Doe's POV:

"Am I doing this right?" I questioned, looking down at the dough sticking to my fingers.

Lily let out a soothing laugh, "You're doing perfectly, deary, you've just got to kneed it for a while before it starts to behave."

I nodded and got right back to kneading the crap out of this the way she first showed me.

Lily told me that she was going to have some downtime after lunch if I wanted to have her show me a few things.

And since neither of the vampires showed up for lunch, I figured that I might as well.

I think we were making bagels.

"Don't be afraid to put some oomph in it," She began again, working at a few things at the stove behind me, "Take out all of your pent-up frustrations on it if you have to."

Pent-up frustrations? Sure, that sounded good.

"Yes ma'am," I grinned.

I got right back to it with the oomph she mentioned

My mind had been in a frenzy since my conversation with Khloe, afterward hitting certain parts of the book, stopping and asking her if what was happening was one of the signs she was talking about, and repeat.

I think I was getting onto the right track, having me replay any memory I could between Xander and me for the same clues.

And god... there were a lot of them, some even cluelessly from me.

Which just grew and grew that battle in my stomach that I still couldn't decide if it was nerves or excitement.

I knew it was leaning more heavily on the nerves side when through all the memories, I realized one specific thing.

He's not once initiated a kiss on the lips. Not. Once.

Even when we were having sex it was always me who made that move.

Why didn't he?

I knew he enjoyed it. He was a shitty liar, so I knew he wasn't faking that enjoyment for my sake, or any other reason.

Not when I could so distinctly feel the want in his movements or in the sounds that he made.

This poor dough was feeling the wrath of my frustrations now... Though it was finally coming together nicely.

He'd initiate the quick pecks on my cheek or forehead, but never anything more.

Why?

I wanted to try approaching this with a straightforward mindset, but this was Xander we were talking about.

I liked to think that I could read him easily, but once more complex reasonings come into it, I get lost.

Grabbing a pinch more flour from the jar to the side, I rubbed it into my hands and got back into work.

Only to jump at the sound of a very loud thud against the bar in the dining room, followed by a hushed, 'Ow' from Xander himself.

It took another few seconds before he tentatively pushed open the door and peeked inside.

"You can come in Xander, just know that I'm expecting you to act appropriately," Lily spoke up.

He sheepishly stepped inside, Lily and I surely giving him the same look as he did.

"Did you speed here?" I asked first.

"How could you tell," He smirked knowingly, stepping over to me while slowly surveying this large kitchen.

"Dang this place has gotten a huge remodel. Plus it's so clean."

"And It'll stay that way, right, prince?" Lily jabbed, pointing at him with the wooden spoon she held.

I tried to hide my giggle, recalling Xander's countless stories of him and Nico playing around in here.

"You have my word," He affirmed with a little bow.

She eyed him with an 'mmhmm'.

"Well," She surrendered, "Since you were busy when lunch was prepared, I'll fix you up something real quick."

"You're the best, Lily."

"So I've been told," She said, gathering a few things from her workspace.

Xander closed the remaining space to stand at my side.

I wasn't prepared for the way my heart thumped as he did.

All this new information... it was haunting me, and not in a way that I approved of.

"What're we making?" He asked, rubbing his hands together.

"Bagles," I replied, "You wanna get in on this for a bit? My arms are starting to get tired, and you have the muscle for it."

My entirety would quite literally not calm down, especially watching him roll up his sleeves with a prideful grin.

"Damn right I do," He spoke under his breath.

It was somehow worse than when Marcus was asleep on my shoulder... you'd think it'd be easier.

It had to have just been the sight of him after this discovery.

I sidestepped so he could take my place, seeing Lily grab the back of his shirt and pull.

"Your hands better be clean." was all she said.

His eyes widened and lips puckered, showing that his hands were indeed not.

"Right," He blew out, "I knew that."

I bit my lower lip to hide my smile, watching him toddle over to the sink to give them a good wash.

Forcing a few slow breaths out as quietly as I could and pray that it works.

I was now completely laser-focused on everything he did, searching for any sign I could.

I was committed to figuring this out.

He washed his hands for a little longer than what felt normal, probably out of precaution, and dried them with the proper towel after pointing it out.

It was embarrassingly obvious that he had very little idea on how to properly act in this room, let alone how to handle food.

Yet he reported back to my side ready to find out.

"Show me," He requested.

And so I did, repeating the steps with confidence that would never show that I just learned how to do this six minutes ago.

He took over after my amazing demonstration, doing it... actually doing it pretty well.

"Three more minutes of that and it should be fine," Lily began, tossing a rag over her shoulder, "After that, put it in the glass bowl there to rise, and I'll handle things from there."

"I'll make sure he does it properly," I told her with a wink, seeing her about to turn the corner to the other side of the kitchen to begin Xander's food.

She returned it with a knowing nod before disappearing.

Xander too watched her leave, something devious brewing in his head I'm sure of it.

Whatever it was he didn't act on it immediately, just idly focused on the task in front of him.

And I was focusing on trying to understand why watching him do this was pulling a reaction out of me.

He was literally just standing here kneading dough, and I was finding it more attractive than I wanted to give him credit for.

Damn this stupid... love thing or whatever.

"Our day out is secured for tomorrow," He began, "I had to work a little longer and miss lunch, but we're good to go."

"Where we gonna go this time?"

I leaned my elbows on the counter before he responded.

"It's starting to warm up, so I was thinking about taking you to that spot in the woods I know. We can pack ahead and kinda do a picnic-type thing. After that, I can show you around a different area of the territory, or we can just see where the day takes us."

A picnic... Yeah, it'd been a bit since we did one of those.

"That sounds fun," I divulged, catching the small tilt of his lips at my approval, "I'm assuming this is all after we wake up at like... 11"

Sometimes his royal responsibilities or breakfast with his family made him wake up earlier, and then me by default, so we liked to sleep in when we could.

"Oh duh," he remarked, dusting his hands with flower.

My eyes were betraying me today. Purposefully staring at the way his forearm moved, and how oddly good he looked with his sleeves rolled up like that.

Watching as he used the heel of his palm to flatten out the dough and wished for a moment that it was me.

My head turned away from him, face reddening at my own god damn thought process!

Holy shit I need to pull myself together.

I cleared my throat and fixed my hair before turning back, seeing his hand in the jar of flour.

I knew that mischievous look on his face and narrowed my eyes accordingly.

"Hold still," He nearly whispered, gently holding my jaw with one hand.

I listened, whether his touch had something to do with that or not, still wondering what his other hand was doing in that flower.

I drew back after in one quick motion, he brought his thumb out, and drew a line of flour from between my brows to the point of my nose.

"Xander!" I berated, seeing him immediately bust out into an unfiltered fit of laughter.

The white was clearly seen even given its position on my face.

I could simply rub it off, but I instead immediately began formulating revenge.

"Oh, my bad. My hand slipped," Was his oh-so-convincing excuse, getting right back to scooping up the dough and placing it in the bowl Lily mentioned.

My eyes narrowed. He knew that I found it funny and that put me at a disadvantage.

Flour wouldn't show as much on his skin... but he was wearing very dark pants.

"Oh, it's fine. No biggie," I began, immediately noticing the shift in his stance.

Feigning carelessness wasn't my typical go-to, but just the fact that I caught him off guard felt nice.

I couldn't go for the flour jar. That would be too obvious.

"We should clean this up to give Lily a break," I said, gathering up the remaining flour from the space we'd been kneading.

He was in my periphery, visually confused and warry while I scooped it all up into a little pile before pushing it off the edge and into my hand.

Closing my fist around it, I casually walked behind him towards where the trash was.

I rubbed it all over my hands before tossing the rest into the bin.

I got a good enough coating I think. Enough for what I wanted to do.

I meandered back the way I came, feeling him jolt the moment I smacked my hand against him, leaving a very prominent white handprint right over his butt.

It turned out a little too perfect, sending me into my own uncontrolled laughing fit.

Nearly doubling over at the look on his face when he processed what I'd done, and how he turned to get a good look at it.

His look of shock dispersed after a few seconds, matching my laughter.

"Touche."

"I don't know what you mean," My giggling wasn't helping me prove my innocence, "My hand just slipped."

"It happens to the best of us," He sang, snagging a towel off of the rack on the wall.

He wiped off his hands before holding my jaw in the same way.

My laugh went silent, the breath catching in my lungs while he carefully wiped the flour from my face.

It was these subtle things...

The attentive look in his eyes as he did things like this. The care in the way he did things when they involved me.

Did this count? Was this one of the signs?

The gentle hold? The atmosphere?

Nothing was exactly like the book, but I don't think that anything will be.

Khloe said that every relationship was different and that that's what made it fun...

This... This was fun.

Everything with him always was.

He attempted the same thing on his pants, though even through his best attempts, you could still see a faint outline of my handprint if you knew what you were looking for, but he didn't look to care that much.

"I can see why you were banned from the kitchen for over 100 years."

"230," He corrected, "and half of that was Nico's fault, but we'll clean this up."

"Damn right you will!" Lily's voice boomed from the opposite side of the room startling us both.

I nearly forgot she was here with us.

We did as we said we would, occasionally flicking more flour or a spare piece of don't onto each other's clothes or hair, keeping our giddy, childish laughter quiet.

I had a feeling Lily won't be so confident to invite the both of us into her kitchen next time.