Christmas Cookies

"Stop eating the ingredients, Zack!" A sharp slap to the back of the hand with a wooden spoon brought an end to the black-haired boy's antics. Shooting a playful glare at the spoon-wielding girl beside him, Zack began to protest.

"Come on, Aqua, you've got more than enough chocolate chips over there. Relax, have a little fun!"
A sharp glare from Aqua silenced him. Despite her harmless appearance, this girl was one scary person when she was angry and Zack knew it better than anyone. So, rather than doing anything to incur her wrath, he decide to examine his surroundings instead. Aqua's kitchen was small, but cozy. The usually neat counters were cluttered with ingredients needed to make various Christmas sweets. Somehow, Ventus had managed to persuade her to make all this. Now if only he could be that persuasive when asking her on a date.... Zack's eyes now turned to the girl herself. Aqua was completely concentrated on the task in front of her, making it the perfect time to admire her from afar. Her spiky blue hair stopped just above her shoulders and her blue eyes, so like his own and yet so different, seemed to sparkle in the light. Her appearance was a bit unusual, but that didn't stop the stares. Wherever she went she attracted attention, especially from the male population. Although he was normally a calm, easy-going guy he couldn't help but become jealous, which was why he "volunteered" to help with the baking.

"Having fun?" Aqua's amused voice shook him from his trance and he looked up to find her holding a bowl of cookie dough and a wooden spoon as well as giving him a playful glare. "Now stop spacing out and help or I'll chase you out of the kitchen!"

Zack's eyes followed the battered-covered spoon as it was waved threateningly in his face. "Okay, okay I'll help. Just don't kill me with the spoon!"

Aqua rolled her eyes at his attempt at humor and went back to stirring the ingredients in the bowl. "Well then get to work. You can start by measuring out the ingredients listed on that recipe over there." The blue-haired girl pointed to an open cookbook before taking out a cookie sheet and beginning to place little balls of cookie dough on it. Zack wandered over to the counter and examined the recipe. It looked simple enough.

Flour

Milk

Brown Sugar

Eggs

This couldn't be too hard, right? Even someone as inept at cooking as he is should be able to handle it. As he got out the items detailed in the list, Zack's mind began to drift again. And he got bored. A bored Zack is never a good Zack so, naturally, his thoughts wandered. He began to think of ways to make things a little more….interesting. Looking down at his flour-covered hands, he got an idea.

"Hey Aqua, turn around."

"Zack, what could you possibly wa-" The moment Aqua turned around she was greeted with a handful of flour in the face. The sight of her shocked, flour-covered expression sent Zack into peals of laughter. Unfortunately, due to his hysteric laughing fit, Zack was unable to see the dangerous look on Aqua's face as she reached for the whole bag of flour.

"Oh, Zaaack!" Aqua's sickly-sweet, sing-song voice snapped Zack out of his fit a moment too late. Before he could look up, a bag of flour was dumped over his head. He stood there, covered head to toe in flour, as Aqua allowed a small grin to grace her face. She let out a couple quiet chuckles and returned to her work, thinking Zack had learned his lesson. Only to hear a small crack over her head. The cold, gooey egg trickled down through her hair and she stood there, frozen.

"Aqua?" When she didn't respond, the satisfied smile slipped off his face and he slowly began backing towards the door, only to have a bowlful of cake batter flung at him. Dripping in batter, there was just one thought in the black-haired boy's mind. This means war. Soon ingredients and half-finished desserts were being flung left and right. The entire kitchen turned into a war zone. At least until the rest of the household found out.

"Aqua, what the hell is going on in here?" A very annoyed Terra had just appeared in the doorway just in time to get a sticky mixture of who-knows-what thrown his face. His glare immediately focused on the two in the room.

"Cooking?" Zack's half-hearted answer was met with an even harsher glare, causing him to shrink a little.

"Whatever, just clean it up." With that he turned around and left. The two were silent for a while as they listened to Terra make his way back down the hall. The moment his footsteps disappeared completely they turned to look at each other and began laughing. They were both covered in all kinds of desserts and looked utterly ridiculous.

"Hey Aqua, you've got some frosting on your face."

"What? Where?" Aqua moved to find something to wipe the frosting off her face when Zack's hand caught her wrist, stopping her.

"Hey don't worry, I've got it." And with that he leaned down and kissed her on the cheek, wiping off a bit of frosting as he did so. Aqua's hand immediately flew to her cheek and a light blush appeared on her face. Zack began to grin a bit sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head.

"Sorry about that, I shouldn't have-"

"No, it's okay." Aqua quickly cut him off, "Besides, you've got some frosting on your face, too." She placed a short, sweet kiss on his lips before turning around and assessing the damage done to the kitchen. It also effectively hid the fact that her face was as red as a tomato. She let out a sigh at the thought of the work ahead of her and began cleaning up, but as she glanced at the black-haired boy beside her, diligently working to make up for all the extra work he just gave her, she couldn't help but smile. At that moment Zack turned his head and caught her smiling at him.

"So, does this mean you'll go out with me?" He asked with a hopeful expression.

"Keeping working and then we'll see."