“This is amazing!” Arthur stared round the shop, his eyes wide as he gazed at the vast array confectionary. There were large cakes, small cakes, tiered cakes, cupcakes, dazzling white cakes covered in marzipan flowers, and ones that were iced with delicate-looking pink sugar. He had never seen this many cakes in one place at the same time.
Beside him, Zeldris looked around with a bit of a scowl on his face. “It’s very… frivolous,” he remarked, his eyes raking over the highly polished glass display cases. “And I don’t understand why we have to have a cake. We could do something else. Anything else,” he muttered under his breath.
“Nah, a cake is expected,” Arthur replied with a chuckle. “Even if we were organising our own wedding I’d have wanted this. Otherwise you’d have people asking all night about where the cake was.”
Zeldris opened his mouth to protest, but before he could begin what was no doubt a sardonic speech, a cheerful voice called, “Welcome. You must be Zeldris and Arthur. So pleased to meet you!” He turned and smiled at the young woman as she entered the room, arm extended. “My name is Annie,” she said as they shook hands. “Tell me, have you ever been to a cake tasting before?”
“No,” Arthur said with a broad grin. “And we’re looking forward to it, right Zel?” Arthur shot Zeldris a meaningful glance. His boyfriend gave a curt nod, evidently deciding to make the best of the situation, but Annie somehow picked up on his mood. “I spoke to your brother,” she said in a whisper. “He seems a bit… overzealous. I can imagine this was not your idea. And that’s okay. If you don’t like what we design today, then I am happy to just smile and let you walk away. Cakes are supposed to be about joy, I’m not here to force anything on anyone.”
Zeldris nodded once more, but this time it was more fluid, and he shot the young lady a grateful look. “Come and have some tea,” she said brightly as she led them into an adjoining room. This was decorated in shades of peach and magnolia, and set with a polished, round oak table in the centre of the space, three chairs placed around it and a delicate china tea set laid out ready on top.
As Annie poured the tea she drew their attention to a large plate laid out with small slices of cake in various different colours. “This one is our most popular, standard Victoria sponge with raspberry jam and cream,” she said as she placed the slices on the smaller plates before them. Arthur was surprised to see Zeldris relax as he took a bit of the confection, his nod now enthusiastic as he licked his lips.
“This tea is excellent,” Zeldris said happily, actually smiling as Annie refilled his and Arthur’s cups. Arthur too felt himself relax as they tasted more flavours of cake: coffee, chocolate, red velvet and lemon. At one point, Arthur reached over to wipe some crumbs from Zeldris’s face, the latter actually allowing it.
They were arguing over the merits of traditional fruitcake when Annie gave them a slice of ginger and white chocolate sponge and, on tasting it, both together said, “This is it!”
“That is a great flavour, but you should try this last one before you make up your mind.” Annie poured more tea before placing the last slice on the large platter on each of their plates. “This is chocolate orange,” she said as Zeldris and Arthur looked at each other.
A few moments passed, nothing but the sound of taps against porcelain to be heard as forks were scraped over plates. “Well I prefer this one,” Arthur said with a laugh. “It tastes like a posh Jaffa Cake.”
“Really? You prefer that, over this?” Zeldris gestured at what remained of the ginger flavoured cake on his plate.
“You could have both.” Annie grinned at them as they turned to her in surprise. “Your brother has paid in advance,” she explained, “well, the deposit at least. It’s enough to cover a large, tiered cake. I understand you’re expecting quite a lot of guests. When that happens, it’s possible to have the tiers made from different flavours, if that’s something you’d consider?”
Half an hour later, Zeldris and Arthur left the shop. Full of cake, they headed towards the nearest underground station having purchased a cake covered in white icing with vertical stripes of yellow and orange piped along the outside. “You were right, that was worth going,” Zeldris admitted as he reached for Arthur’s hand. “I also would have wanted that if we were doing this on our own.”
“I’m surprised Meliodas didn’t insist on joining us,” Zeldris joked as he squeezed Arthur’s hand.
“Oh, he did.” Arthur shot Zeldris a smirk as they continued walking down the street. “I told him he couldn’t come. We’ve spent hardly any time alone together since he started taking over and I wanted today to be for us. I told you, this was something I wanted to do anyway.”
“It was fun, you were right.” Arthur smiled, enjoying his boyfriend’s admission and the feel of the sun on his back as the two walked more slowly towards the station.
“You know, there’s something I wanted to ask you.” Arthur hesitated as Zeldris slowed, looking up at him expectantly. “Helbram said… he sort of suggested I might be able to find my birth parents. Would you… would you mind if I tried?”
Zeldris looked at him carefully, then he took a step closer, peering into Arthur’s face. “Of course not,” he murmured as Arthur felt his heart rate soar. “But why now? You’ve never shown any interest in searching for them before.”
“I guess… Meliodas is annoying and Estarossa really needs to chill out, even more than you,” Arthur said with a chuckle, “but you have family who care about you and are celebrating with you. I guess it hurts a little that I don’t have the same…”
“I understand.” Zeldris took both Arthur’s hands in his own, their fingers lacing together as he continued, “You must do what you want in this regard. I’ll support you whatever you decide.”
“Thank you,” Arthur whispered, swallowing hard, excitement and fear already gripping at his insides.
