#cornkob

@fates-week, Day 6: Family

my Halloween Jakob:

hi im playing fates for the first time so get ready 4 floods of Bad Art

“Do you have any resolutions for the New Year?”

“I don’t believe in resolutions. If you need the idea of a ‘New Year’ to inspire changes in behavior, then I think a change in overall mindset is what’s needed more.”

“…That’s about the answer I expected from you,” Corrin said with a laugh. She was holding two planks of gingerbread upright while her husband Jakob suspended a bag of frosting over his shoulder and proceeded to pipe the sugary glue steadily at the intersection of the two cookies.

“It’s the truth,” he said with a shrug, setting the bag down once the last of the frosting was squeezed out. Corrin pressed the two walls together gingerly, then cautiously pulled her hands away.

The cookies stayed upright, and both let out a sigh. The couple exchanged a relieved high-five.

“Very nice,” Jakob said, rolling a shoulder. “One corner down.”

“This is going to take forever,” Corrin said with a tiny laugh. “I don’t remember it taking this long when we used to do it.”

“Well, Kana and Dwyer will be surprised,” Jakob said, hoping to erase the monotony of the task at hand. “We haven’t made a gingerbread house in a while.”

“Well, New Year’s Eve is a few days away, and we got this kit on sale at the store,” she said with playful lilt in her voice. “So…I think we’re past the point of…punctual festivity.”

The man chuckle and gave her a warm glance. “Punctual festivity?”

“You know what I mean,” she said, swatting at his shoulder. “Now come on, they’ll be home from cram school soon and we’ve finished….one corner.”

“Sorry, sorry, you’re right,” Jakob said, picking up the piping bag again. “Back to work.”

The two bustled about, icing planks of stale cookie and placing colorful off-brand candies for what felt to both like hours.

Minutes before the parents expected their sons home from school, the two stepped back and admired their masterpiece; a small one-room gingerbread house decorated with a rainbow assortment of candies and peppermints. Corrin has even used a small toothpick to properly apply detailed patterns of frosting to four people-shaped cookies.

“Ah, are you making all of us?” Jakob asked as he watched his wife adorably apply dollops of icing to the top of a little gingerbread boy’s head. The result was a head of unruly hair that looked similar to Kana’s.

Jakob continued, “Aw, how cute. Who knew our son would make such an adorable, erm…cookie?”

Goodness, the evening had taken a weird turn.

“Isn’t he?” Corrin asked proudly as she held her tiny son up proudly and gently pressed him to a spot near the house. “I’ll try to make you next.”

“I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

“I’ll try to manage,” she laughed. “They don’t have a cookie as weirdly tall as you are though.”

“Hey.”

“Don’t feel bad,” she said with a nonchalant wave of her hand. “There’s no cookie with Dwyer’s bad posture either.”

“Is there a cookie that likes to poke fun at others?” Jakob asked in a mock falsetto as he playfully peeked inside the gingerbread tin. Again, she batted his chest with the back of her hand. However, this time she couldn’t resist kissing his cheek apologetically.

The woman turned her back and hunched over her project secretly, hiding it from Jakob until she was finished. He rolled his eyes and decided to start cleaning up while she added the oh-so-secret finishing touches to the abode.

Finally, as he finished wiping down the countertops and washing the dishes they dirtied to decorate the house, she was ready to reveal the tiny cookie family to her husband.

The entire gingerbread house ensemble was quite cute, especially given that they couple had only worked on the project for about an hour. Their children would be home any minute and would no doubt be delighted to look at the sight. The situation was further sweetened by the fact the Kana adorned gingerbread and would probably eat the entire house in a matter of days. It was an annual event and truly a sight to behold.

“In a few hours, Kana will be bouncing off the walls from a sugar rush,” Corrin said fondly, wrapped her arm around her husband’s waist and pulling him close. “Prepare yourself.”

“I thought ahead and bought sugar free frosting,” he said in a humorless voice as he recalled the sugary antics from last year. He shivered and said, “We don’t want to repeat history.”

“No,” Corrin said, holding him tighter and she felt Jakob lift a hand to affectionally cup the nape of her neck. “Although…there is one part of last year’s gingerbread building I’d love to repeat.”

Jakob’s brows lofted quizzically.

“Remember?” she asked, swaying her hips and artfully twirling away from his touch to swipe her finger across the tip of the frosting bag. “I had trouble with the icing bag, and there was a tiny explosion. I got icing all over me, and thought you’d were going to freak out and go into a cleaning frenzy.”

As soon as she saw Jakob’s cheeks turn rosy, she knew he remembered. The woman reached out and put the finger to his lips and smeared the icing across his mouth. A second later, she covered his lips with her own and pulled him into a powerful kiss the seemingly seared his nerves from his heart to the tips of his fingers.

Corrin left the kiss too quickly, pulling back and flashing him a cheeky grin. “I could repeat that every year, couldn’t you?”

“More like every moment of every day.”

“Uh-Uh…” Jakob said dizzily, eyes half-lidded as he gazed down at her lovingly. The tips of his fingers brushed the sides of her face. “Mm-hm.”

“Ha! Speechless, huh?” she asked, hands resting on his elbows as she leaned in to steal one more vanilla-flavored smooth. She felt a little surge of victory that she’d managed to turn her husband’s silver tongue to lead so quickly.

“Mm-hmm…” he said pleasantly, chuckling and pressing another kiss to the crown of her forehead. Then, he caught her by surprise by putting his hands on her ribcage and playfully lifting her into the air with ease Corrin would never get used to. The woman let out a snort of loud laughter that continued uproariously as her twirled her around the room, a wide grin on his face before he loosened his grip. She slid down until their lips collided again, and her arms went about his neck as she slowly descended onto the floor.

The second kiss lasted longer than the first, with both savoring the moment for as long as possible until they heard the key turn in the lock of the front door to their loft.

Jakob bit his lip and pressed his forehead against his wife’s. Corrin beamed up at him adoringly.

Even after marriage and two children, simple kisses with each other still drove Jakob and Corrin absolutely wild with desire, love, and most of all, complete and utter happiness.

The lock clicked softly, and the couple reluctantly separated to stand on either side of the house. Perhaps it would look a little less suspicious, although neither of their children were young enough to still not have a clue. Dwyer especially had no problem teasing his parent about their romantic escapades.

The door swung open and, as expected, Kana bounced into the apartment only a few steps ahead of his older brother Dwyer. The two immediately noticed the gingerbread house, and Kana was quick to also notice and remark on the adorable little gingerbread family out front. Even Dwyer was impressed by the house, although he did make a few inevitable remarks about the craftsmanship.

The couple was exceptionally glad that neither Kana or Dwyer seemed to notice their flushed cheeks or the featherlight lipstick smears across their necks and mouths.

I’ll be staying overnight for an NYE party, so I wanted to upload something before the big day.

Happy [early] New Year, guys! So 2017 was really, really weird [to say the least, yeesh]…but a lot of good things happened. Especially here on Tumblr with all the great people and writers I’ve followed this year.

MU: Somebody willing to stand by me and my bad decisions.

MU: And can tolerate all of my stubborness.

MU: And will clean up the mess that I unintentionally make.

MU: Oh, and they have long, white hair.

MU: That can be tied into a ponytail.

MU: They know my taste very well.

MU: And make guests the best tea.

MU: They’re a butler.

MU: Jakob.