Chocolate Cake

The Cake

*

It was a chocolate cake. A nice, beautiful chocolate cake that smelled delicious. There was seemingly nothing wrong with it -- it was just a perfect chocolate cake.

And that, of course, was enough to make Remus Lupin cautious. You see, the cake had been baked by his boyfriend Sirius Black. And that was more than enough reason to worry.

"Happy birthday, Moony!" Sirius said cheerfully, cutting a huge slice of the cake, putting it on a plate and giving the plate to his boyfriend. "I made it just for you!"

Remus frowned and poked the cake cautiously with the spoon. Sirius's cookings were known to be almost poisonous to a careless eater. "How does this thing work?" he asked. "Do I eat it or will it eat me?"

"Don't worry," Sirius said with a little grin. "Lily stood next to me the whole time, gave instructions, and made sure I followed them perfectly. It should be perfectly safe to eat."

"Lily?" Remus echoed, confused. "When exactly did you make this?"

"Yesterday, when you were at Diagon Alley with James and Peter," Sirius replied, sitting down next to him. "I'd told them to keep you away for a few hours, in case I had to try again."

"Well, did you try again?" Remus asked with a raised eyebrow.

"As a matter of fact..." Sirius gave him a cheeky grin, then said, "I didn't. I did it all right at the first time."

"Really?" the werewolf asked, genuinely surprised. "Congratulations."

"No, congratulations to you," Sirius said, placing a light, loving kiss on the werewolf's cheek. "After all, you've managed to live in this insane world for nineteen whole years. Not to mention most of that in my close proximity," he then added with a mischievous grin. "That alone is a huge achievement."

"Well, that's something I won't deny." Remus poked the cake for the final time, then gave up the struggle against the wonderful smell of chocolate. Under Sirius's very amused eyes, he started to eat the cake. Well, eat and eat. Inhale, rather. His wondrous sense of smell hadn't failed him; it was really delicious.

When he was halfway through finishing the slice of the cake, however, he suddenly bit on something hard. Giving Sirius a suspicious glare and getting a rather sheepish gaze in return, he spat the hard object back into the spoon for closer examination. When he saw what it was, he could do little but stare.

And suddenly, Sirius wasn't sitting on the chair anymore. Instead, he was down on his knees next to Remus's seat. "I love you, Moony," he said, love shining from his eyes. "I love you more than anything, and I... I want to spend the rest of my life with you." Then, after a bit of hesitation, "...Will you marry me?"

At first, Remus just stared at Sirius, then at the ring in his spoon. The beautiful, sparkling golden ring that was only a bit tainted from being hidden inside the chocolate cake.

Then he turned again towards Sirius, and allowed a huge smile to rise onto his face. "Yes, Sirius," he said, his tone so warm and loving that it was rare to even him. "Yes, I will most gladly marry you."