To Love, Once Again

Chapter 96

"Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl, baby." Remembering how her own mother would tell her to mix when they baked sweets together, Sera covered Leo's arms with her own. Together, they mixed the egg yolks into a smooth consistency, while the young boy in her arms giggled the entire time.

"Leo!" Leo looks up at her when she calls his name in exasperation, giving her a wide toothy grin. "You'll hurt your stomach if you taste it like this. It doesn't even taste good, so don't try it, ok?" Why this boy was trying to taste egg yolk, she didn't know.

The small boy giggled, full of joy because of the small game of push and pull happening between the two of them. Leo pulled against his mother's grasp, trying to lick the spoon while Sera pushed away, trying to mix at the same time. His stubbornness forced Sera to firmly grasp him around the chest so that he wouldn't lunge forward and tip the contents of the bowl all over themselves. This too, became more difficult, as the more she kept him from licking the spoon, the harder he struggled to have a taste.

Sera knew that feeling. The more something was kept from you, the more badly you wanted it.

"Why don't you let him have a taste if he wants it that badly?" Lucien's warm tone interrupts the small friendly struggle between the two. He had a slight smile on his face as he looked at them over the rims of his glasses.

Oh. He'd been watching them. Probably for a while too, now that she thought about it. The sound of paper rustling had been absent for a while after they began their cooking. Sera blushes, feeling embarrassed that he'd seen their little back and forth.

"Fwather says yes! Pwease?" Leo adds on, standing up on his tip toes to bring his round face closer to hers.

But she still shook her head. "Leo might get sick if he eats it."

"Not even a small amount?" Lucien asks, confused. "At worst, his stomach will hurt for the night." Shrugging, he goes back to scribbling into the page before him.

Considering Lucien's words, Sera pauses, holding the wooden spoon up in the air. Not missing the chance, the boy hops off the stool and uses his momentum to lick the spoon.

"Leo! No!"

"Blech!" He grimaces, pulling at his tongue with his pudgy fingers.

"See, I told you it wouldn't taste good." As she admonishes Leo with one hand on her hip, the other waving towards the small boy with her spoon, Sera quickly hands Leo the towel on her hip.

"And you! I don't need you to be giving him any ideas either!" Sera whirls her spoon towards Lucien, ignoring the small bit of egg yolk that flies onto his shirt.

"As you wish" Lucien acquiesces, not reacting when the egg yolk slowly leaves a yellow streak on his white shirt. The slight smile doesn't disappear under the force of Sera's annoyance. He turns his head to hide his smile when Sera rolls her eyes at him.

A small tendril of hair tickles her forehead when Sera shakes her head at the two. Still at the first step of the recipe, and it was a lot harder than she'd ever imagined. How did her mother do it? And in a kitchen much smaller than this one-

Taking a deep breath, she looks around the kitchen.

The cottage kitchen was beautifully well-equipped. A large window in front of the sink filled the kitchen with a soft light, while long tendrils of herbs grew on the windowsill. The stovetop appeared clean with signs of little use, though there was a generous array of of dried herbs and salts, shining copper pots and pans hanging on the wall above them.

The pots..For the next step, she would use the stove, and she didn't want Leo near the stove. Maybe when he was a little older, but not now.

Which was where plan B came in.