Author's Note: for a Tumblr prompt asking for Lucina cooking something, and with future mother-in-law!Cherche interaction.
"Oh, no," Lucina mumbled. "No, no, no."
Smoke was billowing from the cake she had over the fire. She snatched a rag and pulled it off, burning her pinky finger in the process, and then sat down with it on the ground and wondered where she'd gone wrong.
Cake couldn't be ruined so easily, could it? She'd been watching it so carefully.
She grabbed a fork and poked at it to see if any had actually been burned, and a great deal of it crumbled. She let out a sigh of despair. It had taken her so long to find chocolate in town, and she didn't have time to shop for more ingredients and bake a new cake!
So much for Gerome's birthday surprise. She was such an utter failure.
"Princess?" a gentle voice called. She scrambled to her feet in time to face her worst nightmare.
"Cherche! Oh! Do you need something?"
"I was actually about to ask you that, Your Grace." The woman leaned slightly to peer at the ground behind Lucina. "What is it that you have there?"
"It's nothing," she insisted. "I was just—I simply—"
"It's for Gerome's birthday tomorrow," said Cherche.
Lucina froze. Was this the end? Cherche was an incredible woman who could ride wyverns and sew and use an axe and clean and she always keep her hair neat. She balanced her knighthood with a prim domesticity and Lucina was rather intimidated by her. She was sure Cherche wouldn't approve of her feelings for Gerome. She could keep him safe with a blade, yes, but one day the war would be over, and then what use would she be? She couldn't even make a simple cake.
"Yes," she finally had to admit. "I've never baked before, but I thought I would try it. Sometimes he gets so…melancholic. Tomorrow should be happy for him."
"As luck would have it," Cherche said with a smile, "I was going to make him a cake, too. If we make it together, I can show you how to do it properly."
"But I've burned all my ingredients. I have nothing to offer."
"That's all right. It is only fitting that we do it together, no? As the two women who love him the most?"
Lucina blushed but managed to nod. And when Cherche smiled again, she smiled back. For the first time, a situation wasn't as bad as she'd expected.