Chapter Text
First thing Nikola heard, as he was entering the apartment, was a loud scream followed by some girly laughter accompanied by Mate’s loud exclamation of shit.
Nikola sighed, he only went out for half an hour to buy some ingredients they lacked for Christmas cookies, but it was obviously enough for the girls to rope Mate into some mischief. He removed his jacket and shoes and washed his hands and then proceeded into kitchen area.
Petra and Lucija were sitting at the kitchen counter, and Mate was standing at the other side, his face covered in brown liquid, which was dripping from his hair and streaming down his face. Blender with opened lid was on the counter, still containing some of the liquid.
When they heard him come in, girls stopped laughing and looked at him with somewhat scared looks on their faces. They both started talking together, “Oh we didn’t cook anything, it wasn’t uncle’s Mate fault, we just wanted chocolate milk shake”.
Look on Mate’s face was combination of surprise, shock and misery. He was still too shaken to do anything about the mess so he just said quietly, “I only let them press the button, I couldn’t know they would remove the lid…”
Nikola was preparing a speech about how he was irresponsible because they were too young to operate any kitchen appliances, and also admonish the girls for not listening and making Mate do crazy things… then he took another look at the miserable trio and just laughed out loud.
The culprits relaxed a little and Nikola said, “OK, Mate you better wipe your face with paper towels before you drip it all over the floor and then go and wash yourself. Girls here is the wet cloth, you clean the counter, and I will remove the blender”, he gave the cloth to girls and then carefully transferred the blender into the kitchen sink.
Mate just finished wiping his face, and before he went to the bathroom, he leaned close to Nikola and whispered in his ear, “I love it when you are all bossy, makes me all tingly inside”.
Nikola gave him a stern look, “Flattery will get you nowhere. Go, and clean yourself, you dirty boy”, he winked and licked his lips.
Mate felt a bit of a heat rising inside his body, so he walked away fast, thinking he will have to splash his face with a lot of cold water.
By the time Mate returned, the kitchen was cleaned and there were several ingredients spread on the counter, he smiled fully and shouted “Cookies!”
Girls clapped their hands and replied enthusiastically, “Yes! Uncle Niko has prepared everything, we were just waiting for you”.
Nikola said, “Ok, so Mate will help you with measuring the weight of flour and other stuff, and you will then hand it to me as I tell you and I will make the dough. All clear?”
Everyone confirmed enthusiastically and Mate gave him thumbs up saying, “Yes Chef!” and kissed him on the cheek. Girls rolled their eyes and made annoyed noises, and then everyone laughed.
In no time they had nice amount of cookie dough, which Mate then rolled out to appropriate thickness. Then came the fun part, cutting the dough with various Christmassy shapes, stars, trees, snowman, bells… The girls did this and when they were almost finished, Petra said, “Wait, we should make some tennis stuff! Like balls and rackets!”
Lucija agreed, “Yes, super idea, but we don’t have those shapes... can you help us?” They both looked at their uncles with wide eyes and sweetest smiles.
Mate spoke immediately, “Of course, it is not difficult, balls are just round shapes, and rackets are not too complex either”.
Nikola smiled broadly, “I see we have an expert here, so uncle Mate let’s see how good you are at design”.
Mate smirked, “I am fantastic at it, like with everything else. But wait, first we need a cardboard template”. He got the scissors out of the drawer and then went to find some cardboard. He draw a racket on the cardboard and cut it out, “Ta da! Now we can put it on the dough and cut around it and we will have all same rackets”.
Nikola smiled, “Well that is impressive, I must admit”.
Girls agreed, “It looks good, later we can draw the strings on it with frosting!”
After all the cookies were cut they were placed on the baking tin, and went into the oven.
While the cookies were baked, they prepared the frosting, and mixed it with food coloring. Fortunately they had various colors, including yellow that will be needed for the balls. The agreement was that everyone will be decorating the cookies, the guys will help the girls, but they will all have a try.
While cookies were left to cool a bit, Nikola announced it was right time to clean the kitchen to be ready for the decorating. The girls didn’t complain at all, always obeying his instructions. He just knew how to engage them and make everything look like fun.
Mate felt for the hundredth time that soft, warm feeling inside, he put an arm around Nikola and whispered to him, “You are so great with them, you would be an amazing dad”.
Nikola smiled softly and winked, “Well I already have one overgrown kid on my hands, full-time, I don’t think I could handle any more”. They looked at each other and kissed quickly.
They were brought back by girls excited voices, “Come on, no mushy stuff, is it time for decorating?”
Nikola inspected the cookies and announced, “Yes, get ready to be creative!”
They all sat around the counter, brought out the jars with colored frosting, and the fun could start. There was a lot of laughter and some frosting ended up on the counter and some even on them, but in the end they decorated all the cookies.
The best ones were from Mate, he was an undiscovered talent for fine decorating, the girls’ ones were maybe a little imperfect, but they were all labor of love, and they couldn’t wait to share them with the family on Christmas.