Fire Emblem: December Prompts

Cookies

10th of the Ethereal Moon, Year 1180. Marianne

"Oh, Mariaaaaaane!"

The bird I was tending to hopped off my finger, swiftly flying away at the sound of another's voice. I sighed, standing up and brushing snow off my skirt. The Monastery was a warm and fruitful place, even when it was blanketed in winter, but the poor animals still suffered from the cold.

I turned to see Hilda running towards me, her long twin-tails trailing behind her. Why is Hilda running? Is something wrong? There must be for her to rush to me so quickly.

"H-hello, Hilda," I stuttered. "I-is there something wrong?"

The girl stopped in front of me, a wide smile on her face. "Not at all, Mari! I just wanted to see my favorite healer, that's all!" She beamed.

I looked down, brushing a few strands of my light blue hair out of my eyes. "Are you s-sure? You seemed to be in a hurry..." I gulped. "If that's the case, I don't want to waste any more of your time-"

"Nonsense! Can't a girl just say hi to her very best friend?" She slung her arm around my shoulder, making me flinch. She was a few inches shorter than me (and one of the shortest people in the Academy) but she somehow managed to radiate alpha energy. "Plus, I have a favor to ask of you."

Sounds about right.

I brushed her away. "Whatever it is, I'm sure I'll be a burden. I-It's best that you find someone else to help you."

Hilda shook her head. "Nope! It has to be you!" she tutted. "You see, I kinda did something to make Lysithea mad and since I don't want to be turned to dust, I need to make a peace offering."

"W-why do you need my help?"

"Well, the quickest way to Lysithea's heart is through sweets," she continued. "Before you ask, I already scored the entire market and dining hall for some and they were fresh out! Just my kinda luck! Anyway, I need you to help me bake some sweets for her."

My face flushed. "M-me?! Why?! I'm no good at cooking!"

"And neither are the rest of the Deer." She rolled her light pink eyes. "You're my safest bet, Marianne."

"Wh-what about Claude? Can't he cook?"

"He's OK, but the only reason he cooks is so he can freely poison people. The only time he does it normally is when he's cooking with the Professor; even then, he uses way too many spices."

I actually kind of enjoy the food he makes. He really knows how to make delicious rice dishes.

"Also, I can't find him because he's either scheming or pining after the Professor."

I sighed, tugging a stray thread off my sleeve. "Sounds like him..." I looked down at the snow. "I'm serious, though. I'm not a good baker. You should find Mercedes or Ashe."

Hilda gave me a deflated look, slouched shoulders somehow slouching more. "I want to bake with you, Marianne. Also Mercedes is busy doing work for me so she's out of the market..."

"What?"

"What?"

I sighed once more, collecting myself. "V-very well..."

Her eyes lit up, brighter than I've ever seen them before. The sight made my heart flicker with warmth. "You will? Thank you sooooo much! I owe you one!"

Before I could say anything else, I was dragged into the direction of the Dining Hall.

Oh, dear Goddess... What have I gotten myself into?

...

"H-Hilda, what are you doing?"

"Adding flour to the dough, duh."

I grimaced as a poof of white powder blew up in our faces - of course, Hilda had to dump the whole bag into the bowl - and it smelled sickenly sweet. "H-Hilda, that's confectioners sugar..."

My friend looked at the bowl, sticking her finger into the white mess and tasting it. "Huh, you're right." She stuck her tongue out, eyes crinkling with amusement. "Whoops!"

I shook my head, looking through the cookbook to see how we could salvage this. "W-well, we'll have to pitch this batch. We can't-"

"Nonsense! I'll just add the flour and we won't use any normal sugar!" Without thinking, she dumped the flour into the mixture.

All I could do was watch as this unfolded. We were making cookies...how hard is it to mess up cookies? Goddess, this is all my fault.

"Hilda, maybe we should-"

"See? It's all coming together!" Hilda presented me with a bowl full of chunky mush.

I bit my lip. "H-Hilda..."

"Now to pop this bad boy into the oven and BAM! We'll have cookies!"

"Hilda, you have to-"

"Into the oven you go-woah!" As Hilda went to put the entire bowl - yes, the bowl - into the oven, her foot caught on a loose nail, causing her to fly forward.

"Hilda!" I reached to steady her, but that only resulted in me falling as well. Soon enough, we were both on the ground, covered in whatever mixture Hilda was trying to play off as cookie dough.

Hilda weakly chuckled. "That...could've gone better..."

I hugged my knees to my chest. "This is all my fault... I'm so sorry, I knew I would be a burden."

"Hey, don't say that." She hesitated as she placed a hand on my shoulder. My face heated at the contact. "I-I really appreciate your help, Marianne. Even if things didn't work out the way we wanted, I still had a ton of fun baking with you."

I looked into her pale pink eyes, my heart skipping a beat. "R-really?"

Why would anyone want to spend time with me? I'm horrible to be around... All I do is cause pain to those around me...

Hilda smiled at me, setting a hand on my cheek. "Yes. And... I-I would love to..."

"Hilda, I found those cookies you wanted." Professor Byleth stepped into the Dining Hall, looking around. In her hands were a tin of cookies, the Eastern Merchant's brand decorating the lid.

Wait a minute, I thought she said the market was all out!

Hilda sprung up, dashing over to the Professor and snatching the sweets. "Thanks! Pay you back later! Need to find Lysithea! Bye!"

I stared as she ran out the door, cheeks red. "Sh-she..."

"Left you alone to clean up this mess, I see," Professor sighed, clicking her tongue. "I'll help you clean it up, but I'll have a talk with Hilda later, I promise."

"I-it's a-all right..." My brain couldn't function anymore.

She really did want to spend time with me...

Goddess, thank you...

*****
I love these gay babies. I ship em pretty hard. Not gonna lie, I can't determine who to ship who with cuz there are so many possibilities and I kinda shipped Hilda and Ignatz. Also Marianne with Ignatz. Also -- yeah I just ship Ignatz with everyone. HE'S A GOOD BOY AND I LOVE HIM. But no, Hilda and Marianne are super cute. I like them. Thank you so much for reading and look forward to reading more!

Next Prompt: December 19th - "Mittens"

Link: https://youtu.be/D6GIYbuTSVk