"Serena?" Dan's face loomed over her as her eyes fluttered open.
"Yes baby?" She asked groggily, sitting up. "You have that face on." She accused.
"What face?" Dan smiled innocently, undoing his scarf and wrapping it around her neck.
"Your 'I need a favor' face." Serena narrowed her eyes at him. "Its Christmas Eve, don't tell me we forgot to do something."
"Well, uh actually my dad called and since he's been stuck in the snow, he forgot to make cookies. So he wanted me to make them, so when he gets back we get cookies. And I don't want to make cookies alone. Its not really that much fun." Dan smiled at her, wrapping an arm around her waist. "Will you help me? Please?"
"Fine." Serena clambered out of his bed, the football sheet wrapped tightly around her. "You're going to have to leave while I get changed, or we'll never get the cookies done by the time Rufus gets back."
"Do I have to?" Dan pouted, kissing her neck. "I mean, you look fantastic right now. Who needs clothes?"
"Don't you think it'll be awkward if Rufus comes in and I'm naked and baking cookies?" Serena deadpanned.
"Fine. I'll go get everything ready, alright?" He kissed her on the forehead before turning and leaving the room for her to get changed.
--
"Hey you started without me." Serena said as she walked in on Dan cracking the eggs.
"No I didn't baby. There's still tons of stuff left to do. Here, you get the flour, salt, sugar and all that." He handed her the recipe as she rolled her sleeves up.
"Sure make me do all the boring work." Serena mock complained, sticking her tongue out as Dan playfully swatted her bum.
"2 and ¾ cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar, a pinch of salt." She muttered to herself as she tossed the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. "I've never made cookies on Christmas Eve before. My mom just orders them."
Dan laughed as she brought her ingredients over. "Well nothing beats homemade cookies, trust me. My dad makes them every year and chocolate chip waffles too."
"Ooh maybe I should convince my mom and Eric that we should spend Christmas here."
"What about Chuck?"
"What about him?" She asked sharply.
"I mean the whole thing about Bart must be you know...I just think he might need a family now." Dan said softly, folding the flour, sugar, and salt in.
"I know, but Christmas is just my time to spend with my family, okay? I don't need or want Chuck to ruin my Christmas again."
"Again? What happened?" Dan took out a whisk and started beating the ingredients together.
"Its nothing, I was five and Blair and I were fighting..its just nothing." She shook her head as she reached for the recipe in search of something else to do.
"Tell me. Please?"
"Its really and stupid, but I was five so..." She paused, looking around. "Hey, where's Jenny?"
"With my dad and stop changing the subject." Dan admonished, dumping the dough out of the batter.
"Chuck ruined my dress so I had a nice little fit and he called me a spoiled little brat, even though he was one himself." Serena smiled as she recalled up the memory. "I ended up dumping clay into his shoes. He got really really mad."
Dan laughed as he took out multi-shaped cookie cutters and handed one to Serena. "Well you were five and possibly bratty so I can't blame you."
"Are you insulting me, Mr Humphrey?" Serena put her hands on her hips, glaring at him.
"Of course not sweetheart." Dan laughed, leaning in to kiss her. "I was just making an assumption."
Serena muttered something, pressing her heart shaped cutter into the dough. Dan caught flashes of 'assuming', 'asshole', and 'punishment' and laughed as he started to press his own cutter in the dough.
--
"Thank you so much for helping me." Dan said as he checked the cookies again, turning the oven light on. "And I'm sorry for calling you bratty."
"Thank you." Serena said, sliding her arms around his neck and standing up on tiptoe to kiss him. "Even if I did have to ignore you for five minutes."
Dan laughed and wrapped his arms around her waist. "You know we still have some cookie dough left. When I was little, I used to eat all the cookie dough and my parents thought I was so weird, but its really good."
He picked up a piece left on the counter and popped it into his mouth. "Yummy, here taste."
Serena opened her mouth, expecting him to put a piece of cookie dough in there, but instead he leaned down and kissed her again.
"You're right, that is good." She giggled, picking up a piece and eating half of it, putting the other half in Dan's awaiting mouth.
"Damn, I'm good." Dan laughed, swallowing.
"Hey, I'll be the judge of that." Serena laughed, wiping a bit of flour from his nose.
Dan rolled his eyes, kissing her again. "Today was – is perfect. I love you."
"I love you too." She smiled as the timer went off and Dan let her go to get the cookies.
"Mm, they look fantastic." Dan said as he pulled them out and set them on the stove.
He held out a turner for her to put the cookies on the cooling rack. "Milady?"
"Why thank you sir." She giggled, taking the turner from him and transferring the cookies onto the wire cooling rack.
"These really do look great. I can't wait to see how they taste after we decorate them." Dan said, pulling out various containers of sprinkles from the cupboards.
"I bet they'll be great. After all I did make them." Serena laughed, wrestling with a reindeer shaped cookie that refused to leave the cookie sheet.
"By 'I' you mean 'Dan' right?" Dan teased, taking the mixing bowl and other utensils out from the dishwasher. "I'll make another batch while you finish up with those, okay?"
"Okay." Serena replied, finally getting the reindeer off of the sheet. "This is fun."
"Yeah, and its even more special with you here."
--
"Here try this." Serena held up a blue sprinkle covered star cookie to Dan's lips.
"Okay." He took a big bite out of the cookie, eyebrows knitting together as the cookie hit his tongue. "It's a little... a lot salty."
"That's weird. I put in a pinch of salt, just like the recipe said."
"How much is a pinch?" Dan asked, looking at the rest of the cookies warily.
Serena got the container of salt and dumped about a two teaspoons of salt into her hand. "This much."
"Thats why. Serena a pinch is...a pinch. Not approximately two teaspoons of salt. All these that we just made can't be eaten."
Serena rolled her eyes, reaching into the bowl of cookie dough that he had just made and picked up a healthy amount. She reached up and smeared the cookie dough into his face, forcing him to shut up.
"Ahh..what was that for?"
"Criticizing my cookies."
Dan reached into the bowl and flung some in her face, causing her to gasp and flinch back.
"This means war Humphrey."
"Bring it van der Woodsen."
He ducked as she flung cookie dough at him and watched as it hit the wall and slide down slowly. "You missed." He taunted, grabbing a tray and another handful of the cookie dough.
"I won't miss ag-" Was all she got out when she suddenly got pelted with the substance. "Dan!"
He laughed and ducked under the counter, quickly running somewhere safe. He heard her groan in frustration when she couldn't find him.
"Oh Dan," She called, undoing the first three buttons of the button down he loaned her. "come out, come out wherever you are. I think you got cookie dough down my shirt. Too bad you're not around to get it off."
Dan sighed, temptation drawing him in. He stood up, hands held up above his head, his tray clattering to the ground. "I surrender."
Serena laughed and stuck out a hand. "Truce?"
"Truce," He echoed, leaning in to kiss her instead.
"Good, because I have cookie dough all over my neck. It'd be a shame if you couldn't get it off, just because you were my enemy."
Dan pulled her closer, hands on her hips. "You're such a tease." He whispered, sending goosebumps down her arms.
He pushed her near one of the cupboards and they slid down, side by side, until they reached the ground. He leaned in and licked a bit of cookie dough off of her neck. "You taste exceptionally well today, did you know that?"
"What did you do to my kitchen?"
They both turned and saw Rufus, standing there staring at the mess they made. He sighed and said, "Well at least you made cookies." He reached over and took a bite out of a reindeer covered with green sprinkles.
"Dad, no!"
In my opinion, reviews are like Christmas cookies lol