts his phone on the counter and tells Chan the news. "I'm going to do homework with Y/N now. See you tomorrow?"
He can hear Chan smiling. "Have fun. Don't spoil the surprise."
"Stop projecting your worries onto me."
Before Chan can defend himself, Felix ends the call and starts a new one with you. He quickly gets a chat message that just reads, "Don't call me out like this >:(."
You answer the Discord call. "Hey."
Your voice is clear and sweet, a stark contrast to Chan's anxious ramblings. Felix smiles. The lilting in your voice is soothing, and he can tell you just woke up from a power nap based off of your soft tone.
"Hi," he says back. "Sleep well?"
There's a brief pause as you wake your brain up to formulate an answer. You reply, "I slept for three hours straight, but I also dreamt that I got a 47 on yesterday’s test."
He laughs because your dream is going to be his reality. "You'll be alright. You know what's going on."
"But the last question!" The sleepiness is replaced by fiery passion, and he hears the unmistakable sound of you slamming a palm against a table.
He lets you vent again and checks the pie in the oven. He thinks it's turning out well? The apples are bubbling a bit, and the crust looks more brown. He's never made one before; how can he tell? There's only a few more minutes left to bake it for.
With you still talking and oblivious to the world, he rushes to his room and grabs his textbook with his homework tucked inside. Just as he's back at the counter, you finish ranting.
"... I checked three times! Seungmin said he got something completely different! I think I got it wrong," you say.
"You'll be alright," he repeats. He knows he sounds like he doesn't care, but you truly will be alright. The last quiz you got a 92 with only half an hour of studying. He's also very worried about the pie because it is bubbling over now. "You studied for five hours."
"Seungmin has the highest grade!" Before he can retort that Seungmin isn't that smart, you let out a frustrated sigh. "Never mind that. Let's just do homework. I finished up to 25."
"Uh, okay." The apple pie won't stop bubbling, and he grabs a pair of oven mitts. He cracks open the oven door, and a blast of steam hits his face. "I'll catch up, and you can…" He trails off, trying to come up with an idea while taking out the pie. At the very least, it smells good.
"I can give you all the answers?" you joke.
"That will be great," Felix replies. He sets the pie down on the counter with a heavy thud. He then starts furiously typing into Google, "bubbling pie."
"What happened?" you ask, your voice laced with concern. "Did something happen?"
He's scanning blocks of text, so he carelessly answers, "I don't know if I messed up your pie or not since it's spilling over."
"My pie?"
His mouth drops open after realizing what came out of it. He now has two options: admit defeat and tell you the truth or lie to you and potentially make things worse.
He decides to go with the former. He presses a small section of the lattice with his index finger and watches it sink into the filling. Goodbye, hard work. He managed to screw up just like Chan predicted with a single sentence. He doesn't want to lie to you about something as silly as this. You know when he's lying anyway.
"It was supposed to be a secret," he quietly says. "It was your White Day present."
There's a moment of silence and then a burst of laughter from you. "Felix, you made me a pie? But you never baked before!" There's a softer laugh, and you sigh, "That's so sweet of you. Thank you."
His face feels as hot as the oven. The lattice section starts breaking off. "I wanted to do something special. And I know you like your puns."
"Pun?"
So, you forgot. With a grin, he says, "It's Pi Day tomorrow, too."
"Felix Lee, you're an amazing boyfriend," you declare. "I will gladly accept your pie."
He quickly yanks his finger out. "Really? Chan said it looked kind of bad though."
"You made it! Of course I'm going to take it. Felix, I will take whatever you make, no matter how horrible it looks."
He is so proud. And a little offended that you actually think his baking is hideous. He snaps a picture of the finished pie, which has cooled down a bit and stopped bubbling like a witch cauldron, and sends it to you.
He hears the notification sound from your end of the call and your nails clicking against the screen of your phone not long after. After a few seconds of waiting for the picture to load, he hears you laugh.
He loves your laugh so much, but maybe not in this scenario.
"Oh my goodness. Chan was not kidding when he said it looked bad!"
"It's not that bad!" he protests. "You said you would take it no matter what!"
The laughter dies down, but there's still a playfulness to your words. "I know, I know. You're the best, babe."
