Mikasa had been thinking that she could have a nice peaceful day now that the others were destracted with decorating the little gingerbread men that she and her coworkers had prepared for them to keep their little minds busy. Hanji had since decided it was calm enough for her to run into town to collect some items and ended up dragging Annie along with her, leaving Mikasa to make sure none of their little charges got hurt. About eight minutes after the two other girls left, someone in the kitchen let out a loud wail, followed by another and another and another...
With an annoyed sigh, Mikasa hoisted herself up to her feet and stumbled along into the kitchen to see what was upseting the lot of them.
...And just as she had feared, there was a big mess waiting for her to later clean up.
Bowls of icing, sprinkles, chocolate-chips, bottles of syrup and ingredients for the cookies were splattered all over the floor, mixing together in a weird solution. The solution itself coated the children's clothes and faces while some threw globs of the stuff at eachother. One particular child proudly donned a bowl for a helmet although the stuff dripping down into his hair and eyes.
"What the devil is going on here?!" Mikasa demanded, causing the children to freeze up, globs of decorating items still in their hands in mid-throw. When no one responded, she turned her attention on the child with the bowl-helmet, suspecting him to be the cuplrit. "Well Jean?"
Jean Kirschstein, a five year old boy who seemed to always be the ring-leader behind all of the shinangines the children got into, bit his lip and took a step back, taking his bowl-helmet off as a show of submission. "...I know what you're thinking but I swear it wasn't me this time!"
"Oh really?" Mikasa asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest stubbornly. "Then just who is responsable for this...mess?"
"Them!" Jean shouted, pointing at three other small children who were notably the most covered with the mixture.
The tallest of the trio, was ironically, the youngest, with dark hair that hung into his eyes and ivy green eyes. Like the others in the three young women's care, he wore baggy clothes that he'd eventually grow into. Next was a girl with light blonde hair and light blue eyes, while the oldest boy was another blond but with bright, golden eyes. Odd...the trio usually stayed out of trouble.
"And just what did you three do?" Their caretaker asked them.
"REINER ATE PAM!" Another little boy, Connie, exclaimed angrily, banging his dirty little fists on the table.
"PAM WAS A COOKIE! THAT'S WHAT YOU DO WITH COOKIES!" Reiner fired back, opening up a new line of angry exclaimations from the other children.
...
If there was one childcare skill Mikasa developped better than any other, it was the skill to quickly piece together the little puzzles the children left for her. This one was particular easy. The kids decorated a particular gingerbreadman, named him/her Pam and than Reiner ate it, sparking them to defend the cookie. A small problem with an easy solution.
Without blinking an eye at the squabbling children, Mikasa picked another cookie off the tray and grabbed a half-empty tube of icing off the floor. She set to work, painting the cookie and not taking a break until it was done. She set the tube of icing down on the counter and proudly displayed her cookie to the little children.
"Look. I made a cookie Hanji." She told them, "Try and make cookie Hanjis."
And as quickly as the fighting had started, it was resolved. The kids got to work, gathering the supplies off of the floor to make a plithera of cookie Hanjis for a reason they couldn't quite understand. One thing was for certain though, everyone was trying to outdo the others with their decorations.
"I'm going to make her eyes out of chocolate chips!" An overly eager little Marco told the others, picking them up and brushing them off.
"Mine's going to have this sparkly stuff on them!" Sasha said with a smile, scooping some up into her hand...and then opting to eat them herself instead.
With a smug smile, proud of the crisis she had managed to avoid, Mikasa walked back out into the livingroom to await Hanji and Annie's return. She was sure that she'd get a big kick out of the Hanji cookies.
