After digesting breakfast, Valentina left Roman and Kaiser to their business and brought Luca to the kitchen. She had never been into the kitchen and was impressed at the quality of everything in there. She went into the pantry to collect ingredients and Luca toddled after her. She found all the ingredients for cardamom chocolate chip cookies and extra aprons.

After tying the apron around herself and Luca, she gently placed him on the counter.

“Alrighty little nugget, shall we make some cookies for your grandparents?”

Seeing his cute nod, Valentina got him a bowl to mix the dry ingredients and separate chocolate chips while she mixed everything up. She let them chill for a couple of hours in the freezer while she relaxed. Then she brought them out to bake.

Soon enough, the sweet smell of cookies wafted throughout the house. While they were cooling, Valentina helped Luca create a card for his grandparents and Kaiser and left him in the living room to color it in.

She quickly ran to Kaiser's office and knocked on the door.

“Come in.” a cool voice responded.

Valentina cracked the door open and peeked her head inside.

Kaiser was sitting at his desk on his laptop hard at work.

“Are you busy? I can find the butler instead” Valentina asked him hesitantly.

“No, it’s fine. Come inside.”

As she approached his desk she took a look around his office. The walls were lined with dark wood bookshelves filled to the brim. His large desk was made with ebony wood and was stacked with papers along with his laptop.

Behind Kaiser was a large window that faced the garden. The sunlight coming in illuminated the office, giving it a cozy atmosphere.

She slowly walked in and sat on the chair across from him, admiring his good looks and how the sun and shadow highlighted his cheekbones.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“What did you need?”

Instead of answering, she asked, “Where’s Roman?”

“He should be around somewhere” Kaiser closed his laptop and focused on her, “Were you looking for something, or did you just miss me?”

Hearing his flirtatious words, Valentina rolled her eyes at him.

“Luca is making cards for his grandparents, and we baked cookies too. Do you have a gift bag we can put it in?”

“We should. I didn’t know you knew how to cook. You don’t seem like the type.”

“Of course, I know I look like the glamorous beauty type who hasn’t done a day of housework, but I’ll have you know I'm a very good cook. Not all of us grew up with a butler, maids, and a chef.” Valentina retorted while pouting.

“Don’t be mad, I just meant that you're a woman of many talents,” Kaiser responded while holding up his hands.

“And if I say that I'm still mad?” Valentina smirked as she comfortably sank into the armchair. She crossed her legs and leaned her head on one hand presenting a cocky figure.

Seeing her crafty eyes, and the little bits of flour on her face, Kaiser felt she looked beautiful. He got up and sat on the desk right in front of her.

“Since I can't have a beauty mad at me, I guess I’ll have to do whatever you want so you’ll forgive me. What can I do to make it up to you Valentina?” Hearing the sultry tone, Valentina felt her flirtatious spirit rise up, but she tamped it down.

“I’ll think about it and let you know later.” She replied as smoothly as she could. As she looked at the tall figure close enough to touch, she was tempted to tease him once again.

“If you look at me like that, we’ll have a repeat of last night. I'm down to repeat it if you are?” He smirked at her before brushing a bit of flour from her cheek. They stared at each other silently before Valentina clapped her hands, interrupting the moment.

“And that’s my cue to leave. I’ll be downstairs so bring the gift bags.” Before he could respond, Valentina quickly got up and left the room while ignoring the soft chuckle that sounded behind her.

When Valentina got downstairs, Luca had finished coloring and had a card each for his dad, uncle, grandmother, and grandfather. He had drawn a picture of him holding hands with each person and colored it in. Seeing him happily show them to her, she gave him a quick hug and went to parcel out cookies into little parchment paper baggies.

She brought them to the living room and saw that Kaiser had changed into a black sweater and was wearing his coat and shoes. In his hands were little rainbow-colored gift bags and Valentina had to smile at the image of a tall fit man in all black holding small rainbow bags.

She took them from him and put the cards and cookies into them before handing them to Luca. Bending down she whispered to Luca.

“Let’s go and change and you can give it to him okay?”

When he nodded, she turned to Kaiser. “I’ll go with him to get changed and you can take him to your parents.”

“You should change too and come along.” He told her. Before she could interrupt, he continued, “You can stay in the car while we drop it off and we can go get dinner as a treat for Luca.”

Valentina immediately wanted to say no but seeing Luca’s hopeful gaze she hesitated.

“Look at his face. You won't say no right? He seems to really want to go out with you.” when she looked back at Kaiser, she swore she could see demon horns and wings behind him.

“…Okay” Valentina reluctantly agreed.

“Are we going to eat dinner? I’m coming too! In fact, I know the perfect spot!” Roman burst in out of nowhere and announced.

“No.” Kaiser immediately responded.

“Sister-in-law you have to let me come.” Roman immediately came to kneel before her but before he got close, Kaiser had already grabbed him and threw him away.

Looking at the grown man throwing a tantrum, Valentina quietly picked up Luca and headed up the stairs.

She looked at the baby in her arms and whispered to him, “You have to make sure you don’t act like that when you grow up.”

Looking at his uncle wailing on the couch, Luca nodded his head solemnly. His uncle was really too embarrassing.