The next morning, Layla awoke to the sound of something crashing downstairs. She jolted up with a start, almost smacking her head on the top of the bunk bed, and groaned when she looked at the time on her phone. It was only 8:30 in the morning. After so many years of being on the run and having to sleep with one eye open, Layla had been taking full advantage of her newfound, secure lifestyle and slept in until almost 10:30 most weekends. So safe to say she was not very happy to be awake right now.
Groaning and rubbing her eyes, she crawled out of bed. Tony's bed was empty, so the loud crash must've been him. It was probably something stupid like a plate dropping on the floor, but as much as she wanted to get back under her cozy covers, Layla figured she should probably go downstairs and see if everything was okay.
Miss Nowhere must've forgotten to put in good installation when she had the loft built, because it was freezing now. Layla shivered in her tank top and looked around the room for something else to put on. She had her leather jacket, but putting on something so tight did not sound appealing after just waking up. Hopefully she had something laying around downstairs. Wrapping her arms around herself, she made her way down the steps.
Tony was in the kitchen, apparently trying to make breakfast. He was wearing grey sweatpants, and of course, no shirt.
That was enough to wake Layla up.
She'd seen him shirtless before, like when he worked on his car sometimes (and he looked hot doing it). But watching him now- with his hair messy and his expression so focused as he tried to make pancakes in the kitchen- it was a different kind of attractive. The kind that made her think about the future, and how this could be-
Okay, what is happening? Layla thought, stopping herself before her brain could finish its crazy scenario. Since when do we get all sappy like that? Get it together, Layla!
"Morning, Layla," Tony called, finally noticing her and grinning.
"You woke me up," she replied, narrowing her eyes. It was a little mean given how chipper Tony seemed, but it was the best way to distract from the fact that she was probably blushing.
"Wow, someone's not a morning person," Tony teased. He gestured to his bowl of ingredients. "Wanna help with the pancakes? I've only ever made them from a box mix, and we don't have that, so..."
Perfect. A distraction was just what she needed. And pancakes were something she did happen to be good at.
Layla walked over to join Tony at the counter and looked at the mess he'd created in the bowl.
"Um, what exactly did you put in here?" She asked, poking at the concoction with the spoon.
Tony glanced to the side as he tried to recount all the ingredients.
"Flour, eggs, milk...oh, and vanilla."
"That explains why it looks like a bowl of cow manure," Layla said, laughing. "You put in way too much vanilla."
"Yeah, I tried to look up a recipe but my phone died and I couldn't find a charger," Tony replied, running a hand through his hair. "I wanted them to be sweet...but I guess I went a little overboard."
He smiled at her sheepishly, and Layla couldn't help but smile back. He was such an idiot sometimes. But he was pretty great at everything else, so that made up for it.
"It's ok, we can fix it, we just need to add a lot more of everything else to balance it out," Layla said. "So I hope you're hungry, because this is gonna make a lot of pancakes."
"Perfect," Tony smirked. "Pancake eating challenge?"
"You're on."
Three hours later, they had made about 30 pancakes. Layla had eaten five, and Tony had somehow gotten through eight with barely even a stomach ache. They'd also had a challenge to see who could catch the most chocolate chips in their mouth in a row. Layla had won that competition.
