Romanogers Oneshots

Cookies

Summary: Steve tries to help Natasha make cookies 

Natasha placed her tablet on the counter of the kitchen, scrolling down, down, down until she reached the recipe she was searching for: Sprinkle Sugar Cookies. She had decided she wanted to learn how to bake, so every few days, she'd try something new. So far, she had made pumpkin pie, Rice Krispie treats, and kiss cookies. She and Steve have been really into baking competition shows. The things they make on those shows always seem so delicious. She was still new at it, but she hadn't poisoned them yet.
She scrolled farther down then scanned the ingredients to make sure she had gotten everything she needed: sugar, butter, baking powder, salt, eggs, vanilla extract, flour, cinnamon, sprinkles, and food coloring. She put all of it in a line on the counter, and read through the instructions twice. Once she felt ready, she grabbed the mixer and dumped the butter into the metal bowl, and flipped the switch to the lowest setting. The instructions said to mix until "fluffy". She still wasn't clear on what that looked like, but...sure, yeah, that looked "fluffy" to her.
"Baking again, Natasha?" Steve walked through the door and leaned against the counter next to her. "With all of the baking you've been doing, I'm gonna have to double my gym time."
"I guess I should take that as a compliment?" she asked as she added sugar, baking powder, and salt into the mix, and flipped the switch to "on".
"I definitely meant it as a compliment. I'm glad someone in this house has a talent for baking. The stuff they make on the Great British Baking Show always look so good." Steve closed his eyes, "Like those giant cake rolls. Mmmm".
Natasha went to the fridge and grabbed an egg, and vanilla from the counter. One by one, she added them to the dough. "Mix on medium speed until combined, scraping sides of the bowl'. We should really thank Pepper for all of the baking stuff she got us off our registry." Natasha turned on the mixer, and scraped the sides of the bowl, as directed.
"Definitely. Maybe she had a sixth sense about you and baking", Steve smiled at her. She returned one to him before scooping out 3/4 cup of the dough, and placing it into a smaller bowl.
"Can you hand me the blue food coloring?", she set aside the other dough, and placed the small bowl in front of her, reaching over to grab cinnamon, adding it to the dough. Steve handed over the food coloring, and Natasha let a few drops fall in the dough. She grabbed a spoon from a drawer and handed over to Steve. "Mix it for me?"
Steve nodded and took the bowl from Natasha and started swirling the blue with the spoon. Once the blue was completely mixed in, Natasha washed her hands and took the bowl from Steve. She pulled a small portion of the dough out and rolled it in her hands, forming a spherical shape.
Steve watched her make a few, and then asked, "Want a hand with those?" Steve rolled up his sleeves to his elbow. Natasha smiled at him and nodded. He went to the sink, washed his hands, and settled next to Natasha, taking a glob of dough and rolled it in his hands.
Natasha glanced over at Steve. He took the ball he formed and compared it to the ones she had made. His was a bit bigger than hers. He took a chunk off of his dough ball, and reformed it. He did this twice more. "What the hell." he whispered to himself.
"You okay over there?", Natasha continued making uniform spheres and placing them on a lined baking sheet.
"No, how do you get them to look exactly the same every time?" Steve compared on of his to a line of hers. His was lumpy and irregular.
"Guess I'm just a natural", Natasha shrugged.
"Obviously." Steve bumped his shoulder into Natasha's.

Once the balls were formed, Natasha grabbed the other dough. She quickly formed those into balls too. "Okay, you flatten these." She pointed to the butter dough, "and I'll place those," she pointed to the balls, "inside".
"I can do that." Steve lined the flattened dough in rows of five, evenly spacing them out along the baking sheet. In the end, there were five rows of six. Natasha put one cookie ball onto each of the flat discs. Then she rounded them out once more.
"Can you pour those sprinkles into a bowl?", Natasha asked.

Steve nodded and grabbed a small bowl from the cupboard. He dumped the sprinkles, and immediately a dough ball plopped into the sprinkles, followed by three more.

"It says here to roll the ball in the sprinkles and then place it onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet." Natasha grabbed the parchment paper, ripped off a piece, and placed it onto the baking sheet. "Can you turn the oven on, Steve? 375 degrees." Natasha placed the cookies evenly spaced until there was once again five rows of six cookies. She walked over, and Steve opened the oven door for her. She slid the baking sheet in and closed the door.
"How long do they cook for?" Steve asked her.
"Well they bake for 10-12 minutes." Natasha winked at him.
"Right, 'cause you bake cookies. You don't, I don't know, cook them." Steve teased.
"Yeah, it's just one of those things that doesn't make sense."

Once the timer was going, Steve and Natasha sat down on the couch and relaxed.

The timer dinged loudly, and Natasha peeled herself from Steve's embrace. Steve whined a little from the loss of contact. "Natasha", and he reached out to her., but Natasha kept walking.
"Sorry, Steve. But the cookies get priority." She reached the oven and pulled open the door. She stuck a finger on the top of one of the cookies. Steve placed a hand on the small of her back and took a look with the cookies.
"Those look like they're still dough." Steve remarked.
"Yeah, you're supposed to take them out before they finished baking all of the way through." Natasha grabbed a oven mitt. "Because the baking sheet is so hot, they continue to bake while they're on the pan."
Steve nodded, "Makes sense. So when do we get to eat 'em? They smell delicious." He admired the sparkling sprinkles shining slightly. Hints of blue were peeking through the gaps.
"They're still hot, but we can try one right now, if you'd like." Natasha grabbed a spatula and picked up two cookies and placed them on a napkin. She fanned them for a few seconds and them picked it up with her fingers. Steve mimicked her movements and picked up the other.
Steve raised his cookie in the air slightly, "Cheers?"
Natasha did the same. "Cheers." Natasha took a small bite of the cookie. Steve shoved the entire thing in his mouth and ate it in one bite.
Steve raised his chin to the air and let out a satisfied moan. "Mmmm Natasha. That's a damn good cookie" he mumbled, his mouth still full of cookie. A few stray sprinkles glistened in his beard.
"I couldn't have done without you."
Steve swallowed his bite. "Liar. If anything, I slowed you down." Steve smiled at her.
"Regardless, I had a good time." She put her hand on his cheek and swiped away some stay crumbs.