A Slice of Wedding Cake

by Kiyutsuna and Lucathia

Disclaimer: The Legend of Sun Knight belongs to Yu Wo. No monetary profit is being made from this fic.

Notes: Co-written with Kiyutsuna! Odd chapters are hers, even chapters are mine! Check out the illustrations that go with each chapter on AO3 or Dreamwidth, drawn by Kiyutsuna!

Slice 15: Let There Be Cake

Ice

I took off running as soon as the wedding ceremony ended and it was deemed adequate to leave.

Please do not misunderstand; I had enjoyed the ceremony as much as any other holy knight, though perhaps not on the same level as Metal or Blaze, who were sobbing uncontrollably by the end, or Moon, whose high pitched keening sounds were audible as I stood right next to him. Despite not matching many others' displays of emotion, seeing Sun and Judgment married was indeed one of the most emotional and wonderful moments I have ever witnessed. In fact, my face even felt sore from smiling non-stop the entire time! A small part of me worried if Teacher would scold me later, but I reassured myself by thinking if even Judgment was smiling so widely the whole time, surely I could make an exception for today as well.

Back to the matter at hand, as I dashed to the kitchen, the thoughts in my mind were replaced by cake, cake, and more cake. The reception starts in just a few minutes, and the wedding cake needed to be presented in under an hour.

There were still many finishing touches left to make.

As I skidded into the kitchen and made my way to the sectioned off area reserved especially for the wedding cake, I had to pause to chug down a cup of extra strong coffee—Storm's special blend in fact. I am unsure of what Storm mixed into this drink, but I think I'd rather not find out. Just a small cup's worth was already enough to chase away the yawns that had been threatening to bubble up throughout the whole ceremony and make me feel quite jittery. Any other day I would have been worried over Storm drinking this regularly, but today I was exceptionally grateful.

The nearly complete cake tower that sat on a trolley in front of me would not have been here if not for this special coffee.

If I may say so myself, this is truly the greatest baking feat I have ever pulled off. The tower had twelve layers in total, ranging from the bottom, largest layer of plain vanilla buttercream cake that would feed most of the guests to the uppermost, smallest layer that was only for two very special people.

This cake is my masterpiece; therefore, it absolutely needed to be the best it could be. And the number one rule of delicious baking is the fresher the better. So, the only sensible decision was to make the entire cake the day before the wedding.

I had planned extensively in the weeks before, carefully calculating the specifications of each layer and making countless test batches. The top layer was especially tricky to craft, taking up the most testing time.

The plan was to make a layer featuring each of the Twelve Holy Knights' preferred cake. Even though some tastes may be more out of the ordinary than others, it would be a wonderful symbol of unity and comradeship that had been of utmost importance to Sun and Judgment's relationship. However, it was also Sun and Judgment's cakes that caused me the most trouble. While I believe normal guests would be able to enjoy slightly abnormal cakes such as the seasonings-embedded savory layer for Leaf, or the frighteningly spicy chocolate cake that's Metal's favorite, or the layer for Storm that's so heavily laced with coffee that a sign should probably be put next to it to make sure no small children consumed any pieces… Sun and Judgment's tastes are another matter entirely.

While Storm's cake might cause small children to bounce around the temple like rubber balls, Judgment's extremely bitter dark chocolate cake may very well make them cry.

Actually, it could possibly make the adults cry as well, if the reactions during Judgment's bachelor party were anything to go by.

As for Sun, I have no misgivings about the effect his preferred sweetness level would have on a regular person. It would not do to have guests choking during a wedding.

For the health and happiness of everyone involved, it was clear that there should not be more than one portion of each of those two's cakes. The problem was, two single-serving cakes would look highly out of place on top of the cake tower. Thus, the idea was born to merge them into one cake, sharing the top spot together. I had been quite pleased with myself—not only was that a fitting solution, it also perfectly represented their union. Little did I know, such a cake was easier to imagine than to make.

Now, you may be thinking: why not just make the two separate cakes and then glue them together with frosting? Indeed, that would be the common and perhaps even reasonable method, but neither of these things have any place in this entire grand affair. For this cake—this masterpiece of proportions most grand—to be perfectly fitting for this most grand occasion, common sense and reason need to be thrown out of the metaphorical window. It simply would not do to make two separate cakes. How could that even begin to represent Sun and Judgment's relationship? They were soulmates, and soulmates don't come in something as detached as two separate pieces.

As I embarked on my quest to bake a single cake that can merge these two extreme flavours perfectly, it seemed that I was alone in my belief that this was achievable. As days turned into weeks and the failed batches piled into a small mountain, words of doubt began to pop up. It began with tentative comments like "Ice, maybe you should consider a back up plan…" to concerned questions of "Ice, when was the last time you slept…?"

Disbelievers, all of them. I merely drank more coffee and continued to the next experiment. I had complete faith in this cake, no matter what common sense may dictate. And I would be right, just like before—when nobody else had yet to believe that Sun and Judgment were hopelessly in love with each other.

See, I had always known that Grisia and Lesus were special to each other. Thanks to my close friendship with both of them, I had been privy to much insight over the years. Like how much care Lesus actually put into the sweets he brings to their bathroom rendezvous—small candies when Grisia needs to watch his weight, more substantial pies when Grisia's been busy and thus skipping meals; or how Grisia actually enjoys watching me make the bitter chocolates for Lesus, and each time like clockwork, would sneak a taste before the chocolate is poured into the moulds, giving his seal of approval in the form of a scrunched up face and a shudder at the bitterness. Or how they would always know when each others' sweets bag needs refilling, and more often than not, one of them would show up at my door with both empty bags for refills (and occasionally in Lesus' case, ask that I keep the bags and refrain from refilling). They say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, so naturally I interpreted the meaning behind these interactions for what it was: love, plain and simple.

To me, that had been common knowledge since our training days, as mundane as the fact that Sun's robes were white and Judgment's were black. Little did I know, that I was apparently the only one who held that particular belief.

The realization came during one of the hardest times we had to endure: that terrible half year period when Sun was out of his mind after being resurrected. While that had been a painful time for us all, there was no doubt that Judgment suffered the most. Whenever he held vigil over Sun's bedside—which was most the time—the atmosphere in the room was too unbearably heavy for any of us to accompany him for long. So, with Sun out of commission, Judgment by his side, and Roland away as the demon king, the rest of us often found ourselves convening together in the conference room whenever we ran out of tasks to busy ourselves with. There we would chat about nothing and everything, often with Earth or Metal leading the conversation and everyone doing their best to contribute whatever they could. It was an unspoken rule to never let the room go silent, lest the silence suffocate us all.

It began during one of those conversations. Metal had been worrying over Judgment's state.

"Captain Judgment is barely eating these days. What if he collapses?" he fretted.

"When I brought him lunch today, he looked like he had been crying…" Moon added sadly, "I wish there's something we could do to cheer him up…"

Hearing that, I sighed and chimed in:

"It can't be helped. His loved one is in an insanity-induced coma. How could Judgment cheer up?"

Silence.

I looked up, concerned, and found eight pairs of frighteningly wide eyes trained on me.

"W-what did you just say…?" Earth stammered.

I frowned in confusion. For once, Earth's stammer didn't sound forced.

"That Sun is in an insanity-induced coma?" I replied slowly, unsure how that could still be shocking to everyone.

"Not that!" Storm cried out. "The part before! You said 'his loved one'!"

Around the room, everyone nodded along, wide eyes still trained on me.

"Yes." I shrunk back, slightly frightened by the intensity in the air. "Judgment and Sun are in love with each other…"

The ensuing disbelieving chaos had resulted in a heated debate that lasted long into the night. However, even when the sun came up, they still had not come to a consensus on the exact nature of Sun and Judgment's feelings.

Eventually, Sun woke up. Then, the demon king happened, and passed, and as life returned to normal, I began getting visits from the other knights.

"Ice, you were right! How could I have missed their loving gazes at each other? I look at Ann the same way!" Leaf gushed.

"Ice, you were right! I heard from my vice-captain who heard from a maid who heard from Adair who was talking to Vidar that Sun is doing Judgment's paperwork! Which could only mean that Sun has either gone insane again or is in love!" Storm rambled.

"Ice, you were right! Captain Judgment postponed our SM session today to buy that bastard Sun pie… and I thought our arrangement was special!" Metal sobbed.

"Ice, you were right!"

…

The memory of their revelations brought a small smile to my face as I carefully placed the final and most important cake layer onto the tower. Soon, everyone will be able to appreciate yet another feat that was previously doubted.

After many, many failed batches, and many more filled up notebooks documenting the effects of different ingredient ratios, I had finally come across the perfect balance. And now, in my hands, was a delicate cake that was half extremely sweet honey castella and half extremely bitter chocolate sponge, marbled seamlessly together in the middle. For fillings there was the usual blueberry jam in Sun's portion, and in Judgment's—dark chocolate ganache.

With the cake tower assembled, I then carefully wrapped up the entire thing with a thin layer of white fondant, making the cake resemble the graceful pillars that were a trademark of our Holy Temple. Now for the final touch, I retrieved from a cooler the assortment of frosting flowers I had created beforehand, which featured the same flowers present in Judgment's bouquet. Slowly and carefully - as to not disturb the delicate petals—the flowers were placed onto the cake, trailing from the top down like a cascading waterfall.

As the final sugar blossom took its place, I let out the breath I had been holding and stepped back. There, it was done. Pride and relief washed over me as I took in the finished product. At the risk of sounding boastful, I truly believed that I have created a wedding cake that could go down in history along with this wedding of the century. Now, all that was left to do was to bring the cake cart into the reception hall. I felt tears threatening to well up as I wheeled the cart out of the kitchen. Perhaps this is what parents feel like on their children's first day of school?

to be continued

Kiyutsuna: Kiyu offers her most sincere apologies for the years long wait QuQ please have a slice of cake and pretend it's not three years late.

Lucathia: Cake, cake, cake! I'm floored by how this chapter was pretty much all cake. Perfect for the return of the cake fic? :D

Check out the chapter on AO3 or Dreamwidth for a drawing of the cake!