Cooking By The Book [c]

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath in, then let go of it slowly.

She was making it purposefully frustrating for him, and he was beginning to feel very much frustrated.

"Okay, so we just baked. You don't want to watch TV or a film. You don't want to draw or for me to teach you. You don't want to do any of the stuff I suggested to Gabriele. Board games are boring."

He ticked off each point with his fingers.

"What do you want to do? I'm out of options."

Her dainty little shoulders lifted then dropped.

"You're the adult. You should know what to do to entertain me."

She blinked her wide eyes up at him slowly as that smile returned to her face.

She wasn't ever going to let him have the easy route.

"Well, I don't."

He frowned at himself for using such a sharp tone. As irritating as she was being, she was still a child.

Besides, he wasn't going to let a child get the better of him.

"Sorry. What I meant to say was: Just because I'm an adult, that doesn't mean I know what I am doing. So some help would be appreciated."

Amusement shone in her dark eyes when Dick snapped at her, and a smirk kicked her lips upwards.

She was going to hold that one over his head forever, and she wanted him to know it.

"I listen to lots of adults say they don't get help when they want it." Her legs swung, and her smile was saccharine. "They whine more than the babies do."

It seemed to be an adult thing. They didn't get help and just had to deal. Who was she to upset the balance of adult life?

Dick stared at the child in disbelief.

She was enjoying this far too much. In fact, she was looking rather entertained.

Taking a deep breath, he ran his hand through his hair again. Then deflated, trying to let go of his frustration, defeated.

"We certainly do."

He was quite ready to scamper back to Fleck and throw a tantrum like one. Or maybe cry, he couldn't quite decide.

But he stayed seated, fidgeting as the girl continued to stare at him expectingly.

"You are quite a formidable eight year old."

Theresa blinked up at Dick.

"What does that mean? For- Formidable?"

She was a smart eight year old, for sure, but her vocabulary was still developing, and formidable wasn't yet part of it.

Dick blinked back.

"Someone to be respected, and or feared because they are impressively powerful or capable," he explained.

His brows knitted together as he tried to think how he could put it in context for an eight-year-old.

"Like... like... the Snow Queen from, what was it called? Freezing?
Frozen? Or Darth Vader from Star Wars. They are formidable."

Again, Theresa was a very smart individual for her meagre eight years old.

But even she was not immune to the great joy that came with being likened to the freaking Snow Queen.


She was like Elsa!

Theresa positively beamed at Dick.

As the little child beamed up at him, Dick smiled himself and relaxed a bit. He finally did something right and it felt pretty rewarding to see her light up like that.

Even though he wasn't entirely sure who she was liking herself too. But he had a sneaking suspicion it was the one with ice powers, as with most little girls.

"So, I am guessing you are pretty happy to be formidable?"

Her expression closed off at his comment, growing as cold as the Queen's ice.

"I like it," she replied with a little sniff, as if it was below her to show such great emotion to Dick.

She was formidable, after all. She couldn't ruin that reputation by being sweet.

Well, that smile lasted all of five seconds.

Dick's lasted a little longer.

"Would the formidable eight year old be willing to help me entertain her now? Or is she going to liken me to a baby again?"

The smile was back, too sweet.

"Whining again," she responded.

Just because he had said she was like Elsa didn't mean he was going to get a free pass.

Oh no, she wasn't going to be nice.

"Shame."

He felt a little weary as that sickly sweet smile returned, but he wasn't too surprised. He didn't have much hope that she would decide on the latter anyway.

He glanced at his watch. Quarter too. Had it only been half an hour since Fleck kicked them out? He still had another half to try and entertain the Snow Queen.

He decided to drop coming up with activities and just talk to the young girl. As he had noticed, she seemed pretty entertained by that so far.

"So..." He frowned, trying to think of a topic to come up with. All his mind was jumping to were babies. "Which of you two is the oldest?"

Her hear tipped to the side.

"You can't tell?"

Dick had seen the two of them interact plenty of times before, and most people figured out which was the elder siblings almost right away.

Dick tilted his own head. Unlike most, he wasn't too familiar with kids and how they interacted.

"You... Are?"

She the more mature out of the two. It seemed the rational answer.

Or was it too rational? Was this a trick question?

"Or he is?"

He frowned.

"No, you are," he said firmly.

Theresa shook her head slowly.

"Gabriele is older."

Really, it was obvious. Despite Theresa's maturity, it was always Gabriele checking in with her and being the protective older sibling.

Anyone could see that.

"...Oh."

His gaze turned up to Gabriele, who he assumed was still trying to beat Theresa's top score on whatever game he was playing.

"By how long?"

Theresa shrugged.

She didn't know. She hadn't ever asked that. Sh'd just grown up with Gabriele being called her big brother.

Their birthdays were on different days, so she assumed that it was some time.

Dick nodded at the silent answer. Then remained silent himself, unsure how to push the conversation. It wasn't like talking to an adult, as mature as she was.

But it wasn't like talking to a child either.

He fidgeted in his seat, crossing his legs only to uncross them again, seeing if Theresa speaks first.

"You're bad at being entertaining."

He had such little experience with children, and it was painfully obvious. That wouldn't stop Theresa from picking on him.

She frowned up at the man, waiting for him to do something interesting.

Dick's shoulders sagged.

"I'm not exactly known for being entertaining. And I did tell you I'm not very good at this."

He returned Theresa's frown with his own.

"But, I would be more entertaining if you told me what you wanted to do."

Although it was pretty clear to him what she wanted to do: Pick on him.

Theresa stared at him for a long moment before she shifted.

Her back straightened, and her frown deepened almost comically, then she reached up and pulled up her dark curls to imitate the little ponytail Dick's hair was wrangled into.

Despite looking nothing like the Englishman, she did a pretty good comical impression of him.

He tilted his head as he watched her move, trying to figure out exactly what she was doing. It was only when she put her hair up into a pony tail he realised.

She was a mirror image of himself.

Except she was a small Italian girl, a few shades darker and a fraction of his age.

The line between his brows deepened.

"I don't frown that much."

"Uh-huh, you do."

Again her face scrunched up in an exaggerated frown. This was fun. Something that she could wile away the time doing.

Dick sensed this was going to be a losing battle, but he wasn't going to let it go.

"No, I'm pretty sure I don't."

He forced himself to stop frowning and relax his face. Only he found he couldn't figure out what to do with his face, and what it felt like relaxed. He ran his hand along his cheeks to try and smooth it out.