“Oh, come on!” Baekhyun whined, glaring between the misshapen hearts lined up on the baking tray in front of him and the innocent looking pink cookie cutter in his hand. He couldn’t seem to cut the dough without it sticking, and the end result was looking nothing like he had imagined. The first batch hadn’t been this difficult, and he stared at the remainder of the rolled out dough pensively. Where had he gone wrong this time? “This shouldn’t be so hard!”

All he wanted was to make something special for the person he loved on their birthday, but so far it was nothing short of a disaster. Baekhyun had managed to make a mess of himself and the kitchen in the process of trying to make cookie dough from scratch, and now he couldn’t even cut them out right! There was still his first batch in the oven at least, which looked okay, but he had realized too late that he’d left out a few key ingredients. Unsure of how those would turn out, Baekhyun had re-made the dough for a second batch, but even if they tasted good now they were way too ugly.

“Everything okay in there?” A soft voice floated into the kitchen from the other room, words tinged with amusement. Baekhyun frowned, realizing his boyfriend must have heard him complaining – he hadn’t meant to be so loud. This was supposed to be a surprise, but he couldn’t exactly kick the other man out of the house on his birthday, so instead Baekhyun had spent the afternoon shooing him away from the kitchen.

“Yes! Stay out there!” Baekhyun called back. He jumped slightly when the oven timer went off, the loud beeping resounding through the small kitchen and making Baekhyun cringe. He turned away from the cookies he’d been working with to get the first batch out of the oven, muttering to himself, “Okay, okay, I hear you already…”

Baekhyun grabbed a pot holder from one of the hooks above the stove and opened the oven door. He reached down and picked up the tray of cookies as carefully as he could, but as he was pulling it out he managed to bump his wrist against the top edge of the oven, hot metal instantly burning his skin. He let out a tiny gasp at the burning sensation, quickly snatching his hand away and letting go of the tray. Then Baekhyun watched with wide eyes as the tray dropped with enough force to knock half of the cookies onto the floor, while the pot holder fell to the bottom of the oven and landed directly on the heating element. It caught on fire at about the same moment that the pain from his burn made itself known, and Baekhyun couldn’t hold back a loud curse. “!”

Not for the first time Baekhyun found himself wishing that he had his boyfriend’s powers, hissing slightly as he brought his wrist up to inspect the damage. His gaze flickered between the blotchy red skin and the flaming pot holder, biting his lip as he tried to decide which to take care of first.

Out in the living room, Joonmyeon chuckled to himself when the oven timer went off, listening as Baekhyun mumbled under his breath. He had an idea of what his boyfriend was doing in there, despite having been banned from the room, and he thought it was incredibly sweet. Joonmyeon did worry that the inexperienced cook would hurt himself though, and was on his feet in a second when he heard Baekhyun yell.

“Are you okay?” Joonmyeon asked as he ran into the kitchen, frowning in concern when he saw Baekhyun cradling his right wrist to his chest. His eyes raked over Baekhyun’s figure, and he would have laughed if he wasn’t worried. The younger man had spots of flour and who knows what else covering him from head to toe, the mess standing out against his dark jeans and black sleeveless hoodie. Even his blond hair was sprinkled with white, and there was a bit of butter swiped across his left cheek.

Baekhyun opened his mouth to reply but nothing came out, cheeks flushing red as he realized how he must look to Joonmyeon right now. Instead, he gestured to the pot holder, still burning at the bottom of the oven. Taking in the situation with a sigh, Joonmyeon decided to put out the fire first before it could spread. He walked over to the oven and carefully picked up the pot holder by a corner that wasn’t burning yet, dropping it on the floor and casually waving a hand over it. A shower of water appeared out of nowhere, drenching the pot holder and extinguishing the flames. Joonmyeon made sure to turn the oven off before turning to Baekhyun, holding a hand out. “Let me see. Does it hurt?”

Obediently Baekhyun uncurled his arm from his chest, letting Joonmyeon inspect the burn on his wrist. “Y-yeah, but it isn’t too bad.”

Joonmyeon prodded at the wound with gentle fingers, glancing up skeptically when Baekhyun failed to hold back a pained whimper. After determining that the burn wasn’t too serious (thankfully), he headed to the sink, motioning for his boyfriend to follow. Joonmyeon took Baekhyun’s hand and held it over the sink, holding his own hand lightly on top of the burn. Cool water began to flow down over the wound, seemingly straight from Joonmyeon’s hand. The older man mentally adjusted the temperature, making sure it was cold enough to soothe the burn without being frigid. “You really need to be more careful Baek. Warn me next time you’re planning to bake so I can have Yixing on stand-by or something.”

“I am careful!” Baekhyun replied. He pouted at Joonmyeon’s words… so he was a little clumsy, he wasn’t so bad that he needed to have Yixing waiting around to heal him! He looked away from Joonmyeon, and his gaze fell on the ruined cookies on the floor, as well as the uncooked dough on the counter. Baekhyun doubted Joonmyeon was going to let him anywhere near an oven for the rest of the day, so his plans were officially ruined. “I just… wanted to surprise you, but it seems like nothing is working out for me today. They probably tasted awful anyway, so maybe it’s for the better.”

Joonmyeon shook his head at that. “Well, I’m certainly surprised. Anyway, it’s the thought that counts, right? Don’t think I don’t know about your little practice sessions with Kyungsoo all week. I think it’s really sweet that you worked so hard for me, and I bet the cookies are great. Accidents happen, Baekhyun, no need to put yourself down over it.”

“I guess…” Baekhyun agreed, but he shot another wistful glance at the remains of his failed baking. They stood there for a few more minutes, Joonmyeon continuing to let the water flow until he was sure the burn had cooled.

“Alright, I think it will be okay for now,” Joonmyeon said, nodding more to himself than anything. He moved his hand away, stopping the water, and with another wave of his hand the excess water dripping from Baekhyun’s hand and arm was also gone. He steered Baekhyun away from the sink and over to the little table in the corner of the room, pushing him down into one of the two rickety chairs there. “I think if we just wrap it and make sure it doesn’t get infected it should be fine, but tell me if it starts bothering you and I really will ask Yixing to heal it. Now, you stay here and don’t touch anything while I go get some gauze.”

“No need to bother Yixing for trivial things,” Baekhyun replied, then frowned at the rest of Joonmyeon’s words. He glared up at the older man, though there was no real heat behind it, whining, “I’m not a child Joonmyeon!”

Joonmyeon just smiled at him, before turning and walking towards the doorway. On his way past the oven, Joonmyeon noticed that there were still a few cookies on the tray that hadn’t fallen to the floor. Blinking at the small, slightly burnt hearts, Joonmyeon bent down to take one. It was still warm, and with a glance back at Baekhyun (who was still pouting, chin resting in his hands and elbows propped up on the table adorably), Joonmyeon took a bite. They were definitely not the best cookies ever made, and in fact they weren’t really good at all – the flavor was a bit weird and not exactly pleasant, and the texture was definitely off. Even so, Joonmyeon thought as he chewed, these were probably his favorite kind of cookies in the world. More than anything else, they tasted like love.