•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•

•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•

Hyukjae woke up from his sleep slowly. There was a slight trace of pain along his hips and legs, probably for how much he had done the night before trying to bath the dog. “Huh?” He sat up, looking around when he found no Duck and no Kyuhyun on his bed. “But I thought…,” he looked at the watch by his bedside table and he opened his eyes widely.

It was almost midday and Hyukjae stood up quickly, combing his hair with his fingers before going to wash his face and brush his teeth, going out from his room in just two minutes. He looked around and found no one in there.

As soon as Hyukjae took out his phone to call Kyuhyun, he heard his door being unlocked and he looked up, grinning widely when Kyuhyun came in with bags in his hands and so the dog behind him.

“Ah Hyukjae, you’re awake,” Kyuhyun chuckled and closed the door as the dog went to Hyukjae, as if wishing a good morning.

Hyukjae smiled and hummed, leaning down to gently pet Duck. “Just a few minutes ago,” he admitted and Kyuhyun laughed.

“For a moment, I thought you had fainted, I was slightly worried,” Kyuhyun said and pointed the kitchen. “Come here, you have to have some breakfast,” he said and Hyukjae grinned, nodding quickly as he motioned Duck to follow him to the kitchen.

“You cooked?” Hyukjae asked, sitting down behind the counter as he looked at Kyuhyun leaving the bags on it. “What did you buy?”

Kyuhyun chuckled. “No, I called for food,” he said and looked through the fridge to heat the soup for Hyukjae. He put the plate in the microwave and turned towards Hyukjae who was already trying to see what was in the bags. “We’ll make a rainbow cake,” Kyuhyun said grinning widely, taking out everything he bought.

Hyukjae’s smile grew wider. “Really?!” he asked excitedly. “I have never baked before!”

“Me neither,” Kyuhyun admitted, taking out everything. “But there’s always a first time, right?”

Hyukjae nodded. “You bought strawberries!” he exclaimed as soon as he saw Kyuhyun taking out the small box. He quickly took it from Kyuhyun’s hands and hugged it. “Mine.”

Kyuhyun looked at Hyukjae and laughed softly, taking out another box. “I came prepared,” he said and chuckled, lifting the box up when Hyukjae wanted to take it away from him. “For the cake,” he said and Hyukjae pouted.

“So mean,” Hyukjae said, squinting his eyes as he looked at Kyuhyun.

“I know,” Kyuhyun said, putting the box of strawberries out of Hyukjae’s reach.

Hyukjae rolled his eyes, opening the box and grinning widely, reaching his hand to take one out.

The box was taken away and Hyukjae gasped, looking up at Kyuhyun. “Eat first,” the taller said, pushing the soup towards Hyukjae. “I’ll disinfect the strawberries and then you can eat them.”

Hyukjae pouted again, taking the spoon to start eating, mumbling under his breath how Kyuhyun was such a bad and cruel slave and how he would deduct it from his paycheck.

It took some minutes for Hyukjae to finish eating and for Kyuhyun to also feed the dog and disinfect the strawberries. Hyukjae looked up at the taller, still eating slowly. He wondered if Kyuhyun always did so much every day. “Before I hired you,” Hyukjae started, tilting his head slightly. “Did you do everything like you do now?”

Kyuhyun turned towards Hyukjae, laughing softly and shaking his head. “Not really, I was too busy worrying over what I was going to do to make my boss happy.”

Hyukjae nodded, looking down his plate. “Me too…,” he mumbled. “I don’t remember being this relaxed ever,” he admitted. “I wonder why I waited for so long…”

“Well, better late than never,” Kyuhyun smiled, reaching up to ruffle Hyukjae’s hair. “Now finish your soup so you can have your strawberries and we can start to bake~”

Hyukjae grinned and nodded eagerly.

•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•

“This is your entire fault,” Hyukjae glared at Kyuhyun, looking at how the taller’s face, hair and even clothes were covered with flour and something Hyukjae really didn’t want to know.

“Excuse you,” Kyuhyun looked at Hyukjae, restraining from laughing because the smaller man was probably as messy as him, if not more. “You were the one who said you wanted to mix the ingredients.”

“I don’t know how to use a mixer!” Hyukjae exclaimed, pouting because his entire kitchen, even Duck, was a mess.

“How was I supposed to know that?” Kyuhyun retorted.

“I told you I had never baked before!” Hyukjae said, rolling his eyes. “You’ll bath Duck, I’m not doing it again,” he said, pointing at the dog who was happily watching the two of them arguing.

Kyuhyun opened his eyes widely. “This is also your responsibility,” he said, also pointing at the dog. “We’re doing it together.”

Hyukjae crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re a bad slave, Kyuhyun.”

Kyuhyun couldn’t help but laugh. “Shut up, let’s try again before calling someone to bath Duck.”

Hyukjae rolled his eyes but complied anyway.

After almost three hours of trying, a room that used to be a kitchen, a creature that used to be a dog and their clothes, faces and hair full with dough, they finally got their multicolor pans into the oven. “How long?” Hyukjae asked, squatting to look at how the dough cooked.

“Forty five minutes,” Kyuhyun said, looking at his watch.

Hyukjae nodded, sitting down in front of the oven to look at it carefully, his hand slowly reaching for the dog that laid down by his side to pet him gently.

Kyuhyun sat down as well, not caring if his clothes would get dirtier than they were already. He also reached his hand to pet the dog that was in between them, looking at the oven carefully.

“Oh my god Kyuhyun!” Hyukjae exclaimed happily. “It’s going up! It’s going up!”

Kyuhyun grinned, nodding. “I think it’s going to actually be alright for us to eat that…”

Hyukjae grinned and nodded, waiting even more, a smile on his face as he kept petting the dog that was comfortably resting on the floor covered in dough and flour.

Kyuhyun took the chance to take a picture of the three of them together, grinning widely for the camera.

When finally the forty five minutes passed, they took out the hot pans and placed them on the counter. “We need them to cool down so we can decorate,” Kyuhyun said, nodding for himself as Hyukjae reached for his strawberries, eating slowly.

Hyukjae nodded, grinning as he smelled the just baked cakes. “You can bath Duck in the mean while.”

Kyuhyun glared at Hyukjae.

•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•

“Yah!” Hyukjae exclaimed, glaring at Kyuhyun who simply grinned innocently.

They were supposed to bath the dog, though Hyukjae had no idea of why he was there as well when Kyuhyun was supposed to do it alone.

Kyuhyun was hugging Duck, expecting Hyukjae to wash his fur as he kept it still, but he also threw water at him and laughed loudly, making the dog shake his body to splash water everywhere. “Not my fault,” Kyuhyun defended himself. “This guy here has a lot of energy,” he nodded.

Hyukjae pouted and threw a whole bucket of water over Kyuhyun. “Shut up, slave,” he said and grinned for himself as he saw Kyuhyun frozen in his spot, blinking his eyes trying to get over the fact that he was now a man covered in flour, dough, and water.

Bathing the dog proved, once again, to be a hard task as not only the kitchen was a mess, but so was the bathroom and Kyuhyun and Hyukjae themselves.

After two hours of battling, they were finally able to dry the dog with the towels and dryer, sighing deeply and tiredly. “Let’s lock him in your room next time we cook,” Kyuhyun proposed and Hyukjae sighed deeply, resting against the wall as he nodded.

“Please,” Hyukjae begged, closing his eyes and breathing heavily. “Now go away so I can shower.”

Kyuhyun chuckled and motioned Duck to go out from the bathroom, the dog following close.

When Hyukjae was out of the bathroom, clean already, he saw the door locked in his own room and he raised his eyebrow, going up to the kitchen and realizing it was already neatly clean and Kyuhyun was on the floor. His body was sprawled all over what seemed to be a really clean floor.

“Kyuhyun?” Hyukjae called, leaning down to poke the other’s sides. “Are you alive?” he asked and Kyuhyun opened his eyes slowly, sighing tiredly.

“Barely,” Kyuhyun answered, chuckling as he sat up. “I’m taking a shower, I’ll let Duck out already so take care of him,” he said and Hyukjae nodded, grinning widely.

Kyuhyun stood up and walked to the bathroom.

After a few minutes, Kyuhyun was out using clean clothes. “I have to go home already, I don’t have clean clothes in this place anymore,” he said as he sat on the couch by Hyukjae’s side.

Hyukjae laughed and nodded, reaching his hand to feed Kyuhyun a strawberry, the dog quickly going up Kyuhyun’s lap comfortably.

Kyuhyun ate the strawberry and smiled thankfully to Hyukjae. “Are you hungry?” he asked and Hyukjae nodded, pouting. “Do you like Chinese food?”

Hyukjae grinned widely. “Yes!”

•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•

“Purple,” Kyuhyun ordered.

“Purple!” Hyukjae grinned, passing Kyuhyun the red layer of the cake, spreading whipped cream over the layer gently.

“Blue,” Kyuhyun said, extending his hands as Hyukjae gave him the next layer and he placed it carefully over the other, once again placing a thin layer of whipped cream over the bread. “Green.”

“Green!” Hyukjae chuckled, giving it to Kyuhyun and watching amused how the taller spread the whipped cream in between layers.

Yellow, orange and red were the next ones and Kyuhyun grinned widely, giving Hyukjae the spatula. “Let’s decorate now!”

Hyukjae grinned widely, nodding.

It didn’t take too long to decorate, mainly because Hyukjae was being so amused by how nice it looked that he just kept going. At the end, Kyuhyun placed strawberries all over the edge of the cake and Hyukjae grinned widely at how beautiful it looked. “Can we eat it now?” He asked hopefully and Kyuhyun shook his head.

Kyuhyun was about to reply when they heard the doorbell and he shook his head. “Not yet,” he said and pointed at the cake. “Place it in the fridge for a while, you need to eat first,” he ordered and laughed at Hyukjae’s pout. “Don’t pout, we’ll eat it as dessert.”

Hyukjae sighed and nodded, blinking an eye as Kyuhyun ruffled his hair gently and went to attend the door, paying for their food before walking back to the dining room. “It smells delicious,” Hyukjae said as he sat down in a chair.

“Indeed,” Kyuhyun smiled, placing a plate filled with food in front of Hyukjae, passing him the chopsticks. “Now eat.”

Hyukjae grinned and waited for Kyuhyun to also sit by his side before starting to eat. He couldn’t believe he was actually that hungry and he smiled. “Do you think I’ll gain weight if I keep eating like this?” He asked and Kyuhyun raised an eyebrow.

“You need to eat twice the food you eat now to gain weight,” Kyuhyun said, making Hyukjae pout. “I’ll feed you a lot more from now on, then,” he finally decided.

Hyukjae sighed. “I don’t think I’ll be able to eat so-”

“Shh…,” Kyuhyun grinned widely, effectively shutting Hyukjae up by placing a piece of meat in the other’s mouth. “Just eat,” he ordered and Hyukjae rolled his eyes, crewing on the food.

Finally they were done and Kyuhyun took out the cake, grinning widely at how pretty it was.

They had big slices for each and the grinned widely for each other as they lift their forks, gently crashing them before attacking the cake.

“It’s delicious!” Hyukjae exclaimed, almost squealing.

“Damn, we’re pros,” Kyuhyun laughed and kept eating, nodding for himself at how good it actually tasted.

Hyukjae smiled and nodded.

At the end of the day, they finished half the cake by themselves and Kyuhyun had to drag his feet to his own car because he was so full he thought he was going to throw up.

•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•

•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•●•