The Color of Music

Infectious Laughter

(Rue's pov)

There she was. Acting like nothing happened. Acting like she wasn't just violated in the worst way possible. She was standing in front of me, a ghost of a small grin playing on her lips. Whisking effortlessly together the ingredients to make pancakes. She moved so elegantly around my kitchen, opening cabinets to find exactly what she was looking for like she had been in here many times. Her brows knitted together in concentration as she stirred the mixture. She honestly looked adorable. Her eyes held joyful amusement as she listened to literally the most embarrassing story of my life.

"So back in middle school. Me, Mark, The twins, and Rue all decided to take a cooking class together because it was easy and ended twenty minutes earlier than other electives. And honestly just for the hell of it..." Alex began, beaming excitement from preparing to air all my dirty laundry.

"Just so you know. Rue is actually a really good cook now in days." He whisper yelled giving me a knowing look. I scolded him and smack him on the back of his head. He just hissed rubbing the spot. Sonata raised her eyebrows in shock, but then looked at me with a devious smirk. She continued whisking, ignoring my glares. The frying pan was on the stove and we heard the ticking of the fire being lit.

"So one cooking class. Our teacher assigns for us to make pancakes." He couldn't even finish before bursting into laughter. Damn I'll never live this down will I? The twins joined in and Mark just chuckled, looking at Alex.

"Anyway the teacher was a really hot chick and Rue had this huge crush on her. And when I say huge, I mean his-" before he could finish his sentence I whacked him in the head again. I narrowed my eyes at him warning, he raised his hands in surrender. Sonata had her back facing us as she poured the pancake batter in the pan. She turned her head slightly and looked at me, her smirk grew and I felt my heart flutter for some reason. She turned her head back around and watched the pancake closely, the smell of sweet batter filled the house.

"So while we were making pancakes. Rue accidentally drops his spatula and the teacher bends down in front of him." All at once, Alex, Mark, and the twins let out one thundering clap as they always did when this story is being told.

"BAM!" They exclaimed in unison. Nota jumps a bit startled. She looks back at us raising a brow just as Alex continues.

"Rue has this HUGE boner. Right in front of the whole class! He gets so flustered he starts running around and somehow spills ALL and I mean ALL the pancake batter on the teacher. She slips and falls! Oh my God it was so funny Nota!"

By this time Sonata has completely stopped the pancake making. She is on the ground in tears from laughing to hard. The angelic sound of her giggles fill the air and soon we are all laughing along with her. Her smile, her laugh, her mood, it's all so utterly infectious. This joyful memory slowly making a permanent imprint on my brain. Sonata smiles at us a bright smile and flips a pancake just in time before it started to burn. She put it on a plate and starts pouring another glob of batter into the pan.

"Oh goodness. My grizzly bear? Embarrassed? Oh I wish I could've seen that." She says while shaking her head in mocking disappointment. We were all still recovering from her infectious laughter. I still somehow managed to scowl at her.

"I told you not to call me that." I growl. She rolls her eyes in response.

"Anyways. I know you asked for pancakes. Which I will gladly give. But, I will be making them a teensy bit different from usual." She announces giving us a mischievous grin. We all raised a brow.

"If you ruin pancakes for me I will never forgive you." Jake accuses pointing a finger at her. Her grin turns into a full blown smile as she shakes her head. She flips another pancakes and turns to me. Her leaning against the counter across from where I sat.

"Do you have whipped cream by any chance?" She asks. I raised a brow and smirk, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Oh so forward Nota. I didn't think you'd wanna sleep with me until we got to know each other better. It's ok, I'm into kinky stuff" I tease. She flushes bright pink and scrunched up her nose in disgust, she threw a dish towel at me but I caught it just in time.

"Oh in you dream grizzly." She retorts with an guerilla and a snort. She blushes more slightly realising she snorted. But by God! it was the cutest thing I've seen in my life! She walks and opens the refrigerator, deciding to look for whip cream herself. She found it and held it in the air in triumph, she stuck her tongue out at me. Something she did often which I found so aggravatingly adorable. Everything about her was adorable, hell, I'd bet money she was cuter than a damn puppy!

"You and you damn tongue." I say shaking my head.

When she finishes her pancakes it's a new invention. Twelve pancakes stacked on top of each other with a layer of whipped cream in between each. On top there were cut strawberries in a pretty design and a dot of whip cream in the middle. All in all it looked more like a cake. We all just stood there mouths agape at the sight. She had a knowing smile. It looked delicious.

"This put the cake in pancake!" Mark exclaims dramatically like he does pretty much everything else.

"Damn Nota this looks good." Jake chimed in. We've all been weirdly obsessed with pancakes since the incident in middle school. Every time we were at my house we ate them. It was our thing, and like everything else, she made it better than before.

We all sit at the dinning room table. Ready to indulge into this delicious specimen. She cut it just like she would a cake, into divided triangles. She served us all a plate and I couldn't help but moan at how good it was.

Oh My God it was so good.

It tasted like it belonged in heaven. I never knew pancakes could taste so good without syrup. We were all having foodgasms and she looked at us smiling proudly.

"Where did you learn to cook like this?" I ask, gobbling down another piece like there's no tomorrow. She's sitting across from me at the table, her plate in front of her untouched. She looks down at it giving a sad smile for some reason. Her eyes held such deep nostalgia, she was looking at pancakes but thinking about something else. She looked back up, sobered from her thoughts and usual smile back on her lips.

"It's a family recipe. Or so I'm told." She replies.