Ultimately Unlucky...Or So I Thought (2p! hetalia x reader sequel)

Chapter Twelve: Baking

The next day, I was lounging around in the living room, watching a random show on tv. Francois was the only other person in the room.

Zao and Kuro were down in the basement with Lutz. Apparently every now and then the three would spar to help each other train. I had snuck down earlier to see what exactly they were doing, but left quickly enough when I saw Lutz wrestling with Zao, both with their shirts off.

Gillen was out with Viktor. The two were book hunting since they had apparently read everything that was to their liking in the library. They had asked if I had wanted to come with them or if I wanted anything, but I wasn't really up to leaving the house, so I had politely declined.

Flavio had dragged Allen and Matt out this morning, Haydn tagging along behind them with an amused look on her face. When I had asked what they were doing, she had told me that Flavio had been taking her out to find a dress for the upcoming ball, but had found out from Oliver that the two boys didn't have anything suitable for a ball either. He had hunted them down shortly after, determined to find them both something.

That left Luciano up in his office, working as usual, and Oliver in the kitchen, looking through his recipe books to find something new to bake. Francois was sitting near the back door, smoking despite Oliver coming in and yelling at him every so often for doing it.

"Poppet!" Oliver suddenly came bounding in as a new episode of the show I had been watching started.

"What is it, Ollie?" I asked.

"I found a new recipe I want to try!" he seemed more cheerful than usual. "Would you like to help me?"

"Sure," I replied. "Cupcakes again or are you trying something completely new?"

"It's a new cupcake recipe," he admitted, a bit sheepish.

"Let's start baking then," I laughed lightly.

"Why can't you ever bake anything with alcohol?" Francois sighed. "There are plenty of things you could make, but you chose that every time..."

I rose an eyebrow. I didn't think Francois liked anything sweet.

The cupcakes Oliver wanted to try making were a vanilla cake with a raspberry icing. It seemed like all of the cupcakes he made, despite most being different flavors, ended up with either pink or blue cake, or pink or blue icing. Even they had to display his favorite colors.

"The two of us haven't baked anything together yet," Oliver had a bright smile on his face as we gathered all of our ingredients.

"Haydn usually helps you," I nodded. "She has so much fun with you that I never want to interrupt."

"She's a very sweet little poppet," he said as I poured the right amount of flour into the bowl to make the cake batter. "I have to admit, she's like a little sister to me. It's been nice...having someone to take care of who isn't constantly getting into trouble."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"As kids, Francois and I were a bit older than Allen and Matt when they came to the orphanage, so we both decided to look out for them. Matt was less of a handful, but when he was with Allen, he would get into trouble too. The two, Allen especially, managed to find all kinds of mischief."

"Sounds about right," I giggled a bit.

"But those three are my family," he continued. "We will always be looking out for each other, no matter what. Just like you and Haydn."

"That's what family is for," I agreed. "No matter what, you have to take care of one another."

He nodded as I handed him the mixer to blend together all of the batter's ingredients.

I got out the cupcake pans as he worked, checking to make sure he had preheated the oven. The preheat was on, so I started placing the cupcake wrappers in the slots in the two pans.

While I worked, I noticed a bottle of Rosé wine tucked away near the refrigerator. That was the bottle Francois prefered to drink from during dinner, over Luciano's red wine. I wonder...what would the cupcakes taste like if I mixed the wine onto a few of the cupcakes? Maybe Francois would like them...

When I was sure Francois wouldn't be able to hear, I whispered the idea to Oliver. He didn't seem too pleased about ruining the cupcakes with alcohol, but did agree that Francois would probably like them better that way.

And so, we replaced four blue cupcake wrappers with ones that were purple so we would know which ones had wine.

After pouring the batter into the other cupcake wrappers, we mixed some of the wine into the remaining batter, and divided it into the purple ones.

While the cupcakes were cooking in the oven, the two of us still had the frosting to make. It wasn't too hard to mix everything like the recipe said, leaving some raspberries for garnishing the tops of the cupcakes once they were frosted.

"This has been a lot of fun," Oliver gushed as we were frosting the cupcakes after they had cooled down.

"I know," I grinned. "We need to do this more often."

"I agree, dearie," he grinned back at me.

Shortly after we had started garnishing the cupcakes with the raspberries, we heard the front door open. I could hear Allen and Matt bickering with Flavio in the other room.

"Oliver!" Flavio called. "Come and help me with these two. They still don't like the suits I picked out for them, but they match the two perfectly if you ask me."

"I'll be right back..." he muttered.

"I can finish these," I told him. "There are only a few left. Flavio needs your help."

"Thank you," he smiled before rushing from the room.

I finished the rest of the cupcakes before placing them in the special container Oliver had for storing the cupcakes he had just made to keep them fresh.

I took one of the ones with a purple wrapper, placing it on a napkin before placing the other purple ones in a separate container. I marked it as Francois' before placing them in the refrigerator.

Francois was still in the living room, so I carefully grabbed the cupcake on the napkin, before walking out to him.

"We put some of the wine you like into a few of them," I offered it to him. "I marked the container with them as yours so no one would take them."

"You made separate ones for me?" he had a surprised look on his face.

I nodded.

"Thanks..." he muttered, putting out his cigarette so he could try it.

"Is it good?" I asked out of curiosity after he had tasted it.

He nodded, offering to let me have a bite.

I didn't usually take anything with alcohol, but it was just a bite of a cupcake, and I was curious if they tasted any different.

I leaned down to take a bite. I wasn't really sure how to describe the taste, but it was good nonetheless.

"It is good," I smiled.

He had a slight smirk on his face as he leaned his face down slightly. I was just about to stand back up when I felt his lips against my cheek.

"There, that's your thank you," he said before going back to eating the sweet.

I couldn't help the light blush that crept it's way onto my face as I left the room.

I was immediately grabbed by Oliver, who pulled me into a bone crushing hug.

"Thank you for baking with me, poppet! I look forward to the next time I find a new recipe! Haydn can help us too!"

I couldn't help but laugh lightly at his enthusiasm. "Sounds like fun."

"Are we planning to make more cupcakes?" Haydn said from the kitchen entryway, a half eaten cupcake in hand.

I rolled my eyes with a chuckle. "Of course you've already found them."

"I could smell them the second I walked in," she grinned.

The three of us laughed as we went into the kitchen to sit down and eat the newly baked sweets.