KOF Extras

Bora Bora Birthdays (Part 3)

12 March
Rugal woke up early and tiptoed towards his son's room, looking around a bit before rapping on the door. Adel answered, fully dressed, and stepped out, placing a finger in front of his lips as a signal to be quiet. The two men then noiselessly made their way to the kitchen.
"Rose is still asleep," Rugal said, opening the fridge to take out the roses. He placed them down on the counter island and pulled out the bag of sugar and eggs from the plastic bag. "Great, how do we do this again?"
"It's actually really easy," Adel said, placing a large bowl beside the roses. "First, we need to pluck the petals off the roses."
"Okay..." Rugal said and pulled a rose out of the bunch. He carefully took the petals off the flower and placed them in the bowl that Adel brought. "Then?"
"Nothing yet, these need to be washed first," Adel said, dumping a handful of petals into the bowl as well.
Rugal shrugged and continued helping Adel to pluck the petals off the flowers. It seemed like a painstaking process, but it was actually very relaxing. They were soon done with it, deciding onto to do half of the flowers since they had a lot of petals to work with and they can save the rest for another day.
Adel then brought the roses to the sink and washed the petals under running water before carefully patting them dry with a tissues. They had to use facial tissues since they forgot to get paper towels.
"Now, we need to crack an egg, separate the white and the yolk," Adel said, breaking an egg open into a bowl and juggled the yolk with the shell a bit before placing yolk in another. "We'll just fry this later."
"Sound good," Rugal shrugged. "So now we dip the petals into the egg whites?"
Adel nodded. "Yes. You've seen Mom make these sometimes?"
"Sometimes," Rugal nodded. "How is she anyway? Haven't heard from her in a while."
"Living the life in Bavaria," Adel said without looking up from the petals. "Left us as soon as we were old enough."
"That's a little mean of Agnes," Rugal sighed, dipping two petals into the egg at a time. "Like, I was still a great husband."
Adel just gave him a funny look.
"Fine," Rugal sighed, dunking the egg-coated petals in sugar. "I had to take care of the company, okay?"
"It's not your fault," Adel shrugged, carefully arranging the petals on a wire rack. "Mom was already seeing someone else at the time."
"I guess I forgive her," Rugal frowned. "So long as she doesn't come running back for money."
"Oh, she married one of the richest men," Adel said. "So she won't be coming back anytime soon."
Rugal grimaced. "Wicked woman..." he sighed. "But I guess I don't blame her. I wasn't the best of husbands."
"You weren't," Adel couldn't help but agree. "But you're a much better father, so let's not talk about Mom now."
"You're right, I guess," Rugal shrugged. "Anyway, how long do we leave the roses to dry?"
"Should be about an hour," Adel said. "We'll just leave these to dry and start on Rose's breakfast."
Rugal looked at the time on his watch. It was nearly seven.
"Why are we wasting the hotel breakfast ticket again?" Rugal asked, continuing to dip the rest of the petals. "Because that stuff is fancy. It's one of the best breakfast buffets we've ever had in a hotel."
Adel smirked. "I thought you don't have any likes or dislikes when it comes to food?"
Rugal groaned. "Please, stop with this. It may be true, but it doesn't mean I can't recognise good food, right?"
"True," Adel chuckled. "Maybe we can surprise her with some muffins and warm rose milk? We got a few cartons yesterday, remember?"
Rugal nodded. "Sure. Just a small treat before a feast."
"And then the party," Adel sighed. "We owe Ash and Elisabeth big time for helping us."
"We do," Rugal agreed. "You said we're making muffins, right? Shouldn't we start on that? Do we even have an oven?"
Adel gestured towards the gas oven below the stove. "Yes. It's a little old, but it works fine. I actually tested it the other day."
"That explains the sudden cookies appearing out of nowhere," Rugal snorted, finishing the last of the roses. "Let's start on the muffins, then."

Rose was surprised with breakfast in bed by both her father and brother.
"Morning, Rose," Rugal greeted, holding a breakfast tray to her. "We made you muffins."
Rose took her satin bonnet off, which had somehow slid down to her eyes, and gasped at whatever that was on the tray. "Oh my gosh, you guys made me breakfast?"
"Happy birthday, Rose," Adel smiled. "We also brought you some rose milk, your favourite."
Rose lit up and carefully took the tray, placing it down on her lap before rubbing her hands in glee. "Thank you!" She happily said and started eating the muffins.
"We only made you something small since we're going for the resort breakfast too," Rugal said. "Don't wanna waste that now, right?"
Rose nodded in agreement. "You're right, the breakfast is amazing."
"Wait, let me go get some for us," Adel said, leaving the room.
He quickly texted Ash about the party arrangements and got the plate of muffins from the kitchen counter before making his way back to his sister's room. Adel handed a muffin to his father and started having one for himself.
"How is it?" Adel asked, peeling a small part of the liner before biting into the cake.
"It's really good," Rose nodded. "Topped with candied rose petals, just the way I like it. Thank you!"
The two men exchanged grins.
"I'm glad you like it," Adel said.
They finished their muffins and got ready for the resort breakfast. Rugal immediately went to Ash and Elisabeth while Adel sat with Rose.
"Is everything set up?" Rugal asked.
Elisabeth nodded. "We've booked the beach for the evening."
"Great," Rugal said, relieved. "We'll bring her out for a spa day."
Ash smirked. "Not like you're just gonna sit by, right?"
Rugal smirked back. "How did you know?"
"I didn't," Ash said, a little surprised. "Anyway, enjoy your spa day, Monsieur."
"What about the cake?" Elisabeth asked. "You're bringing it in, right? Because we have no clue where you even ordered it."
Rugal nodded. "Don't worry, we'll bring it in. We also arranged for a caterer, they'll bring in the food at exactly five-forty. We'll be back by then, but we have to distract Rose a bit."
Ash shuddered. "You're not gonna leave me to that task again, right?"
"No, not this time," Rugal chuckled, shaking his head. "Did she bother you guys?"
"Not much, but she did keep asking where you guys went," Ash shrugged. "But you came in just in time. We even ran out of rose milk."
"My apologies on that," Rugal said. "Anyway, thank you so much for doing this for us. We owe you one."
Elisabeth smiled. "Come on, it's what do."
Rugal waved at them and turned to walk away. Ash watched as Rugal returned to his table and turned to Elisabeth. "Yo, Betty."
"Yeah?" Elisabeth said, cutting her scone.
"When is it our turn to be spa-pampered?"
Elisabeth turned to look at him in surprise, a smile curling her lips. "You wanna go to the spa?"
Ash nodded excitedly. "I do! Oh, thank you, Betty! I know you'd allow. When are we going?"
Elisabeth sighed, seeing right through his actions. "How about tomorrow?"
"Sure!" Ash grinned. "Hey, Athena and gang are coming in tomorrow, right?"
"Yes, they're on their way," Elisabeth nodded. "The plane will only land tomorrow."
"Aight, then," Ash smirked. "The BOF are coming too, right?"
"I think they are. Terry's birthday is just a day after Athena's."
Ash smiled as he leaned back against his seat. "Ah, March. The month of birthdays..."
Elisabeth sighed in agreement. "Then there's Yuki after Terry's birthday."
"I sure hope Kyo doesn't get himself kidnapped again. Poor woman, Kyo really did some damage by scaring her like that."
"He did," Elisabeth couldn't help but agree, lifting her scone to take a bite. "And after her birthday, there's Yagami."
"Not before his girlfriend's birthday just a day before that," Ash sighed. "Darn, we gonna gain some weight this month with all that birthday food and cake."
Elisabeth snorted. "You better start exercising, Ma Cheri."
"I should..." Ash dolefully agreed. "Wanna go for a jog later?"
"Sounds good," Elisabeth chuckled.
Jacques sat himself down beside Ash and adjusted his monocle before starting on his meal. Ash chuckled, glad that they brought him along on their holiday.