Jane and Baking
“Fu–”
“Language!” Jane scolded Anne again. It was the day in December where it was raining cats and dogs outside. Cathy suggested that they all should bake cookies. Even though they were all adults and didn't believe in the big, fat, red guy; they baked cookies for the sake of traditions. Anna stepped over to Jane, giving her a gentle kiss that managed to quell the fire in Jane’s eyes, if only for a moment.
“Dame, don’t piss off mein Liebling,” Anna scolded Anne, pulling her aside with a knowing look.
Anne crossed her arms, grumbling, “Taking after Jane now, are we?”
Anna gave her friend a soft nudge. “You know damn well I just want peace in the kitchen, Dame. Do you want Jane to ban you from baking?”
Anne’s eyes widened. “You wouldn’t!”
“Oh, but I could~” Anna’s lips curled into a smirk as she turned back toward the kitchen.
“You didn’t answer my question, though~” Anne’s cheeky voice rang out. Anna’s face went beet red as her ear burned as well, and Kat walked by, giving them both a confused look.
Anna shot Anne a glare. “Shut up, Dame,” she muttered, passing Kat, who stayed back to chat with Anne. Finally, Anna made it to the kitchen, where Jane was busy stirring batter. She paused for a second in the doorway, watching the gentle concentration on Jane’s face, her heart fluttering as she felt the warmth from the oven fill the room.
“You wanna go over there and help her or are you going to keep staring at her?” Catalina asked as she came over to refill the tea in her teapot with Cathy. Anna’s face went a bit red as she went over to the counter.
“May I help you, Meine Liebe?” Jane’s cheeks went a bit red before nodding. Anna smiled as she came around the counter to help Jane. She wrapped her arms around her girlfriend’s waist. Jane was hand-mixing the batter for sugar cookies, mixing the dry ingredients with the wet ones. Anna kissed Jane’s neck as she giggled.
“You’re supposed to help, not distract me!” Anna kissed her again on her cheek as she smiled. Jane smiled back as she leaned her body against Anna.
“It counts as moral support because now I get to ‘Seymour’ of you,” Jane laughed at the pun as she pointed towards the sink.
“The dishes, please?” Anna nodded as she went to turn on the water and clean the dishes as she listened to the small humming sound of Jane. Her voice always sounded angelic as she softly hummed ‘Silent Night’. God, her voice sounded like heaven as Anna hummed a bit. Jane softly smiled as she heard Anna’s light humming following Silent Night. The sound of scrubbing and the water running filled the kitchen. Cathy and Catalina in the living room talking and bonding like godmother and goddaughter.
“Liebe, I’m done with the dishes,” Anna appeared next to Jane as she looked back at the sink, which was cleaned up with the wet, clean dishes on the drying rack. Jane was getting the tray ready with the chocolate cookie dough.
“Did you already preheat the oven?” Jane shook her head, “I have to refrigerate them for an hour before I can bake them.”
The red queen smiled as she went into the living room.
“All alone again,” Jane sighed, but Anna appeared right in front of her. They looked at each other for a moment; Jane was falling in love again despite Anna just holding the Jenga box and waiting for her.
“Back already?” Jane asked, raising one of her brows.
“Miss me already?” Anna teased.
“Always,” Jane rolled her eyes as a smile appeared on her face. They stare at each other again.
“Come on, Liebe, those cookies won’t refrigerate themselves,” Anna caught Jane off guard as she rushed to put the tray in the fridge. The fourth queen chuckled a bit as the third queen returned back with a red face. Anna was looking at Jane’s figure as she looked at her red face when Jane came to face her. Anna was wearing gym shorts and a t-shirt from one of the other queens. Jane was wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt slightly oversized on her from maybe Catalina? They always get their clothes mixed up and are comfortable sharing clothes with each other.
“I love you, dear,” Jane confessed as they walked over to the table as they giggled.
“Ich liebe dich, Liebling [I love you, darling]” Anna replied. They took off the packaging from the Jenga block as they set it up. Jane was stealing glances from Anna as Anna looked at her, smiling every time she caught Jane looking at her. Her cheeks were lightly painted red as Anna’s dimples showed.
“I like it when you smile,” Jane laughed at her own words as Anna smiled a bit wider. The game was set up.
“You go first,” Anna declared as she leaned back in her chair.
“No, you go first, dear,” Jane remarked as she mirrored Anna’s actions.
“No, you go first!” Anna proclaimed. There were faint footsteps coming down from the hallway. They were now locking eyes.
“No, you go first!” Jane asserted. There were two heads that appeared in the doorway to the dining room.
“I go first,” Anne declared as she and Kat walked into the dining room, watching the prologue of the Jenga game. It was hilarious to watch Jane and Anna being ladies to each other. Anne decided that she wanted to go first. Kat just followed her as Jane and Anna watched in amusement as she walked over and sat next to Anna.
“I will be playing too,” Kat took a seat right next to Jane and across from Anne.
“Winner gets dibs on the cookies” Kat stated as she looked at Anne with a smug grin.
“Wait, I didn’t agree-” Jane was cut off as Anne and Kat were challenging each other.
“Loser gets-”
“Dame! Kätzchen! Listen to mein Liebling!”
“Oh, so you are allowed to scold me, but Jane gets a kiss when she’s bad? Favoritism, much?” Anne retaliated.
Kat added, “Makes you wonder how many cookies Jane would have to ruin to get an upgrade to cuddles.”
“Makes me wonder how many times I have to kiss you to keep you quiet,” Cathy had appeared in the doorway with her godmother, standing right next to her. She looked at Kat and Anne with disapproving gazes as she took a seat next to Anne; Catalina sat next to Kat.
“Querida,” Catalina looked at Anne as Anne hummed in response.
“Apologize,” They maintained eye contact with each other until Anne caved in.
“I’m sorry, Jane,” Anne started as she went to go find the right words. Only Catalina could ever make Anne apologize. “I did not mean to exploit Anna’s favoritism towards you-”
“Anne,” Catalina was clutching her jaws as she glared at Anne. Shivers went down everyone’s spine as Catalina got up and pulled her girlfriend aside.
“Um – we should start the game now,” Jane tried to get everyone back on track with a tense atmosphere earlier.
“I will go first, I guess,” Cathy went for a side piece in the middle of the tower. She placed the block dead center on the top as Anna grumbled, recognizing Cathy’s strategy. Anna took a piece from the bottom as Jane sighed as this game might as well end as fast as they started making daring moves on the tower. Jane wasn’t even playing as she opted to make sure the cookies were made as quickly as possible. When Anne and Catalina came back from their ‘talk’, the tower had somehow already rotated with Kat calling quits and Cathy and Anna becoming competitive as hell.
“You’re going down, Bücherwurm!”
“Like hell, I am!” Cathy inching towards the line of language profanity as she maintained the now ‘how-the-hell-is-it-still-standing’ wooden tower.
“Estrella,” Jane only hummed in response as she continued to watch her girlfriend and the last queen argued over who was going to win, even to go as far as mockery, “Anne has something to say to you.”
“I didn’t mean to-” Anne cleared her throat before continuing, “I didn’t mean to upset you, but teasing--”
“Do you want to sleep on the couch tonight, hm?” There was a moment of silence.
“I’m sorry, Jane, for I did not intend my teasing to go that far,”
“Ah? Ah! It’s okay, really! I know-” Jane was rushing as Anne stood there, looking confused.
“Jane,” Everything went blank in Jane’s mind, “I know it’s within my nature to tease you, but if it ever goes too far, just tell me.”
Even now both Catalina and Jane looked at Anne, their jaws dropped as she looked at Jane and back at Cathy and Anna bickering over the game. Then, a loud crash came down.
“I win, ha, take that, Bücherwurm!” Anna was overjoyed as Cathy looked defeated, but her eyes came with revenge.
“You just got lucky. In the next game, I’m going to win-” An alarm went off; it had been an hour. It didn’t make it any better that Jane’s alarm tone was of Anna saying, “Time’s up, mein Liebling. Time to go out there and accomplish world dominance!” It was the first time anyone had heard it, and Jane was rushing to turn it off before it repeated itself. Cathy and Catalina stood there, shocked, before joining in with Kat and Anne who were just trying not to laugh. Anna, being ever so confident, just went over to her (poor) girlfriend and kissed her.
“Come on, those cookies won’t put themselves in the oven,” The fourth queen went over and grabbed the cookie dough out of the fridge as Jane just followed. She was fidgeting.
“You ashamed, mein Liebling?” The cookie dough was placed on the counter as Anna turned towards her girlfriend.
“N-no, just — just,” Words left Jane’s mouth as she tried to speak. Anna was patient as she waited for Jane to speak again. The other queens were just waiting in the dining room looking at the kitchen.
“Let's just bake cookies,” Anna looked at her, but she didn’t push it. Pre-heating the oven as they went to cut out the cookies. Anna was stealing glances at Jane the entire time as Jane wanted to disappear at that moment.
“Jane-”
“I’m fine, dear,” Awkward silence filled the room as Anna tried to fill the air with conversation, but she just learnt to keep quiet. They could hear the other four queens playing Jenga again, and Cathy and Anne getting into a heated debate; since when did Cathy get this competitive over Jenga.
“Seymour,” Now that caught the third queen off guard as she just now stood there, looking at Anna.
“Jane, mein Liebling, what’s going on in that beautiful mind of yours?” Anna went over and opened her arms. Jane slowly walked over there as she slowly accepted the hug. Jane laid her head on Anna’s left shoulder as they stood there. Anna started to take a step forward as Jane followed.
“Just thinking,” Jane whispered as Anna took her hand. Anna kissed her temple as Jane looked down.
“Let’s get back to baking,” It was empty. Where was Jane? Where was the woman who she loved so much? Jane opened the oven as heat radiated out of it. Wearing the oven mittens that Catalina had gifted her, Anna noticed that Jane’s eyes were dimmer. Once Jane placed the cookies in the oven, she was going to leave Anna alone. She wasn’t in the right mindset. Anna deserves someone better. Why does she keep on choosing her?
“Jane…” Anna’s voice trembled as Jane continued without looking back. Anna needs better. Someone who isn’t her.
“Jane!” Anna had caught up to Jane before she entered the dining room. It was all quiet as even Anne and Cathy looked at the couple. Anna didn’t care. She didn’t care that they were looking at her. She wanted to make sure that Jane knew.
“I don’t know what’s going on in your mind, but –” the dam broke as water came out of Jane’s eyes. Out of instinct, Anna went to go hug her. Jane just cried on her shoulder. As the game of Jenga stopped and the other queens went over to help, Anna kissed her temple and whispered in her ears, “Whatever is going on, please don’t shut me out.”
As the queens allowed Jane to cry her soul out and allowed her to be vulnerable, Anna made sure that Jane knew that she was going to be there for her. If it wasn’t her, it was going to be one of the other queens.
Jane burned the cookies that night.