#cathilda calie

[cactusnymph]

Prompt fill #3 for @dimension20alphabet:

Cooking

“Are we really sure that this is necessary?”

 “Don’t be such a baby about it!”

 “I’m not being a baby, I just don’t see how this would ever be relevant to my life—“

 “May I remind you that your dear mother tried to heat up a whole cantaloupe in a pan in an attempt to make it ‘pop’ when I went on a short vacation, Master Fabian?”, Cathilda interrupts Adaine’s and Fabian’s argument.

 Fabian opens his mouth to speak, then shuts it again before crossing his arms over his chest. Cathilda regards him fondly and pats him on the shoulder.

 “Master Fabian, there might as well come a time where you will have no one to take care of your food, so I have to agree with Mistress Adaine. A little bit of independence never hurt anyone”, she says and watches as Adaine smiles triumphantly.

 “And I do not want to risk you or your mother hurting yourself over such a simple thing as a cantaloupe.”

 “Okay, maybe the cantaloupe was a bit of a disaster, but I feel like we can put it aside now”, Fabian says only for Adaine to mouth “A whole cantaloupe. In a pan!” at him. Cathilda pretends that she doesn’t notice and steps closer to the kitchen counter.

 “So, Master Fabian, are you ready for a new challenge?”, she asks with a smile and feels accomplished when she sees Fabian’s eyes spark. He’s still his father’s darling boy and backing down from a challenge was nothing that Bill ever did.

 “Well. I guess. Let’s make some pasta.”

 Adaine has requested to learn how to make pasta with red sauce and meatballs.

 “Why the hell did you even want to learn cooking?”, Fabian asks Adaine while he’s trying very hard not to cry over an onion. Adaine stands next to him, carefully cutting tomatoes while Cathilda takes care of the garlic. Fabian looks like he’s trying to murder the onion, but aside from that he’s not doing a bad job.

 “I talked to the others and all of them knew how to make at least one thing. Even Riz. And he mostly consumes coffee and cereal. Apparently him and Sklonda have this meatloaf they make for Riz’ birthday... Anyway. I thought about how it would be, living on my own. And then I got kind of scared that I’d just burn the whole house down. And it’s always nice to learn new things.”

 She shrugs and looks a little embarrassed so Cathilda points to the heated up pan on the stove for Adaine to put the tomatoes in.

 “Well, I don’t see why I wouldn’t have a maid doing these things for me—“

 “Do you want me to bring up the cantaloupe again?”

 “Oh, come on!”

 “Master Fabian, can you hand me the sugar, please?”

 Fabian blinks in confusion as he turns around to look at her.

 “Sugar?”

 “Yes, Master Fabian.”

 “But it’s meatballs.”

 “That is very right, Master Fabian, but there always needs to be a spoonful of sugar in everything you make with tomatoes.”

 “That sounds... wild.”

 “Well, there is quite a bit of acidity in tomatoes and to balance that out it’s good to put some sugar into it”, Cathilda explains patiently.

 “Oh! It’s basically science!”, Adaine says and sounds excited.

 “God, you’re such a nerd.”

 “You say that like it’s a bad thing, as if you weren’t head over heels for—“

 Fabian almost throws all of his cut onions onto the floor as he lunges himself at Adaine to put his hand over her mouth. Cathilda chuckles as Adaine wrinkles her nose as Fabian’s hand touches her face—most likely because it smells a lot like onions.

 Cathilda pretends, very politely, to not pay any attention to the two of them as she stirs the tomatoes that have started losing a lot of water inside the pan.

 “You don’t know what you’re talking about”, Fabian hisses and Adaine snorts against his palm.

 “It’s quite alright, Master Fabian. I won’t tell anyone”, Cathilda offers kindly and she watches out of the corner of her eye how Fabian’s face turns a bright red as he pulls his hand away from Adaine’s mouth.

 “I have no idea what you two are talking about”, he growls and goes back to hacking the onions. Cathilda gently takes the knife from him.

 “Those look very nicely chopped, Master Fabian. Well done. We can start frying them with the garlic now”, Cathilda says to ease the tension. She watches the two of them form meatballs—Fabian seems to be under the impression that this is some kind of contest, while Adaine nervously tries to make all of them exactly the same size.

 Cathilda feels an immense feeling of pride well up in her chest as she looks as Fabian and Adaine watching over the meatballs slowly browning in the pen, bickering about how to best turn them over to fry them evenly.

 “This might be the first time we’re spending time together without the others”, Adaine says at some point.

 “Old money squad”, Fabian answers with a grin and holds out his fist for Adaine to bump.

 “Maybe we can find any other squad name?”, she asks, her voice full of exasperation, but she still raises her fist for Fabian to bump his against.

 “You say that like coming from old money is a bad thing.”

 “Well, I don’t mean it that way. But I’m not exactly proud of it.”

 “I won’t be calling us the meatball squad, Adaine.”

 “Dad-killer squad?”

 “Oh, that sounds badass. I like it!”

 “Dad-killer squad it is.”

 “Oh, to be young again”, Cathilda sighs amused as she turns down the heat of the stove and starts explaining how to pick the best kind of pasta for the recipe. Adaine starts taking notes, Fabian laughs at her for it. At some point Adaine conjures a magical hand, grabs some of the tomato paste and presses it into Fabian’s face.

 Cathilda decides, since the sauce is still simmering gently and these children deserve to have normal, teenager-appropriate fun, to leave them to it for a while. She listens to the shouting from the living room while folding laundry.

 It’s certainly good to know that the kids are going to be alright.