Poppin' Poffins

“I don’t see how this is a date.”

“Stop complaining, okay – it’s romantic as hell.”

“No, it’s not.”

“That’s only because you don’t like cooking.”

“More like I would rather be training.”

“Train then.”

“But we’re on a date.”

“Then stop complaining!”

Sunggyu sighs, tugging uncomfortably on the string around his neck. The apron he’s in is two sizes too small and uncomfortable. It’s also bright pink with frills and he can’t help but think that Woohyun made him wear it on purpose. He was a top trainer and here he was, standing in a poffin kitchen, in a stupid pink apron. He can see his Salamence laughing at him in the corner of the room. He sneers at his Pokémon, wishing that he hadn’t allowed them to roam free while they were cooking.

Walking on the seashore is a date. Going to the movies is a date. Hell, even getting massages with their Pokémon is a date. But cooking? That’s not a date in Sunggyu’s book. He’s not sure if that’s a date in anyone’s book. Except for Woohyun, of course. He wants to ask what the damn difference between a poffin and Pokéblock is, but he knows Woohyun has a fifteen minute argument waiting for him.

“Reach into my bag and get me my bag of peeled Oran berries, will you?” Woohyun asks him as he fills up a pot with cold water.

Sunggyu sighs and opens his bag and his eyes nearly fall out of his socket because Woohyun has so many Oran berries. Oran berries – the health restoring berry envied by every competitive trainer and Woohyun had a jackpot.

“How did you get these?!” Sunggyu exclaims. “Do you know how hard I have to look just to find one berry?”

Woohyun laughs at him. “I cultivate them in my own berry pots. It really comes in handy in a pinch.”

“You have the biggest stash of Oran berries I’ve ever seen,” Sunggyu tells him as he pours the peeled fruits into a tray. “Every trainer is out for them and you’re just going to throw them into your poffin mix? Unbelievable.”

Ninetails comes over to rest its head on Woohyun shoulder and Woohyun grins at him. “Well, I need Oran berries for this beauty right here. Oran berries always make the best flavored dry poffins and Ninetails needs dry poffins to increase his beauty in the Pokémon contests. Get with the basics, Sunggyu.”

Sunggyu rolls his eyes and hands him the tray. “Why don’t you enter another Pokémon and use other berries?”

“Because I train fire types and fire types always do best in terms of beauty for contests. Therefore, dry poffins are a must.” Woohyun pours the tray of berries into the water and turns up the heat. “You’ll come see my contest tomorrow, right?”

Sunggyu smiles softly and presses a kiss onto the crown of Woohyun head. “Of course. I promised, didn’t I?” He pets Ninetails on the head. “And I’ll look forward to seeing Ninetails competing. What kind of entrance do you have planned for him?”

“Oh, I’m not entering with just Ninetails,” Woohyun says matter-of-factly, stirring the berries as they cook down. “I’m definitely choosing Ninetails for the battle stage, but not for the performance stage. I have a brand new special someone I will be introducing as my Pokémon.” Woohyun winks.

Sunggyu actually gets excited for his boyfriend. “You caught a new Pokémon? Awesome! I’m sure it’s great if you’re choosing it for your performance stage.”

“He’s adorable! And he reminds me of you so that why I caught him in the first place. I think you’ll really like him.” Woohyun finishes stirring and sets the poffin mixture into the molds. “I caught him when I was visiting the Hoenn region.”

“Can I meet him now?” Sunggyu asks, a twinkle of excitement in his eyes. “It’s been a while since I’ve been to Hoenn so I don’t remember a lot of the Pokémon there. The last time I was there I caught Salamence.” Salamence is by his side immediately at the sound of his name and Sunggyu chuckles and pets his head.

“Start on your poffin batch and I’ll go get him!” Woohyun says. He hands him a bag of peeled berries and reminds him, “Don’t stir too fast or you’ll spill the mixture. But if you stir too slowly you’ll burn it. And the water has to be cold when you put the berries in – turn up the heat afterwards.”

“Okay, okay,” Sunggyu says, shooing him away. “I’m sure you’ll get your Pokémon here quicker than I will make a poffin so just go,” he chuckles.

He’s stirring his poffin mixture idly as Woohyun goes off to fetch his Pokémon. He’s keeping his stirring speed under control as he watches Ninetails show off his fire moves to Salamence. Salamence watches in awe as Ninetail’s sleek coat glows from the heat of the fire. Sunggyu chuckles to himself. Despite being a big Pokémon, Salamence has always been a big, curious baby.

“I’m back!” Woohyun says upon return. He’s got a Pokéball in hand and a gleam in his eye. “Want to meet him?”

“Of course!” Sunggyu exclaims. “Show me the new addition to your team.”

“All right – come on out!”

There’s a burst of a Pokéball and a small teal Pokémon pops out and into Woohyun arms. Woohyun holds up the Pokémon proudly. “See – he looks just like you!” Woohyun giggles.

Sunggyu wants to be in shock, but he realizes that it’s something Woohyun would totally think. Woohyun would definitely think of him when catching this Pokémon because he’s staring straight at a Cyndaquil and the first thing he notices is that Cyndaquil’s got squinty eyes.

“This Pokémon… reminds you of me?” Sunggyu starts slowly, quite unamused.

Woohyun nods. “Yeah – you got matching eyes! And look at the flames going down his back, you’re totally like that too.”

“I don’t have plumes of fire on my back,” Sunggyu complains, stirring his mixture a little harder. “And our eyes do not match.”

“Aw, are you upset that I’m making jokes about your eyes?”

“No, I am not.”

“Yes, you are.”

“How would you know?!”

“You’re about to burn your poffin mixture.”

“Ah!”

“See what happens when you get too emotional when you cook? Your poffins suffer.”

Sunggyu cringes as he stares at his plate of dark brown poffins. They look abysmal next to Woohyun bright blue ones. He blames it on the fact that Woohyun thinks that poffin cooking is a date. They might have kissed a couple times during the cooking process but he still doesn’t think it’s a proper date.

Especially because all of their Pokémon (including Dragonair, that traitor!) are crowded around Woohyun poffins and eating them with delight while his brown rocks of disappointment are left untouched. But in their defense, he probably wouldn’t have eaten his either.

He stares at his plate and decides that they’re not too bad. They’re not terribly brown – just a dark tan. It should still be edible. It will just taste awful.

Sunggyu feels a nudge on his ankle and looks down to see Cyndaquil looking up at him expectantly. He’s pretty confused as Cyndaquil starts crawling up his leg and clinging onto his apron, making some happy noises. Sunggyu doesn’t get it when Cyndaquil hops onto the table and starts eating his brown poffins of sadness.

“Cyndaquil wait, you might poison yourself–”

But Cyndaquil makes a loud squeak of happiness and the flames on its back grow bigger and brighter as he devours more. And then Sunggyu gets it. Cyndaquil likes his burnt- cooking. And it’s not really the best confidence booster but Sunggyu feels better at the very least. He decides that it’s really cute the way Cyndaquil chomps on the poffins in glee despite the poffins looking like tiny asteroids.

“Hey. Maybe you and I really are the same after all.” Sunggyu smiles down at Cyndaquil and rubs his head affectionately.

Woohyun tiptoes up and kisses Sunggyu’s cheek. “I told you so.”

a.n. --

basically cute woogyu feels on a date + gyu being lowkey offended that woohyun thinks his eyes are squinty like cyndaquil's.
~~they are tho, let's be honest~~

pokemon referenced

ninetails -- salamence -- cyndaquil -- dragonair