AN: Hello friends, long time no write, right?

Sorry for the long absence. School and life have been pretty crazy lately, and I've had zero inspiration to write anything as of late. I am really invested in the AruAni ship, though, and I was prompted on Tumblr to write Annie baking Armin a cake, so here it is; the finished product!

I've never written for this fandom, or these characters, so please bare with me as this is a learning experience.

Enjoy!

Annie was perplexed; in fact, that wasn't even the word to describe the state she was in. It sure was close to it, though. Standing in front of the kitchen counter in the small apartment she shared with her boyfriend Armin, she scowled at the boxed cake mix set beside her.

In any normal situation, she wouldn't let something as trivial as this get her riled up. Getting upset over the small things definitely wasn't her style; but this time, the situation was different. This wasn't just a small favor she was doing for someone that she could half ass, or even something she was just doing for the hell of it. She was doing it because she felt obligated to; it was something she felt she needed to do, and it was something she felt needed to be done perfectly.

Staring down the eggs and milk in front of her with an icy glare that could kill a man, she took in a breath and got back to the task set in front of her. The job itself was a relatively easy one; she only had to bake a cake, and the mix itself was in a box. How hard could this possibly be?

That's what she had thought before starting her "mission", but the nervous lump in her throat that grew with every passing moment was telling her that this wasn't going to be as easy as she first thought it was going to be. For one, she hadn't touched an oven in a very long time. Normally, the things that she made for herself were in a microwave; because of the busy lifestyle she led, she barely had time to make a meal unless it was something she could just warm up and eat. Secondly, as said before, she wanted this to be perfect, or at least as close to perfect as she could get. It was only right, since the person she was making this cake for was as close to perfection as one could get.

A small smile formed on the young woman's face at the thought of her lover - Armin - the light of her life in more ways than one; in more ways than she believed she deserved. It was for him that she was doing this for today, because he had mentioned how nice it would be if Annie tried baking something for them every once in a while a few days ago while they were on a date at the local coffee shop.

"You know I haven't tried cooking or baking anything in forever, right?" she had asked, a small frown on her face, although a hint of amusement glinted in her eyes.

With a small chuckle, able to see right through Annie's annoyed front, Armin had nodded and smiled sweetly at her; something she'd never been able quite comprehend, because of the power it had over her. "I know, but that doesn't matter to me. As long as it's made by you, I know I'll enjoy it."

Letting a smirk come onto her face, Annie had rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Don't bullshit me." she said, leaning in, a playful look in her eyes. "I know you're only saying that to make me feel better, and to make me do it for you."

Leaning in to meet her halfway, Armin had tapped his finger under her chin and raised an eyebrow at her. "Only half of what you said is true." he said, placing a short, sweet kiss to her lips. "Either way, it's your decision and your call as to which half of my statement was true, and if you want to do it."

Left a little bit breathless from the kiss, Annie could only muster a small grunt in reply before pulling back and slumping in her chair, earning a knowing smile from Armin.

Bringing her thoughts back to the present, Annie looked up at the clock. "Shit." she mumbled under her breath, quickly opening up the box of cake mix and pouring it into a mixing bowl. It was already 6:30, only about an hour until Armin would be home; that gave her barely enough time to get this done. She wanted it to be a surprise for when he walked in the door. Seeing that she'd wasted so much time worrying over how this would go, though, she found that if she wanted to get done in enough time, she would have to nix the idea of perfection. Not that it mattered, though. After getting home that day of their date, Annie had come to the conclusion that Armin was being sincere when he said he would be pleased with whatever she did for him.

Feeling her confidence boost a bit at these thoughts, Annie nodded to herself and continued with her work; she cracked the eggs, poured the milk, water and oil, then mixed the batter until she felt it was ready to be put in the pan. After doing that, she placed the pan in the oven and set the allotted amount of time the bakery needed to be in there for. Relieved that she had done all that in such a short amount of time - at least, a shorter amount of time than she had first thought it would take - she decided to relax and maybe read a book while she waited.

—-

It's amazing how fast time can fly by when you're not paying any attention to it. 45 minutes later, and three chapters into her book, Annie found herself getting up from the couch to get the cake from the oven. Inspecting it thoroughly to insure that it was fully baked, Annie gingerly placed it on the counter to cool off before she iced it. Expecting Armin to be home any minute now, though, she assumed that she was just going to have to show him the finished product before she could do that.

Sure enough, about ten minutes after she had taken the cake out of the oven, Annie heard a knock at the door. Trying to contain the excited smile threatening to burst onto her face at any second now, she slowly made her way to the door, pausing just in front of it.

"Who is it?" she asked, although she knew quite well who it was. If it was anyone else, she would be very surprised.

The laugh from the other side of the door told her that she was right; it was just the person she had been waiting for. "It's me." was the answer she received.

Opening the door a tiny bit so that she could see his face, Annie tried not to smirk as she said, "Hello, me. Can I help you?"

"You can help me by letting me in." Armin replied, laughter prevalent in both his eyes and voice.

Nodding, Annie let the man in and pulled him into a kiss, smiling into it as he melted against her. When they finally pulled away for air, Armin found himself sniffing the air around him, a strange, but not unpleasant smell wafting in it. It didn't take him long to notice the un-iced caked sitting on the counter in the kitchen.

"You baked!" he exclaimed, startling Annie a bit. She expected him to be happy, but not this happy.

Smiling, she took his hand and led him over to the kitchen, staring down at her masterpiece. "It's just a box mix, but I wanted to do something special for you…since you're always so damn nice to me for no reason." she said, blushing just a bit.

"It doesn't matter how you did it, Annie. You did it, and I'm really happy." he said, honestly meaning it. It may have seemed stupid that he was getting so worked up over something so small as his girlfriend baking him a cake, but he didn't care. He was so happy that she did it for him; he'd never had anything made by her that wasn't from the microwave, and he'd heard that she was pretty good in the kitchen, so he'd been dying to see if that was true. Plus, he liked the idea of Annie cooking - it just seemed like it would be a cute sight to see - of course, he would never tell her that, though.

Pleased that he was so happy with what she had done, and not wanting this moment to end, Annie came up with an idea. "Hey, Armin. If you want, you can help me ice this thing. Then we eat some dinner and enjoy it together." she said, looking him in the eyes, letting her eager anticipation show on her face.

Smile growing wider, Armin nodded excitedly, really liking the idea of doing something fun with her. Reaching over, he grabbed the icing, and Annie grabbed a knife; and with that, they got to work.

The rest of their night was filled with laughter, smiles, and stolen kisses tasting of Strawberry icing and Vanilla cake. By the time the two had finished eating and cleaning up the mess they had made in the kitchen, they were beat. Walking hand in hand to the couch, they planned on sitting for a while together to just talk before heading off to bed. Soon, though, sleepiness started to overcome them, and just before they knew it, they were sitting side by side, hand in hand, asleep after a long and rewarding day.

As always, thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this; please send in a review so I know what I can do better next time :)