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Sapnap takes a good long look at the recipe from his dad before he puts it back down.
"Yeah it's pretty incoherent," he sighs.
Quackity eats another chocolate chip, leaning around him to scan the paper. But he doesn't seem to have an easier time reading it as he shrugs, chewing loudly.
"I'm trying to tell you guys I know how to bake," Karl insists.
But in all honesty Sapnap is having a hard time believing him. He doesn't think he's ever seen Karl bake, Quackity admitted to being terrible at it, and all Sapnap did as a kid was help Bad stir and portion. And sneak bites of the raw batter, which he always got yelled at for doing.
"We're going to burn the house down," Quackity hums, but he sounds happy.
This is Quackity's second day off in a row, which to him is like a vacation. He got a good night’s sleep last night, and he's in a good mood. Which means Sapnap is in a good mood, and Karl wanted to take advantage of that and do something together.
Although of all things, Sapnap isn't sure why he chose baking.
"No!" Karl argues, tugging Quackity away from the chocolate chips. "It'll go great, and we won't ever have to go to Niki's bakery again."
Quackity laughs softly, but he doesn't argue. He doesn't tend to argue against these little things.
"I like Niki's bakery," Sapnap hums, setting aside the incomprehensible recipe to grab the ingredients.
At the very least, he got that right. If nothing else, they have all the right ingredients. Sapnap has no idea how to use them, but they're here.
"Yeah, me too."
"Actually me three."
"So can we just go to Niki's bakery and have her bake instead?" Sapnap presses gently.
He knows it's wishful thinking, and based on Karl's little grin he will have no such luck.
"We have to! It'll be fun!" Karl pushes past him to pour flour into a bowl.
He does not measure it.
"Is it too late for me to go back to work?" Quackity teases, leaning back against the counter.
He seems to settle right there, without any intent to help. Which is fine, Sapnap thinks he deserves that much.
"You love us!" Karl claims, pouring baking soda into the flour.
He also does not measure the baking soda. Sapnap definitely remembers his dad always measuring the ingredients before he put them in. He was such a stickler for those things though, it's hard to tell if it was because he had to or not.
"Yeah," Quackity murmurs.
Karl sprinkles some salt in the mixture and starts tossing it together with his hands. Sapnap wonders if the amount spilling out will make up for the too much put in.
"Wait I wanna mix it!" Quackity says, getting up to reach for the bowl.
"I was gonna let you use the electric mixer for the next one?" Karl offers, already putting the bowl to the side, out of Quackity's reach.
"Fine," he huffs, rolling his eyes.
But he still leans out of the way again.
"Sapnap?"
Sapnap tears his eyes off of Quackity to look at Karl. He smiles easily.
"What's up, babe?"
Karl takes his hand and turns it palm up, then sets a stick of butter on it.
"Can you warm that up a bit for me? I just need it softened so it's easier to mix," Karl requests sweetly.
He blinks his eyes big down at Sapnap, probably an attempt to recreate the way Quackity flutters his eyes and gets anything he wants. It's just a bit of a fast blink, but Sapnap closes his fingers around the butter anyway.
"Anything for you," he agrees.
Karl puts sugar and...other darker and harder sugar into a new bowl, humming all the while. Quackity has his cheek pressed against Karl's arm now, watching him.
Karl turns to kiss him, lips pressing together softly for a breath before they both turn back.
Sapnap only notices he's melting the butter when a hot drop slides down his arm. He hisses, holding out hand with the steaming butter to Karl.
"Uh, it's done," he coughs.
Karl takes it and lets it slide right into the bowl with a soft splat. Sapnap is still unsure if they're doing this right at all, but Karl doesn't seem bothered. He decides he shouldn't be concerned. The cookies will be edible, he's sure of that.
Karl hands the bowl to Quackity, with their mixer.
Almost immediately, Quackity touches it to the ingredients and butter splashes against a cabinet.
"Slower," Karl commands, not even looking.
He's got his whole head in the cabinet that melted butter is sliding down now, and comes out with a dark container.
"What's that?" Sapnap asks, trying to get a closer look.
He's starting to realize that unless he finds a task to help with, he will probably be forced to clean the kitchen. Which he doesn't mind doing, but this is quickly becoming quite the disaster. He's not equipped for this much clean up by himself.
"Vanilla! It's never been opened, so I'm not even sure where you got it," Karl comments, twisting the cap off.
"Uh. My dad gave it to me," he answers, and he's about half sure of it.
Karl nods, dropping some of the vanilla into the bowl Quackity is currently still mixing.
"Should I have stopped mixing when you did that?" Quackity questions, still not stopping.
"Nah, it's fine," Karl mutters, grabbing the egg off the counter to crack into the bowl.
He tosses the eggshell into their sink and then grabs the bowl with the probably too much flour, baking soda, and salt.
"Sapnap, get the chocolate chips too," Karl says, lifting the bowl. "Q, you ready for me baby?"
Quackity glances up at him with a raised eyebrow, although he looks slightly intimidated by the whole task.
"Always. But won't it go everywhere?"
Karl doesn't answer, just slowly starts to shake the mixture in as Quackity keeps the mixer in. Surprisingly, it doesn't totally explode everywhere. But not surprisingly, it doesn't all get into the bowl.
Sapnap is pretty sure that at this point any extra that Karl put in is somewhere on the floor anyway. It's probably fine.
"These are gonna be great cookies," Sapnap claims, grabbing the bag of chocolate chips.
He thinks Quackity already ate a good portion of them, but he doesn't say that out loud. Quackity gets to eat as many chocolate chips as he wants to, who's he to judge?
He's also absolutely going to have to clean this all up while Quackity complains about being too tired from mixing and Karl saying his back hurts from carrying them.
But it's fine. Karl is giggling softly as he and Quackity messily combine their mixtures, and Quackity's grin is splitting his face open. He looks like he wants to laugh, but is holding it in so he doesn't jostle the bowl half as much as Karl is.
"See! That went great, I told you," Karl says, all proud.
He goes to put the bowl in the sink with a little pat to the edge of it, and Quackity stops the mixer for a second to look into the bowl.
"It...looks like cookie dough," he comments.
"It does," Sapnap admits.
He doesn't think it looks exactly like the cookie dough he'd eat when he was younger, and he hasn't made up his mind yet if he's brave enough to try this one.
But it definitely looks like cookie dough, he can agree with that.
"Release the chocolate!" Karl shakes Sapnap's arm. "All of it!"
Sapnap isn't sure how one can have too much fun making cookies, but he thinks Karl is currently toeing that line. He listens anyway, tipping the whole bag into the bowl and watching as it all gets swept up in Quackity's mixture. This seems to excite Karl to no end as he rocks back and forth on his heels.
Quackity stops mixing shortly after, pulling the mixer out and peers into the bowl. He nods, setting it aside and holding the mixer up. Sapnap immediately grabs a clump of cookie dough and pops it in his mouth.
It tastes. Mostly like cookie dough, but a little off. Not bad at all, frankly. He would count is as a success.
"Mm," he hums.
He pulls out the baking trays for them, because if there's anything he knows about this process it's how to proportion the cookies. This is the one thing he used to help Bad with as a kid. He doesn't have the scooper he used to use, but he thinks he can eye it well enough.
He sets down baking sheets over the trays and picks up the bowl to start lining up little balls. The trays are just big enough to do rows of four and columns of three, so he only has to use the three trays he has.
"Our oven isn't big enough for all three," he complains, huffing at it.
"We'll do two batches," Karl whines, arms around his waist.
Quackity has already gone to sit in the other room, bored since he wasn't allowed to mess with the mixer after they finished actually using it.
Sapnap slides two trays into the oven and closes it.
"How long?" he questions, grabbing the timer.
Karl shrugs.
"Like ten minutes?" he asks more than answers.
Sapanp sets the timer for ten minutes and goes after Quackity.
Karl is still hanging onto his waist, which makes it kind of hard to walk, but he doesn't mind.
Quackity is taking up the whole couch, somehow. He's had to stretch insanely to make it work, since he's so small. He's all contorted around the corner with his fingertips stretched out as much as possible.
Karl lets go of Sapnap to nudge him slightly so he can lay beside him, tugging all his limbs back into place so they can lay there together. Not a single word is exchanged, and they don't make a move after that.
Their eyes aren't even closed, they're just staring at one another.
Sapnap smiles down at them and turns to start cleaning up the kitchen. He starts with the dishes, twisting his rings off his finger and setting them up on the windowsill before he rolls up his sleeves to start working. He has to scrub pretty hard with most of the dishes, but he's got enough elbow grease to put into it. There's not a terrible amount of dishes to do, not at all.
He knows he's just putting off cleaning up the actual mess on the floor and cabinets and counter, but he hums as he works and keeps his eyes focused in on the sink. He only remembers when he picks up the last bowl that, oh yeah, Karl threw the eggshell in here. He picks it out, slimy and wet as it is, and tosses it in the garbage with a sour look.
As he finishes drying and putting away the last dish he wonders if he could possibly get at least a little help with the rest of the kitchen.
But when he peeks into the other room, he can hear them speaking in soft and dulcet tones to one another. They haven't moved from their spot.
So he just sighs fondly to himself and turns back to get back to work.
He reties his hair back, sliding his headband back into place where it had been slipping up. He pulls their cleaner out of the cabinet under the sink, but actually starts by sweeping the powder on the counter onto the floor, and sweeping the mess on the floor up to throw out. Honestly, that's the vast majority of the mess.
He keeps singing to himself, one of those songs Bad always used to sing while he was cleaning, one of those things he picked up from his dad. He sprays down the floors and counters and even the cabinet with butter on it and wipes it all down, happily taking in the smells of baking cookies that overpower the cleaning solution.
All in all, it's not a terrible experience. He doesn't mind it at all, not when it spares Karl and Quackity a little extra work. He thinks they had fun, and he thinks they're being all sweet to each other right know, and if he gets to preserve that then he's going to.
He's happy.
He's pulling the mop out when Quackity pokes his head into the kitchen. His hair is all messed up, beanie discarded somewhere in his journey. He flutters his eyes at Sapnap with a slight pout on his face until Sapnap puts the mop back and follows him back to the couch.
Karl is curled up in the corner now, and Quackity flops into his side. He holds his arm out and Sapnap easily slides into place.
Quackity turns and kisses him, tugging him in by his jaw and kissing him sweetly. It's a soft sort of warmth, but Quackity doesn't let him go after just one kiss. He keeps handing them out, but pulling away before it teeters into anything that could shatter the perfect atmosphere they're keeping up here. Karl is dozing slightly, but when prompted he does lean over to kiss Sapnap, lazy and uncoordinated and probably half asleep.
He gets up when Quackity elbows him though, and Sapnap only realizes as he soaks in the warmth Karl left behind that it's probably to put the other batch of cookies in. Sure enough, he comes back with three cookies bundled in a paper towel.
"They're hot," he complains, sitting back on the edge of the couch. "Also you forgot your rings on the windowsill, again."
Sapnap sheepishly holds out his hand so Karl can slide his wedding bands back on, then opens his mouth so he can be fed a bite of cookie.
"Too hot to eat still," he informs them, but chews thoughtfully. "They actually aren't that bad, honestly. I think we put them in a little too long, but I like them crispy."
He finishes his cookie though, unbothered by the temperature. Definitely edible.
"Told you," Karl sings, swinging his feet as he stares down at the other two cookies.
Quackity reaches for one, and Sapnap grabs his hand to tangle their fingers together instead.
"Too hot," he reminds him.
Quackity huffs, pressing his face against the back of Sapnap's shoulder. He can feel the way he's frowning that way, but even that won't convince him to let Quackity scorch his mouth.
"The chocolate looks so gooey I want it so bad," he complains.
"I want to make a joke, but I have no idea how to execute it," Karl says, breaking a cookie in half and blowing on it.
"About the chocolate being gooey?" Quackity scoffs, shaking his head. "You're too much."
Karl just grins, still blowing on the cookie. Sapnap leans back on Quackity and feels so full when Quackity slowly shifts back so his head lands on his lap.
Quackity undoes his headband and pulls his hair down, raking fingers through his now loose hair until all that tension is out of his scalp. Karl's hand eventually moves to hold his, twisting his rings around his finger and rubbing over his knuckles.
"I love you," he murmurs.
There's this brief silence, and he knows it's not hesitation. It's not tension. It's just them feeling that same full feeling that sometimes stops him in his tracks too.
"I love you too, hot stuff," Quackity says back.
It's almost teasing, but the edge of it is taken off by hands in his hair and the slight tremble he can feel under his head.
"I love you too," Karl whispers, and it's with such conviction and sureness.
When Sapnap opens his eyes after dozing a little while later, it's with the full knowledge that they absolutely burned the last batch of cookies.