Prompt: Lucien tries to cook dinner/ do something domesticated for Jean, or Matthew for Alice.
Jean was finishing up putting the dishes away when she heard the telltale tap of Matthew's cane as he entered the kitchen behind her. It was a Saturday morning, Lucien had left not long before to go into town, and the superintendent was enjoying a rare day of peace and quiet.
"Matthew," she smiled as she turned to face him, drying her hands on a cloth and smoothing down her blouse. "Got much planned for the day?"
Matthew blushed, and although Jean tried to school her features into a neutral expression, she was secretly pleased. She had been quietly watching Matthew over the last few weeks, and if her intuitions were right, there was only one person of whom the thought would cause her friend's usual gruff exterior to soften.
"It's Doctor Harvey's birthday tomorrow, and I'd like to get her a gift," he told her, and Jean had to bite back her delighted smile as Matthew raised a warning eyebrow. "But I'm afraid I'm rather useless when it comes to buying gifts for women."
"Oh Matthew," Jean gave his elbow an encouraging squeeze. "You're not useless, you're just a little out of practice. Have you not seen anything in town you think she would like?"
"I thought about a book, but she's far more well read than I am, I wouldn't know where to start. And I wondered about jewellery, but she doesn't seem to like wearing it," Matthew mused.
"Maybe she's never had someone to buy it for her," Jean replied pointedly, her raised eyebrow emphasising her point. Sensing that this wasn't to be a quick conversation, she poured them both a cup of tea from the pot and took a seat at the kitchen table, gesturing to Matthew to join her.
"I don't think Alice would appreciate a grand gesture like jewellery anyway. It's not like we're courting, and I don't want her to feel I'm being overbearing." He sank into a chair opposite her, and drew his hand over his face dejectedly. "I don't know, Jean."
"Shall I tell you what one of the most thoughtful gifts Lucien gave me was?" Jean leaned forward conspiratorially, and Matthew looked up expectantly. "Before I left for Adelaide, when I went to stay with Christopher and Ruby, I decided to spend the last few days at the Soldier's Hill. It was a difficult time; Lucien and I were both too scared to admit our feelings for one another, and I decided that rather than prolong the awkwardness I would remove myself from the situation. But Lucien turned up at the hotel to visit, and he'd made a basket of scones."
"Lucien bakes scones?" Matthew couldn't help the burst of laughter that escaped his lips. It was hardly an image that fit with the friend he'd known on and off for most of his life.
Jean gave him a pointed look, but it was clear to Matthew from the twinkle in her eye that she was holding back a grin of her own. "Well it was a one off, but yes, he did bake them. With some help from Mrs Toohey, admittedly. But in his own daft way, he showed me that he cared, that despite all the chaos and rushing around that comes with him investigating a case, he had stopped and taken the time to make me something. He could have bought something from a shop, it would have been much easier, but at that moment, he decided that it was more important he spend his time on me than a case, and that was the moment that I knew."
"So it had nothing to do with him chasing down your bus then?" Matthew grinned.
"Well a girl does also like to be on the receiving end of a grand gesture from time to time," Jean's eyes sparkled.
"Very well. But I'm afraid I don't know what Alice's favourite cake would be. And I suspect I'm even worse at baking than Lucien," he added.
"Then it's a very good job that I know that Alice happens to be very fond of lamingtons. And I can show you how to make them this morning, if you'd like?"
"Is it hard?" Matthew asked doubtfully.
"Not at all," Jean laughed as she passed him an apron. "Put this on, roll your sleeves up, and we'll get to it!"
—
Lucien was greeted by a heavenly smell as he returned to the house at lunchtime, and made his way to the kitchen to investigate, his stomach rumbling. He found his wife and his friend sat at the table, laughing over a cup of tea, a plate of delicious looking lamingtons between them.
"Jean my darling, these smell marvellous," he kissed her forehead as he swept past, and made a dive for the plate.
"No you don't," Jean scolded him playfully, batting his hand away from the plate. "Those aren't for you!"
The look on Lucien's face could only be described as being like that of a kicked puppy, and Jean laughed. "Don't go looking so hard done by. And anyway; I didn't make them. Matthew did."
Lucien turned his head in astonishment to look at his friend, who met his gaze with a steely glare that said I dare you to laugh at me, although the pink tips of his ears somewhat diminished the severity of his expression.
"Special occasion is it, Matthew?" Lucien teased, unable to help but grin at his friend. He knew full well that it was Alice's birthday the following day, and could see no other reason for Matthew suddenly deciding to learn to bake.
"Never you bloody mind," Matthew retorted, to which Lucien laughed good-naturedly. Like Jean, he too had noticed a growing closeness between their two friends, and knowing that neither of them had had a great deal of success in previous relationships, was quietly hopeful that they would find their way to each other soon. In the meantime however, he couldn't let the opportunity to give Matthew a gentle teasing pass him by.
"I was telling Matthew about the time you baked me those lovely scones," Jean informed him pointedly, and it was Matthew's turn to laugh, as Lucien promptly shut his mouth, a bashful expression on his face.
Still chuckling, Matthew got to his feet, and picked up the plate of cakes in his free hand. "I'd best put these somewhere safe so you're not tempted to eat them."
"Here, let me," Jean told him, and transferred them into a cake tin.
As Matthew shuffled from the room, Lucien swept his wife into his arms for a kiss. When they broke apart some moments later, both somewhat out of breath, Lucien adopted a stern expression as he looked Jean straight in the eye.
"This doesn't mean you're forgiven for telling Matthew about the scones, you know."
Jean merely smiled, before kissing him gently, nuzzling his beard with her cheek.
"Is it such a bad thing that he knows you have a soft side? Even if it does stay hidden more often than not?"
And before Lucien could reply, she had swept the tea things from the table and began busying herself with the dishes. Thinking to himself, Lucien retreated to his study.
—
Matthew was taking something of a gamble by turning up at Alice's house unannounced. He knew of her address from Jean, although he had not yet had cause to call round, and hoped that Alice would be receptive to an unexpected visitor. He was suddenly struck by a wave of doubt; it was horribly presumptuous of him to assume that Alice wouldn't have already made plans, it was her birthday after all. Whilst she was a private person, with a tendency to avoid the spotlight, that wasn't to say that she wouldn't make an exception for her birthday. And yet, Jean was one of Alice's closest friends. Surely if Alice was planning on doing anything sociable for her birthday, Jean would have been invited, and she could have warned Matthew off before he limped halfway across town only to make a fool of himself?
Then of course there was the fact that he still didn't know what, if at all, Alice felt for him. Admittedly, they had gotten closer recently; Alice had held the fort as police surgeon with aplomb during Lucien and Jean's extravaganza of a honeymoon. Matthew had enjoyed getting to spend time with her, and not only due to the fact that her calm presence was a welcome relief from Lucien's endless energy. And it was true that sometimes Alice would linger at his desk even after she had finished delivering her findings. She had even started calling him Matthew rather than Superintendent, which he had decided to seize with both hands as a sign of their growing intimacy. And yet it was all still very chaste, very unspoken, and Matthew would be mortified should Alice admit to only seeing him as a friend.
Still, he had come all the way across town, and Jean had been very kind in teaching him how to bake. Matthew was not a coward, and once he had a plan in mind he liked to see it through. Squaring his shoulders and taking a deep breath, he raised his cane and tapped on the door.
It opened moments later, and as Alice's expression turned from surprise to a rather bashful smile, Matthew quickly forgot all of his doubts as he gave a tentative smile of his own.
"Matthew, this is a surprise," she exclaimed. "I take it this is not a work-related call?"
Matthew shuffled slightly, the tips of his ears going pink. "No, I'm here to see you."
"Oh!" Alice blushed, and Matthew's spirits soared. "Come in. Perhaps we could go out to the garden?"
"Great," Matthew grunted, willing to follow Alice anywhere that involved sitting down, the walk from the Blakes' having taken it out of him more than he had anticipated.
"Go on through, I'll bring out some tea," she told him, and he did so, resisting the urge to peek into the other rooms as he passed through the hallway.
Alice's garden was much smaller than the Blakes', and whilst she clearly didn't have the time to spend on gardening that Jean did, Matthew was pleasantly surprised by what he saw. It was a low maintenance affair, but it was clearly well looked after, with potted plants adding bursts of colour dotted around between the more practical shrubs. A little bench sat in the shade of a tree, and Matthew made a beeline for it, keen to rest his leg.
Alice joined him a few minutes later, carrying a tray with the tea things.
"I'm afraid I don't have any biscuits," she apologised, but Matthew merely smiled and reached for the cake tin which up til now he had tried to keep hidden.
"Then it's a good job I brought you something," he said as he handed her the tin with some degree of trepidation.
Alice looked somewhat bemused as she took it from him and carefully opened the lid, her mouth forming a perfect "O" as she peeked inside.
"Are these lamingtons? But - how?" she asked, and Matthew, relieved that she wasn't appalled at the sight of them, gave a somewhat self-conscious cough.
"I know that it's your birthday today, and a reliable source informed me that lamingtons are a favourite of yours." He hoped that Alice wouldn't be upset that he and Jean had talked about her; he knew that she hated being gossiped about, but surely if it was for a good reason, a happy reason, she wouldn't mind so much?
"They're my absolute favourite. So you - made these?"
"With help," Matthew admitted with a smile, but he noted that Alice still looked somewhat perplexed.
"But why?"
Well," Matthew faltered, "it's your birthday, and I wanted to give you something."
"Because we're friends?," she asked.
"Well, yes."
Matthew was puzzled. He couldn't work out whether Alice was really questioning whether or not they were in fact friends, or if she was asking something else entirely. As far as he was concerned, his intentions were obvious; he had chosen to come here to spend his day off with Alice, having spent the previous day off making her something for her birthday. How could she interpret that as anything other than the fact that he liked her?
Whilst Matthew was trying to think of what to say next, Alice poured them both a cup of tea, and he noticed with surprise that she added two sugars to his without needing to ask. She knows how I drink my tea, he thought. Surely that was a sign that she liked him, if she paid attention to the little details like that?
"I suppose we'd better see how good you are at baking then, Matthew," Alice smiled as she passed him the tin, and he popped a small slice onto the edge of his saucer. Alice chose herself a slice before putting the tin down, and Matthew watched as she took a bite, trying not to stare at her mouth as the cake passed her lips. It became almost too much for him to bear as Alice closed her eyes, letting out a small groan of pleasure and he gripped his cane tightly in his right hand as he tried to quiet the roar of images that flooded his mind at the sound. She swallowed and her eyes fluttered open, and she beamed at him.
"Matthew, this is delicious. Did you really make it yourself?"
The superintendent's ears turned pink and he felt ridiculously proud of himself. "Well it was Jean's recipe, and she wasn't going to let me loose in her kitchen unsupervised. But yes, I did all of the measuring and mixing and everything."
"Well," she gave him another smile, and Matthew decided there and then that he would do anything in his power if it meant being on the receiving end of that smile, "you are a man of surprising talents."
Matthew couldn't think of anything to say to that, but as he reached for his tea their eyes held, and he felt a flutter of hope that he hadn't felt in a long time.
Alice drove them back to Mycroft early evening. She insisted, having noticed when Matthew arrived that his leg was giving him more grief than he had wanted to let on. Before they had set off, Matthew had asked to use her telephone, and had quickly called Jean to ask if it would be alright to invite Alice to have dinner with them. She had of course agreed, but there had been something in her voice that Matthew couldn't quite place.
When they arrived at the house, they were somewhat surprised to find Jean standing in the hallway, shuffling from one foot to the other and wringing a tea towel in her hands. Even more surprising was the singing coming from the kitchen, accompanied by what sounded like pans crashing together in the sink.
"Jean?," Matthew asked warily, and she rolled her eyes in a long-suffering kind of way.
"Don't ask," she sighed, before turning to Alice and embracing her friend. "Happy birthday, Alice."
"Thank you, Jean. Do you mind if I just use the bathroom?"
"Of course." Jean waited until Alice was safely out of earshot before she turned to Matthew. "So?," she whispered, leaning forward.
Matthew blushed and Jean beamed at him.
"I knew she would love them," she gave his arm an encouraging squeeze.
"What the hell's going on in there?" Matthew asked, nodding towards the kitchen, and Jean gave an exasperated sigh.
"I think Lucien is worried that you showed him up on the romantic gesture front, so he decided to cook dinner to prove a point."
"And you're letting him?"
"What can I say, his enthusiasm is one of his endearing qualities," her eyes twinkled.
"I didn't mean for us to hijack your romantic meal," Matthew apologised, but Jean shushed him.
"Not at all. I just hope he doesn't poison us all," she laughed.
At that moment, Lucien's head appeared through the hatch just as Alice returned from the bathroom, and he grinned at them all delightedly.
"Ah, Matthew, Alice, perfect timing! Dinner is served!," and with a flourish, he disappeared back into the kitchen.
As they took their seats around the table, and Lucien unveiled his surprisingly appetising looking roast dinner, Matthew glanced at Alice beside him, and they shared a smile. Good food, good friends, and perhaps the promise of something more. As far as Matthew was concerned, the future was looking pretty great.