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When Cub walked into the throne room to check in for the day, he didn’t expect to find Bdubs running off in a rush covered head to toe with flour.
Cub blinked, not thinking he saw correctly. He made his way into the kitchen.
The kitchen was a mess, to say the least. There was flour all over the counter, cracked egg shells on an empty plate, and forks covered in frosting.
In the middle of it all, a wide eyed Bdubs stood covered in flour, chocolate and batter.
Cub blinked at the man in front of him, and he watched as Bdubs’ face turned completely red in embarrassment.
“Cub.” Bdubs said with a murderous tone.
“Bdubs.” Cub replied, amused.
“Not a word.”
“Hey! I didn’t say anything.” Cub shrugged as he walked over to him and picked a wrapper off his shoulder.
“Stop that!” Bdubs glared at him, “I don’t need your help, don’t you have to report to Scar or something?” He said obviously peeved at him.
Cub knew that Bdubs didn’t like him very much, Scar had teased Bdubs too much about Cub doing better than him; Bdubs was always the jealous type.
“I could ask you the same thing, Mr. Mayor’s Assistant.” Cub said with a smug look on his face.
“It’s my day off. Apparently, Scar said you were going to help him.” Bdubs answered nonchalantly.
Cub raised an eyebrow.
“Scar said that to you?” He put his hand on his head and thought about it for a second, “Scar told me I deserved a day off today.”
“Oh god.”
Cub snorted.
“He’s gonna work himself to death,” Bdubs said panicked, “The man can barely read and he’s trying to put all our work on himself.” Bdubs sighed, grabbing a rag and wiping his hands.
“That’s just how he is.” Cub shrugged, he was actually a bit worried, but something told Cub that Bdubs wouldn’t let anything bad happen.
“Well, I’m gonna keep using the kitchen so if you need anything, grab it now and get out.”
“What’s the rush?” Cub said getting closer to Bdubs, “Just what are you doing?”
“None of your business.” Bdubs said, not bothering to look at Cub.
“You’re making a mess.”
“I am not!”
“Yes, you are. I can barely see the counter.”
“Fine! I’m trying to bake cookies.” Bdubs said reluctantly.
Cub blinked.
“You can bake??”
“Obviously.” Bdubs said, putting his hand on his hip and pointing towards the mess on the counter.
“Why are you baking then?”
Bdubs got strangely shy, and turned around, not bothering to give Cub an answer.
Cub took a look at the messed up cookies and realized there was an attempt to draw something with frosting. He leaned over and saw a worst attempt at someone’s gray cat.
Oh.
Cub smiled cheekily.
“You sly dog!” Cub cackled, “Making cookies for Scar like some kid?”
Bdubs face burned in embarrassment, and he turned around and glared at him.
“I am not! I’m making them for me, asshole!”
“Yeah, sure, that’s why you’ve got Jellie’s face on that sad looking cookie.”
“My cookies are flipping amazing! You’re just a jerk! And jealous! You’re soo jealous that I can bake and you can’t.” Bdubs spouted viciously but Cub was too busy stealing a cookie and biting into it.
Cub immediately regretted it and cringed at the sugary taste of the cookie. He spit the cookie out immediately and grimaced.
“Jesus christ, you call that a cookie?”
“Watch it! My cookies are probably so good that you just can’t handle them. You just have horrible taste buds.”
“I think you might’ve killed my taste buds with that cookie.”
Bdubs was getting really irritated at this point. He tried restraining but Cub’s mockery only made it worse. He grabbed a handful of frosting and aimed right at Cub’s face.
Cub stood there shocked for a second. Bdubs could see a vein pop as Cub wiped the frosting off; he grabbed an egg and threw it towards Bdubs as hard as he could.
The rest was war.
Cub constantly threw eggs and flour, while Bdubs threw frosting and sugar at the other.
Bdubs yelled in frustration as Cub refused to give up.
“Why can’t you leave me alone?” Bdubs said, getting more pissed by the second.
“What? You’re not having fun?” Cub smirked, “You threw the frosting first! Give up!”
They were getting even closer to each other, to the point where they were nearly hitting each other with their fists.
Unfortunately, their war had woken someone up.
Cub heard a loud sigh.
Scar grimaced at the sight; Bdubs and Cub froze. Both of them were completely covered in dough, eggs, and flour.
Scar sighed, raising his hand to pinch his eyebrows. He slowly made his way to the counter and started picking up their mess.
Cub and Bdubs both took their hands off each other and looked at the man worriedly. His state was unpleasant. There was a dark crescent under the man’s eyes, his hair was a mess and he looked incredibly exhausted.
They had both forgotten how Scar was extremely clumsy, including with his own health. He must’ve forgotten to sleep a few times, staying up and overworking himself.
Now, he was cleaning up their mess. Cub felt ashamed, Bdubs just looked completely guilty.
“I know you guys can’t get along, and I know that’s mostly my fault, but I just..I expect better.” Scar said, not bothering to lift his head to look at them and just continued to throw out eggshells.
“We’re so sorry, Scar.” Bdubs said, bowing his head in shame.
“He started it.” Cub muttered quietly, shrugging. Bdubs glared at him incredulously and looked like he was about to murder him.
Cub sighed and made his way to Scar.
“We’ll clean this up, okay?” Cub said, taking some stuff off the counter and throwing it out, “You probably have work to get to, don’t you?”
Scar’s eyes softened. Cub was always there to make sure he was on track of stuff, so he nodded and wiped his hands off.
“Just, please clean up, thanks.” Scar said awkwardly as he walked out of the room.
The silence between Cub and Bdubs was tense, but Bdubs ended it by picking up more garbage on the table.
“Sorry.” Cub muttered.
“What?”
“I was annoying you. Then, we bothered Scar. That’s mostly my fault.”
“Hmph.” Bdubs rolled his eyes, “It is your fault.”
Cub stayed silent.
“But, I’m sorry too. I threw the first punch.”
“It’s okay, it was kinda fun seeing you that mad. Even if you were mad at me.” Cub turned to look at him.
They both stood there awkwardly, just staring at each other. Bdubs looked a little peeved? His cheeks were burning with red; Cub assumed it was because he was angry.
Cub sighed, this wasn’t how it was supposed to go. He was just messing with Bdubs like always, but now he felt shitty after seeing Scar.
He turned to look at Bdubs, who still had flour and egg all over him, and stared thoughtfully.
Bdubs looked nice when he was concentrating on something, and right now he was really concentrating on cleaning up.
Bdubs stared thoughtfully at the flour on the table for a second. His eyebrows scrunched together and his nose wrinkled slightly as he picked up eggshells.
It was peaceful to stare at him.
Bdubs must’ve felt eyes on him because he turned to look at Cub.
Cub felt his face heat up as he realized he was ogling his coworker. He quickly turned to look at the ground and shook his head.
“Why did you want to bake cookies for Scar, Bdubs?” Cub asked, still curious.
“None of your business.”
“Come on, Bdubs. The surprise is ruined so you might as well tell me.” Cub said, irritated, but seeing Bdubs frown at that made him feel slightly guilty.
“I just…wanted to give him something back after everything he’s done for me. He’s always giving me gifts, and making sure I’m okay. He’s always worrying about everything and trying so hard. So, I wanted to give him something in return just once.” Bdubs said with a hint of sadness to his voice.
Cub felt way shittier now.
Suddenly an idea popped up in Cub’s head. He really did hate seeing Scar so upset.
“Bdubs.”
“What?”
“Do you want to bake some cookies?”
“How are you still being a jerk after that?” Bdubs looked at him with an irritated stare.
“I’m not joking! Look, hear me out.” Cub picked up a box of batter and pointed at the instructions, “Maybe this time around, I can help you actually read the instructions.”
Bdubs glared at him.
“I did! I did read them!” He pouted angrily.
“Yeah, sure you did. That’s not my point though. I can help you make the cookies. We’re both partially at fault for Scar’s problems right now. Maybe we can help him out a bit.”
Bdubs considered the offer thoughtfully.
“Hm.” Bdubs wiped the counter clean, “Fine. Let’s do it then. There’s still two boxes left.”
Cub beamed and grabbed the two boxes, making his way right next to Bdubs.
“Well? Let’s start.” Cub announced, putting on an apron that was laying around.
They started with the batter, a few eggs, oil and the mix. Cub started to whisk the batter, only to find out he got sick of doing that quickly.
Bdubs rolled his eyes and put his hand over Cub’s hand that was currently holding the whisk.
“You don’t even know how to mix it correctly. How am I supposed to expect you to help?” Bdubs said, quickly getting annoyed at Cub’s slowness.
Cub was only focused on Bdubs’ hand on his.
Eventually, they moved on to turning the cookie batter into small balls of dough. They tried their best to make them look like circles but they struggled.
Bdubs grabbed the tray once he was satisfied and popped it into the oven. They spent the wait time by cleaning up their mess again and talking about random things.
It was probably their first friendly conversation in a long time. Cub had even made Bdubs laugh a few times.
“I’ll have you know I’m one of the greatest cookie makers in the world, Cub.” Bdubs said, staring intently at the timer they had set.
Cub snorted.
“You sure look it.” Cub took in Bdubs person, still covered head to toe in flour and sugar.
“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?” Bdubs glared.
Cub rolled his eyes fondly and grabbed a clean wet rag, making his way over to Bdubs. He pulled up a chair and sat right in front of him.
He used the rag and began to wipe down the flour on Bdub’s face. Cub made sure to ruffle his hair too, getting out any eggshells or batter left over from the fight.
Bdubs face was completely red. This was humiliating. Cub was cleaning his face; he was focused on cleaning so Bdubs got to stare just for a bit.
Cub didn’t seem to realize his state as he made his way to Bdubs’ neck.
Eventually, Cub finished and he smiled at Bdubs.
“There. Now you’re clean, you’re still gonna need to shower. You smell sweet.”
Bdubs didn’t say a word; he picked up another clean rag and this time, he began cleaning Cub’s face.
The exchange was soft and intimate. It fit the domestic atmosphere, both of them baking cookies for someone they cared about and cleaning each other up.
The timer went off and both of them leaped out of their seats. They were way too close to each other at that moment.
Cub could feel his heart beating out of his chest.
Neither said a word, not wanting to ruin the moment.
The cookies were placed on the counter and they looked a bit boring.
“Do you…still wanna decorate them?” Cub suggested.
Bdubs nodded wordlessly.
They both began by using piping tools and making their own designs. There was a Bdubs cookie made by Cub, and a poor attempt at making Scar by both of them.
Bdubs tried making Cub, but Cub had teased him too hard about it and Bdubs had gotten annoyed again.
There was a few Scar cookies, a Bdubs cookie, a Cub cookie and finally, a Jellie cookie. The Jellie cookie was perfect, they had spent all their time on it, making sure it was perfect.
They both sighed a bit tired from the baking.
“You ready?”
“Yes! Yes!” Bdubs nodded.
“Let’s go show, Scar.”
Bdubs jumped up excitedly once they finished, extremely eager to show Scar.
Cub wasn’t going to pretend to be cool about it, he was just as eager as Bdubs was to show Scar.
Bdubs held the tray as they both made their way to Scar’s office. They stood in front of the door and hesitated for a second before knocking.
“Come in.” A deep voice croaked from the other side. He sounded way too tired.
Cub walked in first with a kind smile, Scar gladly returned it, a bit weaker.
Bdubs walked in after him slowly and he smiled widely.
“We brought you a gift!!” Bdubs announced, showing him the cookie platter and all the different cookies they had made.
Scar melted at the sight. He looked like he was about to cry and he stood up from his seat. He grabbed the tray and stared at it long and hard.
Cub and Bdubs waited anxiously for his reaction.
When Scar looked up to them tearfully, they got their answer.
“Oh, you guys are the absolute worst.” Scar said, using his sleeve to wipe his eyes.
“The worst of the worst.” Cub said, snickering.
Scar placed the tray on his desk carefully and he locked both of them into a tight hug. He deflated in their arms and sighed happily.
“Thank you, so much. Just for everything. I’m really glad you guys did this.” Scar didn’t want to move his head, but he really did want to try the cookies.
Bdubs and Cub were ecstatic to say the least, practically buzzing from the praise Scar was giving them.
“Aww, look at the little Jellie cookie. So so cute! And is that me?” Scar smiled cheekily at the two of them, both their faces turned red as they nodded, “How flattering! You two aren’t trying to suck up for a promotion now, are you?”
“No!” Bdubs exclaimed, “We wanted to make you cookies as an apology for giving you such a hard time recently. Also, a thanks from me for all the gifts you’ve given me.” Bdubs looked at the ground and held out his hand to Scar.
Scar looked at Bdubs like he was his world. He took the outstretched hand onto his own and kissed it gently.
“Thank you.” Scar looked at Cub, feeling his eagerness to get the same treatment. “Thank you to both of you.”
He grabbed Cub’s hand and pressed his face against the palm. After the moment died down a little, Scar turned around.
“Well, I just can’t finish these cookies on my own.” Scar raised an eyebrow now holding the tray of cookies, “Well?”
They both nodded eagerly.
“Roof?” Cub asked.
“Roof! Roof!” Bdubs nodded excitedly, he grabbed both Cub and Scar’s hands dragging them to the roof of the building.
They all sat there peacefully watching the setting sun. Scar bit into the Bdubs and Cub cookies first and snickered at their reactions.
Bdubs grabbed the Cub cookie and looked right at Cub as he bit into it.
Cub stuck out his tongue playfully and Bdubs couldn’t help but smile.
Scar felt shocked at the interaction, these two had just been at each others necks a few hours ago, and here they were flirting!
“How dare you flirt in front of me?” Scar said, dramatically.
Both their faces turned completely red.
“We are NOT flirting.” Bdubs said, quickly.
“We’re not?” Cub raised an eyebrow. Scar cackled at Bdubs’ face as they continued to eat the cookies.
Scar wiggled his eyebrows, sitting closer to them. He leaned his head on Cub’s shoulder and held Bdubs hand carefully.
Cub looked down at Scar who had made his resting spot on his shoulder. Scar looked up at him with a lazy smile that made Cub’s brain malfunction for a second.
Cub slowly grabbed Scar’s hand and intertwined their fingers while leaning on the other. He could feel Bdubs staring a hole into his head.
Cub turned to look at Bdubs, expecting to find him glaring, but instead, found him looking longingly.
Cub used the hand he was leaning on to offer his hand to Bdubs. Cub looked away, in case Bdubs wouldn’t take it.
He felt a soft warmth engulf his hand and he couldn’t help his heartbeat increase slightly as Bdubs intertwined their fingers.
Cub sighed, maybe he was okay with whatever they had going on.
He had to enjoy this while it lasted.