Valentine's Day WINNING SHIP: MCHANZO

“Spoon.”

“Jesse McCree, love of my life, if you do not get your hand out of that bowl I'm going to shove the spoon down your throat.” Hanzo would not be swayed by puppy eyes or the warble of Jesse's lip. “I am working very, very hard on these and you are distracting me.”

“I can't help it. Whole house smells like chocolate.”

“Well then go somewhere outside while I finish.” Hanzo couldn't resist a little smile as he looked over his shoulder at the man. “I suppose you've gotten my present already taken care of.”

The sudden realization and subsequent guilt swam over his face.

“Err...yeah sure! Sure it is! Had it wrapped up ages ago!”   
 
“I see. Would you like to take a moment to ensure it is entirely wrapped up?” But Jesse had vanished before he could finish his sentence. Hanzo could hear the car screech in the driveway and laughed as he stirred in the hot heavy cream to the chopped dark chocolate. Jesse had a thing about dark chocolate, and Hanzo knew he was a sucker all over for sweats. So what would be better than a triple dark chocolate cake? 

Hanzo himself had no experience in baking, but it really wasn't that hard to bake a cake. A little internet searching told him to add milk instead of water and an extra egg white for fluffiness. A few youtube videos and he got down the basics of crumb coating and chilling the layers. Fondant...well thankfully Jesse didn't like fondant. But some nutella mixed with more hot cream would drip nicely over the whole thing and give it a nice thick layer of rich hazelnut and chocolate. If all else failed, chocolate covered a multitude of sins.   
 
Valentine's day was soemthing he'd celebrated as a child. His mother had given them little home made cook hearts dipped in chocolate. He and Genji had gotten all messy and their father had laughed, delighted by the little brown hand prints all over the house. It was one of many happy memories he'd long though buried in his mind after all that had happened.
 
It was funny how memories worked. For such a long time, Hanzo ahd seen himself as alone in the world. After the sordid business with Genji, he had withdrawn from his family, his home and become a singular entity. A mercenary for hire to whoever had the biggest checkbook. His mind had been consumed with anger as he tried to justify his actions, convincing himself that it had to happen. That he'd had to do this. All the memories were dark ones, filled with all the times he and Genji had come to blows, the death of their father, their mother's murder, all the spiraling tragedies which had given him this sense of terrible duty.
 
And then Jesse happened. Jesse, who took things one day at a time. Who reminded him of how many good things there were in life to be had. Slowly, ever so slowly, the good memories began to creep back into his life, allowing him to think of the times when they had been just a family. He found himself remembering the time their father took them to the park and a goose had chased him into a tree. Genji had been the braver one and swung a stick, fighting it off until their mother came to rescue them. The whole thing had resulted in McDonald's for dinner and by bedtime they'd forgotten about the fierce battle.
 
So many wonderful things he had let drift away. But Jesse had helped him remember that life could be good. That there were more memories to make, still time to be had.
 
He wanted to show Jesse how much he appreciated this, how good it felt to have the strange cowboy in his life. He popped the cake into the over and began mixing the frosting. It was funny. Jesse was probably loosing his mind trying to find some amazing gift. It didn't matter. Well it mattered. Hanzo loved flowers personally. But no amount of floral decoration and chocolate would ever be worth more than the home Jesse had given him.   
 
He was better at cooking than at baking. A nice baked ziti would be perfect. Some home made garlic bread and a lovely plum sake would set things off right. Followed up with a lovely three layer cake and ice cream? Finish with some coffee, a movie and then...

Hanzo grinned wickedly. Then he would have to give Jesse his real gift. 

Jesse came back about four hours later, holding as expected a large bouquet of roses and an armload of different chocolate candied. Hanzo took them from him graciously, smiling at him through the flower petals with a keen sense of how bad Jesse was with these things. “They are beautiful. Set them on the table and get the flatware out. I'd like to finish soon.”

“Sure thing darlin.” Jesse kissed his cheek and grabbed his hims, settling into the softness of his neck and sighing. “You look beautiful.”

“I am covered in cake flour.” 

“Still look beautiful. Maybe even more so.” He found a smudge of chocolate and put his mouth to work sucking it off Hanzo's shoulder, much to the man's delight. “So, you made me a cake?”

“I made us a cake.” 

“Do I get to eat the cake off your ass?”

“If you wish. But you must promise to finish eating my ass when you are done.” Hanzo reached back and wrapped his hands through Jesse's hair, sighing at the soft touch. “Jesse...”