"So! What should we make?" Lay asked, trying his hardest to sound upbeat as Mira followed him to the kitchen with a face that was trying so hard not to look broken.

"I don't know, you're the one who wanted to make something," Mira laughed weakly and he pulled a giant cookbook from the bookshelf and plopped it in front of them.

"How about cake? Cake is good for dampened spirits, right?" Lay looked at her hopefully and watched carefully for any sign of her spirits lifting.

"If you're not talking chocolate, I don't wanna talk," Mira laughed, rewarding Lay's efforts with a smile.

"How about German chocolate cake?" He suggested, pointing to the picture on the page with a giant tiered cake.

"Sounds perfect!" Mira laughed again. This time, however, Lay caught a flash of sadness in her eyes. 

He wasn't helping. All he was doing was forcing Mira to act happy for him. She wasn't genuinely able to push away her feelings of sadness, but only hide them for the benefit of others. That was why she looked so bright despite how broken she was. Despite that, Lay was determined to lift her spirits and show her that there was happiness in living.

"Sugar?" Mira called from the kitchen where she had opened every single drawer and pantry.

"What are you doing?" Lay laughed at the scene before him.

"Looking for the sugar," she answered very earnestly, spinning around to look into a pantry behind her but instead hitting her head on the door.

"Are you okay?" Lay stood up to rush over to the kitchen where Mira was holding her forehead and wincing in pain.

"Fine, fine," she laughed, waving her hand.

"The sugar is down here," Lay said, pointing to a pantry below the one she had hit her head on.

He bent down to move aside the other dry products in the pantry to produce the sugar from the back. As he stood up to hold it out to Mira, the top of his head connected with the same door that Mira had hit herself on.

"Lay!" She laughed, her arms outstretched to him in a motion between somewhere between a will to help and a cringe.

"I'm okay," he said, standing up with more caution this time and rubbing the top of his head.

"I'm so sorry," Mira said with a hint of laughter still in her voice. When Lay looked into her eyes, he saw a genuine light for just a moment where her laugh and smile were actually hers. 

"No need to apologize, you weren't the jerk who hit me." As he spoke, Lay slammed the pantry door shut with mock anger.

"I'm the one who left it open even after I hit myself on it," Mira said as she began to close all the other things she had left open in her blind search for the sugar.

"Well, all this head-hitting aside, we should start on our cake. The sooner we finish it, the sooner we can eat it." Lay smiled and placed the bag of sugar on the counter with a thump.

The two went to work grabbing all the ingredients and equipment they needed. Mira read out the ingredients and Lay would grab them as she went. By the time they were finished, the counter was filled with food items required for the cake along with random junk foods.

"What is this?" Mira pointed to a box of Pocky sitting beside her. "I did not ask for these. Where in the recipe did you hear me say Pocky?"

"They may not be in the recipe, but they're just as important. While cooking, one must be sure to keep nourished and full so they are not tempted to eat the batter," Lay explained, taking one from the box and chomping down on it with purpose.

"You know we're going to end up eating the batter as well, right?" Mira raised an eyebrow at him.

"Inconsequential, hand me the butter!" Lay brushed off her comment though he smiled at her as she handed him the butter. "So, tell me about yourself."

"Like what?" Mira asked, taking a Pocky from the box and nibbling at it tentatively. 

"I don't know. Just something about you. If you're going to live here with us, we might as well get to know each other." Lay shrugged. "Sugar."

"I'm not exactly that extraordinary," Mira said and handed him the sugar.

"So? Neither are the rest of us." Lay turned to look at her as he dumped the sugar into a stand mixer along with the butter.

"Well, for starters, I love dancing," Mira shouted over the sound of the stand mixer.

"Dancing? Really?" Lay asked. "Can you mix the dry ingredients?"

"Yeah," Mira nodded, "to both."

"Did you have dance lessons or something?" Lay inquired as he handed her all the needed ingredients.

"I had ballet lessons when I was young, but I quickly learned that I like hip-hop much better. I self taught myself the dances to k-pop songs and later started making my own choreography," Mira explained and began measuring.

"That's really cool." Lay smiled.

"What about you?" Mira asked.

"What about me?" Lay pointed to himself in question.

"Tell me about yourself. There's got to be more to you that what the public sees," she said.

"I mean, we're all really straightforward with the public. What you see is what you get, really." Lay shrugged and turned the mixer off.

"That's boring." Mira pouted.

"Well, sorry I'm not entertaining," Lay laughed. "Here, pour the dry stuff in here."

Mira obliged and dumped the dry ingredients into the mixer with a cloud of powder wafting up. Lay nodded in approval and went to turn the mixer on. When he did so, Mira slipped and fell onto him, causing his hand to flick the switch on to max. The two of them fell to the ground as flour flew everywhere and covered them in a shower of powder.

"Sorry!" Mira cried, biting her lip to hold back her laughter as she looked at Lay who was covered completely in flour.

"Don't you laugh at me like you don't look as bad as I do!" He laughed and clapped his hands to shower more flour on her.

"We should probably turn the mixer off," she said, smiling at Lay with a genuine light in her eyes for the second time that afternoon.

"In theory," he replied, shrugging and leaning forward to pick out a clump of butter that had found its way into Mira's hair.

She froze at the contact and looked into his eyes with something that looked almost like fear. Her sudden stillness shocked Lay and he too froze with his hand still in her hair. They searched each other's eyes and Lay could feel his cheeks burn at their proximity. As the mixer still went haywire on the counter above them, Lay leaned forward ever so slowly.

Before he could make the mistake that his entire brain was screaming at him not to do, the door burst open and they pulled away from each other with lightning speed. In front of them was Luhan, Chen, and Kai, all with eyes bugging out of their sockets at the scene in the kitchen.

"What on earth is going on here?" Luhan asked, looking at Mira with complete and utter confusion.

"We tried to make a cake," she laughed.

"Emphasis on 'tried'," Lay added, trying to calm his racing heart. He had almost done something that was completely unwarranted and unnecessary. From the corner of his eye, he cast a glance towards Mira who seemed completely unaffected by their almost disastrous encounter.

"Well, at least you seem to be having fun," Luhan sighed as he helped Mira up from the floor and turned off the mixer.

The way Luhan looked at Mira made Lay glad that he hadn't kissed Mira. There was a look of determination in Luhan's eyes. Not only to keep Mira alive, but to make her love him.