I Can't Bake
DECEMBER 2nd
Nico wasn't really sure how he'd gotten into this mess to begin with. Maybe it was because of how hard he found it to say no to Will.
He sat on the counter with flour coating his black jeans, his T-shirt, his hair, his face, literally the whole kitchen was covered in the stuff. There was also butter hand marks on all the cupboards and a spillage of black treacle about to drop off the side.
The recipe they were using had one egg in it as well which Nico had yeeted across the room and was the reason Percy was having a shower at the present moment.
To put this into perspective they were making ginger bread men. Right now the mix was just chilling for a bit as that's what the recipe said. Whether it meant for him to chill as well, he didn't know.
He felt that if Will had been doing it with him like he was supposed to, the kitchen wouldn't be as much of a mess. They were about to start putting all the ingredients together when someone had rushed in, grabbed Will by the arm and dragged him out saying someone had had an accident on the lava climbing wall and he was needed. Will just managed to tell Nico to start making it without him before he was then left on his own.
For Nico it had been a case of what the fuck do I need and where the fuck is it. Most things weren't too hard to find but he did spend about five minutes looking for the weighing scales to realise they were already on the kitchen work surface.
The alarm he had set beeped and he jumped off the side pulling the bowl out of the fridge. He wiped his hand over the surface in hopes to make it a little cleaner then poured a giant amount of flour on the side. He was lucky the instructions were so detailed or he'd have been lost by now. He plopped the dough onto the flour and began rolling it out. When he'd rolled it out thin enough (though he had no clue if it actually was) he started cutting out little figures and placing them on the baking tray which had been already greased.
Pleased with his work Nico slid the tray of gingerbread men into the oven, put on another timer and prepared to wait for them to bake.
He looked over the recipe to see the final step; decorate the gingerbread men. Then he had a great idea.
Tossing his black (naturally) bomber jacket on and checking to make sure he had a bit of money in his pocket, he turned off the light and walked into the shadows.
Ok so maybe shadow travelling after he'd done so multiple times that day and without anyone knowing but also when he had biscuits in the oven, wasn't his best idea.
Nico emerged into a quiet supermarket and looked around to see what aisle he was in. He didn't feel that tired and was able to stand up without falling down, which was a bonus. It was very cold in the aisle, and he could see milk lining the shelves along with other dairy items. He continued down that aisle and up the next ones until he got to the baking section.
Here he then found what he was looking for. Black icing pens. He picked up a box of them and then on second thought a bag of chocolate chips.
The cashier gave him a weird look when he walked up to buy his items but he ignored her stares and hurried on with his items to a dark alleyway perfect for shadow travelling.
He envisioned the kitchen he'd recently left and a few seconds later, appeared there feeling faint. His eyes started to close and his knees buckled. Just as he was about to hit the floor two strong arms caught him and pulled him up into one of the chairs which had been laying around the kitchen.
He felt ambrosia being poured down his throat and used his remaining energy to swallow it. Nico was then able to open his eyes a bit better though he still wanted to fall asleep right there and then.
"Will," Nico said in a tired voice to the boy in front of him.
"Hey Neeks," responded said boy with the nickname Nico ignored because of how tired he was. It definitely wasn't because he found it cute and liked it when he was called that or anything.
"What were you doing? Where did you just shadow travel to and why is the kitchen so messy? Also I specifically told you not to shadow travel but here we are."
Nico pondered over Will's spiel and not knowing how to respond, was about to reply with yeah... until the timer for the gingerbread men went off.
Standing up Will went îand turned off the timer before getting some oven gloves and pulling out the tray. The biscuits smelt delicious. They smelt like heaven in a purified-sugary-will-probably-give-you-diabetes kind of way. And Nico loved it.
Will wasn't really sure what Nico had put in the gingerbread men as they looked and smelt completely different to how they usually would but he trusted Nico. Kind of. Maybe he'd ask to see the recipe later.
With the biscuits left to cool on the side, Will went and sat back down with Nico who looked like he was about to fall asleep.
"Ok Nico I'll help you back to the hades cabin, we can finish these gingerbread men in the morning," Will basically ordered.
"Wait," Nico said. He opened his pocket and pulled out the items he'd bought from the shops. The icing pens and chocolate chips fell to the table.
Will grinned, "so this is what you went to get. We'll use them in the morning but now you need to sleep."
He was about to pick Nico up when he shook his head with a glare meaning 'I'm not a baby pick me up and your dead solace'. Will stood back to let Nico stand up by himself, but when he failed to do so turned and crouched down. He muttered the words piggy back ride and Nico quietly obliged.
It was a short trip to Nico's cabin and in no time at all Nico was in bed.
"We can make some biscuits again, together this time, Neeks, I promise," Will said with a smile. But Nico was already asleep.
A/N - I hope you enjoyed this second chapter to my challenge of doing one a day on the lead up to Christmas. I really enjoyed writing this one! Also it's over 1k! Thanks for reading and leave a review if you liked this or have ideas for other chapters!
Thanks and see you again same time tomorrow.
~a-halfblood-with-attitude
