Title: Baking Soda

Length: One-shot ( 1,825 words)

Author: standbymyfivegods

A/N: Missed writing fics just for fun :) Credits to the dbsk generator for the prompt.

Rating: G

Pairing: Jaejoong and Changmin

Genre: Fluff, Brotherhood

Summary: Jae is baking, and Changmin is curious.

Foreword:

It was times like this that Min appreciated having Jae as and being part of DBSK.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hyung,” Min calls out as he enters the kitchen.

“You scared me!” Jae turns with a hand over his heart, expressing how startled he was.

“What are you doing?” the younger one continues nonchalantly as he moves to stand beside the elder.

“I’m baking,” Jae answers with a grin on his face as he returns his gaze to the bowl.

“What are you baking?” Min inquires, voice monotonous.

“It’s a secret,” Jae’s grin turns into a smile full of malice.

“A secret, huh?” Min’s curiosity is piqued.

“Yupp,” Jae says while mixing.

“Are you trying to poison me?” Min then raises an eyebrow.

“And why would I do that?” Jae stops midway and turns sideways to look at his dongsaeng.

“Nothing. Just testing you,” the maknae shrugs.

“Is that so?” Jae says with eyes narrowing.

They stay like that for a moment, neither one blinking and each one calculating the other.

“Alright then,” Jae finally says as he breaks the eye contact and resumes his earlier ministrations.

There is silence for a while as Jae grabs a baking pan and begins putting in assorted colors of liners.

“Ooh! Are you perhaps making cupcakes?” Min says it more like a statement than a question.

Jae laughs in response, “you’re such a genius, Min!”.

“Don’t make fun of me,” Min says faking hurt.

“I’m not,” Jae lies, tongue poking out to tease the other.

“Tcch,” Min grunts, upper lip raising diagonally in displeasure.

 Jae ignores that and continues.

“Can I help?” the younger then offers as Jae was halfway.

“Sure,” the elder agrees without taking his eyes off of what he was doing.

Min can’t help but feel delighted. He was helping out, well sort of, in something that he was going to taste later. Just thinking about it made his heart pitter patter.

Jae saw the other’s expression in the corner of his eye and couldn’t help but giggle inwardly. Their youngest never did change, always loved food like one would with someone special.

“I don’t really like sweet things hyung, you know that right?” Min always spoke that way. Questions seemed like declarations. They were more of asking assurance that looking for answers.

“I do. Don’t worry I didn’t put in too much sugar,” Jae smiled as they were done.

“Want to help me fill them too?” the older is the one to offer now.

“Yes,” Min says in a heartbeat.

They go on like that for about half an hour, talking, teasing, and joking while getting the job done. What started out as Jae’s self pleasure to make s happy became a bonding time between the eldest and their maknae. Both noticed that but neither complained.

It was times like this that Min appreciated having Jae as and being part of DBSK. Being away from his mom and sisters for so long, he had initially worried that he might grow up without a feminine side to him. Everyone needed balance in their personalities. And girls would think of it as romantic when guys did things for them that they usually did to their boyfriends.

All of his hyungs contributed to molding him to who is he is, and Jae reminds  him that it’s alright to be caring regardless of gender. The other one had smiles for everyone. Some people would misinterpret his actions, but Min knew better.

He might joke around that his hyung was girly and a mother figure, but he didn’t mean it in a bad way. It was a good example to him that men could be soft at times but that doesn’t mean they aren’t manly anymore.

Lost in his thoughts, Min snap back to reality with Jae calling his name, “-in? Shim Changmin? Max? Choikang?”.

“Eh? Ah.. yes, hyung?” the other then answers.

“Could you help me by opening the oven?” Jae asks as his two hands are both holding baking pans.

“Sure,” Min then moves to do as he was told.

“Why did you make so much anyway?” he then asks as he closes the oven’s door.

They both straighten up back to full height and head towards the dining room to wait for the cupcakes to bake.

“Because you eat a lot,” Jae says as he pokes the other’s cheek.

“Yah~” Min says lowly.

“It’s true!” Jae defends himself.

“Fine,” Min then aqrees to avoid an argument.

“Good dongsaeng,” Jae coos as he pats the maknae’s head.

“Am I a pet?” Min says as he removes Jae’s hand.

“Don’t be so cruel to your cute hyung,” Jae then pouts.

“What is that face?” Min looks the other with annoyance.

“This is why you look so old, Min. You keep having a grumpy face. Smile more and stop acting cool,” Jae says unfazed as he reaches out to stretch the younger’s cheeks.

“I am naturally cool,” Min just looks at his hyung while his face was being smothered.

Jae chuckles at the statement and because he was having fun with what he was doing.

“Cut it out already,” Min mumbles.

“Don’t wanna~” Jae says stubbornly.

“Stop it now or I’m gonna bite you,” Min then threatens.

“Scary,” Jae says in a small voice trying to be cute as he takes his hands off.

He then rests his elbow on the table and puts his chin on his palm.

“Hyung,” Min then says.

“Yeah?” Jae answers looking back.

“Could you teach me how to bake cupcakes sometime?” Min says in almost a whisper.

“Why?” there was a small smile forming on Jae’s face.

“I think when I get a girlfriend that it would be uhm.. cool.. to make her some,” the other then mumbles.

“You don’t think it’s too.. girly?” Jae then quirks an eyebrow.

“No, not really,” Min finally says in his normal voice while really thinking about it.

“I thought you disliked these feminine stuff I did?” Jae then follows up with another question.

“I never said that,” Min then looks straight into the elder’s eyes.

“True,” Jae thought about it. Min did call him girly and motherly but never said it was a bad thing.

“Okay then,” he then agreed.

“Thanks,” Min smiled softly.

“You’re growing up,” Jae gazed fondly as his dongsaeng as he said it.

“What brings that all of a sudden?” Min asks in wonder.

“I thought you were going to say that you wanted to learn to bake for yourself so you can make as many as you want, anytime that you want,” Jae laughed as he confessed.

“Oh,” Min hadn’t thought about that.

“But it turns out you want to make it for a girl in the future,” Jae smiles teasingly.

“Stop it hyung,” Min looks away embarrassed.

“Aigoo so cute~ You do know how to be not cool sometimes,” the elder continues to tease.

“Whatever,” Min stands up as the oven’s timer sounds.

“Where are you going, Min?~” Jae sing songs.

“To the cupcakes,” the person in questions states.

“Oh right!” Jae is then reminded.

Both take it out carefully with mittens and lay them on the kitchen’s counters to cool.

“When you give cupcakes similar to these, you have to decorate them cutely with frosting and/or icing, plus sprinkles!” Jae says excitedly.

“Okay,” Min nods attentively.

“I’m so proud of you~” Jae coos again.

“Stop it hyung~” Min then whines.

“Shim Changmin and a girl sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-,” Jae then sings happily like a child.

“ARRRRRRRRRRRGH!” Min shouts face flushed red as he looks around for something to distract the elder one.

“Hyung! HYUNG! Look at this! Uhm.. baking soda! What does baking soda do?!” the younger began flailing his arms to catch the attention of the other.

“First comes love, then-,” Jae abruptly stops at the sight.

“Did I succeed?” Min thinks to himself as both of them were frozen.

Jae then comes closer to him and snatches the can away to take a closer look, “that’s not baking soda, Min. That’s baking powder”.

“Yes, I did,” Min says triumphantly deep inside.

“So, uhm.. what’s the difference?” he then tries to make small talk.

“Oh, well baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, and baking powder contains baking soda, so-,” and Jae goes on and on.

“Uh-uh. Yeah. Cool~” Min fakes enthusiasm. He already knew those things afterall.

“So then,-” Jae continues but senses that they was something wrong.

“Yah!” he then slaps the younger’s arm.

“What was that for?” Min then cries out innocently.

“Why are you changing the subject? You took advantage of my short attention span,” Jae narrows his eyes as he comes closer and closer to the maknae.

“W-what are you talking about?” Min chuckles nervously as he backs up in response.

“You.. should I not give you some cupcakes for doing this?” Jae is still moving forward.

“Don’t be so cruel hyung~ I was just uhm.. I was really curious.. is all,” Min tries his best as he finally is cornered up a wall.

“Really now,” Jae was now narrowing his eyes.

“Uh-huh,” Min answered while nodding.

“Should I cry for help now?” he thought to himself.

“Jaejoong-ah~” Yun suddenly enters the kitchen.

“Thank you, Buddha!” Min praises in his mind.

“Oh, Yun,” Jae then forgets about the maknae and walks towards the leader.

“You have something on your nose,” Yun then wipes the smudge of flour off of the eldest.

“Thanks,” Jae then blushes at the act.

“Oh, cupcakes!” Yun then sees the treats and turns his attention to them instead.

“Jae-hyung and Yun-hyung sitting in a tree,” Min the whispers at the back of Jae’s head with an evil smirk on his face.

“Changmin!” Jae then hisses as he turns around.

Yun unbothered and immersed at admiring the pieces of food to notice.

“K-I-S-S-,” Min’s voice was getting louder.

“What do you want?!” Jae was still hissing as he puts a hand over Min’s mouth.

“Stop teasing me and I’ll stop teasing you, deal?” Min was back to whispering once he moves the elder’s hand away.

“Touche,” Jae says defeated.

“And give me cupcakes that I helped out in making,” Min added to the bargain, voice back to normal.

“Oh, you helped out on these, Min?” Yun asked attention now on to them.

“I did, didn’t I, hyung?” the person in question smiled over to Jae.

“He did,” Jae answered honestly.

“Aww! Our baby’s growing up,” Yun suddenly coos with a soft smile.

Jae blushes at the statement and stutters, “o-our baby?”.

“Yeah, he’s the maknae so the baby of the band,” the leader answers without a doubt.

“O-oh. That,” Jae laughs awkwardly.

“Can I have one now?” Yun was then back to the cupcakes.

“Sure,” Jae smiles.

“What were you thin-,” Min started whispering at the back of Jae’s head again until the latter shoved a cupcake into his mouth to silence him.

“Just shut up and eat alright,” Jae hissed one last time.

“Thanks, hyung,” Min said in between munches.

And Jae could only sigh.