Red Hood

28. Baking B*tches

"Jason!"

"I know!"

Chuckles rang out between him and Danny, flour flying across the counter, the mixer up just a notch too high when they put in the sugar. It was a bit of a mess, but it was to be expected, especially considering who was doing the baking.

"No one said this wasn't going to be messy," Jason snickered while watching Danny sneeze, rubbing flour from his own face.

She gave him a dirty look, "Uh-huh."

Continuing to chop up some apples, he grinned, sliding in the grated carrot as Don came up beside them with the microphone,

"So, Team Baking Snitches," he laughed, changing the name for the sake of the children in the audience, "what are we making here?"

"Apple-carrot fritters with a sweet glaze," Jason took a bowl from Danny, whisking as she ducked under his arm to grab a knife, "I'd been studying the recipe before I dragged her to enter the competition with me.

"That sounds delicious you two," Don nodded and smiled, shifting his weight to one foot, "and are you sure you haven't known each other that long? You seem like such a well-oiled machine working together."

"Just the three weeks as you've known, Donny," Danny paused to look up from her task, flashing a smile before looking back down, "but in those weeks Jason and I have gotten tight."

"I'd be worried if we didn't get tight," Jason rolled his eyes good-naturedly, "I let you paint my face and step on my toes, not just anyone can get away with that."

"Hey, you know stepping on your toes was an accident.... mostly," she snickered, nudging his foot gently.

Smiling, Don winked at the two, "Well then, now that we've had a few words from Danny and Jason, I'll let you get back to work," he then raised his voice enough for everyone to hear "But just a reminder, 15 minutes are left!"

Glancing up as Don walked away, Jason stepped beside Danny, a soft "hey" in question being all that was needed as their energy spiked with the time left. She answered with a nod, nothing else needing to be said as they worked like a lifelong team, their ideas and actions melding together perfectly.

"I'm pre-heating the oil," he turned on the heat, the click-click-click of the stove cutting off as flames flickered to life.

"We got this," Jason heard Danny mutter under her breath, just loud enough for him to hear when she reached a hand out for knuckles.

Jason smiled even wider, finding he's been doing that a lot lately as he tapped his fist against hers.

"Hell yeah we do."