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"Regular" he said emphatically and handed her back the paprika and garlic powder and double checked the salt.
"These we don't need either, did you want to read to me out of the book while I get the rest?" He offered as he fished the cool whip out of the freezer to help make it a bit fluffier.
"How has school been?" He asked trying to keep the subject light and friendly... though that look in her eyes had troubled him.

Zac juggled the whisk he'd nearly dropped and managed to get it onto the counter without dropping it to the floor, but nodded at last.
"I hope so too... I don't know what's gotten into her. Ever since ... well... No she's always been a bit crazy...She's been crazy since Father left."
He always used the most 'distant' terms for his family, had done since he was very small.. though he'd never spoken to her of the night the man left.

Zac went still for a very long moment, and his eyes turned to a very familiar book that was in at least three places around the house, every copy so well paged that the cover was peeling and the spine curled. A book on chess strategy that he'd had since just before the man left.

"... I..." He started and stopped and then turned back and started mixing the ingredients in the bowl before he started again looking troubled.
"...I don't remember all of it... just how desperate she was, I know there....was another woman involved. He loved her and not Mother...so he left. Honestly I think he's still out there 'loving' one person after another...and she..."
He stopped and heaved a heavy sigh. "Love just ******** her up... she still waits for him to come back and I can't stand that."

"I wish you didn't have to be....I know she chose that school because I'm ....trouble. She...." He started and sighed...and then waved at himself.
"I look nothing like him. I -remember- him, he was so .... TALL, so... " he made a motion with his hands that suggested a box.
"He was a mountain, a giant...he was the kind of father that you look up to when your that small. I would have done....anything." He said the last with a sigh.

"... He ..." He started and stopped again.
"It's not your fault, why she's angry I mean." He said as he started mixing again more furiously. "It's mine... I'm nothing like him...I'm too short." He cracked an egg into the bowl almost furious.
"I... he said I was proof she cheated on him... I was the reason he left... You're like me...your...petite.... we just...we just remind her of why he left her, that's all." He sighed and tossed the shells into the trash.

"I...wish you could get away from here, I wish you didn't have to deal with her..." He shook his head and looked tired. "I wish I could save you from this..."

"RIBS..." He winced at the hug, the gentle start had been fine but the slight increase had shifted her enough to run over a bruise that coated his ribs.
"Sorry...sorry, just bruised...my fault when I was getting away..." He said hurriedly. He didn't know quite why he made that excuse instead of leaving it as part of the 'bullies' but he did.

He turned and offered her the whisk to taste the batter before he poured it into the pans.

His father had red hair too... he had never thought about that before, how strange, but maybe it wasn't so odd for the two sisters to have such similar taste in men.
He remembered that the man had come to the hospital while he was ... indisposed. Someone said his hair had gotten darker with age... but so had his mother's. Her hair was at the roots almost black, but for the silver streaks.

"...Cake... we should just talk about the cake.." he chuckled.

"Technically...I got my ribs... I ran into ... god I don't even remember...I just didn't want to be stuffed into a god forsaken trashcan." He sighed. "It's embarrassing enough that I can't hold my own... must I talk about it too?" He tilted his head and dabbed a bit of cake batter onto the end of her nose. "It's my own fault... sometimes I let slip my opinions when I should know better." He said and poured the batter into the dishes.

"I'll consider the self defense classes." He conceded "But I don't want YOU out fighting. The last thing that needs to happen is for Mother to find some reform school for young ladies and have you sent off to have your knuckles rapped by old women who think that War and Peace is the most romantic and insightful piece of literature of all time."

He paused and looked at her suspiciously at the mention of coloring the frosting. "...Are you thinking rainbow frosting or am I imagining things?" He said with an arched eyebrow.