Ever since he was a kid, Simon loved baking cookies for Christmas. His grandmother used to make the most delicious gingerbread cookies on Earth. He remembers waiting for Christmas time to come just so he could eat those delicious cookies. When his grandmother had passed away, Simon's mother had taken the recipe and made them herself. And even though they weren't quiet the same as his grandmother's, they were still very special and delicious.

So ever since Simon could remember, Christmas time meant gingerbread cookies. He and Rebecca would help decorate them and would always end up making a mess with all the frosting. Even when he started college and moved out of his childhood home, he would still visit his mother for Christmas time and help her decorate the cookies. It was tradition, something that was very important for him. Keeping his grandmother's memory was important. Every time he ate the gingerbread cookies he would think of his grandmother and the fond memories they had together.

Now that he had his own place with his boyfriend, Raphael, he wanted to bake the cookies himself. So he called his mother and asked for the recipe.

"Are you sure you can do them?" His mother had asked on the speaker phone "Ask Raphael to help you. You know he's much better at the kitchen than you are"

"He's not!" Simon protested, glaring at his boyfriend as the hispanic man started snickering.

"Simon, you burnt a ramen soup" His mother reminded him, and Raphael burst out laughing.

"That was one time!" Simon cried.

"Thank you Mrs. Lewis" Raphael said, grinning at his boyfriend "Simon really is hopeless in the kitchen"

"You guys are mean" Simon pouted "I'm sure I can manage to bake some cookies"

"Sure dear" Mrs. Lewis said "But make sure to bake them with Raphael"

"I'll make sure he doesn't burn down the apartment" Raphael said.

Simon's mother had given them the recipe and soon both of them started working on them. It was a small passion of Raphael to cook. He and his mother would often cook and bake multiple stuff, so he enjoyed getting to do some of Simon's traditions. He had to keep a careful eye on Simon, though. The man really was hopeless in the kitchen even if he insisted that he wasn't.

"Bebé, it says there 1 cup of sugar." Raphael said "Don't add more"

"I wasn't!" Simon said, putting down the cup of sugar he was about to put on the dough. Raphael just rolled his eyes and continued helping Simon.

The kitchen was a mess. The bag of flour had exploded when Simon tried to open it and Raphael had accidentally dropped an egg when he bumped against Simon. the counter was a mess of ingredients and baking supplies and they had used half as many bowls as they should have. But the dough turned out alright and they ended up getting more cookies than they had planned. They used the cookie cutters that Raphael's mother had borrowed to them. Simon got too excited on the shapes and tried to make as many as he could. Raphael used only the gingerbread man. He liked the traditional gingerbread men cookies, but didn't complain when Simon started cutting trees and bells and angels out of the dough. They put them in the oven and when they were ready they left them out to cool down.

Simon had wanted to start decorating them right away, but Raphael stopped him. The frosting would melt if the cookies were still warm from the oven. So instead they took a shower and moved to the living room to watch a movie while they waited for the cookies to cool down. They ended up falling asleep on the sofa, only to wake up to move to their bedroom.

The next day, they decided to decorate the cookies early in the morning so they could go out and give their family and friends some of the cookies. They had decided to give both of their mothers as well as their friends, since they would be unable to eat all of them by themselves. That's what Raphael said, though Simon was very sure he was capable of eating all of them. Raphael prepared the frosting while Simon choose the food coloring that they would use. Together they started decorating the cookies.

Raphael was very careful and precise with the cookies he was decorating. He pushed carefully at the frosting so it would draw just a thin line. He decorated the gingerbread man in the classic style and also made some designes on the other shapes of cookies. He decorated Christmas trees and present-shaped cookies. They worked in silence, soft music playing in the background.

"Can I have the white frosting?" Raphael asked. When Simon passed it over, it was all sticky on the outside and on the tip it was mixed with other colors. "Simon! What are you doing?"

Raphael looked up at Simon's side of the table. He had multiple cookies around him, all of them seeing to be drowning in frosting. The colors mixed together and fell over the edges of the cookies. Simon's face was covered in different colors of frosting, as well as his hands. He was working hard on the cookie he had on the table, his whole focus in it. His tongue sticked off his mouth as he concentrated on making the design he was making.

"Simon! You're making a mess of the cookies" Raphael sounded annoyed.

"I'm not!" Simon protested, finally looking up. Raphael stood up from his stool and approached Simon's side of the table.

The younger man had decorated different gingerbread men. Making them hair and clothes and tried to draw faces but he had used too much frosting and it just looked messy.

"I made one for each of our friends!" Simon grinned happily.

"What?" Raphael asked.

"Yes! look" Simon said pointing at the cookie he had been working on that had a mess of red frosting on top of it's head "This is Clary"

"Right..." Raphael trailed off and Simon continued explaining all the different people he had made as cookies. He had made Magnus and Alec and then one for Jace and Izzy. He had even made some for Raphael's friends, Catarina and Ragnor.

Even though the cookies looked messy and didn't really resembled any of their friends, he found it endearing how much work Simon had put into the cookies.

Later on when either of their friends tried to laugh about the cookies or just looked confused, Raphael would glare at them and warn them not to make fun of Simon. The nerdy boy was just too excited about them, Raphael would not have any of their friends making fun of him.

Later that night, when they had just finished having dinner, Simon pulled out two more cookies. They were also decorated with too much frosting.

"That's you" Simon said, pointing at one of the cookies "And that's me!"

"Eres ridiculo" Raphael shook his head, but he smiled at his boyfriend.

"Do you like them?" Simon asked nervously "I know I'm not much of an artist...and that our friends wanted to make fun of me for the cookies. But I still tried to make them the best I could-"

"They're perfect, mi amor" Raphael said, kissing him on the lips "I love them"