Set around / after S1 Ep5 "Schooled"
She had failed so many times, it would not happen again. She moved swiftly, focused and with the power of her mind she grabbed the baking sheet from the oven and watched it critically as it floated through the air and onto the kitchen counter. They looked… good, she determined. She also quite liked the smell, now that it was devoid of smoke. Curiously she let her mind lift one of the small, brownish things and let it fly to her, feeling the heat still radiating from it. She hesitated for a moment, but then took a small bite. The texture was interesting, somewhat soft but with a crunchy edge and the taste… she had no idea how they were supposed to taste if she was honest. She had still not really acquired the kinds of instinct for recognising earth-food flavours she would need to pass as a human girl.
But who could she ask? While Red Tornado was in charge of supervising the team and the cave that doubled as their base and her home, he was a robot, therefore even less qualified with regards to culinary judgements than she was, and the other members of the team had already left for their respective homes. Well, all of them except for… "Superboy?" she called out, carefully making sure she wouldn't inadvertently use her telepathy alongside her voice to connect with her teammate. She did not want to scare him away or make him angry again.
"Do you want a cookie?"
It turned out that Superboy was not the best candidate for a cookie tasting either. He was born on Earth and was not a mechanical being, but his birth, or rather his creation, had only happened four months before he had been rescued by a group of young heroes that had lead to the formation of their team and their new living arrangements. And although his creators had given him access to a surprising amount of information in that short timespan, in order to make him a functional weapon for their dubious cause, his knowledge was not equivalent to actual experience and also, which might be the bigger issue in this case, he did not really care for it.
It was not her baking or anything about food in particular, she tried to remind herself, but the fact that he was, understandably, still in pain about everything that had happened to him. Or not happened to him, like a childhood, like having a family, being loved.
She could see that pain when she was looking at him. She could feel his anger like a cloud surrounding him many times although she was careful not to tell him both of these things, since he tended to react with resentment to any personal topic, and she… she understood. And the others had told her not to take it to heart. But it did not change the fact, that the one living being she shared her new home with tended to react to company and conversation like she did to fire.
And it did not change the fact, that she cared for Superboy, who had stood there alone in his black shirt when she first met the team, who had to be called by Robin to even come and meet her. She had wanted to make him feel more at ease from the first minute they met, when she had changed her appearance to match his better – a small gesture of gentleness in a society of shapeshifters, but one she assumed would be understood here as well – and she still wanted it now she had gotten to know him a little better and had found that hidden kindness in his voice and gestures when the pain and anger subsided.
But she also had a lot to learn. Living on Earth was a lot more complicated than the TV shows her uncle had brought for her to see back on Mars suggested. You could not learn how things felt or tasted from watching it on a screen. You could not really grasp how people interacted all day, every day without telepathic communication, trapped in one simple shape, from the condensed glimpse that a 20 minute episode of a show gave towards life. You could not learn how to fight bad guys, become a hero, and part of a superhero team, not even from her favorite show. But she would manage. She had her team. And although it had felt as if she had messed up already after just meeting them – she could remember how they had looked at her after the Mr. Twister debacle – they had fought together since then, they trained and learned and it got better every day.
And although he really did not care for cookies, Superboy had at least come into the kitchen and taken one from counter – it did not matter for him that they were still burning hot – and shoved it wordlessly into his mouth before he went back to whatever he was doing.
She let the sheet stay on the counter to cool off while she was looking for a can to store them in. The others would come back for training tomorrow and they could eat the rest.
„Hello, Megan!" she said grinning and slapping herself lightly on the forehead as she had nearly reached the door to her room and went back to take some cookies with her. Time to learn more about Earth-things. That included Earth-sweets.