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The apartment smelled faintly of brown sugar and chaos. Liam stood at the counter in Theo’s favourite pink hoodie which was overly baggy on him and the sleeves pushed up to his elbows- Theo would absolutely murder him if he destroyed his hoodie, aggressively whisking flour into a bowl like it had personally offended him. Theo leaned against the fridge with his arms folded like he personally belonged there watching with the same stupid half smirk he always wore that made Liam want to kiss him stupid just to wipe the smirk off his face.
“You’re doing it wrong,” Theo said.
“Im following the recipe,” Liam muttered sliding his phone across the counter in Theo’s direction where Pinterest lay open and a pin was pulled up ‘perfect gingerbread men (no fail)’ However there were already three cracked egg shells in the sink and a pile of flour on the floor that had suspicious looking paws in it Theo’s guess was from their cat Tara. trusting Liam to do anything in the kitchen without making a mess was like the blind leading the blind- Impossible.
Theo picked up the phone flour and what Theo guessed was egg covering the screen and snorted. “Li this says, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. You skipped that and went straight to angry whisking.”
“I was creaming it,” Liam defended. “With enthusiasm.”
Theo stepped in behind Liam, close enough to the beta that Liam could feel Theo’s body heat along his back, and took the whisk from Liam’s hand. “Move.”
Liam grumbled quietly under his breath but shifted over to give Theo room to work. Theo’s hands moved with the precision of someone who had done this countless times before adding butter and sugar first then eggs, molasses, spices without even measuring anything out. Liam hated how easy Theo made it look.
“You’ve baked before.” Liam accused
“Foster home in Fresno. The woman taking care of us had a passion for holiday baking and ended up teaching me. I was the only kid who seemed interested and didn’t try to eat everything in sight.” Theo shrugged like the memory was nothing, but Liam caught the faint shimmer in his eyes. Liam knew Theo opening up about anything that happened growing up in the system was a big step for him so he decided not to pry at the topic and leave it be just this once.
They worked in a quiet rhythm after that, Theo mixed batter together while Liam rolled the dough out. It was something impossible to mess up according to Theo. However Liam still found a way the first time the rolling was too thin, then it was too thick. The beta had also somehow managed to get flour everywhere, in his own hair, in Theo’s hair, Theo’s hoodie that he was wearing that he quickly dusted off and the one place he was actually supposed to have the flour across the counter top. When Liam eventually had the dough Theo approved he had permission to start cutting out little people although half of them looked like they were missing limbs.
“Zombies,” Theo declared, holding up a headless gingerbread figure. “Vey on brand for us.”
Liam flicked flour at the chimera causing Theo to retaliate and smear molasses across Liam’s noise. Five minutes later they were both decorated in flour and molasses and their kitchen looked like a blizzard had happened inside. Neither teen minded though they were both too busy laughing so hard their chest hurt and tears welled up in their eyes. Theo eventually managed to compose himself enough to set the cookie tray into the oven.
They set the timer for twelve minutes and collapsed onto the couch, legs tangled together, waiting. Theo’s fingers traced absent circles on Liam’s wrists the same way he always did when they laid together.
“You know,” Liam said softly “When I was a kid my mum used to let me decorate them with icing pens. I always gave them angry looking faces because I thought it was funny.”
Theo huffed a laugh, “Of course you did.”
The timer dinged from the kitchen, Liam let Theo go first himself trailing behind like a lost puppy. When Theo pulled the tray from the oven the cookies were all lopsided and slightly charred, some of the gingerbread had melted into the other gingerbread so it looked like they were holding hands, Liam grabbed the icing pens anyway.
Theo pipped a tiny scar across one of the cookies cheeks. Liam gave one of them a unibrow and a frowny mouth. They worked in comfortable silence next to eachother, shoulders brushing against one and other. Passing icing pens and sprinkles like a secret.
When they finally finished icing they had a whole army of ugly, perfect gingerbread men on the counter. Liam picked up the first gingerbread Theo had made that night and took a bite out of its head.
“Hey!” Theo protested but he was smiling that small rare smile that always made Liams chest feel a little bit too tight.
Liam held out the decapitated cookie to the chimera, “You want the rest of your handy work?”
Theo took it biting slowly, eyes locked on Liam the whole time; blue eyes looking into green. “Tastes like home”
Liam’s heart did the same thing it always does around the chimera and he came out with something cheesy so instead of answering he just tipped his head up and kissed the corner of Theo’s mouth lapping up all the molasses.
Later when the kitchen was mostly clean and the gingerbread that survived to peckish supernatural creatures were lined up on a plate on the coffee table, they migrated to the couch and curled up under the same fluffy blanket to protect themselves from the colf outside.
“Next year,” Liam murmured, “Where making a gingerbread wolves holding lacrosse sticks”
Theo laughed softly, “Only if we make one chimera with a truck”
“Deal” Liam said, pressing a soft kiss to Theo’s hairline.