"You are very welcome, Leviticus." He curled his hands in his lap, back to rubbing at the scar. "It is a pleasure to help a friend." He seemed to lighten at the mention of Cora, nodding with a sheepish smile. "Ah… yes, I did. She is probably busy, but I thought it would be nice to help." He glanced over at Levi as he spoke, sizing him up. "Do you know your way around the kitchen very well, Leviticus?"
“No, not very well. The longest I’ve actually been in a kitchen is when you took me to the one at your palace for something to eat.” As a boy, Leviticus hadn’t found as much interest in the kitchens as Johan did. Instead, most of his free time was spent in the stables, learning to care for a young horse that would later become his own. “I don’t know how much help I would be. I’ve never had the knack for cooking.”
Fi laughed quietly at the admission. "Then we will have to find you an easy job." He stood up from the table, gesturing for Levi to follow him into the kitchen proper. It was emptier than it had been when he'd brought Johan, but that was to be expected. It was late. Cora was one of the few still working, mixing up a dough of some sort and humming quietly to herself.
"Miss Cora," Fi greeted softly, wincing as she startled.
"Fiori!" She relaxed when she caught sight of him. "What brings you down here so late? And… with a friend." Her expression dimmed slightly when she saw Levi, but only for a moment. "You boys should be heading to bed, goodness knows you've both got your hands full."
Levi followed close behind Fiori, hands tucked away into his pockets. Here he was as out of his element he could be in his own kingdom, especially meeting a woman he knew held Johan in such high regard. “Good evening, Miss Cora,” he dipped his head in greeting. When he looked up again, he wondered if he imagined seeing her expression dim for that single moment.
She bowed her head as she was addressed. "Good evening to you too, your highness. It is a pleasure to host you in this humble kitchen. Is there anything I could help you with?" Her voice was warm, but there was an artificial note to it as she spoke. Her eyes were planted firmly on the ground.
Fiori reached over to take her hand and that pulled her gaze up. A little sharp, a little cold, but then it caught on the nervous crease between his eyebrows and she seemed to relax. "We were wondering if there was anything to help with for tomorrow's meals, Ms. Cora." Normally his Widonian was only faintly accented but something about being down here drew it out of him. "I know we may not be the most welcome of company, but… it would be very much appreciated if we could stay for a while. Talk."
She hemmed and hawed for a moment, thinking, and then patted him on the cheek with a sigh. "Alright, alright. No need to pull out that look, I'll find you something to do. How much do you two know about kneading bread?"
The tension eased out of Levi’s shoulders when Fiori explained the reason they were here. Hearing stiff, rehearsed formalities from the staff never used to bother him as much as it did now, particularly from Cora. He hadn’t come here on any official business and Fiori seemed to be quite close with her. “I’ve only ever seen people kneading bread, but I haven’t actually done it, myself, yet,” he admitted.
Cora nodded and looked down at the bowl in her hands, assessing. "Alright, then I'll get Fiori to teach it to you while I mix up the last of the dough. It's not all that hard, just takes some getting used to." If she felt strange about handing out orders to the prince, she did a good job hiding it. "You said you wanted to talk, honey?"
Fi hummed in agreement, quickly finding the side station where she'd set out the finished bread dough and beckoning Levi over. "Yes. I… I am not on even footing here, but you are… familiar." He separated the dough into two halves, giving part to Levi and demonstrating how to get started. You flattened your piece out into a circle and then pushed in with the heels of your hands, almost folding it over as you worked it. "It is a bit shallow, but… you remind me of home."
"Doesn't seem to shallow to me. It's good to have things you can carry with you, keeps you grounded here." She glanced over at Levi, laughed softly. "Dig in harder, prince. You're not going to hurt it."
Levi watched Fiori demonstrate, absorbing the information with small nods. He took a generous piece of dough for himself and started working, tentatively at first, while he listened to his friend talk to Cora. He would have given anything to have a bit of familiarity in Usige. Unfortunately it seemed a warring country wasn’t the best place to vacation and any Widonian slaves were surely few and far between. Himself being one of the exceptions for a few days. Hearing Cora’s constructive criticism, Levi glanced sheepishly up at her. “It’s sticking to my hands,” he laughed.
Cora nodded. "It'll do that sometimes," she said, pausing for a few seconds afterward. It was clearly a strange feeling to be handing out orders to the prince, but he was the one who decided to come down to her kitchen, so eventually, she nodded up towards the shelving. "There's flour on the shelf above your head, sprinkle some on the bread and rub it on your palms."
Fi seemed to be working his bit of dough just fine on his own, but his half of the countertop had significantly more flour sprinkled on it. Probably where Cora had intended to knead it alone. "And push harder." He glanced over to Levi's dough while he gave his own two cents about the situation. "It sticks because you go so slow."
Leviticus followed Cora’s nod to the bag of flour above him. Concerned he would get her kitchen unnecessarily dirty, he peeled as many bits of dough from his palms as he could before reaching for the bag. “I’ll take that into consideration, Fi.” Levi sprinkled a generous amount of flour onto his workspace and folded it into the dough using Fiori’s example. “I’m humbled to be in the presence of master bread kneaders. I don’t know if I’ll ever be blessed to be as talented as you.” He added with a twinge if humor in his tone, hoping to Ialdir the two of them would take it as the light banter he intended it to be.
Fi laughed quietly and Cora glanced over at both of them with a dry smile. "Years of practice, your highness." The title had a hint of playfulness to it now, not as stiff as it had been. "No blessing required over here, though by the looks of your dough you might not be in the same boat."
Fiori reached over to elbow her lightly. "I think Leviticus has a fine dough, you are just a bread elitist."
She gasped, whacking him on the shoulder with the wooden spoon she'd been using to stir. "Will I never! Respect your elders, Fiori Misneach. Brats don't get to come down and bake hand pies when they get stressed."
“Yeah! Dough comes in all shapes and textures,” Levi laughed along while he worked. “Mine is just a little on the… lumpy side.” This was better. The inhibitions he might have felt when he first arrived were gradually dimming and it was easier to talk like this. “Can I still come down and make hand pies when I get stressed? I can’t promise they’ll look very pretty, but I’ll try my best.” Levi hovered his flour-coated hands over the mound of dough. His attention was thoroughly diverted for the time being.
"I think a little is putting it generously, but…" She pretended to consider, smiling over at Levi's lumpy dough and the half-hearted frown on Fiori's face as he tried to clean off his shirt. "… yes, I suppose I can be convinced to let you come and bake. But only because you're polite!"
Fi rolled his eyes. "You did not think I was so rude when I came down yesterday."
"You weren't acting so rude yesterday." She lifted the spoon menacingly and even though Fiori dwarfed her by a good foot he pretended to be intimidated. "Be more like the prince, he's a nice young man. Even if he can't make bread worth a damn."
“Ouch,” Levi cackled. “I don’t now whether to be offended or touched.” He turned around to lean against the counter and watch the quite entertaining drama between Fiori and Cora. “What if I wanted to be polite and make good bread?“ His bright smile was replaced by a feign frown, pouting his lips as if he really cared about his pitiful looking bread dough.
Cora laughed quietly but it bounced off the walls, filling the space with a warmth and familiarity it had been lacking. She fell into this easy enough, well-practiced from years of coaxing Johan into happy moods and joking with him until he cracked a smile. Levi was different from his brother, of course, not as sullen but less present, somehow. Less bright. "You can pinch yourself and wake up from your dreaming."
Fi snorted. "What, do well-behaved children rarely make bread worth remembering?"
She rolled her eyes and waved her spoon again. "No, but well-behaved children don't get smacked with spoons." She bumped Fi's hip playfully and passed him her finished dough, taking his to mold and set in the oven. "If you're polite, people are more inclined to let you out of kitchen duty. Fiori can cook so well because he's never charmed his way out of a chore in his life."
Leviticus pulled his lips into a wider smile. It was no wonder Johan liked to spend his time down here, with Cora’s laugh and her way of making her guests feel so comfortable. Like they were meant to be here- despite he notable lack of cooking skills. After another moment of chuckling, he turned to resume kneading his own not-quite-finished dough utilizing the advice Fi and Cora offered him. It may not be as pristine as the others, but he still wanted to bake it. “Oh, so you’re telling me I need to tone down some of my charm to get better at cooking?”
Fi worked the dough with a soft smile, rolling his eyes at Cora but not doing much else. It was nice to do something tangible again. Something with results he could see and touch. Behind him Cora laughed and shook his spoon at Levi, nodding.
"Now you're getting it, prince." She gave him a warm smile. "If you weren't so charming, you'd have come down here to sulk long ago, and your bread would look just as good as Fiori's." If it were Johan instead of Levi, she had no doubt she'd been getting perfect loaves. He'd been practicing since he was a skinny little thing. "But you have this mess instead, and we'll make do. Maybe you two can share it on your way to bed."
Levi worked until his arms were too tired to knead anymore and the paste caked into a sticky layer on his hands. He gathered a small handful of flour into his palms to wipe off the troublesome bits of dough. “It’s a shame I was taught to act like a good little prince,” he chuckled, “My parents never knew what kind of disadvantage they gave me.” Half content with the product, he cradled the lump of dough in his hands.
Having been tutored for business transactions, leadership, and communication for the good of the kingdom, Leviticus personally valued intangible ideas and activities over sensory ones. Johan and Fiori really were more similar than he liked to think.
"Yes, and what a shame it is! Here was have a charming and well-learned leader instead of somebody who can cook" She clucked her tongue at him, shaking her head with a playful gleam in her eyes, and gathered up his misshapen bread dough to fashion into a proper loaf. It wasn't pretty by any means but didn't look half as bad as it had when Levi had been kneading it out, so into the oven it went. It was followed not long after by Fiori's second mound of dough.
It wasn't like Fiori disliked things he couldn't see, it was just that he had never preferred them. Being able to hold the product of his work in his hands or point it out on a battlefield had always felt more rewarding.
Levi leaned his back against the counter to watch her place the loaves into the oven. His loaf looked surprisingly nearer than before, and he guessed it probably had something to do with Cora. “Well, it’s a good thing we have the country’s best cook here at the palace to make up for my shortcomings.” He stepped forward from the counter and dipped into a full formal bow for both humorous effect, and more subtly respect for her talents. He could see why Fi liked to come down to the kitchens and talk for stress relief; he would join his friend as often as he could, but he decided, but only on the occasions Johan wouldn’t be present.
Cora snorted and then seemed to freeze for a few seconds when she caught Levi bowing. The image just didn't compute. It wasn't until Fi took a step forward, face scrunched up in a worried frown, that she snapped out of it and gave him a reassuring smile. If she knew Leviticus, she'd smack him with the spoon, make fun of him for bowing to a simple cook. As it was she pushed out a laugh and waved Levi away. "You flatter me, prince. I'm sure there are better cooks all across the land, even if there aren't any in the palace."
“Maybe so,” Levi rose from his bow and raised his shoulders in a loose shrug, “But nothing has ever beat your home-cooked meals.” The dinners in Usige were fine, but during those days he missed the familiarity of Widonian meals at his family table. He looked forward to hosting those again, even if it was simple, for his limited group of close family and friends.
"That's because you Widonians have no tongue for good spices." She shook her head, settling back into the familiarity of playful bickering. She and Johan did this. Why couldn't she and Levi? "Everything's so underseasoned, I don't know how you stand eating it all the time."
Fi hummed softly in agreement, smiling over at Levi. "Your food does tend to be a bit more… bland than I am used to."
Levi blinked as he took a moment to think back to his favorite dishes, and then snickered along. Compared to the jarring amount of spices in Usigen food, his cuisine could be considered a bit bland. “It’s not like our land is the best climate for the heavy spices you’re used to, and they’re only a little hard to import when they come from the country we’re at war with.” He had very faint memories of foreign seasonings in his family meals when he was younger. He didn’t like them very much at the time—Johan loved them. He even complained when the imports stopped.
"You can't blame all of it on the climate and the war. You can grow perfectly serviceable peppers up here, but nobody wants to because you're all scared of a little heat." She shook her head. "It's ridiculous." It was actually fairly difficult to replicate Usigen food here. The climate was horrible for the spices and crops you needed to make a proper meal and even if you could find somewhere with weather mild enough, they were expensive. Most Widonians didn't bother, and with good reason. "You'd think the spice would warm you lot up but no."
Levi lightheartedly rolled his eyes. “I think the only Widonian in the entire territory that could stomach peppers is my brother.” Most of their diet was composed of meat and the vegetables that could tolerate the finicky climate during growing season. Collards, turnips, and select grains like rye and barley. The palace most likely could afford the more expensive Usigen-like seasonings in the places with a more milder climate, but he hadn’t considered requesting them until now.
Cora laughed. "You've got that right, prince. When he was younger he'd beg me to make him stuffed peppers." There was a fond smile on her lips. "Liked them almost as much as he liked sweets. But you're a different sort, aren't you?" She looked him up and down with an amused smile. "I get the feeling you weren't the biggest fan of Usigen food, were you?"
“Aw. Yeah, that sounds like him, or at least how he used to be.” Levi couldn’t help a laugh, layered with traces of nostalgia; he remembered his brother talking about stuffed peppers when they were in better terms. When the young Levi would grimace in disgust, Johan elbowed him until it inevitably turned into a very unevenly matched wrestling contest. Levi shook his head free of the memory. “No, I wasn’t. I had no taste for it at all until I was in Usige. Luckily the meals weren’t ever too spicy.” If Cora was the best cook in Widona, he’d place Cadmus as the best cook in Usige.
Fi laughed quietly, giving Levi a playful nudge. "Only because Cadmus is considerate." Was considerate. His smile died a little. He pushed on. "He… he was nice like that, made sure Leviticus did not hurt himself trying to eat dinner."
Cora snickered, reaching over to pat Fiori on the shoulder. Her hand lingered for a while, a comforting warmth. People here weren't tactile the way they were back home, not with the people they considered friends. He found himself missing the touch. "Yeah, sounds about right. When I first got here, I think I made your father cry because I overspiced his soup." She grinned over at Levi. "Kept adding to it 'til it tasted like home."
Levi smiled back to Fiori with some concern laced in his expression, wondering if it would be inappropriate of him to rest his hand in Fiori’s shoulder too. So he just lightly judged him back. “Hah, I appreciated that. It would have been a painful experience otherwise.”
At the mention of his father, Levi’s attention returned to Cora. “I don’t remember that very well.” He must have been too young to remember the days when Cora was new to the palace kitchen. “But knowing him he probably tried to grit his way through it for your sake.”