s o l o m o n

f i v e

•·················•·················•

"Was he hitting on you?!" Hyx slammed the ball of raw dough on the tabletop in his enthusiasm.

"Of course not! Moon Priests don't do that." Yusa kneaded her own dough against the tabletop, dusted with a thin layer of flour to make sure it didn't stick. She was quick to turn down his assumption, even though she herself could not be certain.

"It sounded like this one does," he said. Hyx returned to kneading the dough in his hand before placing it off to the side, adding it to the grid of other dough balls that been finished and were now set to relax.

It was early morning and Yusa was in the kitchen of Dinah's café. Dinah was Hyx's aunt, his father's sister, and she raised Hyx and his brother since they were small children, though she did not look old enough to have brought up two young men. Contrary to her appearance, Dinah always behaved like she was much older than she was, causing the boys to sometimes refer to her as their grandmother.

The café was empty on this day since it was the weekend and Yusa was granted a rare extension on her break by Ciro. Naturally, this meant she would be going to hang out with Hyx. However, since he was stuck with the task of preparing some of their bakery items for the next day, this meant Yusa was also in the kitchen, helping by rolling the dough.

"Where's Thebes? Doesn't Dinah always tell you both to do the prep work?" Yusa's wrist ached from the constant kneading, hoping they were almost done with this step of the process.

"Yep." Hyx transferred the finished rolls onto a baking tray.

"But he's not here?"

"Yep." He cut slits in a large 'X' over the tops of the rolls before brushing them with melted butter.

"Won't Dinah be upset with him?"

"Yep." He slid the baking tray into the large brick oven in the wall nearby, wiping his hands on the front of the apron he had tied around his waist.

"All right," she said, shrugging before she returned to her work.

Hyx was less than surprised with his brother's behavior. Thebes was always one to skip out on doing the background work of the café and more often than not, left it for Hyx to do on his own. He used to get angry about it, calling his brother lazy and all sorts of names but that never made any difference. If Thebes did show up to do the prep work one day, that would be the real shock. Hyx has come to expect working alone on these off days, but it was a pleasant surprise that Yusa had come to help out instead.

"You didn't have to stay and work, you're on break." Hyx brought out a large mixing bowl from one of the cupboards. He took out some bars of chocolate from the ice box, wiping down his portion of the counter to get rid of the flour before chopping up the chocolate. He had finished his tray of buns, but Yusa was still kneading hers, trying to get them to be just as good as his. She wasn't a baker, so he didn't rush her to hurry up especially since she didn't have to help out at all.

"Yeah, I could've gone and hung out with my other friends." Her sarcasm made him smile. "Besides, I've always wanted to learn how to make, what are these again?"

"Chocolate buns."

"I've always wanted to learn how to make chocolate buns!"

"I'll give you some to take home to gramps, maybe even for that Moon Priest," Hyx teased, scooping the fine shreds of chocolate into the mixing bowl. Yusa grabbed the roll she had been working on, throwing her arm back like she was about to toss the product of the last 5 minutes of steady kneading at her friend. Hyx laughed, quickly moving out of the way to take the mixing bowl to the hot top. The hot top was a small square of the counter that was disconnected from the rest of the table and had a flame lit underneath it to heat it up. It was a way to heat things more evenly than holding it directly over a flame. The chocolate in the mixing bowl gradual melted until it was smooth. He moved the bowl to the side and off of the heat, stirring the chocolate gently.