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Chargery watched as Nansensu’s face dropped when she entered the kitchen. “Oh no, you weren’t thinking-”
“Yes,” Chargery cut her off, “yes I was. I found a good recipe, got out all of the supplies and measuring stuff, and I bought every ingredient in advance, including the frosting.”
Nansensu sighed. “Look, being here is getting in the way of my week-long Portal 2 hyperfixation. I’m only willing to do this if I get some of the final product. Deal?” They extended their hand, inviting a handshake.
Chargery grabbed Nansensu’s hand and firmly shook it, as if she was accepting an offer to renew The Owl House for another season. “Deal!”
Nansensu took her hand back and clasped her own hands together. “Cool! Now let’s bake these cookies!”
“Oh, I wasn’t planning on cookies,” Chargery said, getting on some gloves so the ingredients didn't damage her hands. “I wanted to bake Socka a cake! Red velvet, to be specific. It’s her favorite flavor.”
Nansensu, being a Portal fan, held up her curly hair to look into Chargery’s eyes in horror. “Huh?”
Socka sat down in the office chair and stared blankly at the pen and piece of lined paper she had placed neatly on her desk. “In the words of the Greek poet Sappho,” she said to herself, “‘what am I supposed to write?’ I don’t think that’s an actual recorded quote of hers, but she probably said it at some point.”
Socka spun around in her chair, paying no mind to the faint commotion downstairs. “Maybe I should just start off with a title.” She wheeled back to her desk, picked up her pen, and wrote at the center top of the paper the best title she could muster: ‘And They Were Roomates’.
“Hmm…well, first off, I misspelled roommates.” Socka crumpled up the paper and grabbed a fresh one from the nearby pile she made earlier. Poetry wasn’t one of Socka’s strong suits, but since she was going to be stuck in her and Chargery’s room while Chargery and Nansensu were downstairs doing who-knows-what, and she still needed something to give Chargery while still respecting her privacy, this was the only good option at the moment.
“Now, to actually get on with this poem.” Socka rested her head on her hand and stared down at the paper, twirling her pen as she did. 6 PM isn’t necessarily known for its good ideas, but oh well. “Well, all good things start with a flower metaphor! Why not something flower related? Hmm…roses, maybe?”
“Nansensu, look me in the face and tell me that is a good cake ingredient.”
Nansensu shook the bag of dried seaweed. “C’mon, it’d be funny.”
“Funny?!” Chargery snatched the bag. “This is a Valentine’s Day gift. We’re not putting seaweed into any cake, let alone one for a holiday!” She picked up the bowl of velvet batter and walked over to the round cake pan. “The batter’s done anyway, so let’s just bake the cake.”
Just before she could pour the batter in, Nansensu stopped her. “Have you sprayed the pan?”
Chargery paused. “With what?”
“Baking spray.”
“What’s baking spray?”
The trash can next to Socka’s desk was now halfway full. She had emptied it before she started writing, but now it was filled with crumpled up attempts at poetry. There was a small torn-off piece of paper she had left on her desk to tally up her attempts down the halls of metaphors and stanzas, and when she felt like giving up, she remembered that there were some who had to write haikus.
At attempt 13, Socka finally had a first paragraph down. “Yes! Finally somewhere to officially start!” She held her fists in the air in triumph. Then she started puzzling on where to go next. She gazed around the room, scanning every detail. Then her eyes locked on the bed. “Well, with the way this poem is going, maybe I should write about how we live together?” She started off her second paragraph, but didn’t like the way it looked, so she crumpled up the paper and added another tally to the count.
Socka leaned back in her chair and groaned. “Why is poetry so hard? Shel Silverstein wrote a poem about a turtle marrying a bagpipe and divorcing it five seconds later, and people loved it! Why does writing a simple poem for the person I admire most make me want to bash my head into a brick wall?!” Then, a picture on the bedside table caught her eye. It was of her and Chargery at a party, sitting at a table in the corner of the room, smiling at the camera, with the cameraperson most likely being Nansensu. She remembered who she was doing this for.
She remembered how much she loves Chargery.
“Welp, that’s just how the cake crumbles,” Nansensu shrugged.
“Shut up.” Due to Chargery’s ignorance about the concept of the almighty baking spray, a few large chunks of the cake were stuck to the inside of the cake pan after it was transferred to the decorating spinner. “We could probably use frosting to re-attach the chunks anyway. Speaking of which, I got red, white, and pink frosting. Oh, also orange, just in case.”
“Sweet,” Nansensu said. Once Chargery had done the best she could with re-attaching the lost chunks of cake, Nansensu used the power of insisting to take the reins in the frosting department. Chargery ended up not being mad about this, since it was actually funny watching a fully decked-out emo person decorating a red velvet cake with such bright, colorful frosting. As she watched, however, she thought about what Socka was doing in their room. Maybe she’s just playing Stardew Valley?
“Attempt. 44.”
Socka was now puzzled over the final paragraph. “Should I stick to the theme? I mean, it’s a poem, and themes are the whole point of a poem, so…” the trash can was now about to overflow with all of the paper it was filled with. She rewrote the title and the first two paragraphs onto a new piece of paper and looked over them, the gears in her head turning as she searched her brain for ideas. But looking over her poem again, she realized the solution staring her in the face the entire time.
Her point of view about what she displayed in her poem was flawed.
At first she was disappointed in herself. You’re dedicating this to your girlfriend and you gave it a flawed perspective? However, she realized that it could just be a reflection of their relationship. And maybe to outline that, there should be an extra paragraph about the inverse of the message of the first two paragraphs to show some type of growth like how she’s grown in this relationship? Woah, where’d all this inspiration come from?
Writing the final paragraph wasn’t very difficult, and the few redos Socka did didn’t make her as angry as the others had. As one final cherry on top of this already extremely sapphic cake, she added one final line which would make even a historian have an aneurism. At attempt 51, with a now overflowing trash can, she had finally finished her poem.
If that wasn’t lesbian enough, Socka decided to fish through her drawers to find a blank envelope. When she found one, she folded the poem, slipped it inside, and sealed it, as if she were a poet with a secret female lover. Socka never liked the taste of envelope sealers, but anything for her girlfriend! She wrote on the back of the envelope ‘Do NOT open until Valentine’s Day <3’ in big lettering with her pen, just to be sure Chargery didn’t look if she just so happened to find it in the drawer Socka hid it in before the next day. There was a chance that would happen, because Socka was tuckered out by this point and realized it was 7 PM, so she just decided to go to bed.
“Do you think this is too much?” Chargery asked Nansensu as she covered the cake in sprinkles that matched the frosting.
Nansensu shrugged.
“Ok, cool.” Once Chargery finished the final step, she stepped back to admire the finished product. Nansensu did a really good job with the frosting; the sides of the cake were decorated with pink and white stripes, and the top and bottom edges were dotted with red blots. The top of the cake was orange, and covered with sprinkles that matched the other colors used.
“Woah, we did a pretty good job,” Nansensu said.
“Yea, it’s better than I thought it’d be!” Chargery replied. “Now, payment-wise, you could roll by tomorrow and I could give you a slice.”
Nansensu shook their head. “Nah, I just want the frosting.”
Chargery blinked. “The frosting?”
“Yea, frosting’s really good.”
“Okay…take all you want!”
Nansensu scooped up all of the bags of frosting and headed towards the front door. “Thanks for letting me help out! See ya!”
“Bye! Have fun with Portal 2!” Chargery waved as Nansensu walked to her car. Once the black Volkswagen sped off into the night, Chargery closed the door. She then fished through her pantry for an airtight container to put the cake in. Once the cake was properly stored, she left it on the dining table and headed up the stairs. Socka was already asleep, so Chargery silently slipped under the covers beside her and dozed off.
When Chargery woke up, Socka was already awake and seated at her desk. “Good morning,” Chargery groaned, stretching her arms.
Socka turned slightly towards her partner, pen in hand. “Oh, good morning!”
“Whatcha doin?”
“Oh, I was just doing some extra writing!” Socka grabbed the envelope from the drawer she hid it in the previous evening. “Speaking of which, I wrote this for you! Happy Valentine's Day!”
Socka handed the envelope to Chargery, who opened it almost immediately. Inside was a piece of lined paper with a poem:
And They Were Roommates
I give her roses, a sweet delight,
She shows them to others, in broad daylight,
I don’t think they get it, they just can’t quite,
See us as more than friends.
We live together, in the same place,
In the same bed, rose in the vase,
Yet even while you touch my face,
To them, no more than pals.
But now I see, with us so fair,
There is no need for me to care,
About those outside who truly dare,
To call us only roommates.
I love you so.
“Woah. You wrote this for me?”
Socka nodded.
“I love it!” Chargery, suddenly filled with energy, got up with outstretched arms and hugged Socka, pecking her cheek as they did. Once they let go, Chargery suddenly remembered what she spent most of her time doing yesterday. “Oh yea! I almost forgot! C’mon!” She ran down the stairs, Socka slowly tailing behind.
Once Socka reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw a bright, colorful one-tiered cake sitting on the table, as if waiting patiently for her. “Wait…you didn’t…”
“Of course I did!” Chargery grinned from ear to ear. “I mean, Nansensu helped a bit and took all of the frosting when she left, so-”
Chargery was cut off by a hug and kiss from her loving partner. “ILOVEITILOVEITILOVEIT!” Socka was clearly extremely happy. Once they parted, Socka calmed down. “Is now too early to eat it now?”
Chargery shrugged. “I mean, today’s pretty much ‘affection day’, so let’s have some self-affection with this cake!”