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The door opens as Riley breezes through and stretches. She didn't know a Christmas party could be so rambunctious! It nearly wore her out! Though, she wonders how Ace and Valerie are doing. Ace, because, that's her bestie and one of her lovers, and Valerie, because she's her other lover, and this was the champion's first Christmas party.
She looks over to the two of them, and asks, "Soooooo, how was the party?"
Valerie rolls her eyes playfully. "I expected a lot more pizzazz, if I'm being honest."
Ah, Valerie. She's so hard to please, yet so fun to show things to. Though, in all honesty, she still seems pleased. Riley chuckles, and replies with, "I mean, at least I don't have to work a holiday shift as Rutile's trash gal. And you know what that means!"
"Oh! We- We get more time to ourselves, right?" Ace hums, with their Bongus, Slate, laughing a little.
"Eeeexactly!" Riley sings, instantly spinning around and landing a kiss on both Ace and Valerie's cheeks.
"Wh-" And there it is! Valerie has once again given unexpected affection, and her face is flushed! She can barely form words! "I- Mm- You-" The champion covers her face with her hands.
"Pff-" Ace chuckles. "You're such a tease, Ri."
"Anyways, speaking of time to ourselves..." Riley hums, rocking her body back and forth. "While it's still July, let's do something for the holiday season! I've done things like this with Ace countless times, but YOU, Valerie, are gonna have some fun as well!"
Valerie is still quite flustered. "Mm... Sure..."
"Riiiight..." Riley giggles a bit. "I guess that kiss really messed you up, huh?"
Ace sighs and relaxes. "...Just give her some time, Ri."
Riley indeed waits a while, and eventually, Valerie comes back to her senses. "So... What are you thinking? What do you want to do together?"
Riley cheerfully shouts, "Let's bake cookies!!!" Riley brings Ace and Valerie into a hug, holding both of them as tightly as she can.
Valerie looks away, a tad embarrassed. "I don't think I've ever baked something before..."
"Oh! I could teach you!" Riley hums, letting go of Valerie and Ace. "Besides, it's all just a bunch of putting stuff together and then putting it in the oven! That's easy!"
Ace stretches their arms and chuckles a bit. "Hahah... Honestly, I'm still thinking about that party. I'm just wondering if any of the food fed to the Beasties are safe for them..."
Well, that is a pretty important thing to consider, considering how many Beasties were at the party. "Well, did you find any sick Beasties, or anything like that?"
"...Well, I guess none of them were throwing up!" Ace hums, stretching again.
"Honestly, I don't know what I would do if Styles started throwing up..." Valerie sighs, shrugging. "But I guess I don't have to worry about that."
"Agreed," Ace replies, patting Styles on the back. "Speaking of the big fella, how are ya doin'?"
Styles huffs happily, bringing their flippers in the air. It looks like they're doing great!
Valerie sits on the couch, crossing her legs. "You certainly know a lot about Beasties, huh?"
"Well, I've been with them all my life..." Ace mumbles to themself, looking a bit shy. "So I definitely know a thing or two. I've been living like them as well, in the preserve, for most of my childhood. The life of a Beastie is one that you should probably look into."
"Aprons!!" Riley rushes over and hastily gives the two coaches unique aprons, with her now wearing an apron that says, 'Pasta la Vista, Baby!' with a cartoon plate of spaghetti on it. "If we're gonna start baking, we gotta wear aprons!"
"Oh! ...Already?" Valerie hums, looking at the apron that was just handed to her. It says, 'Kiss the Champ', and that phrase is written with a multitude of colored markers. Valerie smiles a little bit. She thinks the apron is cheesy, but she loves it anyway.
Valerie and Ace follow Riley, walking over to the kitchen counter while Riley sets down the ingredients the three of them need on there.
Valerie quickly puts her apron on, as Ace opens the oven hastily.
"STOP!!" Riley closes the oven and drags Ace away from it. "We need to preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius first! Don't just open it like that!"
Ace huffs, swiftly donning the apron with the words, 'Save some for your Beasties!' on it. They got it as a gift from Marlin a while back, though they're not sure how Riley got it from their room. Well, best not to question it now.
With gusto, Riley proceeds to pour sugar into the bowl, not paying attention to Valerie trying her best to study the cookbook set on the counter intensely.
Ace grabs Valerie's shoulder, and suggests, "Maybe we could make the icing? I mean, what's a Christmas cookie without decoration?"
Valerie smiles. Ace is already holding the food coloring bottles, so she supposes that they've already gotten to making sure everything's in order. Valerie's gonna have to keep up! The champion goes back to studying the cookbook, figuring out how to do the things in order to make the cookies as great as they can be. "Alright, bet."
Riley smiles at the two of them as she beats the sugar, some butter, and two eggs with a whisk, carefully making sure that each ingredient is mixed in well enough. Her dad is the one who taught her how to bake in the first place, and she knows the feeling of losing interest halfway through the baking process. But with Ace and Valerie, she finds it much easier to keep her interest on the sweet treats the three of them are making.
Ace's Gremlur, Adrax, tries to lick some of the mixture, thinking they can get away with it.
"Hey!" Quickly, Riley pushes Adrax away. That dang Gremlur, trying to eat the cookies when they're not even done yet! That's so cringe! "NO licking the mixture." She swiftly goes back to making the dough, with flour, baking powder, and vanilla extract put into the mix as well.
She eventually finishes and rushes to get the rolling pin, but she nearly trips over Duke. She quickly stops herself, and sighs in relief. The Conjarr doesn't seem fazed by any of this.
Meanwhile, Ace and Valerie are finished with the icing, and Ace puts the icing in one of Riley's family piping bags.
Riley proceeds to roll the dough out, as she hums to herself.
Ace thinks for a moment. What else does a cookie need? Oh! Eureka! They've got an idea! "Hey, Riley? Where do you put the cookie cutters?"
"In the drawer right there!" Riley points to a drawer behind Ace. They look around, and open up the drawer, to see a multitude of Beastie-shaped cookie cutters ready to be picked out.
Riley finishes rolling out the dough, and looks at Ace and Valerie. Ace picks out six different cookie cutters. Two of them look like two of Ace's Beasties; Slate the Bongus, and Cleo the Hopra. The second pair look like two of Riley's Beasties; Lioness the Plumask, and Sphynx the Bandicraft. The third pair look like two of Valerie's Beasties; Styles the Broslidon, and Queen the Kasaleet.
Valerie smiles a bit. "Heh. Convenient."
Ace rushes to the rolled-out dough and proceeds to have some fun with the dough. When they're done, Ace peels off all the excess dough and rolls it into a tube. They then proceed to wrap it around Riley's neck.
"Pff- What are you doing?" Riley chuckles.
"You have a new necklace now!" Ace giggles at Riley, as Valerie watches, trying not to laugh.
"Pffh... Ace, you're just as silly as your Gremlur," Riley looks at Ace, looking like she's about to burst into laughter.
"Hey, no slandering each other," Valerie adds in, still trying her best not to laugh. "Unless you want what's for."
Ace chuckles. "Yeah. You don't want to end up on the naughty list, do you, Riley?"
"Oh, you want naughty, huh?" Riley hums, as she gives a kiss on both Ace and Valerie's necks, mustering a laugh out of the former, and severely flustering the latter.
"Y-You- You didn't- You didn't- have- h- have to..." Valerie covers her flushed face again.
"Now you've really done it, Ri! You flustered the pants off Valerie again! Right in front of our cookies!" Ace playfully baps Riley on the head, to which Riley responds with bapping Ace on the head back.
Ace looks over, to see Cleo and Sphynx put the cookies in the oven for the three of them. "Oh! I guess that means it's time for us to have a little fun together?"
Valerie seemingly calms down, as she looks over to the two of them. "Y'know, I could always battle one of you."
"Oh!" Ace points to Riley. "Battle her! She's got a really cool team!"
The champion smirks, knowing all too well that she's already got this in the bag. "Heh. Who am I to say no?"
Riley feels giddy. She gets to battle THE Valerie Stride! Well, they're already together, but it's VALERIE STRIDE!!! Of course she wants to battle her!!! "Okay! I challenge you!!"
Valerie smiles and laughs. "Good luck, babe."
"LIKE THE SONG???" Riley perks up, grabbing Valerie's hand and rushing her to a place where they can play Beastieball.
All the while, Ace is still inside, with their Beasties in tow.
Edel, their Wottle, looks up at Ace, curiously. "I've never had cookies before. What are they like?"
Ace looks back at Edel, and pats them on the head. "Well, they're like... these snacks with sugar and icing sometimes. They're small, and you could probably eat one no sweat!"
Edel nods, but has another question to ask. "And I saw that they were shaped like Beasties... Are they always shaped like something?" They ask, curiously.
"Not always, but these ones are," Ace replies, watching the cookies as to make sure they don't burn. "It's for a special occasion. Specifically, the holidays. Riley really likes making cookies for the holidays, and Valerie and I recently got together with her, so we're helping her make cookies."
"...I zoned out halfway through your sentence," Edel admits, "But I got the gist of it. Cookies for a special occasion."
Adrax laughs. "Yeah! By Shloom, Edel! Don't you know that it's a VERY special occasion?"
Edel looks away, unfazed. "I was just curious. You know I'm bad at paying attention."
Cea, Ace's Psylusc, sighs. "Adrax, don't belittle Edel. Edel, you took that insult like a champ. I'm very proud of you."
"I've been getting better..." Edel hums.
Ace diligently watches the cookies, until they hear a DING! from the timer. Holy crap, the cookies are done! They gotta tell the other two! Like, right now!
But first... They take the cookies out with their oven mitts, and puts them on the counter. They glare at Adrax and say, "Cea, make sure Adrax doesn't eat all the cookies, okay?"
Cea nods, standing on-guard.
Ace hastily puts their winter coat on, and rushes outside to see Valerie and Riley still in a Beastieball match. Though, Riley looks like she's about to lose. Well, they don't call Valerie the champion for nothing.
Ace breathes in, and loudly exclaims, "HEY, YOU TWO!!! THE COOKIES ARE DONE!!!!!"
Valerie looks over to Ace, a tad befuddled. "...Yo, for real?"
"Yeah! So just... Pause your game for a moment, okay?" Ace holds Valerie's cold, cold hands. They're usually warm, but Valerie doesn't really wear anything to warm her up during the wintertime. "You can resume once the cookies are decorated."
"Hold on, I'm almost done. Just give me a sec, okay?" Valerie hums.
And with one final attack, Sphynx is down for the count. "Heh. Anyways, what were you saying?"
Riley laughs! She finally got to battle the Sports Queen herself!! "Hahah! HAHAHAHA!! ...Anyways, I think they said that the cookies were done."
"...Oh, yeah. So..." Valerie walks back inside, despite how eerily cold she is. "You ready to decorate some cookies?"
Riley laughs again. "Hahahah!! Yeah!!!" Riley rushes inside, taking Ace with her.
Ace takes off their winter jacket, and stretches. Shloom almighty, the air was cold!! They wonder how Valerie is so unfazed by such cold weather. She doesn't need a jacket, or mittens, or... anything! They wonder... how does she do it?
When the three of them get back to the kitchen, the cookies are already decorated! By Ace's Beasties, no less! They look really proud of themselves.
"...The cookies are already decorated..." Valerie is surprised, but then she instantly picks up a cookie and stares at it. "...Impressive."
"Heck yeah, it's impressive!" Riley instantly grabs a cookie and eats it in one bite. "Holy crap, it's DELICIOUS!!" Riley looks very, very happy. "I'm totally gonna have you two make cookies with me next Christmas!"
Ace smiles. This whole cookie-baking process has been so fun. So great. Even Valerie enjoyed it, despite being clueless for most of the process. They already want to bake more cookies with them.
"...Merry Christmas, you two."