This was so heart-warming! I identified so much with the idea of baking together - and just generally sharing chores - as a comforting element of domesticity. I'd never thought about them being denied that due to social expectations, but your insight rang true. I love the idea of them secretly baking childhood recipes together on a grey day, cheering each other with the work and the company and having a treat that tastes all the sweeter for it.

This story reminded me of one of Holmes's lines from the Naval Treaty -- he was saying that something like a flower (or just as easily a cake) "is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras."

I loved the goodness and love of these men that shone through. Thank you for such a sweet story.