Work Text:
Another dull and uneventful work day had just reached its conclusion.
Aki watched as his assigned partner blew a strand of hair out of his face and sigh irritably when it just fell right back. There had only been one small devil, a beetle devil, and they killed it quickly.
The rest of the day had been filled by Aki impatiently waiting for a call to alert them to the presence of another enemy, and watching his partner eat ice cream on his dime.
“Do you have any other plans for this weekend?” Aki asked his companion to try fill some of the silence as they walked back to the Public Safety building.
They had been getting along better recently. To the point he might even say they were friends.
No, not friends. I could never be friends with a devil, he thought bitterly.
Angel hummed a no in responded.
“Do you?” He returned, although he sounded rather disinterested.
“I guess. It’s Power’s birthday tomorrow and I was planning to make her a cake.” Aki shrugged.
This seemed to interest Angel.
“A birthday? I thought that was a human thing.”
“It is, but when she first found out about the concept of birthdays, she wanted one everyday. Me and Denji made her choose just one.” A ghost of a smile appeared on Aki’s face.
Angel responded with a nod.
“I thought birthdays were supposed to be a surprise. Won’t she see you making the cake?”
“Denji and Power are off on a mission tonight so I’m home alone.”
Ah, Angel thought, that made sense.
They had finally reached the Public Safety office and Aki began to walk to his car in the car park when a thought struck him.
“Why don’t you help me bake?”
Ok.. that sounded better in my head, he thought with a slight wince. Makima had been telling him lately that he should bond further with Angel to improve their teamwork. He thought this could be a good way to get to know one another better but now it seemed a little awkward.
Angel just started at him for a moment.
“Will I get to eat some of the cake?”
Aki almost laughed.
“Yeah, ok. But you’ll have to wait till tomorrow.”
Angel seemed to consider this.
“Alright.. whatever. I guess it could be fun.”
And that was how they ended up inside Aki’s kitchen.
Aki had adorned his favourite maroon apron and his hair had been let down. His sleeves were rolled up past his elbows and his blazer was hung up neatly on a coat hanger.
Angel, on the other hand, refused to wear an apron; ‘It’s not like I’m gonna spill anything anyways.’
And his jacket was discarded lazily on the lounge; ‘Creases? Oh whatever’
A simple cake mix sat on the counter and watched as Aki took ingredients out of the fridge. He’d bought the chocolate mix as per Power’s request. “Chocolate, obviously you stupid fool!” She had responded when he had asked her preferred flavour a few days earlier.
“Ok, you can start by pouring the cake mix into this bowl,” Aki told Angel once he had finished getting all the ingredients.
As he had been told, Angel pulled open the plastic bag full of powder, and inelegantly dumped it into the bowl. He turned to Aki as if asking what next?
“Then, we need to add two eggs.”
While he spoke, he opened up a pre placed carton and handed one egg to Angel while keeping the other for himself. He cracked the egg on the side of the bowl, and perfectly dropped its contents into the powder.
After watching this, Angel attempted the same. He forcefully cracked the egg on the bowl, as Aki did, but it broke in several places. Some of its contents spilled down onto the counter. Undeterred, he split the egg in two over the bowl but many pieces of shell fell into the ingredients along with the egg.
“I think that’s fine,” he spoke while observing his work.
A pang of irritation rose in Aki’s chest as he watched the Devil’s docile expression.
“Of course thats not fine! Come on, you have to get it out.”
At this, Angel frowned.
“What? Ew, no. Im not touching that and getting my hands dirty.”
Aki shook his head incredulously and then sighed deeply as he opened up a cabinet and retrieved a pair of disposable gloves. He threw them at Angel and said:
“Fine. Here put those on.”
With an annoyed exhale, Angel slipped on the gloves and retrieved the egg shells, all with a slightly disgusted expression, and threw them away. Aki decided that he too would wear gloves, foreseeing that Angel might make a mess of things.
The pair continued on, adding melted butter and a little bit of water which, much to Aki’s dismay, Angel managed to spill on the floor.
Finally, it was time to mix the ingredients together, and Aki handed to Angel a wooden spoon.
“Here, you mix. I’ll go preheat the oven.”
As instructed, Angel began to combine the mixture.
When Aki returned from the oven, a laugh bubbled out of him. Angel had a spot of cake mix on his cheek.
Without much though, Aki reached his hand up and wiped the mixture off his cheek. Angel’s eyes had caught his gaze in surprise and a small gasp escaped his lips. He stayed unusually still. Oh yeah.. Aki thought mindlessly, I suppose he doesn’t get much physical contact.
He promptly realised his arm was still reached up to Angel’s cheek and he quickly withdrew it. There was a moment of awkward silence where neither of the two quite knew what to say.
“I’ll uh.. keep..mixing,” Angel said quietly
“Yes, great. Good idea,” Aki responded with a slightly flushed demeanour.
As the devil continued to silently combine the ingredients, he couldn’t help but ponder the serene expression that had appeared on the other man’s face when he had touched Angel’s skin.
The plastic feeling of the glove only made him yearn for a human touch more, although he would never admit that aloud. He’d been thinking about physical contact more ever since.. since Aki had saved him.
In that moment, when they had fought the typhoon devil, he had been so caught up in adrenaline and emotion that he forgot to savour that feeling of touch.
Despite himself, he could hardly remember what that touch felt like. He could only remember the look of fear on Aki’s face when he realised what he had done to himself. He could only remember the dread and guilt that pooled in his own stomach.
With a huff, he realised that while being so involved in his thoughts, he had mixed too vigorously and splattered cake mix onto the counter. He looked to Aki who seemed to be pretending to read the box’s instructions and spoke his mind.
“You shouldn’t do that, you know.”
Aki looked up with a question on his lips.
“Do what?”
“What you just did.. touch me so freely.”
A puzzled expression took over Aki’s face and Angel shut his eyes for a moment before clarifying,
“Even with a glove it’s still risky. What if there was a hole? I can’t…whatever just forget I said anything.””
Aki put down the box mix walked over to stand next to the devil. He watched the way Angel’s unusually long eyelashes brushed his skin as he blinked. It was kind of mesmerising..
Wait what?
“You cant.. what?” Aki asked in an oddly gentle manner.
Angel sighed and seemed to consider how much he wanted to say, all thoughts of mixing gone now.
“I can’t hurt you any more. I couldn’t live with myself.”
The taller man suddenly understood what the devil was referring to.
“But.. that wasn’t your fault? I chose to take your hand, Angel.”
“Yeah, well you shouldn’t have! I told you I was ok to die.”
“Seriously? Are you..” he looked away for a moment and continued with a quiet voice.
“I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself.”
Somewhere during their back and forth, they had gotten close. So close that Angel could feel Aki’s breath on his face. He could have reached up and caressed Aki’s face, although he wouldn’t dare.
Aki’s body was rigid as he waited for the Devil’s response, but he didn’t get one. Instead, Angel poured his mixture into the prepared tin and put it into the oven.
Without making eye contact he said,
“I didn’t realise you liked me that much, Hayakawa.”
Aki almost laughed at the ridiculousness of his situation. He hated devils, everyone knew that, so why couldn’t he figure out why he didn’t mind the devil in his kitchen?
“Whatever,” he answered as he set a timer for 25 minutes on a little clock device sat on the counter.
Aki took off his gloves and apron, but Angel kept his own gloves (which he had washed) on, and Aki suspected he knew partially why.
Angel flopped down onto the living room couch and requested that they watch something on TV while they waited for the cake to finish.
“Ok,” Aki replied as he sat down next to him, “can you pass me the remote?”
Angel did as he was asked, and as he passed the remote over their fingertips touched lightly. Aki didn’t miss the way that the Devil’s breaths came quicker. In fact, he quite enjoyed it for some reason. As they sat there Aki made sure to ‘accidentally’ bump shoulders or brush past his hands and savour the small almost panicked yet pleasured look on Angel’s face. But of course, Angel noticed.
“Most people would do anything to avoid touching me.”
“Yeah, well most people probably don’t know that they’re going to die in less than two years.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
The TV played a noisy show in the background, but neither man was truly paying attention to it.
“Does it upset you?” Aki inquired, “That you can’t touch?
This was uncharted territory. They had never gotten personal before and so the question seemed to cross some previous unspoken boundaries. And yet, Angel didn’t mind answering. He almost wanted Aki to know.
“It used to, but I’ve gotten used to the loneliness now. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t like this, but nothing changes.”
Aki nodded in response as he considered how isolating being unable to touch another would be. He’d never thought about it before. This devil was more complex than he had originally thought. He seemed…human. Maybe that was what justified what he did next.
Aki placed his hand carefully onto top of Angel’s, resulting in his partner going completely still and looking up to stare at him.
Aki wasn’t deterred. He slotted his fingers in between Angel’s, being very wary not to touch his exposed forearm. When Aki stopped moving and finally rested, tension relieved out of Angel’s body and a tiny smile lifted his lips.
Neither man said a word, but they stayed contently and watched the TV channel.
Although, Angel wasn’t really watching that. Instead, his attention was focused on the large hand weighing down on his. He observed the tiny callouses, counted freckles and even looked at the dirt under the other man’s nails. The imperfections were comforting.
It was nice.
They were only both startled when the timer buzzed loudly from the kitchen, breaking the two apart.
They took the cake out of the oven, made the icing and put both foods in the fridge to cool.
Angel’s mouth watered at the warm, sweet smell of chocolate.
When everything had finally been prepared and finished, Angel stood at the door. It had gotten late.
“I guess you’ll have to come back tomorrow to try our cake,” Aki said as he shut the screen door.
Angel smiled. It wasn’t just the cake he looked forward to.
“I guess I will.”
Aki shut the door with a faint smile and turned back to the kitchen.
Cake mix was in pools on the counter, water was spilled on the floor and dirty dishes piled in the sink that he would have to wash before Power got home.
He would have to clean it all himself.
Despite this, he laughed quietly.
Curse that devil, he thought fondly.