Work Text:
Attempt 1
Annette stood in the kitchen of the Blue Lions dormitory, wearing a cooking apron and surrounded by baking supplies and a recipe book.
In the living area sat her best friend, Mercedes, who watched to make sure her friend’s little project didn’t go up in flames, both literally and metaphorically.
Annette, while not a bad chef, could be very... inattentive at times. This resulted in more than a few disastrous incidents. It was to the point where she’d been banned from the kitchen without supervision.
Said young lady’s current project was to bake a cake that Felix would eat. Some weeks ago he had turned her down when she offered him cake with the excuse he didn’t like sweets. Since then, she’d been on this mission of hers, not that Felix was aware.
Mercedes looked up every now and then from the book she read to make sure everything was alright in the kitchen. She could hear Annette humming and moving about in the kitchen.
“Hey Annie, do you want some help?” Mercedes called over the clinks of ceramic and metal.
The clatter of metal and a thud announced the book and pan hitting the ground, followed by a yelp.
“Nope! I’m fine! All under control!” Annette said unconvincingly. Mercedes knew it wasn’t necessary to step in just yet, but she still worried.
Annette picked up the fallen items and got back to work, humming as she went. Eventually she broke into proper song.
She poured sugar into a bowl with eggs and began mixing it with a hand mixer over a bain-marie.
“You’re singing,” A voice said, startling Annette.
“Ah!” She jumped, turned off the hand mixer, and a light blush crept up on her face. She hadn’t realized she was singing.
“Felix! Hi!” She greeted.
After getting over the initial shock she started to panic internally. She didn’t want Felix to know what she was doing and him being here was problematic towards that goal.
Felix rolled his eyes and sat down on the other side of the island. “You perform in front of 300 people all the time, how is this any different? And I’m one of those 300.”
“This is different! People aren’t sitting right in front of me when I sing and I’m not singing food songs in class,” she nearly shouted, voice fizzling out at the end, her blush intensifying.
While they talked she mixed sugar and eggs. To her side was a mug with butter and milk in it, a bowl with flour, and a cake pan.
“I like your food songs,” Felix said. “You wrote them right?”
Annette froze. Aside from the sound of the hand mixer, silence permeated the air. Then she blurted, “Ahh! Just forget it!”
She went back to work, as if she never stopped, continuing to whisk the eggs and sugar together.
She took the mixture out of the bain-marie and put it on a trivet, then put the mug with butter and milk in the bain-marie and went back to mixing the eggs and sugar.
“Ok, what are you baking?” He looked at the ingredients laid strewn about the island, as well as the cookbook positioned near the edge.
“A cake,” she said as she turned down the mixer to a low speed then continued to mix it. When finished, she added a tablespoon of water and switched to a whisk.
“For?” Felix raised an eyebrow.
“No one in particular. Why do I need a reason?” She poured the flour into the bowl and continued to whisk. Then she removed the mug from the pot of water and poured a bit of the egg and sugar mixture into it. She mixed it with a smaller whisk and started humming again.
“Alright then.” He said
He watched her buzz around the kitchen, pouring things from mug to bowl to pan, accidentally banging them on the counter. He became entranced by her. Annette’s humming had turned into full singing and Felix, caught in her wave, nodded his head along, unable to take his eyes off her.
A light laugh broke him from his trance. Suddenly, Mercedes stood behind him, her book forgotten on the couch. She wordlessly took a seat next to him as he tore his eyes away from Annette. He was caught staring. He wanted to bury his face in his hands, but he wouldn’t, because that would be even more embarrassing.
“Well, I’m leaving now. Gotta practice,” Felix announced. He got up from his seat and headed for his room upstairs.
“Aww, why don’t you practice down here?” Annette called after him as she set the timer. “You sing in front of 300 people all the time.”
He stopped in his tracks, surprised by her teasing, mouth hanging open slightly. Annette and Mercedes laughed, which reminded him to close his mouth and continue up the stairs, an unfortunate blush on his face.
Annette smiled triumphantly. It was rare she was able to embarrass Felix.
“Now we wait,” Annette said. She took off her apron and began to clean up.
“I’ll help,” Mercedes chimed, going around the counter. Annette protested saying she made the mess so she’ll clean it. Eventually she caved to Mercedes' stubbornness.
Mercedes wet a cloth to clean the counter and pick up whatever crumbs Annette left behind, while Annette brought the dishes to the sink.
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“How much time is left, Mercie?” Annette asked as she finished cleaning the dishes.
“Twenty minutes,” Mercedes replied.
Annette’s brow furrowed. “There’s no way that only took ten minutes.”
Mercedes turned on the oven light to check the cake as Annette hovered behind her. The cake looked finished.
“We should take it out,” Mercedes said. She put on oven mitts and took out the cake, setting it on a trivet.
Annette stuck a toothpick in the cake and took it back out. It came out clean.
Bitterly, she said, “Well, It’s definitely cooked. Burnt for good measure, but I think it’s salvageable.”
“Ok, now what do I do?” Annette looked at the recipe and read aloud, “‘When it's baked, drop it from a height of 20 cm to prevent it from shrinking.’ What? Um... ok then?” She lifted the pan and turned it upside down, much to the horror of Mercedes.
“Annie, wait! That’s not-“ Mercedes cried, but it was too late.
The cake fell from the pan and burst apart upon hitting the counter.
Mercedes groaned, “You're supposed to drop the pan.”
She took the pan from Annette, turned it right side up, lowered the pan, and then dropped it to demonstrate.
Attempt 1 - Verdict: Failed
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The following day was Saturday which meant someone needed to go to the grocery store.
“I’m going shopping now!” Ashe called to the rest of the dorm. “Are you guys sure you don’t want anything else?”
A chorus of shouts of ‘yes’ answered back.
“I’ll go with you Ashe!” Annette called, jumping from her seat on the couch. She then sprinted up to her room grabbing her purse and some money.
“No, it’s fine, Annette. It’s my turn. Just add what you need to the list.” Despite his insistence, he waited all the same.
“Don’t worry, it’s easier and faster if I just go with you,” she called back, running down the stairs.
Soon enough they were out the door and driving to the store.
“Are you getting more ingredients for a cake?” Ashe asked from the driver's seat. They had borrowed Sylvain’s car, as he and Mercedes were the only ones with a car in the dorm.
“Yeah, yesterday didn’t go so well.”
Once they were at the store, they headed for the fruit section. Annette picked up lemons, while Ashe picked up oranges, apples and blueberries among other fruits.
“What happened? You were so focused when I checked.” Ashe looked at the list as he spoke.
Leaving the fruits section, they went to find bread and pastries.
“Felix distracted me, and it was going so well too,” she sulked, walking behind him.
“What did he do?”
“He teased me again! I swear! He’s evil!” Ashe chuckled as she whined, earning a mildly angry and embarrassed, “Hey! Don’t laugh at me!”
“Sorry, sorry,” he laughed again, “Were you singing when he came in?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure he’s not complimenting you?”
Annette opened her mouth to speak but paused. She didn’t know. Normally, she would say without a doubt he enjoyed teasing her but this was Felix, and they all know that Felix, for lack of a better phrase, sucks at being nice.
“No, but I’m pretty sure he’s not.”
Ashe laughed, earning a pout from Annette, “I can help you next time if you want.”
“No thanks. I want to do this by myself.” She smiled, determination ringing in her voice.
“Alright, at least let me watch you.”
“Ok! I’ll be baking tomorrow, does that work?” Annette asked, bright as ever.
“Yep!” Ashe replied, equally as bright. “Oh, I forgot to ask, what do you need for your cake?”
“Butter, flour and milk, we should get eggs too,” she listed on her fingers while reading her list.
Ashe nodded, “Then let’s go.”
They continued through the store picking up what they needed for the week and Annette's cake. Towards the end of the trip, they stopped at the bakery in the back to buy fresh bread and cookies.
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Attempt 2
The Next day
“Ashe! I’m going to bake now, are you free?” Annette called, popping her head into his room.
“Yeah! I’ve finished my work for today!”
He put away the game he was playing and got up off the bed. Annette bounced off in the direction of the stairs and Ashe followed after her.
Once in the kitchen, Annette set to work, taking out equipment and ingredients while Ashe took a seat on the other side of the island.
“You’re sure you don’t want me to help? At least a little bit?”
“Yes I’m sure,” Annette said, putting on an apron. She then lined the cake pan with parchment paper.
“You won’t even let me read off ingredients to you?” he pestered. He was worried that Annette would not be able to focus. It had gone well last time, but in the past she had caused explosions and fires by trying to do too much.
“Hmm, maybe,” she hummed, “but only if I ask.” There was a fire in her eyes which made Ashe worry slightly.
“Alright, why are you doing this anyway?” Ashe asked. He would’ve pressed more, but he could tell that would go nowhere. “I know Felix said he wouldn’t eat the cake last week, but he’s turned you down before.”
“I know, but that’s why. He’s turned me down so many times I want to make something he’ll like,” she said. A beeping sound rang out as she preheated the oven.
“Why won’t you tell him?”
“It’s embarrassing, and I don’t need to give him more things to tease me with.” She blushed. “How much flour do I need?”
“Three-quarters of a cup,” he replied.
Annette got the flour and a measuring cup from the cupboard.
Ashe then asked, “Are you sure he’ll like sponge cake?
“No, but it’s low on sugar and he doesn’t like sweet things so hopefully.” She poured flour into the measuring cup and shook it to even it out. She brought it up to eye level to check if it was three-quarters of a cup, then repeated until it was right.
Annette then sifted the flour three times into a large bowl. “What about butter and milk?”
“Two teaspoons of milk and one-eighth a cup of butter,” he read.
She cut off a block of butter and measured out the milk, and then put them both into a mug and microwaved them.
As the microwave beeped, Felix came down the stairs.
“You’re baking again?” Felix asked from the bottom of the stairs.
“Yes.” Annette replied as she took the mug out of the microwave and set it down on the counter.
“What happened to your cake from Friday?” He took a seat next to Ashe.
“I burnt it.” She said casually, as if she wasn’t still a little upset over that.
Annette turned on the stove and set a pot filled with water on top of it. She let it heat up and then let it simmer.
“How much sugar do I need, Ashe?” she asked. She got the hand mixer from the cupboard and plugged it in near the stove.
“Half a cup,” he said.
She cracked eggs into a new bowl and measured out half a cup of sugar. Then poured it into the bowl with the eggs.
“You’ve burnt things before and haven’t thrown them out,” Felix said.
She didn’t answer. Instead, she whipped the eggs and sugar using the hand mixer while contemplating whether to give him more ammo to tease her with by telling him she dropped it.
Meanwhile, Ashe mentally face-palmed, for Felix had no tact. He began to panic because Annette’s a bad liar. Therefore Felix might start asking questions if she tried to lie.
“It was badly burnt. Most of it was completely charred,” she said, voice rising as she went on. She turned her back to them to set the bowl over the bain marie.
Felix raised an eyebrow, aware she was obviously lying. “If you say so.”
Why she lied didn’t really matter to him, but he was curious. The last time he asked her why she was baking she lied then too.
“Why are you baking this time?” he asked anyway.
“Because I want to,” Annette said curtly.
“Really? You’re not baking for someone?” Felix questioned.
“Yes!“ She whipped around to glare at Felix, forgetting about the mixer in her hand.
“Ahh!” she screeched. The mixer nearly dragged the bowl and pot off the stove.
“Be careful Annette!” Ashe yelled as he and Felix lunged across the island as if to catch the bowl, even though that wouldn’t be possible.
Annette caught the bowl and pot. “It’s fine. Now stop asking about it Felix!” she said frantically.
“Fine,” he said. Pressing her further would go nowhere. “How’s your composition going?”
“It’s going well,” Annette answered shakily. “I finished the sheet music. Coming up with lyrics is difficult though. How’s yours going?”
“About the same, though I’m not done with the sheet music yet,” Felix answered.
“What about you Ashe? What were you working on?” Annette asked. She removed the bowl from the bain-marie and replaced it with the mug.
“I was working on a business assignment. It’s nothing interesting, just making a loose plan for a theoretical business,” Ashe replied cheerfully.
“You say that like it’s nothing,” a deep voice said.
Annette turned towards the voice, “Hi Dedue,” Annette greeted cheerily.
Ashe and Felix greeted him with a wave.
“Hello,” Dedue greeted back. He took off his shoes and closed the front door behind him.
“You know, I don’t need three people to look after me. I’m not that bad,” Annette whined.
The others chuckled, making her huff.
“I didn’t come to look after you,” Deude said, “I just wanted to see how things were going,” He took a seat on the other side of Ashe.
“That still sounds like the same thing,” Annette sulked.
“How was work?” Ashe asked.
“Good,” Deude answered. “There were no unpleasant customers at the bakery today.”
“That’s good,” Ashe said with a smile.
While Ashe and Dedue talked, Annette started to sing quietly. Felix, who wasn’t paying attention to Ashe and Dedue’s conversation, zoned in on her singing and was unconsciously smiling.
Unconsciously, Felix began to hum along with Annette’s singing. However he quickly caught himself and stopped, blushing and making a face like he swallowed something sour.
He let his eyes wonder, the kitchen was a mess. Ingredients and baking supplies were strewn around the counter and Annette, at the centre of it, mixed the batter.
Realizing she was singing Annette fell silent, “You’re not going to hum?” Felix asked, noticing her silence.
“No, I already told you it’s embarrassing,” Annette pouted. She poured the batter into the cake pan, slid it in the oven, and set the timer.
“Ok, now all of you out, I need to clean,” she commanded, making shooing motions with her hands.
The three obediently trudged out of the kitchen, going to sit on the couch in the living room instead. Annette removed the apron and began cleaning, gathering the dishes to place in the sink and setting her oven mitt aside to wash them.
A faint crackling could be heard as she cleaned. It steadily got louder until there was a heart renshatter. Annette shrieked and the three in the living room jolted up and turned to see what was happening.
The safety glass on the oven door shattered.
Thankfully, Annette was not standing too close to it.
“Can someone get me shoes please?” Annette called while scrambling onto the counter to try to turn off the oven.
Ashe hurried to the front door to grab her shoes and Dedue rushed to the closet for the broom to help Annette sweep up the glass.
Before Annette could turn off the oven or Dedue and Ashe could help her, she smelt the distinctive odor of burnt cake.
“Great, just great,” she grumbled, just as the oven started belching out smoke.
“Are you kidding me?! Is it catching fire?!” Annette cried out in mixed fear and frustration. Everything was going wrong today, “What should we do?”
She slid off the counter and away from the smoking oven when suddenly the oven mitt she had thought she’d left near the stove caught fire. She must’ve accidentally pushed it onto the stove while she was cleaning.
Mercedes and Sylvain came running down the stairs to see what was happening just as the fire alarm went off which sent Dimitri and Ingrid barreling down the stairs in response.
They burst into the kitchen just in time to see Annette frantically throwing cups of water at a burning oven mitt as Felix ran in from the hall with a bucket of water. He threw the water at fire, successfully putting it out. The oven was still smoking but there was no fire.
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Annette sighed, she stood in the kitchen staring viscously at the counter with an unhappy look on her face.
On that counter sat a charred cake pan with parchment paper melted to it and a charred oven mitt. Inside the pan sat an even more charred, unrecognizable, black blob that used to be a cake.
To make matters worse, the stove was completely ruined. While throwing water at the stove did put out the fire, but it probably wasn’t the best idea, especially when they had a fire extinguisher on hand.
Annette sighed, “This is going to be a long week.”
Attempt 2 - Verdict: Disaster
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The next day:
Because of a certain incident the night before, the Blue Lions dormitory needed a new stove, so while they waited for maintenance to come fix their kitchen they were at the Black Eagles dormitory for dinner.
“Why did you come Felix?” Petra asked, “You don’t come over like this a lot.”
“Our oven is broken,” Felix answered. He and Petra used to fence together on the same team, now they both did solo fencing. Of those in the Black Eagles dormitory, he was closest to Petra.
“Broken? How did it break?” She asked
“Water damage,” he explained curtly, “There was a fire by the stove.”
Petra nodded. Felix seemed irritated remembering what transpired last night so she didn’t press further.
“When will you be getting a new stove?” She asked.
“Hopefully within the week,” Felix grumbled as he aggressively shoved food into his mouth.
Petra paused, thinking. “Who will pay for it?” she asked, curious and worried. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for whoever had to pay, even if they did break it.
“Annette,” Felix said, “Mercedes and Ashe are pitching in too.”
“That’s very kind of them,” Petra said.
Felix huffed, “Yeah, but they're all too soft on her. If they do this every time she breaks something she’ll never learn,” Annette’s never had to replace something before but Mercedes has bailed her out of similar situations. Felix scoffed to himself before turning back to the conversation. “Anyway, anything interesting happen here lately?”
Petra brightened. “Yes, I have won my fencing match!” she cheered, “I will be moving on to the quarterfinals!”
“I look forward to facing you then,” Felix said, almost affably.
“As do I,” she said with a smile. “Oh! And Caspar changed his major again.”
“Seriously?” He asked, mildly irritated. “He’s changed his major how many times now? Three?”
“Four,” Caspar corrected from behind them. He grinned and clapped his hand on Petra’s shoulder. “And yeah, I’m in architecture now! Hey guys!”
“Hello Caspar,” Petra greeted.
Felix raised his hand in greeting and Caspar raised his back.
“You know, that’s not exactly something to be proud of,“ he mumbled.
“I know, but I’ll find something I like eventually,” Caspar said with confidence. He took a seat next to Petra.
“You’ll run out of money before you do.” Felix said. He was only half serious but if he keeps switching majors every year he will run out of money.
“No I won’t. If my financial situation is that bad I’ll take a gap year,” Caspar said with a careless air, “You worry too much.”
“I do not. You don’t worry enough,” Felix spit back. He excused himself to clean his dishes.
“Whatever you say Felix,” Caspar quipped, “but I’m liking architecture a lot so far.”
“But you said liked your last subject a lot too,” Petra said pointedly.
“Not you too Petra,” Caspar pouted.
Petra laughed loudly, making Caspar whine to quit laughing at him and aggressively point his finger at her.
Felix rolled his eyes but smiled at the interaction.
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“I can’t believe I blew up the oven,” Annette sulked.
“Blew up is a harsh term,” Mercedes said, trying to soothe Annette.
“Fine then, set on fire,” Annette cried loudly, causing people to stare at her.
“It’s alright, it’s not like anyone was hurt,” Mercedes said.
“Mercie,” Annette whined.
“Are you saying my name or asking for mercy?”
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Attempt 3
It’s been a week. The stove has been replaced and the Blue Lions had their kitchen back.
“Hey Mercie!” Annette chirped into her phone, “when your shift is over can you come watch me?”
“I’m sorry Annie, I had to take an extra shift at the bakery,” Mecedes said.
“It’s okay, what about Dedue? Is he taking an extra shift too?” Annette asked
“Yes, but Felix is available isn’t he?” Mercedes said.
“I can’t ask him, he’ll ask too many questions and this is for him!” Annette whined.
“But everyone else is busy with work or school,” Mercedes reminded.
Annette sighed, “I know, I’ll just have to bite the bullet and ask him,” she grumbled.
Mercedes giggled, “Sorry Annie, I have to go now, my break is over.”
“K, bye Mercie,” Annette said.
“Bye Annie,” Mercedes replied.
Annette sighed. She got up off her bed and went to Felix’s room. “Hey Felix!” She knocked on his door.
“Yeah?” Felix called getting up to open the door.
“Can you watch me bake please?” She asked.
“You’re baking again?” He questioned teetering on irritation.
“Yeah, got a problem with that?” She asked pointedly.
“No,” he answered with less irritation.
“So?” She inquired tilting her head in an endearing manner with a cute smile.
“Yeah, sure,” Felix said, holding back a sigh. He couldn’t say no to her and her puppy dog tactics didn’t help. It’s not like he had anything to do anyway.
“Alright!” She cheered as she bounded down the hall and stairs to the kitchen. “Thanks!”
Felix followed her down to the kitchen with much less energy.
By the time he got down the stairs, Annette was already flitting around the kitchen setting out supplies and ingredients.
He took a seat at the island and watched her work.
She hauled a bag of flour onto the counter, then got three eggs from the fridge and set them on the counter.
“Got a new reason for baking?” Felix asked sarcastically.
“Nope! Still doing it cause I want to!” Annette said cheerily as she reached up to get the sugar jar from the cupboard.
“And I still don’t believe that,” he said dryly.
“Well you can believe what you want,” she quipped. She was in very good spirits today and Felix’s usual grumpy attitude wasn’t going to change that.
“What are you baking anyway?” He asked less grumpily than before.
“A cake,” she said, finally settling at the counter as she put an apron on.
“I know that,” he huffed, “but what kind?”
“Sponge cake,” she sang playfully while lining the cake pan with parchment paper.
“You're doing this on purpose,” he grumbled under his breath.
Annette laughed making Felix pout and grumble more about how she wasn’t supposed to hear that. She put in an earbud and turned on music then began sifting flour.
Shortly after she began humming to the song she was listening to.
She pushed the bowl with the flour aside and cracked the three eggs into a different bowl, then measured and poured in sugar.
Felix watched her work for a little longer then turned his attention to his phone.
Annette turned on the hand mixer, it roared to life as she whipped eggs and sugar over a bain marie.
She took the batter off the bain marie, poured in water and continued to whip it.
Felix looked up every now and then to make sure everything was okay. “Hey, Annette?” He said.
She didn’t answer, unable to hear him over her music. “Hey! Annette!” He called again, louder this time.
Annette hummed in response, “Yeah?” She paused her music and removed her ear bud, turning to Felix with the bowl in hand.
“You’ve never made sponge cake so why this time?” He asked, hoping to get more information about why she was doing this.
“To try something new,” she replied, not so smoothly dodging the real question.
“Why now then? So close to exams?” He asked.
“I didn’t think it would take two weeks to do it,” she pouted and glared at him.
“Hey Felix, come here,” Annette said, patting the counter beside her.
Felix raised his eyebrow but complied. He got up and walked around the island.
“Here,” she said, shoving a spoon with batter on it in his face, “taste this.”
“What, why?” He asked frantically, leaning away from the spoon.
“Because I need someone to taste test it!” She yelled, she shoved the spoon in his face again, smearing the batter on his face and spattering batter all over the counter.
“But why me? I don’t even like sweets!” He yelled back, trying to reason. He grabbed her arm to stop her from shoving the spoon in his face a third time.
“Because, you’re here! And sponge cake isn’t that sweet!” Annette yelled as she struggled against his grip.
“Ok ok!” Felix huffed in defeat. He let go of her arm and let her put the spoon in his mouth.
“So? How’s it taste?” She asked. She drew back her arm and put the spoon down in the skin.
“It’s good,” he said begrudgingly. He walked around the island, back to his seat.
“You're not just saying that?” She asked
“If you were going to doubt me then why ask?” He said flatly, “No I’m not just saying that,” he reassured.
Annette fist pumped and grinned. She poured the batter in the cake pan.
She slid the pan into the oven and set the timer. When she turned around to shoo him, Felix had already left to sit in the living room.
She cleared the counter of dishes and ingredients, then wiped it down and started washing dishes.
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A ding sounded through the room. Annette jumped from her seat on the couch and bounded into the kitchen.
She pulled open the oven door to check the cake by putting a toothpick in it. When it came away clean, smiled and put on oven mitts to take the cake out of the oven.
She picked up the pan and dropped it onto the counter—instead of the cake this time—then placed the pan upside down on a cooling rack. She removed it and parchment paper from the cake then laid a damp cloth over the cake to let it cool and waited.
“Are you done?” Felix asked, looking at her from the living room.
“Yeah, you can leave now,” Annette dismissed him.
Felix simply nodded and rose to go back to his room. He didn’t need to stay longer, there was no more danger now that she wasn’t using the stove.
“Thanks for watching me.” She called after him.
“No problem,” he called back walking up the stairs.
When the cake finished cooling, Annette put it in the fridge to settle.
Attempt 3 Verdict: Success!
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The next day:
It was after dinner and most of the blue lions were gathered in the living room.
Annette was in the kitchen cutting the sponge cake into eight pieces and setting them on plates she laid out on the counter.
“The cake’s ready!” she called. She took one of the pieces and went to the living room to sit down on the carpet at the coffee table.
One by one everyone began getting up get pieces of cake. Chatter filled the room as they went and returned to their seats in the living room.
Annette listened to the chatter and waited for Mercedes to join her.
“Did the reason for baking have anything to do with me?” Felix asked from behind her. He took a seat next her on the floor and smirked at her.
Annette jumped slightly at his voice. A look of surprise briefly crossed her face before she pouted at him, knowing she could no longer avoid this.She sighed.
“And if it did?” She said, looking away from him.
“Then, thank you,” he said looking down as a blush spread across his face.