Oz sighed and sat up slowly. He put a hand to his fluffy blond head and waited for the pain to fade – hanging upside down on the sofa hadn't been such a good idea. The young Vessalius sighed again. He had to find something to do. This boredom was killing him.
A copy of Holy Knight – which he'd finished reading ages ago – lay on a nearby table and the house was practically deserted. Sharon had kidnapped Alice for some "girl time" or whatever it was they were up to, and both had vanished somewhere upstairs. Since the last time Oz had bothered them his head had gotten rather (painfully) acquainted with Sharon's paper fan, he wasn't all too inclined to go find them right now. Gil and Break had both gone to some important meeting at Pandora, leaving him both without someone to annoy or someone to be annoyed by.
In order to ease his boredom, Oz decided to go down to the kitchen. Maybe he could ask one of the servants there to fix him a snack, or see if there were any chores he could help with. (Yep, he was getting desperate.)
To the boy's surprise, the kitchen was completely empty. Lunch had been quite a while ago, and there was still a long time until dinner, and since it had been decided that afternoon tea would be postponed until the others returned, the servants apparently had a couple hours spare.
"Darn... No one here either?" Oz muttered to himself, leaning against a countertop. He glanced around the unoccupied space and spotted a collection of recipe books. Flicking through one he chose at random, Oz suddenly had an idea...
"Ah! There it is!"
Oz often enjoyed watching and sometimes helping Gil in the kitchen, and even managed to obtain some of those skills himself, by demanding that Gil share some of the knowledge he'd acquired in the ten years they'd been apart. Oz had now decided to put those skills to use and make something all by himself, and had started rummaging through all the cupboards looking for the ingredients and equipment needed for chocolate chip cookies.
He'd found nearly everything. Sadly, there were no chocolate chips. Though he had managed to find some cocoa powder and figured that would work instead. The fact that the book asked for both white and brown sugar puzzled him, and he ended up using just a lot more white since he couldn't find any brown. Could that possibly make a difference?
"Ok... Flour, baking powder, salt, butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, cocoa... Yep! That's everything!"
After pre-heating the oven, Oz placed the bowl on the scales and carefully measured the flour into it. "Whoops!" A puff of flour landed on his black waistcoat. He tried to brush it off, but it would probably need a proper wash. "Right, I forgot the apron..." He laughed at himself as he grabbed one off a hook and tied it around himself. Talk about locking the gate after the horse had bolted, but at least it would protect him from any further messes.
"Hang on... I need two bowls?" Oz reread the instructions. "But everything gets mixed together straight after! Might as well reduce the washing up..." He added the other ingredients to the same bowl, regardless of the instructions. Feeling a little smug, he found it looked the same as the picture anyway.
Before long, it was ready to go in the oven. Oz put blobs of mixture onto a baking tray, leaving about half of it in the bowl (and a little on the table). Carefully, he put the cookies in and checked the time. According to the book, it should only take around eleven minutes.
"Oz, what are you doing?"
Gilbert Nightray stood by the door, a bag of groceries in his arms that he'd apparently bought on his way home. He set them down, still staring at the mess Oz had created, and joined the boy in front of the oven.
"Gil!" Oz grinned excitedly at his friend, opening the door to show him. "I made cookies! All by myself! Look- Ah! Oh no! No, no, no, no!"
Oz watched in horror as the sugary, chocolatey mess dripped from the tray to the bottom of the oven and onto the floor.
Worried his master would try to pick it up without any protection; Gil folded a nearby tea-towel to use as oven mitts, lifted the tray out and placed it on the counter. Oz looked at the still-bubbling liquid sadly.
"What did I do wrong?" he murmured. Sure, he'd made a few teensy changes to the recipe, but they couldn't have possibly had this effect, right?
"Don't blame yourself," said Gil, removing his hat and placing it on Oz's head. "This oven doesn't work too well. You have to turn it up more than the book says. Though..." He inspected the ooze on the baking tray and compared it to what was left in the bowl. "There may have been a little flaw in the mixture. Either too little flour, or maybe too much vanilla..."
Oz lowered his gaze. So it had been his fault. At least partially. He'd wasted ingredients and made all that mess and didn't even have any cookies to show for it!
"Hey, Oz..."
Oz looked back at Gil to see the man removing his coat, before tying an apron around himself and putting his dark hair into a ponytail.
"Could you get a flat cake tin from the cupboard over there? I've got an idea." Gil smiled as Oz's emerald eyes lit up, and the boy began searching for the tin.
"Is this ok?" Oz held up a rectangular tin – not very high, but quite wide.
"Perfect."
The teen handed his servant the tin and watched as Gil poured the remaining mixture into it, spreading it as evenly as he could.
"Oh, I get it! Now it won't spill!"
"You might as well eat some of what's on the tray, no point letting it all go to waste," Gil said with a chuckle, placing the tin inside the oven.
"Really?" said Oz, cautiously sticking a finger into the sweet (mostly cold) liquid that had already leaked onto the counter, before putting it in his mouth. "Mmm~ Try some, Gil!"
Gilbert at least had the sense to get a spoon. He gingerly raised it to his lips and tried a little of the liquid cookies. "Well, it tastes ok... Just make sure you don't eat too much, or you'll make yourself sick," he warned. Oz tried to stifle a giggle, but failed.
"What?" asked Gil, warily. Oz simply pointed to the man's cheek.
"You got it all over your face!" the boy laughed.
Gil raised a hand to wipe it off and completely missed. Oz giggled again before leaning in and quickly licking the smudge off. Gil turned brick red.
"W-Why did you-?"
"You're so fun to tease, Gil~!" Oz smirked. He couldn't help wanting to embarrass his servant at every opportunity. The reactions were always so fun to watch!
"Oh my!" whispered Sharon, lurking behind the kitchen door frame, unnoticed by the two. An impatient and hungry Alice hovered behind her, wondering when the food would be cooked. She caught sight of one gleaming red eye peering from a low cupboard, with an obvious, though invisible, smirk.
Sooo... This is my first submission, my first fluffy fic and my first Pandora Hearts fanfic overall. ...That's a lot of firsts for one story. XD;;
Not too confident in the ending, but I hope you liked it! ^w^;;