Peacekeepers

Chapter 27: A Day Out

Connor was trying his best to recreate the cake he'd seen at the Weasley wedding, huffing in frustration as his latest attempt tilted to one side and fell over with a wet splat of frosting against the counter.

"How the hell?!" He growled, tossing his ovenmit against the counter in frustration.

The cake had been obscenely tall, many layered and impossibly well balanced. It shouldn't have worked, and yet there it was, taunting him with its perfection. Now that he'd seen it he needed to try and make it for himself, but so far every try had failed. There was going to be an abundance of cake bites and samples this week.

He just didn't understand how they had done it... he'd even tried every levitation spell he could think of, yet it had wobbled unhappily with every attempt before slumping over in failure. What was he doing wrong?

He ran a hand through his blond hair in aggravation, growling again before he went to the front and took off his apron to hang on the hook next to the door. "Penny, I'm going to take a lunch break, I'll be right back, okay?"

"Of course, Mr Lupin!" Penny smiled, a bit concerned after all the cursing she'd heard in the kitchen this morning. "Is there anything Penny can do for you?"

"It's fine, Penny." He smiled reassuringly down to her. "Just me being a perfectionist again."

"Oh, Penny sees, sir." Penny nodded in understanding. "Please go easy on yourself sir, Penny knows how hard that is."

"I'll try." Connor smiled softly. He was starting to like Penny a lot, especially since she'd grown much more relaxed in the past few weeks.

He glanced toward the window, remembering the day he'd seen Kyle walk by the bakery. They hadn't seen hide nor hair of him since, but... that was probably a good thing. Hopefully the coward had run off to bother other people instead.

But somehow he doubted it.

Will had the day off, so he was going to go home and relax until afternoon, because he was stressed out from all this. It was ridiculous because he'd caused the stress himself by his own urge to replicate the cake, but he could hardly help himself.

He walked in the door of the house and found William reading on the couch, looking up in surprise as Connor walked in.

"Something happen?" He asked, watching Connor as he walked over and flopped dramatically onto the couch next to him.

"I'm a failure as a baker." Connor muttered unhappily

"What?" William laughed, setting down his book before wrapping an arm around Connor and holding him closer to him. "Don't be ridiculous. What has you all twisted into knots?"

"You know that cake at the wedding?" Connor said, his voice muffled against William's shoulder.

"That insane tower of a thing? Yeah what about it?" William chuckled that he was being so mopey. He held him tight, running his hand along Connor's arm to reassure him.

"I was trying to make a cake like it... but I can't figure out how to keep it upright! It's driving me crazy." Connor moaned unhappily.

William chuckled softly, looking down to Connor in amusement. "Why do you want to make it so badly? No one is getting married for a few months yet."

"To know that I can." Connor pouted unhappily.

William sighed and rolled his eyes a bit, grabbing Connor and bringing him into his lap. Connor immediately wrapped his arms around his shoulders, resting his cheek against William's neck with a soft sigh.

"You're always so hard on yourself. Aren't you yelling at me all the time to not do that, too?" William sighed.

"I guess." Connor conceded.