“Oreo Cookie, what are you doing?” Saiko peers into the kitchen, where a flour-covered Urie is cussing while he slams pots and pans around.
“Nothing!” he yelps.
She crosses her arms. “You’re clearly doing something.”
“I’m making Mutsuki a cake. He’s sad and he deserves one.” Urie smashes an egg and whimpers when its shell splatters into his clucterfuck of a bowl.
“Let me help.”
“No!” Urie waves her away. “I want it to be me.”
“Oh, do you?” Saiko raises her eyebrows. “I seeeeeeeee. Well, have fun.”
She strides off, leaving a stammering Urie alone in the kitchen.
When Mutsuki arrives at the Chateau, Sasaki and that blue-haired bitch consume his thoughts. He doesn’t notice the smell of charred hell wafting from the kitchen until he’s passing the room.
With a start, Mutsuki rushes in. “What’s happening?”
“Oh!” Urie, spattered with runny emerald icing, looks up. “H – Hi, Mucchan.”
“Are you okay?” Mutsuki tries not to vomit from the smell.
“Yes! Look!” Urie holds out an emerald cake carved into a heart. We love you is written in red piping.
Mutsuki takes a moment to realize that it’s for him. “Did you make this for me?”
“Uh, yeah. It probably won’t be very good.” Urie gestures to bowls of putrid batter and a stack of burned cakes. “But at least it looks edible?”
He also tasted it, and it’s not terrible. He hasn’t puked yet.
“No – no one’s ever baked me a cake before.” Mutsuki’s eyes are enormous.
He feels loved.
He throws his arms around Urie. “Thank you!”
Urie fights back a wave of nausea. “I’m glad you liked it.”
“Of course i do.” Mutsuki wipes his eyes.
This is worth it. Urie bends over to soothe his stomach. It can’t be the cake. It can’t.
“Are you sick?”
“No,” he muttered, just as his gorge rises.
“Urie!” Mutsuki shoves the cake onto a counter and holds his friend over the sink. “It’s okay.”
“No it’s not!” Urie breaks into tears. “I’m sorry! I’m supposed to make you a cake and I – I got myself sick – I’m such a bad friend – and I wanna be your boyfriend -”
Whoa.
Mutsuki looks shocked. “Urie?”
“One minute.” Urie feebly points at Mutsuki before gagging up the rest of the cake.
“I’m glad to have a cake, even if it’s poison,” Mutsuki says, his sweet self once more. “But Urie -”
“I know, you love Sasaki.” Urie wipes his mouth. “I didn’t mean to come onto you like that.”
“No, that’s not it.” Mutsuki wrings his hands. “I didn’t realize, that’s all.”
“I do, I do love you,” Urie mumbles. No taking this back.
“I’m crazy,” Mutsuki protests.
“I like crazy.”
Mutsuki isn’t sure how to feel. A – a window has opened he never dreamed of. But he can’t quite release Sasaki. Can Urie live with that? Can he? Not forever, he knows.
Still, he dares himself to say, “I might wanna be your boyfriend, too.”

