Alto closed the door behind him with a heavy sigh. He had hoped that with the end of the Eclipse, he'd be able to return to Mithra quickly and live in peace once again. This was proving not to be the case.

As Regnant's hero, he was expected to stay in Lambert to assist with its reconstruction. Not that he particularly minded this, he was always happy to help. But meeting after meeting and constantly working to rebuild and reorder the country was a tiring job.

However, with the end of yet another long, dull meeting, he finally had some free time all to himself. His face settled into a content smile as he thought of all the sleep he could finally catch up on. He closed his eyes as he travelled down the long hallways, nothing in his way to prevent him from entering his room, falling into his bed, and peacefully sleeping the day away-

Except for a body which he promptly bumped into.

"Oh, sorry," he exclaimed after he recovered from the initial shock, "I wasn't looking."

"I could tell," a light voice replied, "so…care to help me up?"

"Lisette! Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to knock you over." He extended a hand to hers.

"Well, obviously. Anyway, where are you going that's so important you don't even notice me?" she laughed giving him a playful glare.

"I'm just going back to my room. I'm finally done for today, so…"

"You're just going to sleep aren't you? Boys can be so lazy sometimes."

"Like you're that much better. Where are you headed?"

"Well, I was thinking since we've all been working so hard, we could have another little party for everyone, so I'm going to the kitchen to cook."

"Do girls only think about food…?"

"Hey!" She gave him a light slug. "I don't have to let you eat any of my cooking."

"OK, OK." He laughed. "So, party?"

"Yeah! It's not going to be all of us, but I think there'll be enough people there to call it one. You're coming."

"I don't get a say in this do I?"

"Nope. See you later!"

"See ya!"

Alto watched Lisette disappear around a corner before continuing on the journey to his room. Now there was truly nothing in his way. Nothing to stop him from sleeping for the rest of the day – except for Lisette's party – but before then, nothing to keep him away from his-

Except for another body which he again bumped into.

This time he had propelled himself into the floor. He groaned before apologizing quickly. "Sorry I wasn't look…Mordi?"

This time he had collided with the Earth Witch. She didn't seem to mind though. In fact, she hadn't moved a muscle.

She's…sleeping while standing up…in the middle of the hallway.

Alto contemplated his options for a moment. She certainly looked peaceful sleeping there, lightly snoring. He could just leave her there and run for his room. Surely, someone would be there to wake her up later. But still…

Against his better judgement, he reached out to grab her shoulder, lightly shaking her.

"Hey come on, Mordi, you shouldn't sleep out here."

"…huh?"

Blue eyes blinked open, taking in their surroundings.

"There we go. What are you doing sleeping in the hallway?"

"I was…spending time with…Giselle."

"Oh, really? That's good. The two of you could use some more time around other people. Thanks for being friends with her."

"It's…not a problem. I like Giselle…she's…quiet."

"Good," he chuckled. "So…um…where is she?"

"Who?"

"Giselle, you…you said you were hanging out with her."

Mordi looked around for a brief moment, "There she is."

True to her words, the aforementioned angel was approaching from behind him.

"Oh, hey Giselle. Spending some time with Mordi?"

"Alto. Yes. I have retrieved the glass of water that you requested, Mordi," she spoke with careful deliberation.

"Thank you," she took the glass. "Now…let's go to my room. It needs to be cleaned. See you later, Alto."

"Goodbye, Alto"

"Waaaiiit a second," Alto called out, following them. "Mordi, what are you doing?"

"I'm…hanging out with Giselle…like I said…"

"Friends usually don't make other friends do chores for them," he said, slightly annoyed.

"…I don't understand."

"I'm saying you can't use Giselle to do things for you and call it 'hanging out.'"

"But…Giselle doesn't mind."

"It is my purpose to serve."

Alto closed his eyes and placed a head on his forehead. These two…

"Mordi…I know we talked about this before, and I don't want to put too much pressure on you. But you can't take advantage of her like this and have her do things you don't want to do." The blue-haired witch's eyes drooped slightly.

"So, what you're saying is, it's not…"

"It's not that it's not normal. It's just…well…not very nice. And there are still some things you need to do on your own. And Giselle…" The angel looked at him attentively, but with the same slightly confused expression the other girl wore. "You can't just go around doing what other people tell you to do. We also talked about this."

"Indeed. However, Mordi is…my friend. Isn't it…friendly to assist her with what she needs?"

"Yes, but…" he sighed, thinking for the correct words to say. "You're her friend, not her servant. The two of you should spend time together, doing fun things, you know, hanging out!" He ended with a smile, hoping they understood his point.

The silence that followed told him that they did not.

What are they going to do when I go back to Mithra? If I go back… He thought, genuinely finding himself concerned for their wellbeing. Then, an idea struck him.

"Why don't the two of you go help out Lisette? She's in the kitchen right now, cooking for a party we're having later. It'll be a great chance to hang out while at the same time being productive and helping each other."

"I…don't know…I've never…cooked before," Mordi spoke with slight apprehension.

"It'll be fine! Lisette will be helping you. She's been cooking for ages, and she's great at it! She'll help you out. I'll walk you two to the kitchen."

And so he turned in the opposite direction from his comforting room to escort two of the oddest members of the Tuning Knights to the kitchen.

Lisette quietly hummed to herself as she gathered the ingredients and tools she would need. Flour, eggs, sugar… She smiled as she finally got the last of it. Now to begin…this time it'll be a white cake!

Her thoughts were interrupted when three new guests entered the kitchen.

"Oh, hey! Alto, Mordi, Giselle…what are you guys doing here?"

"Lisette, I have a favor to ask of you. Would you teach these two how to cook?"

"Oh…um…I could try. I'm not sure if I'm the best teacher, but I can certainly try. Maybe now's not the best time…"

"Don't say that! It's a great time! What are you making now?"

"Oh, well…I was thinking of baking a cake…"

"Cake! That's perfect! Do you two know anything about baking cake?"

Mordimort shook her head softly, but the last of the trio spoke: "I once attempted to make a cake for Master, as he always seemed to enjoy sweets…"

Her companions glanced at her. "So….how did it…turn out?"

"He…said that my work lacked the delicate quality which often makes confections of that type pleasing to the taste, and that my skills were not suited to this particular task."

"…"

"…"

"…I massacred it."

Lisette seemed to grow only more fearful, but Alto quickly spoke up. "Well, that was in the past, and now you have a great teacher to help you. You won't be doing it alone," he reached out to give the girl a pat on the shoulder.

"Alto, I'm still not sure if this is such a good idea," Lisette looked around, "I mean a cake is no simple matter and…"

"Later!" She whipped around to see that Alto had already taken his leave.

The two sets of eyes that gazed at her were void of any discernible emotion, but she felt an enormous weight on her shoulders.

"Well…I guess…let's get cooking!"

"Cooking is easy once you get the hang of it." Lisette said optimistically. "I learned from my mom. Using her knowledge, I'm sure I can teach you something."

"Are you…going to teach us…how to make it purple?"

"No! I mean…I don't know how to do that." Lisette groaned before cheering back up. "Alright, first thing's first. I already have all the ingredients, so what we need to do is start mixing them together."

"OK…I'll just…dump them all in this bowl…"

"Wait, Mordi!" Lisette cried as the other girl began to pick up everything. "You can't just put everything in at one time."

"Why not? It's…all going in the cake…right?"

"Well, because…just because okay? We're just going to start with the butter here. Put that in the bowl. Good, now just mix it around a bit." The blue-haired girl grabbed a spoon resting close to the bowl and began to slowly poke at the butter with it, but only for a short moment. "My arm…is getting tired…"

"I can mix it, Mordi," Giselle reached to take the spoon from Mordi's arms which she gratefully complied with. Giselle's strategy for this task proved to be very different, her arm spinning in the bowl at an impossible speed. So impossible, in fact, that Lisette feared she'd break the spoon.

"Wait, wait Giselle!" She stopped. "That's…that's enough mixing it's good now. Haha…you…you don't want to mix it too much…" Lisette took both utensils and held them away from the other girls. We've only just started…She found herself growing increasingly nervous as she looked at them. So she put the bowl back down on the counter and turned around to take a deep breath.

"What's next?"

Without looking back she started, "Well, we can put in the sugar next…"

"Mor and mor sugar…"

Lisette whirled around and witnessed Mordimort pouring almost all of the sugar they had into the butter.

"No! No, not that much, Mordi!" But it was too late, the damage was already done. "You don't need that much sugar…and you're supposed to add it in slowly."

"Oh…I'm…sorry, Lisette."

Mordi's sad face only made her feel guilty. "Well…we can just put in more butter, I guess. Make it a two-layer cake instead of one-layer…"

"I will get the butter."

"Actually, Giselle," She cut in quickly, "Why don't you just let me do it?"

After the amounts of sugar and butter were evened out, Lisette prepared herself for the next task. It can't be that hard…this part is easy.

"Next, we're going to put in the eggs. We'll only need a few. Why don't you each take one? Good. Now just crack the egg, and put it into the bowl."

Mordi tapped her egg very lightly against the counter. It did not break. It did break, however, when it slipped from her fingers and dropped on the floor.

Giselle, on the other hand, smashed her egg against the hard surface, leaving egg shell and yolk all over it.

Lisette sighed. "You have to be more careful. Mordi, keep a firm grip on the egg, and tap it just a bit harder. Giselle…lighter…much, much lighter." With these instructions, both successfully broke their eggs. "That's great, now just put it in the bowl." Mordi reached towards it and Lisette could only watch in horror as she dropped the egg in, shell and all.

"Not all of it, just the inside!"

At this revelation, the Earth Witch began to get upset. "I'm sorry, Lisette. I guess I'm just…not good at cooking…I won't help anymor..."

"No, don't say that. It's an easy mistake to fix. Just try to get all of the egg shell out."

"Okay…"

Lisette was relieved when she managed to accomplish this with no problem. "I'll just do the other eggs myself if you want, though. And I'll mix them in too. You can go…get the salt. We need just a little bit of it, I'll mix it in. While you're at it, bring over the milk and flour."

She watched them carefully as she stirred, waiting for some terrible misfortune to befall them. But they swiftly gathered the ingredients, and handed them to her looking quite proud of themselves. She finished her mixing and set it down, going over to measure out what she needed. "Next, we need to put flour in..."

"Mor and mor flour..."

"Mordi!"

Lisette rubbed her head. She was so tired. Wrestling away flour from someone was no easy task. But, it had not been for nothing. The correct amount of flour had been used.

"So you need to mix that in."

"I can accomplish this."

Once again, Giselle began to stir the dough. Her fast pace did not bode well this time, however.

"Wait! Oh, the flour…you got it all over yourself."

Lisette looked on in dismay as at least half of the powdery substance had flown out of the bowl, onto the counter, on the floor, but mostly on Giselle. But Mordi seemed quite amused, a soft giggle escaping from her mouth.

"It is not a problem. The material which composes my body repels most substances." She demonstrated quickly shaking off most of the flour.

"But your hair…"

"It can be washed. I will replace the lost amount of flour…and I will stir more slowly."

Lisette smiled. "Alright, I'll leave it to you. Then, you can just mix in the milk, got it?"

"Understood."

Soon, the batter had been finished and Lisette showed them how to pour it neatly into pans. "Three of them, since there's so much batter. I'm impressed you guys. I was worried at first, but this cake looks really good. And it's white! Now we just need to let it cook."

"Good…I'm tired…baking is…hard work."

"If I am not mistaken, we are not yet finished."

"Right, Giselle! We still need to make the frosting."

Mordi did not seem particularly pleased by this but followed Lisette anyway. "What…kind of…frosting?"

"Well…I was thinking strawberry, but…maybe we should just do a simple white icing. Don't worry, it won't take long at all. Just some butter, milk, sugar…You know what? I'm gonna leave this to you two. Mordi, you put in the ingredients. Pay attention to how much you're putting in. Giselle, you can mix it. You can stir quickly, but make sure it stays in the bowl."

"We…can do this!"

"Affirmative…!"

"Please wake up."

"Huh…?"

Lisette woke with a start. She glanced around. The kitchen? Oh right. The cake. The cake!

"How long have I been sleeping?" She cried.

"Not long." Giselle assured her. "If your concern is for the cake, I removed it from the oven. It seemed to be baked."

"Oh…thank you, Giselle."

At that moment, Mordimort also awoke from a nap, apparently taken on a table.

"We...*yawn*…finished the frosting."

"That's wonderful! Awesome," the trio walked towards the counter where the cake sat, "Now all we need to do is…"

Lisette stared. Then blinked. Then rubbed her eyes. Surely, this was a mistake. The cake…was…

"It's…pink." Mordi spoke up. True to her word, the previously white cake now seemed to be a bright pink shade. She was used to purple, but this…

"How?!"

"I am uncertain. When I removed the cake from the oven, this was its color. I examined the oven, but I have found no reason for the cake to change its hue."

"W-well…pink isn't such a bad color. I-it's kind of pretty actually. Maybe it'll go well with the white frosting…" Lisette rushed over to wear said frosting sat, and stared into the bowl. It wasn't long before her companions joined her.

"Blue…"

"Did you guys put anything else in the frosting?"

"Negative. It was white when I put it here…" Giselle looked on in bewilderment.

"Pink and blue cake. I guess it could be worse." But Lisette felt defeated. Even with other people helping her, her cakes still turned out weird."

"I think…it will look pretty…like cotton candy…"

"Agreed. Pink and blue is not a bad combination."

Lisette stared at them. They were clearly just trying to make her feel better. Even so, the encouragement helped. "I guess it can't be helped. We worked hard on this cake. If it's pink and blue, so be it. I bet it's still delicious. And the cake seems to be cooled now. We can put the icing on."

"But…I'm so tired…and…I...don't want to make Giselle do it. I...have a suggestion…"

Alto walked down the hall with a smile on his face. After all this time, he'd finally been able to take a nap. He felt refreshed and ready to face the world. Or maybe just three girls.

"I wonder if they're doing alright down there."

He reached the kitchen and opened the door. Then jumped back.

A dark figure stood over a table.

"Gaaahhh! M-Mordi!"

"Alto."

"Why is one of your mud dolls in here?"

"We…needed it…to do some work…"

"And…what are you doing?" He questioned, now noticing that she was standing by the sink holding a towel over some…Giselle?

"Washing Giselle…no mor…flour…"

"Oooo-kay. And where's Lisette?"

"I'm right here, Alto. We're done with the cake. Mordi's doll is just frosting it."

"Is that really sanitary?"

"I think so. None of the mud has gotten on the cake."

Suddenly, the doll dissipated as it completed its task. Alto could see the completed product.

Two sets of eyes now approached him and stared him down. He could feel the pressure behind their looks, waiting for him to pass judgment upon the baked good sitting on the table.

"…It looks great!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, totally! I can't want to try a piece."

"Then I will cut one for you."

"Wait, no, that's not…" but Giselle had already retrieved a knife and was cutting into the cake.

"It's alright. We can still serve it at the party with a piece cut out."

"If you say so."

The angel carefully handed him a piece of the colorful cake on a plate. Again, he felt eyes boring into him, anxiously waiting for him to take a bite.

"So I'll just…eat this." And he took a bite.

…

…

"It's delicious!"

The cake really was very good. As he'd always told Lisette, aside from the color, the taste was fine. Even better than the cake was the smiles on the faces of both Mordi and Giselle.

"Do you…really think so?"

"Yeah, Mordi. It's great!"

"We…did it!"

"Yes…I am glad it was not ruined."

"Well, see what did I tell you? Lisette is great at cooking!"

"You think that's going to get you off the hook?" Alto gulped as Lisette grabbed his arm. "Mordi, Giselle, why don't you two go on out now? But be sure to come back to the party later!"

"Okay…Giselle…want to help me make mor things? I…can teach you."

"Would that be acceptable Alto?"

"That's up to you, Giselle. I'm not going to tell you what to do."

"…Then…let's go, Mordi. To the Royal Sandbox?"

"Mm-hmmm…"

And so the duo finally took their leave of the kitchen.

"Alto, you're going to help me clean up in here. And you're going to help me make more for the party. Why is it always us girls doing the cooking?"

"Fine, fine…what are we making?"

"Some potatoes."

"Maybe this time we can make them green!"

"Hey!"

Author's Note: This didn't turn out quite as bad as I thought. I'm not a very good writer, but my love for Stella Glow and lack of fan fiction for it makes me feel obligated. Also, I love Giselle and Mordi, they should be friends. Please note that I just kind of ignored what may be anachronisms, Stella Glow doesn't seem to have any rules in this regard. Thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope you enjoyed it, and please don't be too harsh with your reviews!