Chapter Five
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Deidre sat at the table, coloring with markers, but more ended up on her hands then the paper. Duo sat at the same table, reading the newspaper.
"Daddy....I'm hungry." She announced.
Duo looked up from the sports section. "You just had lunch, "He glanced at the clock, "an hour ago."
"But I'm hungry." She argued. "Oh! Let's have cookies!"
"We don't have any." Duo abandoned the newspaper.
"Can we make some?" She asked.
"I don't think we have the stuff to make cookies." Duo stated.
"I'll go check!" Deidre said, climbing off the chair. She dragged the over-sized chair to the kitchen, scrapping it across the floor.
"D, pick up the chair." Duo called.
"It's too heavy." She yelled back.
Duo got up from the table and went into the kitchen. He grabbed the chair and took it back to the table. Walking back into the kitchen, he picked Deidre up and set her on the counter.
"Okay, what do we need to make cookies." He asked.
"eggs, chocolate, flour and....um...." She sat there thinking. Duo pulled out everything she had listed off. "Do we need oil?" She asked.
"No." He answered, leaning on the counter.
"Okay...then sugar." She said. Duo got out the sugar. "I don't know what else we need." She told him. Duo nodded and got out everything she didn't list off.
"Ewww, you put salt in cookies?!" She asked, displaying a look of disgust.
"Yes, but only a little. You'll never taste it." He responded.
"Okay!" She said happily. Duo pulled out a mixing bowl, the whisk, a baking sheet, and a measuring cup.
"Okay, we need two cups of flour." Duo said. Deidre nodded, pulled the tub of flour and the measuring cup over to herself, and started at it blankly. "Need help?" Duo asked her. She shook her head and began to pour the flour up to the number 2 mark. She transferred the flour from the measuring cup to the mixing bowl. Duo broke two eggs and added them into the bowl.
Deidre poured in the sugar, baking powder, and salt into the bowl. "Daddy, where are the chocolate chips at?" She asked.
"Right here." Duo answered, showing her a bag of heresy's chocolate chips™. "But they go in last." He added in the shortening and the vanilla extract.
"Now can I add them in?"
"Yes, but only half a bag." Deidre nodded, and then pour in half the bag. Duo handed her a giant wooden spoon. "Would you like to mix it while I get the baking sheet ready?"
"Sure." She took the spoon and started mixing the ingredients together. Duo got out the Pam™ out and sprayed the sheet. Deidre continued to mix the batter until it got thick. "Daddy, this is hard." She stated. She tried to pull the spoon out, but it wouldn't come. She tugged and tugged on the spoon. When it finally did come out, it sent a little bit of cookie dough flying across the kitchen and landing in Duo's hair. Deidre started laughing.
"You think that's funny?" Duo asked, trying not to laugh himself. All she could do was laugh more. Duo took a little of the cookie dough onto his fingers and ruffles her hair. "Ha! Now you have it in your hair too." He said laughing.
She huffed, laughed, then took a handful of flour and threw it at him, covering him in the white powder. "You look like a snowman!" She started laughing again.
Duo blew some of the flour off the tip of his noise. He laughed and grabbed the bowl and spoon, then continued to mix the dough. He went and got two spoons. "Okay, without making a bigger mess, we have to get the dough on the sheet." He handed her a spoon.
"Mission accepted." She said, and started gathering cookie dough onto her spoon.
"Don't say that. You sound like Heero."
"I know." She giggled.
After thirty more minutes and three cookie dough fights later, the kitchen and themselves were covered with flour and eggs, but they finally got the cookies into the oven, and the timer was set.
Duo looked down at Deidre. "Okay. We have one hour before everyone is supposed to be over. So let's get cleaned up then we'll start on the kitchen." She nodded and headed to the bathroom with Duo. The cleaned their arms and face and got most of the cookie dough out of their hair. Both of them went to change before meeting back in the kitchen.
"Okay, you clean the kitchen and I'll watch the cookies." Deidre said, walking over to the oven.
"Oh no you don't. Stay away from the oven." Duo chided.
"But...but..." She made hand motions towards the oven. "the cookies call for me!"
"No. Stay away from the oven. You might burn yourself. Now help me clean the kitchen." Duo said.
Deidre lowered her head and pouted. "Okay...."
Duo and Deidre set to work sweeping up all the flour and cleaning the eggs off the cabinet doors.
Fifteen minutes into the cleaning process, Wufei walked through the door with Heero.
"Duo, where are you at?" Wufei called out.
"Umm...in the kitchen. But I recommended you don't come in." Duo shouted back to him.
Heero and Wufei exchanged glances before heading to the kitchen.
"Daddy, why are the cookies black?" They heard Deidre asked.
"Aww crap!" Duo shouted.
Wufei and Heero exchanged glances before running to the kitchen. Duo was pulling out a baking sheet with what was supposed to be cookies but turned out to look like hockey pucks. The cabinet doors were still covered in yellow egg yoke and piles of flour littered the floor. Deidre was staring at Duo, flour dotted her face. Duo also have clumps of flour on his face and in his hair.
"Do we really want to know?" Heero asked and the two looked at him.
"Umm...probably not." Duo answered.
"The cookies died." Deidre said, her bottom lip beginning to tremble.
Wufei walked over, picked her up and looked down at the cookies. "That they did." He tried not to laugh.
"It's not funny." Duo said, pouting.
Wufei handed the little girl off to Duo, "Go get cleaned up while I take care of the kitchen." He said to Duo, who nodded and left the kitchen.
"He shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a kitchen." Heero commented.
"He's good in the kitchen...just not when it comes to baking." Wufei said, grabbing the sponge.
Heero grabbed the roll of paper towels and started wiping up the egg mess. "Looks like they had a war in here." Heero told him.
"They probably did." Wufei said.
A few minutes later, Deidre bounded back into the kitchen with Duo. "Daddy you make such a mess." She stated.
Duo stuttered, "Me!" He exclaimed.
She nodded and walked over to Wufei, "No more cookies?"
"No, but we'll send Duo at to get some." Wufei answered, leaning on the counter.
"Yay!" She cheered joyously.
"Why me?!" Duo asked.
"Because we're cleaning up your mess." Heero answered.
"Okay...that's fair." Duo agreed.
Deidre huffed, "Daddy killed the cookies."
"I did not!"