“Chocolate chips,” Lev says immediately.
“Blueberries,” Boris counters.
They both look at Dima.
He considers this like it’s a tactical decision. “Both.”
I blink. “Both? In the same pancake?”
“Why not?” Lev shrugs, all innocence. “Sweet and tart. Chocolate and fruit. It’sbalanced.”
“That’s a cry for help.”
“Same thing.”
A laugh escapes me—half-genuine, half-disbelief—and I shake my head, already turning toward the cabinets. “You’re all insane.”
“You’re still making them, though,” Lev points out, smug.
He’s right. I am.
I pull out the mixing bowl, flour, eggs. My hands move automatically—muscle memory from a thousand Sunday mornings in my old apartment when I’d make breakfast just to pretend I had my life together.
Gordo appears from nowhere, winding between Dima’s legs with a chirp that sounds downright friendly. Dima glances down. Pauses. Then—I swear to God—he crouches and scratches behind Gordo’s ears.
Gordo purrs. Loud enough to rattle the tile.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I say. “He doesn’t purr like that for me.”
“You don’t give him enough respect,” Dima rumbles, still scratching. “He is small king.”
“Smalltyrant.”
Boris snorts. Lev is outright grinning now, legs swinging. “Dima’s good with animals. Kids too. It’s unnerving.”
I crack an egg against the bowl, watch the yolk slide into the flour. “Yeah, that tracks. Man of few words, beloved by creatures who can’t talk back.”
Dima straightens, and for a second, I think maybe I went too far. Then his mouth twitches. “You talk back.”
“And yet, here you are.”
“Here I am.”
The moment hangs there, weirdly warm. I whisk the batter harder than necessary, trying to ignore the flutter in my chest that feels dangerously close tobelonging.
“Oil,” Dima says quietly.
I glance up. He’s holding the bottle out, already unscrewed.
I didn’t ask for it. Didn’t even reach for it yet.
“How—?”
“You always add oil third,” he says, like it’s obvious.
My hand freezes halfway to the bottle. “How do you know that?”
Lev’s grin goes sharper. “Security feeds, sunshine. We’ve got eyes on the whole penthouse.”
