welcome to the guilty party

“None of that,” he murmured.  “You don’t need to be sorry for being you, or not being able to keep the mask of strength and toughness up around the clock.  I promise, your secret is safe with me that you get a little misty-eyed at times.”  His soft laugh matched her own, and if he wasn’t holding her hand, she’d probably cuff him for that.

[ * ... Another part abruptly kicked down some mental door and shouted that she was getting much too close and much too emotional for someone she had only just met. He doesn’t seem to mind, she argued feebly. YOU MET YESTERDAY, SLOW DOWN, it screamed in response. ]

[ * So, despite how thankful she was and how overwhelming her emotions were, common sense and embarrassment won over. Tammy pulled away-- quickly, but not jerkily-- and jammed her hands firmly into her pockets. ]

* R-Right. Right. Pancakes. Um, I guess I should try now.

He tucked the napkins into her free hand, and touched his nose to her temple, compressing some stray hair between his snootle and her skin.  And he just stayed like that, breath easy and warm in her ear, until that emotional moment began to taper.  And afterwards, his voice was soft and close.

* M-Me too.

[ * Actions spoke louder than words. She quietly set down her fork on the nearest surface, and found Asriel’s hand with her own, now free, hand. Very gently, she squeezed it for comfort; even though the ache in her heart was out of happiness rather than pain, it was nice to have someone to share it with. Heartbeats passed with her grip on his hand still firm. When she turned her head to look up at him, she lightly brushed his nose with the tip of hers-- he was sort of just... at the right angle for it. That, at least, made her finally start laughing again. ]

A little butter on the griddle, and it bubbled just like he wanted.  A scoop of batter on the griddle, and it expanded into that nice circle.  “The edges will get nice and brown, see?  And the bubbles on the sides and in the middle will sort of ‘freeze’.”  He pointed all this out so he didn’t sound completely crazy; it was just how his mom taught him.  “When they do, you can do this.”  Taking the chilled bowl from her, he pinched out a few little globs of cookie dough and spread them evenly around the uncooked side.

“Last, you flip it.”  Taking a spatula, he did just that.  “Don’t think about it, and don’t put a lot of arm into it, or you’ll belly-flop the pancake and sling batter everywhere.  Don’t cook too long on this side, just enough to finish it up, else that cookie batter is going to melt.”  Peeking underneath with a spatula, it was just light brown enough to qualify, so he shifted the first complete pancake to a plate and slathered a little butter on top and offered it to the rumbling tummy disguised as a girl next to him.

[ * ... Her face immediately lit up when she realized it was perfect. ]

* It’s... perfect. * Really, really perfect.

[ * She barely got the words out before going to devour the rest of the pancake, positively shaking with excitement. ]

“But what I do know how to do is make a pancake batter.  Let’s do that while the dough chills out.”  He curled an arm around Tammy’s shoulder, giving an almost reflexive little snug.  The cuddles just seemed so natural to him, and around him.  

“These, you do dry in the bowl, first.  Flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt.  Yes, salt - putting a tiny bit in sweet stuff makes it taste sweeter.”  He gave everything a sift together, while telling her what else they needed.  “Couple eggs, that butter melted down to liquid, and the buttermilk.”  Naturally, he gave her proper measurements, and…might have thought it was hyper cute the way she was concentrating so hard on getting everything right.  He was right in his initial assessment of her, and it was one of the few times that he was proud to be right.  She was a good kid.  And a rather cute one–  (Let me enjoy the moment, brain, don’t complicate things.)

“You’re doing great.  Now you just work the wet into the dry until it’s thick.  If it feels too thick, like it’s crawling up the wooden spoon, put a little splash of buttermilk in there to thin it out.  Little bit at a time, because it’s easy to add more, but you can’t take it out.”

[ * She carefully finished following his directions and followed him over to the stove to watch. ... It probably wouldn’t take long for the burners to heat up, but she still gave him a mischievous, lopsided grin. ]

* We’re almost done, right? ‘Cause taste testing that dough made me hungry. Maybe I’ll just eat it cold, because I can.

“Let’s start with a basic cookie dough.”  He directed her around the pantry to familiarize herself with the layout and where everything was kept.  Room temperature butter - there was always a softened stick in a butter dish on the counter.  Brown sugar, flour, mini chocolate chips, vanilla extract.  The usual suspects, plus sweet condensed milk instead of eggs since it was being eaten raw…ish.  A medium sized bowl and a hand mixer.  He showed her how to take measurements, proper or approximate, as they went….even letting her scribble things down in a little notebook if she wanted to practice later.

“Mix the soft butter and sugar together until it lightens in color and kinda looks and feels like thick cake icing,” he began.  Once that was done:  “Awesome.  Now, the rest of the wet ingredients - the vanilla and condensed milk.  The mix will thin out but still be thick-ish, and really remind you of cake frosting.  Yes, that’s the comparison I always use,” he grinned.

“Alright, now that everything’s together, add the flour a little at a time, and always start the mixer on lowest setting, increasing as it incorporates.  Turn it on medium or high and you’re getting a flour facial, and nobody wants that.  I’d probably laugh for five solid minutes.”  Heh.  :3  “Work in the chocolate chips after that, then it’s time for a little quality control.”  He handed her a spoon once everything came together, and probably didn’t need to tell her twice to give it a try~

[ * It took a lot of willpower to not just eat the cookie dough as it was, but Tammy managed to wrap up the bowl and place it in the fridge. When all was said and done, she gave a relieved sigh. ]

* You really think it’ll work? Guess you’d know better than me.

* Do they have those? Never been in a salon before.

[ * ... They probably didn’t have those in human salons, come to think of it. ]

* Oh, uh, I thought about it. So, when I was a kid, my godmom used to make these really really good pancakes. I dunno the recipe, but they had chocolate chips and pieces of cookie dough in them. I never found out how she did it. * If... if you think you know how that works, then, y’know...