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Young Cricket and Mona reread the baking book, and looked in their baking bowl which was filled with ingredients. Lulu was jumping up and down to see the bowl as well as the two oldest squinted at the book,
“I think you gotta add the eggs Cricket.” Mona pointed out, Cricket was confused as he looked up at Mona,
“But I did…” Cricket placed his head on Lulus head and messed with her hair, making her yell,
“Hey!”
“You did?” She looked over to see broken egg shells and rubbed her head, “Then what are we missing?”
“I don’t know??” Lulu stared at Mona and Cricket as she decided to hug his leg, Mona was teaching Cricket how to bake since last time he burnt everything. Cricket seemed a bit shy today, he had both Lulu and Mona over at the place he called home. They were in the kitchen together, bonding and laughing, but this was the first time he had Mona over at all so it was possible he was just nervous,
“Cmonnnn…” Lulu whined as she tugged on Crickets pants, “I want to eat cookies…” Mona looked down at Lulu and giggled while Cricket tried rereading the cook book to figure out what was missing,
“I want cookies too Lulu, but we need to make sure they’re PERFECT. We don’t want you to eat bad tasting cookies again do we?” Cricket squinted and looked over at Mona,
“Hey… They were good! Mostly-“ Mona tried to pick up Lulu, but she shook her head and held onto Cricket’s leg,
“She loves your leg huh?” Mona laughed as Cricket gasped, he found the last missing ingredient, grabbing a bag of chocolate chips, before the two began to laugh, feeling foolish they forgot the main thing for the cookies. Cricket’s cheeks grew a soft red as a response of hearing Mona’s lovely laughter,
“Yeah. She seems to like it but I don’t stop her, besides shes sleeping over tonight. I’m asked if I could babysit her for the night since her usual caregivers wouldn’t be home.” Mona aww’d and patted Cricket on the shoulder,
“Well that’s nice of you! I would babysit, but I have so many jobs to do…” She shakes her head and holds it with her hand, “I got my band, the pizza place, working with Wario, well I don’t mind that…” She ripped the chocolate chip bag open and poured it into the bowl, “I’m actually surprised how often you take babysitting jobs for Lulu!”
“Yeah well- You know. She’s a little buddy of mine, my number one fan.” Cricket lifted his leg up with ease to reveal Lulus eyes getting slightly droopy, “Plus I help her train to be a hero sometimes, since that’s what she is!” He held out a fist bump for Lulu, in which she returned, her eyes lighting up before Cricket lowered his leg and grabbed a giant spoon, mixing the bowl after all the ingredients were inside as a rapid pace. Mona leaned over to watch him do this, fixing her hair and holding her hands, impressed at Cricket’s speed on mixing. She absolutely could do it faster, but she didn’t want to brag. After a few minutes, the batter was done, so Mona took the bowl and began to place them onto a tray with foil, counting about 12 cookies. Once she was done, she knelt down and mumbled,
“Lulu? I got a surprise for you.” She held out the bowl and spoon that still had bits of batter on it, Lulu gasped and held the two, “clean it off by eating them yeah?” Lulu let out a squeal and hugged the bowl,
“Thank you Mona!” She jumped a bit before licking the batter off while she walked up to a chair to sit on, pulling herself up on it, before attacking the batter that was left. After they places the cookies in the pre-heated oven, Cricket and Mona both let out a sigh and sat on the floor.
“Thank you for coming over and helping Mona.” Cricket said confidently, “I’m sure the cookies will turn out, maybe just as good as mine.” Mona elbowed him on the side and held her head in her hands,
“It’s no problem.” They both fell quiet, Cricket looked up at Mona, he was staring at her, he never thought he would find her so pretty. He didn’t when he started working at the company with Wario, but she just seemed so strong, confident, and was a hard worker. He found these traits to be wonderful. His thoughts got cut off as Lulu sat in between the two out of nowhere. “Are you okay Lulu?” Mona mumbled, Lulu didn’t respond as she licked the spoon slowly, making Cricket laugh and pull her into a small hug,
“I think she didn’t want to be alone, and from the looks if it she seems tired! She needs to sleep ya know?” Lulu shook her head, her giant bow slapping against Monas arm,
“Nuh uh!”
“Yuh huh!” Lulu and Cricket went back and forth with this, even having Cricket fake yawn, and grabbed Lulu. He lied down on her while she squealed, “Well I might as well fall asleep on this PILLOW I found.” Lulu kicked her feet and pushed Cricket’s head,
“I’m NOT a pillow!” Mona couldn’t help but joined in,
“Can I have the pillow? I think I need a nap.” Lulu stopped and stared at Cricket,
“Well of COURSE lady Mona.” He sat up and Mona lied her head on Lulus stomach,
“Noooo!!” Lulu couldn’t stop laughing, and hugged Mona’s head. She would be here for awhile.
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“Girls?” Cricket whispered, Mona was sititng in a chair, passed out, snoring a bit, while Lulu was drooling in her sleep and lying on Mona. “Girls…” Cricket whispered again. They were out. He shook his head and walked to the oven, grabbing an oven mitten and pulling out the tray of cookies, placing them onto the counter and turning off the oven. He stared down at the lovely treats, waiting for them to cool off before he took one and bit into it, it was wonderful, delicious. He couldn’t help but grab another one, eating them down quickly before looking at the clock, it was 11:27 pm.
He thought for awhile, before walking over to Mona, trying again. “Mona…”
“Mmmh…” A tired groan was her response, before hugging the sleeping Lulu closer. Lulu was out, her mouth wide open, snoring a bit. Cricket rubbed his hands, before wrapping his arm around Mona’s back and legs, lifting her and Lulu up. Thanks to his training, he could carry them easily. He walked down the dark hallway, careful not to bump into anything, before opening a door. The slow creek of the door occurred as he stared into a bedroom, his bedroom. He carried Mona in and placed her carefully on his bed on one side, and tried to put Lulu on the other side of the bed. Lulu instead groaned and pushed herself to hug Mona’s arm, just to make sure she wasn’t alone. Lulu opened her eyes a bit and looked up to see Cricket above her, and closed her eyes again, she was too tired to ask.
——————
Morning rolled around, the sunlight peaking over the window, and once it hit Mona’s face, she groaned and rubbed her eyes before opening them. She turned to the side to see Lulu braiding small parts of her orange hair, seems like she woke up a bit ago.
“Good morning Lulu…”
“Hi Mona!” Mona took a bit to realize, this wasn’t her bed. Mona had to take awhile before she sat up and rubbed her head. Where was she,, Just a simple look around the room told her where she was, the blue shirts, the motivational posters, the natural colored room… It was…
“Where’s Cricket?” Lulu shrugged, and slid off the bed, So Mona stood up and stretched, she wanted to find him, and thank him for bringing them to his bed. After she opened the door and carefully walked down the hallway, she began to look around, the training room, the main room, and off to the kitchen she went. In there, was Cricket, asleep. He was sitting on a chair and lying down on a table, drooling a bit, Mona covered her mouth as she giggled and placed her hand on his hair, running her hands through it, it was extremely soft. Thank you Young Cricket.” She whispered, letting him sleep, she felt as her face lit up a bit, and hand her cheeks, Cricket was kind of cute when he was sleeping, but she wanted to shake this thought off, he was just a friend. Right?. She had went over to the cupboards and found pancake mix, pulling out what was needed to make some. Lulu came into the kitchen and laughed at the sight of drooling Cricket,
“Whucha making?” The girl asked Mona and came over to the counter. She gasped at the sight of the remaining cookies and took one, biting into it, she absolutely loved it.
“Oh, just some pancakes.” She shrugged, “Just as a small thank you to Cricket.”