Work Text:
"I don't bake."
Those were Jade's words. Words spoken very clearly a number of times. To her husband. To her sister.
"Pleeeease mommy?"
But not to her daughter.
The first Christmas they were spending together since Jade had finally come back to Will and Lian and things had been going smoothly. Until Lian had asked her mom if they could bake cookies for Santa.
Jade had implored "Ask your daddy, sweetie. He's much better at that."
But Lian had her mind made up, saying "Nuh uh. Daddy always makes stars and snowmans."
"SnowMEN, Lian," Will had corrected her.
Lian begged "I wanna make ginger men with you."
Jade turned to Will for help, who was silently giving her a look that said Just do this for her.
And just like that, while Will was out shopping and Artemis was doing God knows what at her university job, Jade reluctantly found herself trying to bake gingerbread men with her adorable daughter.
Okay, so, maybe half-reluctantly. Jade Nguyen was known for many things, but baking was not one of them. She could cook and prepare a meal just fine, but Will had gotten into the swing of all that domestic junk when he was learning how to be a dad. Baking had become his territory, and Jade was all for it.
Yet the look in Lian's eyes as she pleaded with her mom to do this with her left Jade with little choice in the matter.
It was the least she could after leaving her for so many years.
From Jade's perspective, this was going as well as she expected.
From Lian's perspective, this was going better than she expected. She and her mommy, in the kitchen, listening to silly Christmas songs on the radio, preparing gingerbread men they'd leave out for Santa. Maybe they made a little mess of the kitchen. Maybe Lian got a bit too aggressive with the mixing and splattered some batter in her mom's hair. Maybe they used too much cinnamon and not enough ginger. Maybe the sugar had hardened too quickly.
And maybe smoke was coming out of the ov-OH CRAP.
Jade told Lian to step back as she yanked out the tray of… uh…
"Mommy?"
"Lian, I…" Jade hopelessly looked down at the metal tray of what had to have been the ugliest, most misshapen cookies she'd ever seen in her life. It was like they'd been exposed to a nuclear blast. "Honey I-I'm so sorry. Let me get rid of these. I knew I wasn't-"
"Cool!" Lian cheered. "Monster cookies!"
What.
"But they look horrible!"
"I know," Lian reasoned, "We still gotta put the icing on."
"We don't even know if they're edible."
"So try one."
Jade again was captive to her daughter's hopeful expectations, so she careful picked up one of the malformed men and slowly placed it towards her lips as Lian watched.
…
"I still can't believe you convinced my sister to bake," Artemis dubiously stated as she met Will at the front door.
Will chuckled as he tried to balance multiple bags. "Hey, Lian's the one who did the convincing."
While taking out her key to unlock the front door, Artemis sighed. "The poor kid's gonna have her heart broken."
"Have a little faith in Jade," Will asked. "After all, it's Christmas. Anything could happen."
"You really need to stop watching those Hallmark Channel movies," Artemis grimaced.
"I do NOT watch the Hallmark Channel," Will let out an offended noise. "I watch the Disney channel."
"Uh-huh."
Brother and sister-in-law were greeted by "Daddy! Aunty Mouse!" and her throwing her arms around her dad's legs.
"Heya peanut, did you have fun with mommy?" Will said as he tried to put the bags down to hug his daughter.
Artemis laughed as she said "From the amount of flour in her hair it looks like they had a good time."
"C'mon c'mon! Check out what mommy and I made!" Lian tugged her dad by the arm into the kitchen. Will and Artemis were unprepared for the sight of Jade Nguyen, the master assassin known as Cheshire, covered in flour, sugar, and cookie batter.
"What the-"
"Oh I gotta show mom this."
Jade glowered as she said "You take one photo and I'm putting cyanide in your coffee, sis."
"Mommy, show Daddy and Aunty Mouse the monsters!"
"The WHAT?"
Jade held up a plate of what looked like mutated gingerbread men with frosting and spice drop buttons.
Artemis was practically at a loss for words while Will started laughing.
"Did you two cook those in a nuclear reactor?" Artemis wondered.
"Aren't they awesome?" Lian asked.
"They're wonderful, sweetie," Will replied.
"Have one!"
"Yeah sis, have one," Jade repeated as she practically shoved the plate into her sister's face.
"Oh I don't-"
"Pleeeease, Aunty Mouse," now Lian had turned her manipulative gaze to her favorite aunt.
Helpless, Artemis reached towards the plate of confectionary abominations.
"Go on, it won't kill you," Jade sweetly nudged.
"Remains to be seen," Artemis gulped. She ever so slowly brought the cookie to her lips and tentatively bit off its arm. Or was it the leg. Well she bit something. She chewed. She swallowed.
"It… huh." Artemis looked the cookie over. "It, I mean, it doesn't taste exactly like gingerbread but it's not bad."
"Here daddy, I saved this for you cuz he has two heads!" Lian exclaimed as she handed her father the two-headed gingermutant.
"Aww, and the head's the best part," Will said as he graciously took the cookie his daughter and wife had made together.
"Well sis," Jade inquired, "can I cook or can I cook?"
"Yeah, yeah, it's a real Christmas miracle. Also you have batter in your hair."