#ronanceweek

“Hey… Nance… Can you…”

“I got it,” Nancy said. She walked around the counter with an amused smile on her lips and stood right behind Robin so she could help her tie the back of her apron.

“Thank you,” Robin said, and looked down, blushing, unknowingly making Nancy’s adoring smile grow even bigger.

When she was done, Nancy placed a kiss on Robin’s shoulder and asked her, “Remind me again why we have to do this?”

“It’s our first Christmas in our very own apartment,” Robin replied, simply, shrugging as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Right. But it’s December 5th,” Nancy pointed out, “We still have twenty days to go.”

“Ah, yes,” Robin nodded slowly, as if she was burdened by this wisdom. She picked up a wooden spoon and pointed at Nancy. “But I suspect we’ll need the practice,” she said.

Nancy crossed her arms over her chest and tried to look serious as she said, “Are you doubting my abilities to bake some Christmas cookies?” 

“I’m doubting our ability to successfully bake anything together,” Robin chuckled as she started measuring sugar on a cup.

“Why is that?” Nancy asked cheekily as she leaned her hip against the counter. right beside the place where Robin was working.

Robin took a shaky breath and looked at Nancy. “Because you look way too cute in an apron and a Christmas hat. It’s distracting,” she said. Then she leaned in and kissed Nancy’s forehead. She lingered there for one precious second, then dropped a playful kiss on the tip of Nancy’s nose. Just when Nancy started laughing at Robin’s affection, Robin reached her lips, where she could taste all the love and joy they were both experiencing that day together.

“Wait,” Robin mumbled and pulled away from the kiss to stare at the counter in front of her. “Oh, shit. Already?!” She grumbled, staring at the sugar scattered all over the counter since she’d forgotten to let go of the cup while kissing Nancy and her hand had inevitably started to shake.

Nancy’s sweet laughter was good compensation for the mess though.

--

“Robin, those are just superstitions!” 

“No, no,” Robin shook her head stubbornly, “Only one person can stir the batter, or else it goes bad.”

“I don’t believe that,” Nancy said and sent Robin an impatient look. Then she continued to chase Robin around the apartment, trying to pry the bowl from her arms, “Come on! You’re tired, let me give it a try.”

“Shh! Don’t distract me. If I start stirring counter-clockwise we’re fucked,” Robin retorted.

This argument made Nancy burst out laughing, which was an even more effective distraction. Robin stopped stirring the batter altogether, just to stare at Nancy with a lovesick look in her blue eyes.

“So, counter-clockwise, huh?” Nancy asked her, biting her bottom lip in a weak attempt to control her endeared smile.

“Yeah,” Robin shrugged, still staring at Nancy as if she were her entire world. “Yeah. Counter-clockwise, right.”

“Wait, Robin, no,” Nancy stepped forward, laughing, trying to stop Robin from going against what she’d said just five seconds ago.

--

Robin cleared her throat and prayed to God she wasn’t blushing as she said, “So, I can cook, you know I can cook. But I’d rather avoid as many casualties as possible this year so… I really don’t trust myself enough to break the eggs.”

Nancy just stared at her from across the counter. She was almost embarrassed by the way that every little thing Robin said or did made her heart start beating faster and her brain to fill with a warm and sweet-scented fog that made everything else seem meaningless. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, and then smiled at Robin.

“Okay, not a problem,” she said, “Let me do it.”

“Thank you,” Robin grinned. 

Robin passed Nancy the bowl with the batter, and the wooden spoon, and then she passed her one of the eggs… except one of them must have used a little bit more pressure than intended, causing the egg to break right between their hands, causing a mess, spraying its contents, along with a dozen bits of the shell, all over the counter and into the batter.

“Well, fuck,” Robin said, her hand still glued to Nancy’s, covered in that unfortunate egg.

--

“But why?!”

“I don’t know, Robin.”

“This is criminal,” Robin insisted with surprising vehemence. She was waving a small bottle in one hand and a spoon in the other, sending little bits of batter flying around her kitchen every now and then. “Why do we put this in the batter?!”

“I don’t know,” Nancy sighed, “I don’t know the specifics behind the chemistry of baking.”

“It tastes so bad, Nancy,” Robin said, somehow almost close to tears.

“Baby, no one told you to taste the vanilla extract,” Nancy said, softening at the pout on her girlfriend’s face. “Oh, come here,” she added and opened her arms for Robin to step in for a hug.

“Thank you,” Robin mumbled, thoroughly defeated by the vanilla extract, and gratefully accepted the hug. She held Nancy tightly until she felt Nancy tensing in her arms.

“Robin?”

“Hm?”

“Is that the spoon full of batter that you’re currently pressing to my back?” Nancy asked slowly.

There was a long pause before Robin snuggled closer and hid her face against Nancy’s neck. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, her voice muffled.

“It’s okay,” Nancy sighed gravely and moved her hand in soothing circles on Robin’s back.

--

“This is the best day of my life!” Robin, all covered in flour, exclaimed and threw her hands up in the air.

“It’s not,” Nancy shook her head frantically, trying to get the flour off her hair.

“You sneezed on the cup of flour we were measuring,” Robin laughed breathlessly and full of disbelief, “You, perfect miss Wheeler, blew up the flour bomb in our kitchen, not me. Unbelievable! Literally nobody will believe me, which is a shame. Goddammit, I should’ve had a camera or something.”

“Oh, shut up,” Nancy said. She shook her head again, this time in fond exasperation for her girlfriend. She rolled her eyes, but her little chuckle was impossible to miss.

“It’s okay, we can be a mess together,” Robin said cheerfully, and pulled Nancy close to her, making her laugh even harder. Robin leaned in to kiss her… but it was short-lived. 

A second later, Robin was hastily pulling back because she had accidentally inhaled some of the flour on their face and she was starting to cough uncontrollably while Nancy watched in growing concern and still a trace of amusement.

--

Finally, the cookies were ready.

Robin and Nancy were sitting on the floor of their kitchen. Despite the aprons, their clothes were too messy to risk sitting on the couch. The sun was going on, and a warm ray of orange light was coming in through the window, hitting the floor and part of Robin’s legs. Nancy was resting her head on Robin’s shoulder. She was holding one of Robin’s hands on her lap, cradling it very carefully to avoid the small burn that Robin got when she tried to eat a cookie barely out of the oven. To avoid letting go of Robin’s wounded hand, every now and then she would just give her girlfriend a little nudge and Robin would reply by feeding her a cookie.

“All things considered,” Robin said, breaking the comfortable silence that had settled around them, “I think this was a success.”