Chapter 28 : Morning

Anton took in a deep breath through his nose as he first scrunched up his eyes and then slowly blinked them open. An unknown something had been faintly flicking itself against the side of his face for some time now, and whatever it was that was doing this had finally reached the point in its activity where it had broken through to his awareness and woken him up.

Sitting still for a moment so as to fully wake himself up, he stared straight forward and out over the expanse of his pillow as he came to his senses and gathered his wits. As he sat there gazing through the archway that led to his new office area, a quick, cocoa colored blur suddenly appeared in his peripheral vision just a half second before something lightly smacked itself into the lower edge of his cheek.

Tilting his head just slightly downwards and to the side brought the offending unknown into the clear view of his right eye, and Anton couldn’t help but to grin as he found himself now staring at what appeared to be the very tip of a long, thinly tapered, sharply pointed, and sporadically twitching, elven ear.

Chuckling quietly in his throat, Anton lightly tightened the arm he had wrapped around the shoulders of the dark elf that was sleeping next to him. And closed his eyes as he enjoyed both the warmth that was coming off of her body as well as the gentle motion caused by the rise and fall of her breathing.

Having nuzzled her head in under Anton’s chin, Kianna had tucked herself in against his chest and was now sleeping on her stomach with her arms folded around her bosom and with as much of her body touching him as she could manage.

After a few more minutes of light dozing, Anton took another deep breath, and taking his arm off of her shoulders, started to lift himself up by pulling his other arm out from under the pillow that he and Kianna were currently resting on and, by rising up on his elbow, lifted the light blanket that covered them both up enough to reveal the slumbering beauty hidden beneath it. Gazing down at her, he found himself going still as he watched her sleep.

Kianna was clearly still in the middle of dreaming, as indicated by the slight but constant movements of her eyes beneath their lids, and her ears, which seemed to be twitching in response to whatever was happening in her dream.

Torn between the desire to let her sleep and the need for them to start their day, Anton continued to watch her for several minutes before he reached out to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear. As he did this, her ear flicked back and forth wildly and the dark elf groaned in irritation as she began to stir.

Anton grinned as Kianna rolled onto her side and yawned sleepily before blinking up at him. They both stared at each other in silence for a moment before Kianna slumped in on herself and scrunched up her face in anguish as she clamped her eyes shut.

“ ... I have to pee.” she whined miserably as she wrinkled her nose and flattened her ears back behind her head “ ... Like, really, really bad.”

Anton couldn’t help but to start laughing loudly as he immediately reached out and wrapped his arm back around her.

Kianna went stiff for a moment before rolling forward and tucking herself back in against him. Clearly embarrassed, she did her best to hide as she ducked her head back under the blanket and, by squirming back and forth, literally tried to bury herself beneath Anton. When this didn’t work in the way that she wanted, she began to groan in misery and lightly kick at his legs with her own in an effort to make him stop laughing.

“Quit it!” she whined in a muffled tone as she kept her face hidden “Don’t laugh at me!”

“I am so sorry!” chuckled Anton as he squeezed her to his chest “But that was just too adorable...”

Feeling the vibrations of his silent laughter still rumbling out of his chest, Kianna continued to softly kick at his legs in protest. When the last of his soft chuckling finally died away, she slid her leg in between his and hooked her ankle behind his calf in an effort to pull him in against her.

Still holding her tightly, Anton did nothing to impede her as Kianna worked to wrap their legs together. Once he felt her go still, he brought his right hand up and, being careful not to touch her sensitive ears, began to run his fingers down the back of her head and through her hair.

Kianna was still for a moment before she moved her ears out of the way by folding them down and pointing them out and away from her head. Anton’s grin grew as he watched her slowly shift her head back and forth as she guided his hand down the pathways that she clearly wanted him to take. After a few minutes of this she went still again.

“ ... Hey now.” soothed Anton with a smile as the faint sounds of sleep began to emanate from where she was hiding her face “It’s time to wake up, you.”

Kianna groaned loudly as her ears tightened themselves back together behind her head.

“Mm mm!” she mumbled in annoyance as she shifted her shoulders back and forth “ ... No!”

“Yes!” chuckled Anton as he lightly tapped her on the head “C’mon now, it’s time to wake up.”

“Why!?” grumbled Kianna as she rolled sideways just enough to pout up at him “We’re taking today off, remember?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to stay in bed all day.” smiled Anton “We still have things to do.”

“ ... Like what?” muttered Kianna as she narrowed her eyes at him.

“Well, for one.” said Anton as he planted his elbow on his pillow and rested his cheek against his closed fist “We do need to make macaroni and cheese today!”

“Ugh, we can do that later!” grumbled Kianna as she rolled back onto her stomach and snuggled up next to him “It’s not even lunch time yet...”

“But I’m hungry!” teased Anton as he lightly tugged on a lock of her hair.

“You can wait!” complained Kianna as she twitched her ears wildly in an effort to drive his hand away from her head “ ... Or go eat some pizza ... It’s still in the fridge.”

Anton chuckled and tried to dart his fingers back in between Kianna’s still twitching ears while she groaned lightly and stretched out her legs.

“Uh ... Uh oh!” cried Kianna as she suddenly froze “ ... I shouldn’t have done that!”

“Huh?” questioned Anton as he stopped his movements as well “What’s wrong?”

“ ... I really have to pee now!” whined Kianna as she rolled away from him and frantically threw the blanket aside as she made her way off the bed.

Anton laughed as he watched her naked form rush around the bed and make a beeline for the bathroom. Shaking his head in amusement he left the bed at a more leisurely pace and followed after her.

“Hey!” cried Kianna from her place on the toilet “What are you doing!?”

“What?” said Anton as he stretched his arms out above his head and made his way to the vanity “I’m going to brush my teeth. Why?”

“ ... But! I, I’m peeing in here!” exclaimed Kianna as she pressed her thighs together.

“And?” laughed Anton as he casually applied toothpaste to his toothbrush “It’s not like I haven’t been in the room while you’ve done that before, Kianna.”

Lowering her ears in embarrassment, Kianna glared as she watched Anton begin to brush his teeth. Seeing that he was essentially going to ignore her, and unable to hold back any longer, she grudgingly continued to relieve herself. When she was finished she rose from the toilet and approached him.

“You’re gross!” she declared as she took a stance right next to him, pointed her ears straight back and planted her balled fists on her hips “And you’re mean!”

Anton nodded absently in agreement as he stared at himself in the mirror and continued to give his teeth a thorough brushing. Making her annoyance clear, Kianna remained still and stood right where she was as he finished and rinsed out his mouth.

Running his tongue over his newly cleaned teeth, Anton turned to her and immediately gazed down at the collar that encircled her neck. Letting his eyes follow the collar’s pointed tip further downwards, he couldn’t help but to grin as he was greeted with the sight of her full and supple breasts.

“ ... Shower?” he asked after a moment of silent staring “ ... I’ll wash your back for you, if you want.”

Kianna stayed still for another moment before narrowing her eyes.

“Fine!” she huffed as she turned away from him, pointed her ears straight upwards and began to march towards the shower “That sounds really good!”

Chuckling softly, Anton nodded his head and locked his eyes onto her swaying bottom as he turned and followed along behind her.

Kianna’s sour mood quickly disappeared as she stood beneath the downpour of warm water and let it soak into her hair. By letting her mind go blank for a moment, she gave Anton the chance he needed to surprise her by coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her shoulders. Anton couldn’t help but to smile as the startled dark elf almost immediately relaxed and took his hands into her own as she leaned back into him. They stood together this way for some time as they slowly swayed back and forth and enjoyed their time alone beneath their private little rainstorm.

Shifting them both into a dancing motion, Anton kept hold of Kianna’s hands as he lead them out from under the falling water and over to the little shelf he had stocked with his own shampoos and body wash. Keeping Kianna in front of him, Anton worked around her as he applied a dose of body wash to a large, soft, light-blue colored body sponge. Turning them both around to once again face towards the shower, Anton reached his arm out and held the sponge beneath the falling water while giving it a few squeezes.

Kianna couldn’t stop herself from smiling softly as Anton lifted her right arm up by the wrist and preceded to gently scrub her limb clean with the now suds covered sponge. Letting herself essentially go limp, the dark elf leaned back into his chest and sighed contently as she watched him work.

Anton grinned to himself when he noticed that Kianna had begun to quietly hum a soft, almost inaudible tune. Glancing down, he found her watching him with a relaxed, nearly dreary look in her large eyes. Though he had no way of knowing this, she was in all actuality humming along to the gentle rhythm of his heartbeat as it echoed out of his chest and filled her sensitive ears.

Working slowly and methodically, Anton thoroughly scrubbed away at first one arm and then the other before moving on to Kianna’s shoulders, sides and finally down her front and across her belly.

Kianna began to lightly giggle in her throat as his hands made their way back upwards and found her breasts. With his own low chuckles rumbling out of his chest, Anton playfully squeezed, pinched at and fondled the soft globes until the dark elf suddenly turned the tables on him.

Twisting around in his arms until she was face to face with him, Kianna smiled at the sight of Anton’s surprised expression and lowering her ears until their tips were pointed back and away from her head, she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck before stretching herself upwards and kissing him deeply.

“Hmm!” groaned Anton as he tightly squeezed the sponge in his fist and wrapped his arms around the dark elf before pulling her in and crushing her against him. Savoring their kiss, he suddenly leaned back until he was nearly bent over backwards.

Kianna began to giggle into their kiss and playfully kick her feet as she was lifted up into the air. Breaking away from their kiss, she smiled down at him as Anton held her airborne for a moment before gently setting her back on her feet.

“I think it’s my turn to do you now!” teased Kianna as she loosened her arms from around his neck and began to shift her shoulders back and forth.

Smiling broadly, Anton laughed through his teeth as Kianna bit her lower lip and slowly rubbed her suds covered breasts across his chest.

“But I wasn’t done with you yet.” he growled in a playful tone as he let his arms fall downwards.

Kianna gasped in surprise and then smiled as his open hand roughly grabbed hold of her bottom and gave one of her butt cheeks a tight squeeze.

“Naughty little dark elf! Making it so hard for me to get her clean!” teased Anton as he began to run the sponge up and down her back and over her bottom “Such a bad girl!”

Kianna whimpered playfully as she nuzzled their faces together and began to lightly kiss him up and down his jawline as she continued to twist herself back and forth.

Wrapping his arm around her middle, Anton held the squirming dark elf in a tight embrace as he continued his efforts to scrub her clean.

Kianna, in turn, did her best to make completing this task as difficult for him as possible. As more suds were applied to her body, the slipperier she became, and the easier it was for her to wiggle her way out of his arms.

Realizing that trying to hold a soaped up, misbehaving dark elf still with nothing but brute force was in fact a futile effort, Anton instead attempted to negotiate by promising her that if she let him finish, he would let her use the sponge to scrub him for as long as she wanted to.

Excited by such a prospect, Kianna agreed and became somewhat cooperative as she allowed herself to be thoroughly cleaned. Once Anton was finally finished with her, she gleefully took up the sponge and started her own long odyssey.

Well over an hour later, a patiently grinning, and heavily wrinkled Anton was finally finished with the deepest and most intimate sponge bath he had ever received.

Now literally shining with cleanliness, the duo dressed themselves in some casual home wear and made their way downstairs.

“About time you two showed up!” grumbled Fiona as she plopped her book down on the table in front of herself “It’s almost Noon!”

Kianna stopped in the kitchens archway and cocked an eyebrow at her sister.

“So!?” she exclaimed as she folded her arms across her middle “What are you waiting on us for!?”

Fiona blinked and quickly lifted her book back up.

“I’m not.” she stated as she feigned focusing on the pages in front of her “I’m just saying ... It’s already getting late.”

“ ... Right, whatever.” mumbled Kianna with a shrug.

“Hey?” questioned Anton as he narrowed his eyes at the little pile of ham chunks sitting on the plate in front of Fiona “Are you eating my pizza!?”

“ ... I, um.” stammered Fiona as she kept her eyes staring forward at her book “ ... Not, all of it.”

“Why you greedy little ... You have your own! Why are you eating mine?” growled Anton.

“It’s fine. You’re not going to eat that anyway.” declared Kianna as she grabbed hold of her elbow and twisted at the waist while stretching out her arm “I’m gonna make you lunch today! So you don’t need that pizza anymore!”

“ ... Humph!” grumbled Anton as he watched her repeat the process with her other arm “Always there to save your sister...”

Fiona smiled sheepishly as she noticed that Anton had crossed his arms and was once again staring down at her.

Kianna quickly made her way to the pantry and pulled out two boxes of macaroni and cheese. She then took the boxes and planted them on the counter-top next the sink.

“Okay!” she exclaimed as she looked from the boxes to Anton “So how do I make these!?”

Anton chuckled in his throat as he made his way over to her and picked up one of the boxes.

“It’s simple.” he said as he turned the box on its side “See right here where it says “Directions”? This is a step by step guide on how to prepare this correctly.”

“Oh, okay!” exclaimed Kianna as she picked up her own box “ ... So, first I need to boil some water?”

“That’s what it says!” smiled Anton.

“Right! So! Boil water!” exclaimed Kianna as she marched across the kitchen and stopped in front of the stove “ ... How, do I make this do that?”

Anton chuckled again as he made his way to her side and opened one of the lower cabinets next to the stove.

“First, we take a pot. One that’s big enough to handle what we want to make in it.” he explained as he pulled out a medium sized pot and took it over to the sink “And then we fill it with enough water to boil our noodles in.”

“Okay, I can do that!” exclaimed Kianna as she moved to stand in front of the sink that Anton had placed the pot in and quickly turned on the spigot “So how much water does macaroni need?”

“Well that depends on how much of it you’re going to make.” said Anton as he leaned against the counter-top and watched the pot fill with water “Right now we need enough for at least two boxes of macaroni, so I’d fill that pot up to about two thirds of the way full.”

“Okay.” said Kianna as she leaned forward and watched the rising water line.

Once the pot had enough water in it, the clearly excited dark elf quickly turned off the sink’s stream and rushed the pot over to the stove. With her pot of water now sitting, ready and waiting on a burner, Kianna’s eyes darted up to the stoves controls. With a blank expression on her face, she stared at the knobs that controlled each of the four burners for a moment before lowering her ears and turning back to Anton.

“How do I make this boil?” she asked expectantly “There’s no button on here that says boil?”

Anton chuckled again as he moved closer.

“Each of these knobs up here controls one of the burners on the stove top down here. And just turning it is enough to make the burner start warming up.” he explained as he reached out and twisted one of the knobs to the side “All you have to do is keep turning it until the temperature range that you need reaches this little arrow, and that’s how hot your burner will eventually become.”

“ ... So, water will boil when you put it at 5?” questioned Kianna as she leaned in and examined the numbers that ran along the side of the knob “ ... Why doesn’t it just say “Boil” right there then?”

“It’s not as though water will only boil when the burner is set to 5.” smiled Anton “It’ll boil at both a higher and lower temperature. The time-frame will be different though, a lower temperature takes longer to reach the boiling point while a higher temperature will get there a lot faster.”

“ ... Well if it’s gonna be faster with a higher temperature then why don’t we turn it up?” asked Kianna.

“Because we don’t want to damage the pot.” said Anton as he gave the side of the pot a light flick with his finger “A higher temperature might boil the water faster but it could also scorch the bottom of your pot and weaken it. And if you weaken it enough then the metal that the pot is made out of will eventually crack. Making it useless.”

“Oh, okay.” nodded Kianna as she looked down into the pot “ ... So how long does it take for it to boil?”

“Not too long.” said Anton as he settled in against the counter-top “About 15 to 20 minutes or so.”

“ ... Mm.” hummed Kianna as she nodded again and turned to look up at him “Can’t you just use magic to boil it? Wouldn’t that be faster?”

“I could. And it would be faster.” said Anton as he grinned at the pot “Unfortunately, with that being such a small amount of water, the likelihood of me boiling it all away immediately and then melting that pot is actually pretty high.”

“Oh!” said Kianna as her ears pointed themselves straight upwards “So you can’t just control the mana like you did with the bathwater?”

“I could, but you have to understand. When you’re working with raw mana that isn’t tied to a spell or ability, you really have to have a clear understanding of what you’re trying to do. You’d be very surprised at how easy it is to overdo things with raw mana. A small amount of it can go a shockingly long way. In fact, even the difference between forming a soft, heat-less light, and a flame that’s as hot as a blowtorch, is really just a small jump in applied power.” explained Anton “And it’s the same when it comes to warming up water or actually boiling it. You’re dealing with two very different goals. One can be achieved with just a tiny bit of mana, but the other has to be a more precise amount. Too little and the water won’t reach the boiling point, too much, too fast, and you can instantly boil it all away. The amount of power you apply to the amount of water you have has to be just right. And like I said before, there isn’t as much room for error with such a small amount of water. And I don’t know about you, but I would rather not risk being scalded by a cloud of steam that I suddenly made by accident.”

“Huh, yeah...” said Kianna as she eyed the pot of water “Good point...”

Anton chuckled as he nodded in agreement.

“Besides, this is supposed to be about teaching you how to cook. Not doing it for you.” he smiled.

Kianna nodded again as she watched a slew of tiny bubbles begin to take shape across the bottom of the pot.

“ ... So is there anything I can do while I’m waiting?” she asked after a moment of silence.

“There is, a few things actually.” said Anton as he opened a cabinet above and to the side of the stove “We can add a bit of spice to the water for one.”

“Spice?” questioned Kianna as Anton set a canister of salt on the counter and handed her one full of pepper “ ... But this is pepper?”

“Yes, and pepper is a spice.” laughed Anton “One that you can add to the water while it’s warming up.”

“Oh, okay!” said Kianna as she proceeded to shake some of the pepper out into the pot of water “ ... Is that enough?”

“Mm hm.” nodded Anton “Now whenever you’re unsure about how much of something you need, just remember that it’s almost always easier to add more of something than it is take it away. And that’s especially true with cooking, and with spices in particular. You can always add more spices, but once they’re in there, they’re in there for good.”

“Right, that makes sense ... So, what do the spices do exactly?” asked Kianna as she watched the tiny specks of pepper both float across the surface of the water and slowly sink beneath it.

“They add flavors.” said Anton as he too watched the specks of pepper “Different spices add different flavors of course. And just like mana, a small amount of them can go a long way.”

Creating a thin, glowing orange rod in his hand, Anton leaned over and began to lightly stir the boiling water so that more of the floating pepper would sink into it.

“What’s happening here is that the tiny bits of pepper are being saturated by the water. And as this happens the peppers flavor leaches out into the water itself, and this will give the water a slight spice to it.” explained Anton as he dropped the rod and let it melt away into nothing “Once we add the noodles they’ll soak up the spiced water and take in the peppers flavor along with it. Now, the pepper flavor that the noodles take in isn’t going to be very strong, especially when it’s being masked by the cheese that’s going to cover the macaroni. But the flavor will still be there, even if only faintly, and this small amount will still add to the overall taste of the meal.”

Kianna nodded slowly and stared at the swirling bits of pepper as she listened intently.

“ ... So, what if we add more spices?” she questioned as she picked up the canister of salt “That way we could have even more flavors!”

“Well, the issue there is that not all flavors will always blend together just right. And you could accidentally ruin a meal by trying to mix to many of them at one time.” explained Anton “Of course you can also end up finding a combination that you really like by experimenting with mixing different flavors together. And in the future you’re free to do that. But for today, while we’re still learning, we’ll keep things simple and stick to just pepper.”