Thank you for the support! We are nearly halfway there!

Today's fic is another short one, again due to me being sick, but I hope you enjoy!

December 10th: Cookies

"Mmm…." Sheldon hummed and took a deep breath in. The scent of freshly made cookies wafted through the apartment, and his mouth immediately began to water. One of the few things he liked about the Christmas season was the fact that Amy loved baking. She baked year round, but she only made cookies— Meemaw's special sugar cookies— in December. In fact, Sheldon would say that Amy made them even better than Meemaw, though he hasn't said it out loud.

"Hi Sheldon," Amy greeted as she bent over to extract a baking sheet. She set them on top of the stove to cool as she shut the oven door with her hip, "how was work?"

"Fine," Sheldon took a step close. The cookies were perfectly baked. Pale yellow with a slightly darker edge. She had cut them in various shapes from reindeer and trees to snowflakes and candy canes. He could see the flecks of lemon zest she used and… was that orange zest, too? His stomach growled in approval and he reached a hand out to grab one before Amy smacked his hand away with an oven mitt.

"Not until they're cooled and frosted," Amy said with a smile.

"But—"

"No buts," Amy grinned, "you can wait a few minutes."

Sheldon's eyes widened, "A few m— Are you crazy?! That's like if I were to withhold something from you for six years!"

Amy just stared at him and gave him her patented 'are you kidding me?' look. She grabbed a rolling pin and began rolling out more dough, "Too bad, you're waiting."

Sheldon groaned and sat on the barstool, eyeing the cookies like a starving lion would stare at a baby antelope, "Fine…"

"You can, however," Amy began as she begun cutting the cookie dough into shapes, "frost them. I have the icing already made behind me."

"Hmm," Sheldon looked at the multiple bowls of royal icing, all of them different colors. Red, green, white, yellow, and blue. He then looked back at Amy, who was now busying herself with more cookie dough, her back turned to him. He then eyed the cookies and reached out to hover his hands over them. They were still warm and, he bet, perfectly soft and chewy… "I suppose I can help…"

He carefully grabbed a tree shaped cookie and set it in front of him, which surprisingly took more willpower than Sheldon originally thought. He then grabbed a spoonful of green icing and carefully coated the top of the cookie it with. The sweet smell of the cookie and the icing was becoming too good to resist much longer… It had been a whole year since he last had one of these cookies, and damn it, he was a grown man! He could eat a cookie if he wanted to!

He finished icing the cookie and set the spoon back into its bowl. While Amy still had her back turned, he picked up his freshly iced cookie and took a bite. He nearly moaned at the flavor. It had truly been too long. After the first bite, he took another to finish the cookie off. This time, he did moan, but Amy was none the wiser.

He looked back at the baking sheet. He had eaten one, and there were eleven left. Surely, Amy wouldn't count the amount of cookies that were left… right?

He was about to grab a second cookie to 'frost' before Amy turned around with twelve cookies on a second baking sheet and placed them into the oven. She looked up at him and smiled before turning back to gather more cookie dough. Good, she didn't notice…

The Mission Impossible theme played in his head as he grabbed another cookie— a snowflake— and iced it with blue and white frosting before popping that one in his mouth as well. Two down. Usually, Sheldon wouldn't indulge this much. He rarely binge ate and when he did, it was reserved for two things: his mother's oven-fried chicken, and Meemaw's Christmas cookies.

The third cookie, he didn't bother icing it before eating it. And the fourth… and the fifth.

When he reached for his sixth cookie, Amy had turned around before Sheldon was able to stop himself. He was frozen, staring at her with his arm outstretched and a cookie in his hand. Busted.

Amy crossed her arms over her chest and Sheldon gulped before muttering, "Oops…"

Amy glared, "Did you really have six cookies?! In 4 minutes?!"

"No…" Sheldon smiled guiltily and bit into the sixth cookie before declaring, "now I did."

Amy rolled her eyes and her lips stretched into a smile, "Fine. Give me one."

He handed her one and she took a bite before saying, "I can't blame you, these are delicious."

"They are," Sheldon beamed, "but you make them even better than Meemaw."

Amy's eyes widened, "I do? I just follow the recipe."

"No you don't," Sheldon said, "Meemaw doesn't add orange zest. Only lemon. You also add one other thing…"

"And that would be?" Amy cocked an eyebrow

Sheldon stood from the barstool and leaned in to kiss her. When he pulled away he rubbed off a smattering of flour from her cheek and whispered, "Love."

Thank you in advance for your reviews!