Characters: Jools Le Gallo and Bobby Eisley
Setting: Tuesday morning, student kitchen (seriously, does Bobby even know the rest of the school exists?)
Rating: SFW probably
Summary: Jools has a crush. Bobby feeds them both.


Jools wondered if she should be concerned.

Her thoughts, no matter how often she steered them in another direction, kept turning to Bobby.

It started innocently enough, playing chess in the common room and then playing online over break, playing more when school was back in session. Except that she didn't want to be just chess buddies.

And that was a very complicated situation.

Jools wandered around campus with her head in a fog, letting her feet carry her where they might. She was passing a delicious smelling classroom and peered inside to see Bobby. She tried not to freak out. Freaking out was a girly thing to do and Jools wasn't a girly girl. She hated that she had to remind herself.

She popped her head into the classroom and offered a little smile. "You have talents other than sucking at chess?" she teased letting herself in further and walking over to him, all the while pressing that fluttery feeling in her stomach down as far as she could manage.

Bobby looked up from the cookie batter he was pretending not to be eating, and grinned. “Hey now, I suck at lots of things!” Like making cookies. Well, that was only half true. He was awesome at making cookies. Just not so good at putting them on the tray to go in the oven. There was about a 50/50 success rate there. Some would go on the tray. The rest? Well, there would be some telltale cookie dough breath if she got too close.

He wasn’t even supposed to be in the student kitchen at the moment, so he was awfully glad to see that it was Jools poking her head in and not a teacher. Though come to think of it...

“I’ve never seen you down here before,” he commented, a little perturbed by the idea that someone might deliberately avoid kitchens. Kitchens were the birthplace of food! “Do you cook?”

For the love all things holy, Jools, don't swoon just because he's cute and has a sense of humor. She might have punched herself in the stomach if he wasn't watching her. She shrugged and sidled up to him against the counter. "Not so much. I can make a pretty good stir fry, and not like the American watered down take-out version. But that's about it," she added with a tiny sheepish grin. "I'll take it you're a very good cook?"

He tilted his head a little as he thought about it. “Well, if I were a ‘good’ cook that would mean that there are ‘bad’ cooks, and I don’t think anyone’s a bad cook. Some people just take to it better than others.”

Then he smiled again, and shoved the tray of unborn cookies into the oven before he could eat them too. “But hey, I’m in Sonnier House, right? I gotta be smart at something. Guess it’s cooking.”

"You're smart," she complimented quietly. Then she rolled her eyes at herself. She knew how to be around boys, why had it suddenly flown out the window? "So what kind of cookies are on the menu today?"

“Chocolate chip!” His favourite. Sometimes he tried to make a vegan version of it so Sunny would eat them too, but it just wasn’t the same. Chocolate was just one of those things that didn’t translate perfectly. He turned on the oven light and peeked in on them, stomach grumbling. “What’s your favourite kind of cookie? I’ll make them next time.”

God help her, she was actually blushing a little. "Peanut butter," she supplied. She was more than a bit flattered that he'd make cookies for her. But then maybe he made cookies for everyone. She tried to approach it logically. Bobby was a nice boy, maybe this was just something he did for his friends. "What's your favorite?"

He beamed, and nodded towards the oven. “There’s a reason there’s only half as many cookies in there as there should be.” Then, he looked down and rubbed his belly, half amused and half embarrassed. “Rest are in here.” He couldn’t help it.

“Do you like Reese’s cups?” The pieces were okay; especially when you were expecting M&Ms, and you got a surprise peanut butter taste instead. But the cups? They were the best.

She giggled a bit and then tried very hard to compose herself again. "I don't think I've ever eaten raw cookie dough." Her mother would never have allowed it. She never had many candy bars growing up either, but she'd had since coming to school and having an allowence to spend on things she liked. "They're pretty awesome," she replied. "Prefer Almond Joys honestly. Anything with nuts." Then she blushed again as the innuendo dawned on her.

For perhaps the first time ever, the innuendo flew right over Bobby’s head. “You’d like kourambiedes,” he decided. “They’re almond shortbread with confectioner’s sugar, and you can make them with almond meal so they’re smooth like regular shortbread or you can crush up whole almonds and get little crunchy surprises.” He’d make some, and bring them along the next time they played chess.

Speaking of which... “Are you sick of kicking my ass yet? Shame on you for not teaching me any sweet moves!”

They sounded delicious. "I think I'd like both," she replied. "As to that," she added with a bit of a grin, "I was hoping you'd catch on without me having to teach you explicitly." She shrugged just the same. "I can give you some pointers. It's only fair since you let me kick your ass so much."

“Not too many,” he added, somewhat cheekily for him. “I kinda like knowing how the games are going to end.” The little roll of her eyes as she checkmated him every time had become a familiar sight. And he liked that too.

She smiled at him the way she'd never smiled at another boy in her whole entire life. Then she reached out and poked at him gingerly. Her fingertip barely brushed his shirt. "I think you like getting your ass kicked," she teased. "To tell you the truth I'm not sure how I'd feel about you winning. It might bruise my ego."

It wasn’t the first time someone had accused him of enjoying being on the receiving end of an ass-kicking, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. At least this time it was a metaphorical ass-kicking; no bleeding involved.

“I don’t think you have to worry about that,” he said, mostly serious. “You’re pretty awesome.”

"I am," she replied with mock smugness. "You're pretty awesome too." She couldn't be sure if she was talking about chess anymore.

She rocked a bit on the heels of her shoes. She shoved her hands in her pockets because she couldn't think what to do with them all of a sudden. "We can play chess later, or maybe tomorrow if you're free. I can show you a few tricks I've been saving for a rainy day."

“Crap!” Bobby’s eyes widened. “You have more ways to beat me?! Show some mercy, Jools. I’m just a kid!” He broke into a wide grin. “Make it tomorrow, and I can bring you kourambiedes.”

"A girl has to have a few secrets." She winked at him rather saucily and then felt silly for doing so. "Uh, how are these cookies?" she asked peeking at the oven to distract him entirely.

He’d been so distracted by her that he’d completely forgotten about the cookies-- he almost couldn’t believe it. Him! In the presence of cookies and not thinking about them!

“They’ve probably been in a little long, actually.” He grabbed some mitts and opened the oven, letting a warm burst of choc-chip cookie scented air into the room. Pulling the tray out carefully, he shook the it a bit once free of the possibility of injury to try and loosen some cookies. “Cookies are absolutely the best right out of the oven when they’re still warm and a little squishy... not that these ones are squishy. They’re kind of crispy.”

Jools shrugged. She'd never had cookies straight out of the oven. Her mother was never very domestic and her father was very rarely home. "Never had them right out of the oven." She sidled up to him shyly curious.

He looked up to see her at his side, and smiled at the sudden closeness. “It’s like a secret ingredient that disappears; it makes them better than anything else.” He waved one of the mitts off, and selected the best-looking cookie from the tray, holding it up for her. “Try it.”

She took the cookie with an entirely charmed smile. Taking a bite she tried not to look at him in case he was watching her eat. Since when was she ever this self-conscious. She blushed at the very idea that Bobby was making her feel this way. "It's good," she gushed around a mouthful of warm, crispy cookie.

Bobby beamed; he loved praise for his cooking. It wasn’t so much an ego thing as it was happiness that other people were enjoying food to the extent that he did. He took a cookie from the tray and put it in his mouth, whole. It wasn’t the best way to savour food, but it was easier to move the tray onto the bench and loosen the baked-on cookies with both hands free.

“Aaarsfehslfnnsoggg?”

She laughed brightly and gave him a humorous grin. "Exactly," she replied though she had no idea what he'd said. "If your kourambiedes are half as good..." Well, she didn't know what the other part of that statement was. "I'll only ever eat your cookies for the rest of my life."

He swallowed quickly, trying not to laugh and choke on the cookie. Though, it’d probably be his ideal way to go, mouthful of cookie and in the company of a pretty girl.

“I said ‘have as many as you want’,” he clarified, still grinning. “I’ll make you more.”

"Not today," she urged, though she did pick up another cookie. She put her hand over her heart. "I will only ever eat your cookies. No others can compare." It was a solemn oath.

He raised an eyebrow at her. “But what if I die? Then where will you get cookies?” The thought was disturbing. A life without cookies was surely not worth living. … and the whole part about him being dead. That was also disturbing.

"I'll just have to protect you," she said a little more fondly than she'd meant for him to hear. She shoved the rest of the cookie in her mouth to prevent any more awkward emotions from coming out of her mouth.