Work Text:
It was only a few months after Victoria’s adoption, getting used to the one she would call Papa for the rest of her life and Thanksgiving was already here.
Victoria never had a Thanksgiving dinner, barely even knew what it was since she was quite literally brought through a portal from Hell.
And Stroheim was German.
So the both of them were quite out of the loop. But Victoria looked so excited to try it, knowing how normal families in America celebrated the day with delicious looking food. And Stroheim of course wanted his precious daughter to have a good first Thanksgiving together.
The problem lied in… well everything. But mostly the food that they had to make.
Stroheim stood there in the kitchen, raw naked Turkey in the sink as it was freshly rinsed off, hands on his hips and wondered how to properly season it.
That’s when Victoria scrolled through recipes on her phone.
“Ooo Papa it says we have to add these things…! Uh.. time..? And stuff” she said, holding her phone up in his face.
Stroheim squinted at the small screen and huffed out a noise of amusement.
“Thyme, Dearest~ but yes we should look at this recipe you found~ we should have everything…”
Victoria nearly bounced up and down looking like a kid in a candy store. To her, it was a very special day. And Stroheim wanted to make sure everything was perfect.
After a bit of prepping and seasoning, and minimal amounts of smoke, Stroheim and Victoria were able to successfully get the main dish into the oven.
Stroheim had to undo a few buttons in his shirt from how warm the kitchen was getting from the oven to the stove. Of course, that left some of his chest exposed, and Victoria couldn’t help but to stare as she helped with the side dishes.
And nothing went out of Stroheim’s notice, especially when it came to his little daughter. He glanced over and gave her a smirk.
“Staring, hm~?” He said in a cheeky way.
Victoria blinked and focused back on putting butter in the mashed potatoes. Her round face got hot all of the sudden.
“Ah um… n-no.”
“Heh, you’re an awful liar, Liebling~” he said, going over to bend down a little to give her a peck on her cheek. “Don’t worry, once the day is over, I’ll give you a nice dessert~”
Always a flirt. Victoria absolutely caught on that quick when she first met him. Well, she had no choice but she wouldn’t pick anyone else even if she did have one. Was it normal for her to do those things with her adoptive dad? No time to ponder on that though, there was more food to make!
It was almost 11am and the food was nearly done.
Cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans, and of course, a few traditional German sausages to add a bit more flair to the usual tradition.
Stroheim was satisfied with how things were going, and seeing his little girl have fun making everything was the highlight of it all.
There was one last thing to get though, and that was the store bought pumpkin pie that Stroheim bought a day before thanksgiving.
“Dearest may you fetch the pie from the shelf?” He asked.
“Okay~!”
Victoria happily went to go grab the boxes pie from the shelf, reaching up to grab it with both hands.
Once it was in her hands, she turned to go put it on the counter. That was until she accidentally bumped into one of the kitchen chairs.
With a small yelp, she lost her footing for a brief moment and accidentally dropped the box. Right onto the kitchen floor.
“Dear, are you alright?” Stroheim rushed to her side and placed a hand on her back. He looked down to see the pie on the floor. The see through top showed that the pie splattered inside. It looked more like pumpkin guts now than anything.
Victoria looked down in a state of shock and sadness.
She felt as if she ruined it.
Stroheim went to pick up the box to examine the damage after knowing that Victoria wasn’t physically hurt. He made a sigh as he saw how disheveled it looked. Even the box had a few dents in it.
“Ah.. well, that’s a bit unfortunate… but don’t worry, Dearest, we’ll figure something out, right~? … Dear?”
He set the box down on the counter and looked back to see his precious little daughter looking absolutely destroyed. Tears began to well up in her doe eyes and like any father would, he went to comfort her.
“I’m sorry Papa… I ruined it…” she sobbed.
“Shhh, nonsense, Bunny. You didn’t ruin anything.”
Stroheim wrapped his arms around her in a hug, he felt so bad for her, knowing she thought a simple mistake like that was her fault.
After a minute, he broke the hug to look at her, gently wiping the tears from her eyes and having her look up at him.
“We can fix this, alright? The pie itself didn’t fall out of the box, everything’s still in there… perhaps we can do something different with it, Ja~?” He made a gentle smile.
She took a minute, but Victoria nodded.
And Stroheim hugged her once more and gave her a kiss on her lips.
“We’re still going to have a good thanksgiving~ now, let’s see what we can do with our dessert~!”
After a while of looking at anything related to pumpkin desserts, Victoria was able to find a simple recipe for a pumpkin delight. And Stroheim did his best to make it with what they had.
Stroheim wasn’t much of a baker, but he wanted to make it work for Victoria. And somehow, with no hazards, it worked out.
And everything was turning out okay again. Victoria hugged her dear father and he embraced her, picking her up and kissing her forehead. Hearing her giggle and squeal was the best sound in the whole world to him.
And all the food was finally ready.
So as the both of them sat at the dinner table, Stroheim would start a prayer and ended with an amen, and the couple would dig in.
Victoria’s eyes lit up as soon as she took a bit of the turkey. It was juicy, full of spices and tender. It turned out perfectly, and Stroheim thought the same.
But he wouldn’t take all the credit, of course. If it wasn’t for Victoria’s good work at finding a recipe, the food really would have gone a little south.
To them, it was one of the best days ever.
“This is so good, Papa.. everything turned out great~!”
Stroheim smiled at her. “Hehe, well I had my little helper with me~”
Once they were done with thanksgiving dinner, they went to try that pumpkin delight they fixed up. And that too was pretty good. Stroheim was thankful that they had all or most of the ingredients there to make it.
He was even more thankful for having such an amazing daughter.
And Victoria was thankful for such a wonderful Papa.
It was cheesy, but love like that was something powerful. And Victoria had such a wonderful day with her Papa, falling asleep atop of him on the couch, full of delicious food.
And Stroheim was right where he wanted to be, holding his dearest in his arms and hearing her softly snore.
He absolutely wanted to share more thanksgivings like this with her forever.
Making their own dessert was probably the best choice anyway. Everything’s better homemade, right~?