Hello all of you lovely people! Yes, I'm talking to you. The vast majority of those who have read this story have been rather kind. Some have been helpful, others nice, and even more others have been supportive. I just want to thank all of those who have chosen to be that way. It honestly lets me continue this mess of tangled chapters.
Seriously, I don't know how this got this far. I suppose it doesn't matter, let's continue it further!
Disclaimer: I don't own Undertale.
Baking is nothing new to Muffet. It has long become a second nature skill to her. Her vast knowledge of items that she could bake overtakes every other section of expertise she could have. Once she's in the kitchen, there is nothing on this planet that could possibly mess up her desired treat. Well, that's what she thought at least. The universe seems to want to challenge that claim with her two guests. Now, she knew that these two could be a handful in different ways. Frisk, for as much as a sweet caring person they are, tends to catch her attention by pure accident. The human never seems to know what it is doing to her. Strangely, that doesn't bother her.
Chara, on the other hand, seems to have made its life's goal to try and mess with her today. Its earlier actions have already done a massive toll on her patience and mental health. Yet, this is something that she never could have predicted. A ploy so dastardly and evil in an almost innocent sense that no mortal being could have seen it coming. Its cunning, its madness, its so off-putting that her attention was captured for a good five minutes of shock. Well, it was shock until she bursted out laughing. There is no way that the fragmented soul would be caught dead in a pink apron that says 'kiss the chef' in bedazzled beads.
At first, the spider baker was convinced that Frisk had somehow managed to force their counterpart into that specific apron. Why else would this former mass murderer choose that specific protective cloth? However, her intuition was defied when she noticed that the thing in question didn't look at all fazed by what it's wearing. Had it seriously chosen that apron? With no other evidence to suggest otherwise, her laughing fit was renewed. Her upper and bottom right hands had to keep her up as her other hands clutched her stomach. Oh, this is simply fantastic to her. The memory of her purchasing that faded a while ago.
If she could recall correctly, the young monster once bought it as a joke. Just something to amuse herself with when working on the messier of recipes. Now, she's never been more certain that she made the right purchase. After a day like today, she really needed that laugh. It lightened the weight on her mind while bringing some levity back to her soul. When she could finally breathe once more, she felt a little bit refreshed. Her mind kicked back in with the capacity for thoughts, but at this point she's decided to just let whatever happens, happen. Still, she just has to know.
"C-Chara, why did you choose that out of everything?" There was no way she could possibly suppress the giant grin on her face. No amount of facial control could keep the amusement from showing. Not that she wanted it to be hidden in the first place, but it was nice to just let everything come to the surface. Well, everything positive anyways. The more negative side of things is going to be buried until she can finally have a stable day.
"What's wrong with it?" The look of honest confusion that the fragmented soul has is nearly enough to send Muffet back into her fit "I thought it looked fine." Oh, god it's even looking down at what it's wearing to check if something is wrong. This is perfect, simply perfect. She can even hear Frisk barely holding back their snickering at the sight. Well, to the credit of the dark creature, it doesn't actually look bad. For some reason, pink and white strangely goes well with it. That is, as long as you don't notice the eyes. The black and red eyes are will probably always be demonic no matter what the thing wears.
"I don't see anything wrong," Chara must have picked up on the suppressed laughter, it glared at Muffet and her friend hard "Stop laughing at my choice!" The threatening factor really takes a nosedive when the murderous thing's apron sparkles in the light "I liked this okay!?" Is it really getting defensive over this? The arachnid monster's eyes widen as it lets out an humph while crossing its arms. It's even angling its head up slightly as if it's above this entire scenario. The dark being that succeeded to murder every single being in the underground, is acting like an insulted child. The sight is almost enough to question why she was scared of it in the first place.
However, she has to remind herself of the fragmented soul's killing intent. A little teasing is fine, but she doesn't want to truly anger it. Though, her body gave her a hard time when she was trying to focus on getting air into her lungs instead of laughing. Thankfully, she was able to calm down to a few reasonable giggles here and there by stumbling towards the closet where the aprons where. Shaking her head with amusement, her upper right hand grabs onto her dark purple apron while her center left hand grabs a regular white apron. Turning on her heel, the spider girl slips the apron over her head before tying it with her lower set of hands.
"Alright, we'll be making some muffins," As her lower hands tighten the knot, she tosses the extra apron to Frisk "Obviously, they're going to be chocolate." Glancing over at the source of that reason, her eyes take in the beaming smile on Chara's lips. If she hadn't already witnessed something stranger, she would have had her head checked again. The spider monster takes the bizarre look in her stride while going through the list of ingredients in her mind. A quick survey around the room shows that her family is scurrying into cupboards. Her smile grows a little more when Daryl rests on her shoulder. The poor little guy must be tired from the long day.
It can't be easy dragging away metal coins that are just as big as you are. Making her way to her fridge, Muffet side-steps the moving mass of arachnids carrying muffin tins to the table. She is forced to side-step another group that has the dry ingredients needed. Turning her gaze from that back to the fridge, her eyes furrow in slight annoyance when she sees some of her family braving the cold of the appliance to get the other ingredients. A huff of breath passes her lips while she crosses her upper arms as her middle hands rest on her hips. She may be injured, but she is not a fragile doll to put in a glass case! She can handle a little bit of baking.
That does include getting the ingredients so she can bake! Taking in a deep breath, she just walks up to her cooling appliance. Her eyes narrow slightly at the more foolish of the spiders that looked ready to open up the freezer door. Even in the orderly line of spiders her family is known for, there will always be a few idiotic stand-outs. Well, they could just be questionably brave. However, every arachnid knows that the cold is extremely deadly to them. So, she can't just let that slide. Uncrossing her upper left arm, she holds the hand out right in front of the freezer with her fingertips lightly pressed against the metal.
"Off the freezer," The few that are on the chilled surface stop in an instant, yet they don't move away "Now!" She will not tolerate them putting their lives at risk because her family thinks she's too hurt at the moment. Didn't she just stare down and slap a murderous being? If anything, that alone should prove that she's capable of doing this much herself. Plus, she has Frisk here to help her should something goes wrong. Her family trusts them more out of anyone else who comes to her quaint bakery. One by one, the foolhardy arachnids scurried to her hand before continuing down her body.
Honestly, she isn't an infant. Throwing open the freezer, she quickly reaches in and moves aside frozen ingredients in search for her goal. Where did she put it anyways? Behind the ice cream? No, that's not right. To the side of the frozen butter? Nope, that's the vanilla chips. Her body shivers as the cold air flowing from the freezer chills her skin. A growl nearly escapes her lips as she moves aside everything in her frozen container before a thought occurs to her. Looking to the freezer door, she sees two small shelves holding some of the more tiny ingredients and foods. Right on the bottom shelf is the chocolate chip package.
Of course it's there. This is already starting off wonderfully. Snatching the needed ingredient, Muffet quickly closes the door while shivering from the remaining chill she feels. She's quick to shake that off while returning to her two quests. As she suspected, the oak table already has everything needed on it ordered and neatly placed side-by-side. Though, as a habit, she checks the layout in front of her regardless. Flour, milk, eggs, salt, white and brown sug- Her mental check is quickly interrupted by someone ripping the chocolate chips out of her hand. Sighing, she didn't even look over to the perpetrator of this act. Instead she merely held her hand out.
"Give back the chocolate, or else there will be no baking." It took a few moments, but the package was given back. However, as the fingers of her middle left hands run over the package they slightly snag against a small hole. The throbbing from her wound is slowly starting to come back. Slowly, she looks over her shoulder to glare at the fragmented soul. What she did not expect is a sheepish Frisk munching on some of the chips with Chara. A slight pink dusted their cheeks as she stared at them in disbelief. Despite trying to stay rightfully angry, her mind still noted how adorable they looked like that.
This can be forgiven just this once. Of course, it's for the sake of finally starting to bake. Nothing else. No one can prove otherwise. Wait, how long has she been staring at Frisk? Why is Chara snickering like that? Salvage the situation now! Quickly acting, she walks over to the two without really thinking. Once in front of the two she reaches for the corner of Frisk's lips with her upper right hand and wipes away a streak of chocolate with her pointer finger. Both of them look surprised, the human more so than the fragmented soul, by her action. Frankly, she shares that feeling. Why, out of all things, did she do that?
"Try not to be so messy with your food dearie," God knows what compelled her to do so, but she brought her finger up to her lips "It's such a waste." With a small smile on her lips, her tongue darts out and licks up the chocolate residue on her finger. Why that was her course of action was completely beyond her. Yet, she can't quite deny that she enjoyed the reaction that it sparked. She never knew that a person's cheeks could actually turn the color of a rose. It's such an endearing look for her companion. Plus, the wide eyed look of the dark thing is extremely amusing.
Not wasting a moment, the spider monster starts back to the oak table as her actions catch up with her mind. Almost immediately, her cheeks were scorching hot in embarrassment. If this is what happens when she's too mentally drained to think about what's she is going to do, then she'll make sure to have plenty of rest from here on out. It would probably be best just to start the muffins. Of course, that would be easier said than done now. Her guests seem to be still stunned by her actions. While the expressions are entertaining to look at, being frozen doesn't exactly help her bake.
Oh well, she can start baking herself. Should they snap out of it soon, they can join her. It would be around a couple minutes later when she's finally joined by one of the two. She was finishing mixing up the dry ingredients thoroughly when a hand pats her on the back. Thankfully, her center and lower hands had a good grip on the bowl when she was startled. No one wants all this stuff to go everywhere. From the corner of her eyes she manages to see a white and pink combination of colors. Great, Chara recovered before Frisk did. Glancing over to get a better gauge of its mood, she was surprised to find the amused smile on its lips.
"What step are we on?" Not even going to mention what happened? God, she really can't get a good base on how this thing acts. Although, she can't really complain at the moment. Gesturing over to the wet ingredients, it immediately understands what to do. As her newly revived helper starts to do its part, the arachnid girl glances over her shoulder to see how the human's coming along. While they're still frozen in place, the rosy blush they have is slowly going down. Their cheeks look more pinkish than pure red. Her eyes narrow slightly in confusion as she notices some black spots going around Frisk's body.
What is her family doing now? Are they searching through her friend's pockets or something? If they are, she's going to give them the verbal beat-down of their lives. However, since Frisk is still out of it she returns to her work. She'll have to find out what those spiders were doing later. After checking the bowl in her hands as well as the mixed ingredients that Chara worked on, the two of them slowly combine their parts together. The murderous creature shows surprising restraint as it carefully pours its mixture into the main bowl. She can't help but admire its steady hand as she slowly stirs to keep one part of the dry ingredients from getting too much moisture.
It has taken her years to learn how to keep a steady hand while she makes her treats. Briefly, she wonders if her companion has spent just as long learning how to do the same, or are they just gifted with steady nerves? The latter makes sense given the lack of fear it displays. However, that fearlessness may just stem from simply being too powerful for mere mortals to really do something against it. Nerves have nothing to do with its confident nature. Filing away the question in her mind to possibly be asked later, her attention returns to the task at hand. Once the lumpy batter is completed, the two of them take turns filling up muffin cups with it.
It kind of turned into a competition to see who could get the closest to the perfect amount of batter in their cups. Needless to say, but the official baker won. Though, not as easily as she thought she would. Her helper seems to have good knowledge of how to actually bake. It seems its suggestions from earlier wasn't just random knowledge. This creature had to have once learned how to bake. That's backed up by how close it actually got to the mark. Only a tiny bit off, and that could possibly be from being a bit rusty at the craft. How interesting, a little bit more of her companion's past has been cemented. At least, she believes it has been.
She still doesn't actually know, but the temptation to ask is tossed to the side by her tired mind. Observations will be the limit of what she can do now, contemplation can come later. So, she instead just gave Chara some more chocolate chips as a consolation prize. It didn't seem to mind losing at all. While the fragmented soul enjoyed its prize, she checked the temperature of the oven. As expected, her family had set it to the perfect temperature making it simple enough to do this. However, as she went to retrieve some oven mitts her eyes notice some movement to her side. An amused smile tugs on her lips as she glances over to see Frisk standing beside her.
"S-sorry about that Muffet," Aw, they still have a bit of a blush coloring their cheeks "How far along are we?" Her smile turns into a smirk as she merely gestures behind her with her center left hand. Sure enough, when the human looks towards that direction they gain a bit of a sheepish look. Their blush even gets a bit brighter. This is really an adorable sight to see. It's simply impossible for her not to drink in the sight and just enjoy it. How odd that they manage to capture her complete attention in such a simple way though. Pushing the thought aside allows her mind to come up with an quick idea.
"You know, only those who helped can have some of the treats," Their eyes lock with hers as she masterfully transforms her amusement into false innocence "I guess Chara and I will have to eat them all." A cheer of glee comes from behind her from that statement. Her mind tunes that out though, there is more important things to examine. Like the slightly downcast expression her friend has. The small frown is such an unnatural sight that she can practically feel her heart-strings being tugged. Luckily, she has a way to brighten up that look. Her eyes remain trained on theirs as she reaches out blindly with her upper right hand.
"Fortunately for you," With the deft skills she has, Muffet pulls out the oven mitts she was going for from the cupboard beside Frisk "The muffins still need to be put in the oven." Dutifully ignoring the groan of disappointment coming from Chara, she holds out the mitts for her friend to use. Their transformation from disappointed to happy was a quick one, but something she'll rewind in her mind over and over again. There is just something about seeing them being cheered up that makes everything seem figuratively brighter. While the feeling is far from unpleasant, a nagging question of why comes from the back of her mind.
It seems that type of question is showing up much more as time goes on. This may be the only time today that she is thankful to be mentally drained. She's able to effortlessly toss that question to the dark recesses of her mind. The freedom of not overthinking things also allows her to just sit back and watch as Frisk does the one task assigned to them. The smile on their face, the joyful shine in their breathtaking eyes, and the ease of their movement reassures her that this wasn't a bad decision. No, if anything this was a good decision. Even if Chara starts to make demands to have more than its sanctuary can have.
An argument, playful on Frisk's side yet serious on Chara's, about how much work you do doesn't matter ensues. Things like work ethic and effort quickly gets debated between the two. When they both try to include her in this, she just rebukes the two by claiming to be the judge. She can't take a side until hearing every piece of evidence. So, with a smile on her face she enjoys the show. The two prime examples quickly became people they all knew. Specifically, Sans and Undyne. A giggle escapes her lips at the comparison. The skeleton couldn't be more different from the former royal guard captain.
Taking in a deep breath, the scent of melting chocolate invades her senses. Yes, this was a great decision.
A little later than the norm, but it is complete! The full baking experience is here to enjoy. That does include: Less contemplating, more actions, more interactions, and some great moments. I hope they were great, but I'll take good if I have to.
As always, please review, favorite, and follow if you wish to. I do not force you to, and I will never force you to. I just want some honest opinions as well as good criticism.
It also came to my attention that most of you thought Muffet would die after slapping Chara. That would be the end of my story if I did that! Shame on you. Nah, I'm kidding. That was the point of that action, to make you think the worst.
For all of those that assumed that the worst was going to happen in this chapter, you people have no faith. How could baking turn bad? It's not like Muffet would give the fragmented soul a knife. I forgive you guys though. I like your guy's prediction.
I do have to go now! See you later! Bye!
~DeathOnWings1203~