It was a rather chilly, yet beautiful, Autumn day in the Hiro cabin and Phoenixheart had been debating whether or not to do some baking so her family could have something nice to eat when a knock came at the door. Highly confused since her husband and children had just left for a day out on the town together, she answered the door, only to be greeted by Anna, a girl she had known from childhood who hadn't been the nicest person to her.

"Uh, hey Phoe... mind if I come in?" Anna greeted, smiling a bit awkwardly.

"Oh, um, sure..." Phoenixheart responded, opening the door some more for Anna. Anna gratefully stepped inside, looking around the place. "So, um... I heard you and Joel had gotten together... congratulations." Phoenixheart responded a bit awkwardly, not really knowing what to say.

"Thanks... um, that's actually kinda what I came here to you to talk about... you see, Joel really likes making his apple pie and apple cookies and I wanted to surprise him by making an apple pie for him, but I have absolutely no idea on how to make one. I don't want to ask him since it'd ruin the surprise, and from what I've heard, you're a pretty good baker yourself, so um, I was wondering... could you, maybe... teach me how to make an apple pie?" Anna spoke in a rush, a pleading look upon her face.

A surprised look overtook Phoenixheart's features in response to what Anna had asked. "Oh, u-um sure... I was actually debating whether or not to make a pie for when Kyoya and the kids got home, so you actually came at the perfect time."

Anna practically lit up at what Phoenixheart had said, excitedly wrapping her in a hug. "Thank you so much, Phoe!" she responded, before awkwardly letting go of Phoenixheart once she realized what she was doing and that Phoenixheart seemed rather uncomfortable with the contact. "Oh, uh, sorry about that. I just got a bit excited..." she responded with a bit of an awkward laugh.

"Oh, um, i-it's alright. Now, let's go start on that apple pie. The kitchen's this way." Phoenixheart responded, heading for the kitchen. Anna followed behind, a slightly anxious, yet eager look plastered on her face.

Once in the kitchen, Phoenixheart began rummaging around the cabinets and the fridge, locating all the ingredients needed for the pie and setting them out. "Okay, so first off, we'll need to make the dough for the pie." she began, grabbing a mixing bowl and handing it to Anna before grabbing one for herself.

"What we'll need to do first is whisk some flour, sugar, and salt together. Then we'll need to mix the butter in before adding in the egg and mixing it again. If the dough gets a bit dry while you're mixing in the egg, just sprinkle it with some cold water." she continued, beginning to get to work. Anna carefully followed Phoenixheart's instructions, doing her best to do exactly as Phoenixheart said.

"Okay, now we'll need to wrap the dough and put it in the fridge to chill while we make the filling." Phoenixheart responded, forming her dough into a disc shape before doing as she had instructed Anna. A bit awkwardly, Anna did the same as Phoenixheart.

Once the dough was in the fridge, Phoenixheart turned to Anna, smiling a bit shyly. "Alright, now we need to put a bit of lemon juice into another mixing bowl to start making the filling." she spoke, heading over to one mixing bowl while Anna headed over to the other. Anna was wanting to make some small talk during this to ease up the awkwardness, but she really didn't know what she could say.

Once the lemon juice was in, the two began to peel and cut the apples, being careful to take the cores and seeds out of them as well. Though as she was cutting, Anna let out a soft curse as the knife sliced her finger. Pulling the hand back, she saw her cut finger was now bleeding heavily. "Uh, Phoe, do you have any bandages around here?"

"Oh, uh, here, I can heal that up for you." Phoenixheart responded, gently grabbing a hold of Anna's injured hand and placing her other hand over the injured finger. A soft yellow glow emitted from Phoenixheart's hand for a few moments before fading away, with Phoenixheart letting go afterwards. "There, should be all healed now."

Anna stared at the area that had been injured with a bit of wonder. It looked as if the cut had never even happened. "Uh... thanks. I honestly forgot you had those healing powers..." she responded a bit awkwardly.

"No problem, now let's get back to making the pie. We don't have too much left to do now." Phoenixheart responded with a soft smile. The two did just that, with Phoenixheart walking Anna through making the rest of the pie filling. They combined the apple wedges and lemon juice with some sugar and cooking the combined ingredients in a large skillet until the apples began to soften and release most of the juices.

After that, they strained the juices into another mixing bowl before putting the juices back into the skillet and cooking them until they were caramelized and thickened. Once that was done, they combined the juices with the apples in the mixing bowl.

Okay, now we'll need to let this cool with the pie crust for a bit before we can really assemble and bake the pie. It should take around half an hour. Kyoya and the kids are out on the town for the day, so these should be done before they get home." Phoenixheart explained, placing the newly made fillings into the fridge with the dough that was made earlier.

Anna nodded in understanding. "So, uh... what should we do while we wait?"

"Oh, um... well, I usually just read or draw during that time. I've set a timer, so it'll go off when the filling and dough are done cooling down."

"Okay... um... maybe I'll read something... what kind of books do you have?"

"Oh, there's plenty of different books in my study. I'm never really particular with the types of genres I read." Phoenixheart responded, heading off to the study with Anna following behind.

After a half hour of sitting and reading in an awkward silence, the two went to check on the fillings and dough, finding that they were chilled well. "Alright, now we get to the really fun part." Phoenixheart spoke, setting the oven to preheat before turning back to Anna.

"Okay, so first we'll need to make the pie crust, then put in the filling and covering that with the other half of the dough. Afterwards, we can set it in the oven for around fifty minutes. Then, we just have to let it cool before it's ready to be served." Phoenixheart spoke, a soft, slightly nervous smile on her face.

The two did just that, with Phoenixheart putting them in the oven and setting the kitchen timer for fifty minutes to know when the pie would be done. As she did so, Anna let out a soft sigh, just tired of the awkwardness between them.

"Hey, Phoe, um... can we talk?"

"O-oh, of course we can... what did you want to talk about?" Phoenixheart asked in a slightly nervous tone.

"Um... look... I-I... I know I hadn't really been the greatest person to you and...I just... I wanted to say I'm sorry for all the crap I did to you when we were kids... I just... I was so jealous of you... you always seemed to be just so sweet and perfect and well... you were just so close to Kyoya and I just... I hated that... so I just took my anger out on you... I'm sorry. You don't have to forgive me, but I just hope things won't be too awkward between us."

A stunned look overtook Phoenixheart's face in response to what Anna had said, though tears started to form in her eyes. Wiping them away, she smiled a bit. "I... I didn't expect that... but, thank you for the apology, Anna. I do hope we can become friends, even if it may take a little bit of time... Maybe we could meet up every so often to try and help ease the awkwardness between us? I could easily teach you how to bake some new recipes if you'd like."

"That sounds great. I would love it if we could become as close friends as you and Kyoya seem to be with Joel. Maybe we could set up some double dates in the future as well?" Anna responded with a bright grin.

Phoenixheart nodded in response. "That sounds good." And with the tension eased at least a little, the two chatted, mostly planning out girl days and double dates they could go on to try and ease their awkwardness around each other, until the kitchen timer went off.

Taking the pies out of the oven, Phoenixheart grinned brightly. "They both look amazing!"

"Well, yours does, at least, Phoe. Mine looks a little... dilapidated... I guess my little mound of filling wasn't exactly centered. Let's just hope Joel enjoys it." Anna responded with a soft laugh.

Phoenixheart let out a soft laugh of her own. "Hey, it really isn't bad for your first time baking a pie. And I'm sure Joel will love it."

The two would chat for a little while longer while the pies cooled, just enjoying each other's company. Once the pies were cooled, Phoenixheart handed Anna hers and saw her off, a bright grin on her face. Anna grinned brightly as well, wrapping Phoenixheart in yet another hug, being careful not to drop the pie.

"Thanks for the help, Phoe. Maybe next time we meet, we could make some cookies? I've got a great recipe I could teach you."

Phoenixheart nodded in response. "Sounds great. Maybe I could come over to the tavern next week for you to teach me?"

"Sounds like a plan. See you then." Anna responded before heading off, in one of the best moods she's ever been in.