Before she even got to the bottom of the staircase she could smell something wonderful, but slightly out of place. Unless the knock on her head was slightly harder than any of them anticipated, that was the wonderful aroma of freshly baked cookies. She followed her nose, so to speak, and managed to make her way through the house until she got to the kitchen, where Alethea was moxing what she assumed was more cookie dough, humming to herself as she did a little dance. There were two batches of cookies already on the sideboard, cooling down, and she had to admit, they looked wonderful.
“Good… uh, morning?”
Alethea glanced over her shoulder, looking somewhat surprised. She had flour all over her face but her clothing was mysteriously immaculate. “Earley! Good morning!” She was going to say something else and seemed to bite her tongue.
“…you can say it.”
“About it being… an Earley morning?” She chuckled a bit, sheepishly, elbowing Earley as if she’d just told the mother of all jokes.
Earley rolled her eyes but smiled anyway; she’d heard all the jokes she could possibly hear, but she never really tired of it to the point where she got annoyed. “You’ve been busy. Do you always bake at-” she glanced at the wall clock, “4 in the morning?”
“No, not always,” she replied, resuming her mixing. “I thought you could do with something more homely. I figured this house and the whole “vampire apocalypse” thing was more than a little daunting, but a bit of home-baked goodness always helps!”
Earley was stumped for words. Eventually she settled for, “thank you.”
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