A wry grin curved Leona’s lips, her own baking misadventures still coating the countertop of her apartment. Try as she might, she never could follow the instructions exactly — and baking was not an improv game. “No mistakes,” she started, putting on her best teaching voice, nodding assuredly. “Only lessons.” Her feigned sage demeanor fell away as she watched the cookie sail up, up… and to the ground. She held up a hand, ready to tell — beg — August to not do the thing he was already in the middle of doing. Because it was too late, she watched, bemusement dancing across her features.
She had expected his horror to be from whatever had made its way from the floor to the cookie, but instead, she got a different answer. Their baking skills seemed to be on par. She let out a gentle laugh, looped one arm around August’s waist in a half hug before bravely reaching for a cookie, raising it in a small sort of toast, and taking a small bite. She kept a good poker face, nodding confidently. “I have had much worse salt cookies.” She said, smile lingering. “Once you swap out salt and sugar, they’re going to be perfect. I can feel it.” She crinkled her nose, lifting her shoulders in a light shrug at the question of ‘how are you’. It wasn’t meant to be loaded, but it still felt like she was about to hand in a test she didn’t have the answers to.
“All in all… I’ve been a lot worse.” She said, returning his nudge. “Enough about me. How are you? How does programming? Still saving the world, one HTML code at a time?”
Food was food. Free food was the best kind. Anything he could get his hands on, he would eat. The type to never say no anything offered to him. So, the realization that he switched salt and sugar, somehow -- was a painful realization. Because these ingredients had been bought with their own money --- and he wanted none of that to go to waste. It certainly helped those were homemade, which meant more money saved, but he loathed the idea of wasting any of it. He liked to stretch out every penny, much as he could. It was the Landry way. Eyes bulged as he saw her reach for a cookie. “What are you --... please, no --...” He all but begged, but the words came a little too late.
“I love you,” August reiterated. It was a ridiculously common phrase to come out of him whenever he hung out with his siblings but he viewed it important that they knew. Always. Because his mother and best friend’s passing told him one thing. Tomorrow was never guaranteed. Plus he adored the look on their faces. “I swear, I will make you the best cookies.” Maybe he was just repeating himself at this point. She just always tried with him, made him feel heard. And so, he always wanted nothing but the best for Leona. The answer was... unexpected, somehow, and his heart faltered at the thought that she wasn’t likely feeling super great about things. “I’m sorry,” he mouthed out, slowly making a circle on his chest. Nudging in closer again, he wrapped his arm around her in a long embrace, momentarily resting his chin on her shoulder.
“I uh, yeah. One code at a time,” August nodded in response. “Crescent Harbor for now, the world later. I’m bouncing around a few projects, but I’ve been mostly focused on a bird identification thing and how we can attract them to our backyards. It’s... super cool.”
