For demigodshadowhunter13, who wanted some happy Leico
Leo frowned, digging in the back of the fridge. “I’m sure we had eggs here yesterday,” he muttered, pushing aside old takeout containers and the remains of yesterday’s attempted lasagna.
“What do you think you’re doing? I mean, besides letting all the cold air out.” Leo jumped as Nico walked into the kitchen, looking at the mess on the counter. “You aren’t planning another baking disaster, are you?”
“This one won’t be a disaster,” Leo said, backing out of the fridge. He headed over to the counter and carefully set down the egg carton next to the mixing bowl, grinning when he saw Nico watching him critically. “Come on, it’ll be fun!” When Nico still seemed unconvinced, he bounded over and wrapped his arms around Nico. “Please, for me?”
Nico sighed. “Fine. But this is the last time I’m getting wrapped up in one of your crazy kitchen experiments.” He kissed Leo’s nose and detangled himself from Leo’s arms, walking over to the counter, surveying the mess already in action. “So what are you making this time?”
“Cupcakes!” Leo grinned, following Nico to the counter. “They’re going to be chocolate, hopefully.” He started whisking in the eggs, careful to pick out the few bits of shell that had slipped through. “You could put wrappers in the muffin tins if you wanted.” Nico nodded, popping the lid off of the container.
“Wait, they’re pink? I thought we just had plain white ones from the last time.” Nico turned to see Leo snickering, trying his hardest not to make a sound and failing miserably. “Ah. I see. Okay, whatever.” Nico set about preparing the muffin tins, frowning at the erroneously pink wrappers. “You could’ve chosen a sensible colour. Like white. Or black.” Or anything that didn’t make these look like the love cupcakes from hell, Nico added silently. The pink stood out cheerily from the monochromatic kitchen, taunting Nico with their almost cartoonish level of fuchsia.
“But those wouldn’t be nearly as much fun to tease you with,” Leo said, sliding one of the trays towards himself. “Now hold this still, I don’t want to end up with batter on the floor again.” The last baking experiment had ended up with half of the recipe on the floor, an incident that Leo was eager to forget. He carefully scooped some of the batter into the first cup, over-exaggerating scraping it off the spoon without spilling a drop.
“You’re going to take forever if you do it that way,” Nico pointed out, amused at Leo’s antics. “Here, let me help. It’ll go quicker, as I don’t have someone to impress.” He took the spoon from Leo and started doling out the batter between the tins, ignoring Leo’s shocked expression.
“Touché,” Leo muttered, still faintly bemused. He watched as Nico finished ladling out the batter and put the trays in the oven. “Don’t forget the-“
“Timer, I know,” Nico said. “Don’t forget, it was you who burned them last time…why do I even let you bake anything?” The sheer number of accidents and mishaps was painfully large, and the number of successes was comparatively small. Leo shrugged, licking the cake batter off a spoon. “Because I’m so adorable?” he guessed, winking at Nico, who flushed pink in return. No matter how many times Leo saw it, Nico being flustered or embarrassed never stopped making his day. Of course, he would never try to make it happen on purpose, but still managed to find new things to surprise Nico with.
“S-shut up,” Nico stammered, turning even pinker under Leo’s gaze. “You know, I could just stop helping you with your baking, and then where would you be?”
“But we haven’t even gotten to the icing yet!” Leo protested. “I bought it, don’t worry,” he hastened to add, seeing Nico’s incredulous look. “I’m not attempting anything that complex…yet.” Nico laughed. “When you do, let me know, so I can move out for a week or two while you clean up the damage.” Leo loved to try and surprise Nico with new recipes or sweets, but most of the time they turned into a story for later and a mess to deal with right then. Nico didn’t mind it, if he was being perfectly honest. It was cute how hard Leo tried to impress him, even though he never quite managed to hit the mark on the baking itself. The thought and effort (and seeing Leo look completely ridiculous in a chef’s apron and hat, if he was lucky) was what mattered to him.
The oven gave an obnoxious beep, cutting through their banter. Nico grabbed a towel and pulled the pans out of the oven, shifting them from hand to hand before setting them down on the counter. “We should let them cool down before icing, otherwise it’s going to melt right off.” Leo nodded in agreement, filling the sink with sudsy water. Nico dumped the mixing bowl and spoons in the sink with a small splash, then began washing. After a good fifteen minutes of soap bubbles and water fights, Leo decided that the cupcakes were cool enough to begin icing. He filled a piping bag with bright yellow icing and passed it to Nico, then started to rummage around the cupboards for sprinkles.
“Are you serious? Yellow?” Nico rolled his eyes at Leo, who grinned back at him and continued his search for sprinkles. Nico sighed and began to ice the cupcakes, turning them carefully. The sunny yellow and atrocious pink clashed horribly, but the cupcakes didn’t look burnt or lopsided for once. After falling into a rhythm the icing went by rather quickly, with Nico refusing to relinquish the piping bag to Leo for fear of an icing explosion, and entirely too much candy being scattered about the cupcakes and the kitchen itself by an over-enthusiastic Leo.
Nico stepped back, surveying their efforts. “These don’t look terrible, surprisingly,” he grudgingly admitted, turning in time to catch Leo’s smug grin. “That doesn’t make up for all the other times, don’t let your ego get any more inflated.”
Leo grinned and pulled Nico into a hug. “But it’s starting to make up for them, isn’t it?”
“Yes, yes it is.” Nico murmured, kissing Leo. In that moment, with the smells of baking and random ingredients strewn all around them, everything was perfect.
