Less dramatic chapter because I felt like it lol

Arthur's POV

After our weird as heck brotherly moment in the library we set to work. Mother was gone. We would've all been dead if she wasn't.

But we had the time of our lives.

Teaching me to cook was like teaching a cat to bathe itself. It just didn't work.

The first project we took on was scones. It seemed simple enough. Seamus sat on the counter with a video camera giggling like a teenage girl. Allistor was going to make himself useful. He had found a pastel pink apron, but he actually made it work.

Neither of us really had any clue what we were doing, but we shrugged it off and had blind faith in the directions. Allistor preheated the oven while I gathered ingredients.

I had started mixing ingredients, and while I was measuring the flour he snuck up behind me with another frilly pink apron.

Heck no.

The shock that coursed through me was enough to cause the measuring cup full of flour to go sailing out of my hand through the air. Right into Allistor's face.

"Oh you did not," he laughed, grabbing a handful of flour and smashing it into my hair.

Seamus was dying of laughter across the kitchen, so I launched a spoon at him. It hit him right in the stomach and he doubled over. Setting the camera down, he approached me. I noticed the camera was still recording.

Allistor had snuck up behind him, and right when he was about to pounce on me Allistor dumped a cup of cold water on his head.

I mentally thanked Allistor, but since we were children we played every man for himself. One look at Allistor's face and you could tell that nothing had changed.

He approached me with another glass of water, and right as he went to dump it on me I dove out of the way. The water ended up on the floor.

Meanwhile Seamus had been getting handfuls of flour to hit both of us with. He was dripping water across the floor and the flour stuck to his hands. Frustrated, he dropped the flour, then smacked his hands together. He cackled and regathered the flour, throwing it through the air at me. It ended up in my hair and eyes.

I yelled jokingly and lunged at him, but he dodged and poked me in the back with a spatula.

That's when the fire alarm went off.

We all stopped, staring at the oven. Allistor was closet, and he cautiously opened the door. Smoke rolled out.

"Aw dude there was cheese on the bottom of the oven."

Seamus and I looked at each other. Allistor looked back at us. We all started laughing. The combination of our laughs and the alarm was deafening. I was still laughing when I threw open the window above the sink and grabbed towels. Tossing the other two to Seamus and Allistor, I started fanning the smoke towards the window.

Seamus shut the oven off and he and Allistor started helping me. The smoke was thick, and I could barely see the white tile floor beneath my feet.

Eventually the white countertops and dark cabinets came into view. The alarm was still going off across the kitchen in the hallway. Allistor started to jog over when he slipped and fell. It was his fault for spilling the water. He landed with a "thunk" flat on his face. Seamus went over to help, but lost his balance and also fell, the breathe getting knocked out of Allistor for a second time as Seamus landed on top of him.

"Thanks for mopping up the water!" I sang at them, stepping over their tangled limbs. I grabbed a chair and stepped up. After fiddling around I finally got the alarm to stop shrieking. The smoke had mostly cleared and Seamus had gotten off Allistor, who was slowly pulling himself off the floor.

I snorted when I saw him. His face was beat red and covered in a weird mixture of flour and water. His shirt was partially soaked and he didn't look happy.

Steering him by the shoulders I gave him a shove out of the kitchen.

"We'll clean, come back when you, uh, feel better."

He was scary enough without having to be forced to clean. He nodded and walked off.

It was only a few minutes before he came back. He joined us in the cleaning project.

Of course, we had years worth of messing around to catch up on.

We spent around an hour cleaning up a small mess, but it was much more interesting that way. When we were done we collapsed onto the floor, still laughing and poking fun at each other. We probably stayed there for a half an hour before Mother got home. She took one look at us and walked past.

Her face was priceless.

I remembered the camera. I grabbed it off the camera and ended the recording. I wasn't sure what kind of super battery Seamus had that was keeping it going this whole time, but I was glad he had it. We had to watch this later.

We dragged ourselves upstairs to Allistor's room and sat down. Allistor had a pretty plain room, a bed, a desk, a bookshelf, and a dresser. It lacked personal touches, but that was at first glance. He had a few pictures in strange corners where most people wouldn't look, and you could tell what kind of books he liked by looking at the shelf. The bedspread was gray, nothing surprising there. The walls were white and there was a gray area rug over the dark hardwood.

Allistor sat on the bed, Seamus took the desk chair, and I leaned against the door.

"Well, we didn't get any cooking done," I laughed.

"Next time Mother leaves. We'll get it eventually," Seamus responded lightly.

We sat there for hours. The video had been watched multiple times, and our commentary had become more amusing with every repeat. Allistor and I renamed Seamus "field man" because his entire life seemed to be surrounded by them. He got frustrated with us, but couldn't come back with anything. It didn't matter that Dylan was gone, we were fine.

I silently thanked Alfred.

I didn't know where he was, or what he was doing, but he reunited me with some of the people who were the most important to me. His stupid journal was the reason I was changing my life, fixing it.

Allistor kicked us out at about eleven, saying that he needed sleep. We parted, but not for long.

Things were going to get better, one burnt scone at a time.

(I think my favorite part of this was 'Aw dude there was cheese in the oven' but I have no idea why)