A/N: Sorry for the wait my dears <3 There is a certain word repeated many times, but I dunno why o.o Can you find it?

Chapter 17: Love is Strange

[Chip]

I grabbed at a face towel beside the basin, failing as I dropped the towel two times.

My hands were trembling so badly.

"Chip! Xander! Why are you taking so long?" I heard Coco's voice complain. "Is the shower turned off yet? Every minute you spend in there its 9 liters of water!"

Xander rolled his eyes.

"Yeap it's off. Give us some time to put on clothes would you?" He rebutted.

Coco's concerns were none of mine as I knelt down in front of Xander, trying very hard not to look at anything below his waist level.

Quickly soaking the towel, I gently washed away the embarrassing substance on Xander's thighs. "I-I'm really sorry..." I repeated once again, trying to hold back the lump in my throat.

I heard him chuckle. "Stop apologizing."

My face heated up a notch, and my gaze landed anywhere but Xander. "O-Okay...sorry..." I choked. The strange constriction of the back of my throat twisted painfully.

I took quick steps out of the glassed shower, and turned to the basin to wash the small towel as fast as possible.

Sensing movement behind me, I guessed that Xander was drying himself. There was this strange picking up of my heartbeat, and I suddenly felt really aware, and conscious of my surroundings—especially Xander's gaze.

Daring a glance in the mirror, my first focus wasn't Xander (surprisingly), but it was, in fact, me.

My face was a mess—wide, almost-frightened eyes, knitted eyebrows, and very, very flushed cheeks. I didn't even realize that I was biting my lip.

I looked exhausted.

And then my gaze flickered to the other face in the mirror.

Xander's eyes were staring directly at mine in the glass, with a strange emotion in his eyes that I did not quite comprehend.

"You okay?" He asked in one of the gentlest tones that I've ever heard.

The lump in my throat rose dangerously close to its vertex, and my teeth sunk harder into my lips.

I took another look at the horrible mess in the mirror, and my vision blurred.

"Chip? Chip—oh shit—I mean," Xander breathed, "Oh God I'm so sorry, please don't cry."

I felt a warm material on my back and realized that Xander had wrapped a towel around me.

"I-I'm so—rry..." I choked miserably, my heart racing at an abnormal speed. "I look h-horrible...I'm so embarrassed..."

Gaze landing on my trembling hands, I couldn't help but feel the shake in my thighs—as if they were on the brink of collapsing.

It was rather hard to stand.

"Shh don't say that, you don't look horrible at all," Xander's hands rested on my shoulders as he slowly turned me around.

He brought me into his arms gently, caressing my head.

"I went overboard. It's my bad," Xander apologized, entangling his long fingers in my hair.

It felt really warm and fuzzy, and I had a strange thought that I felt it somewhere before.

I began to relax, as the tension in my shoulders eased slightly, leaning into the warmth of Xander's body.

"I must have over-reacted..." I commented softly, swiping the back of my hand across my face to clear the tears.

Xander chuckled, "Must have been too much for your small frame huh," He kissed my forehead and I felt heat rise to my cheeks again.

"S-Stop that! I look ugly when I blush—"

"HELLOOO???! ANYONE IN THERE? ARE YOU ALL DEAD?" Coco banged fiercely on the door of the bathroom. It wasn't a good idea to get on her bad side.

"Woops," Xander laughed, "Sorry Coco! We're coming out now!" He called back as he wrapped a towel around his waist.

I quickly pulled on my boxers and long-sleeved shirt, drying my hair with the towel.

When we were finally out of the bathroom, Coco was standing sternly outside, her arms akimbo.

"That was 15 MINUTES. FIFTEEN. Did you hear me? I said TWELVE! Ugh—honestly kids these days. THAT'S 27 LITERS OF WATER YOU WASTED!"

The both of us stood in the hallway, looking guilty and upset while Coco lectured us about saving money, saving bills, saving water, and saving the Earth.

But my mind was far from saving dear mother Earth.

It was probably lost in its sea of thoughts, somewhere in the middle of the ocean—wondering why it was there in the first place.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I woke up at six in the morning—only to hear Rose's voice.

"Rise and shine my dearies, for we are baking today!"

I rubbed my eyes lazily, rising into an upright position. "There's no shine—the sun's not even up yet..." A yawn escaped my lips.

Rose laughed and ruffled my hair. "I'm sorry for waking you up exceptionally early today my dear, but you have to teach Xander how to bake those cupcakes—he'll be staying home today to make sure Giselle is well but you have school."

"E-Ehh? But he can't bake at all!" I protested, pointing exasperatedly to the gigantic lump of laziness beneath the covers.

"I heard that." A muffled voice said.

I felt a blush creeping up the base of my neck, but ignored it. "I-It's the truth!"

Rose smiled brightly, "Oh well, I guess we'll need you to prove to us that you can bake then, Xander!"

Xander flipped over the covers, sitting bolt upright. "Sure. Challenge accepted." He smirked arrogantly.

I didn't realize I was staring at the amazingly flawless being (despite the spiky bed hair and being shirtless) until I heard a cough.

And Rose raised her eyebrows at me.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Um...so...I'm going to teach you how to bake our normal fluffy vanilla cupcakes," I started softly. The incident last night was just too much to forget.

Xander nodded.

"Wear your apron, and wash your hands," I instructed, grabbing the remaining two aprons on the rack.

As I was wearing mine, I realized that the apron had a ribbon, which meant that you needed to tie it.

I panicked slightly because this wasn't my usual one. The apron I usually wore didn't require you to tie it together, and was simply a slip-on one.

Surprisingly, Xander had no trouble knotting the strips of cloth behind his back, and I contemplated asking him to help me with mine.

"U-Um...Xander, could you help me with..." I turned around to point at the lose strips of cloth behind my back.

"Sure," He said casually, proceeding to tie a ribbon with the two strips.

My heartbeat picked up slightly when I felt his warm hands against the small of my back, causing a slight heat to rush to my cheeks.

"Done."

"Th-Thanks," I said sheepishly, going to the refrigerator to bring out eggs and butter.

I showed him where the weighing machine was and wrote out the required amounts of butter and sugar.

"This is how you calibrate..."

"Just pour the sugar into the bowl..."

"Now you do it..."

I occasionally observed Xander while he tried to follow my steps.

Being Home Economics partners made the process easier as I seemed to know where his weaknesses were.

"So here's the automatic mixing machine where you can pour the butter and sugar together and it'll make the mixing easier and more efficient...but make sure the batter's consistency is kept—like..."

It took more than an hour to properly hand down the skills to Xander, but I could see that he could be serious when he wanted to—just like when it came to Giselle. And Beach Volley.

Once the cupcakes were in the oven, we prepared for our special 'Angel's icing', which was actually just fluffy vanilla whipped cream.

However, this time, it needed to be hand-mixed so that the consistency would stay. If it was over-mixed, the mixture would turn lumpy and even watery.

I showed Xander step-by-step but he seemed to be distracted—he kept looking over to Rose, who was busy with buns. More specifically—Hot cross buns.  

It wasn't Christmas or anything, but our bakery likes to make the buns. It was part of our hot buys.

I tugged at Xander's apron.

He turned to me with a quizzical look.

"P-Please pay attention! This part is hard..."

His face softened and he nodded. "Yes Angel."

I blushed really hard, and in the end—it was me failing to pay attention to anything that I was doing.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Chip! You better go now—it's almost 8! You're gonna be late for school!" Gretel called through the kitchen.

I checked the wall clock in the kitchen, and jumped.

"Uwaah, I gotta go! Xander—try not to destroy the kitchen! Rose will tell you what to do—I'msorryIgottagobye!" I managed in one breath, grabbing my book bag and dashing out of the kitchen.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I was tackled by a mother bear when I reached school.

"CHIPPIIEEEEE WHERE WERE YOU YESTERDAY?? WHY DIDN'T YOU ANSWER MY CALLS? I WAS SO WORRIED!" Screamed an all-too-familiar voice.

I gently pried Kim off me as I laughed softly.

"I'm sorry Kim! I didn't mean too...It's just that Giselle was—" I immediately clamped a hand to my mouth.

Kim raised an eyebrow. "Giselle? That's not one of your sisters right...?"

"Umm...uh...no, it's one of my um...neighbors. Y-yeah, she was down with a flu and I um, had to take care of her because her parents weren't home..."

I'm such a terrible liar.

"O-kay..." Kim said, a hint of suspicion in her tone and she smiled, as if she was onto something.

Oh no... If she finds out about Xander, she'll probably find out about the bakery too! B-But surely I could trust Kim...right?

"Oh well, off to trigo, Jack's waiting for us," Kim linked arms with me and dragged me to math class.

Kim was singing a happy tune softly to herself. It wasn't unusual, but it was strange. I was sure I heard that somewhere before.

"V-I-C-K-Y, the sound of her name makes little kids cry!

Hey Vicky, you're so so icky, just the thought of being around you makes me oh so sicky~"

Oh, it was the song from The Fairly Odd Parents. I forgot the title though...

Funny. I didn't see Vicky that day. 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When I finally got back to the bakery, peak hour was over and Gretel was polishing her nails at the cashier.

"Gretel? Where's Rose and Coco?"

"At the back—washing the trays. And evaluating Xander's work," She said casually, not looking up from her nails.

Evaluating?

"Oh, um okay, thanks." I replied, making my way into the kitchen.

"—not bad! The chocolate chips are well melted, and the cake is still moist. The Angel Icing was done nicely—not too perfect, but it can be improved," I heard Rose say.

I glanced over at the commotion and saw Rose, Coco and Xander over at the island, crowding over something.

"Chip, you're back. Come and have a taste of Xander's original cupcake! I think it could be a new idea for the cupcake displays," Coco's words came out slightly muffled as she bit into a half-eaten cupcake.

On the island was a batch of freshly baked cupcakes. It looked similar to the fluffy vanilla ones that I taught Xander, but the icing was a bit different.

I tentatively peeled off the paper and nibbled into a portion, making sure to eat both the cake and the icing.

There was a pleasant surprise in the cupcake—and that was chocolate. Xander had added chocolate chips into the batter before baking, and the chocolate came out melted in the cupcakes.

"Uwa, this is really good," I said between mouthfuls, somewhat satisfied and excited that Xander had done so well on his first day.

And partly because he had actually bothered to listen to my instructions. Which made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

"So...we can improve on the recipe and perhaps come up with a new cupcake for kids! After all, Xander said he had the idea of adding chocolate chips because of Giselle."

"R-Really?" I didn't think that Xander would be so...thoughtful.

"Yeah! How about a name for the cupcake?" Rose directed her question at Xander.

The tall frame leaned against the island, as if thinking for a moment.

"How about...Angel Chip?"

I felt a sudden heat in my cheeks and quickly lowered my head.

"Hm...Angel Icing and chocolate chips. Sounds great to me," said Coco.

I dared a peek at Xander, only to find myself blushing even harder.

He was staring at me with a strange smile on his face, and he licked his lips.

Rose frowned.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When it was time for a bath, my nerves got the better of me and I started panicking. Again.

Ohh no oh no oh no...Is Xander going to do...that again? What if I faint this time round? Oh...this isn't good for the heart!

I heard a cough from behind and I jumped, startled.

"Uh—listen, I've talked to Coco and Rose...and I told them that you were quite uncomfortable with having to share a bath with me," Xander scratched the back of his neck, "so I suggested that I take the shower with Giselle instead, and that you can continue taking a shower alone."

My eyes widened slightly.

"So...you don't have to feel uncomfortable about it okay—"

"I-I'm not!" The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.

Xander looked slightly taken aback, but regained his composure. "You're not?"

"I-I'm fine with it...I think...maybe...not...I don't know..." I began nervously, trying to get a grip on myself.

Xander chuckled, and ran a hand through my hair.

I was startled at first, but then as his fingers tugged on each strands gently, caressing each and every one of them, I felt strange.

I began to lean into his touch—strangely.

"W-oah...hey, you're hot." I heard Xander's voice, but it seemed to be coming from somewhere really far...

"H-Hot?" I mumbled, my lips feeling slightly heavier than usual.

"Chip! Shit—Rose! Gretel—"

He's too far away.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 A/N: I'm sorry I stopped there my dear cupcakes! D: Look forward to next Saturday!~ Thank you for your support! I'm al—most—there *dies* (85k reads!)

Vote if you found the word, and comment what the word is ^-^ <3

-Cuppiecake (5/4/14)