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The door slammed open as Buck practically flopped on the floor, letting out a groan.
“Ooough… Geeth, I’m POOPED! What a party, yeah? Felt like it wath mithhin’ a little thomethin’ though.”
The Major Player followed behind him, scoffing at the other playfully.
“Baaaarley! The work party didn’t even run into the night, I wasn’t expectin’ a buncha quitters today.”
The Duck Shuffler blows a little raspberry at him, kicking his legs idly on the ground as he smirks.
“Juuutht be lucky the guys upthtairth didn’t make uth work a holiday thhift. It jutht meanth we get more time to ourthelveth. Hehe.”
The musician rolled hys eyes, peeling Buck off of the ground and giving him a playful noogie. “Alright, alright, I see what you’re layin’ down, babe. How about we have a little down time before we get into that, yeah?”
The other giggled in response, pushing Dave away before being placed back onto the ground, dusting off his red and green Cogmas sweater.
“You’re THUCH a teathe .” The gambler let out an annoyed groan, though he wasn’t actually upset about it. Dave chuckled at his reaction, tapping his chin in thought.
“It’s the holiday season, babe. We should do somethin’ trendy before the opportunity leaves us!”
Buck ambles deeper into the living room before flopping onto the leather couch, letting out a yawn as he stretches. “We juuuutht went to a Cogmath party, pal. The gift exchange, the party gameth, the whole thhebang!”
Dave smiles as his expression grows more fond, “I know, I know, babe. I mean doin’ somethin’ just the two of us. We’ve been havin’ to deal with coworkers all up in our business the whole day, nothin’ wrong with them, I just wanna do a little somethin’ special with my favorite little duck… alone.”
Buck’s heart jumps a little trying to wave off whatever Dave was spouting. “Yeah, yeah… uhh… how about…” He snaps his fingers, a lightbulb appearing over his head. “Bakin’ cookieth!” The lightbulb over his head falls and shatters on his noggin, making the duck grow woozy.
Dave blinks at him, gently patting his head to soothe the pain. “Ya really think we’re cut-out for that? Belle ain’t here to lend us a hand.”
The gambler sputters, shakily raising up a finger. “Pfft- we got it in the baaaag… We’ve been takin’ lethhonth for liiiiike… da… deven- THEVEN mmmonthh. We got. It.”
Dave’s glasses morph to emulate a raised brow as he gently flicks Buck’s beak. “Well we ain’t gonna get it if you’re actin’ like a drunkard.”
He takes the smaller cog by the shoulders, keeping a firm grip. “As a wise fella like us once said, ‘you gotta wind ‘em up to wind ‘em back down again!’”
“No one thayth that-”
Dave suddenly jerks Buck forward before taking him for a spin, a comedic ‘whirr!’ coming out of him as he spun and spun and spun before slowing to a stop.
The gambler’s slot eyes spun wildly before landing on a bust, a crazed laugh hacking out of him. “NEVER felt better!”
The duck shakes his head rapidly as he scratches his scalp. “I would much rather get woozy off BOOZE, instead of… THAT.” He snaps his fingers again before his eyes dart up to see if another lightbulb had appeared. It didn’t. All clear. “THAT’TH what wath off with the party. NO DRINKTH! No whithky, wine, beer, NOTHIN’. What a KIDTH thhow.”
The musician rolls his non existent eyes as he scoffed. “I dunno, babe. I think it was a good call. I love fun and all but it woulda been a disaster seein’ you hammered outta your mind back there. ESPECIALLY with Campbell there too. You two are a riot.”
The gambler pokes hys chest, pouting. “C’mon! I LOVE Thpruthy. We ain’t THAT bad.”
“Babe, you ate a table. Together. The last time you were out for drinks.”
He pokes him again. “Yeah, tho WHAT?”
Dave shrugs, letting out a high note through his teeth. “Just sayin’! I think we dodged a bullet there.”
Buck flops onto the couch as he kicks his legs in the air, blowing another raspberry. “You’re tho booooring.”
The Major Player’s head snaps to look down at the other slumped against the couch, letting out an offended gasp. “Me? Me? The Monstrous Master of Melody? The Singin’ Siren of the Century? The (in your words) Notorious Dave Brubot? Is BORING? Oh no, no, no.”
Hy wags hys finger in front of his face, causing Buck’s smile to grow wider and smug. “Did I pluck a bad thtring or thomethi- Oof-!”
An apron was dropped onto Buck’s stomach, as Dave motions toward the oven, now wearing an apron too with the words ‘Kiss the Dave Brubot’ scribbled in red ink. “Let’s heat things up, babe! You, me, and the oven, let’s go-o-o!”
“Fiiiine…”
Buck rolls off of the couch, crawling toward the kitchen counter like a little bug as Dave quickly sets an assortment of ingredients on there.
Dave’s head turns at the sound of the oven opening, catching view of the the entire upper half of Buck’s body being stuffed into the oven. Hy snaps his fingers, trying to gain the duck’s attention.
“Preheat that oven to 350 fahrenheit, baby! We’re cookin’ today, and it won’t be you.”
The gambler pouts, reluctantly shimmying out of the oven donning an apron with the words: ‘It’s all fun and games until someone burns their wiener’ with a crudely drawn cartoon sausage next to it. It was a gift that Graham had given him during their gift exchange. Somehow word had gotten around to him that Buck and Dave had been taking baking lessons, most likely through Belle and Flint. It got a good laugh out of him at the time but now it just dawned on him that he owns this. There was no way he was wearing this in front of Mrs. Dama.
Bowls clink together as Dave pours some sugar into a bowl, glancing over at Buck who seemed to be curiously eyeing a cookbook he had laid down on the table.
“Y’know, you can get with makin’ the icin’, those little treats wont decorate themselves!”
Buck beams as he grabs a few food color bottles from the counter, analysing the instructions in the book once more.
“They’ll look tho pretty, Davey, you’ll thee!” Dave chuckles as he beats in the sugar and some butter with an electric whisk, gently swaying to the sound and tapping his feet. The two were at work with their own individual things. As they were being supervised by Belle during their cooking ventures they started to grow used to following instructions, it was very easy for them to suddenly lose interest while reading off the cookbook but with each other’s presence it made keeping their attention a lot less hard. They were both working toward the same goal, and that helped them motivate each other.
“Bee-boppa-doo-doh- Badoo-bee-doo-wah~” The musician quietly sings to himself as the dough slowly comes together, flour, baking powder and crude oil getting added to the mix.
“Baby, you’re one of a kind~”
He whips out a rolling pin seemingly from nowhere, rolling out the dough as Buck slaps the icing into a makeshift piping bag, which was actually just a ziplock back with a tiny hole punched in the corner.
The Major Player glances over at the Duck Shuffler again, tapping his shoulder. “It’s time for cuttin’ these babies up, I know you like to do it so-”
“Don’t mind if I do! HAHAHA!!!” Buck reaches for a few cookie cutters like a claw machine reaching for it’s prize, grabbing a handful and going completely crazy with cutting out the dough. The gambler peels off the excess dough and rolls it into a ball, chucking it directly at Dave’s forehead.
“Heeey! Baaaabe… what was that for?” Buck smirked at the other and stuck out his tongue.
“You were lookin’ at me all funny. All dreamy like, it wath GROTHH.” The Major Player let out a dramatic gasp, his hand resting on his chest to further accentuate how offended he was.
“What’s with all the slanderin’ tonight, huh? On Cogmas Day too? You’re one naughty duck, babe. Not a good look on the jolly man’s records.”
Buck leans in closer, poking Dave’s chest as he looks up at him with lidded eyes. “Oh I can be naughty alright.” The musician exchanges a horrified look, as if all the color had left his face.
“Babe! In front of the cookies? …and in front of… our son…?” Hy holds up a tiny low baller he had molded out of the ball of dough Buck had thrown at him, if you could see hys eyes he’d look like a poor pleading puppy. How hy was able to do that in such a small amount of time without Buck noticing is just one of the millions of things you can’t explain about Brubot.
The Duck Shuffler barks out a laugh, slumping into Dave as he enters a fit of laughter. “Oh that’th GOOD! How about ya put ‘em nithe and thnug into the oven tho we can have thome alone time, huh?”
Dave scoffs, giving Buck another noogie as he places the little cookie baller onto a tray where the other less ducky cookies were. “You’ve got it, babe. You sure are needy tonight, huh?”
“C’mooon. It’th Cogmath Day like ya thaid. Let me have fun with the betht gift I got all year.” The musician’s face goes a little red as a little bit of steam escapes the corner of his mouth.
“Pullin’ out all the stops, huh?” Hy grabs the tray and places it in the oven, closing it with a click.
Buck sways his hips a little as he looks at Dave with a smug expression. “Only the betht for you, Davey.” The gambler’s gaze shifts to the little piping bags on the counter, licking his beak.
A sigh comes out of the musician as he shook his head. “Make sure there’s some left for the cookies, babe.”
The gambler lets out an odd quack as he picks up one of the bags as he attempts to guzzle down the icing by squeezing the bag. Any normal person would look at Buck with some kind of disgust or discomfort, but thankfully, Dave was far from normal. He leaned against the counter and smiled as hy watched Buck like he was the most beautiful thing in the world, when really he was trying to drink down sugar cookie icing like his life depended on it.
Hy leans in extra close to flick Buck on the beak, causing the gambler to recoil and accidentally spin his slots. Dave perks up, bracing hymnself in case of any disaster- however, all three slots clicked into position, revealing three ducks in a row.
A cloud of smoke appears where the piping bag was, shaping it into the shape of a duck, the hole now located where a beak would be. “Okay, now that jutht made that weird .”
Dave holds in a little laugh, tilting hys head. “What? Ya don’t wanna give the ducky a little kiss?”
Buck turns his head, crossing his arms. “No thiree!” Suddenly Buck twitches a little, glancing around the room. “Hey, ya thmell that?”
The other’s teeth clenches as hy slowly turns to look at the oven. Watching as a little trail of black smoke makes itself apparent through the oven.
“Hey, babe. What did ya set the oven as?”
“350 like ya thaid!”
“Fahrenheit or celsius?”
Buck blinked at him before shrugging. “I dunno.”
“What do you mean ya don’t-”
An ear piercing explosion beams out of the oven, covering the two of them and the rest of the kitchen in soot. Dave let out a little cough as the other shook off the soot like a dog shaking off dirt, looking as good as new.
The musician wipes the soot off his sunnies as the gambler opens up his mouth to speak, a shaky smile on his face. “At leatht it baked fathter.”
The Major Player breathes in, attempting to respond before going into a coughing fit. The duck winces, taking hold of Dave’s shoulders. “Hold on, lemmie handle thith.”
“Ath a withe man onthe thaid and another one repeated- ya gotta wind ‘em up before ya wind ‘em back down again!” He takes Dave for a spin as he let out a surprised record scratch noise, the soot flying off him like crazy.
Hy slows to a stop, shaking hys head. “Hoo! It really does work miracles, it was right all along!”
Buck glances at the oven, now darkened and full of charcoal instead of cookies. “Eh, not really a miracle for our treatth, though.”
The gambler reaches into the oven, not having a single concern about how hot it may be, taking a cookie from the blackened disaster and taking a bite.
“Y’know, thith ithn’t half bad!” He said as the cookie looked as if it had actual molten lava inside.
The Duck Shuffler pops the cookie in between Dave’s teeth, making him jump a little in surprise before he takes a bite. “Hey, you’re onto somethin’, babe. Not half bad.”
The other barks out a laugh, taking out the tray from the oven with his bare heads, though, he doesn’t seem to acknowledge the burning pain.
“We’re bakin’ geniutheth, pal! Jutht uh… needa improve on the lookth department.” The two of them looked down at the cookies as Dave tapped his chin. Hy picked up the icing from the counter and piped on some sunglasses and big familiar smile onto a Cogmas tree shaped cookie.
The gambler raised his head to look Dave in the eye only to see hy was mirroring that same smile. “How’s that for looks, babe?”
The other rolled his slots, sticking out his tongue. “Thooooo handthome~ I could jutht eat it right up.” He slips the cookie into his beak and swallows it whole, not even chewing it.
A little giggle escaped the Major Player as he blushed. The way hy reacted sometimes reminded Buck of a stupid lovesick school girl. It was amusing, yet oddly empowering that he was capable of making a grown, often admired and looked up to man to act like this just by saying a few buzz words . It was great.
“Alright, alright, how about we do some more work on this batch? We’re far from done here, babe.”
He chuckles, grabbing another piping bag and drawing a little dollar sign on an ornament shaped cookie. “Right ahead of ya!”
…
…
The two of them laid cuddled together on the couch as they finished the last few cookies in the batch, holding onto each other loosely as they finally get to wind down.
Dave shifts a little under Buck as hy sits up, tilting the duck’s head to face him. “Hey, take a looksie, Bucky-boo.”
The other tilted his head, letting out a little hum before noticing the conveniently placed mistletoe between them.
“Ooooh, you! Thneaky, ain’t ya?”
The musician leans in closer, laughing softly. “I had to pay ya back for those fast ones you pulled on me. I don’t forget, babe…”
Buck holds Dave’s face as the two share a kiss. The gambler slotting his beak between Dave’s teeth as he nuzzles against him, it was odd to witness but it was how they always did it, and it never got old in the slightest.
Buck’s hands travel lower to Dave’s chest, pushing him down onto the couch until he’s on top of him. “Now, what’s this, babe?”
“Cogmath ith almotht over and I haven’t unwrapped my gift…” He smirks, tugging on Dave’s sweater.
“Oh I see… well, in my opinion, you’ve been very good this year, babe.” The Major Player smiles, pulling Buck closer, letting him nuzzle his beak against his neck.
“Gothh… Merry Cogmath, Davey… you drive me crazy.”
“I know I do.”