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"You two are going to make more mess than this is worth," you say pointedly as you lift yourself up to sit on the kitchen counter, watching Tim and Kon flit around the kitchen.
"More than its worth?" Kon says indignantly. "It's Christmas joy, babe, it's worth everything this time of year."
"Come on, Timmy, back me up here," you insist, but Tim just shrugs from his spot by the stove, his lips pursing as he looks down at whatever recipe Kon's handed him. Kon smiles at you a bit too triumphantly, leaning over to pinch your thigh playfully.
"Come on," he coaxes as you shriek and bat his hand away. "It'll be fun. Isn't this what the holiday spirit is all about?"
"Do we even have the stuff for this?" Tim chimes in from where he's standing. You shoot Kon a pointed look.
"They're cookies," he scoffs, snatching the recipe from Tim. "It can't be that complicated. I'm sure we have… well, most of this."
"I don't think it really works if you have most of the ingredients, baby," you say, a teasing tilt colouring the kindness in your voice. "Christmas joy can only take you so far."
"Then we'll go shopping," Kon counters, folding up the recipe and shoving it into the pocket of his jeans. "Come on, it'll be fun."
"Fun?" you echo. Tim smooths a hand over Kon's back lovingly and shoots you a good-natured smile.
"It could be," he agrees. "But we don't all have to go. Kon can do it if he's so sold on the idea."
"Can I?" he counters, dipping down a bit to press a quick kiss to Tim's cheek.
"You could," you agree. "But if you're going out… baby, why not just buy cookies? It's the same thing as making them, just… easier. Faster."
"Faster," Kon says indignantly as Tim rolls his eyes, squeezing your thigh in silent support. "You want us to speed run Christmas?"
"No," you laugh. "Just this part of Christmas. It doesn't make a difference!"
"It does," he insists, crowding against you where you sit on the counter and kissing you quickly. "You're supposed to slow down, relax, enjoy the process."
"It's just a cookie, Kon," you counter, but your voice is a bit quieter, a bit less sure. It's easy, you find, for the two of them to pick you apart and make you crumble - especially when they gang up on you like this.
"It'll be nice," Tim agrees, his hand smoothing up your thigh to settle in your hip and rub little circles there with his thumb. "Why are you so against it?"
"I'm not against it," you say quickly, something defensive colouring your voice in a way that makes Kon press a gentle kiss to your shoulder. "Doesn't it just… feel like a lot of work?"
"In what way?" Kon chimes in, his voice muffled against your hoodie.
"I don't know," you murmur, suddenly shy - suddenly crumbling. "The way that… everything feels like too much work sometimes."
"Yea?" Tim says gently, a quiet little prompt, a loving little nudge.
"I don't know," you say again - but you do, and you know from the way Kon's still and alert and from the way Tim watches you that they know, too. "You have to go out into the cold and spend all this money, and you come back and make a mess in the kitchen, and… I don't know." You shrug, your fingers twisting and fidgeting. Kon holds his hand out on your lap and lets you settle both of yours there - lets you continue to move them and pull at them, but gives you his palm, warm and big, to do it on.
"At the end of it all, you just have a plate of cookies. I don't - it never really feels worth it, does it?"
"I don't think we have to do it like that this time," Tim offers, and you scrunch your nose a bit - because you wonder, just a little, if he'd offer to fetch the moon from the sky for you with the same level of quiet assuredness.
"How do you want to do it, then?" you ask, and he gives you a small, shy smile.
"I don't know, however we want. Kon will go out - neither of us have to."
"Yea, and you don't have to do any of the cleaning up," Kon adds, picking his head up from your shoulder to beam at you. "Tim will take care of that."
"Oh, will I -" Tim starts, but you laugh, and he looks at you like it's all worth it, after all.
"I didn't mean that I need to be coddled," you point out, but Tim's hand is kind as it smooths over your hip.
"It's not coddling," he insists.
"Yea, babe - we just love you, you know," Kon adds, his lips finding a home on your shoulder again and then trailing up your neck.
"Well, I know that," you murmur - because, really, you do. Why else, you think, would they be going through all this? Why else would they be bracing themselves to carry your weight in this way?
"We'll get chocolate, too," Tim muses. "Make that peppermint bark that you like."
"Yea, but you have to temper the chocolate for that," you protest. "It's a lot of work. Just - "
"Do you think we should make gingerbread, too?" Kon pipes up, squeezing your thigh affectionately before reaching for the radio so that he can flip through stations until he finds Christmas music.
"You need special trays for that if you want, like, the house shapes," you remind him, but he just shrugs.
"Gingerbread men, then," Kon amends easily, flashing you a smile.
"And what are we going to do with ten thousand pounds of cookies?" you ask long-sufferingly, a smile twitching against the corners of your lips that has Tim pressing another kiss to your cheek.
"Anything," he says. "Eat them, give them to other people - who cares?"
"Send them to Lex," Kon suggests as he finds the radio station he'd been looking for, some mellow little Christmas song wafting through the kitchen.
"You want to send Lex baked goods?" you ask in disbelief.
"I think it would bother him," Kon corrects, and you nod solemnly.
"Of course."
"So?" Tim murmurs as Kon disappears down the hall to get his shoes, still shouting cookie types and icing colours behind him.
"So?" you echo.
"Does it all sound so bad still?" he asks gently. Guilt starts to weigh down your shoulders just a bit, making you slouch down, but his hand on your lower back presses you back up.
"It never sounded bad," you insist. "Just… a lot."
"Yea," he murmurs, and Kon jogs back into the kitchen with his shoes and coat thrown haphazardly on. "But it doesn't have to be. It's just… us, you know."
"Yea," Kon agrees. "You can just sit there and shout out directions if you want."
"Or just sit there with a cup of tea," Tim adds.
"Or whatever you want," Kon agrees. "No right or wrong way to do it, baby - we just want to spend time with you."
"You can spend time with me buying cookies, too," you counter - but, really, the fight left you a long time ago. It's a fact that they've both caught onto, all sweet little smiles and loving touches.
"True," Tim agrees easily. "But it's nicer to let someone else do the heavy lifting for you, isn't it?"
"Yea," Kon nods. "Let us love on you a little."
"With cookies?" you laugh. Kon shrugs as he presses a final kiss to your forehead before heading for the front door.
"Obviously," he shouts over his shoulder. "They taste better when someone who loves you makes them for you."
"See, now, there's just no way that's true."
"Maybe," Tim offers. "But I guess there's only one way to find out."