Chapter Text
“Is Rin always this moody?” Charles asked. There was a week until their game against Bastard Munchen, and Charles, Shidou, and Karasu were gathered in the screening room to review footage of other players.
“Yup,” Shidou answered, popping a piece of popcorn into his mouth.
“Why?” Charles questioned.
Karasu shrugged, his eyes not leaving the screen. Currently, they were still watching Bastard Munchen’s match against Barcha, and Otoya was occupying the screen. “Just the way he is,” Karasu responded.
Charles wrinkled his nose, unsatisfied with the answer. “Yeah, but why ?”
“He has shit going on with his prodigy of an older brother,” Shidou explained.
“So he makes it everyone else’s problem?”
Shidou snapped his fingers at Charles. “Precisely.”
“Hmph.” Charles sank in his bean bag on the ground. Then he got an idea. His face brightened as he perked up.
Shidou immediately grinned. “What are you thinkin’, Charles?”
“I have a plan.”
Karasu looked at the kid expectantly. “A plan fer…?”
Charles rolled his eyes. “How to get Rin to stop being so moody!”
-
“Loki, pleeeeaseeee ?” Charles begged. He, Shidou, and Karasu had gone to Loki to ask him to send a text message for Rin to go to the kitchen, since they knew he would never go on their accord.
Loki sighed. “For the last time, Rin can do what he wants. You guys should be practicing too.”
“No way!” Charles practically shrieked.
“It’ll help with team chemistry and make Rin a better player,” Karasu reasoned.
“How, exactly?” Loki narrowed his eyes.
“Why don’t you come too, Coach ? Have some fun?” Shidou suggested.
“One day,” Charles pleaded. Loki gave in. Probably because Charles never asked for him to do something instead of not do something. Anyhow, it worked.
Step #1: Baking
Rin had no idea how he ended up here.
Okay, well that was partially a lie. He knew exactly how he got there. He just didn’t know why he let himself be dragged into this mess.
He knew that they had a match in a few day’s against Isagi’s team, and that it would be their hardest match yet, and that they should be practicing and definitely not doing…well, whatever they were doing.
He was simply on the field by himself, practicing his shots, when suddenly he got a message from Loki. It said to meet him in the kitchen. It didn’t take long for Rin to realize it was not a team meeting.
“Rinny, stop sulking over there and help!” Charles yelled from the other side of the room. Currently, Rin was standing by the doorway, leaning against the wall as he watched his teammates work in chaos. Shidou, Karasu, Otoya (why was he even there?), and Charles were all gathered in the kitchen, and for some reason, Loki was there too, working with them. Rin didn’t know where the others were. Practicing, hopefully. They sure needed it.
“I’m not sulking,” Rin snapped. “This is pointless. We have a match in a few days.”
“Loosen up, RinRin. You worry too much,” Shidou called.
Rin sighed, exasperated. “What are you guys even doing anyways?”
Charles looked up from the bowl he was pouring something into on the counter with a grin. “Making cakes.”
“Cakes? Plural?”
“Yup,” Karasu confirmed from another side of the room. He and Otoya were working on a separate bowl from Charles and Shidou’s. Rin glanced around and saw Loki working on his own too. Some coach.
“ Rin ,” Charles whined. “Come help. There’s still another box we need to make. I can help while Shidou finishes this one.”
“But–”
“Rin, with all due respect, no one cares about practice right now,” Karasu said.
“Just relax, Rin, and come bake a cake,” Charles suggested. Rin would’ve thought he meant well, but the mischievous glint in his eyes told Rin otherwise.
“Fine,” Rin grumbled, “but if we lose, I’m blaming it on you guys.”
“Fair enough,” Shidou shrugged.
Rin washed his hands before reluctantly moved to the island in the middle of the kitchen. Charles stood with a smile showing off his singular fang and hands covered in flour. Rin eyed him warily. Charles’ grin only widened.
Rin sighed. “What do you want me to do?”
Charles lit up. “That’s the spirit!” Rin only rolled his eyes. “Here, open this while I get the materials,” Charles instructed, shoving a cake-mix box into Rin’s hands.
Rin had no choice but to oblige. He carefully opened the top of the box and took out the bag inside, which held the mix. He opened that, too, and, per Charles’ instructions, he emptied it into the bowl Charles provided.
“This is so stupid,” Rin grumbled.
“It’s only as stupid as you make it!” Shidou yelled.
Rin almost punched him. “That makes no sense.”
“Does it have to?” Shidou reasoned.
Rin took a deep breath. “You’re lucky I’m even here.”
“Eh, not really.”
“Listen here, you stupid little roach–”
“Rin, the cake!” Charles sing-songed. Usually, Charles found his older teammates’ behaviour amusing, but right now, he didn’t want Rin to ruin their cake with his temper, and he didn’t want Shidou to ruin his plan with his unrelenting teasing.
“What about it?” Rin snapped.
Charles smiled innocently up at him. “...Make it?”
“Fine, whatever, just don’t help me. I’m gonna make it by myself, you hear me?” Rin said. Obviously, Charles did the opposite. He insisted on helping. and Rin more than once had to push him out of the way, to which Charles just pushed him back.
Then, the cakes were finished, and all that was left was baking them and then decorating. Loki’s cake had gone in the oven first, so he was busy frosting his while the others argued over who’s turn it was to put their cake in the oven. Rin and Charles’ cake ended up going last because a) It was made last, b) Rin didn’t care at all, and c) Charles’ cake he made with Shidou went in after Loki’s, so there wasn’t much complaining on his end.
Then, once the cakes were all out of the oven, they began to decorate. The kitchen was a mess. There were different types of frosting all over the place and messy utensils being left everywhere. The tables and counters were covered in sprinkles.
Rin didn’t really mind, though, because despite Charles’ constant annoyance, his cake turned out looking somewhat good. Chocolate frosting, obviously. The cakes were all funfetti mixes, for some unknown reason that Rin knew had to do with Charles, but had no proof.
Rin banished Charles to go work on decorating the roach’s cake instead, who sent Charles to go looking for piping bags. When Charles came back with three, Rin quickly grabbed one before the rest were gone. Otoya and Loki had gotten one for their respective cakes, so Shidou (much to Rin’s amusement) was left with nothing but a knife and spoon to frost his cake.
After much hard work and bickering, the cakes were finished. Rin stood with his arms crossed.
“The hell are we supposed to do with all these cakes?”
Shidou stared at him as if he were crazy. “Eat them, obviously.”
“ All of them ?”
“Why not?” It seemed as if Shidou truly didn’t see the problem.
“Well, first we gotta judge them!” Charles grinned.
“Who should it be, though?” Karasu asked. “Since we need an unbiased person.”
Charles stared blankly. “Um…I was just going to have Rin judge them.”
“Oh.” Karasu blinked. He shrugged. “Yeah, that works too I guess.
“Why me?” Rin questioned.
“Why not?” Charles countered. He took Rin by the shoulders and made Rin face the four cakes on the counter. “Judge them.”
Rin took it way more seriously than it needed to be. He carefully tasted each one. Karasu and Otoya’s cake had vanilla frosting with rainbow sprinkles around the top. Despite having a piping bag, it looked like the just dumped a bunch of frosting randomly on the cake. It looked a mess, but at least it tasted good. Rin didn’t like vanilla that much, though.
Charles’ and Shidou’s cake was better than Rin thought it would be, although Rin would never admit that. They too used vanilla frosting, but it looked (and tasted) like there was chocolate frosting as well. Because they didn’t have the piping bag, it looked just as bad as Otoya and Karasu’s cake.
Loki’s cake was impressive. The ingredients were definitely more evened out, and Loki had used chocolate frosting. He had definitely used the piping bag, since there was a smooth layer across and a ring of decoration around the edge. It tasted as good as it looked.
Rin’s cake was slightly more sugary than the others. He eyed Charles. Charles definitely put sugar in it when he wasn’t looking. But it looked good. Or, at least better than Karasu and Otoya’s cake and Shidou and Charles’ cake. The chocolate was perfect, even if the frosting was store bought. And, Rin was proud of his decorations he made with the frosting on the cake. It was smudged on one side because of Charles, but Rin chose to ignore that.
“Now choose one!” Charles insisted after Rin tried them all. “Mine and Shidou’s, Karasu and Otoya’s, Loki’s, or mine and yours!”
“Hey, this isn’t fair because Charles has two, so he has a higher percent chance of winning!” Otoya complained. Karasu rubbed his hair affectionately, grinning.
“We’ll win anyway,” Karasu assured him.
They didn’t win.
Objectively, Rin knew that Loki’s was the best. Who knew that their coach was also a good baker? But, because Rin himself was also in the competition, he wouldn’t lose to his shitty coach. “This one,” Rin decided, pointing to his own cake.
Charles jumped up in excitement. “Haha! I win! I knew it! I’m the best baker!”
“No yer not,” Karasu argued. “It’s box mix. Plus, Rin did most of ther work.”
Charles stuck his tongue out at Karasu. “Sucks to lose, huh?”
Shidou also began to argue, despite how well he and Charles seemed to get along. “RinRin only picked that one cuz it was his own!”
“Uh, no way!” Charles bit back.
At the chaos going on, Rin could’ve laughed. Because yeah, his team was insane. But it felt so nice to be part of this for once, that he almost smiled. Almost.
But everyone in the room noticed it. At Rin’s ghost of a smile, the entire room cheered. Even Loki seemed pleased. Rin could do nothing but turn his reddening face away and shove cake into his mouth.