Ira seemed pleasantly surprised when Ben came knocking on her door at five thirty in the morning. "Your Highness," she greeted, quickly running a hand through her messy platinum-blonde hair. "I didn't expect to see you here. At this time, no less.

"Just think about all the early mornings I have to suffer through," Ben joked. It was true, in a way. His mother had a habit of waking him up at the crack of dawn.

Ira raised her eyebrows. "You mean the early mornings where you arrive late for breakfast?"

Ben laughed nervously. "Well… maybe those early mornings were spent snoring in my bed."

There were a few awkward moments of silence where neither of them knew what to say next.

"So, why are you here again?" Ira asked, not rudely.

Ben facepalmed internally. Right. It would've have been a good idea to tell her. "Oh, I heard that you like cooking, so we're making pancakes."

Their previous banter forgotten, Ira's entire face lit up. "Really? That sounds awesome! I actually really like making pancakes, even though I'm not the best at the flipping part, then again not everyone's good at everything, and they're also delicious! But they taste the best with chocolate syrup and whipped cream. Do you put chocolate syrup and whipped cream on your pancakes?" She stopped short as she saw Ben's face and realised she had been rambling. "Erm… do you?"

"Yeah," Ben lied. He had never tried it, but he wanted her to feel at ease. "You're not afraid to get that dress dirty, are you? I tend to spill things." He was wearing something rather simple himself, because he knew from past experiences that his suits would usually end up having flour and egg yolk all over them.

Ira looked down at the plain red dress she was wearing. "I think I'll be fine." He hoped that she wouldn't regret her words when she came back with ugly stains all over her clothes.

However, Ben realised that he hadn't needed to worry because as soon as they arrived in the kitchen, one of the cooks handed them both aprons. Ira received a plain white one, but for some reason Ben's was bright pink and had ruffles along the edge.

"Is this supposed to be an insult?" he asked the cook, while Ira cracked up laughing behind him. He did look like quite a sight with a frilly pink apron over his black collared shirt.

The cook smiled. "Your Highness, the queen specifically requested for you to wear this. I'm sure she has her reasons." Ben knew it had been a bad idea to ask his mother to alert the kitchen instead of himself. Though Aaliyah was usually strict, she still had a sense of humor. Ben just wished it appeared in situations which favoured him, such as the times when she yelled at him about being late for breakfast or meetings (every day).

Ben groaned. "Well then, I can't disobey my mother's orders, can I?" Rolling his eyes, he took his place in front of a countertop next to the cook. "Is there a recipe for pancakes anywhere?" The cook pointed a finger at the huge shelf of cookbooks, and Ben's mouth dropped open. "Um, maybe one that won't take us hours to find?"

The cook smiled again, and Ben decided that he liked this guy. "Of course! We have everything organised alphabetically, and categorised into specific sections, but in this case we've already prepared a simple pancake recipe." He hauled over a big cookbook and flipped it open to a page with a picture of pancakes (with chocolate syrup and whipped cream on top, he noticed), pointing to it triumphantly. "See? Pancakes. We've used this recipe for generations."

Ben smiled gratefully back at the cook. "Thank you…" He trailed off, not knowing how to address the cook.

Picking up on this, the cook quickly bowed. "Brock. Brock Lee."

"Thank you, Brock," Ben said, his smile widening. It was a shame he didn't get to spend much time in the kitchens. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the photographer enter the kitchen, and she gave him a small wave before settling down in the corner, ready to start clicking away.

Ira was reading the list of ingredients, and her eyes lit up. "This is really similar to the recipe we use back home. I like to add a little bit of cinnamon sometimes, and I use more milk." She turned towards Ben. "Have you made pancakes before?"

"Um, I'm not really a great cook," Ben admitted, and Brock chuckled quietly from behind him. "I made a cake once for my mother's birthday, a few years ago. Marinette's tried to teach me to cook on several occasions, but with no success. I did make some pancakes a few months ago though, when the French royal family came to visit. Chantal forced me into it." He broke into an awkward grin, recalling how the youngest French princess had dragged him by his tie into the kitchen (literally). "The flipping was the worst part." Chantal had been trying to show off her flipping skills and one of her pancakes had landed on Ben's head.

"The flipping's the fun part though," Ira insisted, giving him a small smile. "It's the best part of making pancakes."

"Mmhmm," Ben agreed half-heartedly. He still remembered the feeling of a heavy, scalding pancake landing on his head, and it wasn't something he wanted to relive anytime soon. "So what's the first ingredient?"

"Two cups of all-purpose flour," Ira read out, looking around the room. "Do you know where the flour is?"

Just as she finished her sentence, Ben placed a big bag of flour on the counter, then dusted his hands off on his shirt. He wasn't too familiar with the kitchen, but the bag had literally been sitting right next to the counter.

Ira laughed. She didn't laugh a lot, Ben noticed, and he was determined to make that change during their date. "Never mind."

The next ingredient on the list was baking powder, and seeing as Ben couldn't find any, they had to ask Brock for help, who immediately rushed back to them with a container of baking powder, and afterwards, the other ingredients they needed.

"First we need to mix the dry ingredients," Ira announced, pointing at the recipe. "That's sugar, flour and baking powder. Usually sugar's a wet ingredient though, but I guess we should follow what the recipe says."

Following the instructions, they measured out all the ingredients and Ira started mixing them together in a big bowl. While she was hard at work, Ben took it as a good opportunity to start finding out more about her. "So what do you do for a living?" He assumed she was a model because… Well, she was short but considerably good-looking. Not that he'd stared at her or anything.

"I'm an athlete," Ira admitted, pausing to brush a strand of hair behind her ear and smiling as Ben's jaw dropped. "I know, I know, it doesn't look like it."

Ben was all ready to deny it, but by her attitude he was guessing she was used to it and didn't mind. "What kind of athlete are you?" He hadn't been expecting her to be an athlete, since she didn't look very strong, but so far Ira seemed to be full of surprises.

"I compete in figure skating and archery," she explained as she finished mixing the bowl and set it aside, her eyes already scanning the room for eggs.

"Maybe we can go to the archery range together sometime," Ben suggested, holding out two eggs. Truth be told, he was still a little skeptical, and wanted to see her in action.

Ira's eyes lit up. "I'd love that. You had better be prepared though." She grinned mischievously and took one of the eggs.

"I hate cracking open eggs," Ben admitted, staring down at the egg in his hand. "It's disgusting. All that gooey stuff. I used to be scared of getting bits of eggshell into the mix too." Aaliyah's lovely birthday surprise had happened to be finding little bits of eggshell in her cake and spitting them out.

"In that case, here, have the honour of cracking open both of them." Ira placed the other egg into his free hand. "You have to overcome your fears, right?"

Ben groaned, but obediently cracked open the egg on the side of the bowl and watched the contents pour into it. "Eugh…"

Thankfully, soon he had cracked open both eggs without any bits of eggshell floating around in the mix and Ira was stirring again after adding the milk.

"There's a riddle I knew when I was really little about eggs," Ben said suddenly, and Ira looked up. "Something about having a golden heart, treasure, I don't really remember it."

Ira's expression was literally asking, And that's interesting because? but she didn't say anything out loud.

"It talked about crystal fountains or something," Ben added, trying to redeem himself. "I'm not su-"

He was interrupted by a loud growling noise from his stomach, and they both burst out laughing, Ira very nearly spilling the bowl.

"Can you be a little faster? My stomach's getting impatient," Ben suggested, still laughing.

Ira rolled her eyes, but she was also giggling. "I'll try."

True to her word, she had the mix ready and the pan buttered in no time, and they were ready to start making the actual pancakes.

"That's gonna be a very big pancake," Ben commented, as Ira poured a bit of the batter onto the pan.

"I have a big appetite," Ira responded, giving him a smile. Looking down at her slim figure, Ben doubted it.

Soon, bubbles were appearing on the top of the pancake, and to Ben's surprise Ira passed the pan to him. "Flip it," she challenged.

Ben was pretty sure she wasn't expecting the pancake to fall onto the floor and then be stepped on by Brock, who was coming to check how they were doing, otherwise she wouldn't have handed him the pan.

"Oh my god, Ben!" Ira looked like she didn't know whether to be angry or amused.

And so he tried again, and attempt after attempt he failed, until finally he managed to successfully flip the pancake and have it land back onto the center of the pan. "I did it!" he announced, almost dropping the pan onto his foot with his excitement. And before he could stop himself, he placed the pan on the countertop, swept Ira into his arms and hugged her tightly. "I did it!"

Ira seemed a little shocked at the gesture, but instead of backing away like he expected her to, she stayed there, her cheeks slowly turning into a deep red as she smiled. After seeing her face, Ben quickly realised the awkwardness of the situation (especially because their aprons were both covered in flour) and drew away, a blush heating up his own face.

"Good job," Ira said, still flame-hued. "That's the first pancake out of fifteen that you haven't wasted." She grinned. "Keep up the good work!"

However, after the hug he seemed to have lost all capability of flipping a pancake, and after what seemed like an hour of wasting the batter, he lost his temper and threw the pancake upwards with all his might. And of course, the pancake got stuck to the ceiling.

Ben started yelling every swear word he knew at the ceiling while Ira, Brock, the photographer and the maids in the kitchen were laughing their heads off. However, after he'd worked his way through a variety of French curses, he turned around and saw Ira laughing and somehow felt better about himself. He liked hearing her laugh. It turned her from looking ladylike and refined into someone even more beautiful, if that was possible.

Goddammit, he had to stop!

The laughter was contagious and Ben felt the corners of his mouth twitching upwards until he burst into laughter too. It wasn't every day you got a pancake stuck to the ceiling. However, his laughter was cut short as he felt something heavy and extremely hot land on his hair.

"FUCK THIS SHIT I'M OUT!" he roared, throwing the pancake off his head and slamming it onto the counter as Ira lost it and started crying with laughter. He took one look at the shiny fridge and his reflection wasn't very pleasant. His hair was completely messed up and oily, and were those little pancake crumbs he saw?

Running out of the kitchen faster than he ever had in his life, he found the nearest bathroom along the corridor and cleaned himself up until he finally decided that he didn't look too outrageous. He must have been there for quite some time because when he arrived back in the kitchen, everything had been cleaned up and Ira was sitting next to the counter on a chair with two plates of pancakes.

"You made these?" Ben asked, pleasantly surprised. Most of them looked perfect, except the one on top of his own plate which was a little wonky. He figured it was the pancake that he hadn't dropped on the floor. The other two must have been made by Ira though.

Ira nodded, beaming. "You did take a really long time, and I didn't want you to starve."

Ben was just about to take a bite when Ira stopped him. "Wait!" she said urgently, turning around and asking Brock something which he couldn't quite catch. Brock nodded in reply and walked away, returning with chocolate sauce and a can of whipped cream.

After covering his pancake in a decent amount of chocolate sauce and creating a swirl of whipped cream on top, Ira finally let him eat his pancake.

Maybe it was the fact that he'd made one himself, or that he was eating breakfast together with Ira, or maybe even because he had enjoyed their date, but it was the best pancake he'd ever had in his life.


OH MY GOD THIS TOOK SO LONG GUYS IM SORRY

I'm sorry if this chapter is total crap, you don't know how hard it is to let making pancakes seem romantic until you've tried :)

Next chapter will hopefully contain more than one date, since I've got a few lined up for you guys :) Some new characters coming in too! Who do you want to see next?

MissAmeliaYoung, let me know if you have any problems with the way I portrayed Ira, because I'm not sure if I managed to write her well. She's a great character :)

Until next time!

~Rysa