And in this chapter, there are cookies.

XXX

"Alright, first we need to mix the wet ingredients," Patton told the two other sides.

"Can't we just… mix it all together?"

"Of course not, Virgil!"

"Um… Why not, though?"

"Because that would break international baking laws!" Patton replied. "Do you want to break the law, son?"

"... No, Dad…"

"That's what I thought! Now, start beating that butter! With the sugar!"

Virgil did as he was told while Patton turned his attention to Janus.

"While Virgil's doing that, how 'bout we get the dry ingredients mixed together?" Patton suggested over the loud whirring of the stand mixer.

"Definitely not."

Janus then went to find the bag of flour, but Patton stopped him.

"Hold on, kiddo. You might want to take off those gloves," Patton told him. "It might get a bit messy in here."

Ah. Right. The gloves. They weren't exactly the best thing to be wearing while baking, and they probably would end up getting something on them, whether it be flour or something else. But it wasn't like Janus could just take them off.

"It's… It's fine," Janus replied. "I can't just wash them later."

Patton gave him a look, tilting his head. Crap. He'd messed up. Both sentences were a lie, so he'd essentially just told Patton it wasn't fine.

"Well… okay… I guess it's a good thing we're making chocolate chip instead of cut-out cookies," Patton accepted. "We need three cups of sifted flour, so could you sift the flour into this bowl?"

Janus took the offered bowl and sifter, and then he took out the flour. Approximately three seconds after he began sifting, he already had a bit of flour on his gloves. He tried not to be bothered by it, but he felt his shoulders tense up. Regardless, he continued with his given task.

"How's the butter going, Virgil?"

"Uh… beaten?"

"Then we can add the eggs and vanilla!"

Patton handed Virgil a small bowl of already-cracked eggs.

"Add them one at a time, okay?" He instructed. "Okay, now we need to mix the baking soda into the flour."

As he spoke, he started measuring out the white powder in a measuring spoon before pouring the spoon's contents into the bowl and whisking the two powders together.

"... Okay, why are you whisking the flour? Aren't we just going to mix it into the other stuff anyway?" Virgil asked.

"I just want to make sure the baking soda is mixed in evenly," Patton explained. "We can add the flour in now, though. Do you want to try, Janus?"

"No," he said as he took the bowl.

Patton decreased the speed of the stand mixer.

"Try to mix it in by thirds. If you pour it all in at once, it'll fly all over the kitchen."

Janus tilted the bowl and tried to only pour in a little bit, but most of the mixture ended up falling in, sending a puff of white into the air and making more flour settle onto his gloves.

"Ah, whoopsie daisy!" said Patton.

Still trying to ignore the powder on his clothes, Janus waited for the flour he'd already poured in to integrate with the wet ingredients before adding the rest. Luckily, this time he avoided sending another cloud of it into the air.

"Now it's time for the secret ingredient!" Patton announced. "Chocolate chips and chopped walnuts!"

"That's two ingredients."

Patton added them into the bowl, and once those were mixed in as well, he turned the mixer off.

"Last thing is to scoop them onto the tray to bake! Do you have the ice cream scoop, Virgil?"

"Yup."

"Alright, why don't you scoop half and then give Janus a turn?" the fatherly side asked. "Make sure to leave some space so they can expand."

It only took a few more minutes to scoop out the dough and get the cookies in the oven, after which they just had to let them bake. And clean the kitchen, which was a bit of a mess. Or, maybe it was a lot of a mess. Did they really have to use this many bowls? Luckily, Patton declared he would wash the dishes and asked him and Virgil to start putting things away and wiping down the counters. Janus wasn't sure what he would have done if Patton had wanted him to do the dishes. Despite their appearance, his gloves were not at all suited to actually cleaning, and submerging them in water while he was wearing them would be unpleasant. Once again, it wasn't like he could just take them off.

And so, they started cleaning up the mess they made. After putting away a few other things, like the vanilla and unused measuring cups, Janus picked up the bag of flour so he could return it to the pantry.

And then Remus came charging into the room.

"HEY GUYS!"

"Eep!"

Startled, since he hadn't expected Remus to appear out of nowhere, Janus lost his hold on the flour, and it went crashing to the floor. It burst open on impact, some flour flying out of the top and some spilling out of the newly-created rip in the bottom of the bag, and the air was temporarily filled with it.

"Oh no, are you guys doing drugs without me?" Remus asked, fake hurt in his tone.

"... Ah… Remus… No, we were making cookies," replied Patton, trying to maintain a smile that was just a bit too tense in the corner of his mouth.

Janus just stood there frozen, not entirely sure how to move without tracking flour over even more of the kitchen.

"What kind?"

"Chocolate chip."

"Oooo!" Remus exclaimed. "You should try adding rabbit poo instead!"

"Uh…"

"Anyway, do you guys know where my brother is?" Remus questioned. "I have something I want to show~ him~!"

"...He's in the imagination, Remus."

"Ah, thank you, Virgil! Later, bitches!"

And with that, Remus was gone just as quickly as he came, leaving powdery chaos in his wake. Janus forced himself to take a deep breath in. He liked Remus, but he could definitely be hard to deal with sometimes. But it was okay. It was just flour. Knowing Remus, it could have been something a lot worse.

"...I'll get the vacuum," said Virgil, since he was the farthest one from the blast zone and would therefore track the least amount of flour through the mindscape.

Ah, but he had already showered today, and now he was probably going to have to do it again. Maybe the vacuum could clean the floor and get most of the flour off of his clothes, but he knew it was in his hair, too. Should he be glad that his hat had been spared a powdery fate, or annoyed that it wasn't there to protect his hair from suffering in its place? He didn't want to have to shower again, but if he didn't, he'd probably spread the flour around, and Roman would probably say something about it later. And he definitely didn't want to get flour in his bed. Seriously, how much flour was in that bag for it to have made this big of a mess?

"Um, are you okay there, kiddo? You still look a bit spooked."

"It's just flour," Janus mumbled back quietly.

"Uh…"

And then Virgil returned to the room, and everything was cleaned up, except for Janus and, to a lesser extent, Patton.

"Alright, then. Virgil, do you mind watching the cookies while the two of us get cleaned up?" Patton asked.

Virgil shrugged.

"Sure."

XXX

Okay, I really did try to make this part a bit lighter, 'Cuz the last chapter was pretty heavy-handed. I hope it wasn't too boring, but I needed this chapter to set up the next one… Also, I really like making cookies...