It was a bright morning at Starfall Bakery and Isa was up and already working on the day’s batches of baked goods. They hummed softly as they grabbed the necessary ingredients. They had just recently come across one of their old recipes for chorus fruit cake and they were excited to try baking them again. It has been a couple decades since they’d made that particular recipe but from what they remembered it was relatively simple. Flour, sugar, eggs, butter, diced chorus fruit and some spices were all it took. Isa smiled to themself as they grabbed 4 eps from the fridge. Today was shaping up to be a good day.

The chiming of the bell hanging above the bakery door pulled Isa away from their thoughts of baked goods. It was exceptionally early for customers to be showing up, they weren’t even officially open. Ah, but this wasn’t one of their normal customers. Isa stepped around the counter and approached them

“Erin and Drew, hello!” Isa greeted with their normal amount of cheer, “It's awfully early for you two to be up. Has something happened?” Isa hoped that Erin didn’t come here to share any bad news. Fawnde and Eun are still at large and Isa is worried for their safety at times, even if they didn’t live that close to Spawntown or Balls City. Being a former assassin was a good way to gain an unhealthy amount of paranoia.

“Nothing bad’s happened, don’t worry.” Erin started speaking only to be cut off by a large yawn. “I’m just here to buy some quick breakfast for me and Drew and to ask a favor of you.” Drew wiggles in her arms and Erin sets him down on the floor. The sight of the little kid wandering around the bakery brought back good memories of when heard Erin lived here. God, that was only a few months ago. It feels like so much has happened since then. But now’s not the time to dwell on that. 

“I can do breakfast. As for a favor, we’ll have to see.” Isa said lightly. They and Erin may be on good terms now, but there are things that Isa isn’t willing to do for her anymore. Erin isn’t their leader anymore, and Isa is frankly done with assassin work. They may want the Castrators reunited— safety in numbers was needed with Fawnde and Eun on the loose— but they’re not involving themself in murders. Isa’s gonna need Erin to talk more about what this favor is before they can think about accepting.

Erin followed Isa back into the kitchen, leaning against the counter just like she used to do while Isa pulled out some of their leftover goods from yesterday. A bit stale but still good for a quick breakfast. Erin took them and started eating one, handing the other to Drew as he toddled past her on his bumblings around the shop.

“The favor isn’t anything severe, I’m not gonna ask you to get involved in anything dirty. I just need someone to babysit Drew.” Erin said between bites.

“I’m needed at a meeting with Schmeeb and Lumi at Balls City in, like, half an hour and last time I took Drew with me, I could barely focus on what was actually being said. I don’t really have anyone else I’d trust to watch him and I can’t leave him at the sanctuary alone anymore, his powers are getting too strong to be left alone unsupervised.” Erin’s wings flicked behind her nervously as she spoke. “I’m sorry that this is so last minute, I just couldn’t find anyone else. I can pay you for your time spent.” 

Isa thought it over. Back when the Castrators were still a guild, they’d had a whole calendar to see who would watch Drew when Erin went to complete hits. Isa had watched him from time to time, and it wasn’t that hard. He’d mostly crawled around the bakery while they baked and kept one eye on him. Sure, Drew was older now, but they could probably still watch him and make their goods for that day. Plus, it felt nice that Erin had asked them. Familiar in a way that they and Erin had slowly been building back to. Plus extra cash is never a bad thing.

“Sure, I can do that. Can’t be that hard.” Isa said with a shrug. Erin gave them a look, the look of an exhausted parent, but didn’t say anything. Drew had been running Erin ragged, that much was clear, but Isa was a centuries old vampire with decades of experience with kids. They could handle one 2 year old demigod, easy!

“If you’re sure?” Erin asked again. Isa rolled their eyes not unkindly. 

“Yes, Erin, I’m sure. Really, this will be fun! Drew and I haven’t hung out in ages and I’ve missed the li’l guy.” Isa said, peering over at where Drew was trying to climb onto one of the wooded chairs. Yep, same old Drew.

“You get going to your important meeting, we wouldn’t want you to be late. I’ve got this.” Isa said, shooing Erin out of the bakery. Erin squawked in surprise but let herself be herded outside with one last look back at Drew.

“Be nice for Miss Isa, ok, Drew?” They called back right before the door shut. Drew was focused on using his tiny arms to scale the furniture and probably didn’t hear them, but that’s fine! Drew’s a nice kid and Isa’s sure he won’t be any trouble.

With a small skip, Isa made their way back to their workstation and got back to business. They began measuring and mixing the ingredients with a grace that came from years of baking. They were in the zone and completely focused on their work. In no time at all, the first cake was baking in the oven. As Isa began scooping the remaining cake batter into a second tin, they remembered that there was someone they were supposed to be watching. A quick glance around the shop showed them that Drew was just playing with the puppies. How nice.

Wait, no, Drew’s was trying to pet Keith. Uh-oh.

A quick dash around the counter and Isa reached Drew just in time to lift him up and away from the still snarling dog. Ok, so maybe they needed to keep a bit of a closer eye on Drew. He nearly got chomped.

“Keith doesn’t really like pets, but Hunk over here loves them. Why don’t you go pet Hunk?” Isa led Drew away from the unhappy dog and towards a very fluffy and very content dog in a yellow collar. Drew wasted no time just falling into Hunk’s soft fur and giving the dog all the pats. Isa chuckled at the sight of the little kid consumed by the floof of the giant dog. That should keep him busy for a while longer.

Isa went back to work filling the smaller tin with batter, making sure to actually watch Drew this time. He was still face down in Hunk’s soft fur. The ring of Isa’s timer let them know that the cake was done cooking and they switched the fully cooked cake for the tin of batter in the oven. Now it was their favorite part, decorating. Their recipe called for frosting and chorus fruit slices. Grabbing the buttercream frosting out of the fridge, Isa got to work adding decor to the light purple cake. They were so in the zone again that they almost didn’t notice the ringing of the door chimes 

Isa looked up, confused to not see anyone walking in. “Hello?” They asked, in the hopes that maybe it was an invisible person who forgot they still had the effect on, and not an intruder coming to kidnap them. Still, nothing. They scanned the room.

Wait, where was Drew?

Isa only took their eyes off him for a minute and he’s gone! They didn’t know he could reach the door-handle; that didn’t mean that it was ok for them to look away from him. Argh! This was so much easier when he was a baby who could barely even crawl. Ok, deep breaths, Isa. They’re a vampire, they can track one demigod, right?

Running out the door, Isa transformed into a bat and took off into the air. He couldn’t have gotten far, he’s a kid. They weaved through the trees of the forest, ears flicking every which way for any sound of the toddler. Nothing. Drew had always been a quiet child, but now Isa was really wishing he spoke more often, or at least made some noise. It would be so much easier to track him down.

As Isa began flying over the river near the bakery, they got a flash of deja vu. This wasn’t the first time that Drew had run away before. He was always a free-spirited kid and would often escape the watch of his babysitters to go and try and find his mom. Luckily for the Castrators, he never got too far before they found him and brought him back. It would’ve been really bad if Erin learned that Drew was somehow sneaking away from fully trained assassins. How had they forgotten that? Isa cursed their less-than-great memory. Too many centuries lived meant that details and events got a bit muddled sometimes. At least now they knew where to look. If Drew was looking for his mom, he was probably on the way to Balls City. Isa banked in that direction and flew, hoping that they would find him before Erin did. They did not want to get in trouble with her.

Luckily for Isa, they soon spotted the wayward demigod. He was steadily walking through the woods, occasionally floating upwards to get over obstacles and then gliding down on tiny wings. Right, demigod powers. Erin had said that he’d gotten stronger. 

“Drew!” Isa called out once they landed and transformed back into a humanoid form.

“Hey buddy, what are you doing out here?” Isa asked. They actually had a good idea of what he was doing, but with kids, it never hurt to ask. Drew looked back at them for a second before he kept walking.

“Goin’ to Er’n.” Drew responded.

Yep, Isa was right. He does want his mom. 

“Erin’s busy right now. I’m watching you, remember?” Isa said. 

“Got bored.” Drew simply stated.

Isa winced. Ok, so maybe they hadn’t done the best job at keeping this kid happy and entertained, but honestly they did think that the dogs would keep him busy for longer. Come on, they’re dogs! But yeah, that’s their bad.

“Well, why don’t we go back and do some fun things then?” Isa said, just as a brilliant idea struck them. “You can help me bake cookies if you want?” Kids loved cookies.

Yep, they got his attention. Drew was now looking straight at them, his full attention on them.

“Wha’ kind o’ cookie?” He asked warily. 

“Any kind you like! I have a lot of recipes.” Isa said. Hopefully Drew liked the normal kinds of cookies and not, say, ghost pepper or tomato cookies . Both of those were actual cookies that Isa knew how to bake, but the ingredients were annoying to get and Isa didn’t have most of them on hand. 

“Double chocolate?” Drew asked.

Isa nodded. “We can make those for sure.”

Drew thought about their offer.

“Can I have juice too?” 

“Yes, you can have juice.” Isa responded. “I hope you like apple juice, because it’s the only kind I have.” They said after another second. Drew just nodded.

“‘Dats fine.” 

“Ok, great! Back we go, then!” Isa said. Drew hopped over to them and made the universal gesture of “Let me up.” Isa grinned as they picked him up and set him on their shoulders. 

“Lead the way, Drew!” Called Isa as they started walking back. Drew made sure to be a helpful guide and pointed in the directions he wanted Isa to take him. They got sidetracked a little, but they made it back in under 20 minutes.

A new record for catching a runaway Drew, Isa thought.

They got the juices for both of them and started pulling out the needed things for double chocolate chip cookies. 

“Ok now, Drew, you’re gonna sit on this stool and help pour the ingredients into the mixing bowl. We’ll start with the flour.” Isa said, taking Drew off their shoulders and placing him on the stool. Isa helped maneuver him so that he scooped out the right amount of flour and then left him to pour it while they searched for their chocolate chunks. He’d be fine.

He was not fine. Isa turned back around just in time to see Drew tipping the whole flour bag into the bowl. They couldn’t stop him before it all fell in, a cloud of flour exploding from the bowl. Isa coughed and tried to wave it out of their face. Their whole kitchen was covered in a fine white dust. Isa sighed. They really should have expected this. The next 15 minutes were spent cleaning up the flour and carefully putting back the pounds of flour that were still in the bowl. Isa did most of the work but Drew helped a little. They appreciated that.

“Why don’t I do the flour? You can measure chocolate chips and chunks instead.” Isa said to the kid with flour still caking his face. Drew brushed off the flour and nodded. He was actually quite good at pouring the chocolate. Besides a few chips snuck for himself, the task was completed quickly and without issue. From then on it was smooth sailing. Isa made sure to help Drew with the pouring and mixing so as to not have a repeat of the flour incident, while they cracked the eggs and poured in the melted butter. The two of them moulded the finished dough into balls and put them on the pan, ready for the oven. They even got to eat the extra dough, which was great. Isa was proud of how well everything came together. Probably one of their top 5 attempts at making this specific type of cookie.

While the cookies were baking and cooling, Isa got out some board games they had left over from when the Castrators would do board game nights. Drew crushed them in Candyland, something that they would never admit to anyone ever. It’s probably the demigod luck. It was still fun though, they got him back at Uno. 

Then time came when the cookies were finally ready to be eaten. Isa and Drew sat at one of the tables, enjoying the rich chocolate flavor and their second apple juices for that day. 

“This was a lot more hectic than I expected when I agreed to babysit you.” Isa admitted to Drew. “I forgot how much of a little gremlin you are, in a good way of course.”  Drew just watched them speak, continuing to eat his cookie. 

“But I still had fun! It was nice spending time with you. Reminds me of the good parts of the old days…” Isa trailed off, Drew just kept munching.

The ringing of the doorbell brought Isa back to the present.

It was Erin, worry lines clearly visible but a smile on her face when she sees Drew and Isa sitting together. Drew reached out for her and she scooped him into a hug.

“He wasn’t too much trouble?” Erin asked Isa. Isa shook their head

“No, he was an angel.” Isa giggled at their own unintentional pun. Erin rolled her eyes fondly before she reached down and snagged a cookie of her own. 

“Well, thanks again for watching him. I really appreciate it.” Erin said sincerely. “Here, I did promise to pay you.” Erin reached into her pocket and pulled out some diamonds. Isa took them gratefully. 16 diamonds, sweet!

“It was no issue! I had fun! He played with the dogs, we went for a walk, played board games, and baked some cookies as you can see. It was a good day.” Isa said truthfully. While, yes Drew is a little gremlin and a bit of a hassle sometimes, they did have fun today. They might even be open to doing it again.

Isa watched a visible weight be lifted from Erin’s shoulders. “That's really great, Isa. I’m glad you two had fun.” She said as she adjusted Drew in her arms. Isa smiled back at them. 

“Yeah, you two are welcome back anytime. Maybe next time you can join us, Erin?” Isa suggested. Erin looked taken aback. It has been a long time since Isa had invited Erin to bake with them, the last time had been back when the Castrators were still a thing. Isa could tell that Erin hadn’t ever expected Isa to trust them enough to have the offer extended to them ever again. Their returning smile was bright.

“I’d like that a lot.” They said truthfully. “Well, we’ll both get out of your hair, but next time we come over you know for sure I’ll be down to baking.”

“I’m holding you to that promise, Erin.” Isa said. It was nice to fall into comfortable familiarity with Erin. Feels like returning home, even if they never physically left. Erin nodded and turned to leave but not before snagging a few more cookies with a smirk as they went. Isa smiled before going back to their baking. They still had that smaller cake to decorate. The day is still young and Isa still has more to bake. Isa took a deep breath and smiled.