Work Text:
Smoke and Chocolate
Varian stirred. Something was disturbing him, worming its way into his mind. Flames flashed and he opened his eyes, his chest aching as he looked around panicked. The bed next to him was empty. Where was she? He jumped up, smelling the smoke in the air now, he couldn’t see it, he couldn’t see the flames, but they were in his mind and he knew he had to find Cassandra. He had to make sure she got out to safety. He bolted out the door and down the stairs of his cottage. The kitchen door was open, and he could see the light twirls of smoke coming through the door.
“Cass! Cass!” He shouted.
She appeared in the doorway of the kitchen looking startled and confused.
“Varian.” She said rushing towards him. “What is it?”
He caught her up in his arms holding her tight. For a moment burying his face in the crook of her neck.
“What is it?” She asked.
Varian took a couple of deep breaths to calm himself.
“I smelled smoke, I thought there was a fire.”
“Oh.” Cassandra pulled away and looked down with a slightly apprehensive look.
“Cassandra? What happened?”
“I uh… I got up early to bake a cake for Rapunzel, but I burnt it.”
Varian let out a deep relieved sigh. “You burnt a cake?”
“Yes.”
“Oh thank.. I thought it was something more serious than that.”
He looked past Cassandra into the smoke-filled kitchen, it was a mess, flour all over the table, a broken egg on the floor, and laid out on the sideboard was a round black thing that he guessed was supposed to be a cake.
“Maybe we can salvage it.” Varian said. “Icing works miracles.”
He placed a small kiss, just above her eyebrow, trying to tell her that everything was alright.
“You get the upstairs windows open; I’ll start cleaning down here.” Varian said.
Cassandra gave a silent nod and headed up the stairs as Varian opened the door, taking a deep beath to clear his lungs of the remaining smoke. His hands were still shaking. He really hated fire, though at times it was an occupational hazard. He reminded himself that everything was fine as he went to the kitchen and bent to start cleaning the floor.
“I’m sorry Varian.” He looked up to see Cassandra watching him. “I just wanted to do something nice for the start of advent, you know how much Rapunzel loves the Christmas season.”
Varian finished cleaning and went to wash his hands.
“I’ll help you.”
“You will?”
“Of course I will.” Varian said. “Now, let’s take a look at this cake.”
Cassandra came and stood next to him as he took a knife and sliced into the cake.
“See, it maybe all black on the outside but on the inside it’s…. green?”
He shot Cassandra a puzzled look.
“Why is it green? What did you put in it?”
“Mint.”
“Mint?”
“To flavour it.”
“A mint flavoured cake?”
“Huhh.” Cassandra huffed throwing her arms in the air in frustration. “I told you I’m not good at this.”
“Hey.” He said, tilting her chin upwards so she’d look him in the eyes. “We’ll just start over.”
“We should just go to the bakery and buy one.”
“Nope, you wanted to make a cake for your friend, so we will make a cake.” Varian said placing a quick kiss on her lips before turning to get ingredients from the cupboard. “Watch me carefully. We’ll use cups to measure the ingredients so you don’t have to worry about weighing things. “
“Cups?”
“Yep, here, measuring cups.” Varian said handing them over. “We will do the one, two, three, four method.”
“Counting… we count the time? Four minutes? I baked that for an hour and a half.”
“That’s why it’s burnt.”
“But I had to cook it for that long because it’s was still liquid in the middle.”
“That’s…” Varian closed his eyes and waved his hand around. “Never mind that. Just remember, one cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, 4 eggs.”
“I thought you needed baking powder?”
“You do. One tablespoon.”
“Oh, I added quite a bit more than that, it bubbled.” Cassandra said.
Varian tried not to grit his teeth. He loved Cassie, he really did, and he accepted all her faults, it was just early in the morning and he’d woken up suddenly.
“Okay, so um.. you also want a cup of milk, and flavouring.”
“I used all up all the mint in that one.”
“Perhaps not mint.”
“Rapunzel does like mint. She made this drink with it at her birthday party.”
“Mint has it’s places in the culinary world, in cakes is not one of them. You know what else Rapunzel likes?”
“What?”
“Chocolate.”
“We’re making a chocolate cake?”
“Yes, we are.” Varian said, as he spoke he broke the chocolate into a glass bowl. “I’ll melt the chocolate, you start mixing up the ingredients, like I told you one, two, three, four.”
Varian listened to Cassandra muttering the recipe to herself as she worked behind him. He stirred the chocolate; the liquid was smooth and without lumps now.
“Done.” Cassandra said happily. Varian felt a hand on his waist and Cassandra’s chin came to rest on his shoulder.
“Melting the chocolate makes it mix more easily…HEY!” Varian shouted as he watched a finger dip into his lovely, melted chocolate. He turned to see Cassandra pause as she put her finger to her lips.
“What?” She asked.
“That’s unhygienic.”
“Don’t you want a taste?” Cassandra said with a smirk.
Varian was about to tell her that he expected her to take their cooking lessons seriously, when Cassandra swiped her chocolate covered finger over Varian’s lip. His eyes widened startled.
“No.” He said after he shook the shock off. He put his hand on his hips and scowled at her. “I don’t want to taste.”
He had missed the mischievous look in Cassandra’s eyes, so it came as a surprise when she leaned in and kissed him, nibbling lightly at where the chocolate stained his bottom lip. The sweet taste of it mixing between them. She pulled away smiling at him.
“What about this?” Cassandra asked. Varian watched as her fingers came and touch her lips. “Don’t you want to taste?”
***
“Hey Cass!” Rapunzel ran over and wrapped her arms around her friend’s neck. Cass ducked slightly, trying to keep the package tucked under her arm from being squashed, whilst Varian and Eugene greeted each other nearby.
“Hi Raps, careful.” She warned.
“Oh?” Rapunzel said looking at the box under Cassandra’s arms as if she had just seen it for the first time. “What’s that?”
Cassandra held it out awkwardly. “It’s a cake, from the bakery. I tried to make you one but… I burnt it.”
Rapunzel took the proffered box off her.
“Oh that’s okay. It’s the thought that counts. Hmm… is that chocolate I smell?”
“You know.” Eugene said coming up behind them. “If you want help baking a cake, Varian here is one of the best bakers I know.”
Luckily nobody noticed Varian’s cheeks grow red as he followed them into the hall for lunch.