A/N: Originally posted November 2013.

Jessica walks in to grab a carton of yogurt and sees Tiffany hurrying all over the place, lining up a myriad of ingredients on the counter: strawberries and eggs and butter, her hair pulled back in an errant bun, a look of such determination on her face that she appears almost feverish.

“What are you doing?” Jessica asks.

“Baking,” Tiffany replies, rolling up her sleeves.

“Yeah, I can tell that, Martha Stewart. I mean – what are you baking, and why?”

“It’s a surprise,” Tiffany says solemnly.

Jessica raises an eyebrow, her interest piqued, and pushes herself up to take a seat on the island, legs idly swinging. “Okay, I’ll just stay here and watch the show unfold then.”

“You can’t stay here! I need—I need privacy, or I can’t bake.”

“Last time I checked, you couldn’t bake, period,” Jessica snorts.

“Jessi,” Tiffany pleads. She puts down the vanilla extract in her hands and walks over to Jessica, giving her an imploring look that would’ve put Sunny’s aegyo to shame. “Please.”

Jessica’s breath hitches, but she makes sure to keep her voice even. “Please what?”

“I need the kitchen to myself.”

Tiffany leans up, but given how Jessica’s sitting so high up, they’re still nowhere near face level. Not liking the distance between them, Jessica slides down from the island, but she loses her balance and crashes into Tiffany, sending both of them tumbling to the ground.

“Oops,” Jessica says, right on top of Tiffany, so close that their noses are almost touching and she can see lights flickering like stars in Tiffany’s eyes. She has pretty eyes, that’s something they all know, but it’s different to look at them from so close, to look at Tiffany from so close, really see her with no makeup and no smile put on like a mask, more Stephanie than Tiffany.

“Sorry.” She doesn’t know why her voice is so breathless, almost hoarse.

Tiffany swallows, hard. “It’s okay.”

Jessica can’t look away from her for some reason. She pushes back a lock of Tiffany’s hair behind her ear, fingers lingering on her skin. “That was pretty embarrassing.” She clears . “Maybe spending too much time around you has ruined my coordination.”

“Right, just go ahead and blame me for your failures.”

Jessica laughs, and Tiffany smiles, not brighter-than-jewels Tiffany’s eye smile, but Stephanie’s smile: soft and private and sweet.

And maybe Jessica looks at that smile longer than she means to, maybe she feels a little too comfortable lying on top of Tiffany, who’s warm and soft beneath her, who makes no effort to push her off and looks at her like the world has narrowed to the miniscule space between them.

“Steph, I—” Jessica has no idea what to say, and she looks at Tiffany helplessly but earnestly. She doesn’t know what’s happening, and it’s not something that she’s ever thought about, but suddenly she can’t stop thinking about it, about how pretty Tiffany’s eyes are and how smooth her skin looks and how she doubts Tiffany would mind if she just leans in a little and—

“Strawberry cheesecake bars,” Tiffany suddenly says, startling her. “I was going to make strawberry cheesecake bars. Shaped like hearts.”

“Oh. Sounds romantic.” She doesn’t like the thought of Tiffany baking a lovey dovey treat like that for someone. She doesn’t like it one bit.

“Do you think so?” Tiffany looks at her intently. “The recipe called for raspberries, but you like strawberries better, right?”

“Yeah, strawberries are the king of berries,” Jessica replies, and then does a double take as the words sink in. She gapes at Tiffany, wide-eyed and probably resembling a goldfish, and Tiffany laughs at her.

“You’re too cute, Jessi,” she says, voice filled with so much affection, her eyes so much warmth, that Jessica is rendered breathless and dumb and can just stare at Tiffany, who has a smear of flour on her cheek and a smile that lights up the room even though it’s just shining in her eyes.

“You’re baking for me?”

“Who else would I bake for?” Tiffany asks, like she can’t imagine any other recipient.

“I don’t know, Taeyeon?”

Tiffany’s smile softens to something like oh Jessi. “If I baked for TaeTae, I wouldn’t make something shaped like a heart.”

“But I get something shaped like a heart?” Jessica asks hopefully.

Tiffany takes Jessica’s hand and puts it on her chest, high enough so that Jessica only blushes mildly instead of her face catching on fire. She can feel the steady thrum of Tiffany’s heartbeat underneath her fingertips, and she feels like her own heart races in reply before trying to match Tiffany’s.

“You get…” And Tiffany finishes the sentence with a kiss, lips soft but insistent, tongue coaxing, teeth scraping over Jessica’s bottom lip before pulling it into . She tastes like strawberries, and Jessica can’t tell whether it’s her lip gloss or the actual fruit, and she doesn’t care, she just wants more of Tiffany’s taste and Tiffany’s mouth and Tiffany Tiffany Tiffany.

Jessica’s never thought about kissing Tiffany before, but now she can’t stand the thought of parting from Tiffany’s mouth, can’t imagine looking at Tiffany smiling with those pretty eyes and inviting lips and not want to kiss her.

“Aren’t I lucky,” Jessica murmurs, and when Tiffany laughs, eyes disappearing into crescents and cheek dimpling, she runs her thumb over Tiffany’s bottom lip, slow and explorative, wishing that she could hold onto her smile.

“Very,” Tiffany tells her, and then, “Do you think you can get up? I can’t remember the last time we cleaned this floor.”

“Oh. Oh, sorry.” Jessica leans back and away from Tiffany and helps her to her feet, and they just look at each other and smile for a long moment. “Do you want help with those strawberry cheesecake bars?”

“You know, you can’t bake any better than I can.”

“Well, now that you brought it up, it made me hungry for them.” Jessica pouts. “You know I love strawberries.”

“Poor baby,” Tiffany says with mock sympathy, but her eyes are twinkling, and she pulls Jessica into another kiss, sweeter and more addictive than any dessert. They end up on the island, together this time, tangled with and lost in each other, and Jessica doesn’t plan on coming out anytime soon.

A/N: The title is technically from Nicki Minaj’s Super Bass, but more from this cute EXO bakery AU.