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“Frosting, please.”
Cassian obediently handed the piping bag to the young seer, watching over her shoulder as she meticulously dragged it around the top of the chocolate cake.
“Right. Now you spread it.”
He lifted the flat baking tool she had handed him earlier, going through the motions as he ran it over each crease and bump until it clung to the cake like a second skin.
Cassian felt the female beside him give him a quick pat on the arm, “You’re a natural!”
He fought the urge to preen at her compliment, instead giving her a satisfied grin, “I am a male of many talents.”
Elain laughed, moving over to the sink to dispose of all their used utensils before coming back to observe their creation.
“Now we frost it.”
He faltered, “Didn’t we just do that?”
She smiled, “That was just the crumb coat. Now we need to actually cover the cake.”
He nodded, twirling his handy spatula like it was one of his knives, “I’m ready.”
After several minutes of meticulous movement and torturous patience, they were finally finished.
Elain gingerly lifted their chocolatey masterpiece, walking the dessert over to the prepared cake stand before gently placing it on top.
“And done!”
Elain threw her hands up with a smile, puffs of flour ascending into the air at the movement. The female cringed as it snowed back down atop her head, dusting her hair in white.
Cassian chuckled as he took note of their appearances.
Dried dough streaked their hair as splashes of flour stained both their clothes, making him glad he had changed out of his leathers before hauling Nesta’s sister into the kitchen and demanding she teach him how to bake.
“For someone so proper and graceful, you are the messiest baker I have ever met.”
Elain smiled, “You’d be surprised. This is actually quite neat for me.”
He grinned, “Then I should count myself lucky.”
He then clapped his hands together, sparing a quick glance at the clock before turning back to their masterpiece and licking his lips.
“Az and Nes shouldn’t be back for an hour, so if we eat quickly we can have this all to ourselves.”
A faint pink dusted the seer’s cheeks, “But shouldn’t we wait for them? I thought the reason you wanted to learn how to bake was so you could impress Nesta.”
Cassian shrugged, ignoring the truth behind her assumption with a lazy smile as he brought the cake over to the already set dinner table.
He grabbed a knife, cutting into the cake and piling two generous helpings of onto two plates before turning around to hand her one.
Cassian watched her hesitate and lightly poked her with the rim, “Come on, Ellie. Live on the edge.”
Her nose scrunched as she tentatively took the plate and moved to sit beside him.
“No one’s called me Ellie before.”
Cassian grinned, “Well now I will. Unless you have something against it.”
The female shook her head with a smile, “I like it.”
He grinned back at her, “Good. Now let’s dig in before it’s too late and we have two hungry fae stealing our hard work from us.”
He saw that same blush go over her cheeks but thought nothing of it as he eagerly dug into his plate.
They ate in comfortable silence, quietly congratulating themselves on the delicious dessert until Elain spoke up.
“What was your first impression of me?”
He paused to think for a moment before answering, “That you were quiet.”
She gave a startled laugh, “Is that all?”
Cassian felt his face heat, “To be frank I was too intrigued by your sister to notice anything else.”
The female furrowed her bow in feigned seriousness, “Feyre can be very captivating.”
He chuckled, “And now I know you are not quiet at all. At least not with those you are close to.”
“Are we close?”
Cassian grinned, “Anyone who helps me make cake this good is held in my highest regard.” He shoved another large spoonful into his mouth to prove his point.
He laughed as she gave a small grimace at his poor table manners.
“What did you first think of me?”
Elain immediately turned her face down to her cake, prodding and poking it as her cheeks reddened.
“What? What is it?”
She remained scrutinizing her slice, her fork jabbing into it in a way he’d seen Nesta do on multiple occasions when she was trying to build the courage to say something.
And just like with Nesta, he waited until the seer was ready to speak.
“You can’t laugh.”
He straightened, “I won’t.”
She bit her lip before she mumbled, “I was scared of you when we first met.”
Cassian smirked into his cake, “Not to be insensitive, but you weren’t exactly subtle about that.”
The seer’s blush grew deeper at the reference to that Cauldron-awful dinner. “No. I mean up until these last few months. You terrified me.”
He gawked at her, “Even after the war?”
She nodded, a sheepish smile on her face. “To be honest you were all terrifying, but you were just so… big. It made you that much more capable to throw me off the nearest cliff if I annoyed you in any way.”
Cassian couldn’t help it, he burst out laughing. He could hear the sound booming throughout the cabin as he tried to sober himself enough to respond.
“What about Azriel? Other than that horribly awkward dinner you never really seemed afraid of him.”
Elain was quiet, picking away at her cake before whispering, “I could never be afraid of Azriel.”
Her voice was soft, gentle. As if what she spoke were the purest secret in the world.
“Not even with the shadows?”
The female grinned at that, “No, I quite like them. They’re cute.”
Cassian felt his heart soften at her words. He knew how his brother viewed himself, for this female to not only look past those shadows but embrace them brought him so much joy.
He had seen the glances they gave each other when the other wasn’t looking. Or the way they both seemed to light up when the other entered the room.
If Azriel ever found a female like Elain he’d tell his brother to marry the girl right then and there.
Cassian smiled, adjusting his plate before looking back up.
“Well then, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way I must teach you the most important lesson of cabin etiquette.”
She eyed him curiously, “Which is?”
“Eating with our hands in ridiculously large bites.”
Cassian swiftly picked up what remained of his slice and shoved it all into his mouth, making sure to chew loudly before swallowing.
He looked up to see Elain frozen, eyes wide as she gave him an almost horrified look.
“I- I am not- it’s not-”
Cassian grinned, “You said yourself it is proper to adapt to the customs of your hosts. Well in this house we eat food in disgustingly large bites.”
The female fidgeted in her seat, clearly scrutinizing what he just said.
“I doubt Nesta eats like that.”
He shrugged, grabbing his napkin and wiping the frosting from his mouth and hands, “Not yet. Though you have to admit, she ate last night’s turkey like she thought it’d run off her plate if she so much as stopped to take a breath.”
Elain gave a soft huff, “She had just returned from sword training. Besides, it’s not as if you ate it any better.”
He chuckled fondly at the female’s protectiveness over her sister, “I assure you I meant no offense with what I said. Quite frankly I’ve never been more impressed.”
“Yes... impressed,” she echoed, studying his face.
Not liking the inquisitive look in her eyes, Cassian quickly returned to the matter at hand.
He gave her a grin, “Are you going to succumb to my peer pressure or not? I have a reputation to uphold as the improper one around here. Though I doubt you’ve ever done an improper thing in your life.”
She shot him a very un-Elain-like look, “I can be improper.”
Cassian rose a brow before gesturing to her mostly uneaten slice, “Then by all means.”
Elain looked at her slice with a glare of determination, before timidly grabbing the cake and shoving the entire thing into her mouth.
Cassian howled in glee, his eyes starting to water like the seer’s as she tried to finish chewing without gagging.
She let out a muffled noise he assumed was, ‘see?’, though he couldn’t be sure with her mouth so full that her cheeks puffed-out like a chipmunk’s.
It was in that moment that Azriel and Nesta chose to materialize beside him.
Cassian watched his brother go stiff, his eyes slightly widening as he caught sight of Elain.
She took one look at the shadowsinger and suddenly broke into a coughing fit, hastily grabbing a napkin before the masticated cake could spew across the table.
Cassian thinks she actually might have snorted up some frosting on accident.
Nesta walked over to her sister, slapping her on the back until her coughing finally stopped.
Elain hastily wiped her mouth before looking up and giving the steel-eyed female a weak smile, eyes still watering.
Nesta smiled back, “That must be a shit cake.”
He looked over at her, smirking, “On the contrary it’s actually quite delicious. Ellie here just took a bit more than she could swallow.”
Nesta rose a brow at the new nickname but didn’t mention it, “Well in that case I hope you two are planning to share with us.”
She motioned to Azriel, who had remained unmoving since he arrived, his face unreadable.
The shadowsinger’s lip quirked, “I would love to see the day when Cassian willingly shares his food.”
Cassian ignored his brother’s comment and sighed before turning to look at a very red-faced Elain, “You see Ellie? I told you we needed to eat it fast before these two tried to steal it from us.”
Elain gave him a chastising look before clearing her throat and turning back to the two fae, “Of course we can share. Take a seat. How was the training?”
Nesta sighed and moved to the chair closest to Cassian, a movement he didn’t miss. Azriel followed, settling beside Elain who gave a small smile before cutting out four new slices of the chocolate cake.
“I’m still holding myself back from releasing my powers to their full extent.” Nesta said, accepting her plate with a smile, “But I was able to conjure a flame by the end of today without wanting to set the entire forest of fire.”
Cassian snickered, “That’s an improvement.”
Nesta glared at him, “At least I have the power to set fire to something. What powers do you have again?”
He gave her a smug grin, leaning back and placing his hands behind his head, “The unbridled killing power of a mighty warrior.”
“That counts for nothing.”
“It counted for something when I beat your ass in training yesterday.”
“You did not beat me.”
“Then why were you the one on the ground while I had you pinned? A position I quite enjoyed, might I add.”
The female growled, placing her hands on the table, “Listen here, bat. You’re over half a millennium. I’m twenty-four and started training this year.”
He tutted, “Now now Nes, let’s not start making excuses when we know we lost fair and square. It’s bad sportsmanship.”
Just when Nesta looked as if she were about to throw her piece of cake in Cassian’s face, Azriel cleared his throat, “Maybe we should save the rest of the cake for after dinner.”
Elain nodded eagerly beside him, “Yes, I’ll bring it back into the kitchen. Azriel, could you help me?”
Cassian watched as Nesta froze, eyeing his brother as he gave the seer a gentle smile and picked up the cake stand in one arm while offering her the other.
Nesta’s gaze followed the pair made their way into the other room, Azriel’s shadows skittering around their feet like excited pups.
Cassian gave a dramatic sigh once they were gone, “Why can’t we be more like them? I bet she never calls him ‘bat’.”
Nesta gave him an incredulous look.
He blinked at her, “What?”
She laughed, “You really are a brute.”