Alright, I know the last chapter was brutal (sorry), but most of them are unrelated, and this is one of them! A commission for atrox-forensis, who asked for team JNPR cooking at Christmas!

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

Chapter 25. Christmas Pancakes

"Come on, you guys!"

"Uhh, Nora? Could you slow down, just for a-"

"Nope, sorry! No~ can~ do~! After all, it's not every day you get to use the student kitchens with your team to make Christmas Eve dinner! Especially because, well... it's not Christmas Eve every day!"

The hyperactive girl was bounding down the hallways without waiting for the rest of them, headed for the kitchens. There was a red hat on her head with a swaying white pom-pom twirling at the back of her neck.

Pyrrha was close behind her, wearing a similar hat to get into the festive mood, smiling as she turned around briefly to face her leader.

"She's right you know! This is a once-a-year occasion, Jaune! We need to enjoy it to the fullest!"

She spun around on her heel and pranced after Nora, leaving the boys – who had decided not to wear hats – behind. Jaune heaved a sigh as he mumbled to Ren.

"I'm not so good at cooking... or anything, really."

"Not to worry," Ren reassured him. "We won't be making anything extravagant. Just holiday pancakes."

"Holiday...? Okay, how in the heck are those even different from normal pancakes?"

"They're not. Not at all. We'll just be eating them on Christmas Eve, that's all."

"Oh... Well, maybe that I can do," Jaune decided.

"I have faith in you."

They soon reached the student kitchens. The lights were off, and Nora raced through the doors, cackling excitedly as she gave a jump up toward the nearest light bulbs. She tapped it with her fingers and sent a spark of electricity through it to light it up before landing on the tiled floor once again.

Pyrrha quickly chided her.

"Nora! We have light switches for that!"

"Oh, I know, but that's no fuuuuun!"

Nora started darting around the room, already gathering bowls and supplies. Pyrrha rolled her eyes and followed a bit more slowly.

The boys came in at last and completed the team of temporary chefs.

"Okay..." Jaune mumbled. "So, uh, what do we need?"

"Ingredients!" Nora replied.

"Uh, yeah, I know that much. I meant what kind of ingredients?"

"Oh, I don't know. Ren usually makes them. I always forget what we need. All I know is there's eggs! I call those, by the way! Gotta love smashin' em to bits, am I right?"

"Uhh, sure," he mumbled. "Anyway, what else do we need, Ren?"

"Well, first of all..."

The dark-haired boy held up a finger as he turned around and opened a small cabinet, then rummaged around for a moment. The other three leaned forward curiously, waiting for what he had to say. Ren turned around a few seconds later and presented them with his answer.

"Aprons."

Jaune almost fell over at the anticlimactic nature of his teammate's response, but Pyrrha and Nora both smiled.

"Oh, right!" Pyrrha said. "Wouldn't want to get our uniforms dirty!"

"Course not!" Nora agreed.

As the girls happily accepted their aprons from Ren, Jaune took one for himself and ungracefully pulled it on over his head. Pyrrha slipped hers on much more elegantly, and then helped tie the strings on Nora's for her.

After a minute, they were all ready for Ren's orders, listing off the ingredients from memory.

"Alright. We're going to need eggs – as Nora said – and also flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, milk, and sugar."

"Oh! Oh!" Nora raised her hand, jumping up and down enthusiastically. "I'll get the eggs! And the flowers!"

"Nora!" Pyrrha called out after her. "Flour! Not flowers!" She took off after the other girl who was already singing about eggs and didn't seem to be listening.

Ren shared a glance with Jaune.

"Well. Guess the rest is up to us."

"Right..."

Being that it was Jaune's first time in the kitchen, Ren took the lead and gave him a brief tour.

Ren himself retrieved the baking soda and baking powder from a few of the shelves, then directed Jaune to the salt and sugar.

"Just make sure someone who isn't Nora pours those," Ren advised. "I can't tell you how many times she's gotten them mixed up."

"Got it." Jaune shuddered at the thought of super-salty pancakes.

The boys placed all of their containers and boxes onto the nearest counter, where Nora had previously placed the bowls. Ren asked Jaune for the syrup, then clapped his hands together lightly.

"Now that we've got these, can you ask the girls for the milk and butter? We should let that soften a bit."

Jaune nodded and took off towards the fridge, where Pyrrha was trying to prevent Nora from pulling out every single egg.

"Nora! We only need a few! You don't have to take all three dozen!"

"Oh, fine. Here, you put 'em back and I'll go get the flowers!" With that, Nora took off yet again.

Pyrrha was about to call after her, but cut off in a gasp as she realized Nora had tossed all of the eggs at her for her to catch. Pyrrha cried out in alarm as she dove forward, trying to catch as many of them as possible.

Naturally, it was just Jaune's luck that he arrived at that moment and got an egg to the top of the head.

"Dawh- come oonnn! Gross!"

Pyrrha straightened up with her arms full of eggs, but she couldn't even remember to chide Nora now that she was presented with the sight of Jaune with yellow yoke and white goo all over his hair. She doubled over in petite laughter, though only at the last second did she realize she was still holding the eggs in her arms and she swiftly righted herself.

Jaune grabbed a paper towel and tried to clean his hair out over the sink.

"Really? Even on Christmas Eve? I can't catch a break..."

As soon as Pyrrha had returned the excess eggs to the refrigerator, she came to his side and patted his shoulder.

"Oh come now, Jaune. I think you caught a break, alright." She brought a hand up to her lips and couldn't help but burst into giggles all over again.

"Oh, ha ha. I get it. Cause an egg broke on my head."

"I thought it was pretty clever!"

"I guess so..."

Though he kept mumbling and complaining as he splashed water and soap into his hair, Jaune couldn't help but smile.

After that ordeal, he was left to gather the correct amount of eggs – just three – while Pyrrha was left to scurry after Nora who was trying to grab a flower pot off one of the window sills. She gently but firmly coaxed the girl away and explained the difference between 'flower' and 'flour' to her.

"Huh," Nora said. "And all this time I thought I was eatin' daisies!"

At long last, the four finally reconvened at the counter, where Ren had everything laid out for them. It was clear that he was in charge in the kitchen, and the other three waited for instructions. He turned to them each in turn.

"Alright. Pyrrha, could you pour us two cups of milk and two cups of flour please?"

"Of course!"

"And Jaune, you can pour the baking powder and baking soda. Just two tablespoons each."

"Got it."

"Nora-"

"Eggs!"

"Yes. You can break the eggs. Just try not to get all of the shells in it as well?"

"Yessir!"

Ren nodded, though something in his expression told the rest of them he knew they'd be having bits of shells in their final products.

"I'll take care of the baking powder and soda," he decided.

With that, they all got to work on their respective tasks.

Ren and Jaune combined their ingredients together in the same bowl where Pyrrha poured the carefully-measured cups of flour.

Nora was happily smashing the eggs one by one into another bowl, leaving Pyrrha to use a fork to scoop out the fractured bits of shells. Once she'd fished them all out and tossed them into the sink, she added in the cups of milk.

"Alright," she said, carefully handing Nora the egg beater. "Just try to keep some of it in the bowl, please?"

"I'll do my best!" Nora accepted the tool and got right to work.

Jaune and Pyrrha both flinched, expecting batter to start flying up everywhere. But Ren reassured them.

"She's actually very good with mixing."

As he'd said, Nora was taking her time with beating the eggs and milk together, not letting it splatter very much at all.

Ren encouraged Jaune to start adding the dry ingredients into Nora's bowl as she worked. But the blond boy didn't trust himself not to let all of the contents spill out at once, so he asked for Pyrrha's assistance. Jaune held the bowl over Nora's as she mixed, and Pyrrha used her fork to gradually add in the dry ingredients.

As those three worked together, Ren started the stove and got a few pans in place.

A few minutes later, they were taking turns pouring out pancakes.

"Ooohh!" Nora gasped. "I'm gonna make a Christmas tree-shaped one! Actually, Ren's better at shaping them so maybe he can do that. Oh! I got an idea!" She took the spoon and quickly poured the batter into the pan.

Jaune looked over her shoulder, puzzled.

"Uhh... Nora? That one's just a normal pancake shape."

"No, silly! It's snowball-shaped!"

"Oh. Of course it is..."

Pyrrha attempted to make one shaped like the head of a deer, and it actually turned out halfway decently. Especially since Ren taught her the trick of putting batter down at different times so the batter that was on the pan longer would turn darker and accent the colors.

He helped Pyrrha make eyes and a nose for her deer pancake, and by the time it was finished she was clapping excitedly. She used the spatula to remove it from the stove and put it on the plate on top of Nora's to let it cool.

Jaune was next, and his attempt at a snowman-shaped pancake ended up looking more like a snowman that had been hit by a car. When he tried to flip it, more batter plopped out.

Nora grimaced.

"Ouch. Christmas chainsaw massacre."

Jaune grunted as he tried to scrape it off and added it to the pile.

After that, the three of them made normal pancakes, though Ren was working on Nora's Christmas tree.

About ten minutes later, they'd finished making the last of the pancakes.

Pyrrha started to gather all of the bowls and pans they'd used and put them in the sink, while Jaune put the ingredients away. Ren and Nora stayed side by side as they started decorating the pancakes.

Nora placed little red berries on top of them "To give them a Christmasy feel!" then drizzled a cup of syrup onto her plate. Ren took a small container of powdered sugar and sprinkled it all over the pancakes to make it look like snow. Nora asked him to cover hers in it until all she could see was white.

Once everything was ready and put back into its place, Ren collected everyone's aprons.

"I think that was a successful session."

"Yay for team bonding!" Nora declared.

Pyrrha had to quickly grab her to stop her from slamming her face into her dish to begin eating.

"Nora! We have utensils!"

"Aww, who needs 'em? It's Christmas!"

Jaune chuckled.

"What does that have to do with not using utensils?"

The four of them picked up their respective plates and headed out to the cafeteria tables to eat. They'd exchanged pancakes with their partners, so Ren had Nora's 'snowball' and she had his tree, and Pyrrha was given Jaune's wreck of a snowman-pancake as he took her deer.

The girls with their matching red hats sat side by side as they began eating, while Jaune kept running his hands through his hair, still feeling the residual stickiness from the egg.

Thanks to Ren's instructions, the pancakes turned out perfectly, though in Nora's case, it was more powdered sugar and syrup and less pancake.

Pyrrha even persuaded her teammate to use a knife and a fork to eat. It was thanks to her that there were no little bits of eggshell in anyone's food this time around.

As they ate and enjoyed their Christmas-themed dinner, a sense of tranquility soon came over them.

For Pyrrha, she'd never done something as pleasantly commonplace as making dinner with friends before.

Jaune had never exactly had the friends to do such a thing with.

And Nora and Ren were just happy to know they'd finally found people they could share their special moments with.

They finished eating before long, Nora slurping up the last drop of syrup from her plate before letting out a loud belch. Pyrrha sighed and handed her friend a napkin.

"That was delicious, everyone. Well done!"

Ren smiled.

"Couldn't have done it without you guys."

"Yeah," Jaune yawned. "Wanna head back to the room?"

"Let's clean up our plates first," Pyrrha suggested. "Then we can-"

"Start opening presents!" Nora declared, jumping up out of her seat.

Ren stood after her.

"Shouldn't that wait until tomorrow morning?"

"Awww but Reeeenn!"

As they cleaned up their plates and brought them back into the kitchen to clean them, Nora managed to convince her teammates with her pleading tone and wide eyes.

They decided she could open one present tonight.

A/N: Does anyone else do that? Where they get to open one present on Christmas Eve? Well even if you don't there's a new idea now!

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