Stella followed him at human pace in the kitchen, asking, "Can I help?"
Simon turned to look at her and Stella's eyes widened. Simon had folded the sleeves on his shirt and opened the first two buttons, exposing his perfect, muscular arms and chest.
His short brown curls were sitting across his forehead and somehow, even the red eyes seemed homely in his face.
Stella had always said that all of the vampires were a bit too beautiful, but she somehow hadn't ever particularly noticed Simon.
Maybe it was due to the fact that he wasn't the same kind of beautiful. Simon's face, though perfect like every other vampire, had some weird human imperfection in it.
Stella struggled to pin-point the thing that made her think so as Simon turned to look at her. "I think I told you to wait? Can't you listen to one thing your doctor says?" Simon spoke with a smile, swinging a ladle in Stella's face.
Stella laughed and swung herself onto the kitchen counter. "I don't listen to anything anyone says. Manufacturing defect, maybe." she replied with a shrug of her shoulders.
Simon shook his head with a smile and went back to cooking.
The two chatted while Simon cooked. Stella was her usual chirpy self now that she had taken a nap and Simon's mood had abruptly lifted. It really was a wonder how much Stella's mood affected Simon's.
The two stopped talking as they heard Den get up from the couch where he was reading and walked in the direction of the kitchen.
He was in the kitchen the next instant and spoke, clearly very irritated, "Can't you guys tone it down a bit? I was trying to read."
"I'm sorry, I'm not used to always whispering around like some grumpy people." Stella replied, sticking out her tongue.
Simon laughed as Den chose to ignore this comment. "Anyway, we're going after dinner." he said to Stella, turned and walked out of the kitchen.
"Where??!! Hey!!!!! Where are we going?!?!?!" Stella called out after him, but Sharp, being Sharp, gave no reply.
"I swear his mother ate too many bitter things while she was pregnant with him. It's almost like smiling would actually kill him." Stella huffed as Simon laughed.
"Do you know what this exchange reminds me off?" he asked.
"A grumpy granddad always angry with his granddaughter?" Stella replied, still with a pout. A giggle escaped her lips as she heard Den growl from the living room. She always knew how to get under his skin.
"No!!!" Simon was laughing so hard he was having trouble breathing now. "No this reminds me of the times when you came to Sharp's cottage. We always used to gang up on him and all he could do was growl."
Stella let out a forced laugh. Any mention of that time only reminded her of the change that had taken place in her's and Sharp's relationship. He had gone from treating her like a kid sister to treating her like a burden.
And weirdly enough, she had gone from wanting to annoy him to not wanting to flare his temper.
While Stella was lost in thought, Simon remembered one particular memory from that time. Though he didn't say anything, his brows furrowed and the memory stayed in his mind the rest of the evening.