Hide Me From Winter's Approaching Hands
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To Raven; I can write fluff and this proves it!
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Grian had always been unsure how he felt about the colder months, like, on one hand, he gets to cuddle up with warm blankets and Scar, who is like a walking heater, but on the other, the cold constantly has his wings fluffed up to preserve warmth and he has to watch Scar be sorer than usual as the cold settles into his bones.
So yeah, he wasn’t the most thrilled being on the server when the warmer Autumn days start having a chill that bit when the wind decided to appear. And today was one of the coldest so far, Grian found himself curled on the coach of Scar’s wagon with a lovely cup of peach tea reading. And while he would love to enjoy reading the book it seemed his attention was being dragged away every few seconds due to Scar trying to work in the kitchen, causing pots and pans to clang together.
“Scar, just what are you doing?” Grian finds himself asking the man whose in his wheelchair today due to the icy air, he takes a sip of his tea, looking at his mug. He really has to find where Scar gets this brand, especially since Scar doesn’t drink tea himself.
Scar perks up from where he’s rummaging in a cupboard at the hearings of his name being mentioned. Or, he tries to. As he goes to lift his head, Scar lightly knocks the back of his head against the roof of the cupboard he’s looking in causing him to wince and hiss slightly. The vex wheels his chair back an inch and sits up straight, giving the pretty bird sitting on his couch a charming smile.
“I wanted to bake, and I seem to have misplaced my cupcake tray.” The scarred man answers with cheerfully, peaking the avian’s attention very quickly.
It’s no secret that while Scar isn’t the best cook, he’s an excellent baker. The Hermits loved when Scar baked enough to hand out and share some with them. Grian had tried on occasions try to replicate what Scar bakes, but he is absolutely abysmal when it comes to baking, but is a decent cook if he has anything to say about it.
“Can I help?” Grian asks, knowing that probably means the kitchen will end in a mess as it did the last time he help with baking. He quickly finishes the last of his tea and brings it up into the kitchen.
Scar pauses and considers, while he does love his kitchen being, mostly, clean, he knows how much fun the last time they baked was between the flour battle and each of them trying to eat the batter without the other looking. The scarred man shrugs before giving his answer, a softer smile settling on his lips. “Sure, I Don’t see why not.”
Returning the smile, Grian rinses his mug and settles it down next to the sink before turning and clapping his hands together. “What do we need?” He enquires looking over the ingredients already gathered atop the counter.
“Can you preheat the oven while I look for the cupcake tray?” Scar asks as goes back to searching in the cupboard for the last item needed.
The avian nods, despite knowing Scar can’t see him do so, and walks across the kitchen toward the oven. Grian luckily remembers what number Scar had asked him to preheat the oven to last time and set it to that once more, checking to make sure the oven was actually on before shutting the door and turning back to where the vex is, just as he finds the cupcake tray.
“Aha!” Scar rejoices victoriously, going to sit up straight with the tray in hand but once again, he hits his head on the top on the cupboard. “Ouch..” He hisses out before carefully sitting up and looking towards Grian, who seems to be torn between concern, and stopping the small chuckles threatening to escape his vocal cords.
“You okay?” Grian asks amusement and worry clear in his tone, though Scar easily washes the concern and worry away with a reassuring smile before he wheeled himself closer to where the ingredients are on the counter. “I’m just fine, Songbird, don’t you worry your pretty feathers about it.” Scar’s tone is a mix of reassurance and teasing, causing Grian to roll his eyes fondly.
Scar set the tray down and passes one bowl to Grian and setting one before himself. “Would you be a dear and mix together the dry ingredients?” He asks, looking up at the sandy blonde, who nods in return while the brunette hands the list of the measurements for Grian to follow.
Grian took this task with the utmost responsibility, sticking his tongue out slightly as he tried to measure the sugar up exactly to what was written down, huffing out through his nose in frustration when he didn’t get exact on the first pour. Scar watched this fondly before mixing together the wet ingredients together.
It didn’t take long for the pair to finish mixing their individual bowls and Scar took over explaining once more.
“Okay, I’m going to slowly pour my bowl into yours while you mix, okay?” Scar asks, lifting his bowl carefully, waiting for Grian's nod before he pours the first bit into the dry ingredients.
From there they repeat until the dry and wet bowls are one and Grian works on making sure it's thoroughly mixed together with no clumps Scar focuses his attention on putting the red cupcake cups into the trays. Once the avian was convinced the batter is perfect to be poured into the cups he hands the bowl to the vex who does just that.
Scar moves to open the oven and put the trays in, making sure the oven is at the right temperature and setting a timer. With his back to Grian, he doesn’t see the smile that spread across Grian's face as he held a pinch of flour. He only realized a moment too late, when he moves his chair to turn around and he felt powder hit the side of his face and white momentarily obscures his vision.
Slowly, Scar turns his head to Grian, who freezes with one hand in the flour bag as he watches a smile with too many teeth spread across Scar’s features. Any normal or sane person would think the smile meant something bad, something dangerous. But this is Hermitcraft, and Grian knew his Scar wouldn’t ever intentionally hurt him, so all that smile meant to him was to not let the vex get ahold of the bag of flour.
Grian lets out a shout of laughter before pulling his hand out of the bag and throwing the small handful of flour at Scar, hitting him in the chest.
“Pfft-” Scar makes a noise as some of the flour gets into his mouth and he looks down, seeing his blue tee having a white splash on it. He looks back up with that smile once more, his narrowly playfully. “Oh, you're so going to regret that Birdy.” His tone is light as he declares this, moving forward and quickly grabbing the bag before a handful of flour is launched at the pesky bird.
Flour is already spread across the floor and counter, the sounds of Grian’s screeching laughter and Scar’s vex-like giggle fill the cold Autumn, cupcakes rising slowly in the oven.
Grian may not know how to feel about the colder months, but he sure can enjoy moments like these if that’s what the cold brings.
