Alison yawned loudly, stretching her arms and grumbling groggily. She turned over in the bad and slammed her palm down on her alarm clock and swore quietly at it. A soft chuckle came from the other side of the bed "You can swear at it all you want, but it won't mean you don't have to get up".
Alison growled jokingly at her partner "I hate you sometimes"
Anne Grinned at Alison and wrapped her arms around Alison's waist "No you don't, you love me"
Alison chuckled and said, "Yes dear" before getting out of bed and walking into the kitchen.
Being a professional chef Alison had invested quite a bit in her kitchen, it was one of her favourite places to go. She'd modelled it pretty heavily after the kitchen a Takota, admittedly with a few alterations, but it felt familiar and she felt very comfortable in it.
As she yawned and went to grab some milk out of the fridge for pancakes, it was her daughters first time going off to camp, and Alison was going with her.
Her wife was a nurse and had, for much of the time they'd been together, worked night shifts. And with the hours that Alison worked as head chef, they basically became a nocturnal couple. Which worked fine, until they had Mary. Even when she was younger it had worked well, but when she entered school things had become harder. Anne had started doing day shifts, she was a senior nurse so it wasn't that hard to switch around, but Alison had a harder time. After what seemed like an eternity, but was actually about a year, she got a job working at an inner-city restaurant from just after the breakfast rush, to just before prep for the dinner rush. But she didn't start for another couple months, so Alison decided to quit her current job and spend the summer up a Takota with Mary, working in the kitchen of course.
Max had been thrilled when Alison called, they kept in close contact and she Max and Elise would meet up every so often for drinks and a catch up. Alison was excited to see Max and was actually excited to be working in the Takota kitchen again, and she might just be a little over protective of her daughter.
Mary could take care of herself, Alison knew that, but there was still a part of her that worried that she wouldn't like camp, that she'd miss home. Alison didn't really 'go away' to camp, she and her mother lived in the small town near Takota, and her mother had worked in the kitchens, so she never really got homesick.
Anne had joked that Alison would have dropped everything and raced up to Takota to bring her little girl home if she heard so much as a whisper that Mary was homesick. Alison had laughed her off but it was probably true, Alison loved her little girl, and wanted her to be happy. She'd always liked children and was ridiculously excited when she and Anne had a little girl of their own; she wanted to give her everything. It's a good thing Anne was there to keep her in check or Mary would be the most spoiled girl in the world.
Alison sighed thinking about what was to come in the next few months, when she noticed a little figure move behind the pantry door. She smiled and tiptoed over to the large pantry doors, opening them suddenly to reveal Mary, holding a tub of nutella and some artisan bread.
Alison chuckled "I guess we both had the same idea hu?"
Mary smiled up at her mom "Breakfast?"
"Yep" Alison said "how about this, you put back the bread, and we put the nutella on the pancakes?"
Mary grinned widely "Sounds good Ma"
Alison laughed has her little girl raced around the kitchen to collect pancake toppings. Mary resembled her Anne than Alison, her skin was a rich brown and her hair fell in loose black curls on her head. Though she looked like Anna she seemed to take after Alison more in terms of personality, she was an expert liar, a master of puns, and got the same kick out of messing with people as Alison did.
Mary smiled at her mom, proudly showing off how well she remembered Alison's pancake recipe. Alison went over to the counter and checked all the ingredients, she made a tisking noise and said "Close squirt, very close, but you forgot the vanilla extract"
Mary kicked herself for forgetting and ran over to retrieve it. After a few second of rifling through the extract drawer she found the bottle and brought it back to her Ma, "Here you go" she said handing it to her Ma.
Alison smiled at her "Why thank you milady" she said and began putting together the pancakes.
After a huge breakfast of pancakes, which Anne joined them for, Alison and Mary loaded the luggage into the car and said their goodbyes to Anne.
"Bye Mom" Mary said hugging her mother tightly "I'll miss you"
Anne smiled "I'll miss you to honey, I'll write soon I promise". And with one last tight hug Mary clambered into the car.
Alison smiled at her wife, giving her a loving hug "I love you, and I'm going to miss you"
Anne smiled into Alison's shoulder "Remember to write you ass, don't forget." She looked into Alison's eyes "I love you"
Alison kissed her softly "I love you to"
"MA!" Mary called from the car, Alison and Anne laughed.
"Time for you to get going" Anne said
Alison headed over to the car "See you soon" she cried before driving away, off to camp.