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Valentine’s day was never one of those things Arakita really /cared/ about. It’s not that he was bitter, or that he expected anything from anyone, but to him it never really held any significance enough to give a shit about it. It was just a regular day as far as he was concerned, just that the girls got more annoying, the guys doubly so.
But now that he was actually /dating/ someone, he supposed he could see the point in it. Sure, Fukuchan didn’t put a lot of stock in this holiday either, but he still /received/ things. Little boxes, cards, the occasional handmade gift; and he accepted them all with a stern word of thanks and thought nothing else of them. (Which, of course, drove away any potential confessions away, not that Arakita minded.) The fact of the matter was that while Fukuchan was getting stuff from other people, wouldn’t it be strange if his /boyfriend/ didn’t get him anything?
Maybe he was being oddly sentimental, who knows, but it didn’t stop him from pausing in front of the conbini valentines display, all delicate paper, pink hearts and boxed chocolate. He lingers, hand hovering over a box, but he knows firsthand that Fukuchan doesn’t eat a lot of chocolate. Most of his Febuary gifts end up in Shinkai’s pile, not out of spite but because at least then they’d actually get eaten instead of being wasted (And he’d be damned if any of /his/ chocolate ended up being eaten by that guy.)
An apple pie would be better, he thinks as he checks out, Fukuchan likes those after all. But there was something a little lacking about simply buying one. There was hardly any effort in it, nothing personal other than an expenditure of money for something mass produced and probably tasteless, unless you went to a fancy bakery and ended up paying a lot for it.
It suddenly strikes him to try and maybe /make/ one. It’s incredibly personal, something made with his own hands that he knows Fukuchan actually likes, so… so why not? It couldn’t be that hard, could it?
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(This was his first mistake, because other than eggs, he couldn’t cook for shit.)
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He still ends up looking up a recipe online, one that apparently tastes good and (more importantly) doesn’t look /too/ difficult.
So on the last weekend before Valentines day, he sets out to create a masterpiece.
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The first batch… Didn’t even make it to the oven. He’d made the dough in advance, pressed it into the pan and started on the apples. Peeling them was easy, chopping them less so, and they came out weirdly lumpy and odd sized. However, he figured that they’d get mushy in the process of boiling, and if it tasted fine, did it really matter?
Which would have ended up being fine if he had been paying attention.
The apples stewed and is promptly forgotten about as Arakita gets distracted by the brief return of his sisters and Akichan. By the time he’d caught the scent of burning and raced back to the stove, the water had boiled out, leaving the apples to the mercy of the stove. With the now charred black mess stuck to the bottom of the pot and with no idea what to do with it (or how to fix it), he decides to (very discreetly) throw it away and claim it missing if anyone asked.
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The second batch was a vast improvement, only because he actually stood over the apples for the half an hour the recipe dictated. He takes a piece to taste, forgets that the slices are piping hot, yells and spits it right back out.
Right into the pot.
Now, despite what everyone may or may not think, he’d certainly not /that/ kind of person. He’s heard more than his fair share of worrisome stories, and offering something tainted to Fukuchan of all people strikes him as incredibly wrong. Dumping the entire batch is his only option.
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The Sixth batch is, in his opinion, flawless. The apples are soft while still holding their shape (Third batch), it smelt pretty good and they’re a kind of golden brown colour that looks just right. They tasted fine, he’d added enough lemon to make it somehow make the apple taste better instead of worse (Fourth Batch).
The pie crust is fine (Fifth batch), and he is very careful about setting the temperature /just right/ and setting the oven clock, as well as the timer on his phone. After all, after two failed attempts, the only thing that was keeping him from giving up was the prospect of Fukuchan cracking a smile for once in his life.
But as it turns out, a double timer ends up being useless, his oven being one of those weird Fahrenheit ones (why the hell did they even /have/ that kind of oven?!) and math had never been his strong point (neither had anything else, but that was besides the point.)
So with smoke billowing out of his oven, he’s eventually chased out of the kitchen (and the house) by his returning parents, and is left without the means to bake.
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That doesn’t stop him though, he immediately makes a beeline for Shinkai’s house, picking up /more/ ingredients along the way (This was turning out to be a costly venture, but hopefully the reward was worth the effort.)
The idiot isn’t home, but Yuuto is. Which means he has to bribe the kid with /actual money/ before being let in.
Shinkai’s oven is (thankfully) normal, and repeating the apples and pie crust is easy by now. So he makes quick work of the pie, hanging around and watching insistently as it baked, turning it out onto the cooling rack to cool as soon as it was done.
It’s then Yuuto bothers him to play video games, and considering the pie is still too hot to package, he decides why not. He deserved a break after all that.
However, what he should have really remembered was that this was still /Shinkai’s/ house. And even if he wasn’t there at the time, he’d probably return, see the pie and shove it in his mouth without any thought as to where it came from.
Which ended up being exactly what happened, when he returns to the kitchen an hour later to find half the pie gone, and the Idiot in question sitting at the breakfast bar with an entire litre of milk.
He pauses, they both do, and a brief look of horror flashes across the Idiots face as the pie is retrieved, and flung into his face.
And ex-pitcher or not, Arakita still has force enough to knock him back off his chair.
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Arakita doesn’t bother with Toudou’s house, that kind of thinking is just asking for trouble, and at this point he’s far too tired to make /another/ pie. It’s cold and getting late and he’s just. Done.
So even if he has to practically sprint to a late night bakery on the other side of town and grab their last, lopsided apple pie, spend /more/ on top of the ingredients still sitting at Shinkai’s place; he’s out of time and out of /patience/.
Sentimentality or not, a store bought pie was the best he could do.
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Of course it all turns out for nothing the next day.
Fukuchan is absent with a bad toothache, meaning that even if he /did/ recover by the next day, sweets would probably be avoided for a good long while.
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He skips first period to cycle out to Motosu and pitches the box across the frozen lake, resolving never to try this kinda shit ever again.