wow. so sorry this went so long without an update! -fireun

There were things Ed imagined himself doing.

Nowhere in that list was there anything about him helping a preteen bake a surprise cake for her mother. But there he was, a liberal amount of flour decorating the front of his shirt, the remnant of a small mushroom cloud that had erupted as Elysia had dropped an entire bag of the powdery baking necessity, wooden spoon clutched awkwardly in his left hand as the right was firmly pressed against the enthusiastic girls back in an attempt to keep her safely atop her stool.

It would have been adorable, watching her try to follow one of Gracia's recipes, gnawing on her lower lip in determined concentration if Ed didn't have images of her toppling off of the stool and hurting herself flashing through his head. That, and he wasn't sure how well the girl could read. He was pretty sure the recipe had only called for two eggs, not the three she had plopped in…and he thought he had caught sight of a bit of egg shell before she had started the furious stirring that currently jeopardized her perch on the stool.

"Hey, Elysia…"

"Pass the sugar!"

Ed paused. He knew damn well she had already added sugar, and there was no recipe in the world that could need more than three cups of sugar.

"Edward!" She admonished in a rather imperious tone of voice. "I need sugar."

She had to have picked up that commanding presence from Roy. No other way to explain it. Ed handed her the sugar, already creating a list of excuses in his head that would prevent him from having to ingest any of the culinary disaster.

"Spoon!"

Ed relinquished the utensil on command, and before he could appreciate his liberated limb, Elysia had pressed a cup into it. Apparently she had measured that last bit of sugar with one of the coffee mugs. "Hey, Elysia. Maybe we should let the cake…ah, sit and rise. So we can bake it later."

Elysia, being Gracia's daughter, was not so easily fooled. "Bread rises, not cake."

Ed really had no counter for that one. The girl obviously knew baking, if not all of its finer points. Chocolate went into the bowl next, and Ed sincerely hoped Gracia wasn't saving it for anything. It was just…so hard not to humor the little imp. She wanted to make a surprise for her mother, and she demanded Ed help. Ed shifted his weight, accommodating for the fact that all the chocolate and sugar in the bowl made it harder for the girl to stir, and couldn't help but smile as she began to sing happily. Beautifully off key, in that way only children can get away with.

Gracia smiled, hovering in the door, unwilling to move and alert the two to her presence. Seeing Ed smile like that had been worth the apparent decimation of her baking supplies. Roy had been right. The boy just needed some space, some time to adjust.

Elysia reached for something on the counter, overextended, and flailed for a moment over open air, only one foot remaining on the stool. Ed dropped the mug he had been holding, ignoring as it crashed to the floor, and grabbed Elysia into a bear hug.

"Hey, I told you to ask if you needed me to pass you anything."

"Yer hands were full…" Elysia sniffled, obviously expecting a stern talking to.

Ed buried his face in her hair for a minute, took a deep breath, and then smiled down at her. "Just don't do that again, alright? If you fall you could hurt your head."

"Ok." Elysia grinned sheepishly over her shoulder at Ed, and then giggled.

"What?"

"There's flour on yer nose."

Ed did his best impression of someone who had just received earth-shattering news, with set Elysia laughing in earnest. "Now, are we done baking, imp?"

"Yes. Now it goes in the oven…"

"Which your mother will be more than happy to do for you." Gracia entered, putting on a stern façade. "You know you are not allowed to use the oven, Elysia."

"Yes mom."

"Hullo Mrs. Hughes."

"Gracia, Ed. Please." She settled her bag onto the table.

"Eh." Ed shrugged, still not comfortable with the informality, but equally unwilling to argue. Instead he hefted Elysia down off of her stool, grinning as she protested she could do it herself, and knelt to repair the mug laying broken on the floor.