Empire of the Wolf

Oh, Who Needs Family?

"You don't have to help me, Jean-Jacques."

"But I'm better at it than you."

Chloé let out a surprised guffaw, dropping the knife she had been using to chop carrots. She had expected Jean-Jacques to insist on helping but his bluntness was a surprise. And a little wounding. She was supposed to be looking after him and here he was telling her he could do a better job himself. He couldn't even comfortably reach the kitchen counter without a stepping stool and she was apparently still inadequate in comparison. She frowned at the unevenly cut vegetables in front of her, a small blush of shame working its way onto her cheeks.

Jean-Jacques laughed, "Don't sulk, Chloé, it's not as though you can't do it at all."

Chloé couldn't help her lips twitching into a smile in response. She reached over to ruffle his hair. "Well, aren't you a talented little boy? Maybe you don't need me anymore in that case?"

"No, no, stop!" he kept laughing, trying to shake her hand off. His movements jostled the stool beneath him and very nearly made him fall, had Chloé not steadied him by grabbing his shoulders.

"So, you do still need me for some things. Be more careful or you'll get hurt."

"That's not fair. You're the one who flustered me."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Chloé feigned ignorance, grinning at Jean-Jacques. "Anyway, even if you weren't so clumsy, I can hardly leave a boy alone with all the dangers in a kitchen in good conscience."

"So I can fight armed soldiers alone everyday but I can't be trusted with a knife?"

"When bullets can't hurt you, yes. Unfortunately," Chloé grabbed his hand and rubbed circles into the skin with her thumb, "your skin isn't quite so thick in this form."

The tips of Jean-Jacques' ears turned red. "R-right."

"Then we've come to an understanding. Until you're older you'll just have to put up with me stepping on your toes in the kitchen. I might just become better than you at it before that time comes."

"No way! Just you watch, Chloé, I'll get so good at cooking you'll think everything I make is the best food you've ever tasted!"

Chloé sighed fondly. She had lit some kind of fire under him. Though that was probably a good thing, Jean-Jacques was meek by nature so it was reassuring when he was more emotive, and she had noticed that around her he tended to show this passionate side of himself more often.

Though Chloé liked children she had no idea how to raise one, and it had been so long since she was a child herself it was difficult to put herself in Jean-Jacques' shoes in order to empathise with him. He was also very different from any of the d'Apchier children she had watched grow up and he was certainly nothing like Jeanne. Being a fulltime caretaker was overwhelming, especially when she demonstrably couldn't even take care of herself in a lot of cases. Still, she was determined to give Jean-Jacques something at least resembling a pleasant childhood. She had hated the walls of her castle for as long as she could remember and she was determined to spare him that resentment.

Even so, it hadn't been an easy adjustment period into their new life. Cooking had been one hurdle, one that had gradually shifted from her responsibility to something they both helped with, although Jean-Jacques had taken charge in the end. Her cooking had been edible, but further praise than that would probably be a gross exaggeration.

Jean-Jacques deserved to be well looked after, he was a growing boy after all – or at least he was probably growing. It was hard to say when she knew from experience that vampires could stop quite early into the developmental stage. But he was diligent and talented, and it turned out he picked up the intricacies of cooking far faster than she could, even when his mother had been in charge of that at home and he hadn't any prior experience. They had also discovered one advantage of her repeating world: the food in the pantry regenerated at the beginning of every day, meaning they would never have to worry about going hungry.