A/N: My computer was being stupid yesterday, so please forgive this one for being late. You'll still get all seven stories, I promise.

This story is for lizren.

Christmas Cookies

"What the hell is all this? Who knew you needed so much stupid stuff just to make a couple damn cookies?!"

Mello sat perched on a stool in the kitchen at Wammy's House, white apron clad around his waist, bold against his black clothes as he paged through a cookbook, a scowl firmly set in place. Near glanced back at him from his place in the fridge, sighing to himself slightly as he dug out the things they needed.

"Be quiet, Mello," he admonished, his arms full of various ingredients as he made his way to the counter. Depositing his load, he looked over Mello's shoulder, trying to read. "What's next?"

"You got the butter and eggs and chocolate chips?" Mello asked, his eyes flicking over the text. Near nodded.

"And the flour, salt, sugar, and vanilla," Near added, toneless as Mello glanced over, double-checking

"Good. I think with the amount of stuff we have, we can at least make a few batches. That should be good, knowing L's sweet tooth." Mello went to the oven, spinning the dial, watching as the flames leaped up inside.

"Do you really think this is such a good idea, Mello?" Near asked, watching the other motionlessly. "Neither of us has ever baked anything before..."

"Shut up, Near. Of course it's a good idea." Mello moved back to the counter, handing Near a large mixing bowl, keeping another for himself. "L loves sweets, right? And what better sweets to make for him than Christmas cookies this time of year?"

"We could-"

"NO, Near, you're wrong. There are no better sweets we could make for him. Period. End of story. Now, hand me two eggs."

"Mello, I-"

"What're you guys doing?"

Mello and Near both whirled around, startled, to see Matt leaning in the doorway, a lollipop in his mouth an intrigued expression on his face. He blinked, expectant, clearly waiting for an answer. Mello's eyes narrowed imperceptibly.

"What's it look like we're doing?" he retorted, just as Near answered simply, "We're making cookies for L." Mello turned, shooting the smaller boy a glare.

"You're making cookies?" Matt moved closer, intrigued. "I didn't know either of you two knew how to bake..."

"We don't," Mello said matter-of-factly. "But you told me before that you had, and that it wasn't hard, so Near and I won't have any problem and are bound to make it work."

Matt blinked. "Well, yeah, but if you've never done it before-"

"No buts, Matt! Shut up! We're fine! Near, what's the recipe say we need first?" Mello's tone was demanding, from a self-assumed authority, and he'd plucked a wooden spoon from the band of his apron, waving it around like a baton.

"You're wearing an apron?" Matt said incredulously, raising an eyebrow. Mello ignored him.

"Crack two eggs. Separate the whites and put them into your mixing bowl, disposing of the rest," Near read aloud. Matt moved over to read over Near's shoulder, curious.

"Sounds easy enough," Mello said, expertly cracking an egg, dividing the yolk from the rest. "What's next?"

"Add your oil and water," Matt read. "Mix thoroughly, beating if nec- Near!"

Mello turned quickly to see Near start to dump a cup of oil into his bowl. "No, you fool!" Moving quickly, Mello managed to grab a hold of Near's wrist, suspending it over the bowl. Near turned to look up at him, his eyes emotionless.

"Why not?" he asked tonelessly. "That's what the book said to do."

Mello scowled, still holding onto Near. "Those aren't the egg whites, you goon."

Near blinked and looked down at the cracked eggshells in his bowl, sitting there alone. He looked at them for a long moment, blinking, before looking back up at Mello again.

"Those were the only white parts of the egg," Near informed him. "Everything else was either yellow or opaque."

Mello looked at him incredulously. "Have you never worked with eggs before?!" he demanded. "The white's the clear runny part, you fool!"

Near just blinked at him. "How was I supposed to know?"

Matt sniggered. Mello shot him a glare.

"Just- get another two eggs, Near" Mello said, annoyed. "Put the runny parts in this time, though."

Near's lips twitched. "I can't."

"What?" Mello looked at him oddly. "Why not?!"

"You need to let go first, Mello."

Rather belatedly, Mello realized he was still holding onto Near's wrist, poised above the bowl. Flushing, he dropped it, scowling and muttering to himself. "Matt, what's next?"

"What, now I'm drafted into helping you?" Matt asked, digging through the fridge for something. "I thought I was supposed to shut up."

"Ugh, whatever Matt." Mello went over to the cookbook again, searching for their place. "Add the dry ingredients and mix until a firm dough is formed." He glanced at the stuff on the counter. "So the flour and sugar and stuff are the dry ones?"

"No, Mello," Matt said, smirking as he cut something on a cutting board across the room. "Clearly, flour is a wet ingredient. Can't you just see the water in it?"

Near blinked. "Really?"

"No. Shut up, Matt. No one asked for your sarcasm. Don't listen to him, Near." Setting about getting his own ingredients ready, Mello paused to puzzle over which jar was the salt and which was the sugar.

"How much flour, Mello?"

"Two cups, Near," Mello said, examining the jars. How was he supposed to tell the difference?

"A big cup or a little cup?"

"What? Just a normal cup, Near," Mello said distractedly, opening the jars. Why didn't the kitchen staff pout labels on these stupid things?

"Near, I-"

"Matt," Mello interrupted him, turning. "Which one of these is the sugar?"

Matt shrugged. "Buggered if I know," he said. "They both look the same to me."

Mello rolled his eyes, exasperated. "Some elite baker-person you are," he said, picking one at random and dumping the required amount in. "Can't even tell the difference between salt and sugar..."

Matt's lips twitched. "Then again, neither can you," he said casually, amused. "But at least I would've thought to taste one of them first to find out..."

Mello blinked, looking down at the heap of the ingredients in his bowl. "Oh."

"This one's the sugar, right?" Near asked, sticking his finger into one of the jars. "Yeah. You can tell. The crystals of sugar are larger than those of salt."

Mello had forgotten which one he'd thought was the sugar. "Really?" he asked.

"Yeah. Here, try."

"Wha-"

Mello's voice was abruptly cut off as he suddenly found Near's finger in his mouth, coated in sweet. His eyes widened as Near looked at him, clearly expectant. He blinked, flushing, before slowly licking the sugar off of Near's finger, unsure why Near had done such a thing. Near smiled.

"See? Sugar." Near pulled his finger from Mello's mouth, examining it. "You missed some," he remarked, popping the wet finger into his own mouth and sucking on it, holding Mello's darkening gaze.

"Ah- whatever," Mello said, tearing his eyes away. "Use that one, then. When you're done, be sure to mix in the chocolate chips."

"All right."

Matt was grinning, Mello noticed, putting something of his own into an over across the room. "What?" Mello asked, watching his expression. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing." Matt shut the oven, amused. "You just seemed to rather enjoy that sugar, Mello," he teased, his eyes dancing. "Do you want to suck on my finger, too?"

Mello reddened, his face flushing. "Shut up, Matt," he said shortly. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Whatever you say, Mello," Matt said, still wearing his ambiguous little smile. Annoyed, Mello turned away, stirring his mixture viciously with his spoon.

"Mello? Mine's not mixing right..."

Mello turned to look at Near, who was looking back at him with wide eyes, his hands in his bowl, a group of several cups and glasses beside him.

"Near! Don't mix with your hands!" He quickly handed him a spoon, but Near only looked at him, blinking.

"Why not? I washed them..."

"Ugh, whatever Near." Mello's gaze traveled over to the heap of stuff sitting in Near's bowl, clearly way too much of everything for just a single batch of cookies. "Umm, Near? Just how much of everything did you use?"

"Two cups of flour, a cup of sugar, and a quarter cup of salt," Near said promptly, reciting from memory as his hands mixed the dry dough. "The sugar cup was bigger than the flour cup, though, so there was more of that..."

"Wait, what?" Mello blinked. "...bigger?"

Near nodded, gesturing to the assortment of drinking glasses to the side. "The blue one's the one I used for sugar. I used the red one for flour, as I didn't want to mess up the measurements if anything was still stuck to the inside of the cup..."

"Near! You already messed it up! A cup of something is a set value! They don't literally mean a cup!" Mello grabbed the measuring cup from beside his bowl and shoved it at Near. "See?!"

Near blinked. "That's a very small cup," he said.

"It's- you- I- oh, forget it!" Mello raged, turning back to his own batter, attacking it with a vengeance. "Just add some more water or oil or eggs or something to give you enough liquid to make the dough with."

"Oh," Near said. The smaller boy went to the fridge, and Mello rolled his eyes, turning back to his own, folding his chocolate chips into the mix. He relaxed slightly as he heard Near cracking more eggs and pouring in more water and such. Perhaps this situation could still be salvaged somewhat...

"Mello? It's too sticky now..."

Turning once more, Mello took in the sight of Near's hands buried in a slushy mush, a layer of water and egg slime floating on the top of what looked like soaked white sand as Near looked at him, blinking blankly. As Matt started to laugh from behind him, Mello could swear he saw red, as he began to shake with barely-suppressed rage.

By the time the cookies were finally in the oven and cooking, Mello had fixed Near's dough to be relatively the right consistency, cleaned everything up, including Near's hands, hit his head off of the fridge ceiling twice, and nearly screamed aloud. Finally, though, the scent of something sweet-smelling baking filtered into the room, and Mello relaxed, glad that the ordeal was almost done.

"I think they're done," Near said, peering into the over. "They're a golden brown, like it says in the book, and the timer's almost done."

Matt glanced over from arranging something on a plate across the room. "He's probably right, Mello," he commented. "You might want to take them out before they burn."

Sighing, stretching a bit, Mello went to the over to remove the cookies, reminding Near not to touch the over door as it was hot. He set the try down to cool on the stove top, looking at his own slightly-odd looking cookies and Near's misshapen attempts.

"Do we get to try them?" Near asked, peering at the cookies. "I want to try one."

"Of course, Near," Matt said, smiling at him. "How else would you two know if they're any good?"

Mello scowled at him. "I don't need to try my cookies," he informed him. "I know they're good. I wasn't the one who put six eggs in mind."

Matt smiled at him, as if sharing an inside joke with himself. "I think you should try them anyway, Mello," he said, amused. "See you around."

Mello watched as Matt left the kitchen, raising an eyebrow. He didn't think his cookies would be any good, did he? Well, he'd show him.

"Near, let's try them now," Mello told him, grabbing a spatula and lifting one of each kind off of the tray. He handed Near his own, lifting his own to his mouth. "Enjoy."

Watching as Near bit into his cookie, Mello did the same. He blinked, chewing once, before blinking, chewing again, and stopping.

His cookie... did not taste very good. It did not taste very good at all. It reminded him of the time he'd tried eating play dough when he was little, and it was not a very good memory at all.

Dashing to the wastebasket, he spit the salty cookie out, making a face. Near looked at him, blinking, munching on his own sticky cookie.

"Did you use salt instead of sugar?" he asked. "Matt said that you might have..."

"Shut up, Near," Mello said, grimacing. "Let me try one of yours."

Near shrugged, handing him one, and Mello bit into it, nearly gagging as an eggy and oily taste overwhelmed his mouth. Running to the sink, Mello spit it out, and grabbed Near's cookie from his hand that threw it in there as well. Near blinked.

"...Mello? What's wrong?"

"We can't give these to L!" Mello despaired, wringing his head. "These cookies are terrible! L would think we were trying to poison him! He'd hate us! And have Roger throw us out on the street to starve and die! With only these toxic cookies to eat!"

Near blinked. "That wouldn't be very good."

Mello shot him a look. "No kidding," he muttered.

Near shrugged. "So what do we do with them?" he asked, ever unfazed. "We have to do something with them, if we can't give them to L..."

"Throw them out, I guess," Mello said reluctantly. "It seems like such a waste, though... after all the work we put into them..." He picked up his tray and walked to the rubbish bin slowly, like a funeral march. "They're not edible enough to do anything else..."

Mello let his cookies fall off his tray into the the garbage to be followed by Near's, where he looked down at them forlornly for a long moment, before sighing.

"Come on, Near," he said sadly, tossing their trays back into their place. "Let's go. We can try to make something else for L another day..."

Near looked up at Mello with wide eyes, twirling his hair as Mello left the room dejectedly. Mello heard Near's socked feet pattering after him into the dining room, hallway, and then into the Main Room, his eyes firmly fixed depressingly on the floor, only to hear a very familiar voice.

"Mello! Near! Thank you so much!"

Mello looked up to see L beaming at them, munching on something, smiling widely. His eyes widened at the shock of suddenly seeing L so abruptly, and he remained speechless for such a long moment that Near spoke up first.

"Thank us for what?" Near asked, blinking up at the man. L smiled.

"For the cookies, of course!" he said, picking Near up in his arms and swinging him around. Near smiled a bit, almost laughing in the other man's arms. Mello stared.

"But- but- the cookies we made- they were terrible- horrid- crap-"

L blinked. "I think they're rather good." He reached down to the coffee table and took another cookie, a perfectly-shaped treat with the imprint of a Christmas tree on it, and bit into it. Mello gaped.

"But- but we- the cookies- how did you know we-?"

"Matt told me," L smiled, munching, ruffling Mello's hair. "He pointed out the plate of cookies you two had made for me on the coffee table and told me that you two were still in the kitchen, cleaning up. I didn't think you'd mind if I tried them before you came..."

Mello's mind flashed back to seeing Matt fooling around in the kitchen whilst he and Near had been mucking with their own attempts at cookies; Matt taking something from the fridge, hearing cutting it, smelling something in the over before their own had started to back, seeing Pillsbury wrappers in the rubbish bin when he'd thrown his cookies out...

It all made sense...

Instinctively, Mello turned around to look for Matt, his eyes finding him looking at him from down the hall, halfway hidden by the wall in the shadows, a soft smile on his face.

"Merry Christmas," he mouthed to Mello, before vanishing around the corner for good, presumably going to his room. Mello gaped after him for a second, before turning to look back up at L. L smiled down at him.

"I really like the cookies," L told him, eating another one. "But I feel so bad... I didn't make anything for you two at all..."

Mello smiled slightly, to himself. "It's nothing," he said, looking away, watching through the window as the snow started to fall. "After all, Christmas is a time to be selfless, isn't it?"

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This one was a bit longer, I think. Did you like the story? What did you think? Please, review and let me know!