[KH] My Heart Can't Break ALAIWY: 2.14.14

Summary:  Lea & Isa make Valentine's Day chocolate.

A/N:  I can't quite decide if this is pre-canon or just a random AU.  In any case, Lea & Isa are about 12-14 years old.

I'm kind of mixing American and Japanese Valentine's traditions here. XD  Sorry~

They used Isa's kitchen, because his father was gone as usual and his mother would have just the right amount of presence without getting annoying.  There were also no obnoxious younger siblings around to tease them or get underfoot, the way there would have been at Lea's house.

"Then why don't they just write out 'teaspoon'?" Lea complained.  "Why do they have to abbreviate everything?"

"I don't understand why this is even an issue," Isa said.  "Haven't you ever cooked before?"

"Of course not!  I'm a guy!"

"Being male doesn't mean you're obligated to be completely ignorant of culinary arts.  There are places where cooks are expected to be men."

"What does that have to do with teaspoons?"

"It doesn't, I--  For heaven's sake, stop arguing and just pour the sugar!"

Mrs. Tsukino stepped up to them, carrying a box.  "I found the cookie cutters.  Will these do?"

Isa peered into the box.  "I suppose so."

"Perfect!" Lea declared, scooping the box out of Mrs. Tsukino's arms and dumping it on the counter.

"Watch it, Lea!  You nearly knocked the milk over!"

"Well, I didn't, so it's fine."

"How can you survive being so careless all the time?" Isa wondered in exasperation.

"Hearts!" Lea proclaimed, lifting two heart-shaped cookie-cutters out of the box and holding them aloft in triumph.  "Score!"

Once all the ingredients were combined in a bowl, Isa volunteered to mix them, since he claimed that he couldn't trust Lea to lose control of the electronic mixer and splatter the entire kitchen with chocolate.  Lea's task was to smear cooking oil on the cake pans so that the batter wouldn't stick to the metal as it baked.

"Lea, don't write things in the cooking oil."

"Why not?  It's not like the cake's gonna care, and no one else will see it."

"I don't think that girl you're after will appreciate the gift as much if she knew you'd written C cups rock! under it."

"Which is why you won't tell her, yeah?"  Lea grinned and put the cake pan back down on the counter as Isa rolled his eyes.  "Speaking of which, who are you giving yours to?"

"What?"

"Hello, you're making Valentine's chocolate.  You got your eye on someone~?"

Isa frowned.  "Of course not.  I'm only doing this to help you out."

"Oh, come on, Isa!  There's no one you like?"

"You are pretty much the only person at school I can tolerate."

Lea looked surprised, then smiled.  "Huh.  You really do hate people."

"I wouldn't hate them so much if they weren't so stupid...."

When the cakes were ready, they decorated them.  Lea's ended up being such a disaster that he switched it with Isa's.  "Man, it's no fair that you can decorate a stupid cake better than me!"

"You were squeezing the icing tube too hard, and going too fast."

"Baking is for sissies, anyway!  Come on, let's go play basketball."

Isa rolled his eyes and followed Lea out the door.

At school the next day, Lea saw his crush in two classes, but chickened out on giving her the Valentine both times.  At lunch, he had no appetite, and when Isa was unsuccessful in coaxing him to take even a few bites, he lost his patience.

"That does it.  Isis is sitting three tables away; you are going over there now to give her this Valentine."

"What?!  Isa, are you nuts?!"

"Why would you accuse me of being crazy when you baked the Valentine specifically for her?"

"Yeah, but I just--  I just wanna wait 'til a better time, when she's not, you know, surrounded by...everyone...."

"Either you do it now, or I'll do it."

Lea gave him a startled look.  "Huh?"

Isa snatched up his friend's Valentine box before Lea could stop him.

"Isa!"

"You have five seconds."

"Isa!  Give it back!"

"...four, three...."

Lea tried to lunge over the table to grab it, but only succeeded in knocking his carton of milk over into Isa's lunch tray.

"...two, and now you owe me a replacement meal; one...."

"Isa!"

Isa stood up, holding the Valentine safely out of reach.

"Isaaaaa, wait wait wait, I'll do it but please at least just go with me!"

Isa paused.

"I'll do it, give me the freaking box, just...can you come with me?  And don't say I'm pathetic, because I know."

"I wasn't going to say you're pathetic."

"Thanks," Lea mumbled.  He took a deep breath, accepted the box back when Isa handed it to him, then walked stiffly over to where Isis was sitting with her friends.

After school, Isa bought the ice cream, about four times more of it than usual.  He did not say anything until Lea's rage had faded to depression.  Then he said, "For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure there are many girls in this school who like you.  You were just unfortunate enough to pick one who...apparently...has different tastes."

"Yeah," Lea said savagely, "for cold-hearted jerks who can bake.  This is so not friggin' faaaaiiiirrr!"

"If it makes you feel any better," Isa grumbled, "I have absolutely no interest in her."

"That just makes it worse!  She wants you, not me, but you don't want her, so it's like all I want is the trash you leave behind and I'm not even good enough for that...."

"Don't be ridiculous.  Here."  Isa handed over another ice cream bar.

Lea ripped off the packaging in a bitter way.  "Great, and now I owe you for all this ice cream, too," he snarled, biting into it.

"...This is all on me," Isa said quietly.

"Why, because you feel bad for me?  I don't want your pity!"

"It's not pity!  I just...don't know what else to do."

Lea eyed him sulkily.

"I could care less what that girl, what any girl, what anyone thinks of me.  But you...I don't like seeing you upset.  I'd make her fall in love with you if I could, but I can't, all I can do is buy ice cream, and it...makes me feel useless."  Isa glared off into the sunset and took a bite of his own ice cream.

Lea looked at him for a minute.  Then he scooted a little closer, wrapped his arms around his knees, and rested his chin on them.  "Both of us are useless, huh," he said dolefully.

"Valentine's Day is a stupid holiday, anyway," Isa muttered.

"Yeah.  Yeah.  Valentine's Day is stupid!" Lea declared, getting louder with each word.  "Who needs love!  I've got ice cream and a sunset and a super best friend, so screw everything else."  He paused, then laughed.  "Heh, 'screw' everything else...."

Isa rolled his eyes.  "Very mature."

"We're in junior high, we're supposed to be immature."  Lea grinned.  "So, hey, if all this is your treat, then that means I don't owe you for lunch anymore, right?"

"Don't push your luck just because I expressed a moment of sympathy...."

Author's Notes:  This was an idea I'd had a year or two ago for my original "Warmth to my Heart" plan.  (The WtmH project has changed several times, and I'm back to starting from scratch. *sweatdrop*)  Then I wanted to write it for Valentine's Day 2013, but failed.  I FINALLY managed to get it done for Valentine's Day 2014 instead. 8)
It was also...a lot shorter and more depressing than I expected ._. I don't know if it was always that way or I simply forgot the 'plot' and failed to write it down, but in any case, I had to make up a bunch of stuff just to pad out the plunny enough for it to pass as a story.  I think Isa was also supposed to have a crush, too, or at least someone he was making the chocolate for, but when I finally started writing the actual draft, he refused to crush on anyone.

All this time, I've been lazy and used cake for my Valentine's stories, because I already know how to make cake.  But I finally looked it up and found that you can make chocolate candy, too, and I think that's actually more common. XD  But I'd already finished the draft for this story by the time I looked it up, so whatever.  Next time. *shrug*

In case you don't know, "C cup" is a bra size.  "A" is the smallest, I think "C" is about average (though pretty big for an adolescent), "D" is bigger, etc.

I had a really hard time with the title again....  I like the one I eventually came up with, but I feel like it's kind of wasted on this fic, so I might reuse it in the future (hence why I put a subtitle on this one, to distinguish it).  It's one of the reasons I love AkuSai so much, the idea that Isa/Saïx's friendship with Lea/Axel is by far the most important relationship in his life, and that Lea/Axel's bond with Roxas & Xion is the only thing comparable to it on his own side (and, happily, there's no conflict of interest the way I write it X3).  Girlfriends might come and go, but Lea & Isa's friendship with each other runs deeper than all that and will never be broken.  It expresses the "I don't understand why romance is hyped up to be so fantastic when it can NEVER COMPARE to the beauty that is this" mentality that I have as an aro ace.