Cookies
“Well, I don’t know what you’re talking about! I thought the lead did a great job on that song.” Wendy huffed, alerting Vincent to the return of the other two people dwelling with him. He didn’t bother to come out from where he was, though. It was more important that he kept doing what he was doing, anyway.
“That’s….a lot of cookies. Like, a lot of cookies.” Wendy’s voice rose, sounding slightly panicked. “Where is he anyway? Vincent? Oh drat, he didn’t destroy the lab again did he?” She muttered, opening the doors of the apartment. “Vince- OH GOD! OH GOD!”
Koala was there in a flash, ready to protect her lady-friend from what had caused her distress. “What is it?”
She hadn’t expected to find their stray clone sitting in the empty bathtub surrounded by the day’s newspaper in nothing but his underwear and a paper-hat. Koala blinked at the sight, even as Wendy ducked her head into her back. After watching the despondent young man finger the same photograph for the third time without even looking up at them she couldn’t help but shout at him, “Put some clothes on!”
That got a reaction as Vincent seemed to have not been aware of his state of undress, something that normally caused him no end of distress. With a yelp he skittered out of the tub and into the small room Wendy had allowed him to use before returning promptly, this time with pants and a shirt on, to return to the tub.
“Alright, this is new,” the two women shared a look before Koala shrugged and left the room muttering something about milk and cookies. Wendy sighed, sitting next to the tub on the closed toilet seat and watching her clone-Vincent. She didn’t like when he didn’t act in the parameters she expected of him; which were: Obsess over Luffy, make food, and follow her around. “Vin-num- I mean Vincent? Is everything alright?”
“No.” Came the sullen reply.
“Want to talk about it?”
“No.”
“You know, you’re not doing well at this whole talking thing right now….” After sitting there watching him mope, because he was, she left the room and pulled up SKYPI, knowing just who to call. Almost instantly her computer screen was overtaken by a large cat-face. “Hi, Mukki! Kitty!”
“Bad, bad cat! Sorry about that Wendy, sup?” Emily’s face appeared a moment later grinning.
“Well, you remember that clone? You know, Vincent? Vin-number-11?”
“The one with the appendix? Yeah, what about him?”
“He’s being weird.” Wendy huffed, picking up her laptop and bringing it to the bathroom to show her friend what she meant. “SEE?!”
“...And you show me this why?”
“Because you’re a behaviorist! Behaviorlize!”
“That’s not a word.” Still, Emily’s attention was on the despondent teen. “I had a lovebird like that once, you know.”
“How is a clone like a lovebird?!”
“How is a raven like a writing desk? I don’t know. He just reminds me of a bird. All…. pine-y and stuff, trying to build a nest. Next thing you know he’ll go off his seed and start plucking.”
“Plucking?”
“Yeah, pulling out feathers, or maybe hair?”
“...Um, would stripping count?” Wendy cautiously asked, earning a nod. “What comes after that?”
“Oh, well, if he were a lovebird, or any bird, I’d say he’d probably die of a broken heart. Ours got like this when it’s mate died….Taking it he’s looking at Luffy’s picture, right? So, either we get them back together, or find a soft blanket for him to bond with.”
“But Luffy ate him!”
Vincent flinched, remembering that not-real nightmare. The hurt and betrayal he felt. Quickly he stuffed those non-memories away, focusing instead on warmer happier times.
“Alright Luffy, I’m going to show you how to make cookies!” Vincent grinned, leaning into the taller man.
“And then we can eat them, right?”
“Yes, of course. You can eat as many as you want.” He had everything planned out. Shen was out enjoying a concert in town put on by Tohoshinki, and of course Sanji wasn’t about to let her go alone. Which meant the kitchen was unguarded for a change. “Now, I’ve already got all the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch out. All we have to do now is follow the directions!”
“Wow, you’re really amazing, Vincent! I’d never be able to figure this out on my own, shihihi.”
Vincent ducked his head to hide the pleased blush, “It’s nothing. I just want to be helpful to you.” It started out simple enough, Vincent showing Luffy how to sift the flour and dry ingredients together. Then how to carefully break the eggs and fold them and the rest of the wet ingredients in. Before long, he had the first batch of cookies in the oven, beaming in pride at Luffy’s praise. They even shared a little bit of the cookie dough before putting Vincent’s supplies in the sink and turning to Luffy’s batch.
That’s where things got a little messy. Luffy was very… enthusiastic… in copying what Vincent had shown him. If it had been anyone else, he’d say a little TOO enthusiastic. But this was Luffy, so it was adorable the way he got more flour on the two of them and the counter then stayed in the bowl. At least SOME of the eggs ended up in the right place without shells, though quite a few were dropped out of powdery hands onto the floor where they cracked wetly, leaving slick messes. And Vincent figured since they were cookies for Luffy, it was alright if he licked the butter first, right? Though he was a little confused as to when some ended up on his glasses. Still, it was a lot of fun, and they managed to scoop out a few gooey globs of cookie dough (the chocolate chips went missing at some point) onto the tray.
Just as Vincent was pulling out his own batch and loading in Luffy’s, Sanji opened the door with a bow, allowing Shen to enter first. Three of the people froze, caught in the taboo that was the state of the kitchen. Luffy wasn’t affected at all, waving cheerfully at the two who stood arm in arm shell shocked at the door. “Look! We made cookies!”
“LUFFY! VINCENT!” Sanji fumed, causing Vincent to cringe behind Luffy. “What have I told you about being in the kitchen?!”
Shen just laughed, “It’s not THAT bad, Sanji. They did make cookies, right?” She winked at Vincent, knowing full well who made the cookies and who made the mess. “Maybe next time though we should all do it together?”
“No,” Luffy pouted, “I’m only going to make cookies with Vincent! He makes the best cookies ever.” Suddenly getting yelled at wasn’t such a big deal anymore, not with Luffy wrapped around him like that.
Vincent whined at the memory, wishing he could go back to that time. As much as he liked Wendy, she wasn’t Luffy.
“Oh, fine. I’ll figure out some way to get him to the other one. You’re sure it’ll stop?”
“Probably… Wasn’t Koala going to Dressrosa or something? Why don’t Thatchy and I meet you there and I’ll take a closer look at him?”
“Really? That would help a lot! Maybe we’ll find out where you-know-who is there, too.”