Fourth floor common room, Wednesday morning

[leavingthenest.livejournal.com]

Rapunzel was feeling pretty good this morning, and as part of that she was trying to get back into a regular routine. She'd gotten up early, tidied up her room, and almost immediately headed to the common room where she'd made a huge batch of muffins.

And now that said muffins were in the oven (and smelled positively delicious as they were baking!) Rapunzel had a moment to sit down and brush her hair. A few moments.

A lot of moments.

This could take a while.

Comments

[leavingthenest.livejournal.com]

"A normal cheese sandwich?" Rapunzel repeated, her head tilting to one side in a sort of curious expression. What made a cheese sandwich normal, she wondered?

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"You know. Just one slice of bread, one slice of cheese, and you fold it," Dolf said, miming the folding thereof. "But all the bread here is sweet, and they put more stuff on the sandwiches."

[leavingthenest.livejournal.com]

"Oh!" Rapunzel bounced up from her seat on the couch, hairbrush hanging loosely in one hand. "I bet I could make one of those!"

She froze mid-step toward the pantry. "Oh. But I didn't bake any bread."

Did that make her a bad friend?

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"That's okay," Dolf hastened to say. He didn't want her to look that disappointed. "You didn't know I was coming." He paused. "I could bake some?" he offered. "And teach you how."

God knew he'd had enough experience baking bread.

[leavingthenest.livejournal.com]

"Oh, really?" A new recipe! Rapunzel knew quite a few, of course, but she also knew that there were so many more that she didn't know. And learning new ones was always neat!

Then a thought struck her and she hesitated for a moment. "You don't mind?"

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"Of course not," Dolf said, flashing her a smile. "I once had to make a lot of these in one night. This will be relaxing compared to that."

[leavingthenest.livejournal.com]

"Well, as long as you're sure!" That was good enough for Rapunzel. She bounced over to where Dolf was, her half-brushed hair trailing along behind her.

She was ready when he was!

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

Dolf reached into one of the cupboards and started getting out the flour and various other items he'd need. He took his time to show each one to Rapunzel. "You see, there's not supposed to be any sugar in this."

[leavingthenest.livejournal.com]

Rapunzel nodded. "Most of the bread recipes I know don't have sugar," she agreed as she watched, hands clasped tightly behind her back to hold herself back from just jumping in and "helping".

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

He tossed the right measure of ingredients together into a bowl and started mixing it with his hands, the way the baker had taught him. "Though I hope I'm not making this too sticky," he muttered.

[leavingthenest.livejournal.com]

"You could always add more flour if you need to," Rapunzel pointed out helpfully. She was leaning in close to look around his shoulder (she was too short to look over his shoulder, after all) at the mixing process without getting in his way.

Well, she hoped she wasn't getting in his way.

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

She wasn't. Not really, anyway, though Dolf did shift aside a little so there'd be more room. "There," he said, when he felt satisfied with the dough, and lifted it out of the bowl.

A beat.

"...I'll need something to put this on."

Preferably before the precarious pre-bread hit the ground.

[leavingthenest.livejournal.com]

Oh! That was something Rapunzel could help with! She'd been rummaging around for muffin tins earlier, and knew precisely where to find...

"Here!" she chirped triumphantly, holding out a large baking tray for him.

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

Dolf turned around and managed to dump the whole mess onto the baking train with a little wriggle of his fingers and, okay, it was a little sticky-- so maybe more than a wriggle. "There we go!"

[leavingthenest.livejournal.com]

For a moment the tray tilted precariously as the weight of the dough landed on it, but Rapunzel managed to quickly recover (without even a comedic "flailing around and almost dropping things" moment). "Oh, it smells good!" she decided as she caught a whiff.

Then she paused thoughtfully. "Do we need to let it rise?" she asked. Or was this one of those breads that didn't need to?

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"Oh, we should," Dolf said, after a pause where he racked his brain for it. Had it really been so long since he'd left the Middle Ages? "Just... set it down on the counter for ten minutes. I think it's ten minutes."

[leavingthenest.livejournal.com]

"Okay!" Rapunzel plopped the tray down on the counter with a victorious sort of gesture.

"Oh!" The muffins! They should be just about done now!

She spun, almost tangling herself up in her own hair, and reached toward the oven to open it. As she did, the aroma of the fresh baked goods flooded into the room even more strongly. "Mmmm!" she declared with a happy grin as she reached for some oven mitts.

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

Dolf leaned against the counter, and grinned. "They really do smell good," he said. "Do you do a lot of baking?"

[leavingthenest.livejournal.com]

Rapunzel nodded enthusiastically. "All the time!" Then she shrugged with a helpless sort of grin. "Though, to be honest, I started doing it out of boredom. There weren't all that many things to do back home." As much as she missed home, that part, at least, wasn't true in Fandom.

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"Where do you come from?" Dolf asked, as he waited patiently to be fed.

[leavingthenest.livejournal.com]

Everyone seemed to ask that question. Rapunzel was going to have to come up with a better answer than the one she had.

"Just... home?" She set the muffin tins on the counter and flailed her hands a bit inside the oven mitts. "I never thought it needed a name before, so..."

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"So no name," Dolf said, easily. "What was it like? Was it far away, or close? What were the people like?"

[leavingthenest.livejournal.com]

"Well, it was just me and mother. But the view was great!" Being up in a tower had its advantages, after all! "And I had plenty of time to myself to read, and sew, and bake, and paint." And read, and sew, and bake, and paint. And read, and sew, and bake, and paint.

[swordsandsoccer.livejournal.com]

"There weren't any villages nearby?" Dolf wanted to know, as he walked closer to inspect the muffins.

[leavingthenest.livejournal.com]

"Not any that I saw?" The tower had been pretty carefully hidden. For protection, of course.