CHAPTER SIX: TURNOVERS

This is desire, daughter, is the endless piercing that informs the universe throughout eternity.
-John Speed

Jasper Red- -on most days, I'd say- -could be trusted in the kitchen.

Though if I'm honest, I haven't been around much when he's actively making dinner start to finish often enough to see how chaotic it could be. He does it well, and does it without asking, causing his twin to make a 'house wife' joke more than once.

Football practice is harder now that it feels like a real challenge instead of playing around, and I cook all day to prepare for my culinary finals anyway, and so the musician has never minded that.

Which may or may not be due to me settling for leftovers, nothing or take out -but that can't be proven.

That being said, I think it's perfectly reasonable that I was a little surprised when I left Jasper alone with premade cookie dough and instructions for cookies- -that Vivianna begged me for- -and I came back to find burnt cookies and a sheepish boyfriend.

"Jasper... what happened?" Coughing this out, I try not to cough as he starts to pout at me. "Did you forget they were in the oven?"

Jasper throws a hand up, sinking back to lean against the counter like he wants to hide. "No. I don't even know what I did wrong."

"Well, Jitterbug, you're living up to your name."

"Hey, Star!" He sinks down more. "I followed the instructions perfectly."

"Um," I look over to the poor burned cookies, shoulder jumping in a tic as I look back at Jasper and his pout deepens. "No."

"Yes." Raising my eyebrow and crossing my arms immediately makes my boyfriend backtrack with a "I can show you!" and it makes me snort.

Holding back a smirk as I playfully look him up and down. "Bottom."

"What can I say?" Jasper shrugs, moving a hand to cup my cheek sweetly, pushing off of the counter to lean closer to me. "I like it when you top me."

Not letting myself blush, huff and swat his hand away from me, making a cheeky grin make an appearance on his dimpled face. "Do you want me-"

"Yes." My boyfriend interrupts.

"Jitterbug." I scold him. "Do you want me to teach-" I make a popping sound, shoulders jumping. "-you how to bake? I already knew you want me in general, but thanks."

Thinking for a moment, Jasper nods almost shyly. "Yes please... but I might burn everything again."

"Not with me teaching you."

Looking up from where I'm stirring up the so far successfully made dough, one of the first things I notice- -other than the adorably intrigued look that Jasper has- -is the flour that somehow made its way into the scruff on his cheek.

What a clumsy dork.

"Jasper, you have flour on your cheek already." Saying this, my jaw snaps a few times but I successfully wipe it off while he pouts at me. "What?"

"Baking hates me, Castor, I didn't even touch the flour and it somehow got on me! Just like the cookies–I followed the instructions to the T." Jasper whines, leaning down to bump our heads together with a huff. "You really are a god, if you can handle this."

"This?" I raise an eyebrow. "Baking?"

Like baking some strawberries turnovers is really all that hard anyway.

"Mhm," He nods. "A god. A beautiful, baking god."

Scoffing, I roll my eyes and find myself dropping the bowl to the counter only to reach up and hold onto his jaw -which just makes me realize that the one who got flour on him was probably me from doing this in order to pull him down for a kiss.

Oops.

"I'm not a god, or a baking god, I'll have you know." Taking a small breath in, I force my flush to go away and shake my head at myself as I drop my hold on him. "Your mom didn't teach you how to bake?"

"Nope, I was too clumsy as a kid and after accidentally high-fiving the oven that one time, she decided that the injuries weren't worth this particular skill." Explaining this, Jasper seems to pause for a few moments contemplating before he cups my cheeks between his hands, smiling cutely down at me.

Then the fucker literally coos at me, squishes my face lightly before saying, "You're so cute!" and it makes me equally upset as it does flustered, if my blush has anything to say about it.

He's lucky he's hot enough to get away with this.

"Mierda," My boyfriend curses, thumb tracing dangerously close to the corner of my mouth. "How did I get so lucky? Look at you."

"Yeah look at me, tired and probably covered in batter," I mockingly grumble, trying not to flush more, but he did catch me a bit off guard and that's never helpful. "What a sight."

Ignoring my sarcasm, Jasper continues and bumps our noses together. "You're everything, Castor."

Grabbing his hips, I angle him back away from the counter that we're baking at and move him up against the fridge. "Just because we're soulmates doesn't mean you can distract me from the fact you're shit at baking."

"I wasn't trying to!" He immediately pouts. "I was just complimenting you."

"Blah, blah-" I growl. "-blah, we're never going to finish if you start something."

"Actually, I think we'd finish just fine-"

"Jitterbug!" Scolding him, I immediately retreat back to the counter, mindful of where the strawberry carton is. "God, you're so cocky and it's- -bit hot innit- -distracting. Of all the days not to act like how much of a bottom you really are, it's this one? I'm trying to teach and... why are you looking at me like that?"

"Why do you think I'm looking at you like this?" Jasper leans back further against the fridge, one hand absentmindedly fiddling with the bottom of his shirt and I only make a face at him in reply. "It is, perhaps, the fact that I'm super-duper in love with you and you make me happy? Is that the face I'm making?"

Begrudgingly I shake my head. "That not -is it?"

Laughter sounding somewhere between a chuckle and a giggle, my boyfriend nods and crosses the room only to kiss the top of my head. "It definitely is. I love you."

"I love you too." I huff, kissing the side of his jaw in reply. "But let's finish these before the dough dries, alright?"

His previous pout returns. "Should I really be helping with these? I'm not a good baker at all."

"Jitterbug, my dad was a shit baker when mom showed him how to make these, and now he owns a bakery, so you're fine." Telling him this, I shoved the bowl against his chest. "Flip the dough over in half like it's a failed pancake."

"That..." Jasper pauses for a moment, mint-green eyes staring down at the dough. "That actually makes sense."

I snort. "Yeah, that's why I said it."

Ticing, I nearly cut my own hand with the knife I literally just picked up to cut the strawberries with, but manage to jerk my other one back in time.

I'm very used to this, because again, I'm not oblivious to the fact that I'm in culinary, but this is one of the reasons that Jasper doesn't cook with me much, so he's not.

"Are you okay?" He squeaks out, hovering over me in a second's time.

"Jasper, not that I hate your presence, but the closer you are to me when I do this, the bigger the change is that I will literally stab you." I bump him back with my body, turning up to look at him. "So maybe don't stand next to where I'm holding a knife."

"Sorry." My Jitterbug replies sheepishly, giving me a quick peck before moving back. "I definitely don't want to get stabbed."

Rolling my eyes with a small mumbled agreement, I focus more on what I'm doing but once I'm finished, and they're in the oven it's like I can breath again -sometimes I get so stressed about cooking or baking, because of how easily I can fuck it up, that it takes the fun out of it.

It's the biggest difference between the enjoyment I get between cooking and football -with football, the worst I'll do is fumble.

Here I could get hurt, I could ruin a whole dish, I waste food, break things.

It's bullshit.

Puffing out a breath while I watch Jasper set the time, already having told him about the actual logistics of the turnovers before we even started baking, I hop onto the counter top.

Yeah, I could probably stare at his back for hours.

"We don't talk about your family a lot, at least compared to mine." When the musician turns back to me, he only stops momentarily to glance up at my song before looking back down at me with only slightly curiosity edging his features. "Why is that?"

I shrug. "I dunno. I grew up in a crowded house with all of my siblings still at home. I have an annoying twin, protective and loving parents. A good best friend, until we drifted apart- -mother ducklings!- -and a good sport friend that they all liked. What's to talk about?"

"Can you tell me about your life, like growing up until now? Just talk until the timer beeps?" Jasper asks, stepping up between my legs and giving me his puppy-dog eyes despite knowing that's a good twenty minutes. "It's always me talking and not you."

Wrinkling my nose at him, I poke his cheek. "That's because I'm not good at talking."

He continues to give me those eyes and pout at me, arms tight around his waist. "I'll make you a strawberry milkshake if you tell me."

Contemplating for a few moments, I end up nodding. "Deal."

A strawberry milkshake is always worth it.

"Alright, so... Donny and Selene were eleven when I was born and while everyone was fawning over Circe because she was the cutest, pickiest girly girl ever, me and Selene always were roughing it out."

While Atlas has always picked on me, Selene picked on him.

"It was at the peak of mom's career, so we were left alone with Papa, and by the time I was five, there were seven of us already. I think that's why it hit me so hard when she joined the military, because she was like my life-line. Sel was in the room when I was diagnosed, she's the one who spent so many nights teaching me how to bake with our dad, she was cheering for me when I got my first tattoo."

Pulling out the dog tag from around my neck, I make a face as I do so but take the necklace off and hand it to Jasper for him to look at while I'm talking.

I've never willingly handed them to anyone before, but it's not as scary as I've psyched myself up to thinking it would be.

"She joined when she was nineteen, and I was eight. She comes back home once or twice a year, sometimes three times -but it's her version of football or cooking for me. Selene's obsessed with it, but it's cool. She worked hard for it -Lieutenant General Rex in the Marine Corps." I muse. "It does have a good ring to it."

Us Rex's are like that -always entirely involved in what we're doing, even if it's not good for us.

Head tilted to the side, Jasper asks, "Will I ever get to meet her?"

"If you want to, she already knows your name, and probably did all kinds of background searches on you." Explaining this, I smirk at him. "She must think you're good enough, if you're not dead yet."

Blinking for a few moments, processing, Jasper smiles a little nervously. "I think I might be a little intimidated by your sister, Star, but of course I want to meet her. She's really important to you, that much is obvious, so she's important to me too."

Grinning, I nod. "Then you'll definitely meet her. We have a family reunion planned in two months, when everyone, literally everyone, is free. You can come."

"Really?" Jasper grins just as much in reply. "I want to come! And meet Selene, since she's your only sibling I haven't met yet."

"She's my Nyx." I end up blurting. "You know how she helps you? Selene used to help me like that, and she, she used to-" I whistle. "-be home a lot more after joining, it's only once she got around twenty-five, and I was fourteen- -four, four, four- -that she was gone so much. If that, if that makes sense, I guess."

"It does," Jasper replies softly. "I'm glad you had her growing up. It's hard, being a part of a big family, a loving family, but not always feeling loved. Feeling as wanted or as understood as everyone else. I'm grateful that she was there for you, that you had someone to help you like you said she did."

"Yeah, it's just, it's been harder since she was gone, but she's not like gone-gone. It's like she died," Even if she could at any time. "But back then I didn't really even know how to process that my support system was gone."

Jasper doesn't reply, but I know he understands and knows exactly what it's like to lose control.

We both have some scars for the same reason.

"I have six other siblings, so I was never alone. Adonis was born when my parents were still teenagers, so he and Selene probably got the worst parenting out of any of us, which explains a lot. Sawyer, er, Atlas grew up during the time where Jonah was fucking with us all the most, which also explains a lot. Nemesis was always sheltered by Atlas. I was always the weird one compared to Circe, so that probably protected her quite a bit."

"From what?" The musician blinks at me a few times.

I stare back before pulling up my t-shirt sleeve and find the very, very faint scars on my abdomen, the one that circles fully around my body but just like my other scars can't be seen when I'm not tan.

And I'm almost fully un-tanned from the Island, so it's hard.

"This." I say. "When I was fourteen, I- -Christmas lights- -met C-Clark, and all the bad bullying and everything else," Flinching, I gulp and try to stay on track when my shoulders jump in a tic. "Got bad."

Comforting me the best he can at the moment, Jasper hugs me tightly, kissing the side of my head as he pulls away. Grateful, I smile at him and squeeze his shoulder gently.

"I'm okay." Tell him this, I snap my jaw at him. "Because I was-" I growl. "-on the football and hockey team, I was known in the school, I was the only kid with Tourette's, and I was part of a huge family that's known in our town. So people normally paid more- -mother ducklings- -attention to me than Cece, but that's not exactly a good thing."

Shrugging, I nudge my nose against his cheek and it makes him smile a little. "You're strong, Castor."

"Thanks," I scoff, rolling my eyes. "Other than the bullying, and the, the Clark thing, everything was normal. School, work, practice, home, play, school again. Normal kid shit. And then I grew up, went to college and fell in love."

This does make him fully smile, giggling a little bit at my tone.

"But the guy I fell in love with is so weird, like he can barely bake, he's so clumsy, and plays nearly every instrument just because learning how to make sound is fun for him. His families even weirder-"

"Hey!" Jasper exclaims, huffing at me as he squeezes my waist scoldingly. "They're not that weird."

"Your sister learned an entire language just to flirt with her boyfriend, your other sister is so chaotic- -so, so, so- -that she thinks she hasn't truly met someone until she knows their reaction to her pranking them, and your twin thinks that soccer is the best thing in the world, better than-" My head jerks up, and I growl. "-strawberries, that's literally what she said, Jitterbug, that soccer is better than strawberries. To my face."

"Listen," My boyfriend starts carefully. "Just because she doesn't have a strawberry addiction doesn't make her weird. There's plenty of other reasons why she's a weirdo."

"First, that does make her weird, second, you're just proving my point more. And third," I grab onto his jaw again, narrowing my eyes. "Is there a single person you know that's 'normal' other than your uncle Elijah?"

With wide eyes, he asks, "You think Tio Eli is normal?"

"No, but I think he's normal compared to everyone else in your family." 

My hand tighten on his jaw, fingers clawing him for a moment in a tic, and I rub the area after in apology. 

"Your mom is an orange freak, your dad pretends he's mean because why? We've already went over your sisters. All your cousins-" I whistle, then say 'Scarlette' in a weird tone. "-are the weirdest people I've met, or the calmest emotionally odd humans in the world where people dying are funny but stand up comedians don't cut the cake. Do I need to mention the D'Silvetta's?"

"Tio Auggie is the most normal, average-minded person I have ever met or talked to in my life," Attempting to lie well, but not keeping the mischief out of his eyes, Jasper huffs at me. "Why would you need to mention him, or the D'Silvetta's as a whole?"

"Because they're weird." I deadpan. "Odd. Strange. Eccentric. Abnormal. Idiosyncratic. Unconventional. Outlandish. Offbeat. Freak- -freak, freak, freak!- -quirky. Zany. Wacky. Atypical. Deviant. Irregular. Outré-"

"Okay, I get it. I'm telling Viv," He mutters but not because he's trying to hide what he says. "But I get it."

"You do that." Clearly amused, I squish his cheeks together. "I'm sure when I tell her you called her normal, she'll be more offended."

Knowing I'm right, but not wanting to say it, Jasper just waves his finger at me. "We're talking about me again, right now that's supposed to be a no-no. You owe me a life story, sir."

That's when the oven starts beeping, and it makes me grin at him. "Saved by the bell."

Cheekily in reply, Jasper growls and once again I'm unable to help it as I growl back. Flipping him off but seeing the suggestive look in his eye, I kick at the side of his legs. "Pull them out of the oven so I don't have to."

What makes me really smirk is when he immediately does as asked.

"I'll tell you everything eventually, but my story's not as exciting as you think it is, Jitterbug."

"That's okay, my star," He glances back to me. "I never said I needed it to be exciting anyway."

Thinking for a few moments, my view only consisting of my boyfriend and strawberries turnovers, I jump down from the counter with an all too boring story in mind and a half-assed smile on my face.

"I started making these when I was four, before I was even getting tics, and to me it was the most interesting thing in the world. They- -strawberries- -were the first thing my dad ever baked, so I think that's why he taught us all it first too. Old habits die hard. And anyways, I could barely hold a spoon right..."

Jasper listens, looking entirely content just listening.

Maybe talking isn't so bad after all.