Baby stared down at the plate, steam rising off the charred lumps on top of it.

Picking one of them up, he could feel it crumble beneath his fingertips.

“What kind of warfare are you planning on waging with these?”

“Hey, come on,” Romance said where he stood leaning against the stove. “It’s food.”

 

Baby squinted at him, then back at the plate. “When did you start eating coal willingly?”

Romance pouted. “It’s supposed to be cookies. I’ve never tried making any before.”

“Looks more like you’ve never even seen them before to me.”

“You are so mean today.” Romance pushed away from the stove so he could open it, a much more pleasant scent spreading throughout the kitchen. He snickered as Baby leaned in closer, watching him pull the baking sheet out of the oven. “What, not going to insult me again?”

“No, it smells edible this time.”

 

Romance rolled his eyes as he put the sheet on the stove. He swatted Baby’s hand away, already reaching for the scalding hot cookies. “Give them a minute to cool down.”

Baby clicked his tongue but still lowered his hand, tapping a beat against the countertop as they waited, listening to Romance talk.

 

For a long moment, Baby watched him intently.

“Hey,” he started, making Romance turn toward him. “Why’re you baking anyway? You could’ve just bought some if you wanted them so bad.”

Romance twirled a lock of hair around his finger, looking down at the cookies in front of him. “I’m making up for experiences I never got to have when I was alive, I guess.”

That, Baby could understand. It wasn’t like they’d had the luxury or the products to do something like this in the demon realm. That souls were the only thing that actually had any sort of nutritional value to a demon and thus they had no need for cooking in the first place was besides the matter.

He watched Romance move the cookies to a clean plate. “You can have some now, if you want.”

 

As Baby picked one of the cookies up, the scent of it filled his nose. It smelled sweet, and much better than the first attempt.

He bit into it.

It tasted good, if a bit odd, like maybe Romance didn’t get all the proportions quite right.

 

He chose to ignore the satisfied look on Romance’s face as he picked up a few more to squirrel away for later.

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