Author's Note: Hello, hello and welcome back to another chapter of "That Time of Year!" I hope you enjoy chapter six! =D
Chapter Six: Of Cookies and Competition
December Sixth
The kitchen…was a mess.
Jack Frost…was a mess.
Bunnymund…was a mess.
The elves were…also a mess.
North looked at the group of crumb covered, frosting smeared, beaten-up group standing before him and ran a hand over his face. All he had told them was to make a couple trays of Christmas cookies, and here they were, standing in the middle of the kitchen staring at the man in red with surprised expressions on their faces. Cookie dough was splattered everywhere, and frosting was painted against the appliances, walls, and floors. The smell of burning cookies lingered in the air, and North could see that one of the elves was holding a fire extinguisher. A fire extinguisher!
North turned back to the group before him and Jack avoided North's gaze. Bunny scratched the back of his head, also wearing a somewhat guilty and embarrassed expression. North sighed and crossed his arms, taping his booted foot against the black and white checkered floor. His taps echoed in the tense silence.
"Vhat…happened?" asked North slowly. And as he predicted, Jack, Bunny, and the elves began blaming each other for the mess. The ex-Cossack held up his hands and the room silenced immediately. North turned to the teenage winter spirit, and Jack fiddled with his staff under North's look.
"Jack," said North. The winter spirit looked up at him. "Vhat happened here?"
Jack began to fiddle with his hoodie strings. "Well…it's a funny story actually…"
Bunny snorted incredulously. "Funny? Funny?! Ya were the one who dragged us all into this mess!"
Jack scoffed. "I did not! You were the one who suggested we have this stupid competition in the first place!"
"That was ya, mate!" shouted Bunny.
"Competition?" asked North. Both the Pooka and winter teen turned to the large man. "Vhat competition? All I asked was for Jack to help elves make cookies. Vhat are you doing here, Bunny?"
Bunny laughed nervously. "That, mate, is also a long story…"
"He came for carrots," said Jack blatantly. He glared at the six-foot-tall rabbit. "And he just had to come and make fun of my cooking."
Bunny crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "Ya were doin' wrong! Ya weren't even followin' the recipe—"
"I was improvising!" Jack burst out. "Besides, it was about time the Christmas cookies received some kind of new flavor and look!"
And once again, Bunny, Jack, and the elves began to quarrel. North sighed. He didn't think that Jack would have trouble helping the elves out with the baking in the kitchen. The winter spirit had already been doing a lot to help out the ex-Cossack during the holiday season, and Jack was more than happy to accept North's task of helping out in the kitchen. North was walking around the Workshop monitoring the construction of multiple toys and was in the middle of helping a yeti finish up a dollhouse when he heard the cacophonous clamor from the kitchen. It had started with the simple sound of plates, bowls, and other utensils crashing. And then it turned into yelling, screaming, and the all too familiar sound of a smoke alarm. North dashed to the kitchen to see what was going on, which resulted in him finding the six-foot Pooka, the 317-year-old winter spirit, and a large group of elves standing in the middle of the cluttered kitchen.
North watched, slight exasperation in his blue eyes as the group in front of him argued. The ex-Cossack once again raised his hands and the room quieted once again.
"Jack, vhat happened?" asked North. He wanted the kitchen to get cleaned up, but first, he wanted to find out what had led to the giant mess in the cooking area. "Start from beginning to end."
Jack sighed and leaned on his staff. "As I said before, Bunny came by to get some carrots right when I was starting to help the elves make a batch of cookies…"
…
Jack smiled joyfully as he placed a large bag of flour on the table in front of him. The winter spirit looked over all the ingredients for Christmas cookies and pulled on the red apron that he had grabbed from one of the pegs at the kitchen entrance. Jack rubbed his hands together and turned to the elves that were standing on the table, looking at him curiously.
"North sent me to help you guys out in here," explained Jack. "So, where do we start?"
The elves looked at each other and then pointed to the large array of ingredients sitting in front of the winter spirit. Jack blinked.
"Oh, right. I guess we start here," said Jack. The winter teen picked up a bowl and realized that he didn't exactly know how to make Christmas cookies. Jack remembered making several things with his mother while he was still human, but he wasn't as good a chef as she was, and Jack often burned things back when he would cook for his family. Jack placed the bowl back down onto the counter and turned to the elves.
"Guessing that you guys have this cookie recipe committed to memory, do you mind showing me how you make them?" asked Jack. The elves shrugged and leapt off of the counter and Jack watched as they opened a cupboard and pulled out a large, dusty looking book. The elves shoved the worn book in Jack's direction, and the winter spirit set aside his wooden staff and took it. Jack brushed some dust off of the cover and opened the book, revealing several different recipes for many different Christmas meals and regular ones. There was eggnog, Christmas cookies, fruitcake, and more. Jack licked his lips at the sight of the pictures. Everything looked absolutely delicious.
Jack flipped through the pages and eventually came to the recipe for Christmas cookies and smiled. All he had to do was do what the cookbook said, and he and the elves would be done with the required batch of cookies in no time!
"Thanks, guys. This will make things a lot easier," said Jack with a grateful smile. The elves gave Jack a grin in return and left to make their own batch of cookies. Jack placed the book in the middle of the table and read over the recipe. Since he already had the required ingredients, Jack only needed to put them together.
"Okay, first, crack the eggs. Simple enough," said Jack to himself. He picked up an egg and tapped it against the edge of the bowl. The egg cracked but it slipped out of Jack's hand, and the entire contents of the egg spilled into the bowl; eggshells and all. Jack huffed.
"Okay, so this is not as simple as I hoped it would be," said Jack. The winter spirit washed out the bowl and tried again. This time, the egg cracked open perfectly and Jack tossed the eggshell to the side. Jack cracked two more eggs and turned back to the cookbook. Jack followed the recipe the best he could, and he found that making cookies was definitely not as easy as he'd hoped it would. Jack accidentally put in too much flour and salt, and the winter spirit knocked too much milk into the bowl. Jack thought that the extra ingredients wouldn't make a difference, so he tossed in the chocolate chips, took out a spoon and placed the batter on a cookie sheet and then shoved it into the oven. Jack closed the oven and turned it on, then sat down on a chair and waited.
A little while later, Bunny walked into the kitchen and was surprised to find Jack there. The winter spirit was currently making a tiny snowman on the counter and seemed very engrossed in his work. Bunny crept onto Jack and then tapped his shoulder, making the winter teen nearly fall out of his chair.
"Bunny? What?" exclaimed Jack as he straightened himself out. "What are you doing here?"
Bunny shrugged. "I ran out of carrots."
Jack raised an eyebrow. "So, you're here to steal from North?"
Bunny rolled his eyes. "No, ya drongo. North lets me take his carrots all the time."
"But can't you just grow your own?" asked Jack as he watched Bunny walk to the fridge. "You have the entire Warren and spring magic at your fingertips."
Bunny shrugged. "Taking from North's fridge is faster," he said. The Pooka pulled out a bundle of carrots and began chomping on one. He swallowed and then asked, "What are ya doin' in the kitchen?"
"Baking," replied Jack.
"Baking?" repeated Bunny. He leaned against the wall. "Ya can cook?"
Jack shrugged. "Kind of? I mean, it's not like I'm horrible at it. Besides, North wouldn't ask me to help out with the Christmas cookies if he knew that I couldn't cook."
"Ya know North is famous for his assumptions," said Bunny. "He's probably assuming that ya can cook."
"I can cook," said Jack with a slight frown. The oven then dinged, and Jack got up to take the cookies out of the oven. Jack slipped on an oven mitt and pulled the sheet of cookies out and placed them on the countertop. The chocolate chip cookies were misshapen and didn't exactly come out the way Jack wanted them to.
Bunny picked up a cookie and eyed it suspiciously before popping it into his mouth. The Pooka's eyes widened, and he quickly grabbed a cup and filled it with water and chugged it down. Bunny gasped and pointed at the tray of cookies. "Those taste horrible!"
Jack's brow furrowed and he frowned. "Wow, thanks."
"It's true, mate. And they're as hard as rocks. How do ya expect people to consume those? Let alone swallow 'em!"
Jack pulled off the oven mit. "Hey, this is my first time actually making something in a kitchen. I just did what the recipe said!"
"And did the recipe say to put poison in yer cookies?" asked Bunny.
"Hey! They can't be that bad!" exclaimed Jack. The winter spirit picked up a cookie and shoved it into his mouth. Jack chewed and realized that Bunny was right. The cookie was thick and hard, and the flavor was downright terrible. Jack coughed and grabbed a cup of water as well, swallowing it down just as quick as Bunny had.
"See? I was tellin' the truth," Bunny said.
Jack swallowed his water and glared at Bunny. "You could've been a little less harsh."
"I wasn't bein' harsh, I was being truthful," said Bunny.
Jack crossed his arms. "And dissing my cooking makes you truthful? Says the Kangaroo who doesn't want to grow his own carrots."
Bunny was highly offended by that. "I can grow my own carrots when I want ta, mate."
"Then why don't you do that now instead of stealing from your North?" asked Jack with a smirk.
Bunny pointed a furry finger at Jack's direction. "Look, mate. All I said was that yer cookin' could use some work."
Jack snorted incredulously. "Excuse me, from what I recall, you said that my cookies were terrible and were harder than rocks."
Bunny crossed his arms. "Exactly. Yer cookin' needs work."
Jack rolled his eyes and decided this time to make actual Christmas cookies instead of chocolate chip. The winter spirit began putting together the ingredients for cookie dough, and Bunny kept on correcting his every move.
"That's too many eggs, mate," said Bunny after Jack cracked a fifth egg into the bowl.
"So?" asked Jack.
"So, yer cookies aren't gonna come out right," Bunny said. "Ya should've stuck with three."
"These are my cookies and I'm gonna make them the way I want to," said Jack firmly. Bunny shrugged and continued to watch the young spirit as he continued to make the cookie dough. Jack pulled out a few different cookie cutters and began to cut out different shapes in the dough. Jack then placed the Christmas tree, gingerbread, snowmen, and holly shapes onto a cookie tray, and then pushed it into the oven. Bunny was still watching.
"Don't you have other things to do than watch me bake?" asked Jack.
Bunny shook his head. "Not really."
Jack frowned, a little irritated with the Pooka but perked up when the oven dinged again. Jack put on the oven mitt and pulled out the cookies and placed them on the counter again. They didn't come out any better than the last batch. In fact, they looked worse than the last. The elves placed their tray of cookies next to Jack's, and their's looked much better than the winter spirit's. Jack frowned as Bunny laughed.
"So, the elves can do better than Frostbite?" said Bunny, as he slapped his knee. "Oh, crikey, this is good!"
Jack crossed his arms. "And what about you? Can you make cookies?"
"Oh, ya don't want ta challenge me in cookin', mate," Bunny said. "Ya'll just bring yerself down."
"Will I? Or are you just scared to admit that my cooking is better than yours?" said Jack with an impish smirk.
Bunny straightened up. "I sense a challenge."
"I do too," said Jack. "Two batches of cookies."
"If I win, ya have ta wear those shoes North tried ta give ya," Bunny said with a competitive smirk.
Jack cringed slightly but regained his normal composure. "And if I win, you'll have to admit that Christmas is better than Easter in front of North—"
"That isn't so bad," interrupted Bunny.
"You didn't let me finish, Kangaroo," said Jack, the familiar gleam of mischief in his eye. "You'll have to admit that Christmas is better than Easter in front of North, the others, and to the other immortals and spirits at the upcoming Christmas party."
Bunny's ears flattened against his head. Even the elves seemed surprised by what Bunny would have to do if he lost. He did not want to blatantly say that Christmas was better than Easter. The Pooka knew that Easter was definitely better than Christmas and would never in a million years say otherwise. Besides, North himself admitted that Easter was more important than Christmas during the battle with Pitch, and Bunny had not let North forget what he said that day for weeks after the Boogeyman's defeat.
"So, do you accept the challenge or what?" asked Jack. Bunny smiled and shook Jack's hand.
"Challenge accepted, mate," Bunny said. "But don't feel bad if ya lose."
"Same to you," said Jack. And the cookie baking competition began. Jack and Bunny rushed to reach five cookie batches as fast as they could, and Jack—even thought he would never admit it out loud—knew that Bunny had a higher chance of winning. The winter spirit had messed up two batches of cookies and knowing that Bunny wasn't going to play easy on him, Jack tried his best to subtly replicate what Bunny was doing.
Jack watched as Bunny followed the recipe step by step, so Jack tried his best to do the same. The recipe wasn't hard to read; it was doing what the recipe said that was difficult for the winter spirit. Jack stuck his tongue out in concentration as he poured the necessary amount of flour into the bowl. Jack set aside the bag and read the next step but jerked his head up when he saw Bunny with a sheet of Christmas cookies making his way to the oven.
"What?" spluttered Jack. "You're already putting your cookies in the oven?"
"Yep," said Bunny as he shut the oven. "Which means ya better hurry up."
And Jack did hurry up. Maybe a little too much, though. The winter teen skimmed over the recipe a little too quickly and missed several ingredient measurements. Jack's dough turned out slimy, but he still used the cutters to create Christmas shapes from the dough and placed the shapes on a cookie sheet and shoved it into the oven under Bunny's. The elves soon came as well, placing their own batch of perfectly cut cookies into the oven as well. Jack closed the oven and then turned to Bunny, who was pulling out another bowl.
"What are you doing now?" asked Jack.
"Makin' the icin''," replied Bunny. He turned to Jack. "What do ya think makes the cookies look so Christmas-y?"
Jack felt slightly embarrassed that he asked such a simple question, but he pulled out a bowl as well and flipped to the icing recipe, which wasn't as intermediate as the cookie recipe. In fact, it was much easier. All the winter spirit had to do was mix some water, sugar, food coloring, and a few other ingredients at a slow pace to create the icing. Jack created three bowls of different colored icing. One bowl contained red icing, another bowl contained green icing, and the last bowl contained white icing.
The oven dinged, indicating that the cookies were done. The elves took out their cookies first and Jack took out his second. The winter spirit was surprised to find that they didn't turn out so bad and proudly took them to the counter to ice them. Bunny was the last to take out his batch of cookies, and Jack noticed that the Pooka's looked slightly better than his. Jack decided that once his cookies were iced, that they would look even better than Bunny's.
But before icing the cookies, Jack and Bunny made their second batch of cookies and shoved them in the oven. The two were trying their best to beat the other, but competition often gets in the way of focus.
"Scared you're going to lose, Kangaroo?" asked Jack with a smirk. "You look a little tight."
"The only thing that's gonna be tight here mate is those shoes once they're on yer feet," Bunny retorted. He reached for Jack's bowl of green icing, but the winter spirit pulled it out of the Pooka's reach.
"What do you think you're doing?" asked Jack. "This is my icing."
Bunny frowned. "So? I ran out of green icin'. I just need to borrow some."
"We're in competition. You can't 'borrow' from me," said Jack profoundly.
Bunny reached for the bowl of green icing once again, but Jack pulled it out of the way. The two began to fight over the icing filled bowl, which drew their attention away from the now burning cookies in the oven. Jack shot a blast of ice at Bunny's paw, but the Pooka quickly dodged.
"Oi!" shouted Bunny. "Ya can't ice people in the kitchen!"
"Who said you make the rules here?" asked Jack. He held the bowl possessively. "This is my bowl."
Bunny lunged for the bowl once again and Jack flew out of the way, causing Bunny to crash into the elves' bowls of cookie dough and batter. The bowls flew into the air and the batter splattered all over the walls, appliances, and counters. Cookie dough stuck adhesively to the ceiling and managed to get onto Jack and Bunny. The two didn't pay any mind to the mess that they were slowly creating, and the scent of burning cookies still went unnoticed. Black smoke began to pour out of the oven.
"Just let me borrow the bloody icin'!" yelled Bunny as he jumped to grab Jack.
Jack smirked. "If you say so," and the winter spirit dumped the entire contents of the bowl on top of Bunny. The six-foot tall Pooka gasped at the sudden feeling of icing rolling all over his fur, and Jack laughed from above.
Bunny's eyes narrowed and he snatched Jack's red bowl of icing and splashed it onto the laughing winter teen. Jack wiped icing off of his face, irritation flashing in his blue eyes.
"Oh, it's on," said Jack. He grabbed the last bowl of icing right when Bunny took one of the elves' bowls of batter and the two started to toss icing, cookie batter, and dough at each other. The elves, who were watching the fight in amusement, soon began to join into the food brawl, screaming and throwing icing, batter, dough, flour, and any cookie ingredient that they could get their little hands on. The kitchen erupted into chaos as Jack and Bunny ran around the room, throwing batter and icing at each other, and the elves weaved in and out of their feet, also tossing cookie ingredients at each other. The oven was still smoking with the burning cookies inside them, and it wasn't until Bunny sniffed the air when he realized that the cookies were still in the oven. The Pooka turned to the oven and his eyes widened.
"Oh, crikey, the cookies are burnin'!" Bunny exclaimed. Jack landed next to him, his eyes wide with surprise and he quickly pulled the oven open, only to be met with three trays of cookies that were on fire! Jack stepped back, running his hands through his snowy hair.
"Oh crap!" Jack shouted. "What do we do? What do we do?!"
"Put the bloody fire out!" Bunny exclaimed. He turned to the elves. "Somebody grab a fire extinguisher!"
Two elves ran out of the kitchen and Bunny and Jack tried dumping cups of water onto the burning cookies. It wasn't until the third cup that Jack realized something.
"Wait a minute…I…have ice powers," Jack said slowly. He grinned brightly and turned to Bunny. "I have ICE POWERS!"
Bunny didn't have time to respond because at that moment, Jack froze everything inside of the oven. The fire dissipated immediately, but the smoke alarm was still going off. The two elves returned with a fire extinguisher and began to spray at the oven, even though they weren't on fire. Bunny had to yank the extinguisher out of the elves' hands and he handed it to an elf who was standing on the countertop. Both Jack and Bunny looked around at the mess around them, and the two stared back at each other.
"We're gonna be in so much trouble," said Jack.
"Not me," said Bunny. "This was yer idea."
Jack squawked. "You're the one who marched in here and criticized my cooking!"
"I wasn't criticizing I was giving constructive criticism!" Bunny shot back.
"By saying my cookies are harder than rocks?!" Jack yelled. And once again, the two began to quarrel once again. It wasn't long until North appeared in the doorway, and both Bunnymund and Jack Frost turned to face the ex-Cossack, who had his arms crossed and an upset expression on his face.
"Vhat…happened?" he asked.
…
"And that brings us to now," said Jack as he gestured to the rest of the room. A glob of batter fell from the ceiling and landed on top of the winter spirit's head. Jack grumbled and tried to brush the sticky substance out of his hair. "This is all Bunny's fault."
Bunny snapped his head in Jack's direction. "Now wait just a tic—!"
North stepped between the two of them before they could get into an argument. "This iz both your faults," he said. "Jack, you should not have proposed competition, and Bunny, you should have known better than to make fun of Jack's cooking."
Bunny and Jack hung their heads and sighed. "Sorry, North…"
"Iz not me you should be apologizing to," said North. "You two, apologize to each other and then clean up this mess. I need elves in Workshop."
North left the room with the elves following behind him. Jack and Bunny looked at each other.
"Sorry for critizin' yer cookin', mate," said Bunny with a remorseful look on his face.
"And I'm sorry for starting the sill competition," said Jack. He held out a flour covered hand. "Truce?"
Bunny smiled and shook Jack's hand. "Truce." The Pooka then looked around at the giant mess and sighed. "This is gonna take forever."
Jack shrugged. "Then we best get started, Kangaroo." Another glob of cookie batter fell from the ceiling, this time, landing on Bunny's head. Jack laughed.
"Har, har, laugh it up, mate," said Bunny. "But we need ta get this mess cleaned up."
"Yeah, yeah, I know," said Jack. "And let's start with the ceiling. I'm going to scream if another glob of cookie batter falls onto my head."
The cleanup took two hours, but the kitchen was left spick and span. Jack and Bunny examined the kitchen proudly.
"Next time ya try ta bake, come get me and I'll teach ya some pointers," said Bunny.
"Really?" asked Jack in slight surprise.
Bunny ruffled his hair. "Really. Ya up for a race around Santoff Claussen?"
Jack picked up his staff from where it was leaning against the wall and smiled. "Race starts now!" he shouted, and he dashed out of the kitchen before Bunny had a chance to respond. The Pooka bounded out of the kitchen with a smile on his face, following the winter spirit not too far behind.
Author's Note: Ah, some brotherly Jack and Bunny sibling rivalry always makes me laugh. =D I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you tomorrow for the next one! =)
Until the next chapter!
-BeyondTheMoon1203
