"Please tell me that you're going to marry him." Amelia's brother moans after taking his first bite of dinner. "Because if you don't, I might."

"Roddy!" She instantly blushes a bright, embarrassed pink.

"Uh... it's a bit early to be talking marriage." I say after a moment. "But, I'm not going anywhere." I add while staring straight at the blonde.

"..." She opens her mouth for a moment before closing it again and ducking her head shyly. "Would you just shut up and eat your dinner, Rodrick." She growls at him when he laughs at her.

"How about some music?" I stopped playing it when we spotted her brother and with all that happened, I just forgot to start it up again.

"You should put on the Beatles, get him used to your music." She takes up the offered distraction. "But, when are you going to practice the guitar? You went through all that effort to get the strings, and haven't touched it."

"Nnh." I grumble. "I'm embarrassed. The stuff coming from my head sounds so much better than what comes off my fingers, and it's not like I can just slink off to practice."

"Heheh." Apricot laughs around a big bite of ham. "You're shy. That is so cute."

"Mhm" I grunt. "Oh, what's this? I can't seem to find your cinnamon rolls anywhere in storage, must have dropped them somewhere." I retrieve the speaker box and let it tumble off my fingers only to catch it right before it hit the ground.

"Ooh, that's just plain dirty." She glares at me. "Fine, I won't say anything else, but you should practice anyways."

"I'll think about it." I nod and start up the music.

"Is that enchanted?" Roddy sprays crumbs everywhere when 'A Hard Day's Night' starts playing from the speaker.

"No, it's just a focus for a modified ventriloquism spell." Apricot explains for me since I had just taken a big bite. "All the music is in Sorrel's head, and he's actually translating this from his language right now." I stop translating for a line to let him hear it in English.

"It used to give me such a headache." I admit after swallowing. "But, I can keep it up for hours without a problem now. And, it's even easier if it's a song I've done before."

He just stares at me for a minute before turning to his sister and mouthing 'Marry him.'

"That's it!" She fumes. "No dessert for you."

"Amy!" His mouth falls open. "That's going too far. Look, I'm sorry. I promise I won't mention it again."

"You'd better not." Amelia growls. "And, you two. Quit grinning like that."

"Hahaha." Roddy laughs before buttoning his mouth shut when she glares at him again. Unwilling to anger the fierce lioness of a woman anymore, he focus on his food and the music for the rest of the meal.

"Bring out the dessert." Apricot commands as 'Ticket to Ride' starts playing. "I want to see why you hid the cake pan." I knew we'd get here after dark, so I cooked everything beforehand and put it in storage.

"Because it's a surprise." I take the cake out of storage and flip it upside down onto a platter. Pulling the wooden pan away reveals a honeycomb pull-apart cake with little bees, flowers and smaller hexagonal patterns on each piece.

"Ahh! It's so cute." She takes two pieces and a small pot of warmed honey.

"That really is cute." Amelia limits herself to only one and passes another to her brother.

"My sister, Lily, saw a pan like this when we were all out shopping." I smile, thinking back to the memory. "She made our mom, Jasmine, buy it. And then, had me make honey cakes at least once a week using it."

Thinking back to my family; I take out some paper and do my best to capture their likenesses. I'm not sure how well I did because tears kept streaming from my eyes. But, once I dash them away, I see it's a perfect copy of my phone's wallpaper. I set it to their smiling faces after I was feeling lonely in my first week of college and never changed it back.

"Its okay, Baby." Amelia hugs me from one side, and Apricot the other. "You'll see them again, one day."

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"They're so far away." I sniffle and have to put the picture away before I start bawling. "I just hope they're okay." I've been trying not to think about what they must be going through. "Come on, you're letting your cake get cold."

"You silly." Apricot squeezes me even tighter. "It's just cake."

Meanwhile, poor Rodrick is staring at the fire with an embarrassed look.

"I'll be okay. Really." I give them each a sad smile. "It just hit me kinda hard, is all. But you really should eat before it cools down."

"Okay." Amelia nods. They let me go but stay pressed up against my sides. "Here, Roddy. You should try one of the cinnamon rolls. They're even better than the sweet rolls from that one restaurant I'm always dragging us to."

When she holds the platter out to him, I realize that I let the music drop. I start it up again just as 'Here Comes The Sun' comes up on random. The girls share a look and each squeeze one of my legs.

I'm just about to bite into my cake when the hexagonal pattern sparks a bit of inspiration. Pulling out some thread, I start messing around with a tri-axial weave while eating absentmindedly.

"Hey, Amy." I tease her with her nickname. "Does this look like that starweave stuff you mentioned?" I run dye along a few threads to highlight the pattern.

"What?!" She snatches it out of my hands, and her jaw drops open. "H-how?"

"I take it that's a yes." I say with a smirk at her gobsmacked expression. "It was the honeycomb that gave me the idea. See how it runs in three directions instead of two, so I started playing around. And, when I saw the star pattern... well, I figured this must be what you were talking about the other day."

"Amelia." Rodrick snaps his fingers in front of her face. "I won't say it again, but you'd be an idiot not to." He then snatches another cinnamon roll before sitting back down.

"Shut up." She hisses but doesn't take her eyes off the fabric. "And, Sorrel. Between this, and all those clothing ideas you have. Well, let's just say that your only concern about money will be what to do with it all... And, don't call me Amy!"

""Hahahaha."" We bust up laughing at that. "You can handle all that for us, I've just got to figure out if I can make a starweave velvet for your dress."

"Goodnight Roddy." She grabs me by the arm and starts dragging me into our tent. "Feel free to sleep in tomorrow." He just laughs nervously and shakes his head before taking another bite of his desert.

...

"Good morning." Rodrick's making a pot of tea at the campfire when I emerge the next day to use the latrine. "And, thank you for making that tent so well. I was wondering why the walls were so thick when you put it up yesterday." I just nod awkwardly and hurry into the outhouse.

When I get out, the girls have joined him by the fire. "Can we have lost toast again?" Apricot pleads. "I want to try that deep-fried version you talked about yesterday."

"Sure." I shrug and yawn, before pulling out the cottonseed oil I pressed earlier. It's not the healthiest, but fast-food joints deep-fry with it for a reason. "Can you slice some strawberries for me... without eating all of them?"

"Heheheh." She giggles. "Probably not, but you can always grow more."

"True." I smile at the cute little pixie. "And, since I'm deep-frying stuff anyways, I'm gonna make some donuts too."

"Donuts?" Amelia perks up at the word. "Can you make jelly ones too?"

"Oh, definitely." I set out all the extra jams and jellies I made yesterday. "I just wish I had some chocolate for the frosting, and mix it up with some hazelnuts to make some *Nutella*. These 'lost toast' sticks go so good with some Nutella." I use the term for French toast that Amelia coined yesterday.

I get all the ingredients ready and use all four limbs and some magic to turn myself into a one-man donut assembly line. Once the donuts are done and cooling on a rack, safely out of Apricot's reach, I switch over to the French toast.

"What did I just watch?" Amelia's brother asks once I finish my performance. "The four arms I get, but you weren't even looking. Your eyes were glued to the oil the whole time."

"He didn't have to look." Apricot answers for me, still trying to get into the donut cage without damaging its contents. "His magic was laced through everything, letting him know where it was. And, all through this cage too, the little shit." She grumbles.

"What?" I laugh and stick some stuffed French toast into her mouth. "I couldn't just put the donuts up high like I did to protect them from my sister, you can fly."

"Nnh. You're lucky this is so good." She snatches up her plate and starts eating in earnest.

"Oh, Amelia. You never stood a chance." Rodrick teases his sister after taking a bite of French toast stuffed with blackberry and cream cheese filling.

"Shut up." She mumbles around a blueberry jelly donut.

I just smirk while eating a maple bar. "So, how much farther is it until we reach the city?"

"There's two more campsites." Amelia answers after swallowing. "So, three more days since we won't be pushing Storm anymore."

"How's he doing." Her brother looks at his horse that is happily munching away at his feedbag. "I was keeping him exercised while we were at Carmen's, but not enough for him to be used to pulling a wagon all day. And, speaking of our aunt. How is she doing?"

"He's great." I answer for Amelia when her face goes blank at the mention of Carmen. "I've been using my healing spell to wash away his fatigue and making sure he gets plenty of good food. And, your aunt is healed." My words come out somewhat clipped for that part.

"Was she that bad?" He can tell from Amelia's look that things were not very pleasant.

"Sorrel knocked the rude cow out within a minute of meeting her." Apricot cackles, spraying crumbs everywhere. "She woke up right before we left and got to see all of us naked in her bed."

"Pfft. Hahahah." He tries to keep a straight face, but quickly loses it. "I'm sorry Amy, I wish I knew what she had against you."

"Let's just drop it." She sighs. "Sorrel fixed what was making her clumsy, so she should hopefully be accident-free from now on."

"Thank you." He bows his head to me.

We finish breakfast in silence after that, though I do keep a vine around Amelia's waist. After the food is gone, and we're all groaning from eating too much, we pack up camp and get on our way.

***