Cinnamon versus Vanilla

When Theia woke up, she saw both Alex and Ezra in the kitchen, arguing over whether or not to put cinnamon in the pancakes, versus plain vanilla. The argument was heating up as they started debating the benefits of cinnamon versus the benefits of vanilla. 

"Cinnamon is great for you and extremely delicious. Way more than vanilla. It has antioxidants and it's an anti-inflammatory. Plus, it's delicious! "

"You said that already, and pulling out some googled facts won't help you here, because guess what? According to Google, vanilla is also an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory. So now what? "

"Cinnamon still has the greater percentage. "

"Vanilla still does what cinnamon does."

"Guys!"

They both turned to look at Theia, surprised. Theia was amused. What was with the look as though they had gotten caught? And this childish argument? 

"Why don't you... (here's a wild idea) use them both in the pancakes?" She asked.

They stared at her, and then looked at each other, a bit embarrassed. She had a point; neither of them would affect the other's flavor or anything. It would only serve to add to the deliciousness. So why were they arguing then?

"Anyway, " Alex said, quickly cutting through his obvious embarrassment,"Thee, go bathe and get dressed. We have a long day ahead of us. Oh, and text Alessia. See if she wants to come along. "

Alex paused before saying, "Actually, on second thought, just tell her you're staying here for another day. Don't invite her right now. "

He wanted Ezra to relax. Alessia had a way of making friends with everyone, so he wasn't at all worried about that part, but he didn't want Ezra to feel as though he was under pressure. He had already familiarized himself with them, so Alex didn't want to add another person. The situation could turn out to put pressure on him at a vulnerable time.

Theia, seeing Alex's expression, understood what he was worried about. She nodded. 

"I'll call Lessi. I believe she has a family thing today in any case with Jared, so it should be fine regardless."

With that, she turned, heading to her bedroom to take a long bath and get ready. She organized her clothes to go with them now, and then got out her clothes for later. A thought occurred to her, and she went into what was now Ezra's room. Checking the sizes on his clothes, she quickly sent out a text. 

"Good, now that that is taken care of, let's quickly organize because I'm sure, knowing Alex, he probably wants to replace most of Ezra's things, so he wouldn't have anything connected to that family. That means a lot of shopping. "

She quickly headed back to her room before entering the bath. As she sat there, she thought through the significance of Alex's actions. Alex's upbringing had been extremely different from hers, and as a result, he had always been cold to others. With the exception of the Redingtons, he hadn't opened himself up to anyone before her. He and Jared had met early and hit it off. Unfortunately, they were two of a kind. Except for their family and each other, they are cold to everyone. They were even called "the Cold Princes" or sometimes "the Aloof Princes" for the way they acted toward others. 

Theia rolled her eyes at the corny names, but she knew they weren't wrong. Alex truly was cold to everyone he deemed unimportant to him and indifferent to his business associates. He was polite and well-mannered towards them, however. In fact, there wasn't a single thing they could fault him for on that end. He was meticulous. All of his plans were grounded and well thought out, leaving people desperate to invest, so how could they have any objections? 

But she had never seen him warm up to anyone the way he did Ezra. In fact, if she hadn't known better, she would have sworn he was their long-lost brother as well, seeing as Alex treated him just like he had treated her when they met. 

"A brother, huh?" She mused to herself, leaning into the bubbles. "A brother might not be so bad. I already feel like he's one. " 

Perhaps she should mention it to Alex, and they could take him in officially as their brother. That way, he would truly feel like he had a family, and those crazy parents of his could kick rocks. Mmmmmm. That was a great idea. She would tell Alex about it when she got out.

***

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Ezra and Alex were busy mixing more pancake batter since the last one was oversalted. Who knew it was so easy to mix up salt and sugar? 

"Labels," Ezra said, while he held the bowl, mixing the batter. "We need labels for things that look alike."

"Agreed." Alex was cracking eggs to make a fresh batch of scrambled eggs since he had added sugar to them. "We'll take care of that tomorrow morning."

Twenty minutes later, they breathed big sighs of relief. They had never known that breakfast could be so difficult from scratch. Ezra had always had breakfast made for him by his grandmother when she was alive, and later by a cook since he had lived with his---the Duprees. 

While Alex, on the other hand, had always had a cook at his parents' house and he didn't usually eat breakfast at home in his apartment. The most he did was make toast or add filling to a bagel. 

As they carried the platter of pancakes, eggs, and bacon out to the counter, they felt a sense of self-satisfaction. Sure, the bacon was a little bit hard and the eggs were hard fried instead of scrambled, but it tasted great. That was the most important thing. 

When Theia got out of her room, she saw them looking at the counter with pride. As her eyes ran over the misshapen pancakes, the overdone eggs, and the extremely crispy bacon, she had to stifle a laugh. The most important thing was that they had succeeded and the kitchen hadn't been burnt down. 

"Wow! That looks great! " She said, holding in her laughter and heading to the fridge to get out some orange juice. She turned to them. "Do you guys want anything?"

"I'll take apple juice," they said at the same time. They looked at each other, taken aback, while Theia laughed. Clearly, they had a lot in common. She poured them all a glass and they turned on the TV to eat breakfast. They spent the time making jokes, and the atmosphere was great. Of course, good times sometimes never last a long time. When they were almost finished with their breakfast, the station switched midway from the news to a press conference. As luck would have it, it was indeed the Duprees. The woman was at the microphone, giving a speech about their partnership and business plan with an Asian company. Theia hoped they didn't plan to say anything about Ezra during. When she saw Mrs. Dupree about to close off her speech, she thought she had gotten her wish.

"We have an additional announcement we would like to make as well. However, we will not be taking any questions regarding it. From today, February 27th, we would like to announce that Ezra Leander Dupree is no longer a member of the Dupree family and has nothing to do with us. From today onward, we have not associated with him in any form. Thank you for your time and participation in this---"