Bucky knew Mika was in the kitchen baking something when he sat down in the sunroom to read. And he knew she was still in there when his eyelids started getting heavy. But he was not expecting her to still be in there when he awoke from his cat nap a couple hours later, his place in his book lost. It'd be a bitch to find it again. He sat up and stretched, moving the book from the floor to the end table and moving to the kitchen. Mika was perched on her stool, a large sheet of dough on the counter in front of her as she carefully punched out little leaf shapes. Half the dough was missing its bits, but the other half was still clean and whole.
"What are you working on so ardently?" he asked, pressing a kiss to the side of her head as he walked to the fridge for some water.
"There's a bake off at the neighborhood gathering thing tomorrow." she said, not looking up from her cutting.
"And you're entering?" he asked, leaning against a portion of the counter that didn't have dough on it.
"Oh, I'm winning. I've never lost in a bake off." she replied, still not looking at him. He grinned at her seriousness.
"This seems a little elaborate for a town bake off." he said, nodding at the pile of little dough leaves. She shook her head.
"You can't show any mercy. In small towns like this, people are either incredibly skilled or average at best, there's no in between. I have to assume the first one." she said, smacking his hand as he reached for an apple in the bowl. "Nope, I need that one."
"So now we both must sacrifice for this baking competition?" he murmured, finally garnering her attention - at least enough for her to shoot a glare his direction.
"As soon as I'm done with this, I promise I'll make it up to you." she said cooly, making his heart jump.
"And when will that be?" he asked, trying to keep his voice even and not betray his excitement at her promise. She shrugged, eyeing the dough in front of her.
"Couple more hours, probably?" she guestimated, continuing with her cutting. He let out a groan, moving to grab his coat from the hook and head to the front door. "Wait, where are you going?"
"To town to buy some more apples." he said, her laughter following him as he left the house.
At least the errand would pass the time.