Temptations
"Can we stick it in the fridge so I don't have to stare at it?"
"No." Phil shook his head as he pulled oven mitts over his hands. "That'd make it hard."
Dan turned the camera off with a dramatic eye roll, because that was the fifth innuendo of the evening and they hadn't even started decorating their cake yet. He hoisted himself onto the kitchen counter and eyed the bowl of whipped sugar and butter beside him.
Dan had never been good at denying himself the simple pleasures in life, even when they were bad for him. He'd always been the type to choose video games over homework, and Lucky Charms over bran cereal, and flirting shamelessly with his best friend over making polite conversation.
It's not that he didn't know there'd be consequences. It was just difficult when your mind constantly reminded you that this was the only life you had to live. Why not eat the vanilla icing right out of the bowl with your fingers?
"Dan, stop it." Phil glared at him as he shoved the cake pan into the oven and set the timer. "You really can't wait thirty minutes?"
"It still has to cool after that." Dan cradled the bowl of buttercream in his hands and kicked his feet against the side of the counter in agitation. "How can you stand it?"
"I've been distracted by this baking video that I'm trying to make." Phil leaned against the oven and laughed. The kitchen was full of the scent of gingerbread cake batter and his mouth was watering too.
"Not sure what you're implying there." Dan ran his index finger over the lip of the bowl. "I've been helping."
Phil watched as Dan brought the finger to his mouth, closing his eyes and moaning as he sucked the icing off.
"Should I leave you alone with that?"
"You should try this." Dan licked at the tip of his thumb. "It's orgasmic."
"No, thanks." Phil shook his head and laughed when Dan groaned again. "God, Dan. I bet you're really loud in bed."
Dan quirked an eyebrow, sputtering a bit. "Excuse me?"
"No, it's just if that's the noise you make over food." Phil trailed off, clearly embarrassed. It was the type of comment that Dan would roll out without a second thought, but he was normally the one to blush and steer the conversation away from such topics.
"Oh, that's original." Dan set the bowl down and smirked, leaning back on his hands with his palms flat on the counter behind him. "Everyone says that. Reality is such a disappointment."
Phil averted his eyes and began tidying the kitchen, stuffing bags of flour and sugar back into cabinets and putting lids onto containers, and he tried to keep himself from asking but curiosity got the better of him.
"So you're not then?"
"Loud?"
"Yeah."
"Um, no." Dan wiped his hands across the kitchen counter, brushing crumbs onto the floor. "Pretty much the opposite. I get quiet and, I don't know, I hold my breath a lot, until I'm shaking almost, and then I'll sometimes gasp a bit or whimper, but other than that..."
Dan held his hands up as if to say that's all and laughed. Phil stared at him with wide eyes before nodding his head and letting out a cough. He turned away to put the carton of eggs back in the fridge, taking a bit longer than necessary so that he could hide his face behind the door for a moment.
"And as for talking, that's just... I don't do much of it." Dan tapped his fingers in a steady rhythm as he continued, as if this was the most normal conversation in the world. "I'm awful at it. I've tried but my mind always goes blank, because I become really obliging when I'm turned on, or maybe pliant is the word. I'll say okay and yeah and please but that's it really."
