Archive of Our Own ^beta

There's something that wakes him up. He can't really place it, blinks against the sleep still clouding his brain. Then he just rolls out of bed and stumbles into the bathroom.
He catches his reflection in the mirror when he's done. His sleep-ruffled hair and droopy eyes. Jesse hums, tries to tame his hair a bit, stops when it doesn't work.

He walks down the hallway slowly but he's waking up more with every step. Voices are coming from the kitchen. It smells like apples and cinnamon.

"Nooo, Cass. No! What are you doing?", a sharp laugh. One that he would recognize anywhere. Tulip. Jesse smirks when he turns into the room. He's met with...a mess. Tulip and Cassidy are apparently trying to bake? Like, a cake? There's flour everywhere and apples cut up into slices and his two companions are caught in a small fight that has batter smeared all over their hands and faces. They are laughing like there's no tomorrow. He's pretty sure that's not how you go about the creation of a cake.

Jesse watches them for a moment before he clears his throat. They halt in their movements before turning to him. Cassidy is grinning like a maniac.

"Mornin', padre", he greets before he starts into his direction, his hands outstretched to give him a taste of the batter as well. Jesse, thanks to his now awakened reflexes, barely manages to step out of the way, leaving Cassidy flailing for balance for a moment. "I'll catch ye off-guard yet!", the vampire declares.

"Sure", Jesse's voice sounds hoarse. He turns to Tulip who has been watching them. Dark eyes bore into him, screaming at him that she knows something he doesn't. Oh, Jesse dislikes that expression a lot. He might just have to do something about it.

With a couple of steps he's in her space, lifting her chin up. Tulip answers his smirk with one of her own, grabbing his hand and pulling it away and before he can react, his wrist is sticky and she's placing her other batter-coated fingers on the back of his neck. He tries to recoil in disgust, but then she's pulling him down into a kiss and she tastes sweet and she bites his lip and he forgets all about it in favor of pulling her flush against him.

Water splashes. They pull apart to chance a look at Cassidy, who has turned on the tap and somehow managed to soak the front of his shirt. He's swearing something in his accent that neither of them catch but that makes them smile.

"Yeah, have fun on me account", Cassidy grunts while desperately trying to rid his skin of the batter clinging to it. He seems on edge, for some reason.

"Not like it's the first time the tap is attacking you", Tulip notes amusedly. Then she furrows her eyebrow, obviously thinking. Jesse wants to look into her brain sometimes.
The kitchen is plunged into tense silence. Normally, he would shrug it off, if people fight that's not his problem. But these two are important to him. He presses his lips together as his mind searches for a new topic to talk about.

"So what's this supposed to be?", he waves his hand around the kitchen, trying to sound casual and relaxed. Cassidy turns around and glowers at him for a moment before a defeated smile sneaks onto his face.

"Tulip asked if I knew some last century recipes we could try to make, so I pulled out the legendary apple cake of me mom", he explains, slinking over to the counter where most of the ingredients are scattered. "As ye can see, we didn't get very far"

"Then how do we continue?", Jesse asks and the weird energy is all but forgotten, the only remnants of it clinging to the ends of his hair. When the cake is safely tucked inside the oven, there's batter left over. Cassidy is quick when he scoops up some with his finger and goes for another attack. The counter behind him leaves Jesse barely any room to evade him and, remembering that he will have to take a shower anyways, he just accepts his fate. Cassidy's grin falters but he goes through with his move, his finger connecting with Jesse's cheek when suddenly he turns his head, which leads to batter smeared all over his lips. Cassidy drops his hand as if burned by sunlight and stares. At Jesse's mouth. It moves into a very familiar smirk.

"It's rude to stare and not tell me that I have food on my face", Jesse rasps, takes ahold of the vampire's hand and brings it up to his lips again. "Would you be so kind?"

Tension envelops them again. Tulip is watching them, how Cassidy gulps nervously and Jesse is sporting that challenging look in his eyes that she likes to be on the receiving end of. It's about time that they got their shit together.

"Go ahead, Cass", she says quietly and that's about all the go that the vampire needs. It's his thumb that wipes at the batter now and that slips almost too easily between deliberately opened lips.

Why do they never turn on the radio or something? It's so quiet that Cassidy can hear his own heartbeat hammer away. He takes note of Tulip moving closer, as well, turns his head towards her and then, she's pulling him into a kiss. It's been a while since they did that, but it's almost as easy as breathing to fall back into their dynamic.

When she lets him go, his smile is dopey. He turns back to Jesse, whose pupils are blown, making his eyes seem almost black and God, he's just so effortlessly sexy, even with wildly sticking up batter-and-flour-filled hair and Cassidy never dared to hope that this was a possibility. But Jesse is basically sucking on his finger right now, obviously into the sight that Tulip and Cassidy were offering when they just made out in front of his eyes. No trace of malice at the fact that he dared to put a mouth on his woman.

A delirious laugh leaves Cassidy before he pulls his hand from Jesse's mouth to reposition it at the back of his head and crash their mouths together. It's not a pretty kiss, and he's quite sure he's bleeding from the way they are biting at each other, but it's something that he's wanted for so long that he wouldn't imagine to complain. In fact, it's making him hot as fuck and giggle into the kiss and Jesse answers this with a growl.

"It's about time, you two", Tulip rolls her eyes. The two men are breathing hard after pulling apart. "Bedroom?", she proposes and yelps when Cassidy picks her up and throws her over his shoulder to go exactly where she just suggested they continue. Jesse follows them, a little smile on his lips and planning to keep track of the time so they actually have an apple cake they can try later on.