Summary: Edward needs to bake cupcakes for a class project. Bella more than willingly offers to help. Thrown in a pinch of Emmett, and chaos reigns.
Yay part 2. I'm not sure how I feel about a multi-part (they're too small to be chapters, really) series, but it seems to be flowing alright, though not nearly as serious as my other ones, probabaly because I don't have the ending in mine yet. Haha. Any feedback is always appreciated.
Cupcakes
Part 2
By Ren
It hadn't been as difficult – or as dangerous – as I had initially anticipated. Emmett was whistling cheerfully from the backseat of the Volvo the whole way there. Edward was quietly watching the road, on occasion glancing over to smile affectionately at me. I could only blush and snickers would come from the back seat. The trip to the Thriftway passed uneventfully, thankfully.
However, once we stepped out of the car into the cool, light grey mist, my luck ran out. Inadvertently, I stepped into a puddle and lost my balance. A splash later, Emmett was lying across the backseat laughing, and Edward was practically on top of me. His cold hands gently picked me up, his golden eyes searching for any sign of pain or injury.
"I'm fine. Really. Just… wet." And it was true. I had a scrape on my hand from trying to catch myself, but that was all. Even something that significant didn't miss Edward's eyes. He snatched up my hand and pressed the scraped-up palm to his face, kissing the wound softly before letting it drop. Slipping out of his coat, he dropped it around my shoulders before I could protest. After leading me out of the rain and under the overhang, he ushered me inside quietly. Emmett was still in the car chuckling and the idea of leaving him behind didn't seem to bother Edward. In fact, it almost seemed as though Edward wanted to be finished before Emmett caught back up to us.
Once again back on my own turf, I snatched up a shopping basket and marched pointedly down an aisle with Edward gliding gracefully beside me. Baking supplies. I turned to him and smiled sweetly.
"What sort of cupcakes would you like to make?" Edward blinked a couple of times, looking at all the little boxes, reading each label – and probably the nutrition information too – before turning his beautiful gaze back onto me. I could feel my body begin to heat up underneath his watch. He just stared down into my eyes, and all I could do was stare helplessly back like an idiot.
"Hey you two kids, get a room!" A low snarl erupted from Edward right before I snapped out of the Cullen-induced trance. His arms came protectively around me as he glared blackly at the pair of older men who were laughing together as they walked on down the aisle. Apparently teenage love was amusing. Once they had turned the corner, he looked back down at me.
"Chocolate. Definitely chocolate." Slowly, I peeled myself off of his chest against my internal want, and unwillingly fixated my gaze on the wall of pre-mixed powders. Chocolate. Well, it narrowed it down a little bit.
"What sort of chocolate?" Rich, Dark, Creamy, Milky, Swirl, Low Fat, Weight Watchers? They had 2-Point Chocolate cake mix? Was that possible?
"What do you mean what sort?" Edward looked perplexed, glancing from me to the powdery display.
"I mean, 'what sort'." I waved in the general direction of the varying hues of chocolate-colored boxes. Edward stepped closer to inspect them, and then stepped back appraisingly.
"Well…" He spoke slowly and I had to bite my lip to hide a smile. Poor Edward. My dashing, noble prince of a vampire turn-of-the-century gentleman who could execute anything flawlessly beyond the scope of mortal grace was being outdone by a box of instant cupcakes. Fantastic. We mere mortals still had hope. His eyes narrowed in my direction when a choke of a giggle slipped out.
"Sorry." He pretended as if it had never happened.
"What sort of chocolate tastes best?"
"Depends on your preference. It's sort of like heroin." Edward glared dangerously at me for that comment, and I just smiled innocently back. "It's like Grizzly to Lion. All the same, really, but yet different." My grin widened when his eyes darkened slightly. I really was having too much fun, but this opportunity never presented itself to me. Like, ever. "I prefer milk chocolate, but Renee likes dark. Really, everyone who likes chocolate generally likes milk chocolate, so you can't go wrong with that. And even-" He snatched up the box of powder and took my hand without waiting for me to finish, leading me away from the offensive aisle.
The cardboard box thumped lazily into the empty basket. As he toted me along, he drew my hand up to his face, and pressed his icy lips to the back of my hand. The result sent a jolt of electricity though me and made my heart flutter. Edward smirked and did it again, with the same result. Smug, he let my arm fall back to my side, but kept his fingers laced with mine. I followed mutely, flushing brightly as he led the way to the checkout. Weren't we forgetting something…? It was hard to remember, my mind was in an ocher mist right now.
"Oh!" That's right. We needed the wet ingredients.
"What is it?" Edward stopped and turned to look at me, worried at first, but his brow relaxed when he saw nothing wrong.
"We still need some things." Edward frowned in confusion, then picked up the box and looked at it closely.
"Eggs and… cooking oil, right?" I held out my hand for the box to see if he were correct and after glancing over the "Just Add…" part on the back, I nodded in assent.
"Do you have… measuring cups in your kitchen by any chance?"
"Bella. What could we possibly eat that would require measuring cups?"
"…You could make a Mountain Lion Smoothie…"
"Bella!" His face was angry again, but I could sense the amusement lying underneath it. "You really take this too coolly, you know? Couldn't you at least think about the implications of that?"
"Really, Edward. Maybe it isn't that I take it too coolly, maybe you take it too seriously. After all, it's only normal." Edward had a peculiar expression on his face, that sort of intense, studying expression he always got when he was trying to figure something out about me. Time to move alone. I started leading the way towards the dairy section to pick up a dozen eggs – on second thought, maybe a half dozen would be best. I wouldn't use a dozen, and they'd spoil before I ever made anything with them again.
"You're incredible," he purred in my ear after a moment, gliding along right behind me, his hand still laced with mine. I could feel his thumb rubbing gentle circles across the top of my palm, making me blush. As usual. Gliding by the dairy section, I snatched up a half-dozen carton of eggs. I tested each egg to make sure that they were whole and had no cracks. I heard Edward growl, but I was too slow to register why.
"Boogah Boogah!"
I nearly crushed the eggs to my chest in surprise, jumping about a foot into the air. I think I screamed, because people were looking at us, and I would have definitely fallen over if Edward hadn't caught me. I lay curled against Edward's chest protectively, panting a bit, my heart thundering loud enough to shatter my ribs, before I turned to look at a laughter-possessed Emmett. He was clutching his sides and trying to stay standing with Edward letting out low, feral snarls from above me. Gingerly, he righted me on my feet and took the eggs from my death-grasp.
He mimed the same movement I had done previously; checking each egg to make sure it hadn't been damaged by my spaz attack. I glared at Emmett; but he didn't see me – he was laughing too hard.
"If you weren't rock solid I'd punch you right now," I hissed at him and turned away, blushing. I had enough accidents on my own. I didn't need Emmett causing them. Edward seemed to agree. He always did like the words Bella and safe in close proximity to each other, and it seemed that if Emmett was also in close proximity, it negated safe.
"I'll punch him for you later," Edward promised, is cool voice velvety soft and seductive. Emmett now looked interested, and he calmed his laughing fit to just regard us smugly. Emmett's expression changed slightly, but I was the only one who seemed to notice.
Edward's cool fingers took my chin and stole all of my concentration. His eyes were so warm; I could feel my cheeks burning. All I wanted to do was kiss him. Nothing else mattered. I felt his other hand lace with mine and take something from my grasp as my fingers opened. …What was he doing? Was I holding something? I relinquished it easily, and closed my eyes as he leaned closer.
Cold lips brushed so gently across mine, it was like a frozen butterfly. How could something so cold and so… unalive… make me feel so… well, alive? My heart thundered in my chest, blush invading my cheeks. Involuntarily, I stepped closer to him, and put both my arms around his body.
Edward uncharacteristically jerked away and I heard an unusual squishing sound. I opened my eyes and blinked a couple of times to clear the haze. Something was shaking. What was that loud noise? I looked over and saw Emmett on the floor, laughing. That was the noise. Curiously, I turned back to Edward. Edward was the picture of cold fury. He stared quietly down at Emmett as if he were imagining all the different ways to dismember and burn his sibling because there, perched atop his beautiful head, was a cabbage. Not just perched, no, smashed into. Edward held out his hand towards me, and he was holding my shopping basket. When did that happen?
"Here, Bella. You almost dropped the eggs when I kissed you." Oh. Blushing furiously, I took the basket from him and stepped back so he could try and clean himself. I glanced down, nibbling on my bottom lip, trying to think of something to say. It's not every day an intimate kiss with your vampire boyfriend gets interrupted by his brother throwing a cabbage at his head with enough force to shatter my frail, human body into a thousand tiny pieces. However, it did happen more often than normal for me. Thankfully, no one had actually seen him throw it. The people staring now had only seen the aftermath. "Is there anything else we need? For the cupcakes?" I glanced up, Edward was speaking quietly, quickly. I had to listen closely to understand.
"Cooking oil," I answered. Where did the cabbage go? It was just gone. I looked around, searching for it on the ground somewhere; on top of Emmett, but it was nowhere to be found. I started to walk towards the aisle where the oil was held, but Edward stopped me.
"Bella, I'll get the oil. Why don't you go get whatever you'd like to decorate my cupcakes with?" Emmett burst out laughing, and Edward glared, snarling at him. "That wasn't supposed to be like that!"
"Decorate – ha ha – Bella's going to decorate – heh heh – your cupcakes…Ha!" Emmett could hardly make a coherent sentence, he was laughing so hard. I just flamed bright, bright red. If I didn't have a shopping basket in one hand, I would've covered my face with both hands. I tried to do a sufficient job with one, but failed. Edward's lips pursed. I was sure Emmett realized that because Edward wasn't doing anything now meant he was going to really initiate payback in the shelter of the Cullen home. Maybe that's what Emmett was counting on.
"I'll… go get the stuff." I turned and walked off as quickly as I could, I swear my whole body felt like it was blushing. I couldn't hear anything they said any longer, if anything at all.
I wandered down the baking aisle again to where all the spreads, sprinkles, and frostings were. Chocolate cupcakes… vanilla frosting! Those would go nicely together. Anything to distract me from decorating Edward's cupcakes. I took down a can of whipped vanilla frosting, a tube of frosting and some colored candied sprinkles. On my way out of the aisle, I grabbed a set of measuring cups all hooked together on a plastic ring. Mixing bowl? I thought about it. I had seen mixing bowls in their kitchen, and Edward had been playing with the spatula. So only the measuring cups. Carrying them with the ring looped over my pinky, I carefully returned to my vampires.
Emmett and Edward were just staring at each other quietly and as soon as I was close enough, Edward turned and swept the things out of my hands, depositing them neatly into the basket. There, also inside the basket, was a bottle of cooking oil.
"Anything else, Bella?" I shook my head, and without even looking at Emmett, he took my hand and led me toward the checkout. Making quick work of the ingredients, he towed me toward the car, shopping bag in hand. He opened the passenger side door to the Volvo and I slipped inside, folding my hands in my lap. After depositing the bag in the trunk, he swiftly maneuvered into the driver's side.
"Where's Emmett?" Emmett hadn't left the store yet. He was still inside, doing Lord-knows-what.
"Don't care." He cranked the Volvo, and it purred to life. With a squeal, the car went flying out of the parking lot and was homebound, sans Emmett.
"What about Emmett," I persisted stupidly. Edward gave me a cool gaze.
"He can run home." A smile quirked at his lips. "Besides, I'd rather be alone with you than be pelted with cabbage." I blushed brightly and I suddenly remembered the cabbage had vanished.
"Where did it go? The cabbage, I mean?" Edward's eyes suddenly had a sparkle in them. He smiled mysteriously and slowly looked back out the windshield. We continued the drive home, the heavy silence broken only by the erratic rhythm of my heart.
