Beyond Love

Crossing

[Chip]

I'd always believed in the near impossibility of ever seeing my husband worked up about any form of baking since our first encounter back in high school as home economics station partners. However, basket in hand and Mr. Yamazaki's announcement of the final theme still fresh in my head, I found myself watching an all-knowing, seemingly experienced baker in the form of my husband picking out the basic ingredients for our decided recipe.

The moment we were instructed by Monsieur Moreau to create in an hour and a half a store specialty with a twist and sent us to brainstorm, Xander and I had turned to each other with the strangest stare.

"So..."

I'd dropped my pen and Xander had picked it up. "You're the guy from this morning."

"Yes," was all I had managed to say whilst trying my best to restrain the laughter that threatened to escape in bursts. "So. Today's theme is baked goodies. Do you have any ideas?"

"I'm not good at these kinds of stuff," Xander had leaned against the counter with the very smirk I could remember from that time. He, too, had a playful lilt in his voice, pretending to gesture towards the baking tools.

"How about some cupcakes?"

"I don't really like those." It was then that he'd laughed and the two of us, unable to resist, broke the façade and collapsed into a mushy pile of cheesy smiles and nose-nuzzling. It wasn't his first time handling the recipe and given how he actually seemed to know what he was doing, fetching the correct ingredients once we were given permission to enter the pantry, I couldn't say that I wasn't a proud husband.

With Mr. Yamazaki back on the panel, Shin had been tasked with stock duties in the pantry, where he, too, watched in awe as Xander continued to fill his basket with the necessary ingredients without my instructions. Amazed Japanese boi had paid us a visit the night before again to apologize about yesterday's mistake and share about his father's expectations, unexpectedly opening up about his family situation and his dreams of attending culinary school. That night, Xander had been attentive and nice beyond my expectations, which although might had something to do with his fill of fish and chips and additional cuddling after the panic episode, remained a drastic feat.

I could already hear the gears turning in Shin's head: maybe he's not going to give us extra rounds during gym class any longer. Maybe he's turned over a new leaf! Well, well, Shin my boi... I'm sorry to say but that's probably not going to happen ;u;

While Xander busied himself with his hunt for fundamentals, I was back at the inspiration table filled with rare and exotic ingredients, ones that we have familiarised ourselves with over the past couple of days. Tweaking recipes or giving one a new angle wasn't especially difficult when the recipe itself had been given by the organizers but when it came down to changing something we'd been so used to doing or one that we'd perfected over the years, the hurdle was high.

I was reaching for a can of chilled coconut milk, hoping to substitute the usual whole milk we used instead back in the bakery for a more fragrant and addictive scent when I noticed that Miss Rachel, too, had just left with a can in her basket. O-oh. Looks like we're going head-to-head with the ingredients then.

"Anything else you need, Angel?" Xander popped by to say, his basket already full. I gave the contents a quick scan and confirmed that everything on my mental list had been checkced before picking out two cans of coconut milk.