Free Web NovelChapter 114: Chapter 114
*A/N: single Chapter because i’m down with a fever.*
The next day was a Saturday, and although Louis had gotten Dio to agree to try a new recipe with him, he was still hesitant.
"You don’t have to come with me if you don’t want to." He said nervously.
Dio kept a poker face on, "But I do."
"Don’t you have to go to the Archery club today?" Louis tried again, he was aware of how tactless he sounded but he was unable to stop.
Dio hesitated for a few beats, "I’ll go later." He didn’t actually have to go because most students were too busy catching up on sleep after the tests to attend to their club activities. But telling Louis that would just give him more ammunition to try and keep Dio from coming with him.
Louis wasn’t sure what had gotten into him, he was the one that asked Dio to tag along in the first place, why was he making such a fuss about it now? "Alright, let’s go."
They just had breakfast an hour or two ago before Louis cleared his throat and said that he was going to the Cooking club.
They quietly made their way out of their dorm room and down the hallway, Louis’ words tripping him again. "Do you think Henri would want to come along?"
Dio’s mask cracked a bit at this, "I don’t think His Highness would appreciate you offering." He managed to say with a straight face, wondering how Henri managed to interfere without even being here.
Louis was immediately presented with the image of Henri slamming the door in his face or worse, chasing him down the hallway with the broadsword he still had in his room for some reason.
He drew in a stuttering breath, "Yeah, you’re right." freewebnσvel.cøm
Louis had no idea why he even suggested that in the first place, Henri had never expressed interest in watching Louis cook. No one had as a matter of fact, no one but Dio.
Even the members of the Cooking club didn’t watch him because they found it entertaining but because they wanted to learn from him. It had just been a while since they went to the Cooking club together as Dio had been busy at the Archery club trying to get better at the sport. So Louis was a little bit nervous...
It was quiet outside the dorms, and there were few students milling around than expected. It probably had something to do with this particular weekend being the one right after tests.
The ground was still wet from the rain of the night before, and the scent of wet soil and rain was in the air.
They made their way down the walkways in companionable silence, it wasn’t that Louis didn’t have anything to say but that he was worried about saying the wrong thing. He had a bad history of doing just that already.
There were even fewer people in the Club building and just as his nervous thoughts predicted, there was no one but them in the Cooking club.
Louis drew in a deep breath to steady himself and reached out to open the door. He could do this, it was just Dio, they did this all the time.
"Careful," Dio reached out to steady him when he stumbled on his way in, making Louis jump.
He stepped out of Dio’s reach with a strained smile, "Sorry, I wasn’t looking."
Dio slowly let his hand drop to his side, "What are you making today?" He tried changing the subject to diffuse the tense atmosphere.
Louis visibly brightened at this, walking over to his favorite station. "Chocolate biscuits. I got this really helpful recipe book from Lyon..."
Dio followed him and sat on his usual stool by the counter, it was almost nostalgic and reminiscent of what they used to have. When did things change so much between them?
Louis rattled off the ingredients as he picked them out, "We’ll need some butter, sugar, eggs, flour, cocoa powder, and of course, chocolate..." He trailed off at this point, and beelined for the aprons hung on the rack affixed to the wall.
He hesitated for a slight second like he wanted to offer to wear Dio’s apron for him only to falter and just take one for himself.
Dio was on his feet the next moment, taking an apron for himself and putting it on with amazing dexterity. "So what do you need me to do?"
"W-What?" Louis spluttered, his fingers forgetting how to tie the knot of his apron.
Dio replaced Louis’ hands with his, patting the properly done knot against Louis’ back when he was done. "There, now, what am I doing?"
Louis was too stunned by this to even flinch, walking around the counter to where he had laid out all of the ingredients. "Uh... um... could you separate the egg whites from the yolk?" He scrambled to find something for Dio to do, it was odd because Louis always worked alone in the kitchen. "I’ll cream the butter and sugar together."
Dio still had his serious expression on although he couldn’t crack open an egg to save his life, much more do the kind of intricate sorcery that Louis had asked of him. He might have spent a lot of time watching Louis cook... emphasis on watching Louis because he never paid attention to what he was doing. He would still do it anyway, his lack of knowledge didn’t matter.
Louis engrossed himself in mixing the butter and sugar together, needing something to ground him. Recently, being around Dio was like standing at the edge of a steep cliff, it made him nervous and jumpy.
Being busy with the mixing bowl meant that he didn’t pay attention to Dio who was visibly struggling. The Alpha picked up an egg and just stared at it, if he remembered correctly, Louis smashed it open on the side of the bowl.
He didn’t even make it that far; he found firsthand that holding the egg in a too-tight grip, also smashed it open. Dio stared at the crushed egg in his hand in horror, glancing at Louis to see if the other noticed him. Fortunately, Louis was occupied with his task so he didn’t notice.
Dio quickly stowed away the crushed egg, wiping his hand on a towel. Now, to try again. This time, he managed to hold the egg appropriately but he hit the side of the bowl too hard making half the egg spill out on the counter.
Another cursory glance at Louis told him that the Alpha had still not caught onto the catastrophe he was singlehandedly brewing up beside him. He got rid of the second egg and got clean for the second time; clearly, that wasn’t going to work so would have to find a better alternative.
He could also just ask Louis how to do it but he had been the one to volunteer his help, he really wanted to be able to help Louis a little. It was why he had made so much personal progress.
’Maybe hitting it with a spoon would produce better results?’ He thought with a grave expression, using all of his functioning brain cells to try to figure out how to successfully crack open an egg.
He tried that next, and it was the best result he had gotten so far. Sure there were eggshells in the bowl and the egg whites and egg yolk were not separated but at least it all got into the bowl.
Dio leaned back to study his work, too engrossed in it to notice that Louis was watching him. He had more or less figured out how to crack open an egg but how was he supposed to separate the bloody egg whites from the egg yolks?? They were practically fused together inside the egg!
Some of the tension in Louis’ shoulders eased, if he looked hard enough, he could see the quiet and clumsy Alpha that he grew up with. "Do you need my help?"
Dio slowly looked over to him with an expression of a child that had been caught with their grubby hands inside the candy jar. He reached up to push a hand through his hair in exasperation. "Yes."
Louis snorted out a laugh as he walked over to help.
Dio looked at him with a grumpy expression, "I don’t think it’s that funny."
This only made Louis laugh harder, Dio had smeared eggshells on his hair, and it painted a comical picture contrasting with his aggrieved expression. "Sorry, sorry." He apologized, helping Dio wipe his hair.
Dio, unsurprisingly wasn’t upset, to begin with, he was more relieved that Louis could laugh easily now.
"Here is how you do it," He said in a gentle voice, picking up an egg. "To separate the egg whites from the egg yolk, you just make a little hole in the shell and drain out the whites..." He plopped just the yolk in a fresh bowl. "And just like that, you have your separated yolk!" He announced with a flourish.
