Second floor common room: Saturday morning
It didn't take long to get from Jack's room to the common room if you were running really, really fast, and he and Sam pelted through the door at exactly the same time.
Jack dropped her hand and danced a little dance of triumph. "Told you you weren't faster than me!"
"I almost was!" Sam pouted, padding over to the kitchen area and pushing a chair over so she could kneel on it.
"Yeah, but I was almost faster than you, too, so it doesn't count." Jack followed her and pulllled on the fridge door until it swung open. "Kay, we need milk and eggs and flour and sugar and peanut butter and chocolate chips. You see what you can find up there."
Sam climbed up on the counter with a maximum of banging, and started rummaging through cabinets. "Chocolate chips first, then peanut butter." Hey, a girl had to have priorities. She dropped a bag of chocolate chips on the counter, then stretched up to what she thought was a bag of flour. An open bag of flour.
This probably wasn't going to end well.
"Cooool!" Jack wasn't watching, because he was too busy trying to carry the milk and the eggs and the syrup he'd found in the door all at the same time. "Don't forget to find the flour! We can't make it without that."
"'kay!" Sam edged the bag forward on the shelf with her fingertips, scootching it slowly towards her, then grabbing it. Feeling very proud of herself, she shouted, "Incoming!" and jumped off the counter.
She landed fine, but the impact made a very large poof cloud of flour that covered her from head to foot.
Jack, arms completely full, turned around in time to catch the edge of the cloud, a light dusting of white coating his face, his arms, in fact the entire front of his body. "Saaaammmmieeee!"
Sam looked from herself to Jack and started giggling. "Oops."
Jack rolled his eyes, but he couldn't help giggling with her. "You're all white! And you made a big mess!" He was very impressed, and he carefully stretched right up on his toes to put his stuff on the counter so he could get a better look. "We look like ghosts!"
"We do!" She grinned at him, raised her arms over her head, and walked towards Jack in suitable ghostlike fashion, "Woooooooooooooooooo! Wooooooooooooooooo!"
Jack grinned and ran away, laughing over his shoulder. "Nooooo! Scary ghost!" He ran out of the kitchen, scrambled up the back of the couch, and then jumped onto one of the chairs, leaving a little trail of flour behind him. "This is the special Anti-ghost chair, ghosts can't come up on it or they get unghostified."
Sam pouted at Jack-who-didn't-play-by-the-rules, then got a broom and used it to poke him. "I'm still all ghosty, 'cause I'm not on the chair." Poke. Poke. Poke. "I'm gonna get you! Wooooooooooooooooooooo. Then you'll be a full ghost and not just a lame-o half-ghost." Poke.
"Heyyyy! No poking! You said!" Jack climbed up onto the back of the chair, trying to escape the broom. "And I'm not a lame-o, I'm cool, cause I'm a half-ghost half-person so I can do more stuff than you." He stuck his tongue out at her. "You're just a ghost and you can't even come up on the Anti-ghost chair!"
"Nuh uh," she shook her head, blonde hair and flour flying everywhere, "You're not a ghost or a person, so you can't do any stuff. And I can too come up on the anti-ghost chair!"
After a little bit of a wait (because his argument was very convincing), Sam climbed up on the chair next to Jack. "WOOOOOOOOOOO! See?"
"Ha! See? You're not a ghost cause a ghost couldn't come up here!" Jack was giggling so hard he slid back down the chair and landed on his butt. "And, and, and ghosts aren't ticklish!" he decided as he jumped up and started tickling her. "And they don't eat waffles!"
"No, Jack, stop!" Sam squirmed and giggled and wiggled and tried to catch his hands, "No tickling!"
He stopped and tried to look serious, letting her catch his hand. "You promise no more poking? And I can be a half-ghost half-person?"
"No more poking," she promised, "but you hafta say too. And you can be a half-ghost half-person, but I dunno why you'd wanna."
"I promise no more tickling or poking and you can be a ghost." He grinned. "And because it's the best! I can fit in with ghosts and with people! But I'm still hungry. Can we make waffles now?"
"Okay," she hopped over the side of the chair and walked back to the kitchen, leaving a return trail of little white footprints. "You wanna get the sugar?"
Jack walked behind her, walking in her footsteps. "If you get the peanut butter. And we need a big bowl and a spoon and the waffle maker." He clambered up onto the counter, leaving it liberally smeared with white, and pulled out the canister with the sugar in it.
Sam got down on her hands and knees and looked through the cabinets (noisily). "Peanut butter!" She waved the jar triumphantly and sat back on her rear end, then opened the lid and took a fingerful, sucking it off, "I don't know where the bowls, spoons, or waffle maker are."
"Hey, share!" Jack crawled across the counter top until he could lean way over and reach the peanut butter, scooping out a finger full to lick. "Yummm, and they must be up here."
He started going through the top cupboards with very sticky fingers. "Found 'em! Bowl, spoon, and umm," he dropped them on the counter, but the waffle maker looked heavy. "Hang on."
Sam stood up next to the counter and held her arms up over her head. "I can get it, Jack."
"We have to get it together, cause it's heavy." He wrapped his arms around it and started tugging it over to the edge. Tug tug tug. "Ready?"
"Wait!" She scrambled up onto the counter, and rested on her knees, holding her arms up, "'kay, I'm ready now."
Jack heaved really hard and it came out of the cupboard and plummeted downwards, to heavy for him to hold on his own. "Catch it, Sam! Catch it!"
"Don't let go, Jack!" Sam stuck her arms out, trying to catch it in her arms instead of with her hands. It hit with a bit of force and her eyes watered as her arms started to sting, "OW!"
He wrapped his arms tight around the machine and leaned back, trying to get it to drop on the counter. "Sammie! Are you okay?"
Sam dropped her end, sniffling. "It was heavy." She rubbed her forearms, which were looking a little red.
Jack let his end go and it thunked onto the counter while he leaned forward to look at her arms. "I'm sorry, Sammie. Didn't think it'd hurt you," he said, biting his lip. "Come on," he took her hand, "come and run it under the tap. It'll feel better."
Still sniffling, Sam followed him over to the sink. "My mommy kisses it better."
Jack turned on the tap, checking it very carefully so it wasn't too hot. "There." He moved the tap so water poured over her arms. "Does it feel any better?" he asked anxiously, biting his lip again cause she got hurt and it was his fault. "And I can kiss it better just as good as her."
Sam nodded. It did feel better, and they didn't sting as much. "You can? How do you know?"
"Dunno, I just do." Jack turned off the tap and picked up a towel, gently patting her arms dry. When they were all dry, he bent his head and kissed her left arm and then the right. "See?"
It didn't feel quite the same as Mommy-kisses to Sam, but it worked mostly okay and she was really, really hungry now. "Uh huh. So...waffles."
"Yup, waffles!" He bounced over to look at all the stuff they'd collected. "We gotta put all of that in here," he pointed at the bowl, "and then pour it in there," he pointed at the waffle maker. "But we gotta plug it in first." Climbing back on the counter was easiest, so he did and plugged it in, then grabbed some eggs. "Wanna help? But you gotta do what I say."
"Okay. I'm a good order takerer."
Jack nodded a lot. "Okay, first you gotta put some flour in the bowl, a bunch of handfuls, okay? And then I'll put the eggs in and the milk."
Sam picked up the bag, then stuck her hand in, grabbed some flour, and dumped it into the bowl, making another little flour cloud. "How many more handfuls?"
"Ummm," Jack poked the flour with the spoon. "Four more. Cause there's lots of other stuff to go in, too."
"'kay," Sam said, dumping two more handfuls in, then peering into the bowl, then another two, complete with flour clouds. She peeked into the bowl again, looking skeptical, then to Jack, "Are you sure that's enough? They're gonna be little waffles."
Jack poked the flour some more. Sam was right, they were going to be too little. "Put in ten more handfuls. You've got littler hands than me, and I'm really hungry." He pulled the eggs over to the bowl. "I'm gonna put these in at the same time, kay?" He cracked an egg on the edge of the bowl and pulled it apart with both hands, ensuring egg went in the bowl, on the counter, and all over his fingers.
Sam nodded and started counting carefully, "One..." flour poof "Two..." flour poof "Three..." flour poof "Four..."
She giggled when Jack covered himself in egg, covering her mouth and forgetting that her hand was full of flour. "You made a mess."
"So did you! You're a flour face!" Jack wiggled his fingers and flicked egg at her, then cracked some more eggs. Crack, crack, crack, squish. "Oops." There was eggs shell and egg all over his hands and he giggled as shook them to try and get it off.
"Yeah? Well, you've got...egg hands!" Sam giggled, then ducked out of the way, not that it stopped flying egg from landing in her hair, probably to make a nice paste with the flour.
"I'm the egg monster! RAWR!" The roar suffered from more giggling and Jack covered his mouth, smearing egg on his face. Of course, this was easily fixed by wiping both face and hands on his shirt. "Milk now. And sugar. You can do the sugar."
"EEEEE!" Sam took a couple of steps back from the scary egg monster, giggling pretty hard until she got her next order. "How many handfuls?"
She opened the bag and stuck her finger in, letting the sugar stick to the peanut butter that was still there, then licking it off.
Jack clutched the milk in both hands and tipped it over, splashing some in the bowl and some on the counter. "Umm," he frowned, cause it was important to get it just right. "One big handful and one little handful. And then peanut butter and chocolate chips and then we can mix it!"
Sam nodded, then used her not-licked hand to dump a big handful and a little handful of sugar into the bowl. "Does it look right to you?" She asked, peering into the bowl and already reaching for the bag of chocolate chips.
He peered into the bowl. It looked...interesting, which was good enough for Jack. "Yup! It's perfect. We can put some more milk in if it's not squishy enough once we mix it all up."
"Okay," Sam was very happy that this was going to be All Jack's Fault if a grown-up came by. He was kind of a mess. "Chocolate chips!" She tried to tear the bag open, but was having some troubles and thrust it at him, "You hafta open it."
Jack grabbed the bag and pullllled both sides of it as hard as he could. Which turned out to be pretty hard, and the bag spilt open in a showering fountain of chocolate chips. Some even went in the bowl. "Ooooohh! It's raining chocolate!"
"Yay!" Sam tipped her head back, leaving her mouth open in case there were still some chips falling. There weren't, and she pushed some of them off the counter into her hand instead and ate them one at a time. "Help me put some in the bowl, please?"
"Yup yup," he said, scooping them off the counter and tossing them at the bowl. "Sammie, put the peanut butter in now, I wanna stir!"
"How much peanut butter?" She asked, squishing some through her fingers, then dropping two handfuls in, "Is that enough?"
"Perfect, perfect, now I get to stir!" He sat down cross-legged, pulled the bowl into his lap, and stirred it like crazy, trying to keep it all in the bowl, with mixed success. "Waffles soon, Sammie."
And another peek into the bowl, "Doesn't look like waffles, Jack."
He made a face at her and stuck out his tongue. "Gotta mix it lots, and then pour it in the maker. Then it'll be waffles. Gotta be patient." Jack was stirring and stirring and stirring, trying to make it not be lumpy, because it was supposed to be smooth.
"I'm bad at patient," she told him.
"Me too," he whispered, like it was a huge secret. "But sometimes you gotta be." The stuff in the bowl was mostly mixed, sort of, and it was a bit lumpy, but that was probably just the peanut butter and the chocolate chips. Probably. "We can pour it now. But you have to be careful cause the maker is really hot."
"You should probably pour," she said, chewing on her bottom lip in her worry, "so you don't get burneded."
"I won't get burned. I'll be careful." Jack, bowl clutched carefully in his arms, walked across the top of the counter to the waffle maker and set it down before lifting the lid. "I just gotta pour until it's full and then close it and then the light goes on, and when it's done it goes off. It's easy."
"Okaaaaaay," Sam was very not sure about this, as she watched Jack, "if you say so."
Jack was too busy very carefully pouring the stuff in the bowl into the waffle maker to answer. "There." He spilled it over the counter as he put the bowl down. "See? Easy." He let the lid flop shut, sending little spurts of the mix out the sides and oozing down to the counter. "Now we just wait 'til the light goes off."
Sam padded over and stared at the light for a while, hoping she could make it cook faster. "How long does that take?"
"Dunno. A bit? The maker knows when it's done so we have to wait for it to tell us." He took a deep breath and grinned. "Smells really good."
"But how does the maker knoooooooow?" Sam resisted the urge to poke it, because it did smell really good.
"It just does." He shrugged and stared at the light. "Come on, come on, we're hungry." The light didn't go out and he sighed.
Sam sighed as well and started to bounce in place while she waited for the light to go out, "I bet I could make it go faster."
"Hmmmm." Jack was almost thinking it was a good idea when the light flicked out. "Waffles, Sammie! They're ready! Get a plate, quick!"
Sam climbed up on the counter and got two plates as quickly as she could, handing one to Jack. "Plate!"
He wrapped a towel around his hands and lifted the lid, the waffles sticking to the top plate. "They're stuck! But I can get 'em." A fork was quickly deployed to pry them loose and he plopped half on Sam's plate and half on his. "Breakfast! Let's watch cartoons while we eat."
"Okay!" She dropped down off the counter, then reached over for her plate, "Wait! Syrup, Jack!"
"Oops! Forgot!" Jack put his plate on the floor and grabbed the syrup, shoving it under his arm. "Okay, there." He picked up his plate, and led the way into the living room. "You can pick 'em if you want."
"Do you gots a fork?" Sam asked, rummaging for one for herself, then rushed to catch up, giving him an extra just in case. "I like Bitterwoman."
"Thanks, Sammie!" He grabbed the fork and plonked down in front of the TV, setting the syrup where they could both reach it. "Bitterwoman's cool! We can watch that!"
Sam plopped down next to him and started filling every waffle square with just enough syrup not to overflow, her tongue out as she concentrated on making it neat.
Which was a direct contrast to the world of waffles, where flour, eggs, chocolate chips, messy bowls, peanut butter, and crispy waffle parts were all over the floor, the counter, and Jack and Sam.
She took a bite of waffle and grinned at Jack. "It's good."
"Course it is. I'm a good food maker." Pity he wasn't as good at cleaning up. He poured a pool of syrup on his waffle, drowning it, and then lay down on his stomach to eat, grinning as he watched the TV, completely unconcerned that he and Sam were layered in flour, egg, and splops of waffle batter.
They had breakfast, cartoons, and there weren't any grown-ups to yell at them. It was maybe the best morning ever.
[ooc: preplayed with the still fabulous carter_i_am 'cause of possible availability issues. Post is totally open! Common room is totally open! And messy! And there's still some 'waffle batter' in the bowl and the waffle maker is on, so there can totally be more waffles!]
Jack dropped her hand and danced a little dance of triumph. "Told you you weren't faster than me!"
"I almost was!" Sam pouted, padding over to the kitchen area and pushing a chair over so she could kneel on it.
"Yeah, but I was almost faster than you, too, so it doesn't count." Jack followed her and pulllled on the fridge door until it swung open. "Kay, we need milk and eggs and flour and sugar and peanut butter and chocolate chips. You see what you can find up there."
Sam climbed up on the counter with a maximum of banging, and started rummaging through cabinets. "Chocolate chips first, then peanut butter." Hey, a girl had to have priorities. She dropped a bag of chocolate chips on the counter, then stretched up to what she thought was a bag of flour. An open bag of flour.
This probably wasn't going to end well.
"Cooool!" Jack wasn't watching, because he was too busy trying to carry the milk and the eggs and the syrup he'd found in the door all at the same time. "Don't forget to find the flour! We can't make it without that."
"'kay!" Sam edged the bag forward on the shelf with her fingertips, scootching it slowly towards her, then grabbing it. Feeling very proud of herself, she shouted, "Incoming!" and jumped off the counter.
She landed fine, but the impact made a very large poof cloud of flour that covered her from head to foot.
Jack, arms completely full, turned around in time to catch the edge of the cloud, a light dusting of white coating his face, his arms, in fact the entire front of his body. "Saaaammmmieeee!"
Sam looked from herself to Jack and started giggling. "Oops."
Jack rolled his eyes, but he couldn't help giggling with her. "You're all white! And you made a big mess!" He was very impressed, and he carefully stretched right up on his toes to put his stuff on the counter so he could get a better look. "We look like ghosts!"
"We do!" She grinned at him, raised her arms over her head, and walked towards Jack in suitable ghostlike fashion, "Woooooooooooooooooo! Wooooooooooooooooo!"
Jack grinned and ran away, laughing over his shoulder. "Nooooo! Scary ghost!" He ran out of the kitchen, scrambled up the back of the couch, and then jumped onto one of the chairs, leaving a little trail of flour behind him. "This is the special Anti-ghost chair, ghosts can't come up on it or they get unghostified."
Sam pouted at Jack-who-didn't-play-by-the-rules, then got a broom and used it to poke him. "I'm still all ghosty, 'cause I'm not on the chair." Poke. Poke. Poke. "I'm gonna get you! Wooooooooooooooooooooo. Then you'll be a full ghost and not just a lame-o half-ghost." Poke.
"Heyyyy! No poking! You said!" Jack climbed up onto the back of the chair, trying to escape the broom. "And I'm not a lame-o, I'm cool, cause I'm a half-ghost half-person so I can do more stuff than you." He stuck his tongue out at her. "You're just a ghost and you can't even come up on the Anti-ghost chair!"
"Nuh uh," she shook her head, blonde hair and flour flying everywhere, "You're not a ghost or a person, so you can't do any stuff. And I can too come up on the anti-ghost chair!"
After a little bit of a wait (because his argument was very convincing), Sam climbed up on the chair next to Jack. "WOOOOOOOOOOO! See?"
"Ha! See? You're not a ghost cause a ghost couldn't come up here!" Jack was giggling so hard he slid back down the chair and landed on his butt. "And, and, and ghosts aren't ticklish!" he decided as he jumped up and started tickling her. "And they don't eat waffles!"
"No, Jack, stop!" Sam squirmed and giggled and wiggled and tried to catch his hands, "No tickling!"
He stopped and tried to look serious, letting her catch his hand. "You promise no more poking? And I can be a half-ghost half-person?"
"No more poking," she promised, "but you hafta say too. And you can be a half-ghost half-person, but I dunno why you'd wanna."
"I promise no more tickling or poking and you can be a ghost." He grinned. "And because it's the best! I can fit in with ghosts and with people! But I'm still hungry. Can we make waffles now?"
"Okay," she hopped over the side of the chair and walked back to the kitchen, leaving a return trail of little white footprints. "You wanna get the sugar?"
Jack walked behind her, walking in her footsteps. "If you get the peanut butter. And we need a big bowl and a spoon and the waffle maker." He clambered up onto the counter, leaving it liberally smeared with white, and pulled out the canister with the sugar in it.
Sam got down on her hands and knees and looked through the cabinets (noisily). "Peanut butter!" She waved the jar triumphantly and sat back on her rear end, then opened the lid and took a fingerful, sucking it off, "I don't know where the bowls, spoons, or waffle maker are."
"Hey, share!" Jack crawled across the counter top until he could lean way over and reach the peanut butter, scooping out a finger full to lick. "Yummm, and they must be up here."
He started going through the top cupboards with very sticky fingers. "Found 'em! Bowl, spoon, and umm," he dropped them on the counter, but the waffle maker looked heavy. "Hang on."
Sam stood up next to the counter and held her arms up over her head. "I can get it, Jack."
"We have to get it together, cause it's heavy." He wrapped his arms around it and started tugging it over to the edge. Tug tug tug. "Ready?"
"Wait!" She scrambled up onto the counter, and rested on her knees, holding her arms up, "'kay, I'm ready now."
Jack heaved really hard and it came out of the cupboard and plummeted downwards, to heavy for him to hold on his own. "Catch it, Sam! Catch it!"
"Don't let go, Jack!" Sam stuck her arms out, trying to catch it in her arms instead of with her hands. It hit with a bit of force and her eyes watered as her arms started to sting, "OW!"
He wrapped his arms tight around the machine and leaned back, trying to get it to drop on the counter. "Sammie! Are you okay?"
Sam dropped her end, sniffling. "It was heavy." She rubbed her forearms, which were looking a little red.
Jack let his end go and it thunked onto the counter while he leaned forward to look at her arms. "I'm sorry, Sammie. Didn't think it'd hurt you," he said, biting his lip. "Come on," he took her hand, "come and run it under the tap. It'll feel better."
Still sniffling, Sam followed him over to the sink. "My mommy kisses it better."
Jack turned on the tap, checking it very carefully so it wasn't too hot. "There." He moved the tap so water poured over her arms. "Does it feel any better?" he asked anxiously, biting his lip again cause she got hurt and it was his fault. "And I can kiss it better just as good as her."
Sam nodded. It did feel better, and they didn't sting as much. "You can? How do you know?"
"Dunno, I just do." Jack turned off the tap and picked up a towel, gently patting her arms dry. When they were all dry, he bent his head and kissed her left arm and then the right. "See?"
It didn't feel quite the same as Mommy-kisses to Sam, but it worked mostly okay and she was really, really hungry now. "Uh huh. So...waffles."
"Yup, waffles!" He bounced over to look at all the stuff they'd collected. "We gotta put all of that in here," he pointed at the bowl, "and then pour it in there," he pointed at the waffle maker. "But we gotta plug it in first." Climbing back on the counter was easiest, so he did and plugged it in, then grabbed some eggs. "Wanna help? But you gotta do what I say."
"Okay. I'm a good order takerer."
Jack nodded a lot. "Okay, first you gotta put some flour in the bowl, a bunch of handfuls, okay? And then I'll put the eggs in and the milk."
Sam picked up the bag, then stuck her hand in, grabbed some flour, and dumped it into the bowl, making another little flour cloud. "How many more handfuls?"
"Ummm," Jack poked the flour with the spoon. "Four more. Cause there's lots of other stuff to go in, too."
"'kay," Sam said, dumping two more handfuls in, then peering into the bowl, then another two, complete with flour clouds. She peeked into the bowl again, looking skeptical, then to Jack, "Are you sure that's enough? They're gonna be little waffles."
Jack poked the flour some more. Sam was right, they were going to be too little. "Put in ten more handfuls. You've got littler hands than me, and I'm really hungry." He pulled the eggs over to the bowl. "I'm gonna put these in at the same time, kay?" He cracked an egg on the edge of the bowl and pulled it apart with both hands, ensuring egg went in the bowl, on the counter, and all over his fingers.
Sam nodded and started counting carefully, "One..." flour poof "Two..." flour poof "Three..." flour poof "Four..."
She giggled when Jack covered himself in egg, covering her mouth and forgetting that her hand was full of flour. "You made a mess."
"So did you! You're a flour face!" Jack wiggled his fingers and flicked egg at her, then cracked some more eggs. Crack, crack, crack, squish. "Oops." There was eggs shell and egg all over his hands and he giggled as shook them to try and get it off.
"Yeah? Well, you've got...egg hands!" Sam giggled, then ducked out of the way, not that it stopped flying egg from landing in her hair, probably to make a nice paste with the flour.
"I'm the egg monster! RAWR!" The roar suffered from more giggling and Jack covered his mouth, smearing egg on his face. Of course, this was easily fixed by wiping both face and hands on his shirt. "Milk now. And sugar. You can do the sugar."
"EEEEE!" Sam took a couple of steps back from the scary egg monster, giggling pretty hard until she got her next order. "How many handfuls?"
She opened the bag and stuck her finger in, letting the sugar stick to the peanut butter that was still there, then licking it off.
Jack clutched the milk in both hands and tipped it over, splashing some in the bowl and some on the counter. "Umm," he frowned, cause it was important to get it just right. "One big handful and one little handful. And then peanut butter and chocolate chips and then we can mix it!"
Sam nodded, then used her not-licked hand to dump a big handful and a little handful of sugar into the bowl. "Does it look right to you?" She asked, peering into the bowl and already reaching for the bag of chocolate chips.
He peered into the bowl. It looked...interesting, which was good enough for Jack. "Yup! It's perfect. We can put some more milk in if it's not squishy enough once we mix it all up."
"Okay," Sam was very happy that this was going to be All Jack's Fault if a grown-up came by. He was kind of a mess. "Chocolate chips!" She tried to tear the bag open, but was having some troubles and thrust it at him, "You hafta open it."
Jack grabbed the bag and pullllled both sides of it as hard as he could. Which turned out to be pretty hard, and the bag spilt open in a showering fountain of chocolate chips. Some even went in the bowl. "Ooooohh! It's raining chocolate!"
"Yay!" Sam tipped her head back, leaving her mouth open in case there were still some chips falling. There weren't, and she pushed some of them off the counter into her hand instead and ate them one at a time. "Help me put some in the bowl, please?"
"Yup yup," he said, scooping them off the counter and tossing them at the bowl. "Sammie, put the peanut butter in now, I wanna stir!"
"How much peanut butter?" She asked, squishing some through her fingers, then dropping two handfuls in, "Is that enough?"
"Perfect, perfect, now I get to stir!" He sat down cross-legged, pulled the bowl into his lap, and stirred it like crazy, trying to keep it all in the bowl, with mixed success. "Waffles soon, Sammie."
And another peek into the bowl, "Doesn't look like waffles, Jack."
He made a face at her and stuck out his tongue. "Gotta mix it lots, and then pour it in the maker. Then it'll be waffles. Gotta be patient." Jack was stirring and stirring and stirring, trying to make it not be lumpy, because it was supposed to be smooth.
"I'm bad at patient," she told him.
"Me too," he whispered, like it was a huge secret. "But sometimes you gotta be." The stuff in the bowl was mostly mixed, sort of, and it was a bit lumpy, but that was probably just the peanut butter and the chocolate chips. Probably. "We can pour it now. But you have to be careful cause the maker is really hot."
"You should probably pour," she said, chewing on her bottom lip in her worry, "so you don't get burneded."
"I won't get burned. I'll be careful." Jack, bowl clutched carefully in his arms, walked across the top of the counter to the waffle maker and set it down before lifting the lid. "I just gotta pour until it's full and then close it and then the light goes on, and when it's done it goes off. It's easy."
"Okaaaaaay," Sam was very not sure about this, as she watched Jack, "if you say so."
Jack was too busy very carefully pouring the stuff in the bowl into the waffle maker to answer. "There." He spilled it over the counter as he put the bowl down. "See? Easy." He let the lid flop shut, sending little spurts of the mix out the sides and oozing down to the counter. "Now we just wait 'til the light goes off."
Sam padded over and stared at the light for a while, hoping she could make it cook faster. "How long does that take?"
"Dunno. A bit? The maker knows when it's done so we have to wait for it to tell us." He took a deep breath and grinned. "Smells really good."
"But how does the maker knoooooooow?" Sam resisted the urge to poke it, because it did smell really good.
"It just does." He shrugged and stared at the light. "Come on, come on, we're hungry." The light didn't go out and he sighed.
Sam sighed as well and started to bounce in place while she waited for the light to go out, "I bet I could make it go faster."
"Hmmmm." Jack was almost thinking it was a good idea when the light flicked out. "Waffles, Sammie! They're ready! Get a plate, quick!"
Sam climbed up on the counter and got two plates as quickly as she could, handing one to Jack. "Plate!"
He wrapped a towel around his hands and lifted the lid, the waffles sticking to the top plate. "They're stuck! But I can get 'em." A fork was quickly deployed to pry them loose and he plopped half on Sam's plate and half on his. "Breakfast! Let's watch cartoons while we eat."
"Okay!" She dropped down off the counter, then reached over for her plate, "Wait! Syrup, Jack!"
"Oops! Forgot!" Jack put his plate on the floor and grabbed the syrup, shoving it under his arm. "Okay, there." He picked up his plate, and led the way into the living room. "You can pick 'em if you want."
"Do you gots a fork?" Sam asked, rummaging for one for herself, then rushed to catch up, giving him an extra just in case. "I like Bitterwoman."
"Thanks, Sammie!" He grabbed the fork and plonked down in front of the TV, setting the syrup where they could both reach it. "Bitterwoman's cool! We can watch that!"
Sam plopped down next to him and started filling every waffle square with just enough syrup not to overflow, her tongue out as she concentrated on making it neat.
Which was a direct contrast to the world of waffles, where flour, eggs, chocolate chips, messy bowls, peanut butter, and crispy waffle parts were all over the floor, the counter, and Jack and Sam.
She took a bite of waffle and grinned at Jack. "It's good."
"Course it is. I'm a good food maker." Pity he wasn't as good at cleaning up. He poured a pool of syrup on his waffle, drowning it, and then lay down on his stomach to eat, grinning as he watched the TV, completely unconcerned that he and Sam were layered in flour, egg, and splops of waffle batter.
They had breakfast, cartoons, and there weren't any grown-ups to yell at them. It was maybe the best morning ever.
[ooc: preplayed with the still fabulous carter_i_am 'cause of possible availability issues. Post is totally open! Common room is totally open! And messy! And there's still some 'waffle batter' in the bowl and the waffle maker is on, so there can totally be more waffles!]