Where the latest neon promises are burning bright

Emmy worked very carefully and followed Dani’s instructions to the letter.

“I’m surprised there are so many ingredients,” she said as she stirred the mixing bowl. “Then again, I don’t really have any context for cooking, huh…”

Her life was very weird. Everybody could agree with that.

“Baking takes a lot of ingredients,” Dani said. “Especially when you’re making cupcakes!”

Emmy nodded. That made sense.

“Dani, making cupcakes?” Gina walked over with an incredulous expression on her face. “What, did you dump a box of protein powder in, first?”

Dani turned and gave the other girl an icy look. “What exactly is that supposed to mean?” She asked, getting huffy with Gina.

Gina stared back at her. “I thought my point was self-explanatory,” she replied cheekily. “The point, of course, being that you focus a lot on protein. You know. Because muscles. …Kind of.”

She reached over and squished the soft skin of Dani’s upper arm, right around her bicep.

Dani sighed in exasperation and rolled her eyes. She wasn’t even upset at the other girl for playing around like this, that was just Gina being Gina. Some things you learned to accept, especially when it came to taunting punk girls.

Gina, in turn, grinned from ear to ear. “Hey, I think it’s great!” She insisted. “I mean, look at you, baking cupcakes with Emmy like this! So adorable! If only Carly was here to see how well you two are getting along!”

“M-maybe it’s better if she’s not here,” Emmy said, looking sheepishly down at the cupcake batter she was mixing. “This is my first time, so…”

“No, nonsense,” Dani said adamantly, shaking her head. “Carly would be absolutely thrilled to know you’re cooking, and support you completely!”

“Mhmm!” Gina nodded. “Even if you mess up!”

Emmy sighed. She knew her mom would do that, that wasn’t her point. The issue was that she didn’t like not being good at things, and that included baking. So hearing from Gina and Dani that her mom would be happy for her even when she made something that couldn’t legally be classified as food wasn’t the best thing in the world for her.

Was it nice to be supported?

Yes.

Did it make her feel awkward when she was supported, and things didn’t go as she had planned them to go?

Also yes.

Emmy sighed and set the mixing bowl down. “Okay… that’s as good as I can get it, I think,” she said, looking at the cookbook. “It says the batter is supposed to be light and fluffy, but it just looks kinda gloopy…”

“Nah, I’m sure it’s fine,” Gina assured her, reaching in to dip her finger in the mix.

Dani’s hand snapped out and grabbed her by the wrist so fast she could have been mistaken for a mousetrap.

“Hey, come on! I just wanted a taste!” Gina groaned, waving her hand helplessly above the mixing bowl. “It won’t hurt anything!”

“We don’t know where your fingers have been,” Dani pointed out. “And you’re not wearing the plastic cooking gloves anymore.”

Dani had insisted that Gina wear gloves when she cooked the pasta. Dani herself had done the same for sanitary purposes, but while she was still wearing hers, Gina had stripped hers right off.

Gina sighed in exasperation and rolled her eyes. “Come on, that’s…” her voice trailed off and she looked up, recounting how her morning had gone. “…Actually, yeah, you’re right, good call,” she conceded, retracting her hand.

Emmy didn’t even want to know.

Holly looked up from the dessert she was making with Mary and turned to the other woman. “You’re not going to go give your advice?” She asked Mary.

The redhead shook her head. “I’d love to help Emmy learn to cook,” she replied. “But right now, she and Dani are having fun together. And even if she makes a mistake, well, that’s just a learning opportunity for her, so…”

She shrugged.

Holly nodded. “Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” she agreed, and the two of them got back to work themselves.

In the meantime, Emmy was busy pouring the batter. It was a tricky process, but she was able to keep the bowl steady as she poured.

“Make sure not to fill it all the way up to the top,” Dani warned her. “Try about halfway, or two-thirds at most.”

“Why? You get more cupcake that way,” Gina pointed out.

Dani gave her a look. “Because it’ll expand in the oven, and if you fill it all the way to the top it will overflow like crazy. Don’t you know how physics works?”

“Oh, suddenly you’re, uh… um…” Gina trailed off. “M-Madame Curie or something?”

Dani just stared at the other girl, as Gina’s face turned red out of sheepishness.

“Wh-what?” She scowled. “That was the first female scientist I could think of, shut up!”

She wasn’t exactly the most well-read person in the kitchen. Which made it sting all the more that Dani apparently knew more about stuff like this than she did.

“Is this good?” Emmy looked up at Dani hopefully and set down the bowl. The batter had been dispersed fairly evenly across each of the different pockets for the cupcakes.

“Yeah, looks perfect to me!” Dani encouraged her.

To Gina’s eyes, it looked far from perfect. But Dani was no perfectionist. She regularly settled for “good enough” when it came to stuff like this.

“Now, let’s pop it in the oven for about 25 minutes,” Dani said, excitement oozing out of her voice. “Then it’ll be all done!”

“Yeah, and then you can decorate it, with frosting, and little flowers, and sprinkles, and all that other girly stuff that you feel so embarrassed to do!” Gina said in a high-pitched voice designed to mock Dani’s excitement.

The blue-haired girl shot an icy glare at Gina.

“That’s you,” Gina said, grinning from ear to ear. “That’s what you sound like.”

Emmy was pretty sure there was something going on here that had nothing to do with cupcakes or with her. She carefully carried the tray over to the oven, which Dani had been preheating for the last 15 minutes, and slid it inside.

“So… that’s it?” She asked, turning to Dani. “We’re done?”

Dani looked up from the headlock she had Gina in and nodded. “Basically,” she confirmed to the incredulous girl.

“How is this not violating the no violence rules!?” Gina waved her arms in protest. “Hey, Bitch Mary! I’m being assaulted over here!”

“Watch your language,” Dani chastised the punk girl.

“I’m not a child,” Emmy replied, rolling her eyes. Even though she was a child in a lot of very important ways.

“Also, can we not call the other me… …That?” Mary requested. She couldn’t even use the word.

“Besides, it’s not like I’m hurting you,” Dani clarified. “Restraining someone isn’t violence. At least, not when I’m doing it.”

Gina scoffed. “Agree to disagree.”

Dani sighed and let the other girl go. It wasn’t worth the headache. She turned to Emmy and was all smiles again.

“Well, now we just need to wait for the oven timer to go off, so we can check the heat,” she explained. “In the meantime, we can check and see if Gina burned any of her pasta!”

“Oh, very funny,” Gina said, narrowing her eyes. “For the record, I left it to simmer on the stove, because I actually finish things promptly and don’t have to wait a billion years for the oven to decide when my cooking is over.”

“Right, that’s what everyone knows you best for,” Dani said sarcastically. “Your punctuality.”

Gina playfully stuck out her tongue.

“Can I take a look, Gina?” Mary asked, setting aside what she was doing and walking over to the punk girl with a curious expression. “You’re done, right?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah, sure!” Gina chirped. She adjusted her apron and flashed a grin. “I bet you’re gonna love this, Mary!”

She led Mary over to the stove, where her large pot of pasta was simmering on low heat. She took the lid off, and a lovely aroma filled the kitchen.

“Ooh!” Emmy felt a stirring hunger in her belly. She couldn’t wait for lunch already. “That smells really good!”

Gina dipped a tasting spoon in and handed it to Mary to sample. The redhead took a cautious sip, and then relaxed. Her face lit up. “Hey, wow! This really tastes good!” She said, looking up at the other girl in wonder.

“Don’t sound so surprised,” Gina said sarcastically.

“Can I have some?” Dani asked, coming over to join the two of them. She hated to admit it, but it smelled like Gina had done a really good job.

Fortunately, Gina wasn’t one to hold a grudge, not even over a headlock.

“Yeah, sure thing, Dani!” She nodded, handing the other girl a spoon of her own. “Just don’t take too much, we want to save it for the party.”

As Dani dipped her spoon in to sample, Mary smacked her lips together thoughtfully. “I’m impressed, Gina,” she admitted. “Really, I am! What did you use for the cream sauce? I’ve never had carbonara quite like this.”

Gina grinned. “Hehehe. I used my super-secret ingredient, of course!” She boasted proudly.

Dani’s hand froze with the spoon halfway to her lips and her eyes shot up to Gina. Dread filled her heart as she considered the other girl’s words.

“…No way,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “You didn’t…”

“What?” Gina asked. “Why are you looking at me like that? You don’t like sour cream?”

Mary let out a sigh of relief and relaxed. “Oh… sour cream… okay. That makes sense with the consistency I felt before.”

Dani wasn’t so convinced. “You sure sour cream is the only thing you mixed in here?” She asked suspiciously.

“Well, no, obviously,” Gina replied. “I mean, I clearly put other stuff in there, too, to mix the flavor properly, but I don’t see what- …Oh, come on, Dani, you’re not serious!” She groaned, realizing what the other woman was implying.

Dani took a tentative taste of the sauce. It didn’t taste weird, which was a good sign. It just had a slightly stronger flavor than she’d anticipated.

“With you, we can never be too sure,” she said plainly.

Gina rolled her eyes. “Oh, please, like I would actually put Nick’s-”

“Gina,” Mary loudly cleared her throat and gave the other girl a sharp look, before glancing over to Emmy, who was crouched in front of the oven, watching her cupcakes.

“Oh, uh… yeah, whoops,” Gina said, miming a zipper closing her mouth shut. “…But again, you think I’d put that in my cream sauce? Knowing who’s going to be eating it?”

Yes, it sounded absurd to Dani to even consider that possibility. But when dealing with Gina, you could never be too careful. She responded with a shrug.

“I won’t know what you want me to say,” she said sincerely.

“Tell me that you think that’s too far out there even for me,” Gina requested.

Dani stared at her, pointedly not saying a word.

Holly had to fight REALLY hard to not just burst out laughing on the spot. Really, really hard. It took everything she had.

Gina scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“I think you did a good job,” Mary said, giving Gina the tasting spoon back. “And since it looks like you cooked the noodles to the right softness, I think this is going to taste great!”

Gina flashed a toothy smile. “Well, you know me, I like my noodles soft! When I’m done with a noodle, it’s nice and soft, floppy, covered in white cream-”

She ducked under the oven mitt Dani chucked at her face.

“See?” Gina addressed Echo with a call to the void. “More violence! She’s a kitchen menace!”

“Mary isn’t wrong,” Dani begrudgingly admitted, handing Gina back the tasting spoon. “You really did a good job here, Gina! I’m impressed!”

“Eh, really?” Gina looked surprised to hear that for a second, then she beamed from ear to ear. “…Thanks, Dani. That really means a lot to me.”

“Hey, Mary, we’re not done over here yet,” Holly called over to the redhead, ruining the moment a little bit. But baking took precedence.

“Coming,” Mary said, even though she didn’t think that what they were working on needed THAT much input on her part.

Before they could even get started back up, though, the kitchen door swung open and a smiling face skipped into the room.

“Hey guys!” Carly was beaming from ear to ear. Her hair was still a little damp from the hot spring “We just came by to see how the food’s coming along, and- Eh!? Emmy?” She did a double-take when she saw her daughter in front of the oven. “What are you doing here?!”

“Oh, mom!” Emmy brightened when she looked up from her cupcakes to see her mom’s surprised expression.

Carly quickly grinned and went over to see what her daughter was up to. “Look at you!” She cooed. “Are you helping out in the kitchen?”

“Dani, uh… Dani taught me how to cook,” Emmy said shyly, glancing over at Dani and Gina.

“Bake,” Gina corrected her. “She taught you how to bake, to be perfectly accurate.”

It wasn’t often that Gina had the opportunity to correct someone’s terminology. She intended to milk it for all it was worth.

Mary sighed in exasperation and rolled her eyes. “You see what I have to deal with?”

Morgana wasn’t far behind Carly, and she brought Nick with her. Soon, the spacious kitchen felt surprisingly cramped for all eight people inside it.

“Hey Nick, what’s up?” Gina turned to him, surprised. “Didn’t expect to see you guys sniffing around here. Even though my food IS quite spectacular.”

“You guys having fun on your date?” Holly asked.

“Actually, yes, we are,” Morgana replied with a smile. She had changed back into her regular gothy clothes now and left her hair down to dry, but she carried herself with a strange sort of confidence that everyone noticed. Like she was comfortable in her own skin for the first time in her life.

Nick had to admit, seeing Morgana confident and self-assured like this really warmed his heart. He was proud of the effort that she’d put in today!

“I don’t know about Nick and Morgana, but I came here to help Emmy with her cupcakes,” Carly said, having been explained what her daughter was up to.

Mary stifled a laugh. “Sure, if you say so,” she replied, and turned back to Nick. “If you’re here because you want to help, it’s fine,” she assured him with a bright grin. “We’ve got it all covered! You and Morgana can go enjoy your date together!”

She looked over at Carly, who seemed to have forgotten all about Nick in her haste to praise her daughter’s culinary abilities.

“…I guess it’ll just be the two of you, then,” she said with a cheeky smile.

Nick shook his head. “Actually, we didn’t come here to help,” he confessed. “…Well, I mean, we did, if you need our help, but that isn’t the main reason actually.”

Mary glanced over at the oven and then back to Nick.

“…No, that wasn’t why, either,” he replied. They hadn’t even known Emmy would be here in the first place, how could that have been the motivation?

“So what do you guys need? Strawberries dipped in chocolate, for a romantic rendezvous?” Holly chuckled. “Or maybe skip the strawberries, get yourself some chocolate, and-”

“Holly, is the end of that sentence going to be something that’s appropriate for my daughter to hear?” Carly asked sharply, looking up from the oven with a fierce gleam in her eyes.

Holly opened her mouth, then clearly thought better about it because she closed it immediately afterwards and then shook her head.

Nick had to resist the urge to smirk. It was hard to get Holly to change her ways, that much was for sure.

Mary kept her eyes focused on Nick. She was definitely happy that he was here- it was always nice to see him, regardless of the context- but she couldn’t help but feel an uneasy sensation in her chest.

After all- Nick was here for what reason, exactly?

Mary couldn’t begin to guess.

“Do you need help with something?” She asked him. The kitchen was her domain, and she wanted to keep it measured and calm. “Holly and I are working on a special dessert for Rose, so if you don’t need anything, we were just about ready to put the finishing touches on when you walked in.”

Nick knew that Mary wasn’t trying to rush him out. If anything, she was more concerned about Morgana!

But the goth had a bright sparkle in her crimson eyes, and she pulled her lips out in a grin.

“Mary, it’s fine,” she assured the other girl. “I’m happy to be here! Nick told me what he wanted to do, and I thought it was just the sweetest thing ever!”

She didn’t need to make the whole day all about here. She’d had plenty of fun today as it was- this was the icing on the proverbial cupcake.

Mary looked at Morgana and accepted her words at face value before turning to Nick. “Okay, I’m listening,” she said, intrigued. “What’s this ‘sweetest thing ever’ you were thinking about doing?” She asked.

Nick leaned over and whispered what he was thinking into Mary’s ear.

The redhead’s eyes widened and she looked at him incredulously.

“Wait… are you serious?” She asked.

Nick nodded. “Yeah… …What, you don’t think it’s a good idea?” He asked.

Mary bit her lip. “Well… it’s not a bad idea,” she said, mulling over his suggestion, which was more of a request than anything. “I think Morgana is right, I think it’s actually really sweet!”

Nick sighed in relief. “Oh, good.”

“Do you need any help?” Mary asked.

He shook his head. “I think it’s better if I do it by myself,” he said, and his response needed no further explanation.

Mary nodded. “Alright, if you say so,” she agreed with a bright smile. She was just happy that he was taking such an initiative for himself! It was exactly what she wanted to see. “Good luck!”