Vaki’s eyebrows shot up his forehead, his mouth dropping open in surprise. “I’m sorry?”

“A fruit cake,” Cedar murmured thoughtfully. “Baking, it’s one of the things I remember I used to like doing as a child. The nanny would let me lick the bowl afterwards. You like fruit right?”

“Yes,” Vaki replied unsurely as he finished tying the knot of Cedar’s sling.

“I’ve got a packet of dried fruit,” Cedar stated, moving over the kitchen and locating his quarry up in the top right hand corner of a cupboard above the fridge. “It’s synthetic,” Cedar explained, “the real shit’ll cost you an arm and a leg, but I can’t taste the difference myself.”

“You trust me in the kitchen?” Vaki asked, creeping forwards as a small smile played on his lips.

“Not a chance,” Cedar barked a laugh, “but I’ll be here to make sure you don’t send us up in a fiery inferno.”

“We’ll bake together?” Vaki looked surprised again before nodding happily. “I’d like that, I’d really like that.”

Cedar grinned as he let Vaki measure out the flour and the carton packaged eggs. “Don’t tap the sieve too har-“ Cedar began before a billowing cloud of white puffed up into their faces. He coughed, wiping grimly at his mouth as Vaki turned to him with wide eyes.

“That’s why you tap gently,” Cedar croaked, flour sticking to the roof of his mouth. A moment later there was a strange tinkling noise, Cedar looked down to see that Vaki was laughing, his smile stretched wide and his eyes having transformed into crescents.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure I look hilarious,” Cedar rolled his eyes before grabbing a dishcloth and scrubbing at his face. “Right, I’m going to go borrow some sugar from Manya. Don’t touch the oven.”

“Okay,” Vaki beamed, sticking his finger into his mouth and sucking.

“And don’t do that!” Cedar called out from the doorway. “That’s raw egg.”

He strode out the door a moment later, feeling far too hot under the collar.

“What have you done, how did you break him, where are you shot now?”

“Hello to you too, Manya,” Cedar grimaced. Manya was leaning nonchalantly against her door frame wearing oversized dungarees and a yellow beanie that hid her hair. “And none of those things have happened. I just need to borrow some sugar, Hello Nina,” he added, catching sight of Manya’s mother on her crutches in the background.

Nina stared silently at Cedar for a few moments before grunting and hobbling back into her bedroom.

“Wow,” Cedar breathed, “she does not like me.”

“Can you blame her?” Manya snorted. “You’re suddenly spending an large amount of time hanging around her teenage daughter.”

“I-“ Cedar gaped like a fish before snapping his mouth shut and shrugging. There was nothing he could really say to that.

“So, you’d like a cup of sugar huh?” Manya waggled her eyebrows suggestively as Cedar scoffed and shook his head.

“Vaki and I are baking,” he mumbled

“I’m sorry, what now?” Manya stood up straight and looked like she was about to choke on something. “You’re baking? Oh my god, please tell me you’re both wearing matching aprons.”

“Do you have any damn synth sugar or not?” Cedar rolled his eyes but noticed he wasn’t actually feeling genuinely irritated.

“Yeah, yeah I’ll get your damn sweetener,” Manya chuckled, ducking back into the apartment and reappearing with a plastic storage jar. “Just bring it back when you’re finished. Mama likes to shovel it in her tea.”

“Will do,” Cedar grinned, catching movement out of the corner of his eye. He looked down the gallery to see a familiar face ascending the spiral staircase.

“Oh fuck,” Cedar bit out, “that’s my partner.”

“Damn,” Manya’s eyes widened, “she coming to see you?”

“Expect so,” Cedar replied, quickly pushing Manya back inside her apartment and closing the door before sprinting through his own.

“I’ve measured out the oil,” Vaki exclaimed happily, unaware that Cedar’s heart had just gone into overdrive.

“You need to hide,” Cedar snapped, darting forwards to slam the sugar jar on the work surface and wheeling round to consider the possibilities. Saorise might want to use the bathroom so that wasn’t an option, but the rest of the tiny apartment was open plan and there were no body sized wardrobes.

“Fuck,” Cedar shouted as his doorbell chimed. “Get underneath the kitchen counter,” he hissed, gesturing for Vaki to duck beneath the small island, crouching on the floor so he was hidden unless someone was in the kitchen itself.

“Coming,” Cedar called out, walking over towards the door and taking a few deep, calming breaths.

“Lin!” Cedar half shouted as he swung the door wide open with a deafening bang, causing them both to flinch.

“Tanaka,” Saorise frowned as she stepped into the apartment and shrugged her leather jacket off, draping it across the couch.

“What are you doing here?” Cedar asked nervously.

“I came to see how you’re doing,” Saorise replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, it probably was. “You’re my partner, you got hurt. Plus I need to get some more information from you to finish the incident report.”

Saorise paused and stared at the sling, the crisp white of the fresh bandages poking out from the collar of his shirt. “That looks more than the ‘scratch’ you described it as.”

“It’s not too bad,” Cedar shrugged and immediately regretted the movement. “Sit down, I’ll get you a coffee.”

“Right,” Saorise replied slowly, “okay, thanks.” She dropped herself onto the couch and pulled out a data pad. “Jones has been predictably insufferable by the way.”

“Yeah?” Cedar laughed tightly as he walked back into the kitchenette, momentarily locking eyes with Vaki who was still crouched under the island.

“Yeah,” Saorise sighed, “he’s assigned another pair of detectives to the Governor Park case. Cedar fumbled with the coffee pot, causing Saorise to glance up at the noise.

“Sorry,” Cedar coughed, “just tricky with the one hand.”

“Oh I can help,” Saorise offered, half rising from her seat.

“No!” Cedar yelped. “I mean, no it’s fine, thank you.”

“Hey,” Saorise narrowed her eyes at the mess in the kitchen, “Tanaka were you cooking before I arrived?”

“Um, yeah,” Cedar nodded, “I was making a cake.”

Saorise stared at him as if he’d grown two heads. “But you never cook? You said you only set foot in the kitchen to get another drink from the fridge?”

“Guess I just got bored on sick leave,” Cedar suggested. “I actually had to borrow some sugar from my neighbour just now, didn’t have all the ingredients myself.”

“Okay,” Saorise stated, before shaking her head and turning her focus back to the data pad. “Right, so what time would you say you were accosted?”

“Must have been just before midnight,” Cedar hummed thoughtfully, handing Saorise a steaming cup of coffee before hurrying back to the kitchen and standing guard over Vaki. He tensed a moment later as Vaki reached out to pat softly at his thigh.

Cedar glanced down with a questioning look before his heart sank. There was sweat beading on Vaki’s forehead and his cheeks were flushing a dark red.

“Now?” Cedar mouthed. He couldn’t believe it, of all the moments for Vaki to start going into heat again. Part of Cedar just wanted to give in to the hysteria and farce of it all, start laughing manically as he explained to Saorise that the fugitive android the captain wanted them to find so badly was in fact squatting down in his kitchen with flour on his nose.

Oh and by the way, he’s really horny.