Prompt fill: cooking together
Romantic pairing
Niko x Aj
"Have you got the recipe?" Aj asked, tying an apron around his waist.
Niko nodded, putting on his own apron and pointing to the counter. "I printed it out and put it over there, so we don't ruin our phones if we make a mess."
Aj snorted, "How very considerate of you, Nikolas." He moved over to his boyfriend and batted his hands away from where they were fumbling with the ties. Shaking his head at Niko's horrible tying efforts with a smile, he quickly made a neat bow and moved back, patting Niko's chest. "There you go."
"Thanks, love." Niko grinned, holding Aj by the shoulders and pulling him close before planting a firm kiss on his lips.
At Aj's raised brow, he pointed down on his boyfriend's body, where his apron had the words 'kiss the chef' printed on and smiled self-satisfied, "Only following orders."
Aj shook his head, laughing lightly, and inspected the recipe closely. "This is probably such a bad idea, but how hard can making macarons possibly be?"
"True," his boyfriend agreed, "it's just throwing ingredients into a bowl, mixing them, and then letting the oven do the rest. We're gonna kill this." He bumped his hip gently into Aj and took Aj's hand, giving it a light shake.
"Let's go then!" Aj squeezed Niko's hand back before reading out what they needed to do first.
"First, we need to whisk sifted almond flour and powdered sugar together and in another bowl beat egg whites with cream of tatar and sugar. Now what the fuck is that?"
Niko shrugged his shoulders and began carrying the eggs from the the fridge over to the counter top. "I don't think it's that important. We only need like a teaspoon or something, I'm sure it won't make a difference if we just skip it."
His boyfriend nodded in agreement and put out two different bowls. Next, he got the powdered sugar, but, "Niko, we don't have almond flour. Is normal flour fine?"
Niko hummed in response, "It's just flour, isn't it?"
Together, they put the flour and powdered sugar in one bowl before pausing again.
Niko looked sheepishly to the side at his boyfriend, "Do you wanna separate the eggs or whisk the flour?"
Aj stared at the given tasks for a moment before stealing a side-glance at Niko as well. "I call dips on the flour because I believe in your ability to separate the eggs."
"I love that you're so supportive, but I wish you wouldn't believe in that." Niko shook his head sadly and began cracking the eggs open. Holding the two sides over the bowl, both parts of the egg slid down.
"Ah, noo, why won't you move the way I intended?" He stared at the egg before adapting to his mistake. "Okay, I'll just crack all the eggs normal and then fish out the yellow parts after."
He set on doing just that, Aj silently snickering in the background. After he had weighted the flour and powdered sugar, he got the electric whisk out and plugged it in.
"I wanna whisk it fast and even, so I'll put it on high." He explained to Niko, who was watching sceptically, and turned the whisk on its highest level before sinking it into the powder.
"No, Aj wait-"
Niko's warning was cut off by a giant flour cloud erupting from the bowl, covering Aj and everything near him in white powder. Aj screamed high pitched, turned the whisk off in a frantic second, and then started coughing from the flour getting into his lungs.
"Damn," Niko whispered silently. Maybe it was a good thing he handled the eggs.
Aj sat down on the floor, staring at the ceiling. "I actually need a moment. I just saw my life flash before my eyes."
Niko grinned while starting to fish the yolks out. Realising he had forgotten to get a bowl for them to put into, he collected them in his hands, fishing one after the other out with one hand and transferring them into the other.
After he had three in his left hand and the last one in his right hand, he turned to Aj on the floor. "Did you see me in your future at all?", he asked jokingly, not expecting his boyfriend to answer besides with an eye roll.
"Course. I saw us walking together in the park all old n shit. Looked really nice actually, growing old with you." Aj smiled up at him all lovey-dovey, and Niko's heart skipped a beat.
"Aww Aj, you looveee me!" He brought both hands up to press against his cheeks in cuteness overload.
The second his hands made contact with his face, he heard Aj breaking out in laughter and simultaneously felt the egg yolks dripping down his face.
"Oh my days! I can't believe that just happened!" Aj was basically rolling on the floor at this point. Niko stared in disbelief down at his hands before letting himself drop to the floor as well, smearing his gooey hands on Aj's apron and face.
Aj screeched in outrage and scooted back from his boyfriend, quickly getting back on his feet.
"I tell you I wanna be with you forever and this is how you thank me!" He looked back down on Niko, moving closer to the bowl of flour.
"You've lost your whole mind! Don't think I won't be using that in my defence!" He grabbed the bowl and help it protectively against his chest.
Niko held his hands up in surrender, "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I just wanted to share my experience with the man I love!"
"Yeah, love confessions won't help you now, you schmuck!" Aj moved over to the recipe to read the next step. "Stand up and beat your egg whites, I need to put the flour in after."
"Alright, alright, calm yourself, you little dictator." Niko grinned and got off the floor, taking the flour covered whisk and started beating the eggs.
"First of all, who you calling little you giraffe? And secondly I think you meant dick-tator." Aj stepped next to Niko, peeking down at the eggs being whisked before smugly looking up at his boyfriend.
Niko snorted, "Yeah, good one. Go get the sugar for me, will you?"
"Who's the dick-tator now, I ask myself" Aj mumbled, turning to get the sugar from the cabinet next to the stove. Before he was able to walk two steps, Niko had slapped his butt as he walked away.
Faking a gasp, he clutched the invisible pearls at his collarbone. "Nikolas Omilana! You dirty boy!"
"Cuz of the slapping or because there's an eggyolk imprint of my hand on your butt now?" Niko grinned down at his bowl, trying to keep his laughter down.
"I swear it's impossible with you." Aj laughed, shaking his head in amusement.
Niko bumped his hip against Aj in affection and moved the whisk to the side a bit to indicate Aj could start pouring the sugar in.
After the eggwhites looked somewhat stable, Niko shut off the whisk, and Aj stepped in his place to carefully mix the flour and egg mixture together.
"This is actually working great, I bet they'll come out perfect!" Aj grinned up at Niko excitedly, who leaned down and pressed a kiss to Aj's forehead.
Aj groaned, "You still have egg all over your face, stop trying to find ways to get me dirtier then I already am!"
"Me? Trying to get you dirty? What an outrageous idea!" Niko looked at Aj fake offended. "Of course, if you were to punish me by making me wash you in the shower after this, I wouldn't have any other option but to agree, but I would never get you to that stage on purpose, good sir!"
Aj broke out laughing at his boyfriends antics. "Get me a baking tray, you idiot."
Niko bowed extravagantly, and got a lined baking tray and two spoons.
"We don't have a piping bag, but this will probably do." He held up the spoons and handed Aj one.
Together they began forming little globs with the batter, until the bowl was empty and the macarons looked somewhat even.
After they were done, Niko walked with the tray to the oven and put them in.
"Oh shit we forgot to preheat!" Aj exclaimed.
Niko switched the oven on regardless, "I reckon it's fine, we'll just keep it in for a bit longer."
Aj shrugged in agreement, moving back over to the counter space. "What are we gonna do while it bakes?"
"Well..", Niko moved closer to his boyfriend placing his hands on his waist. "We could either clean up," he lifted Aj up on the counter and stepped between his legs, laughing softly at the surprised noise his boyfriend made, "or, we could.." Niko trailed off, leaning closer to Aj's face, breath ghosting over his lips.
"Yeah," Aj breathed out, "let's do that."
~ the end
[1521 words]
[The macarons burn cuz they were kissing and Aj does make Niko take a shower with him, in case anyone was wondering. They give the macarons as gifts to the rest of the beta boys and get banned from their own kitchen for it.]
[This was slightly longer, very proud lol. Also I know the prompt says cooking, and technically they were baking, but if u have a problem with it shush. Artistically freedom and whatnot. Also, no, you can't substitute normal flour, cream of tatar is kinda important and why would you even try whisking flour by anything else but hand??]