[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]

"No?" says Susan, and when she meets his gaze, there's the faintest flicker of an emotion in her eyes. "Nor do I." She starts sliding biscuits from the tray onto cooling racks. "Tell me about Ophelia?"

[timebethine]

A smile quickens on his lips. "I think she and Lucy could be friends," he says. "She has the same way of looking upon the world with wonder--she knows the name of every flower in the queen's gardens, and every herb in the field and every weed along the roadsides. She knows them not by rote, abstractly, but with the intimacy of dear friends. She can be sharp in her speech, at times--always clear and direct as a blade. She never learned the trick of speaking prettily when she had nothing to say, which in courtiers is thought an effervescent wit. They thought her rude, when she was a child. But ... I know not how to say it. I miss her sharpness. I miss how she would tease me, and chastise me, and ferret out my hypocrisies. I miss her."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"It does sound rather as if they'd get along," Susan says, hesitating a moment before setting her spatula down and going to rest a hand, briefly, on Laertes's shoulder.

[timebethine]

He turns to smile at her--then the toast pops up, and he nearly leaps out of his skin. Taking the toast out, he spreads it with butter from the crock on the counter. "Wilt thou take jam on thine?" he asks as he reaches for the marmalade for his own.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oooh, yes please!"

[timebethine]

"Thou canst command anything of me; marmalade is a mere trifle," laughs Laertes. He scoops a generous helping onto the second piece of toast, too, and then passes her the plate with eggs, toast, and bacon.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Cheers," says Susan, taking the plate and retrieving flatware and napkins to split between the two of them. A little wry, a little ruefully, she says, "I feel rather as if we've covered an entire range of topics appropriate to a maudlin conversation at midnight. Have you any cheerful things to share?"

[timebethine]

Laertes ducks his head. "At thine advisement, I've been reading on the properties of cells," he says. "Claudius's research tends toward the biological sciences, and mine toward the chemical and the physical--but though he's far beyond me, I hope to travel his road and thine at least a little way. It makes me glad to imagine each cell like a tiny scriptorium, with a monk at its nucleus scribing the secret language of our bodies in letters of acid."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Isn't that a darling image!" Susan exclaims, cutting into her egg so the yolk spreads across her plate and dipping a corner of her toast into it. "I rather like that."

[timebethine]

"There truly are wonders in the world beyond the telling--infinitely grand, and infinitely small," says Laertes. He reaches for his tea (gone fully cold by now, but he doesn't much mind) and sips. "My thanks, for helping me to see them."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Isn't science grand," with great feeling. She pauses to eat her bite of toast and, after swallowing, says, "I know neither of us are astronomers but I am rather looking forward to learning the night skies here."

[timebethine]

"I fear it will have to wait until springtime," says Laertes, with some regret. "I'd not make thee lie out in the snow to look at the stars."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Cold doesn't really bother me," Susan admits. She's been cold for seven months. The winter barely registers, in comparison. "But alas! If only there were a tower suited to such purposes¹."

¹Teeheehee?

[timebethine]

"Have a care," Laertes laughs. "This place may hear, and heed--I don't know why I cautioned thee; hearing and heeding would be ideal, actually."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I do believe this place hears and heeds me plenty," Susan says, trying some of the bacon and finding it to her liking. "You just have to be bossy with it in the right way. Brook no argument."

[timebethine]

"Presume thou wilt be obeyed," Laertes agrees. "Well--bend all thine iron will upon the question, and I shall take thy victory for granted."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Precisely," says Susan, shaking off some of the solemnity of this rather-intense early-morning conversation and offering Laertes an amused look. She eats a little more of the breakfast - it's simple fare, good and hearty, and immensely comforting for it. It's possible that some of this comfort might show on her face, too.

[timebethine]

Laertes can't help smiling (as much relief as pleasure) to see her pleased. "Wilt thou want me to make a plate for Lancelot, too? Or will he be satisfied with the cinnamon rolls?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, he'd likely say the cinnamon rolls are fine," says Susan, with a dash of good humor. "But I say a man who drills like he does every morning would benefit from something more substantial. If it's not too much trouble." She's nearly finished with her own breakfast, and takes a big sip of tea to wash it all down. "I can put together the icings for the buns."

[timebethine]

Laertes hasn't actually started eating his breakfast, but immediately he's getting the bacon and eggs back out. "He needs to keep up his strength; doubtless, he must train continually if he's to prevent Gideon from knocking him on his arse again."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I beg your pardon?"

[timebethine]

"Did he not tell thee? He sparred with Gideon, and she trounced him," says Laertes with no small glee. "I can only beat him with the rapier, but it sounds as though she fought him longsword to longsword, and won."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I've not met Gideon," says Susan, sounding rather impressed indeed. "But now I think I must." She notices then that Laertes hasn't started on his own breakfast, and puts her fork down on her nearly-clean plate. "Oh, you silly man, this isn't time-sensitive. Eat first."

[timebethine]

"It's only that I fear that if I don't begin at once, I'll forget to begin at all," says Laertes ruefully. While the butter heats in the pan, he starts another piece of toast and separates out a few strips of bacon to fry.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Does the same go for eating your own breakfast before it gets cold?" Susan carries her plate over to the sink and washes her hands before going to check on the recipes for the cinnamon roll icing.