By Onyxx
( This occurs a day or two after 'Wasabe', Seri. It also is based on a story you sketched out to me once..)
Amber crept from behind the sofa, keeping a careful eye on the entrance. The grandfather clock at the beginning of the hallway told her that she had only fifteen more minutes, and then she'd be free of any and all household duties for a week. Her eyes grew keen as she remembered their conversation a scant hour earlier.
"C'mon, Amber, that's no way ta track it dune," Breanna had scoffed over her head as Amber knelt in the dirt.
"We'll never find Ming Tsu 'less we look fer her," Amber complained, tracing the little kitty's pawprints in the still-wet mud from the sprinklers. "She might get hurt or somethin'."
"Ye'll never find her thatta way," Breanna smirked, flinging her single blond braid over her shoulder.
"Oh, and ye kin do better?" she remarked conversationally from under the lavendar bush, her posterior stuck out behind her.
"Aye," the other said simply. She put a foot on Amber's behind, shoving her sister further into the bush. "Cover it," she growled.
Jade watched the argument growing more heated from the porch. "Whooops," she murmured, scooting over as Breanna strode up the steps to the door.
"How much d'ye wanna bet?" Amber shrieked, clambering out of the flowers, bits of green stuck in her dark flowing hair. Breanna paused on the steps beside Jade, and turned, an almost feral grin on her face.
"I could find ye like that," and she snapped her clawed fingers for emphasis.
Amber's eyes glowed. "Prove it," she challenged, a wide grin on her face.
Breanna's crooked smile matched her sibling's. "All right," she drawled, "le's see........I give you one hour ta hide aroond tha house........"
Jade watched the two with big green eyes, sipping her lemonade from her glass with a straw. A few ice cubes tinkled in the glass. Amber waited, hopping from one foot to the other.
"An' tha loser, she has ta do th'other's chores fer a week," Breanna said flatly, her eyes gleaming.
"Ye got it!" Amber crowed, and the argument dissolved into another argument about rules and haggling over boundaries. The two had almost reached their zenith in temper.
"Sloooooorrrrrrkkkkk!!!" Tinkle, tinkle, crash.
They turned as a unit and stared pointedly at Jade who had hit the bottom of her glass and was now rooting with her straw between the ice cubes, sucking up any left over. After a minute she looked up. "What? Oh..." and extracted the straw.
Amber sighed and turned back. "Now, aboot boundaries, I don't see why you hafta rule out tha roof�"
"But if we're ta�"
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
They turned again to see Jade happily grinding an ice cube between her teeth. She turned big green eyes to the two sisters. "Huh? It's hot," she said innocently.
"Never mind," Breanna snapped. Then to Amber, "I'll count to ten. You've got an hour."
"I'm off!"
Now, only thirteen minutes till the appointed time, Amber chuckled as she snuck down the hallway. A door opened behind her, and her heart leapt into her mouth, but when she whirled she saw Onjya shut the door to the reading room behind her. At Amber's gasp, she looked up.
"H�" Onjya began, but Amber flapped her hands, motioning silence, her eyes wide. Onjya stared slightly awestruck at her hasty pantomining, then shook her head and walked past her.
Amber sighed in relief and was about to creep into Serina and Remy's room�she doubted that Breanna would dare look in there�when a delightful smell assailed her nostrils. Chocolate, sugar, butter........
"Somebody's baking!" she whispered, elated.
Nobody had ever taken the stairs that quickly before in bare feet, but somehow she managed it at Warp Five. Careening around and end table with silent, childish grace, she poked her head through the swining door and sniffed experimentally. "Cookies," she murmured into the back of her hand, trying not to squeal in delight. A low humming told her that it was Serina. Jade and Breanna and Onjya didn't ever hum like that, or Remy, and she wasn't sure that Chris could cook.
Serina LeBeau switched baking trays in the oven, and turned to shovel the ones off the pan she held, when she espied a small dark bump by the cookies that she was quite sure hadn't been there before. As she stepped closer, big round eyes appeared, and she saw a hand poised in midair above the stacks of cooking pastries. A giggle.
"Amber?"
A hopeful gleam appeared in the eyes.
"Whaddya wan'?" she asked, knowing full well what it was.
The eyebrows waggled expectantly.
"All right....."
The cookie was already disappearing into Amber's mouth, and she chewed away happily.
"...but I duenna think that ye'll be enjoyin' it long," Serina smiled.
"Whay no?" she mumbled through a mouthful of warm cookie.
A lean finger tapped her shoulder. "Tag," a voice whispered in her ear.
Amber yelped in fear and surprise and did this herky-jerky dance in front of the sink. "EEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!" She screamed, and hopped around. "Breanna!!"
"I tol' ya I could find ye," Breanna smirked.
"Tha' wasna fair," she contested hotly, pouting and shaking her fists in big circles.
Breanna did not appear perturbed. "Now, ye better get started on tha dustin' afore Onjya gets mad."
"Wait, dusting isn't until tomorrow...." she trailed off. "HEY! You didn't do it last week!" she hollered, cookie crumbs tumbling from her lips.
"I know," Breanna chuckled, disappearing into the other room.
"Oooooooh!" Amber ground out, and stalked after her.
Remy LeBeau, striding in and holding the door for Amber as she went the opposite way, walked over and picked up a cookie. "Long day, petite?" he asked casually, raising it to his mouth.
She smacked his hand down and replaced the cookie. "Duenna touch 'em," she chastened. "Ye know that, Remy."
"What?" He feigned a hurt look on his face. "But I jus' saw Amber wit' one of dem," he said, pulling out his lower lip and pretending to sulk. "Anyways, you got enough." He gestured to the array of cakes, pies, cookies and even some homemade donuts. She must have camped out in the kitchen since last night to turn this much out.
"Now, none o'that," she scolded. "Ye caenna touch 'em till they're all done. ALL o'them," she emphatically declared, looking hard at Remy.
"But Amber�"
"She's jus' a girl, and ye're older, and ye know better." Seri spun around and began to mix the dough again.
A mischevious spark lit his eye, and he reached again for a cookie.
Whack! The wooden spoon flew across the room and rapped his knuckles.
"Hey!" He rubbed his abused appendage, staring at his wife in a wounded manner.
"Ye duenna lissen, ye bloke!" she giggled, getting another spoon.
"Well den," he grinned evilly, "let me help, petite." He stood by the table.
"All right," she said, smiling, kissing him on the cheek. "Hand me the salt over there."
"'kay," he said calmly, dipping his right hand into the flour sack.
"I'm glad ye're bein' reasonable," she said, turning, and he flicked white flour in her face.
"Remy!" she sputtered, disbelieving, while he laughed. "Oh, yeah?" She dug her hands into the flour sack and flung them, full, into Remy's eyes.
"Aaaaah!" Remy coughed and gagged on the dry substance. "Yeah," he returned, blowing a handful of the stuff at her.The twenty pound flour sack was quickly depleted, after he shoved her into the remaining flour. For a crowning effect, he sprinkled her with the salt shaker.
She squealed, laughing, and, grabbing his coat, pulled herself up. Remy, thinking that she needed help, tried to assist her, then saw the jar of marshallow creme. "No!" But it was too late. She had rubbed the entire jar through his hair, his pride and joy. "Dis is war, chere," he growled, feigning anger, and they began to throw stuff in earnest. Jars of strawberry preserves were appropriated and used as ammunition when the marshmallow creme ran out, and Remy wielded the empty sack of flour like a shield. He ducked under the oncoming assault, consisting of a jar of grape jelly, and caught his wife around the waist. They crashed to the floor, his body twisting so that he broke their fall. "Oof!" he wheezed, turning onto his side. "Petite, I t'ink dat dis cooking t'ing, it dangerous," he chuckled, pulling her to him.
"Only when ye're in here wit' mae," she giggled, hugging him around the neck. "But I'm glad." He still had stuff in his hair, and he tried to wipe her face clean with a corner of her apron. "We've made a mess," she sighed, sitting up, then her breath choked in her throat. Half a dozen cooling cookie trays lay on the floor, their contents scattered, and her best cake lay in a splattered heap by the counter. She took a deep breath, gold-green eyes narrowing.
The rest of the inhabitants were aware of a thumping and rumbling in the kitchen. Onjya walked down the stairs, halting in the living room where Breanna lounged on the loveseat, watching through half-lowered lids as Amber, fuming, ran a turkey duster over the tabletops and mantle. "You missed a spot," she called helpfully.
"Breanna, what, pray, is Serenity doing in there? I thought she was baking," Onjya commented, raising a finely shaped brow at Amber, but not mentioning that.
"She was...."Breanna closed her eyes again.
Onjya looked over at Chris, slumbering on the reclining chair. With a graceful sweep of her foot, she switched the chair's position, throwing him forward and rudely awakening him. "Whaaa-?" He rubbed his eyes and scratched somewhere unmentionable. Onjya closed her eyes and sighed.
"Where is Remy?" she asked demurely.
"Huh? In de kitchen," he mumbled, leaning forward to put his head in his hands, still groggy.
"Oh no." Onjya spun about and pushed the swinging door aside just in time to see Serina, with a shriek of rage, dump the overturned cookie dough bowl on Remy's head from where she stood on the counter. The bowl covered his head, and the cookie dough dripped in large gobs onto his face and clothing.
Serina leaped down, aiming a kick at his shins, and stomped around, pointing at the floor and snarling incoherently. She stopped, and waited for her half-sister to say something.
Onjya looked Serina in the eyes. "I'm not cleaning this up," was all she said.
"Ohhhh, both of you.......Arrrgh!" She threw her slight body at Remy, pounding him with her tiny fists. Remy calmly reached over and, picking up a cookie from the floor, shoved it in his mouth.
"Dat's all I wanted, petite," he mumbled through his mouthful. She shrieked again and tried to hit harder. That brought Chris into the kitchen, who nearly choked in fighting back laughter. Yet he knew that to even snicker at this display was to invite a slow painful death.
Onjya looked around the once spotless kitchen. There were white smudged hand prints all over the cupboards and Gambit's dark coat. Dark stains of jelly smeared the counter and doorway and door frame, while an overturned platter of cupcakes nestled on the throw rug. The bag of chocolate chips had apparently been flung in a spray, for they littered the floor, and the flour sack hung limply on the chandelier over the table.
White flour was liberally dusted over every single thing in the kitchen, and Gambit looked like a lean Pillsbury Doughboy. Serina, on the other hand, was almost unrecognizable beneath a thick coating of flour. There were dark chocolate smudges on her face, and a splotch of jam in her hair. Flour was under her fingernails and her clothing was powdered a lighter shade. She blinked at Onjya, her lashes caked with flour, peering with her dark eyes.
Onjya sighed. "I live with clowns," she muttered under her breath, turning away.