(no subject)
Author: ketsuekinotsuki
Challenge prompts: Blueberry Yogurt 8 [an inconvenience]; Marshmallow 13 [a good deed]; Wildberry 24 [rebellion/mutiny]
Rating: G
Word Count: 716
Story: The Witchcraft Season (working title)
A/N: I don't know what's going on with the cut. ;-; I don't know how to fix it! (But at least I remembered to put the tags in this time, right? Right?)
Frowning, Lily stared at the slab of ham. Flipped it over. Stared.
"Is there something wrong with it?" Alexei asked nervously, wringing his hands. He had thought he'd cooked it perfectly, but the look on her face...he was only trying to do her a favor. She had seemed so tired. "I made it exactly as the book said to make it."
Shaking herself out of her stupor, she smiled at him. "I'm sorry Alexei; it's wonderful. Perfect. Thank you." She shooed him into the living room before turning her attention to the meat; holding one hand over it, she released a slow, steady wave of heat, cooking the steak all the way through. Wearily, she put it on a tray with the dish of cinnamon glaze and a glass of cheap apple cider, then clunked up the stairs to her room.
She knew Alexei had meant well, she really did, and it was touching. Really. But she liked cooking, and he had taken that away from her. So it was with irritation that she devoured the food, taking a second to make note of his good - if not exactly thorough - job of cooking the ham.
Sam came in when the ham was almost gone, her eyebrows shooting up when she saw her sister's ferocious intensity. "You really look like you want to kill that steak."
"Ham."
"Whatever."
"It's food. I'm eating it."
Sam grinned. "I see that."
"Alexei made it," Lily growled, throwing her fork down.
"The way you were eating it, he must be a really good cook."
"No."
"No?"
Lily ground her teeth together, frustrated. "No, it tastes fine, but I -"
"Wanted to cook it yourself," Sam finished for her.
"Well, yeah!"
Desperately, Sam tried to stifle her grin. It didn't work. She said, "Then I don't suppose you'll be happy to hear that James and Gabriel have taken his ways to heart, and are at this very minute in the kitchen, fixing up 'a little something' for you," and bounced out of the room, laughing like a maniac.
Fuming, Lily shoved aside the remains of her dinner. One good deed was enough for today! She appeared in the kitchen, eyes blazing, ready for a fight. She took a second to take in the mess - flour everywhere, a smoking pan on the stove, the temperature much too high, and somehow...somehow...they had gotten raw egg on her hanging pan rack - before advancing on them, bellowing, "Get out of my kitchen!"
Seeing the look on her face, the two f them scampered into the living room and cowered there - one with good reason to fear her, the other on slightly steadier ground.
At least, that's what he thought until his wife stormed into the room, still furious. "Lils-"
"Don't you dare," she hissed. "You have no right!"
"But we were just-"
"I. Don't. Want. To. Hear. It."
"But Alexei-"
"Is setting a bad example!" she shouted. She turned to Gabriel. "Go to your room."
His face fell - how old did she think he was? "But I'm-"
Her eyes narrowed ominously. "Go. Now." She watched as he practically flew up the stairs in his haste to get to safety. Then she turned her attention back to James, and he could see a sparkle of amusement in her eyes as she growled, "You know better."
James' answering grin was dazzling. "I couldn't help but try," he said innocently. "After all, Alexei got away with it."
"Alexei doesn't know all the rules yet," she protested. "I'm giving him some leeway."
"None of us got leeway," James remarked, suspicious. It didn't help that she laughed and flounced out of the room, no doubt to tell Sam everything that had just happened.
* * *
"Do you even know all the rules?" Sam asked, stifling a yawn.
"It's not possible." Lily shrugged, smiling wickedly. "Since I make them up as I go."
Sam sighed and rolled her eyes. "You're so..." She paused, at a loss for words.
"Completely amazing?" Lily suggested, waggling her eyebrows at her friend.
"Stupid," Sam said dryly, laughing at the dismayed expression on Lily's face.
Lily rolled onto her back and threw her hands up in an I-give-up gesture. "Everyone's against me," she groaned. "A mutiny in my own house!"