Deeper Than the Knife

Chapter 21- Too Many. . .Kids. . .

I stared down the mixing bowl that was filled with cake batter, silently changeling it to war. This was my fourth attempt to make Yarah's birthday cake. 

April 24th, Yarah's birthday, she was turning seven. I was determined to make her a birthday cake, no matter how many times it took. Yukino-my beautiful wife-was in the living blowing up balloons and hanging up streamers. Her arm had healed up, and her physical therapy had ended in March, but it would still give her some trouble when she was using it. 

Alejandro was in the kitchen with me, preparing some snacks and insulting my baking skills. 

"I'm surprised you've survived by yourselves for so long." He insulted, pouring a bag of chips into a bowl.

"Shut up!" I snapped. I grabbed a wooden spoon and started angrily stirring the batter. Alejandro was a freaking ass at times.

I could hear-freaking hear-Alejandro roll his eyes as he picked up the bowl and walked out of the kitchen into he living room. That left me alone to make the cake. It didn't turn out so well. I heard footsteps enter the kitchen, I thought it might have been Alejandro so I prepared to argue with him. Except, it wasn't Alejandro, it was Yukino. Yay. 

Yukino came up behind me and wrapped her arms around me. I can own up to my gayness and admit that I completely and utterly died. My face was red and my heart might as well have flown out of my chest without warning. Yukino rarely-like maybe once-initiated anything romantic. She was definitely getting more comfortable about the whole touching thing.

The wooden spoon fell out of my hand and landed in the batter. "Uh. . .Yukino?" I didn't want to give off the impression that I was uncomfortable-we've had that misunderstanding before. She panicked.-but I was curious as too why she was being so bold all of a sudden. Not that I was complaining.

She just buried her face into my back, her grip tightened, pulling me closer to her. Or was she  pushing herself into me? Probably the first one, that makes a lot more sense. 

We stayed like that for who knows how long. I heard the door bell ring, neither of us moved, Alejandro yelled that he would get it. The door opened, and someone entered, I smelled the faint sent of birds. Which meant it was Amber. She decided that she'd be the cool aunt to the kids, she had mentioned to me-we'd become pretty good friends, I forgot to mention that before hand-one day that she didn't want to have any kids. She didn't want any even before her fiancé died. So she claimed the job of being the cool aunt. 

"Where's the birthday girl?" I heard her ask. 

"Still picking out her outfit," Alejandro said. 

The door bell rang again, and Yukino slowly let go of me. I was a bit disappointed, I hadn't realized before but Yukino was surprisingly warm.

I wanted to ask her what that was about, but when I turned around she wasn't there anymore.

However, my lady and savior Aliyya had entered the kitchen, a hand rested on her pregnancy bump.

"Thank goodness you're here!" I cried in relief. "Please help me with this cake." I begged, pointing to the cake batter on the counter. 

Aliyya rolled her eyes, but I could tell she was smiling under her niqab. She came over and took over cake duty. 

I took a step backwards, and let her have space to work. "Don't worry, it's nut free and I used almond milk for Ms. Lactose intolerant over there," I gestured to Yukino who was greeting Sahab and Rashida. They had matching pink hijabs on which was so freaking cute. 

"Thank you Charlotte, now go great your guests." She said while she fixed my mess of a cake.

I nodded and headed into the living room.