Work Text:
When Yuta passes a familiar blur of dark hair and purple hoodie as he walks his bike toward the shop, he doesn't really think anything of it - Shinobu runs all over - but when he parks his bike and picks up the cooler he uses to carry cheesecakes, the door swings open for him because Sora is sitting on the counter with his wand in hand. "Welcome back," Sora says, smiling, and then Hinata peeks up over the cupcake display.
"Is that Shinobu?" He asks, holding up an order receipt over the counter, and then his expression goes blank enough Yuta's eyes narrow.
"What did you do to Shinobu," he asks, as Hinata disappears from view again. Sora, fiddling his wand between his fingers, glances between them, and then pushes off the counter with a little 'oof' noise.
"I'm gonna... go check on the oven," he declares, awkwardly, and Yuta watches him disappear into the kitchen.
"Don't open it," Hinata calls after him, and then he smiles weakly at Yuta. "You're back early!"
"Didn't have to hunt down that Hibiki person, their wife was home," he reports, "now what did you to Shinobu?"
Hinata hums in a noncommittal kind of way, which is never a good sign, and settles down at his chair. He picks up his frosting bag to get back to the custom order Yuta's pretty sure he's been working on for like three days, Yuta's had to go out for more raspberry jam like six times, and starts to frost one with frosting so bright it's eye-searing. "I didn't do anything, he came in here with an order for his mom," he says, which is believable except for his carefully innocent expression. Yuta stares at him, expectant, and he ignores it to go back to piping his lurid pink rose, or - whatever it is. Yuta just delivers the cupcakes.
"Hinata," he complains, setting the cooler down on the counter and his elbows next to it. "What did you say to him?"
"Hi, Shinobu, welcome to Tricks and Treats Cupcake Shop," Hinata reports, cheery.
"Hinata!"
Hinata is still laughing at his own stupid joke, that jerk, so Yuta knows it's time to drag out the sure-fire big gun. "Big brother," he grits out, trying for sweet and hopefully not sounding constipated, "what did you say to Shinobu about me."
"Nothing!" Hinata chirps, and Yuta's desire to make him eat his frosting bag must show on his face, because Hinata relents. "I might have said something about my birthday being next week, though..."
"You're--we have the same--Hinata," Yuta sputters, one objection atop another, and then groans his way into sinking his face into his hands. "What'd he say," he asks.
"Nothing, he kind of squeaked and turned red before he ran off without a receipt," Hinata reports, and the sound of his chair creaking draws Yuta's face out of his hands. He looks up, opening one eye to peer at where Hinata had been, only to come face to face with Hinata looming over him, offering a muffin. "Take it, c'mon, it's not sweet or anything."
Suspiciously, Yuta takes the thing, unwrapping it with careful pulls. Maybe he should just leave it on the counter and try his luck at finding Shinobu up a tree, instead, but maybe - maybe - Hinata did him a favor, warning Shinobu ahead of Yuta teasingly dropping it when they met up for dinner this weekend. He can be a good little brother, just for now.
And, anyway, Hinata's shoved a muffin up his nose before, and he'll do it again. Might as well eat it before that happens. Taking that chance, he holds it up to his face to sniff, and raises his eyebrows at the familiar smell of jalapeño. "What is this?"
"A surprise!"
Ugh. "Bon appetit," Yuta drawls. He's had to eat too many muffins with super sugary frosting as filling ("I'm trying out a cupcake with the frosting on the inside!" his ass) to dig in right away, though, and pokes at the little hole that tells him there's something on the inside, but Hinata's been careful not to overfill, so no go on a preview. Drawing in air, he stares down the damn thing, and then takes a careful first bite.
His eyes water a little from just that, which is how they both know Hinata's hit a home run. Jalapeño's the least of the spice - the filling's such a bright red Yuta knows he must have gotten help from Sora, and absently he wonders how to shake his brother down for a whole bag of it. "Can you even eat these without dying?" he asks, when he's done, and feels a grin on his face.
Hinata's expression stretches to match his, and he strikes a pose. "Don't underestimate your big brother," he says, "I made it all the way through two of them, 's how I knew it needed the filling."
"He cut them in half and asked me to help," Sora reports, sticking his head through the curtain from the bakery. "They were way too spicy!" He wrinkles his nose. "We had to drink a lot of milk when we were done."
Yuta laughs at his brother's pained expression, and takes another merry bite of muffin.