Work Text:
After a busy evening at work where she had stayed longer than she should have while everyone else headed home including him, Kristen walked into Ed's apartment to a surprising lack of immediate greeting as soon as she slid open its unlocked vault door. Instead, she was hit by the smell of freshly baked cake, and a warmth that filled the room. Coincidentally timed to her arrival, a conspicuously placed cake stand was perfectly centred on the kitchen counter-top, her eye was caught by the fact that its lid was made of an opaque glass lid rather than anything she could see into.
'Ed, come on, we talked about this. No more of you going overboard making me stuff. I know you love me, you don’t need to keep making all of these things for me, okay?' Her voice playfully chided him while she walked over to investigate further. Various little plastic containers of sprinkles and decorative sugar shapes had been left out. A light rain of short and colourful strands had fallen onto the metal counter, several sticking to her finger as she pressed a fingertip against them and placed them on her tongue. There was also an opened packet of fondant icing, which from what she could recall, was the type that Edward practised modelling things out of. She’d been there while he stood at the table before, rolling the sugarpaste between his palms and carefully shaped it with his fingers, cutting bits off and sticking them together with water. And then eating them when they didn’t turn out as he wanted.
'It's been at least three weeks since I've done anything of the sort.' He replied, and she gave him a look which told him that yes, the small box of cookies from the store he'd left on her desk last Tuesday did in fact count. As much as he pretended that they didn't because technically, he hadn't made them himself. She had the foresight to share them around the station before her work got ahead of her and she ended up snacking on them anyway.
To his credit, he was trying his best to adhere to the new boundaries they had set out, even if he couldn't help himself from giving her something like this from time to time. She rather enjoyed his little ways of working around it, though telling him outright would only begin to encourage him again, putting them right back where they started. It was much more fun to let him play his little game, think that he was being sneaky about it and watch him light up when he thought he had gotten away with it, hiding mischievous grins behind folders held over his mouth when he thought she was looking. The tell-tale blush and excited fidgeting he would do whenever she asked him about it brightened up her day.
'Besides, I think you'll like this, I spent hours planning how I was going to do it.' He added, and she glanced over at the low coffee table by the couch; scattered all over it were various papers and a small stack of baking recipe books that he must have borrowed from the library, all full of scraps of paper and sticky notes sticking out from all angles. Days of note-taking and scribbling things down, she was sure they would have been as meticulous as the reports he handed her to file away if she were to look.
'So, what did you make for me this time?' Kristen lightly tapped on the glass cloche while she was trying to make out what it was through the obscuring pattern, done on purpose, she presumed. Whatever it was had a heavenly smell, though whenever he baked, it always did and yet it never carried on his clothes when he was at work. And as he crept up behind her now, leaning his chin on the top of her head, wrapping his arms around her.
'Your favourite, if memory serves.' He lifted the lid and revealed to her was a round red velvet cake the same indulgent shade of red as her lipstick, with a layer of cream cheese frosting between its layers, and more on top in circles of perfectly spaced-out peaks, topped with tiny pink and red sugar sprinkles. In the centre of each peak was a bouquet of hand-moulded roses with white fondant petals that had been dusted with silver glitter.
'Now, that looks too perfect to eat! It's incredible, really!' She told him, and with all the effort he'd clearly put in, how could she say no to it? Her waistline would not thank her, but what harm could one piece really do?
Kristen allowed him to cut it for her as she sat down at the table, lest she ruin the cake's perfect decoration and he presented her with an evenly-spaced, thick but not too overwhelming, triangular slice of rich red sponge cake and cream frosting. Conspicuously with the thin front point cut away.
'Here.' He then presented her with a fork that had the smaller piece on its prongs, holding it out for her to take. Leaning up, she pulled it off with her teeth; a burst of fluffy sponge and tangy, cocoa flavour filled her mouth. An involuntary hum of delight and satisfaction spilling from her lips as she ate and savoured it bit by bit, watching Edward's face beam at her. He was positively glowing with the feeling of being appreciated, and she couldn't help but smile with a glimmer of adoration in her eye when he did. A warm fuzziness taking over within her chest.
'I think this has to be the best one yet! Really, I don't know what else to say.' She exclaimed through rose-tinted cheeks. He was good, he was so good at this and he knew it, she loved how he could so effortlessly charm her taste buds like this.
'Your appreciation is more than enough, I assure you.' He smiled as leaned up to kiss him on the chin, 'I'm glad you like it.' He kissed the top of her head back and she could feel the heat emanating from his skin already, he absolutely melted under any kind of praise especially if it was from her.
'You are so easy to please.' Kristen giggled while she broke off another piece of cake, crumbs spilling onto the plate as she lifted it to her lips. Ed brought over a cup and saucer of coffee for both of them and pulled out the other chair, sat across from her with a piece for himself, the taste of which even he seemed to be taken aback by.
'Wow, that's...' Edward quickly put another bit into his mouth, 'Much better than I expected!'
'You know, if things don't work out in forensics, you could always open a bakery.' Kristen told him half joking, 'Actually, if you start bringing this into work, I guarantee they will be grateful for it. Keeps them going, well, aside from all the coffee.'
'You sound like you know all about that.'
'I used to be that person, then my boyfriends started getting jealous.' Her fork firmly stabbed into the slice of cake, 'Put a stop to it pretty quickly.' Her eyes flicked up to see the worry and concern that passed across his face, 'Sorry, I didn't mean to ruin the mood...'
'No, it's fine, if you want to talk about it.'
'They never would have let me get fat either, so there's that.' She spoke around her fork of cake and cream, pointing it at him somewhat, 'You know, they even had the nerve to make little comments if they thought I had, tried to make me feel guilty about it.' She shook her head, 'I don't know why I let them get to me. God this is delicious.'
'I did make it for you, have as much as you want.' Ed said to her in response, lightly swiping his thumb over the corner of his mouth to remove a tiny dot of frosting that had caught on it. Kristen leaned on her hand, longingly smiling back at him. Have as much as you want, he said, and she gladly would as long as he did the same which would be easier than she expected because he was enjoying himself far more than when they first started dating. The him that used to loiter around the records room, so mousy and meek and admittedly weird to her before they properly got to know each other, she could never imagine him indulging himself on such a thing as this.
At the same time, she had never quite imagined herself developing a thicker body either: more curve to her sides and hips that made it easier to tap the archive's drawers shut as she walked past; a neat roll of belly fat that was enough to take in and squeeze with both hands — Edward thought she hadn't noticed him doing it when he hugged her from behind the other day, as he leaned down to rest his head on top of hers. His hands were guided to it, as they were to her face, the gentle cupping of her cheeks and soft stroking of his thumb against them when he would kiss her. More of her to love and cherish. The new weight on her frame rounded out her figure in a way that she quickly came to like, even if it had forced her to buy a new set of shirts and blouses for work when the old ones wouldn't button properly but that too had allowed her to explore new avenues when it came to her styles. Despite her little qualms at first, it was a softness which she found herself nicely settling into, and regardless of the fact that the worries about her colleagues talking behind her back hadn't yet been fully laid to rest; she had felt quite good about it. A change that marked the start of a new point in the path her life was taking. One where she didn't have to be afraid any more, especially when Edward wanted nothing more to pepper her with hugs and kisses.
'Ed, I know you see the officers more than I do, do you...are they talking about me?' She poked the sponge with the tip of her fork, head resting on her hand as she glanced out of the window at the neon sign that illuminated the rooftop, and the apartment with its unmistakable glow of green. Filtered through the windows, it didn't seem as harsh as when you looked up at it from outside.
'I honestly haven't heard anything, though I can't imagine any of them saying a bad word against you. Me, on the other hand...'
'No, don't be like that. We've both changed, they know you better now. They just might take a while, that's all.' She reached across and placed her hand on top of his, 'So, how was it today?'
'I have been rushed off my feet! Two homicides in one afternoon, the crime scenes were a mess, blood everywhere, the victims were both missing their ring fingers so I suspect that they might have the same perpetrator. Waiting on some further tests that I had to send samples off for. I would have done them myself but we don't have the right equipment for it. Yet. I'm... I'm planning on appealing to get it for our own lab. It would be very helpful. What about you?'
'I had to stop three hours later than usual, and somebody forgot to sign out their evidence so I had to go chasing that up. You think they would know by now, but someone always does it. Lee stopped by to talk to me, asked me how I was doing.' Kristen's mouth twitched into a smile again, 'She overheard me lecturing you.'
'Oh.' Edward lowered his head staring down at the cup in front of him, 'What...What did she say?'
‘She didn’t say anything against you, if that’s what you’re worried about.’ Kristen explained to him, and he perked up again, ‘She just told me that it was good for us to be setting boundaries. I think she was just checking that this relationship wasn’t like the last. She’s a good friend.’
‘Maybe you should ask if she and Jim want to come for dinner. Repay them for the evening we had over at theirs.’
‘Yeah, maybe I will. Show them what they’re missing out on.’ She replied, which caused a faint blush to appear on his face as he modestly tried to downplay his abilities to her.
‘No, no, I wouldn’t say I was that good. I mean, I don’t know if they would even...’
‘Yes you are! I’m telling you, so it’s true.’ She said to him, rendering him momentarily speechless as she watched the gears turning in real-time as he attempted to come up with a response. He settled for a huff of acceptance and another sip of the tea in front of him.
After getting through a couple of slices of cake each, which ended up being half of the full red velvet cake in the end and made Kristen confident that she was most definitely done with cake for the rest of the month at least after all of that, they curled up together on Edward's couch now that it had been replaced by something big enough for two people to sprawl across. On the cushioned seat of calming dark green tartan with hints of orange, her head resting on the side of his chest while the rest of her laid out along the couch cushions as they watched a classic film that Edward had on tape. He, meanwhile, was carefully balancing a suddenly appearing box of the same luxury chocolates he would buy for her on occasion on his lap while it played, cuddling an arm around her and playing with her hair as she leaned into him that bit more to get comfortable.
'Where did you—? Where did you get those from?' Kristen angled her head to look at the box once she saw him pop one into his mouth, if the strong aroma of coffee hadn't gotten her attention, that certainly did, 'Did you have those the whole time?' It was a larger size than the one he would leave on her desk by quite a bit, more like the kind you would buy for the holidays — not just for a single person. Its plastic interior rattling with the chocolates and truffles inside as he picked another out.
'I had bought them to share with you, but since you've already had some cake, and you told me to "tone it down a bit", I presumed you wouldn't want them. I couldn't just let them go to waste.' He explained, 'They're the good ones.'
'Yeah? You're gonna do that all by yourself?' Kristen replied in a relaxed tone, tracing her fingertip up and down over the curve of his rounded belly through his shirt, the part that wasn't already poking out from underneath its untucked hem that she so desperately wanted to squish with her hands much like he did with her. He'd filled out more over the same several months, a distinct paunch of belly fat had developed on his previously trim abdomen that honestly didn't look too bad on him, though definitely visible under the tightness of his now too-small shirts that he refused to buy replacements for. Softening his hard and sharp edges out quite nicely.
'Gosh, you'll end up like me if you do that. And you still need to buy new shirts for this, Eddie.' She teased, pinching at his belly 'You know, you could just ask me if I want a few of them anyway, right? It is the polite thing to do. What flavours are they?' She turned herself to reach for the tiny placard inside that labelled all of them in detail. The usual coffee and hazelnut praline, as well as a mixture of milk, white, and dark chocolate. Some filled with sweet caramel, while others had a thick truffle centre. Though, the one that caught her eye above those that she preferred was a white chocolate shell with strawberry mousse inside, both servings of them still uneaten. Edward favoured the smoother, textureless ones made of milk chocolate, she had found, so the others were, if she so desired, hers.
'I would like...' She scanned over the box to find it nestled into the corner of the tray, 'That one.' She went to pick it up, but Ed got there before her, carefully pinching it between his fingertips, then wordlessly, he gently brought it to her lips as they parted, and placed it into her mouth.
'Mmm.' Kristen hummed contentedly as the light mousse coated her tongue with the tartness of a fresh strawberry jam, mingling with the sweetness of the white chocolate that surrounded it, then he picked up the other one and gave it to her as much care as she took to savour it, and then moved onto the favourites she had; all graciously given and equally as mouthwateringly sweet and moreish as the last. Now she understood why Edward had kept them to himself, but it didn't dissuade her one bit. He took a few more of them for himself, before she crept her hand over and pinched one of the small pair of unsweetened chocolate cubes filled with coffee flavoured cream that she knew she could rely on. Softly, she giggled as she took it from him, turning around properly and sitting up a little bit to look him in the eye, almost pushing the tray of chocolates off his lap as she leaned close enough to whisper in his ear, the dark crimson of her lipstick mingling with the rich deep brown of the bitterness between her stained lips as she kissed him, a smudge on her cheek brushed off by his thumb while he gently held her head.