CASUAL AFFAIR; brendon urie

Chapter Eighteen

I'd never seen a kid stare so intently at a microwave, willing for the little ding, watching the bag inside slowly rotate. Her fingers gripped the counter as she pushed herself up on her tiptoes, and her top teeth clamped down on her bottom lip, an expectant expression on her face.

"You shouldn't stand so close." I chided her, scraping the rest of the icing into the piping bag, and screwing the top on. "You'll scramble your brains."

Amelie let out a little huff of breath, shoulders slumping. "Mommy says that, too."

"Well, your mommy is a smart lady, you know." I pulled the tray of cupcakes towards me. "How about you help me with the cakes, squirt?"

That perked her right up. She let go, and gave me a bright look, clasping her hands together. "Really?" she didn't bother waiting for an answer, before skipping over to me and reaching her hands out for the piping bag. I handed it over, and picked her up under her arms. "Follow what I say, ok?" I planted a quick peck on her cheek.

"Mm-hm." She nodded, and settled her hands. Together, we made a swirled towers of icing atop each of the cakes, all the while, after I'd set her to sit on the counter, I guided her hands and spoke encouragement to her. And for a girl her age, the cupcakes looked pretty good. Scratch that, they looked pretty darned fantastic. "You know what?" I said to her, holding my palm out. "We make a pretty sweet team." Amelie smacked her palm again mine, giggling, and bobbing her head in agreement. "And these look awesome." I wiped a stray piece of icing from the edge of one of the cases.

"These now?" Amelie asked, holding up the little tub of pink cupcake glitter topping.

I smiled at her choice of the various assembled cupcake toppings I'd arranged out. Of course she picked the pink glitter. "If that's what you want." I picked up the little silver icing balls. "With these."

Amelie nodded, but then held her finger up, and picked up the blue glitter one in her other hand. "For boys."

"Ah!" I tapped the side of my nose knowingly. "We wouldn't want to forget about them. Half and half?" Amelie nodded enthusiastically, and so we began to decorate, Amelie handing me the blue glitter so I could do the 'boys' half of them, and she took the other half with the 'girls' pink. I told her to watch how I arranged the silver icing balls before she did her own so she knew what to do.

And then, with the final little ball added painstakingly careful, Amelie's tongue sticking out the side of her mouth, and a frown on her face as she tried her best to get it perfect, we were done. "Voila!" I waved my hand, and scooped Amelie up and spun her around. "They look good enough to eat, huh?" I waved a hand over them.

"Gobble them all up!" Amelie clapped her hands together, and pointed at them excitedly. "All of them!"

"All of them?" I pretended to look incredibly shocked. I tickled her stomach, and she squirmed like a little puppy in my arms, snorting with laughter. "Isn't someone quite the greedy guts tonight, then?" I tilted her back and pressed my face to her stomach, blowing raspberries whilst she kicked and tried to bat my head away weakly, her laughter shaking her whole body. "We have to save some for Knox, mommy and daddy, don't you think?" I said, finally relenting, and popping her back down on the counter.

"Nope." She shook her head wildly, making the bunches I'd tied her hair in a half hour ago whip side to side. She began to swing her legs. "Nope." She repeated, and threw her arms wide -

"Uh oh." Amelie clapped her hands to her mouth, looking at the fallen cupcake with big eyes. She looked up at me, and I swear in that one moment, she looked exactly like Dallon, with her guilty expression. "I didn't mean to."