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Barbatos quietly parks the car, and looks over at you. “Ready to go in?” His tone is gentle, and reaches over to brush his fingers over your shoulder. “Are you ready, Dear?” When you nod, he climbs out of the car, and goes over to open your door. “Go ahead and warm up inside. I will bring in your bag for you.” He rolls up his sleeves and hands you the keys, before going to the trunk. “It was rather nice of Diavolo to let us use his Winter cabin.” He said, half to himself, as he picked up the two suitcases. “I packed some ingredients so I can make you delicious meals while we’re staying here.” He informed you, smiling at you. “Doesn’t that sound nice?”
His smile brightened when you nodded once more. “Splendid. By the way, you do not need to worry about Diavolo during this trip, Lucifer assured me Diavolo would be taken care of. And either way, your D.D.D will not have service regardless, so for us to be contacted, they would need to drive all the way up here.” At your worried expression, Barbatos set down his suitcase, putting a gentle hand on your shoulder. “You need not worry. In case of an emergency, I can always be reached.” He didn’t elaborate, simply picking up his suitcase once more and heading towards the quaint cabin.
He didn’t expect the snowball to hit him in the back of the head. He set the two suitcases down, and turned to face you. “Did you wish for us to battle with the snow as our weapons?” At your excited confirmation, he packed a snowball and threw it at you with gentle precision. Twenty minutes later, the two of you were sprawled in the snow together, laughing. Barbatos sat up, and dusted the snow out of your soft brown curls.
“You are beautiful like this.” Barbatos said softly, his touch gentle. There was snow in his hair, but he either did not notice, or did not mind. He stood, and offered you his hand. “How about we head in? We could bake something, and then perhaps have hot chocolate by the fire?” At your agreement, he helped you to your feet gently, and walked you inside, his hand on the small of your back.
He carried the bags in while you warmed up, removing your snowclothes. Once the cold had finally faded from your bones, he gently led you to the kitchen. “Did you have something specific you wished to bake?”
When you shook your head no, he smiled. “How about some simple sugar cookies, then? We can frost them, and they’ll be lovely with some hot chocolate. We could make a batch of gingerbread, as well.”
At your nod of excitement, he grabbed a pair of bowls, and got out some fresh ingredients. “Splendid. Let’s start with the sugar cookies, then.” His posture was relaxed as he measured out the flour, baking powder, and salt, mixing them together while you whisked the softened butter together with the sugar. He checked your mixing over your shoulder, and gave you a few pointers before expertly cracking in the egg. “It’s good to pay attention to whether eggs and butter should be chilled or room temperature.” He informed you gently. “Usually, if the eggs and butter are room temperature, the dough must be chilled before baking, like in these cookies.” He then gently helped you measure the vanilla and almond extracts, before mixing those in.
“Alright, this looks like enough dough for two baking sheets, let’s roll these out, chill them, and start on the gingerbread.” He rested a gloved hand on your shoulder as he reached above your head to get the baking sheets and cover them with parchment paper.
The gingerbread cookies went much the same, starting with the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Barbatos gently helped pack the brown sugar, his hands on your wrists gentle but firm.
While you rolled out the gingerbread cookie dough for chilling, he made hot chocolate, the rich smell of warm milk and chocolate soon filling the air. He gently passed you a mug after you washed your hands, and pressed a soft kiss to your cheek. “I’ll finish with the dishes, you go rest by the fire, I’ll join you in a moment.”
He squeezed your hand gently, before turning to wash the dishes while you sat by the fire.
He joined you a moment later, sitting beside you on the couch. He let out a surprised squeak when you nestled against his side, and his hand moved to rest on your waist. You sat silently with him for a while, enjoying the warmth of the fire and the hot chocolate.
You didn’t realize you’d fallen asleep until you felt Barbatos gently shaking you awake. “Hey, the cookie dough is chilled now, you wanna get up and make some?” You nodded sleepily, and he smiled, helping you to your feet. “Then let’s go. I brought a variety of fun cookie cutters for you.”
He preheated the oven while you got out the cookie dough, his eyes on you. “Since these both bake at 350°F (177°C), we can have them in the same oven. Just need to remember they have different bake times.” He lined a few baking sheets, before joining you to cut out shapes with the cookie cutters.
Snowflakes, gingerbread men, reindeer, christmas trees, and candy canes were just a few of the many shapes you used. Barbatos also showed you how to use a butterknife to cut your own shapes.
Once the cookies were in the oven, he pressed a gentle kiss to your cheek. “Hopefully you’re willing to share, I don’t think the two of us will be able to eat roughly 48 cookies in one weekend. Beel will be thrilled though.” He smiled when you giggled. “You’re so cute when you do that. Now, what colors of frosting did you want to use? I was thinking red, white, green, and yellow. Perhaps blue as well?” He pulled out a mixing bowl. “Here, let me show you a simple recipe for sugar cookie icing.” He took your hands, gently guiding you. “Three cups powdered sugar, half a teaspoon vanilla extract, 2 teaspoons light corn syrup, 5 tablespoons of room temperature water, and then a tiny pinch of salt for flavour. If you wanted the frosting pure white, you could replace the vanilla extract with water, but that wouldn’t taste as good. Try some.” He scooped a tiny bit of the glaze he’d mixed up on a spoon, and offered it to you. “For other colors, just add one or two drops of gel food dye, more if needed. An important thing to remember though, the color will darken as it dries.”
He handed you two small bowls of frosting, and red and green food dye. “Why don’t you color those two, while I handle the yellow and blue?” He set aside a fifth bowl for the white.
Once the cookies had cooled, he helped you frost them. His icing job was precise, and could be considered perfect, whereas yours was… messier, but still nice. Barbatos didn’t comment on the messier icing job, simply watching you with a soft smile on his face. “Maybe you should come over to the castle next time I need a bunch of cookies iced, you’re clearly a pro. It’d end better than me asking Solomon.” He smiled proudly at your surprised laugh.
Once the cookies were finished, he had you pick out a few to snack on with some milk, and slid one hand to the small of your back, pulling you closer. “So, what did you wish to do now, hm?” He tilted his head, studying you. “We could dance, if you wanted? I only know some formal dances, but perhaps you would find that enjoyable? Or you could maybe teach me some human world dances?”
At your nod, he turned on some music, and pulled you close, leading you through a simple waltz.
Time seemed to melt away as you danced with him until it was time for bed.
Somehow, you felt almost certain that he’d manipulated time slightly so he could dance with you longer.