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[quite_a_delight]

Okay, so it was getting kind of cliche. With no school and no Mom to look after, there wasn't a whole lot for him to do but waste time in the kitchen. Besides, it was Christmas, and it had always been left up to him to do the holiday baking back home, so spending entire days in the kitchen during Christmas break was a habit he'd probably developed

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[abbysciuto]

The holidays were usually a frenzy of food, friends, and, at least here, fur-lined things, but even still, the number of cookies in the kitchen when Abby walked in to get more coffee with hot chocolate was a little bit of a surprise and she stopped short.

"Wow. Are we having a cookie bake off and I missed the memo?" she asked, looking around at the plethora of pans and bundles of baked goods.

[quite_a_delight]

"There might be, but I think that means I'm competing against myself, which is kind of... embarrassing," Marshall decided, with a smile that was a whole lot more like a wince.

"As far as hobbies go, I guess it could be worse."

[abbysciuto]

"Oh, it could totally be worse," she agreed, getting a Mexican Wedding Cookie since it wasn't a cookie bake off and therefore she wasn't eating the contest entries.

"And hey, when you compete against yourself you always know who wins, right?"

[quite_a_delight]

"Yeah, but that's not much of a challenge," he pointed out, "I mean, you can only improve so much when you only have yourself to compare to."

[everyone_takes]

Kate, too, was thinking of everything else under the sun in an attempt to not think about how much she missed home and missed her parents and missed their damn Christmas tree. It was totally stupid and totally childish, but lately she was aware of just how seventeen she really was, which somehow made it worse.

"Thank god, I knew I could count on you," she said, stuffing a cookie into her mouth as she flopped down into one of the chairs. "If I had to suffer Christmas without your baking on top of suffering through it without having Mom and Dad freak out at least once, I think I'd just kill myself."

[quite_a_delight]

"Wow, that's not dramatic," Marshall said flatly, one corner of his lips turned up in an amused smile. With all her apparent eccentricities and flamboyance, Marshall could pretty much always count on his sister to be consistent.

"I'm glad I could do my part to keep you from becoming a meaningless statistic."

[everyone_takes]

"Me too," Kate said through her mouthful of cookie, flashing Marshall a grin as she leaned her chin in her hands, her elbows propped up on the table. "So this is like, your island thing, huh? I mean, it was pretty much your thing at home, too, but here you've really taken it to a new level."

[quite_a_delight]

"There's not a whole lot else for me to do," he admitted, "I'm kind of afraid I'm in a slump. A cookie baking slump. It's a sad state of affairs."

He sound completely serious, but it should've been clear to her, more than anyone, that he was joking.

[quileutejacob]

Food was always a lure for Jacob and especially now that it was Christmas and the island was full of people baking goodies to share with everyone and (hopefully) him. Today was no exception and he grinned as he walked into the kitchen, grinning appreciatively at the guy behind all the baking.

"Don't know who you are, but you're my new best friend now. I'm Jacob."

And those cookies looked amazing.

[quite_a_delight]

Okay, so, it's not like Marshall was staring. Or drooling or anything else embarrassing, but he stopped himself just short of doing a double-take, looking up up and up at a guy who easily had a foot on him.

"I'm Marshall," he said, "And you're, uh... Not that hard to win over, I guess."

[quileutejacob]

"I have a weakness for food," Jacob admitted, laughing a little. "I'll do just about anything for it. Did you bake all this yourself, then?"

Jacob was more than a little impressed. He'd taken baking at the island school and knew a few things from hanging around Emily's kitchen, but nothing like this.

[quite_a_delight]

"Yeah. I kind of have a lot of free time," he admitted, knowing that the same could be said for just about everyone on the island.

"You're welcome to, you know, take whatever. They'll just go stale if people don't eat them."

[lucked]

The change in the island layout was definitely appropriate, although not in the way that Claire would have hoped. As a child, she had been a great fan of Dr. Seuss', able to recite The Cat in the Hat and even get through Fox in Socks without so much as batting her eye or losing a syllable. If anything, the only reason why she ever asked her father to read the books to her was because it was fun and enjoyable to see him completely lose his tongue while trying to wrap himself around the phrases. Claire had known, from a young age, that parents weren't perfect, even if knowing just how deeply that statement could run hadn't come until many years later

[quite_a_delight]

Marshall startled, freezing with a spatula in hand and then shifting awkwardly in his place behind the counter. It wasn't that he was embarrassed, but there was always that moment of uncertainty when he came across someone new. It didn't matter to him if they thought he was weird or not, he'd always preferred being weird to being uninteresting, but things that had always seemed to come naturally to his sister, like knowing how to talk to people and make them like you, had always been beyond him.

"Um, one of the batches of spice cookies are a little dark around the edges, but the others... I think they're okay," he said, suddenly feeling the need to downplay the fact that he basically could have stocked an entire bakery on his own that afternoon.

[lucked]

She felt a little bad about the sudden reaction when the boy practically jumped in response, Claire's lips curving into an apologetic smile as she sidled on over tot he kitchen counter, taking in all of the different types of cookies there. It definitely looked like a case of stress baking to Claire, who occasionally caved into the desire herself, usually resulting in several batches of cupcakes piled on plates all around the kitchen. But there was a certain skill that she could see in the cookies that made her give the young man a second glance, before she finally spotted the aforementioned set of spice cookies and picked one up, curiously looking at the burnt edges before tapping it against her lower lip.

"I think it gives the cookie more character," she smiled, before biting into the cookie; a slight acrid flavor aside, it was delicious.

[quite_a_delight]

"Yeah, but they're cookies. How much character do they really need?" he said, the wry tilt to his head letting her know that he was joking.

"I think I can admit that's an inferior batch without the risk of hurting their feelings."

[noonelaughed]

Though he didn't live in the compound, Chris tended to spend a considerable amount of time there. After all, that's where the toilets were, the showers and the incredible amount of free food. That's precisely what had brought him to the compound then, as well, though he hadn't expected to find a kitchen full of baked goods.

"Fuckin' ace man," he said, eyes wide at the spread of different types of cookies, "Did you make all of these?"

[quite_a_delight]

"I, uh... Yeah. The bookcase has been giving me Christmas cookbooks for like two weeks. I thought maybe it was time to take the hint," he admitted, wondering if this was one of those times that Kate would tell him that denial and playing it cool was the way to go. But what could he have said? No, I found them. And I decided to put on this apron and throw flour on myself, just for the hell of it.

There was no way he could've pulled that off.

[noonelaughed]

"That's why I just stay away from it altogether," Chris said, "Besides, it'd probably just give me school books or somethin' anyway."

Not that he had a problem with the bookshelf giving someone else school books, but the last thing Chris really wanted to see were psychology books after all that had happened back home.

[quite_a_delight]

"I think maybe I'd prefer a schoolbook or two, at this point," he admitted. He'd always been the type of kid who would stray from the Reading List, even picking up a book on holidays and weekends. Though, in general, he did prefer film as his artistic medium of choice.

"You never know, though. You might get desperate. There isn't a whole lot to do around here."