4 Leaf Clover - ᴹˣᴹˣᴹˣᴹ

21.

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Clover and Elio held each other tightly for what felt like hours, they only vacated the warmth of Elio's bed when Clover's stomach rumbled again. Clover chuckled with humiliation, claiming he already had some cereal but Elio declared nothing could appease Clover's stomach other than his pancakes. They got up, the time was almost midday, yet the entire house stood silent.

Yuki was still fast asleep, his perseverance to bring Clover home was finally being flushed away by the opportunity to sleep. Clover and Elio understood they would allow him to sleep for as long as possible. Although they knew where Yuki was, Finley had seemingly vanished. Elio had checked his room, he wanted Finley to join the both of them in creating pancakes but his presence was long gone.

Elio attempted to ring him, but his phone went to voicemail. Clover was a little worried but Elio insisted he was either at work or busy with something.

"Finley's family is a little eccentric, you see," Elio explained to Clover as they gathered the ingredients to make pancakes, "He always gets calls from them about crazy stuff,"

"Crazy stuff?" Clover asked, fascinated.

"Yeah, his mum is always on holiday, his dad is always discovering new things in Egypt and his little brother is a wrestler,"

"Woah," Clover said, he found himself always intrigued by their families, and from the sounds of things, all three of the men had vastly different families.

"Yeah, so they always call him for different things and he has to drive over to help them," Elio shrugged, and Clover gathered that it had probably happened a lot considering Elio wasn't worried about his disappearance.

"I see," Clover announced, and he looked at the array of different ingredients on the bench in front of them, "And what do we do with all of this?"

"First, we get a bowl," Elio announced, pulling out a bowl big enough to fit in all the ingredients, "First, we get all the dry stuff and measure them,"

Clover nodded and passed all the dry ingredients to Elio who had the scales in front of him. A whole cup of flour was calculated, then the exact measurements for the sugar, baking powder and salt. Clover assisted with measuring the wet ingredients, putting the right amount of milk, melted butter, vanilla extract and one egg into a separate bowl.

"Then Clover," Elio sounded, the concentration in his voice apparent, "Gradually add the wet ingredients into the big bowl,"

Clover gathered up the bowl with the mixed wet ingredients and poured a little into the big mixing bowl. He mixed it till the wet ingredients collided with the dry, and then added more and more till the batter became watery and creamy.

"So, here's the next step," Elio began, "We usually fight over this, but we need to pick something to go inside the pancakes,"

"To go inside?" Clover questioned as he looked at the perfect batter.

"I have chocolate chips, fudge bits or some little raisins," Elio showed Clover, "My favourite is the raisins,"

"Let's try them then," Clover nodded with a smile, he wasn't too fussy.

Back home with his parents, Clover discovered raisins to be a big part of his diet and he enjoyed them. He uncovered they were just dried-up grapes when he was younger and since then, he knew why his parents always advised him to eat them. They were very healthy and Clover's favourite fruit just so happened to be green grapes. He liked them even more understanding Elio appreciated them too.

The door to the house snapped open as Clover poured in the raisins. Clover's head snapped at the violent intrusion but his feelings calmed at the sight of Finley kicking off his trainers at the door. He wasn't missing or lost after all, and instead, the man had taken himself for a run. He was shirtless, the sweat glistening down his body. Clover watched as his chest heaved, showing he was still out of breath. Finley's shorts were a bit disarrayed and showed off the waistband of his underwear.