Word Count: 1,360
Rating: G
Category: Romance, Humour
Notes: A short fic in which I wrote for Titti’s Christmas Drabble. Thanks to Titti for betaing as well! ^_^
Summary: Sirius and Remus’ anniversary is on Christmas Eve.  Sirius wants to bake a cake. Will he succeed?
Pairing: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Harry Potter/Severus Snape, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Warnings: Slash
Dedications: To Dawn and Luna for getting me into SB/RL with their lovely fics! ^^ Happy Christmas! Also Dawn’s B-day present!
Completed Date: December 10, 2002

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Sirius Black was ecstatic. Today was Christmas Eve and it was his and Remus’ anniversary. It was their first Christmas Eve after the defeat of Lord. Voldemort. And he insanely decided that he wanted to bake a cake. Never mind the fact he had never cooked in his entire life, but he wanted to try and make the best cake for his lover. Harry decided to help out by dragging Remus out of the house for the whole day. Hermione helped out by giving him cookbooks and getting the ingredients for him. Now, Sirius had the whole flat to himself and he planned to bake the World’s Yummiest Chocolate Cake for his lover.

Sirius looked through the cookbook and read it out loud. “Preheat the oven, crack three eggs, pour flour, tut, tut.” Sirius tutted. “This looks so easy. And Snape had the bloody nerve to accuse me of not being able to cook. We’ll see about that!” A week before, another infamous Black/Snape war had broken out and one reason or another, they got into a dispute on who could cook better or what not. Severus Snape, who could actually cook like a gourmet chef, knew that Sirius had never cooked in his life. Sirius, being Sirius, didn’t want Snape to have the last word, so he denied everything and claimed he could at least bake a cake. That was the reason why Sirius was now standing in his kitchen, looking rather confused by some of the cooking terminology.

“What the bloody hell does it mean to ‘shift’ the damn flour?” Sirius dumped out the content of flour into the bowl. “Shift? These Muggles come up with some weird stuff . . . ”

“Well that looks shifted enough for me, now onto the other stuff.” The next few minutes were full of silent as Sirius measured out the baking powder, salt, sugar, cocoa, and vanilla.

“Crisco shortening eh?” Sirius measured out the shortening and then put it into the bowl. He then tried to mix them up. “For Godric’s sake! How am I supposed to mix this when this shortening thing is a huge lump? It certainly isn’t getting any softer . . . ”

After thirty minutes, Sirius figured out that he had to soften it up in the microwave. Then he took him another good ten minutes to figure out how the microwave worked. “Arthur Weasley is a brainless git for thinking that Muggles’ objects are fascinating,” Sirius grumbled. Once he figured out how to work the microwave, he put the cup of shortening in there and waited. When it was done 3 minutes later, the shortening was burnt to crisp. Out of frustration, he kicked the counter and got a sore foot. “Bloody hell!”

After he realised that he was supposed to soften the shortening up for less than a minute, he started all over again. After mixing up the ingredients together, he poured them into the pan as the cookbook directed. He then popped it in the oven and decided to go outside and work on his motorbike till the cake was done.

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2 hours later . . .

“Blast it! Remind me to make a mental note to myself to never work on my motorbike when I am cooking!” Sirius dejectedly pouted at the cake that was all burnt and crispy. Sirius sighed and looked at the clock. “Man and I only got 3 more hours to bake this bloody thing.” He looked around the kitchen. “Oh man, Moony is going to kill me when he sees the kitchen in this state.”

“BBRRRING!” Sirius jumped at the sound of the phone ringing. “Why did we ever decide to get a phone?” He ran to the living room and answered it. “Hello?”

“So, Black. How’s the cake coming along?” Snape’s usual sneer was heard through the phone.

Sirius groaned. “What do you want Snape. I am busy baking right now!”

“Just calling to see if you burn the flat down yet. Apparently you haven’t since you are still alive and kicking.”

“Yes. Sorry to disappoint you.” Sirius scowled at the wall. “How in Merlin’s world did you know I was baking a cake?”

“Your precious Godson told me. He figured that you might need a little help, so he asked me to check up on you.”

“Harry did that? Remind me to kill the little bugger!” Sirius felt betrayed.

Snape rolled his eyes on the other side. “Oh, quit being so melodramatic. I know you want to bake the cake yourself, so I’ll just come over there and give you a little guidance.”

Sirius’ shoulders fell in defeat. “Fine!” he growled. “But be civil!”

“You too.” With that, Severus hung up.

Few minutes later, Severus appeared in the middle of the kitchen with a loud “Pop”. He looked around disgustedly. There were pots and pans everywhere and smell of burnt bakery was in the air. “No wonder you never did too well in Potions.”

Sirius glared. “Shut up and do what you came here to do!”

With a bored expression, Severus looked through the recipe. “For Salazar’s sake. This is the easiest recipe for chocolate cake out there and you can’t even make this?”

“Just shut up and tell me what to do!”

The Slytherin sighed and started to guide the Gryffindor step by step. As Sirius started everything again, he gradually understood what went wrong. An hour later, the cake was done and all that was left to do was to frost it.

“I don’t think I need to guide you through this, do I?” Severus drawled.

Sirius concentrated on getting the frosting on the cake and didn’t say anything to the other man. Thirty minutes later, the cake was all done. Sirius proudly looked at it. It was a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting on it. On the top it had a picture of a dog and a werewolf and the words ‘Happy Anniversary, Moony!’ were written on it in vanilla frosting.

“Wonderful accomplishment, Black. Now let’s clean up.” Both Severus and Sirius cleaned with their wand and that was a breezy clean up.

Sirius was about to go upstairs and change when the front door opened. Harry, Remus, Hermione, and Ron all came in laughing. Remus sniffed the air and realised that someone has been cooking. He sniffed again and felt overwhelmed by the smell of chocolate. He walked into the kitchen and saw Sirius looking very messy. His clothes were rumpled up and he had a little bit of frosting on his face. He then looked at the countertop and saw the cake.

With a surprised expression, he looked at the cake and back to Sirius. He put two and two together and realised that Sirius went through all the trouble to bake this. He tried to talk, but his throat refused to cooperate. “Paddy . . .  the cake . . . you . . . for us . . . ?”

Sirius nodded happily. “For our anniversary, love. I know it’s not much, but I know you love chocolate and I figured I’d have to learn how to make something sooner or later . . . ”

He never got to finish the sentence as Remus launched himself onto his mate and kissed him passionately. Harry grinned like an idiot. Ron and Hermione both smiled politely. Severus just looked bored. Sirius didn’t care about that and kissed Moony back.

After a few minutes of intense snogging, they both broke apart. “Paddy, this is the best present I could ever receive from you. Thank you so much.”

Sirius stared into the intense eyes. “Anything for you love. Anything.”

Ron stared at the cake hungrily. “Let’s eat this now? I’m so starving!”

Everyone laughed and Sirius got out the plates and forks for the cake. Ten minutes later, the cake was no more and everyone was satisfied.

“Happy Christmas, everyone,” said Remus

“Yes. I agree. And I am glad to see that the cake didn’t poison anyone!” Sirius laughed gaily.

“Yes. I admit you did well, Black,” Snape grudgingly admitted.

Harry learned and kissed his lover on the cheek. “There. Giving him a compliment wasn’t so hard now, was it?”

Severus glared him and Harry just glared back. Everyone around them laughed and the gaiety just went on.