One of those days Ayu finally had a moment of peace. When she wasn't meditating or training or fighting with the dark thoughts that were still creeping through the cracks in her mind, she wanted to do something else. Something less stressful though in the Lookout cooking wasn't exactly that. Dende drank only tea and water, and Mr. Popo was eating once in a while but aside from them, there was Ayu, Cress, Celric, Terra, and Callion - when he was in the temple of course. Terra ate as much as usual, Ayu wasn't eating too well lately so her portions were rather small. And Saiyans eat a lot... More than she thought. Kids' appetite was already humongous, they were still growing and Ayu was lucky to have the ability to make plants grow out of her Ki. They saved tons of money on vegetables and fruits and when it came to meat Celric and Callion would go hunt for wild game. After they made a bloody mess on the Lookout she said that she will only cook prepared meat and they have to do so down below - Cress maybe was used to that sight but Terra? She couldn't allow her niece to walk into a bloodbath and dismembered dinosaur parts laying on the floor.

Anyway, thanks to Mr. Popo's help Ayu was able to cook for this tiny crowd and then with their aid she would clean the kitchen and wash the dishes. This day wasn't any different but after the kids went out to play, Ayu decided to bake something for them. She sighed and smiled, looking through the shelves in Lookout's kitchen. It will be a time-consuming task but she wanted to make them smile. One tray of cookies would barely be a treat for a Saiyan child... She needed a tray full of cake - and not one but at least six! Well, using her powers won't be cheating if it would make her work faster, right? Luckily this place was equipped with a nice big oven and a lot of workspaces, unlike her little house near the forest. Ayu waved her hand softly and lots of vines grew on the kitchen floor, reaching to the shelves to grab bowls, bags of flour, and sugar. Let's see... Ayu made a pile of forest berries and she started to heat the oven, greasing all those trays for sponge cakes with colorful fruits. The vines were mixing the batter relentlessly - it was like Ayu gained extra pairs of hands to help her out while baking. Quite useful to be honest...

Soon enough the big oven was filled with all six trays full of cake with berries and Ayu was washing the dishes, humming softly, in a better mood. The pleasant and warm scent of baking goods was filling the kitchen. There was something about those simple chores that was putting her mind at ease... And the thought of surprising the kids with tasty treats made it even better. Now it felt like a lifetime ago but she did become a guardian of three children. Thankfully with Dende and Mr. Popo's help, she was able to give them shelter and guidance. Zerori would visit them from time to time and Callion appeared on the Lookout regularly so there were a lot of good people in their lives. Ayu was glad. With that, maybe they will be strong enough in the future.

Once the cake was baked, Ayu pulled every one of those out of their trays and placed them on a wire rack to cool. She planned to add some icing or maybe whipped cream too? But that needed to wait. The freshly baked sponge cake was too hot for that so she left it, leaving the kitchen to check if there was anything else that needed to be done around the Lookout... That was a mistake.

Because no longer than fifteen minutes later Ayu started to hear a loud quarrel from the very room she left. Sensing that something was happening, she hastened her steps to enter the kitchen without a word... And what she saw? Out of six cakes, four were already missing, not counting the mashed half of the sponge cake in crumbs on the floor. Two chairs were on the ground and she appeared just in time to see Celric and Cress in the middle of this mess. It looked like they rolled on the floor minute before she came here - both were dirty, their clothes wrinkled and dark berry-colored stains on their faces told her enough. Ayu quietly put her hands on her hips, looking at them with a disappointed gaze, without saying anything. Because there wasn't anything to say - but both siblings as soon as they saw that, jumped towards her and started to shout out their version of events.

"Ayuuu! I caught him eating the cakes and he-" Cress started to talk first but her voice was quickly overpowered by her brother.

"Shut up! You were eating them first!" Celric started to stare daggers at her, which made his little sister puff out her cheeks.

"That's not the truth! He's lying!"

"Then why is your mouth all dirty, huh?" the boy mocked her and showed his tongue - which also was purple from eating the cakes full of berries.

"Because you grabbed the cake and smeared it on me, idio-" Cress didn't have time to finish because she was interrupted again.

"No way, you were just stuffing your mo-"

They continued, stopping trying to explain anything and focusing on undermining the other one's excuse. In this short moment, Ayu realized a very strange occurrence happening. At seemingly random points of their banter, she could feel this weird and uneasy sensation that started to prick her consciousness. It wasn't anything that would scare her or made her worry yet it felt like a gentle warning or rather a sign to pay more attention to their voices. And when she did, Ayu spotted a pattern - the certain set of words appeared always before another prickling sensation. And for both of them, to say the least. It seemed that the siblings here weren't both honest with her...

"Enough," Ayu said after a while, her voice calm and just a bit stern which in her usual gentle disposition must have been quite surprising to see. She looked at Cress and then at Celric, stopping her attentive gaze at his face. "Please, tell me what happened," she asked him.

"I walked here and I saw Cress stealing the cake-" he started talking but before the offended girl could oppose, Ayu raised her hand. The sensation appeared again.

"No," she got down on one knee to calmly look them both in the eyes. "Again. What happened here?"

"I saw Cress first-"

"That's not the truth. What happened?" Ayu didn't budge, trusting that uneasy sensation that started to warn her when he was lying... Maybe not lying but he surely wasn't being honest - and she wanted to know everything to make a fair judgment.

Celric started to look confused and troubled. His feet were fidgeting a bit but he still was putting on a brave face - but when two more times Ayu told him to explain the events in the kitchen again, it looked like the air escaped from his lungs. He frowned, irritated.

"Ugh, alright! I was here first! I wanted to eat one cake and then I ate two and then Cress appeared and we started fighting!" He turned away, crossing his arms on his chest, his tail twitching in frustration. Ayu nodded and smiled a little, patting his shoulder.

"Thank you for telling me the truth," she told him but before she could turn to Cress, she already heard her voice.

"See! It's all his fault!" ... And just like that, this sensation appeared again. Ayu looked at her carefully - the little Saiyaness had also her face dirty with cake and it might have been as she said, that during pushing each other her face was smeared with this freshly-baked treat... But Ayu needed to know the details.

"Now, Cress, tell me please what happened here," she turned her attention to the girl. "I've heard Celric and now I want you to speak up."

The girl blinked and rubbed her cheek.

"I walked and saw Celric gobbling the cake, so I started telling him that it was wrong!" she explained with confidence.

"You didn't eat any cake..?" Ayu asked a tricky question, looking at Cress's reaction very carefully.

"I-I did not," she answered with just a little bit of hesitation and with Ayu's sensation making her cautious about her words. Kids were sneaky and crafty, she had to admit that.

"No, you did. How much?"

Maybe it was her calm attitude or the fact that she wasn't giving in so easily this time... Ayu always had a soft spot for children and when siblings were fighting she made sure that both sides would be pleased, albeit they did have to fix the mess they made. But today her approach was different and under her peaceful but adamant gaze, it seemed that both Cress and Celric didn't know what to do... So they told the truth.

"... I thought that he was going to eat them all and there won't be any left for us so I ate one and the other fell from the table when I pushed him..." the little girl confessed, looking at the floor and tearing up a bit. Ayu's face softened when she was met with an honest answer. She gently patted Cress's hair and glanced at Celric. His attitude seemed to mellow a little after he heard that he wasn't the only one who admitted to his shenanigans.

"Now since I know what happened..." Ayu stood up and looked around the messy floor, her gaze stopping at a pair of repentant siblings. She sighed and patted their shoulders. "You two are going to clean the kitchen and then you both need a bath. Understood? And you won't take another bite of the cake today, we have to save the rest for others." She raised her finger with a more stern look in her eyes than usual... But seeing their faces dropping she couldn't help but say - "Don't worry, I'm going to bake cookies tomorrow, so if you behave there be enough for you too."

Ayu was soft inside, she couldn't lie to herself about that... Luckily Cress and Celric both smiled after she promised more treats tomorrow. They quickly cleaned up the mess and they trotted toward the bathroom as she stayed back in the kitchen to cut cakes and serve them to Mr. Popo and Dende. Oh, and she saved a big plate of sweets for Terra too.

Taking care of children and raising them wasn't easy. But that went better than she expected. Though why was Ayu able to say when they weren't honest with her? That confused her a little but there wasn't any harm in trusting this ability more.

For now at least.

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Power Level - 288,912
Word Count - 1,841
Technique - [ST1] Polygraph - 1TP