Pancakes

The familiar sizzling sound and sweet aroma made his stomach twist in protest. Twelve turned his head away from the stove, trying as much as he could to avoid the syrupy scent of the breakfast he was carefully assembling on a plate.

He heard footfalls down the hall and looked briefly over his shoulder; with a sigh, he flipped the pancake over.

"You can't be serious." Twelve ignored Five's remark as she walked up to him and peeked around his shoulder, her face scrunching up in disgust at the sight of the small stack of thin cakes. "It's been two weeks, I can't even stand the sight of these things anymore."

"Well then don't look at them." Twelve muttered, trying his best not to breathe in too much the sickeningly sweet scent.

"Hmm," Five leaned on the counter and cocked her head, studying carefully his expression with intense violet eyes. "You hate them, too. You look like you're about to throw up from the smell alone."

"Shut up." He groaned.

Five sniggered, moving around him to prepare some coffee for her and Nine. That would at least cover some of the pancake smell. She worked around Twelve, smirking as she saw him avert his eyes every so often from the food he was preparing.

"You should tell her."

He didn't respond, reaching into the cupboard above to retrieve a couple of jars of marmalade and a bottle of maple syrup. He then turned to pour the last bit of pancake mix into the pan.

Five quickly stepped away, making loud, gagging sounds.

Twelve frowned, turning to Five and pointing the spatula at her "Five, I swear, if you say anything to upset Lisa, you'll wake up tomorrow with a couple of these pancakes you hate so much sitting on your face."

Five was opening her mouth to reply when Nine shuffled in, still in his rumpled pajamas and bed hair. He gave the pancakes an icy look and then looked at Twelve. "It's been—"

"Two weeks, I know." The brown haired sighed, turning off the stove and setting the plate of pancakes on the table, "What do you want me to do?"

Nine didn't respond, sitting heavily on one of the chairs and gratefully taking between his hands the steaming cup of coffee Five set in front of him.

"Stop, preparing them." Five said simply.

Twelve glared at Five as if it weren't an option.

"Fine, if you want pancake faced children in the future, that's your choice." Five muttered.

Nine choked on his coffee, but somehow managed to keep a straight face as Twelve growled at Five.

Twelve glanced down the hallway, he could hear Lisa moving around and humming something to herself "Look, both of you can go out after and have something else to eat. Just, please, don't say anything in front of Lisa."

"That's not the problem, the problem is waking up to the smell of those things every single day,"

"Five," Twelve warned as he heard their bedroom door open.

"I'm getting morning sickness, it's not fair—"

"Nobody is asking you to eat them, you know." Twelve interrupted her, pointedly moving the plate of pancakes away from her.

Nine took a long gulp of his coffee, shutting his eyes tight as their voices began to rise.

"Well you don't let me cook what I want, so it's not like I have a choice—"

"Good morning, everyone."

Their argument stopped at once as Lisa walked into the room, face glowing as she caught sight of the stack of pancakes and the plate of fruit ready for her that Twelve had arranged.

"Oh, this looks delicious! You didn't have to make pancakes again, Twelve. You must be getting sick of them."

Twelve smiled at her, and closed the distance between them to pull her into a hug.

"Of course not, who doesn't love pancakes?"

Nine and Five grunted in unison and Twelve shot them a look over Lisa's shoulder as he pressed a kiss to her hair.

Nine sighed into his coffee, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips as he saw the way Five quickly retreated at the sight of Lisa. Ever since Lisa's new condition, Five never seemed to know how to act around her. He wondered how Five's behavior would evolve in the coming months.

"I thought we'd try blueberry pancakes today, is that okay with you? Although, If you want the regular ones I can..."

Lisa shook her head at Twelve, taking his hand and pulling him over to the table with her. "You guys didn't have to wait for me to eat."

"I'm not—" Nine was cut abruptly as Twelve quickly set a plate in front of him "I'm just going to have one today."

Five was already stabbing her fork into one of the pancakes on the stack. She glared quickly at Twelve but offered the beaming Lisa a tiny, reluctant smile, her eyes darting down to Lisa's no longer quite flat stomach and then back up to her face.

People growing inside people, why was biology so weird?

"Five and I are going out to buy some groceries today, is there's something you want us to bring you?" Nine asked Lisa. Secretly hoping she'd start craving something different each morning.

Lisa made a contented sound as she chewed on her pancakes and shook her head. "I'm good, I really haven't had any cravings so far. Whatever you want to buy is fine."

It was Five's turn to snort into her coffee. And Nine and Twelve exchanged a look.

Lisa kept digging into her breakfast and Twelve reached out to place a hand on top of hers to catch her attention. "Speaking of, Lisa..."

She turned to him, one cheek puffed out as she chewed on more than she could swallow, her eyes alight with delight.

Twelve swallowed hard, whatever bit of will had been snuffed out with a single look, he turned to Nine "Actually, do you guys mind buying more pancake mix? I think we ran out today."

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Dolce S- Writing about pancakes is hard! I should only blame myself for picking that prompt. So I'm so sorry this was extra lame and pointless. I had no idea what to do ;n; aw God. Now onto the next prompt...