The Pact

Chapter 38: Maintaining The Cookie Champion Title

Equus POV:

"Sally? Estelle? I'm home," I froze at the familiar voice. There was a jingle of keys and a slam of a bag falling.

"Where are you guys?" I smiled as Mom got a surprised look on her face.

"We're in the kitchen," Mom answered, and footsteps sounded, coming closer. Mom put her finger to her lips in a silent gesture, and Estelle giggled behind her hands.

We all stood still, watching the doorway, waiting for the man of the house to see the mess of the kitchen. Abruptly a familiar brown-haired man stood in the doorway.

"What happened?" Paul asked, looking surprised at the mess of the kitchen. He was in a blue collared shirt with a button from the top undone, and his gray tie was loosened. The flour in the air looked to be attaching to his black slacks already.

"Daddy," Estelle squealed and, disregarding her flour-covered overalls, jumped into Paul's arms.

"Hey there, now, will you tell me what happened?" Paul whispered, and Estelle nodded seriously.

"Yep, we were making cookies when big brother threw flour at Mommy. Then he tried to hide behind Doggo and me. We all got showered by flour by Mommy, and then I joined sides with Mommy. Big brother and Doggo kept trying to get the flour, but we held them off," Estelle explained with her hands and announced their victory proudly.

Paul froze and mumbled, "Big brother?" his eyes scanned the room, landing on me. His eyes grew to the size of saucers, and he slowly let Estelle down.

"Percy? Is that you?" he asked, voice breaking a bit. I nodded sheepishly, and Paul rushed forward, crushing me in a hug, causing a cloud of flour from impact. I felt his crushing hug and returned it.

"You've always brought out the she-demon in your mom whenever you're around." that got a "hey!" from Mom. Paul quickly ignored her as he began to ramble, "Where have you been? What's been going on? You've worried us sick!" Mom came over and placed a hand on his shoulder. He took a deep breath and kissed Mom in greeting.

"Wait, who's Doggo?"

"That would be me, though my name is actually Kyon" Kyon stepped up and introduced himself, sticking out his hand. Paul accepted the handshake and smiled at him.

"Well then, we can clean this up later. How about you guys finish the batches of cookies and then take a shower?" Mom suggested, and I nodded. Mom and Paul exited the kitchen, and I finished mixing the cookie dough I was working on earlier.

I brought out a cookie sheet and started rolling out my dough. I saw Kyon and Estelle out of the corner of my eye, adding food coloring and Kyon mixing as Estelle got a cookie sheet. I finished rolling my cookies and placed them in the already heated oven. I set the timer for fifteen minutes and watched as Kyon and Estelle rolled their dough.

I smiled softly at Kyon as he let his walls down, opening up to Estelle. I was glad he was letting himself show more emotion and stop taking responsibility for everything. It was a nice change from the stoic, always serious figure he was in space. Occasionally in those five years, I would get him to laugh or get angry. But here, with Estelle, he's the happiest I've seen him in a long time.

Kyon grabbed the tray and placed it in the oven. Estelle walked out of the kitchen, probably to get cleaned up. I smiled knowingly at Kyon, and he glared.

"Shut up."

"I didn't even say anything!" I put my hands up in surrender.

Kyon just grunted and walked out of the kitchen. I followed him, entering the living room to see Mom and Paul on the couch, chatting.