Blindsided

Uma Thurman

Song of the chapter is Uma Thurman by Fall Out Boy. Felt it matched the chaotic energy while also COMPLETELY summing up the ship in this fic. A special thanks to Dotemms for her beta work, which keeps this fic reading smoothly while giving you all the feels!

----------

  Ruv was rudely awakened that morning by his son kicking down the door and shouting at him. By the time he had processed that this was not a situation where throwing a knife at the problem would be the correct course of action, the kid had jumped on the bed and looked genuinely excited as he said the only thing worth not committing pedicide when interrupting his father's sleep.

  "DAD! The strawberries are ripe! Can we make kissel and jam? Can we?"

  Sarvente sat up, bleary-eyed and hair messy. "Whassat?"

  Ruv got up and pulled on his boots. "Picking strawberries, go back to bed."

  He stood and yanked Selever out the door. "Move it, gremlin. First one to fill a basket gets to lick the jam spoon."

----------

  By the time they made it back inside, Sarv had gotten up and gone to lead Mass and Rasazy was practically vibrating with excitement in her chair at the table. They dumped their bounty: fresh-picked alpine strawberries, stubby little pickling cucumbers, glossy Black Hungarian peppers, and tightly-packed heads of white cabbage spilling across every available surface.

  Ruv wasn't a fan of sweets, but strawberry season was a very special exception. Strawberries ripening meant summer was well and truly here, and summer meant only one thing: kissel.

  They unpacked the jars from the cold storage in the basement, Ras washing and Sel loading them into the oven which was set to keep them warm as Ruv boiled the lids to sterilize them. They washed the peppers and cucumbers, soaking the cabbage in water and a splash of vinegar to remove any pests. A pot of vinegar was simmering with salt, pickling spices, and a bit of water to make a brine for pickling the peppers and cucumbers in the extra refrigerator in the basement. A jar of sugar sat by another large pot waiting to make jam, and the water canner was coming to a rolling boil on the largest burner. When the jars were finished Selever busied himself with shredding cabbage and stuffing it in the pickling crocks, layered with salt and garlic while Ras began cleaning the strawberries, barely the size of a thumbnail but so sweet they were like candy.

  Ruv pulled the hot lid pot off the burner and onto a trivet, and Rasazy dumped three fourths of the strawberries into the jam pot with a couple cups of water and about an equal amount of sugar as strawberries and set the whole thing to a simmer, stirring with a long wooden spoon which she mashed into the strawberries to coax out the juices. Sel finished putting the weights on top of the cabbage so they'd not float as they oozed water and made brine and began sorting cucumbers and peppers into jars, filling them with about two fingers of air space when Ruv came behind him with a ladle to add the brine and two sprigs of dill with two cloves of garlic to each jar. When all the jars were filled Ruv gingerly picked the still-warm lids from the pot and screwed them on, while Sel cleaned up the used pots at the sink.

  The kitchen was chaotic and hot as Ruv began filling jars of jam, Ras labelling the pickles as Sel finished the dishes and began screwing lids on the jam and using a jar lifter to crowd them into the canner. The lid went on the canner and Sel kept time while licking the jam spoon as Ras cleaned up and Ruv started chopping the remainder of the strawberries in half, filling a cheerful red pot covered in white polka dots with the fruit. He then added eight cups of water to them, and Selever bounced on the balls of his feet in anticipation as Rasazy brought out the potato starch and Ruv put the pot to boil. She mixed a slurry of two tablespoons of water to six level tablespoons of starch, and Ruv grunted at Sel as the boy moved to add eight tablespoons of sugar and a pinch of salt to the now simmering pot. Sel and Ras then busied themselves with removing the jam from the canner, one pouring out the water while the other dried and labeled the jars. Ruv kept the contents of the pot moving as he streamed in the slurry, turning down the heat when the whole thing got too close to a boil. Rasazy and Selever pulled out some glass dessert cups and gave them a rinse, Sel drying as Ras handed him each one and placing the cleaned cups on a sheet pan.