TITLE: Christmas Cookie Chaos

AUTHOR: LOTSlover

CHARACTERS: Batman / Wonder Woman

RATING: T

WARNINGS: Author Chooses Not to Use Warnings

DISCLAIMER: I love Justice League, but especially Batman and Wonder Woman. Unfortunately, I do not own the characters and, if I did, things would be much different for them.

SUMMARY: Diana's attempt at Christmas cookies doesn't go quite as planned…or does it?

Christmas Cookie Chaos

"Vanilla…sugar…baking soda…baking powder…salt," Diana murmured to herself as she reviewed the recipe.

Making her way to the cupboard, she pulled out all the ingredients that Alfred had picked up for her solo adventure into the realm of baking. He had been such a dear to entrust his beloved kitchen to her while he was away visiting family in England over the holidays.

She was determined to make this a Christmas filled with good memories for Bruce, hoping to make some new traditions that would help him enjoy the holiday for once instead of dreading it every year. With any luck, she'd also find a way to reach his heart.

While she was still furious with him for crashing the Watchtower, it had turned out to be a turn of good fortune, leading her to her temporary residency in Wayne Manor. It had allowed her to spend more time with Bruce outside of the Justice League, seeing each other for who they really are outside of the uniforms that they wore.

The kiss in the Indian restaurant had further stirred up the feelings that had been steadily growing for him since meeting the elusive Dark Knight of Gotham, living with him only cementing those feelings. She believed that he had felt something too, especially if the way that he had returned her kiss was any indication.

Her lips quirked as she thought about that heated kiss while on the run from the Thanagarians. It hadn't lasted nearly long enough as far as she was concerned, making her anxious to revisit the intimacy that they had shared. Hopefully, the Christmas treat she was making him would help her in that endeavor.

She carefully began putting the ingredients into the large mixing bowl that Alfred had set out for her to use along with the butter, anxious to get making the cookies. He had left her a variety of Christmas cookie cutters to chose from. While Christmas wasn't a holiday that she was accustomed to celebrating, she knew enough about it to get herself through this quest of hers without any further assistance.

"Two and a half cups of flour…but I'm doubling the recipe, so it would be five cups of flour," she said to herself.

Turning her attention to the large bag of flour that Alfred had gotten for her, Diana attempted to rip open the top of the bag only for the bag to completely split apart, flour flying everywhere including on her. Greek curses filled the kitchen, mingling with the flour that permeated the air.

She was usually better about tempering her strength, but her excitement had gotten the better of her, creating an explosion of flour. Huffing a stray raven curl out of her line of sight, she did her best to brush the flour to the side on the countertop to give her room to work.

"That's definitely more than five cups," she grumbled to herself as she began measuring up the ingredient from the enormous mountain of flour on the countertop.

"Now, I need eggs," she decided, wiping her floury hands on her jeans as she headed towards the refrigerator.

Setting the carton of eggs on the countertop, she cracked the first egg only for the shell to fall directly into the bowl with the other ingredients. A scowl formed on her face as she carefully picked out the fallen bits of eggshell before grabbing the second egg.

She didn't understand how this could be such a difficult task. She was an Amazon warrior after all. She had faced more than her fair share of villains and disasters, taking on the worst that the world had to offer, but she found that trying to make cookies was proving to be the biggest battle of her life. People all over the world made cookies all the time. How could it possibly be this difficult…or this messy?

Blowing another curly lock of hair out of her face, she turned her attention back to the recipe that she had printed off the internet. The recipe clearly stated, "Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe" across the top. Then why in Tartarus was it proving to be so hard?

"Okay, Diana," she murmured to herself, drawing a calming breath and releasing it slowly. "You can do this. You're an Amazon for Hera's sake."

Taking another egg, her commlink suddenly went off, her hand tightening around the egg and crushing it as Wally's voice filled her ear. "Hiya, Wondy!" he cheerfully greeted her. "Wanna go see a movie and grab a bite to eat?"

"No, Wally," she ground out as she went to the sink of wash the egg off her hand. "I'm in the middle of something. I'll talk to you later."

"Oookay," Wally replied. "Catch you later."

With a sigh, she returned to the task of breaking another egg, this time only getting half the eggshell in the bowl. Carefully lifting the offending shell out of the bowl, she turned her attention back to her recipe, her hands coming to rest on the flour coated countertop. Flour shot up into the air all over again, creating a white cloud around her.

She coughed as she inhaled flour, deciding it was time to try her hand with the mixer. Putting the mixing bowl in its place, she set the mixer down and hit the button. She cried out her horror as the cookie mixture flew everywhere, holding up her hands in a futile attempt to block the assault.

Closing her eyes, she quickly began pressing buttons in an effort to get it to stop, finally finding the right one. She groaned as she opened her eyes, the mess that she had made growing more disastrous with her every attempt to make Bruce some stupid cookies.

With a growl on her lips, Diana tried again, turning the mixer on at a slower speed. Finally finishing the dough, she took the bowl back over to the counter. "Well, at least I don't need to spread flour all over the counter," she said. "Already been there and done that."

Setting her dough out on the counter, she found the rolling pin and began rolling it out, somewhat pleased with herself. The dough seemed to be rolling out quite nicely, giving her hope that they might actually turn out despite the disastrous turn that things had unfortunately taken.

Grabbing a snowman cookie cutter, she carefully pressed it into the dough, repeating the action until all the dough had been cut out. "There," she muttered, her hands on her hips as she studied her work. "Now, I just have to get them onto the tray without destroying them."

Diana picked up a spatula, doing her best to transfer the snowmen to the cookie tray. Some still looked like snowmen as she put the tray into the oven, others…not so much. She hoped that the frosting and sprinkles would help cover up the flaws in her misshapen snowmen.

Setting the timer on the oven, she readily decided it was time for an iced mocha. She definitely deserved some sort of treat for all the work that she had done to make Bruce cookies. She swore if he didn't appreciate them, she was going to break every bone in his hand and then force feed him every single one of these cookies.

Looking in the refrigerator, she found the ingredients that she needed to make her favorite drink, thankful that Alfred had taught her how to make them not long after moving in here. Grabbing a glass, she quickly whipped up her favorite caffeinated drink, her eyes falling closed and humming in pleasure as she took a sip.

The sound of the buzzer going off alerted her to the fact that her cookies were done. Still possessing some measure of excitement despite the obstacles she'd encountered, she enthusiastically opened the oven door to find them slightly darker than she had hoped, but she just knew she'd do better on the next tray.

Removing the tray to cool, she frowned as she stared at the cookies she'd just made. Some of them somewhat resembled snowmen, others were pretty unrecognizable. She quickly removed them from the tray to the cooling rack, rolling and cutting out another batch of cookies to bake.

"Bruce had better appreciate this," she grumbled under her breath.

This was turning out to be a lot more work than she had first believed it was going to be. "Easy recipe my ass," she cursed, silently thanking Wally for teaching her how to use the term. It seemed most appropriate in this situation.

At least Alfred had the foresight to buy her premade frosting instead of making it herself. While she had been somewhat resistant at first, she was most grateful to him for suggesting it. She wasn't certain she could make it through making her own frosting. Picking up the container, she carefully began frosting each of the cookies, taking her time to make sure they looked perfect…or as perfect as they possibly could look at this point.

The smell of something burning soon captured her attention, causing her to straighten up in shock. "No!" she yelled with widening eyes, running to the oven. "No! No! No!"

Opening the oven door, she found a tray of dark brown cookies staring back at her. With a groan and a pair of sagging shoulders, she took the tray of burnt cookies out, setting them on top of the oven with a huffing curse of overt frustration.

She swore this whole process had been a disaster from start to finish.

Hearing the sound of the front door opening, Diana felt panic flood her system. She quickly grabbed the bottle of red sprinkles, swiftly opening it only for the sprinkles to go flying all over the floor and counter, some of them actually falling on her frosted cookies.

A loud cry of anger emanated from the kitchen, causing Bruce to abruptly stop in the foyer as he was removing his suit jacket. With a frown, he quickly tossed his suit jacket onto a nearby chair before making his way to the kitchen, somewhat worried about what he was going to find.

Entering the kitchen, Bruce was stunned to discover a disheartened Amazon princess leaning on the counter with her arms crossed, her forehead resting on top of her arms. "Do I want to know what happened in here?" he tentatively asked as he took in what typically had always been Alfred's pristine kitchen.

"I happened in here," Diana murmured, her words muffled by the fact her face was on the flour-covered counter.

Bruce bit back a smirk as he made his way towards her, a little perplexed by what had gone on here while he had been at work all day. "What exactly were you trying to do here, princess?" he ventured.

"I was trying to make you Christmas cookies," she lamented, refusing to lift her head to make eye contact with him at that moment. "It was supposed to be a surprise."

"Well, I'm definitely surprised," he reassured her.

"Bruce!" she growled, finally lifting her head to reveal the fact that the disaster hadn't been confined to just the kitchen. Flour covered the majority of her face and clothes. "I wanted to do something special for you for Christmas."

Bruce's expression softened as he noticed the tears that glistened in her bright blue eyes, the flour that was in her hair, streaking her face and clothes, causing his lips to quirk in amusement. "You were doing all of this for me?" he asked, touched by her effort. No one had ever done anything like this for him.

"Yes," she sniffed, wiping away a stray tear with the back of her hand. "I know how hard Christmas is for you and I wanted to make this one extra special, so you'd have happy memories at Christmas for a change."

"Diana…" he softly said with a shake of his head as he stuffed his hands into his pants' pockets, taken aback by the revelation. "I…don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything at all because it didn't turn out," she dejectedly replied, turning her back to him in hopes of keeping him from seeing the finished product. It would only add to her humiliation and she couldn't take that right now.

The feel of his hand on her back caused her enter body to grow tense, her chin falling to her chest. "Can I have one?" he asked, spying the frosted sugar cookies lying on the counter in front of her.

"Please, Bruce…you really don't have to," she attempted to dissuade him. "I don't think they're even edible."

"I'll be the judge of that," he decided, reaching past her to pick up a sugar cookie. "They look really good. What are they? Christmas balls?"

"Snowmen," she groaned as she turned to lean her back against the counter, her head lowered in utter mortification.

Bruce nodded his head, fighting back a grin and finding it next to impossible. "Oh, yes…I see it now."

To say that she was completely endearing at this moment would have been the understatement of the century. He took a bite of the cookie, chewing it thoughtfully as Diana waited with bated breath, worried about what he would say.

"These are pretty good," he told her, popping the rest of the cookie into his mouth.

"Please, Bruce…you don't have to lie to make me feel better," she told him, crossing her arms against her flour-covered t-shirt.

"I'm serious," he replied as he moved to stand directly in front of her. "They weren't half bad. May have been baked a little too long, but they still tasted good."

"Really?" she asked, looking up at him through her long eyelashes.

"Really," he reassured her, his hands coming to rest on her hips. "I just can't believe you went to all this work just for me."

"You're more than worth it, Bruce," she said, lifting her head to gaze into his eyes. "I only want you to have happy memories at Christmas from now on."

"I think I will," he murmured as he dipped his head, his mouth finding hers.

Diana's arms slipped around his neck as she returned his kiss, more than thrilled with the results of her efforts. If she had known this would have happened, she would've destroyed Alfred's kitchen months ago. The thought of cleaning up the mess grew sweeter as the kiss grew more heated.

Retreating for air, Bruce attempted to erase the streaks of flour from her face, the tenderness and love that permeated his eyes causing her breath to catch in her throat. "How about you go take a hot bath and I'll clean up the mess?" he suggested. "Then, I'll take you out for dinner."

"Bruce, you don't have to clean up my mess," she insisted. "It's my fault. I'll clean it up."

"How about we clean it up together?" he decided, kissing the tip of her nose. "I can order our dinner to be delivered and then we can enjoy it by the fire…just the two of us."

"I love that idea," she readily agreed, kissing him senseless.

Bruce reluctantly released his hold on her before it could get any more heated, trying to catch the breath she stole. "The sooner we get this cleaned up the sooner we can eat."

They quickly went to work cleaning the kitchen, both stealing glances at the other as they returned Alfred's kitchen to its usual pristine condition. Finishing with their task, Bruce grabbed a menu as he pulled out his phone to order their dinner.

"Go ahead and get a shower, princess," he told her. "I'll order our dinner."

"Okay," she agreed, pulling her hair out of the ponytail that she'd had it in, pausing to glance at him over her shoulder. "Don't take too long, Bruce. I'll probably need help in the shower getting all the flour out of my hair."

Bruce dropped his phone as he watched her walk away, already beginning to remove her t-shirt as she exited the kitchen. Swiftly picking up his phone, he quickly ordered their dinner before heading towards the stairs that would take him up to her, a grin on his face as he began to remove his tie.

"Merry Christmas to me," he murmured to himself as he quickened his pace.