Light flicker's within the night [Dandy's World Requests] (requests are paused for now)

Shelly roamed the halls running her hand along the faded slightly peeling wallpaper. As she walked her thoughts were back on the times where these halls were full of curious children, now they sat in disuse other than toons, the only one attempting to repair and clean them being her good friend Tisha. Her eyes flicked to the approaching diner, pupils fluctuating between reptilian slits, and large round circles as she tried to focus on the things ahead of her rather than back in the past. Thinking back on the past was easy but living in the present, well that was asking a bit much of Shelly, though she tried her best to live with one foot in both worlds. She looked down at her feet as she navigated the diner, Pushing the door open to the Kitchen and taking one step forward before she slammed into someone's chest, staggering backwards from the impact.

“Whoa Shelly- Wh..What are you doing in the Kitchen..?” A voice called out, looking up the one she slammed into, just happened to be the one she was looking for, the tall Strawberry baker,  who had leftover Batter caked to his face. It seemed he was unaware that it was stuck there. “S..Sorry Sprout.. Uhm.. You have a little something.. Here…” She mumbled, reaching up to wipe the batter off with the pad of her thumb. “S’fine Just watch where you’re going.. And.. Thanks..?” He chuckled lightheartedly, though his face went stern again. “You still haven’t told me what you're doing here.. Do ya have a request or something..?” He asked, his leafy tail flicking to the side. “Oh no…” She shook her head, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. “ It’s a foolish reason I suppose.. I just uhm.. I wanted to learn how to bake..” 

Sprout stared blankly for a minute, like she’d just asked him to commit a crime, his expression unreadable. “You.. Want to learn baking..?” He repeated dumbfound, while trying to mull it over. “Yeah.. is there a problem with that..? If so I can just go-” Shelly was cut off by the baker before she could finish. “No! I mean no, heh.. There's no trouble at all, just surprised is all, I wouldn’t take you for the baking type..”  Sprout chuckled, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. “I’m not.. Yet. But, I'll never know if I don’t try..” Shelly chimed back in her tail shifting  behind her. “I’ll do it.. But you have to listen to me alright..? No zoning out while i'm teaching, got it Shells..?” The strawberry stated, his leafy tail twitching slightly. “Yeah yeah.. I Got it, Head chef..” She snorted, his blunt seriousness at such a topic amusing to her.

“Well then, I won't keep you waiting, come on in!” Sprout stepped aside so Shelly could be allowed further into the kitchen, moving himself to go grab some baking supplies. Of course he could try to throw her in with a challenge, he wanted to start with something simple, Like cookies. Sweet and not very complicated whatsoever, unless you have trouble using a mixer… We don’t talk about the Astro cookies episode.. Eugh… Sprout cringed remembering that portion of the episode as he placed his supplies down on the island counter in the middle of the kitchen. Maybe they shouldn’t use the mixer, it might still be faulty from last time..

“Alright, so we're gonna start simple with a cookie recipe, these are our only needed supplies..” Sprout gestured to the assorted groups of butter, flour, chocolate chips, white sugar, baking soda, brown sugar, canola oil and vanilla. “First we get our aprons on so we don't stain our clothes.. I don’t have a spare so I suppose you’re just going to have to borrow Cosmos for now..” He brought the star adorned orange apron over to Shelly, helping her tie it in the back. “Alright so You're going to want to separate the dries and the wet ingredients, after measuring out how much you’ll need of each, I've already measured them so its just a matter of mixing them into the bowls..”  Sprout demonstrated by pouring the melted butter, canola oil, eggs, and vanilla into a separate bowl and stirring a little, after he handed the whisk to Shelly. “ You try!” He encouraged, urging the ammonite forward.

“Alright..” She hummed nervously, moving the whisk like she’d seen Sprout do, hesitating every now and then, though she soon got into a rhythm, like she had before, using her brush on the dig site to dust off fossils. She smiled as the wet ingredients had all settled together in a mono color mixture. “Good, now try the Dry ones on your own.” Sprout nodded, his tail slightly wagging as he watched it come together. Shelly brought each dry ingredient into the bowl, grabbing a clean whisk to mix them together until they were an even powder, then she poured the drys in with the wet’s assuming that’s how its done, she started to slowly try and whisk them together by hand but struggled a little. “Man this is thick.” She grumbled with frustration, Sprout took notice of her struggle and stepped in behind her, placing her hand over his on the whisk and moving it in a certain direction, a pattern he knew so well. “This is how you do it..” He smiled, His hot breath running down her neck as he demonstrated to her how to move a whisk through thick unmixed batter, more focused on the cookie dough then his awkward position.

Shelly however, was freaking out a bit, internally of course, having someone get this close to her, even though they were friends was something that rarely, if ever, happened to her. The ammonite’s shell heated up a bit, turning her head a bit to meet Sprout's focused gaze, only to realize how close they were from.. Shelly chirped in surprise, deciding it was best to turn back, moving her hand along with Sprouts, as the batter smoothed out. “Ah should be ready.. I..” He paused, noticing their closeness. “I’ll go get the cookie sheet..” Sprout’s hand flinched away, the baker moving to grab some parchment paper and metal trays for the batter. His tail wagged as he walked, soon setting the tray down on the stove top along with a sheet of parchment paper on top. “So now we Spread them out evenly, in somewhat same-sized clumps like this..” Sprout carefully transferred a clump to the cookie sheet. “Think you can do it..?”

Shelly perked up out of her thoughts, squeaking. “Huh..? Oh yeah.. I can do it.. I hope..” She smiled, gathering some batter close in size to sprouts and placing it evenly beside his, they went back and forth doing this until the sheet was full. “Now the oven is already preheated so I’ll start a timer.” Sprout hummed, setting a minute timer and placing it on the counter as Shelly took the initiative to open the oven and carefully place the sheet inside, closing the door. She took off the apron she was wearing and hung it back up. “We just wait..” he added. “Want to hear some dinosaur facts while we're waiting..?” Shelly offered her tail wagging slowly. “Sure why not..” He chuckled, knowing there was nothing better to do. “Psittacosaurus has been shown to lay up to 34 eggs in a single clutch, they’re also a member of the same genus as Triceratops despite having no horns.” Shelly started, this was going to be a rather long wait.

The timer dinged, and Sprout turned off the oven, pointing out a pair of oven mitts. “You can get 'em out, just be careful..” he warned, watching as Shelly pulled them over her claws and cautiously opened the oven, reaching in and pulling the cookies out as the heat, still fresh from the oven blew up towards her. She placed the sheet on the stove and put the mitts aside watching the cookies as she waited for them to cool, knowing if she moved too fast she’d get burnt. When they were cool enough, Sprout decided to try one out first. “Mmm.. Pretty good for a first timer.” He commented, garnering a smile from Shelly as she reached to try one of them herself. “Mhm!” she replied after taking a bite. Her tail wagged as she finished it off. “That pretty much concludes your first lesson.. Any questions..?” Sprout asked, his tail flicking. “Nope!” Shelly chirped, shaking her head. “I’ll put these up for later..” The strawberry baker pointed to the cookies. “Alright, thanks for the lesson. See you tomorrow Sprout!” Shelly waved as she left the kitchen, leaving him to his own devices.