[Closed Post: Cinnamon Roll]

[timebethine]

A few days' recovery have left Laertes feeling refreshed enough to return to his baking, although not quite ready to dive into anything particularly complicated. Thus, he abandons the more complex direktørsnegl recipe he'd been meaning to try in favor of perfecting the humble cinnamon roll.

The days are getting shorter--even Laertes can feel it, though his sense of time is poor. He can no longer rely on the sunrise to wake him at a decent hour for baking, and so today he's up a little before the sun, kneading the bready dough by hand rather than using the paddle of the stand mixer in the hopes that the physical exertion will wake him up a little. It's not working particularly well; his eyelids keep drooping.

Comments

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"The same taste, I think," Susan says, then shakes her head. "Maybe a smidge treacley?"

[timebethine]

Laertes closes his eyes and tries to envision it. Less like a fig--less a bright, fruity taste, and more rich and caramel-like. Just verging on bitterness. He pictures the stickiness on his fingers, the give of it between his teeth. Then, reaching into the refrigerator once more, he pulls out a soft fruit like a pale, overripe date, gleaming with sticky syrup. "Try this."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan takes it; it's so ripe it nearly falls apart in her hand. She leans over the island to bite into it, cupping her other hand under her chin to catch any juice. Her eyelashes flutter as she sinks her teeth into its flesh. It's cold from the icebox, but with her eyes closed, she can picture the heat of the sun on her cheeks and Lucy's idle, chiding disregard for her own clothes as she exhorted Susan to just dig in, already.

She swallows, wipes a drip of juice off her chin with her thumb, and, opening her eyes, stares at Laertes.

[timebethine]

"Was it right?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Yes," hoarse.

[timebethine]

"Try it," he says gently, and gestures her to the refrigerator. "Choose another thing. We've shown that it can be done."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

So Susan concentrates as hard as she can - but instead of fensey when she opens the door, she only sees a bundle of dill, which isn't even particularly close. She tries again, and produces oregano. With an impatient little sigh, she glares at the icebox -

This time, at least, she manages to produce a second toffee-fruit. This, she offers to Laertes, in case he should like to try it, too.

[timebethine]

Laertes takes it, turning to eat it over the sink--the juice bursts out when he bites into it, and he can't help laughing as it drips down his chin. "This is a marvel," he says, and licks his fingers clean of the toffee-tasting syrup. "There's nothing like it. We should have stuffed the cinnamon rolls with this, instead of raisins."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I learned where it came from, the first time we left Narnia," Susan says, smiling (small, but genuine) at the look on Laertes's face. "From the old professor we were staying with. He'd planted a piece of toffee candy in the earth when Narnia was still brand-new - barely an hour or two old - and it grew into an entire tree." She blinks twice, and then lets her smile widen. "Next time: toffee-fruit buns."

[timebethine]

"It's a promise," says Laertes. "I wonder--is this a new world, too? Is that why it answers our wishes so readily?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"It looks rather old, but that's no way to judge newness," Susan says, thoughtfully. "The professor said that Narnia looked lived-in barely a day after Aslan sang it into existence. And the sheds that appeared suddenly behind the orchards did so full of old things and looking rather like they'd blow over in the first stiff wind."

[timebethine]

"How might we test that? If--if we planted a confection in the earth, in springtime, would we see it sprout into a bonbon tree?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"From what I understand, the fierce growth in Narnia stopped within a few days. But I say that's no reason we shouldn't try. This isn't Narnia."

[timebethine]

"At worst, we'd only have wasted a bit of chocolate," says Laertes, grinning. "We can spend the winter devising tests, and undertake them in a torrent in spring."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I do rather like the way you think," Susan decides. "I had no idea so many people here were so prone to experimentation."

[timebethine]

"Tress and Claudius taught me the logic of it," says Laertes. "Are there others?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, Galahad, of course."

[timebethine]

"I see--he hath an ardent curiosity," says Laertes, with a smile both surprised and delighted. "I knew not he had been conducting experiments."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, fascinating ones, with boxes and gifts," Susan says, with a vague gesture. "I shan't give away the details. He's installed himself in the front hall."

[timebethine]

"If I see him, I shall sound him further," says Laertes. "But forgive me--I believe we were exchanging questions. I fear I've led us far from that purpose."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh goodness, that's right." Susan has plum forgotten most of the questions on her list, save one or two. She would still like to know him better, though. The dough for her biscuits has finished chilling, and the oven is nearly preheated, so she removes the rolls of dough from the fridge and goes to retrieve a knife, a tray, and paper to line the tray. "How do you like to while away idle time?"

[timebethine]

"In learning," says Laertes promptly. "I think I shall never tire of learning--whether some new craft or language, or the principles of chemistry and physics and philosophy, or the histories of my friends. And I like to practice dancing, and the rapier, and the viol, although in that I have only a little skill. But when my brain runs sluggish as a river in winter, I admit, I do enjoy reading novels. I do not think we had such things, in my time--or if we did, I was steered away from them so deftly that I did not feel the guiding hand." He checks his rolls, and finds them not quite doubled in size; seeing that, he returns to breakfast, and heats and oils the pan again for eggs. "And thee? How dost thou pass thine idle hours?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"By ensuring none of my hours are idle," Susan admits, rather wryly. She starts slicing cookies and putting them on the tray. Leaning on irony, she says, "Perhaps one day I shall finish my accounting of the resources here."

[timebethine]

"Setting thyself an infinite task is a way to ensure that thine hours are never idle," Laertes laughs. "Dost thou not rest?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I'm merely human," Susan says, still with tones of great irony. "So I must."