I dreamed about a large flower garden but when I looked closer I could see that the center of the flowers were all faces of girls from my school. I walked around and when I noticed a flower with my face, I saw that it was entangled by a large thorny plant with a huge dark red flower. I inspected it and recognized Ms Lyst's face in the center of that flower.

My alarm went off and saved me from the nightmare and Ms Lyst's thorny clutches. What was it with all those weird dreams I was having lately. Freud would probably have to say something about them, but these days that would be considered unscientific so I could assure myself that it meant nothing. Yes, I could just ignore all that.

I got up, took a shower, got dressed and put on an apron to start on the éclairs. There was no time to waste if I wanted them to cool down enough to be able to fill and top them before school.

Luckily I measured my ingredients yesterday evening, so I started immediately with preparing the dough. Éclairs have a rather delicate dough that needs to be heated au bain marie while you mix the ingredients. The precise work of making sweets woke up the parts of my brain that still longed for my bed and before I knew it I could put the dough in a piping bag. I decided to make smaller éclairs than those you can find in the bakery so that everyone would find them cute. Cute worked well with yuri, so it should help with Elsa's confession in my eyes.

While the éclairs were in the oven, I prepared the strawberry-vanilla bakers cream.

When the éclairs came out of the oven. I left them to cool down on a cooling rack and went back to the apartment to eat breakfast. Nobody else was up yet, so I just made myself a few sandwiches with sirop de Liège.

The éclairs were cooled enough to start the filling, so I carefully cut them open and sprayed some filling inside. After that I prepared the chocolate-chili-red wine topping and finished them up. After that I cleaned up.

I went back to the apartment to freshen up again and dress for school, I had been slaving over the stove for a couple of hours after all. Mom and Frank were having breakfast. I went up to give them both a kiss. I told them I left a plate with mini-eclairs for them in the fridge to enjoy during the day. After all, it was their free day. They told me they were amazed by how cute they looked and were very interested in the unorthodox filling.

I was ready to leave the door. I sent a quick line message to Elsa to make sure she would not forget to buy the purple Lilacs. Not that I think Elsa would forget, but it is better to leave things on the safe side. We were doing this for her benefit after all. We also noticed Gazette had started a Line group chat for the FBY so I took a quick snapshot of the éclairs and posted it there.

I left the door feeling a bit hyped.

I hurried to school because I wanted to put the éclairs in the fridge in the FBY room. They needed to last until after school after all. I went into the FBY room and saw that Ms Lyst was already there, working.

She noticed me and said “Good morning Claire, good news, we solved our first case yesterday. I am just finishing up the paperwork. Well there aren't any real papers anymore these days since everything is being done digitally.”

“What do you mean what happened?” I asked her.

Ms Lyst turned her laptop toward me, she had put on a video. I saw Gazette and Elodie talking in the communications room and suddenly Gazette pushed Elodie down on a chair and kissed her. I turned red. What was I watching?

“You were filming them, really?” I asked. Sometimes I felt like I was the straight guy in a comedy sketch. I hoped I could face them normally when I would see them later on...

“How else would I have proof of our work?”

“Why does this kind of reasoning not really surprise me any longer? Well I just came by to put the éclairs for our plans tonight into the fridge.”

“How about we eat one to celebrate our victory?” Ms Lyst proposed.

“Well, why not. They should be taste tested anyway.” No matter how it was done it was our first solved case and I really needed the police and the school to be happy with our work or I still might be in trouble for Louisa's death. So results matter.

I put an éclair for the both of us on a small platter, Ms Lyst poured the both of us a cup of coffee from in the meantime. Our facilities were clearly expanding fast.

I sat myself in one of the sofas of our new salon and first took a sip of my coffee. I felt the caffeine spread through my body. That felt like bliss after such an early morning. Ms Lyst had sat herself on the other sofa right in front of me and took a bite out of the éclair. “This is so fantastic, this must be the best éclair I have ever had.” She exclaimed.

"But of course" I thought, of course I did not say that out loud. "Who do you think made them?" I took my little fork and took a bite myself. All the different tastes spread over my pallet but unified back together to create a small moment of warm happiness.

Ms Lyst had in the meantime finished her éclair and was acting a bit weird. She looked a bit shy and her face was really red. She looked downward as if she could not look straight at me.

I walked over to her and I sat myself on her lap getting face to face. I took her glasses off, she looked a bit startled now. Then I put both our foreheads together. “You don't seem to have a fever.” Ms Lyst looked up at me, the normally so strong and unbeatable Ms Lyst looked weak and defenseless right now. I felt like I wanted to protect her. I took her in my arms and embraced her and asked “Are you okay, you look like you feel ill?” I noticed her breathing had become ragged. I also noticed a heat spread through my body. She looked up to me and answered “I never felt better.” and she tightened the embrace.

When I released Ms Lyst I felt like returning from a dream. What had just happened? I saw that Ms Lyst was still sitting in that same daze. The thought that she looked really cute when she was so defenseless passed my mind. I shook my head and looked around and then my penny dropped: The aphrodisiac éclairs!

I slapped Ms Lyst in her face and shook her by her shoulders to get her out of that state. “I'm sorry Anna, it is the éclair. I added all sorts of ingredients that are considered to be an aphrodisiac together. I never thought that it would be this strong”

“You called me Anna!” Ms Lyst smiled blissfully.

I gave her another slap. Ms Lyst's eyes seemed to be getting their spark back.

Getting herself back together, Ms Lyst blushed but clearly did her best to keep a straight face. “I'm sorry, I did not know it would have this kind of an effect” I said apologetic

“I don't really mind. Actually, I quite enjoyed it.” She said with a bit of a teasing voice but at the same time I could hear she was forcing it. She was clearly shocked about what had happened. She was making me think about everything I just did and it made me turn to even a darker shade of red. She then continued: “But I think I will take those éclairs and I will send them to the lab for analysis. Because I am pretty sure you would not want to distribute those in class. I will get some pastries from the local bakery to replace them.”

I love the effect my cooking can have on people but this time, I think I overdid it!