If you want to read a better-formatted version, please go to my Fanfiction Livejournal theblackmonster.
A/N: This takes place after my fanfic You Can't Have Saturday Mornings Without. This is also a kind of true story about a friend of mine and myself. At least with what happens with food coloring.
Disclaimer: I don't own The 4400.
Think Pink, Not Green
How Danny roped them into this, Shawn has no idea. Because, first of all, he never does anything for Danny, and in fact, he makes it his point to not do anything for Danny. So Kyle doesn't really do anything for Danny either.
And, okay, there's not really a second of all, but somehow Danny is barking orders at them, he and Kyle are in pink aprons, and Nikki is playing with a Barbie or something in the corner of the room.
There also seems to be a ton of parents in the room also, which kind of scares him because there's no way he can possibly escape from being busted this time. Not that he ever really wasn't busted any times before this.
But somehow he and Kyle are making cupcakes. And, there wouldn't really be any problem with this, but currently it's more than just him and Kyle in the entire house, which doesn't settle all that well with him. There's also the fact that he's not making cupcakes for himself, or even Kyle, he's making them for Danny.
And he's not even making them for Danny. He's making them for Danny who's supposed to be making them for Nikki.
So, how he got roped into this, he has no clue. He also has no clue as to why his parents are still letting him cook, but the only thing they're really doing right now is chattering amongst themselves. (Uncle Tommy is also staring intently at him from time to time, but Shawn has to ignore this. Otherwise he really is going to set the house up in flames. Which would just give Uncle Tommy another reason to hate him.)
He basically blocks everything out after "hate", though, because thinking anyone could hate poor, little him is not that great of an idea. And plus, Kyle has just dumped eggs or something-or-other onto the floor.
And everyone. Is. Staring. At. Them.
Shawn desperately wants to back away, because, hello. First sign of bad things to come happening here. However, Kyle just grins sheepishly and asks Danny to hand him a towel.
After that things seem to go along pretty smoothly and the adults start chattering away again and Nikki continues to play with dolls or something-or-other. That is, until he spills half a cup of flour onto the floor, or maybe it was something else. He's never been that great at figuring out which ingredient is which, even if it says on the bag.
At that Uncle Tommy glares and starts to get up, but his mother pulls him back down and asks Danny to clean it up. And then Danny glares at him.
Shawn shakes his head, but continues stirring something that Kyle handed him. This is so going to end badly. Very badly.
"Are you sure we should be adding so much of this?" Shawn asked softly, trying to poke Kyle into giving him some attention.
Kyle jumped slightly at the next poke and almost dropped the food coloring onto the ground, which would've resulted in a massive amount of liquid color staining the floor. Well, not massive, but Shawn gets the idea of why Kyle is glaring at him.
All Kyle does, though, is shake his head, "Add too much of what?"
"Uh, it's kind of too late now," Shawn whispers, staring at the probably-too-much sugar, "But, uh, when are we gonna be done baking? I feel like we've been doing this forever!"
"Shut up!" Kyle whispered harshly, tearing his eyes off of the adults and onto Shawn, "We have to just. Calm down. It doesn't matter how badly they taste or whatever or how long it takes. Our parents will really kill us if we make any more messes in the kitchen."
Shawn tried to stop the laughter trying to get out of him, and focused on staring firmly in front of him, "Yeah, you're right. I can't believe they're actually letting us do this ourselves in the first place."
"Yeah," Kyle whispered, and stirred in something else that Shawn didn't really care to notice, "But, hey, if it means we get on their good side again than does it really matter? Or maybe they just want to help Nikki with her 'Oh, look, I'm so cute and a girl and pink and blah, blah, blah.'"
Shawn couldn't help but snort at that as he took out the food coloring that Kyle had just previously put away, "It is getting kind of annoying, but I guess that's just how girls are. They're so weird."
Kyle also couldn't help at snorting at that, but at least nothing exploded in the kitchen when he and Shawn normally started talking like this, "Hey, I've got an idea!"
"Which is?" Shawn asked, and tried to ignore the fact that Kyle had just taken the food coloring from his hands.
"How about we make Nikki's cupcakes all rainbow or something? We'd totally get on everyone's good side if we could make 'Sweet, cute, little Nikki' happy, right?"
It was probably a bad idea that either of them were making sense right now, but Shawn didn't really care. Because Kyle really did have a point with that.
"Yeah, that's great!" Shawn smiled, snatching the blue and the yellow from Kyle's hands, leaving Kyle with red and green, "But, like, how much should we add or whatever?"
Kyle just stared at him and Shawn stared back equally. They had never used food coloring before, well, you know, without anything exploding or anything having to be cleaned from the ceiling.
"Uh," Kyle kind of trailed off at that and it seemed to be a few minutes before he even began to contemplate on speaking, "I don't know, like, a lot? I mean, it has to be rainbow, right? And that means a lot of colors... Right?"
Shawn just shrugged and nodded, and then took off the caps and started squeezing in food coloring, hoping that Kyle would at least join in at this. Because, like always, if he was getting the blame for something that went horribly wrong, he wanted some one else to at least go down with him. And he knew Kyle wouldn't mind. ... That much.
"Oh, my-"
"Nikki, sweetie, it's all right-"
"But. Oh, my-"
"Uh, Nikki, this so isn't my fault."
"Danny, will you sh- just please, be quiet!"
Shawn and Kyle glanced worriedly at each other as the scene around them unfolded. Nikki so did not look pleased at all.
"You- you-"
They were so going to get it now. Goodbye good-side, hello total ground-ation-ment.
"But they were supposed to be pink!"
Shawn and Kyle both winced at Nikki's screech and the fact that she was now crying, that is, alternating between crying and glaring at the both of them. And glaring at Danny. And, well, really everyone.
"Nikki, I'm sure we can fix-"
Nikki began to cry harder and Kyle and Shawn began trying to back away very slowly.
"They look all gross and ugly!"
Shawn and Kyle both shrugged at this, though, wondering what was so wrong with their cupcakes. They had both tested them, and they tasted fine. In fact, they tasted wonderful. Perhaps the totally-too-much added sugar was why they did, but sugar was never really a negative thing for them. But then, they didn't really care on extra-ingredients all that much.
"Shawn, Kyle, what do you have to say for yourselves?"
They both glanced at each other before Kyle sighed and spoke up, "Who knew that all the food coloring added together equals a puke-green kind of color?"
Nikki cried harder at that.