A knock on his door roused Hongjoong from sleep. Before he could do as much as blink or clear his sleep-ridden throat, Emily's delightful voice sounded from outside.

"Lady Hongjoong, are you awake? I have come to ask you if you were interested in baking some cookies for the winter celebrations with us," she chirped through the door. Befuddled, Hongjoong wrung his hand through his dark hair. His confusion lifted for his thoughts to extend right to baked goods.

"I will be with you in but a moment!" He called back, already crawling out of bed. While Emily flew off, Hongjoong picked out his most modest dress to wear for the baking activities.

He was halfway through fixing his wig on his head when he remembered that Seonghwa most likely would also partake in the fun.

Begrudging, since they had fought not too long ago and Hongjoong had yet to hear an apology, Hongjoong left his room. He knew that avoiding Seonghwa or having expectations in him both meant ultimate disappointment on Hongjoong's side. He should have fun wherever he could, and knowing the servants were around to be part of the baking made it easier to negotiate Seonghwa's moods.

When Hongjoong arrived in the kitchen, he found Mingi and Jongho at the stove to handle the heavy work like preparing dough and spreading it out. Emily perked at the table with an apron cradled in her hands. Upon Hongjoong's entry, she jumped from her seat to tie the pink apron embroidered with strawberries around Hongjoong's waist.

Seonghwa was there, too, with several cookie cutters bunched in his fists as he concentrated on making shapes of the dough to set them aside for the baking. He wore a matching apron in yellow.

"Good morning, lady Hongjoong!" Mingi greeted him with more clamour than Hongjoong could bear at this hour of the day. He winced, but put on a smile.

"Please, just Hongjoong is enough. Good morning! I am overjoyed you requested me to join."

Emily ushered Hongjoong over to the other side of the table where they had prepared a patch of dough for Hongjoong to work with. She showed him how to do it so he could use up most dough and how to peel his unfinished cookies from the flour-dusted surface of the table most easily. A few moments later, Hongjoong had his fun working away with the star, bell, and tree-shaped cutters.

"Seonghwa suggested you joined," Jongho said, where he guarded the fire in the cast-iron stove that took over most of the kitchen area's space. The heat in the room was stifling, so they had opened a window for balance. Hot and cold clashed in the air.

"Don't lie to her to make me look better. She knows very well I didn't," Seonghwa mumbled without looking up from his task. His nimble fingers pressed the dough into form whenever it threatened to slip from his grasp.

Jongho sighed and turned to his duty again.

"You could have pretended to practise your acting. Wasn't that what you suggested I also do?" Hongjoong sorted his finished cookies over to Emily, who set them down on a metal tray that they could put in the oven.

Seonghwa chuckled humourlessly. When he looked up through his dark hair that fell into the right half of his face in a swoop, the sharpness of his gaze drilled into Hongjoong's face. With eyes as attentive as his, Hongjoong was surprised how the man could not know the truth about Hongjoong.

"Not among my own walls; I like to live true to myself here. If you crave pointless attention from those not worth your time, I'd rather you ask my servants about it, or perhaps Wooyoung."

Hongjoong looked at Seonghwa's cookies. They were much uglier than his because the man made them without love. Hongjoong hoped Seonghwa knew and hated them for it.

"Perhaps I should do that. Perhaps I should act as the simple woman you paint me to be since you never bothered to ask, and perhaps I should find someone else now that I have connections into the upper class. Someone with more manners; a better person. But oh no, won't that stain your reputation even further? Didn't you mention that as well?" With mock horror, Hongjoong held his flour-stained hand in front of his mouth. If Seonghwa had noticed the scars on them now that Hongjoong wore no gloves, he hadn't mentioned them. They had nothing more to give away about Hongjoong.

Seonghwa pretended he wasn't bothered by Hongjoong's taunting.

"A woman's reputation is easier ruined than a man's. If you were to sleep with another man, people might forgive me, thinking women had it out for me and I was just unlucky. Even once you return to your home, however, that act might harm you." He said it as if he were teaching a child about the basic notions of humanity. It ticked Hongjoong off. When he dug his fingers into the dough, the soft material ripped under his nails. Emily made a saddened noise when she had to roll it out again, but she didn't interfere.

"I won't try. The example man I have studied to learn about how the infamous gentlemen of London act has taught me I wouldn't want to be involved with them," Hongjoong shot back. Seonghwa's jaw flexed as he burnt his cookies with his eyes.

As soon as Hongjoong stood to carry his tray over to the stove to bake, Emily hurried to take care of the dough. Stunned into silence by the spectacle, Jongho reacted a moment late at taking the tray from Hongjoong. Mingi hurriedly laid out a new one.

On his way back to his place, Hongjoong used his flour-powdered fingers to sprinkle some white dust on Seonghwa's head while he wasn't looking. It settled in his dark hair to taint his flawless exterior.

Hongjoong dropped his hand at the same moment that Seonghwa turned to look at what his amused chuckle was about. His eyes flickered between Hongjoong's hand and his smug smile.

When Seonghwa's finger reached for his hair, his face darkened.

"What did you just do?"

"Nothing at all, honourable earl. I've merely handed my cookies over to return to my creations and our exquisite conversation. Are you fed up with it already?" Hongjoong couldn't help his smirk when Seonghwa took his hand down and spotted the flour clinging to his fingers.

Within seconds, Seonghwa lost his pretentiously cold composure.

Hongjoong didn't anticipate how the man's long fingers suddenly scraped over the little piles of flour that had accumulated all over the table. He scooped up a bit of it and then, in a cloud of white, it hit Hongjoong's face.

Spluttering, Hongjoong reeled back. He tried to dust his face and hair off, but his own hands were still dirty, so he made faces to get the dry powder off his lips and tongue.

Someone gasped, but Hongjoong took the challenge. He rounded the table to snatch up flour from his own side while Seonghwa stood, seething with the rage of their battle.

"You dirty street rat! Is this how you thank my hospitality?" Seonghwa launched flour at Hongjoong, fired up now that he had a way to blame it on Hongjoong.

Past the wall of three servants with open mouths, Hongjoong counter attacked. The flour didn't fly as well as he hoped and rather tumbled through the air slowly like snow, but the permanent cloud created in the room settled in Seonghwa's hair and clothes still. Both of them coughed, but neither stopped the onslaught.

"This is how I thank your damn arrogance! For showing how nice you can be, only to become a wretched human being as soon as no eyes are on you! I know you taunt me in public, seeing how I would react and how I would squirm for you!" Hongjoong turned his head away when a flour glop landed on his cheek and dusted over his dress.

"Your reactions to me are more legitimate that way! If you weren't glaring all the time, I wouldn't need to fret about the prosperity of our plans!" Seonghwa spluttered when Hongjoong hit him right on his nasty mouth that said such vile things but had kissed his cheek so softly.

"Stop playing! I came here to prove you weren't a gal-sneaker, but the way you treat me in public and how you understand this matter is none the better than the rumour that ruined you!"

Seonghwa's eyes were ablaze. He dunked his entire hand into the sack of flour and produced a fist so sizable Hongjoong could die on the choking hazard. With slow steps, Seonghwa rounded the table. Hongjoong equipped everything he could scrape together from the table and held his hands up in defence. Tense, he watched both the hand and Seonghwa's determined expression.

"Let me wash out that mouth of yours to see if it contributes something reasonable after that. You are a guest at my house in my society. You aren't the one who should make demands. Trust me when I say I grew up in this life and know how to live it." Seonghwa stalked closer. Hongjoong launched one of his flour fists, but the powder didn't deter Seonghwa. Backed up with the kitchen shelf in his back, Hongjoong got into position to dash past the man and run into a part of the house where Seonghwa didn't want flour.

"I am not your servant, I am your fiancée," Hongjoong snapped. With a mad jump, he tried to dodge on Seonghwa's side that didn't carry the flour, but Seonghwa had expected him. His arm wrapped around Hongjoong's waist and hauled him back into place while Seonghwa followed to jam Hongjoong between his body and the cupboard.

Hongjoong launched the flour at Seonghwa's face, hit his chest with fists, twisted and floundered, but nothing got him out of his tight spot. He refused to beg, but something else softened Seonghwa's eyes and had a faint smile appear on his lips.

Hongjoong was laughing.

Despite their fight, despite the words they spat at each other, he was having fun. He felt as free as he never had in this house; he got to play, and yell, and jump around. Best of all was that Seonghwa was here, and that, for once, their fight wasn't serious. It was nothing new, nothing of weight. Seonghwa enjoyed breaking out of his customs as much as Hongjoong did. To disguise their fun of having a flour fight, they had to rile each other up first.

Hongjoong laughed until his tummy hurt and he clutched on Seonghwa's shoulders weakly.

"Earl- You wouldn't want to do this to your fiancée," Hongjoong got out between giggles. His free hand tried to catch the moment Seonghwa would shove the flour into Hongjoong's face and flinched every so often when the hit never came. The second hand laid on Seonghwa's warm shoulder, that was so much closer than appropriate, not even pushing.

"Wouldn't I? Yet here I am thinking how much she deserves this."

Hongjoong squirmed. This time, he didn't mind Seonghwa crowded against him. He didn't feel threatened by the man, just by that ball of flour.

"There must be a way to soothe your rage," Hongjoong winced. When he shifted, Seonghwa's arm around his waist tightened and held him closer. Their torsos aligned in a way that would have made Hongjoong blush if not for the distracting threat.

"What do you suggest? What, after all your mockery would be enough to soothe me?" Humour shone through Seonghwa's voice.

"Isn't my lovely face all the reason you need?"

The flour met his face before Hongjoong got to bat his lashes at Seonghwa. He had reacted on time and closed his eyes and lips, but he still coughed when he breathed in the white powder. Seonghwa had been close enough that he choked as well, and they tumbled away from each other. Through his coughs, Hongjoong still laughed.

"Now your face is all the reason I would have needed," Seonghwa teased.

Hongjoong was about to march to the sack of flour to dump the entire bag over Seonghwa's head when someone spoke up. Startled, Hongjoong froze. He had forgotten the other people in the room.

"Please, mylord and mylady. This is already a lot to clean up. Couldn't you move this outside?"

Seonghwa blinked, as if a trance fell off him. Bothered, he looked around the kitchen, that was covered with a sheen of flour. Little heaps still dropped off Hongjoong's apron to fall to the ground.

The heat of the moment evaporated, and Seonghwa looked sorry.

"Oh. I must have been too invested. I shall help you clean up." Sheepish, the earl scratched his head when he met Jongho's judgmental eyes. Emily, on the other hand, tried to usher Hongjoong away when he reached for the broom first.

Intrigued, Mingi looked between Seonghwa and Hongjoong.

They cleaned up together until the kitchen was as free from flour as it could be. Their cookies baked in the meantime and soon filled the entire house with their delicious scent.

While at work, Seonghwa and Hongjoong still squabbled like two children.

"Could have offered your chest if you had any," Seonghwa quipped.

Hongjoong hissed back.

"Could have offered your chivalry if you had any."

They glared at each other, but some heat had dissipated between the two of them. The earl, getting as dirty as he deemed Hongjoong to be, had helped him down partially from his high horse.

Hongjoong would have to figure out later how to get the flour out of his hair.