The Deck of Destiny - A Caraval Oneshot Collection

nothing tastes as sweet as you

a request for Scar and Julian baking <3

     Scarlett almost kicked herself the moment her eyes fluttered open. She despised waking up in the middle of the night, but it was becoming a common occurrence now that she was pregnant. Of course, the little angel inside of her liked to play devil from time to time, and kick her in the middle of the night.

The first thing she noticed as her sleepy eyes scanned her surroundings was that Julian was not lying beside her. Scarlett bet her husband was roaming around somewhere in the palace, most likely because he couldn't sleep.

The second thing she noticed was that she was incredibly hungry.

"I swear you eat twice as much as your father does," Scarlett grumbled to her unborn child, whether it could hear her or not.

She pulled on a lace robe around her black slip, and while it was a little revealing, the only people who would see her were the unfortunate maids that got stuck with night duty. But Scarlett felt a little adventurous, and much preferred to do it on her own.

Scarlett was going to bake.

So she walked through the halls of her palace until she reached the kitchen, and a figure was standing in the fridge. Scarlett immediately knew the shape of his body, the fall of his bed hair, and even just the stance of him; confident and cocky even in the late hours of the night.

"What on Earth are you doing, Julian?"

Julian turned around, grinning at Scarlett like an idiot. "I was hungry."

Except he was holding a bowl of whip cream with a spoon in it, and was shoving more of it into his mouth.

"Saints above," Scarlett murmured, walking over to him and ripping the bowl from his grasp.

"Hey!" Julian whined, arms wrapping around her instead from behind and he set his head into the crook of her neck.

His hands wandered down to her stomach and rubbed. "Your baby bump is growing larger by the day."

Scarlett couldn't stop the enormous grin on her face. It was now visible after her eighteenth week of being pregnant, and Julian rubbed her stomach as much as possible.

"Well, we're both hungry-" Scarlett gestured to her stomach "-and if you're hungry too, my love, then we'll make cookies." Scarlett became aware of how little she was wearing now in his presence, but they were married. He had seen her in much less.

In nothing at all.

"Does that mean my lovely wife is going to give me baking lessons?"

"Mm," Scarlett responded sleepily, gently removing Julian's arms from her body and making her way towards the fridge.

She gathered everything she needed, and then began searching the cupboards for the dry ingredients.

"Can I do something?" Julian asked, clearly more awake than she was, and antsy to help.

"Turn the oven to 350, please."

Scarlett went ahead and laid out the ingredients on the counter while she waited for Julian to finish his task. When he did, Scarlett clapped her hands.

"Do you know how to crack an egg?"

Julian grinned at her. "Of course I do. You just smash it against the counter."

"I mean cleanly."

"Then, no, I don't."

"Watch." Scarlett picked up an egg, gently tapped it a few times against the counter, before both thumbs pressed into the egg shell and separated it apart, dropping the egg into the bowl. "Now you try."