While Christian took his turn in the shower, James followed the smell of freshly brewed coffee to the kitchen where he found April with a giant mixing bowl in one hand and a whisk in the other.
"Good morning," April greeted him with a smile, then she nodded towards the coffee pot. "I'm making Christians cake for later. If you want to wait a few, I'll throw some breakfast together for you."
"You don't have to do that. I don't have to eat right now." He poured his coffee and took a deep breath, closing his eyes and taking a sip. "I can help with the cake. Or I can help with breakfast. Anything you need, really. I'm good in a kitchen."
"Really?" April stopped whisking and tilted her head, then pushed the mixing bowl onto the counter next to James. "Okay. Well, I've got the dry ingredients mixed and everything else is already out and ready to go." She pulled an old, worn index card from her apron pocket and set it next to the bowl. "That's the recipe. You do that and I'll do breakfast. Anything you don't like to eat?"
James hummed thoughtfully while he looked over the recipe. "Sea urchin."
"Sea urchin?"
"Yeah. Had it once when I was out for sushi with... umm, with a friend. It was one of those 'you have to try this' things, so I tried it. Never again." James couldn't help the disgusted face he made at the memory. "But, um, I'll eat pretty much anything else."
"You got it." April laughed quietly and started to pull eggs and bacon out of the fridge. "I'll leave the seafood out of the omelets."
The cake came together easily. James made enough cakes in his short baking career, as he liked to refer to the weekend job he held while in high school, and he always baked cakes for his friends' and family's birthdays. Christian made fun of him, but stress baking was kind of his thing, so this worked out perfectly. While he whisked and beat and mixed, he couldn't really worry about Christian and whatever this mess was that he found himself in. He could focus on baking and forget everything else.
He slid the cake pans into the preheated oven, set the timer, and started washing up while April finished making breakfast. Cooking enough for all these people was a chore. Just watching her was impressive and when it hit him that she was only making breakfast, he couldn't stop himself from offering to help with whatever she had planned for Christmas.
When breakfast was over and James immediately got up to help April clean up the dishes, Christian hopped out of his seat to follow him into the kitchen. James loaded the dishwasher and watched Christian from the corner of his eye. He was leaning against the wall, staying out of the way, until April left the room.
"They already love you, you know." Christian stepped away from the wall and reached past James to start the dishwasher. "You don't have to impress them."
James rolled his eyes. "No way, man. If I'm doing this, I'm doing it right. Next up, I'm decorating your birthday cake."
Christian scowled at him for a second. "Don't draw any dicks on it."
"As if I would do that. You don't draw any dicks on it." James scowled back at him and lifted his chin, then backed up to the counter where he'd put the ingredients. "Now I feel like I have to keep an eye on the frosting."
