Author's note: yum
—————————-
BrooksSo this is where it gets spicy.
Celia decides we're due for an immediate gingerbread house competition on Sunday. Murph isn't back by the day, otherwise we'd call him over for a blast of a reunion, but this stay-in date was already beyond good enough.
Still riding the high of my successful first semester, I hyped myself up that morning for the impending contest by checking for the last of my As. And As they were. I had an entire life lesson to quit concerning myself with this stuff, but give me a break--I was doing totally awesome.
My phone begins ringing, and I pick up second ring. "Ciao, amore~" I almost sing.
"OK, hi, do you wanna hit the store together or separately?" Celia is very straightforward, and I like that.
"To get our secret ingredients? Separately, duh. What's off limits, by the way?"
"Explosives. Anything stupid. It's a gingerbread house, don't try anything funny," She half-scolded me, but I knew she was excited. We had about 4 weeks "off" ("Off", because I intended to do some reading ahead), and we intended to make the most out of it.
"Hey, I'm not complaining at all about the timing of this, by the way, but why today? Don't you feel like, I don't know, relaxing or something?" I ask cautiously.
"But this is relaxing. We can compete calmly. And at my place, because my parents will be out for a pre-Christmas date and errands for the night. It lines up perfectly, so in any case that we happen to destroy the house--without the use of explosives, I should add--we'll be okay until...12 at night?"
"NICE," I have to laugh at her daring in this plan. I voice the obvious, "This means our projects don't have dimension constraints, then?"
"Mm, we'll have to find out. I'm not encouraging anything leaving the kitchen. But okay, let's get started at 2. Baking takes a minute. You have all the time between now and then to shop," I hear a smile in her voice and realize the occasional metal rattles in the background were sourced from shopping carts.
"Are you--So it's really gonna be like that. Okay. Okay, I'm going."
I really should've hyped myself up by researching gingerbread recipes, but we were a little beyond that point by now.
"Cya, Dad, I'm going shopping," I shout as I grabbed my coat and keys. Without waiting for an answer, I slip out the door and hit the road.
Steering the cart down the crowded aisle, I go between, "From scratch?..or from the box?..scratch...or box..."
Doing it all from the box wouldn't be fair, but doing it from scratch sounded daunting. Celia mentioned baking, but I seriously question the merits of her word, because she had helped herself to a totally unfair head start.
I decide that I'd load up with 3 kits and then more scratch ingredients to keep it going. Worst case scenario, I had enough for a charity bake sale or two."Just doing a little cooking," I flash the middle-aged lady at the register a smile as she scans about 20 tubes of icing with a surprised look on her face.
1:30 on the dot, I pull into the empty driveway of Celia's house and see she's already left the front door cracked. I've crammed everything into two duffel bags that I sling over each shoulder, and waddle inside.
"Celia! I have...acquired the goods," I half yell, half grunt. She appears shortly at the top of the stairs and laughs hard at my struggle.
"Seriously? Crap, this is going to be a totally perfect disaster!"One hour later, Celia and I had produced enough large sheets of gingerbread to cover the counters in the kitchen. The next batch out of the oven would have to be placed in the connected dining room to cool.
"We're going to play this fair. Let's make most of the gingerbread walls first, then we can each start building," Celia declared. After a bit of grumbling about "fairness", I did agree that that was the most efficient way to go about it.I poked at the gingerbread sheet in front of me with a toothpick, testing the readiness, already picturing how my gingerbread fort would look. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Celia turned in my direction and glance up to catch her looking. She almost tries to play it off, but seems to realize there's no use.
"Am I really that interesting to look at?" I tease her.
"You have flour on your nose," Celia excuses. I knew it was a lie, but I check my reflection in the shiny mixing bowl anyways.
"Right. I think I'm going to start building," I get up.At 5PM, we decided to put up a poster board barrier between our projects, which were standing on cardboard laid out on the floor. Celia also got the idea to set up a time-lapse cam, pointed at our spots.
By 7PM, I see gingerbread peeping over the top of the barrier on Celia's side.
"So, you're going with the vertical approach, huh?" I casually ask her.
"Yep. Are you done yet?" She asks in a playful tone.
"No..." I look down at the circular fortress I was making. It was kind of shit, but that's alright; it had a drawbridge made of gingerbread and separated licorice strips and a moat made of a shiny chocolate shell. I needed to add spice drops to the tops of the watch towers.Celia
Bored, I crawl up to the poster board barrier and threaten to look over the top.
"I am very done. I've been waiting for you for the last 10 minutes, actually—"
I think Brooks meant to block my view by means of kissing, but he didn't do a very great job. As he comes at me, he loses balance, and images of my amazing gingerbread house's life flash before my eyes...But then he grabs me, we are stable for exactly one (1) second, and he slips again thanks to his socks. We fall to his side...unfortunately, smashing in half of what he had going on."Oh...wow," I managed quietly, after a shocked silence. "It's even got a nice bridge and all."
Brooks looks stunned, just reclining in the cookies and candy, and I'm internally shrivel up at what just happened. That was a lot of work.
Brooks just sighs when he moves again, then points to the camera, which I'd forgotten about. "Is that still recording?" He asks wearily, popping a gum drop into his mouth. I wasn't sure if he was nearing insanity, because he just smiled.
"I think so?" I offer hopefully. "I mean, this is just great either way. Like, the drawbridge and everything is still there...Um, sorry about it?"I was still unsure of how to react, but next thing I know, my left hand goes splat in the icing next to Brooks's shoulder and he's pulled me in for that initially-failed kiss.
When we pull away, I just stammer, "You have icing on your nose." And it's a good excuse for staring, because I'm not lying this time.
—————————
Afterword: 1)If I were in an out of body experience I would literally have second hand embarrassment from looking at myself write this
2) i cannot believe i wasted such a great otp concept on tpd 2 when they are not my otp
3) there could literally be a part 3 because i'm really not finished yet but i need to stop