"Alright so just- ah not quiet..." Stress chuckled.

"Ugh! How are oatmeal cookies harder than normal chocolate chip! It's like, the most boring cookie! Doesn't that automatically make it the easiest!?" Alex cried out in anguish.

"Well I'd say the consistency of these are probably what's holding us back." Stress said, mocking how Joe would talk all formally. They both burst into laughter, only because Stress had been explaining who these cookies were for and what he was like. Alex felt homely here, learning about the Hermits he had met long ago but never really got to know, and only feeling a little left out in all of it. He pushed those thoughts out, because he was here, right now, and feeling completely included and comfortable in the skull in the snow.

"Ok luv, let's add some more flour to this mess and maybe it'll actually form a dough we can use."

Alex nodded, and started the treacherous task of trying to get a few scoops of flour in the oatmeal "dough" without getting it on himself instead.

After a few minutes of struggling, having to hand mix the tough dough because the automatic one got stuck with the googy texture of these ones, laughing at their huge mess for just one batch, and finally sighing in relief at the ding of the timer, breathing in the smell of perfectly made cookies, they were done.

"We did it."

"We did it!"

"We actually did it!"

They rejoiced, taking in the smell of the fresh cookies and relaxing in the heat of the kitchen from the oven. They did it.

"Oh we need to take these geasers out!" Stress exclaimed, quickly grabbing the oven mits and sliding them out onto the last bit of free counter they had left.

The cookies were carefully put on the cooling rack one by one so they wouldn't break apart in transport, and there was a deafening silence as the last cookie was slid off the tray onto the metal grid with the rest.

Alex felt the weight of the world on him as he put all of his focus onto this last cookie. He couldn't break it. The last cookie of this difficult batch- and he couldn't mess it up.

And then the weight washed away, as the last cookie was perfectly placed, not a crack in any of them.

"Oh my god that was more difficult than anything I've ever done." Alex sighed and leaned against a wall in exhaustion, with a content smile on his face.

"But we did it luv! And Joe's going to love these after we make the last batches and deliver 'em all."

"Please tell me the next ones aren't oatmeal again."

"Just chocolate chip, I promise."

"Phew."

Stress smiled, a little tired, but they would have time to rest while the oven cooled once they finished. For now- it was time for a baking montage. Or in reality, many hours for the two cookie bakers.

"Oh shoot shoot! Get those cookies out of the oven Alex!" Stress said quickly as she herself paused the dough she was working on in the blender. Alex jumped from where he was rolling balls of dough and scrambled to the oven, throwing the door open before reaching his lava-proof gloved hands to grab the tray.

"Where should I put them?" He asked quickly, trying to find some available counter space.

"Uhm- on top of the toaster luv!" Stress said. It was the only place sorta left, and as long as they didn't knock the tray, it would be fine until they cleaned up more room for it.

He carefully placed the tray onto the small toaster, tring to balance it out as best as he could. Yeah- yeah that looked sort of steady?

"Ok,-" Stress took a breath. "-you finish rolling those and put them in, and then we can move the hot tray onto that counter, and then move them to the cooling rack before the next batch is done cooking." She ordered.

He only got about half the information, but nodded anyway, understanding he at least needed to finish scooping cookie dough onto the tray he was working on before.

After about a minute Stress asked, "Are you finished? We need to get those in quickly."

"Oh uhm-" He looked down at the tray, only about half of the spots on the silicone filled. That was a clear "no."

She chuckled and stepped away from the mixer she was watching, next to him. "I'll help."

For the first time, there was a comfortable silence over the two as they used the scooper to get perfectly sized cookie dough balls. Scoop, scrape, plop, repeat. Alex was having more difficulty getting them out of the scooper, but a mini spoon was helping with that, even if it made them slightly uglier.

She was concentrating on them, and he could see the flecks of flour in her hair and egg yolk dripped onto her apron. His own apron was definitely messier, cookie dough and random ingredients wiped across when he hurried to clean his hands, but it would probably wash off. That was what the aprons were for after all.

"Can you grab the white chocolate on that counter? I wanna try putting them on top of these to see if they taste any good." Stress asked.

At the mention of more chocolate and the idea of new taste testing, he quickly nodded and spun around to grab the chocolate.

But uh- spinning in a small messy kitchen wasn't that smart, as he was about to find out.

His foot slipped on a bit of egg yolk on the ground, and in an attempt to catch himself, he reached for the closest counter, which happened to have the mixer on it.

Second mistake, grabbing a still plugged in mixer while you're failing backwards isn't a great idea.

Alex's foot tangled on the wire dangled on the ground from said mixer and his hands accidentally grabbed the machine instead of the sturdy counter, pulling it down as well.

He was laying on the ground now with the mixer in his arms- still on- and may or may not have accidentally flipped both the safety lock off and the speed higher at once.

Before he could even notice what he did, the mixer top flipped up, and flinged the cookie dough outward.

SPLAT!

He shook his head from the fall and looked up, eyes going wide at what he saw. There was cookie dough on the ceiling. One big blob, threatening to fall from the weight any moment.

And it did, right next to his hand, which he pulled away just in time to avoid it. He quickly flipped off the mixer, guilt ridden all over his face.

"Oh my- I'm so sorry Stress I didn't mean-" His apologizing was interrupted by Stress, making a noise that he mistook for crying for a second. "Are you o-"

And then he stopped, and realized that she wasn't crying at all.

"HAHaHAaa-" She cackled, laughing at the ridiculous sight in front of her. His brows furrowed in confusion for a second.

"Relax luv!" She said between bursts of giggles. "This might be the most fun I've had baking cookies-" She paused to breathe from her laughing. "Don't go feeling all guilty on me for nothin'!"

He felt relieved she wasn't mad, and looked at the ceiling with the splatter of cookie dough that had stayed there. Stress was still widely laughing at him and he chuckled.

"Yeah I guess it is pretty funny," He started to laugh more, joining in with Stress, until that was all that could be heard in the skull. He was still sitting on the ground, but at least had gotten his foot untangled and now was sitting there a little awkwardly as Stress tried to breathe and calm down.

She still had a wild grin on her face as she helped him up and put the mixer securely back on the counter, farther from the edge this time.

"Looks like we need to remake that batch." She chuckled, and glanced at the clock on the wall. "We have time I think, but we might want to pick up the pace a little."

"Wait- we're on a time constraint?" Alex asked, dusting himself off in a force of habit, which was no use with how much stuff he had on his apron.

"Don't worry about that luv, we have plenty of time before we need to deliver 'em."

"Who are these for anyway?" Alex asked, leveling off a cup of flour to start remaking the batch that learned to fly. "Did Joe really want all of these, plus the oatmeal ones?"

Stress smiled and perfectly cracked 2 eggs into a separate bowl. "Well I can't tell you yet, that's a surprise!"

He glanced at her, confused, but she had already moved on from the topic, walking around the kitchen to grab the sugar from the other counter.

"But really, who needs this many cookies?" He looked at the cooling rack, the finished and packaged ones, the tray in the oven that he needed to take out soon, and the new batch they were working on.

He shrugged it off with a smile, he trusted Stress enough to leave it at that.

"Could you grab the dark chocolate chips over 'ere? I moved 'em to save room, but I need more to finish off this batch. I think we'll save the white chocolate for another time if that's ok."

"Yup! On it!"

"And don't trip over the wire again!"

He scoffed and rolled his eyes, but still moved slower with precaution. Even in good fun, there was a high chance he wasn't living that down for a while. 

------

Thanks for reading! And go some bake some cookies with a friend!