Booth just stared at Brennan, unsure of what do to or say. His realized he was gaping at her and immediately closed his mouth.
"Sorry. I just… cookbooks are over here." she walked over to the microwave and opened the cupboard above it. "I… don't use them very much. Or really ever." she gave a strange, forced laugh. She averted her eyes, obviously trying to gloss over that awkward moment, so he played along, taking his cues from her.
He clapped his hands, then rubbed them together, remembering his excitement. "Alright, Bones, let's get baking!" He pulled out the first cookbook he saw and flipped it open to the index.
"Cookies, cookies… here we go, chocolate chip. Okay, Bones, do you have flour, baking soda, salt, butter…" he ran down the list of necessary ingredients.
She looked overwhelmed. "Booth, I haven't baked anything since I was nine years old. I don't have over half of those things, at least."
"Okay… let's go, then!" He said excitedly.
"Where?" she asked.
"The grocery store, Bones!"
----
His excitement was contagious. He bounded around the store, happily grabbing boxes and bottles and bags of ingredients and throwing them into the cart. He sang silly little songs to her, danced around the aisles, tried to get her to act like a child with him. Soon she found herself having a lot of fun, she joined in on a few of his songs, accepted his many high-fives, laughed loudly with him. She was amazed at how little she cared about what other people must be thinking of them.
Back at home, they took turns adding ingredients to the mixing bowl. She felt bad about her earlier outburst about the recipe box, so she only laughed when he flung flour in her face, ate chocolate chips by the handful, and turned the music on just a tad too loud.
After the cookies were in the oven, Brennan opened a bottle of red wine (not that Booth needed it, but why not?) and got two wineglasses from the china cabinet.
"There you are, Sir Seeley." she said, pouring him some wine and smiling.
"Why, thank you, Lady Temperance," he said graciously, returning the grin.
The delicious smell of baking cookies filled the room quickly.
"I must say, there is a definite upside to baking your own cookies," Brennan admitted.
"Ha! I told you, Bones. Nothing beats this!" he said triumphantly. "It's definitely worth it!"
"I'm quite sure you had so many chocolate chips and so much dough, you won't be hungry for the final product." she teased.
"Nahh, always room for fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies." he said, patting his stomach.
"Of course," she said, shaking her head.
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I am absolutely loving all of the feedback you're giving me. Thank you so much! I'm really appreciating everyone's feedback and opinions, it makes me feel all fuzzy! The next installment is coming very quickly, because this one was pretty short.