[SYNOPSIS: In the months proceeding Novisor's demise, Aiden is finally able to resume his studies at Crewmate Community College...which means its back to lectures, papers and assignment deadlines all over again, and he's STILL not sure what he wants to major in. On a rare occasion when he has a day to himself, he decides to stop in a new bakery just off campus to settle his nerves...only to find that it's run by someone he knows.]

[LOCATION: Crewmate Community College & the surrounding vicinity]

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"Alright, let's see how I'm gonna do this...If I can skip Professor Sol's computer science lecture, that gives me an extra hour to work on my thesis on paranormal activity. He won't notice I'm not there, he's too busy ranting...That's what? A quarter done? 1,000 words down, at least 4,000 more to go. Maybe more. Depending on what direction it goes in...Then I have to be at the lab at 9:15, and with both Clinical Lab Science and Analytical Chemistry combined I probably won't be out of there until 3. That's fine, the next Parapsychology lecture isn't until 4, so I'll have some more time to work on that thesis...Or should I get lunch in that window instead? Dang it, I'd be pressed for time if I did. That paper's due in four days."

Aiden mumbled all of this to himself as he paced slowly down the sidewalk and into the shopping district. It was Sunday, so some of the stores were closed for the day. That was fine; he didn't come here with an aim to buy anything anyway. He came here to think. It was the one day of the week he had to clear his head and escape the hustle and bustle on campus. But given everything he had to work up to in the week ahead, he also needed this day to plan his next course of action.

...And when he laid everything out like that, he realized just how packed his schedule was.

"Shoot, and the Chemistry exam is on Friday! I'll need to cram after I get back from the lecture, I'm behind on that...Then what? By then it'd be past sundown. I can work more on my thesis until 10 maybe? Wait, what'll I have for dinner? The food court isn't open that late. Maybe Punk has some leftover ramen noodles in the cabinet, I could nosh on those..."

At the thought of food, his stomach growled...He hadn't been eating quite as much over the past week since he'd been so engrossed in his studies.

"Two years of demon possession, six months of physical therapy, and now this...Eugh..."

His gait slowed to a crawl as his mental exhaustion caught up to him. He was tired, hungry, and run down; he could feel a headache starting to come on already, in fact. Not surprising, with him sitting at a computer screen for so long writing and rewriting sentences for his paper. Maybe something to eat would do him some good. Yeah, one last big meal before the chaos set in next week.

...An appetizing smell caught his attention from one of the buildings to his left.

It was one of the few small food joints open on Sunday: a two-story cottage with turquoise walls. It could have been mistaken for someone's house if not for the hanging sign out front.

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MOTHER'S PASTRY KITCHEN

Freshly baked cookies, pies,
breads and more!                       

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Cakes

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"Heh...'Mother's' Kitchen, huh? Wonder if she'd like this place...?"

Aiden shrugged and decided to step inside; he was fond of baking things, so he might as well see if this place was up to speed. Besides, he probably needed a bit of a sugar rush to help him formulate a plan going forward.

When he opened the door, the bell at the top of it jingled. He could hear someone rummaging around behind the counter, and the sound of an oven door slamming shut made him jump a bit before whoever was back there rose up to face him.

...And the sight of who it was made him jump again!

"Oh, hey there Aiden! Haven't seen you around the servers lately since you've been back on your feet."

"Wait-Mother?  You're...you WORK here?"

"Oh, I don't just work here, pumpkin. I OWN the place."

"You-!?  Well, I guess the sign out front should've clued me in," Aiden realized. "Man, I didn't know you ran a bakery!"

"Well it hasn't been up and running for very long. I just moved into this place two months ago, and the business has been up and running for barely four weeks."

"You LIVE here, too!?, Like, all the time!?"

"Sure do. The kids have the entire upstairs to play after they get back from school...although I do have to persuade them to stay away from the customers and not terrorize them during the one hour they're here before we close. Third day of business, Franklin managed to climb over the baby gate upstairs and go after someone ordering a batch of cupcakes with a plastic knife. Haven't seen that lady since...He got a very long timeout for that one."

"I can imagine..."

"So what've you been up to lately, Aiden?" Mother asked him. "Studies going well?"

"Eh, yeah..." he replied, slumping over with exhaustion at the mere mention of them. "But it's a lot to deal with. I'm taking three courses right now: Clinical Laboratory Science, Analytical Chemistry and Parapsychology. Got an exam coming up for the first one and a thesis to write for the third with my first deadline being this upcoming Thursday. I've been so deep down the study hole, I forget to eat half of the time...Come to think of it, what did I even have for breakfast this morning...? There was an apple in the fridge, so I had that, and then..."

He paused in realization.

"...Shoot. I think that apple was, like...the only thing I've even had to eat today. Crazy stuff, huh Mother?"

He turned to look her in the eye, and immediately shrank back when he saw how MORTIFIED she looked.

"Uh...you good?"

"ONE apple, and it's already 2:00-!? Aiden, you've gotta eat something, ANYTHING, you're going to starve yourself!!"

"Well, that's why I came in," the brown crewmate shrugged. "What've you got?"

"Just about everything you could imagine. Maybe more. It's all in the displays dear, pick anything you'd like and as much of it. Heaven knows you need it."

"Will do."

He took a peak inside the glass to see what was available, and was immediately impressed by the huge variety of things packed into the holding space. Mother was right; there WAS just about everything there that he could imagine. There were breakfast pastries on the left side: scones, donuts, bagels and muffins of various flavors adorned the shelves, along with a few croissants in its corner. On the right were the really decadent sweets; pies, cookies, and similar confections were on display, some of them extravagantly decorated with fruits and intricate frosting patterns.

As Aiden scanned the arrangement behind the glass, he found his attention drawn to a chocolate-chocolate chip muffin.

"Ooooh. I think I'll take this one please," he said, pointing to it.

"The chocolate-chocolate chip muffin? A good choice, young man," Mother told him, reaching into the display to withdraw it and wrap it up. "Consider yourself lucky; that was my last one! You wouldn't imagine  just how popular they are."

"I guess I'd have to stop by next time you make 'em and find out."

"Well, I'll have another batch ready tomorrow afternoon. If you manage to find an hour to yourself amongst your nightmarish-sounding schedule, feel free to stop by again...Will this be for here or to go?"

"Here, please. I gotta sit down for a few. What do I owe you?"

"Tell you what, this first one's on the house since it sounds like you need it. Just tell me whatcha think!"

"Well, if you insist. Thanks, Mother."

He parked himself at one of the tables off to the left of the shop, pulled away the paper lining from the base and eagerly took a bite from it.

"Mmph...Ah, man. This," he muffled out in between bites. "This is the best thing I've eaten all week. 12 outta 10."

"Guess I've got a regular customer, then," Mother grinned. "Thanks for the review, dear. It's always good to hear I've brightened up someone's day...Or week, in your case. Hee hee."

The bell rang, and Aiden turned his head to see someone else walk in...or barge in, as was more accurate.

It was a brassy yellow crewmate with a camouflage shirt and an intimidating aura about him, and he seemed to be in a bit of a hurry as he approached Mother at the front desk.

"Saw the sign out front," he stated bluntly. "You still open for business?"

"For the next three hours," Mother nodded. "...Say, wait a second...You're Veteran's dad, right?"

"In the flesh. You, uh...can probably imagine why I didn't bring him along."

"Doesn't take a rocket scientist," she chuckled. "Now. What can I get for you today?"

"Well, the missus is having a birthday. I wanted to get her a cake, but most of the ones in the bakery section at Costcrew's are a bit too sweet...I need something that tastes authentic. Homemade. Think you can manage that?"

"Homemade recipe, ey? That won't be a problem...What flavor did you have in mind?"

"She loves lemons, so probably a lemon-flavored cake."

"Got it..." Mother nodded, pulling out a notepad to write down the details. "Dimensions?"

"Not too big. It's the three of us, then three guests coming over, and I don't want any leftovers going to waste."

"So maybe a classic 9x9 inch cake? Two layers?"

"That should do."

"Square or circular?"

"Circular, please."

"Any decorations you might like?"

"Nothing in particular. Just make it look, eh...peppy, I guess."

"Make it look 'peppy'..." Mother echoed, pencil still scribbling away. "Gotcha. And how soon will you need this cake?"

"By tomorrow afternoon."

"Alri-wait, tomorrow?"

"Yes, I apologize for the short notice. I...thought today was May 21st and not the 22nd, and her birthday is on the 23rd. So I thought I had a bit more time until I realized my mistake...All of the other places are either closed or not up to standard, so I think you're my last hope."

"Well...I close up for the day in 3 hours, but I'll see what I can do."

"How much will it be?"

"Let's see..." she mumbled, scribbling out the math on her notepad. "For a two-layer single-tier cake, 9X9 inches and custom decorations, minus today's discount, that'd be about...$36.00."

"Here's a fifty," Veteran's dad stated, slapping a green Grant on the counter. "Get it to me by tomorrow and the whole thing's yours."

"Well...I guess I'd better get started."

"If you have any issues, just call and let me know. Here's my number, I've gotta run. Have a good rest of the day, ma'am."

With that, the gruff militant was out the door and headed back to his olive green SUV parked outside...Mother and Aiden exchanged glances with one another before the former spoke up.

"Welp, guess I'll be spending the next three hours working on that," she shrugged. "Hope I can pick up the kids from their dad's during all this. He doesn't know I've got this order in, and I DO NOT  have the time to call and hear him talk over the phone for half an hour about his new dalmatian..."

In a flash, she started gathering what she needed together: flour, sugar, and baking powder were all lined up on her workspace haphazardly, and she stole a few flips through the pages of her recipe book in between grabbing the wet ingredients from the fridge.

"Wow...serious order, huh?"

"You could say that, dear," Mother replied, barely even stopping to look at him.

"Yeah...uh...Do you think you might need some help?"

"I just might, but Lord knows where I'd get it right now. I'm the only employee in this business, hon', I can't just pull a stranger off the street and tell him to get baking."

"Well...I'm not a stranger," Aiden shrugged. "If you think you'd need it, I could probably spare just a couple hours."

"Oh, I could never ask you for that," she insisted, already measuring out the flour into a bowl. "You've got so much on your plate already! Everything except  food!"

"Well, yours isn't exactly empty either. And I could use a, uh...distraction, to be honest. At least until 6:30 tonight."

"It wouldn't be right of me, Aiden. Especially since-AAH!"

Her jittery hands fumbled with the bag of sugar she was now holding, and the next thing she knew half of it was on the floor...Once again, she and Aiden looked at one another, a bit more intensely than before.

"...Y'know what, yeah, maybe I do need some help with this," she squeaked. "I'll go...get the broom. Entrance is on the right..."

Mother carefully set what remained of the sugar back on the counter and then slowly walked away to fetch the broom, and Aiden took her place in the kitchen...The first thing he did was look at the open recipe book and see what exactly they were working with.

"Flour's already in...2 teaspoons of baking powder. Seems simple enough."

That ingredient was already out on the counter, ready to be used...But the measuring spoons were not, so he pulled open a couple of drawers and started scanning for them. Fortunately they weren't hard to find, sitting right on top of the rightmost drawer. That was good; Aiden didn't want to make them into a cluttered mess.

The brown crewmate checked, then double checked that he was using a teaspoon and not the table spoon to measure out the baking powder, but as soon as he was absolutely sure he scraped off the excess, dumped it in with the flour, then repeated the process one more time before moving on.

"Half a teaspoon of baking soda. Alright, different this time...uhh...it's not out yet."

Fortunately for him, this was the exact moment Mother re-entered the kitchen with a broom and dustpan. She seemed to have calmed down from the initial shock of the sugar spill, but still looked visibly disgruntled.

"Um...where do you keep the baking soda?" Aiden asked, still a bit wary of her disposition.

"Cabinet just to your right, second shelf. Should be in the front."

"Got it."

He opened the cabinet door, and lo and behold, there it was next to the big container of kosher salt. He took that out too, figuring they would need a pinch, then added in the baking soda into the dry mix.

"Alright...That's cleaned up," the cyan crewmate sighed, tossing the mess into the garbage bin. "This floor probably needs to be swept anyways...How's it coming along?"

"Flour, baking powder, baking soda, aaaaand  one third teaspoon of salt," he announced, plopping in the latter as he answered.

"That should be all of the dry ingredients. I remember using this recipe once before when I made something for Rose and BDay."

"Wait...what about the sugar? Isn't that  a dry ingredient?"

"Uh, well technically  yes, but it gets added in with the wet ingredients," Mother explained to him. "It has something to do with stuff in the gluten proteins...basically it's to make sure the cake is a cake and not a hunk of sweet bread."

"Huh..."

He checked, and found that the granulated sugar was listed towards the very bottom of the list alongside the wet ingredients.

"I've learned a few things about protein synthesis inhibition in chemistry. Might have something to do with that."

"Well, you'd know more about it than I would...Oh, could you fetch the vegetable oil while I get the other things from the fridge? Should be in the bottom cabinet beneath the counter."

"Sure thing."

He fetched the...sizeable  container of vegetable oil from the lower cabinet and hoisted it onto the counter with a grunt.

"Wow, that's...a lot of oil."

"Things are cheaper in the long run when you buy them in bulk, dear," Mother explained as she pulled out another bowl. "We only need a quarter cup, though. I prefer my recipes to not use TOO much of the stuff, y'know?"

"Gotcha. Need me to measure it out?"

"Why don't you whisk together the dry ingredients and we'll get to that once I gather the rest of the wet ingredients? The whisk is in that ceramic utensil holder to the left of the toaster oven."

"I see it!"

He grabbed the steel whisk from its spot and started mixing the dry ingredients together, eyes shifting to Mother every few seconds as she gathered the rest of what they needed from the fridge and lined it up on the counter.

"Butter, buttermilk, two lemons, eggs...Would you mind grabbing the vanilla extract from the spice rack when you're done with that, Aiden?"

"Is that what these hanging shelves on the wall are?"

"Yep, that's it! Pardon the mess, I've got to get a bigger one."

"Eh, I've seen worse...You should see Punk's nightstand, he shoves everything in there from papers to soap and then wonders why he can't close the drawers on it."

"Good grief, sounds like you've got yourself a handful with him," Mother huffed, grabbing a ceramic bowl from a lower cabinet and chucking two sticks of butter into it. "Here, how about you melt this in the microwave for me? Heat it up in 15 second increments and stir in between until it's all liquid. I'll measure out the wet ingredients while you do that so they can all go in afterwards."

"Doesn't sound too hard."

He took the bowl from her and stuck it in the microwave, watching it through the window as the time ticked down.

"How long's it been since we started?" he asked.

"Let's see..." Mother replied, looking up at the clock on the wall. "3:21. Only five minutes? Wow, not bad."

"Guessing it'd have been longer on your own?"

"More than likely...But that's just how the business is right now. I'll get the hang of all the multitasking eventually."

"I dunno, Mother. I've been doing it in college for two years plus six months, and I'm still  not used to it."

"Well, you're young yet. Still figuring things out, heh..."

Ring a ling

"...Was that the door again?"

"Uh-oh. Um...Here Aiden, why don't you start adding the wet ingredients into the large bowl? I have them all measured out in their cups!"

"But the butter's not-"

"Just give it one more go run in the microwave, that should do it!"

Before Aiden could reply, Mother had already turned and made her way to the front desk to help the stranger there.

"Uh...well, okay."

He put the microwave on one more time, then took a peek at the instructions.

"M'kay, mix the butter, buttermilk, oil and vanilla first, then  add the eggs...I wonder why you can't just throw them all in there at once? Hm...Maybe it has to do with how it reacts to the water and oil."

One of the things he learned about in chemistry was an "emulsion," a mixture of substances that normally wouldn't mix; not unless they underwent a special processing method or a stabilizing agent was added...Maybe the eggs and sugar were meant to be stabilizers, and the oil and milk just had to be stirred first so the mix would be more smooth? During his classes, they never really applied much of what they learned in cooking, so he wouldn't have known first hand.

"Phew. Nothing complicated out there, thank heavens. The lady just wanted an eclair."

Mother returned from the front, looking a bit less frazzled now.

"Was she anyone we know?"

"Eh. I don't think so. Probably just someone from the neighborhood...How's this coming along?"

"I've got everything in this bowl except the eggs...Oh, and the lemon zest! We still need that."

"I'll take care of the zest if you..."

She trailed off as she looked back down at her open book."

"...Shoot. Do you know what we forgot to do?"

"Um...what?"

"Preheat the oven," she answered, raising a palm up to her visor. "Agh...This isn't the first time I've made this mistake either. If you don't turn the oven on before preparing the mix, then you have to wait for it to get hot and THAT'S  just a waste of your time."

"Well, the batter's still got a ways to go. If you turn it on now, I'd think it would still be almost done heating up by the time it's finished." Aiden assured her.

"I guess it's a good thing I realized it when I did..."

Aiden started cracking the eggs into the bowl, mind just barely tuning out the sounds of the oven beeping as Mother set it up...This was all pretty surreal, now that he thought of it. If someone had told him earlier that day he'd be spending his one day off helping out in a bakery, he'd have thought they were out of their mind...Then again, if he went back in time and told his 2018 self what he was getting into when buying that dodgy laptop, he probably would've laughed, too.

Come to think of it, he had really never done anything quite like this. His dad wasn't exactly a stellar cook; sure, he knew how to throw a few things into a crockpot and turn it into dinner, but Mother was on another level with her culinary arts...There were days he wished his own mother was still alive to teach him things like these. He was too young when she passed to remember any of the moments they shared, but somehow he remembered what she looked like even without a picture to go off of.

"Mind handing me that bowl for a second, dear?"

"Huh-? Oh, yeah, here you go, Mom."

"Thank y-"

She paused.

Aiden tensed once he realized what he'd said.

"...Uh...Whoops. Brain fart."

"To be honest I almost didn't even catch it, I'm so used to being called that."

She snorted out a laugh and shrugged as Aiden slid the bowl over to her, then took a fresh lemon in one hand and a small grater in the other to zest into the mix...Aiden watched curiously as the yellow flakes of lemon skin tumbled into the mix.

"And last, but certainly not least," Mother announced. "One and two-thirds cups of sugar. Care to do the honors?"

"My pleasure."

He measured out the final ingredient in two separate cups and dumped them in. Mother grabbed the whisk and started stirring it all in.

"So, I've got a question," Aiden spoke up. "Do you ever get any, like...weird customers in here? Like just kinda quirky, I mean full on 'guy who would show up at a convenience store at 3 am' weird."

"Well...I do have this one story," the cyan crewmate nodded. "Oop, time to combine everything together! Pass me the dry mix, would ya?"

He slid the bowl of dry ingredients over, and she stopped it with her palm before picking it up and dumping some into the second bowl.

"Gotta incorporate it in parts so it turns out smooth...Anyways, I've never actually had anyone that strange come into the shop. Not yet, at least; this is a more upper-crust part of the city, so most of the people who come in are at best pleasant and at worst snotty."

"Ah."

"However," she continued. "...I did get a strange phone call from someone about two weeks ago. Whoever it was said they were a member of some congregation, and wanted to order a few samples of my vanilla almond cake. Said they wanted to see if it was 'up to their standards.' I offered to send them a miniature sample set, but they refused to give me an address...Instead, they wanted me to drop the package off in the back of the library; said they would have someone there to meet me with the money at six o'clock."

"Jeez...Sounds more like a drug deal than a cake sale."

"Anyways, I'm already iffy about the whole ordeal, but I'm also  struggling to start out and get some earnings in, so I decide to go out of morbid curiosity. Not without one of my kitchen knives, though...So I get there just before six with a half dozen little bite-sized cakes packaged and ready to sell. And I see someone standing there in some kind of...cloak. It was hooded, so I couldn't make out much of their face. Though judging by their hands, it's safe to say the exosuit beneath it was pink."

"What happened next?"

"Well, when the clock struck 6, they motioned for me to come closer. He asked me in this...thick British accent if I 'had the goods.' I hand them to him, he hands me twenty dollars for the package, he nods and runs off with the cakes...I thought that was the end of it."

"And...was it?"

"Not quite. A couple of days later, I got a slip of paper in the mail; not even in an envelope. They must've sent another one of their 'people' to put it in my mailbox themselves."

"What did it say?"

"It said the cake samples were some of the best they'd ever tasted, and they wanted to know if I wanted to consider becoming a member of their group. Apparently, their very serious about the quality of their baked goods...They slapped a phone number to the note; said if I wanted to join to give them a call. But if not, to expect them to contact me again for another order."

"Aaaand, did you call them or...?"

"Aiden, I have a bake shop, two kids and a mortgage to worry about right now," Mother smirked. "The last thing I need is to get involved in some strange cult  right now. They'll just have to call me. Ha!"

"Heh...I guess they will. Man, that just might top the gas station example in terms of weirdness."

BEEP BEEP BEEP

They both turned their heads sharply at the sound of the oven blaring.

"Finished heating already? Wow...Guess I'd better ready the pans!"

The cyan bean whipped out a pair of cake pans from one of the lower drawers, then reached into one of the cabinets for some cooking spray and thoroughly coated each of them before lifting the mixing bowl and dividing its contents between each pan with a slightly unsteady hand.

"This part always makes me a little nervous, picking up the bowl," she jested. "When you're this far in, the LAST thing you want is for everything to come spilling out."

"Eesh. I can imagine," Aiden cringed. "...Has that ever happened before? As of this place being open, I mean."

"Well..."

Mother opened the oven door, stuck both pans inside and adjusted the timer before answering him.

"...Almost. It was a simple order: a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I had to stop and use the restroom halfway through the mixing, and I guess I didn't dry my hands all the way. I was about to combine everything, and the bowl with the wet ingredients slipped right out of my hand! Caught it with the other one just in time before it spilled out."

"Yikes."

"That was EXACTLY what I said at the time!"

"Really?"

"Yes, it was the first thing to come out of my mouth after everything almost got spent! But believe me, there was a lot mre going through my mind; I couldn't say it because there was a family of six in the dining area at the time!"

That got a chuckle out of the brown crewmate, and Mother joined right in a moment later.

"Ha ha...Oh, boy. Working in the food industry can be crazy business sometimes, as much as I love what I do."

"Did you take any courses for it?"

"You mean college courses? Ah, well...No, not really. It was sort of a process of moving up the ranks for me. I started off as a hobbyist, then I worked in a couple of store bakeries, two hotels, then I took a course online. And between all of that, I was married and having my sons, so it got to be a handful for a while."

"Man. Guess you had it kinda rough yourself, even if you weren't in college."

"The way I see it, your first steps into the great wide open are pretty rough either way. Not going to college limits what you can do, and going to college...well...I don't need to tell you, do I?"

"Nope."

"Didn't think so," Mother grinned. "...OH! I just realized. We need to start making the frosting! Grab two sticks of butter from the fridge, Aiden, they'll need to sit and soften!"

"Gotcha. And how much time do we have until the cakes are done?"

She looked at the timer again.

"28 minutes left...We've got plenty of time to get it all ready. Besides, the cakes will have to get wrapped up and put in the freezer before we frost them, so that bumps it up to 40."

"Wait, you freeze them? Instead of icing them when they're fresher?"

"I certainly do. It's because-"

"Wait. Don't tell me...I think I know," the brown crewmate realized, cogs in his brain beginning to turn. "...When you take a hot cake out of the oven, it's steaming, right? And that steam is moisture leaving the cake...So by wrapping them in plastic and sticking them in the freezer to cool, you're trapping the moisture in with the cake and cooling it back down to a liquid state so that the cake turns out more moist!"

"BINGO!! You got it!"

"Ha! Guess Dad was right; chemistry really DOES pay off...!"

____________________________________________________________

...

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"So what did you say the base layer was for again?"

"The crumb layer? It's exactly what it sounds like: it keeps the cake together and prevents any crumbs that might break away from showing into the surface of the cake."

"Oh, yeah...Speaking of which, are we ready for that second layer yet?"

"Almost there..." Mother mumbled as she filled in another gap. "Aaaaand  done. Alright...This goes back in the fridge for another ten minutes, and in the mean time we decide how to decorate this thing!"

She picked the cake up off the turntable and brought it back to the fridge, then pulled a couple of peculiar, sausage-shaped bags from the freezer.

"Is that...more frosting?" Aiden asked, eyeing the bright colors of the tubes.

"Sure is. I used these about a week ago for a couple of birthday cakes," Mother explained. "The freezer keeps it all fresh for about six weeks before I have to consider chucking it. But I haven't even been open for that long. Hee hee~!"

"White, blue and more yellow...What do you think we should do with them?"

"Well, I do have a book of templates we can go off of. It's over here outside the kitchen entrance; customers can look through it, too."

"Like the ones you see in retail bakeries?"

"Pretty much. Let's go have a look!"

She lead him back out of the kitchen and over to the stand where the catalog was, flipping over to the birthday section.

"Let's see here. A lot of these are square cakes, so if we pick one of those we'd have to tweak it a bit..." she mumbled as they scanned through the pages. "...Oh, this one with the crescent rose border looks nice!"

"It does look pretty cool," Aiden nodded. "...But Vet's dad said he wanted it to be 'peppy,' right? This one falls more into the, uh...what's that word TheGentleman uses sometimes that means, like, fancy and upper crust? Think it starts with a 'P'..."

"Posh?"

"YES! That's the word! Yeah...Heck, a design like that would look at home on a wedding cake, probably."

"True. And it is  one of the more time-consuming designs," Mother agreed, turning the pages again. "Ah, I remember my wedding cake...Each of the three layers had a different pattern: roses, ruffles and curtains from top to bottom. Nothing super fancy, but picking it out did help fuel my passion!"

"What flavor was it?"

"Get a load of this...White chocolate raspberry. Oh, it was DECADENT."

"Wow. That does  sound decadent..." the brown crewmate replied, mouth starting to water at the mere thought of it. "...Oh, hey! How about that one with the balloons and rainbow?"

"This one? Eh...it looks kind of childish, don't you think? Besides, I don't have that many different frosting colors to work with right now; I'd have to make separate batches of red, orange and green, and that'd take us another hour."

"Oh, oof. Yeah, scratch that, then."

"Hmmm...I don't know, Aiden. Most of what I'm seeing here is either too time-consuming or doesn't quite fit the memo. Too fancy, too kiddish, to much detail to fit everything in..."

The cyan crewmate flipped through a couple more pages, then let out a frustrated huff and closed the book.

"I'm not really sure what we're going to do. I might have to look for some ideas online."

"Heh heh. Well, if the guy didn't want to be anymore specific than that, how about you just cover the whole thing in polka dots?" Aiden giggled.

"Psh. Sure, Aiden. Like that's going to..."

...Mother stopped, visor widening in realization.

"...What, was it something I said?"

"You better believe it. Aiden, I think you just might be onto something."

"Wait, really?"

"He said 'peppy.' Polka dots are pretty cheerful-looking, aren't they? Heck, they even look a little like sprinkles! And the colors I have to work with right now aren't too garish, but not too bland...!"

She snapped her fingers.

"Let's do it! Grab the bags and the piping tips from the silverware drawer! ALL of them!"

Aiden saluted, then flung open the drawer and grabbed all of the metal tips in one handful and the bags in another before laying them out on their work space. Mother pulled the cake back out of the refrigerator and set it down, eyes shifting from the cake to the piping tips to the frosting bags in quick succession.

"Ooooh, hoo hoo, I can see it now. I'll do some rosette borders with the white; it stands out against the cream color of the main frosting. Then I'll use all three colors for the dots, and the blue for the writing on the top! HA! This is gonna be good. Aiden, hand me that icing spatula over there. Time to deck this thing out!"

"You mean this thin knife-looking thing?"

"You got it, hon'!"

The moment she had the spatula in hand, she stuck in into the frosting bowl and scooped out a HEAPING glob of it, dropping it onto the top of the cake.

"Whoa, you just drop a big pile onto the top like that?

"Sure do. It's the best way to get a lot of frosting on quick! Now watch this: I sort of push it out towards the edges and it falls over, and that's where I smooth it out. This part is a bit meticulous; ya gotta fill in whatever little air pockets form from the bubbles as you spread everything out."

"It, uh...does look pretty meticulous. When will this part be done?"

"Might be a bit..." the cyan bean replied, spinning the turntable as she smoothed out the top. "You mind checking the front?"

He flashed her a thumbs up and peeked around the corner into the main area...No one in sight.

"No one here. I'm guessing most people are hanging out at home today," he figured. "It is Sunday, after all; not a lot of places are open...That begs the question; why exactly are YOU open on Sunday?"

"Oh, it's just a temporary thing until business really gets going. Sort of like a business strategy; more time open means more chances to sell, after all! Hopefully I'll be able to change that in another month or so, though. Maybe by then I'll even have some people submit their applications."

"Ghee...You at least take off Saturdays, right?"

"Oh, yeah. Ya can't completely forgo some time to cool down; same can be said of you, given you're here."

"Heh heh, yeah...How's the frosting coming along?"

"It's looking pretty good, Aiden! I just have to smooth out the sides a little bit more..."

She glided the edge of the spatula along the side of the cake, letting it pick up whatever misshapen bumps in the surface might be left after patching up all of the holes. Finally she removed it, and the only thing that was left along the surface was a barely visible seam along the side.

"Finished. Now it's time for the fun part...Hand me the bags and tips, wouldja?"

"Got 'em right here."

The cyan crewmate got straight to work, cutting off the tips of each bag and fitting them with a metal end before dropping one of the frosting logs in each one. She handed Aiden the one filled with bright yellow frosting, fitted with a small round opening.

"You ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

And with that said, each of them started dotting the cake with tiny pearls of colored icing, Mother slowly rotating the cake on its stand as they went along until there wasn't an inch of the confection left that wasn't sufficiently spotted.

"Wow. It came out looking pretty good!"

"And it's not even finished yet," Mother nodded, reaching for the white bag with the star-shaped tip. "Question, Aiden. How good is your cursive?"

"My cursive?" he echoed back. "Uh...Well, I've been playing around with my signature a lot lately, so I've had some practice. Why?"

"Well, I was just wondering, by chance...if you'd perhaps like to add on the pièce de résistance on the top of the cake: the writing that says 'happy birthday.'"

"You want ME to do that part? Oh, oh wow, uh...Well, alright. If I can do it in ink, I can do it in icing, I guess!"

As he made his decision, Mother piped out the last spun florette on the top edge of the cake. She grinned proudly, pulled Aiden over and presented the spotted, but otherwise blank cake to him.

"It's all yours," she told him. "Let's see what you've got."

"Alright..."

Slowly, he brought the tip to the surface of the frosting...As honored as he was, Aiden was slightly nervous about making it look messy. He knew that frosting couldn't exactly be erased, after all...Well, neither could pen ink, but they were still a bit different.

Keeping his hand as steady as he could, he finished spelling out the final "y" at the end, even adding on a little swirl at the end with the excess hanging off the tip...The two stepped back, quietly looking over their work.

"So, what do you think?" the freshman asked. "Did it come out well?"

"Aiden...I'd say this is the closest to perfect I've ever made without a template. I bet Veteran's dad is gonna LOVE it."

"I sure hope so. Heck, and now you get to keep that entire fifty he gave you!"

"Yeah..."

Mother trailed off, eyes shifting from the cake to Aiden, then to the empty mixing bowls he used and then back to him again.

"...Yeah...about that," she continued, pulling out her wallet. "I don't think I'd have ever been able to get this thing done in time if it weren't for you. Therefore..."

She separated a few loose bills, finally pulling out $14 and handing it to him.

"...I believe the remainder should actually go to you."

"Wait, what? No, no, I...I can't accept that."

"Hon', you went out of your way to give me a hand, so I think it's the least I can do...Besides, unpaid labor is kind of illegal in this country, you know," she chortled. "Just go ahead and take it; get yourself something decent for dinner."

"Uh, well...ha...If you insist, I guess," he conceded, taking the notes in his hand and tucking them away into the pocket of his exosuit. "...Thanks, Mom."

"..."

"...Crap, I did it again."

"I guess I've got a reputation under my belt," she giggled, covering the cake they made and putting the whole thing back in the fridge. "Though now that you mention it, I'm curious...Is there a mother in the picture at your house? I've never heard your dad mention anything about being married."

"Yeah, no. He's a widower."

"Oh, dear..."

"I was little when it happened; don't remember much about it. Although I do sometimes wonder what I missed out on...My guess is that if she were still around, I'd be doing more stuff like this day to day."

"What, doing things in the kitchen?"

"Exactly. So, uh...Thanks for that, too, y'know?"

He flashed her an awkward thumbs up as he exited the kitchen door and re-entered the main floor. Mother followed him out at a distance, the two of them maintaining eye contact all the while...It was amazing, really; the loss of a mother, then the loss of his own soul, and now teetering on the loss of his vitality with the boatload of academics he had to tackle right after the last cataclysm. And still, he kept pushing...As strong as he was, though, Mother could tell there was a cavity somewhere in his heart left in place of what he'd lost.

...Perhaps she might be able to fill it in. At least a little.

"...You're very welcome, Aiden. If there's ever a time you think you need me for anything, you come right to me, alright?"

"Gotcha."

As he nodded, Aiden caught a glimpse of the clock from the corner of his visor.

"...4:16. Guess I better be making my way back to campus before it gets too late; still have that thesis to work on...Might stop at a deli on my way back."

"I've got to wrap things up here myself; mess needs to be cleaned, store needs to be prepped for closing and then I have to go pick up the boys."

"You need help with the mess?"

"No no, you've got your own stuff to worry about. I've got this."

"Alright. Cake's in good shape?"

"Top notch. Just has to set in the fridge until it's ready for pickup tomorrow...Stop in again anytime you want, alright Aiden?"

"Will do. See you again, I'd say...next week, same time?"

"Sounds good to me," she smiled. "...Have a great day. Be safe out there."

"Oh, you don't have to tell me twice, ha ha...!"

He opened the door, and was gone within mere moments. But Mother continued to stare at the doorway, as though she could still see him and watch him cross the street.

"...He's a good kid," she mused. "Heh...it's a miracle he and mine get along the way they do..."

____________________________________________________________

...

____________________________________________________________

"Phew...Alright. Kitchen's clean. Cake's setting just fine. I'll have to get a box for it tomorrow...All done, and still ten minutes to closing! If I want to have more days like this, I guess I'd better put up a 'help wanted' sign."

Ring a ling.

That was the door. Hopefully this would be the last customer of the day and it would be an easy order. Mother still had to put up the chairs and sweep before leaving to get Timmy and Franklin, after all, so she slid over to the front desk to greet whoever had triggered the bell.

"...Well, fancy that. I thought of you when I saw the sign out front, but I wasn't expecting it to actually be you."

Mother looked up, and nearly jumped out of her exoskeleton at who she saw.

"Dr. Doktor!  Ha, imagine seeing you here. You JUST missed your son, he was in here for ages then left within the hour!"

"Did he? Well, I suppose he's making the most of his Sunday," the dark figure nodded. "May I trouble you for a blueberry scone?"

"Blueberry scones are out of stock, I'm afraid. We've got cranberry scones and blueberry muffins, though!"

"I suppose I'll try a cranberry scone, then. Given that they're in season."

"Coming right up!"

"Thank you kindly," the masked bean nodded, taking the wrapped good from Mother's hands. "Shame I wasn't here earlier; we'd have had a heck of a conversation with how busy the lot of us are, I'm willing to bet."

"Y'know, I wouldn't mind all three of us meeting up one of these days...Of course, we'd have to find the time."

"Yes, yes..."

He took a curious bite from the baked treat, hand raised to his lower mandible to catch its crumbs.

"Mmm...It's lovely."

"Glad ya think so! Boy, you should've seen Aiden when he bit into my chocolate muffin, you'd swear he thought he was in heaven."

"Heh heh, yes, well...it's a bit soon for that, isn't it?"

"Ahh, yeah. Poor choice of words, I suppose."

"Don't fret over it..." Dr. Doktor assured her, popping the rest of the scone into his mouth. "...So what exactly was he doing here for so long?"

"Well, long story short, he ended up helping me out with a prioritized order I got in while he was still eating. I'm sure Veteran will tell you about it next time we have a game."

"You've got me curious...You know, speaking of which, perhaps we should  arrange a time for all of us to meet. You and your boys and me with Aiden."

"Well I think that'd be fantastic! But with Aiden's crazy college schedule, me keeping up the shop AND my namesake AND  with you being a doctor and all that, how do you think we'll pull that off?"

"Hmm...Well, why don't we all meet up back here, granted it doesn't hurt business?"

"Well, this is also my house," the cyan bean shrugged.

"Is it?"

"Sure is. I guess you guys could pop in one of these Sundays after hours."

"Splendid...Are you free next week?"

"As of now. Aiden said he'd probably be back then too, so that's a nonissue."

"Wonderful. It's a date, then," the masked doctor nodded. "...Well, I won't hold you up. I saw the hours displayed on the door. Same time, same place next week?"

"You betcha!"

"Excellent...Until then, I wish you a good rest of your day."

"You too, Doc. See ya!"

The bell sounded off just one more time as the dark figure exited the establishment and disappeared in the same manner his own son had just before...The moment he was gone, Mother let out a whistle.

"Man, oh man. What a voice he has," she sighed. "...I wonder if he likes white chocolate with raspberries?"

____________________________________________________________

"Hey, Ginge. Tell everyone you didn't go to college without telling them you didn't go to college."

Me:

Aaaaanyways, WOO-HOO! FINALLY IT'S DONE!! And on Christmas too, so you guys get it as a present. XD

I've got a couple more in the works right now, so hopefully it won't be an other eternity until I update again, especially now that I've gotten more used to my new laptop. ^v^

See you guys in the next one. Merry Christmas and Happy 1st day of Hanukkah, everyone!(Hanukkristmas? Yeah, that works...🎄🕎)