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Niki patted the exotic table and everyone in the meeting looked over as she stood up. “Alright, I’m gonna head out now,” she said, turning away.
Ranboo also stood up. “What are you doing after this?”
With a hum, Nik answered, “I was just gonna do some baking.” She continued walking out, but stopped again. Another chair screeched.
“We can help,” Phil offered, his wings fluttering slightly behind him.
Technoblade’s head jerked up. “ Heh ?!”
“Oh, alright.” Niki turned around and smiled brightly. “Thanks!”
Phil moved towards Niki. “Yeah, we can just use my kitchen. I should have everything.”
Techno quickly joined everyone in standing up. “Now hold on, not that I wouldn’t love to help,” he put his hands up, “but I have a pretty good feeling it’s not gonna end well.”
As if to shoo his worries away, Phil waved a hand. “Oh come on, it can’t be that hard!”
“Wait-” Niki turned fully to look at Phil and Techno with a mix of amusement and slight worry in her dark brown eyes, “do you two not know how to bake?”
“Well-”
“The only edible food Techno can make is potatoes.”
“ Hey- ”
“And, well, I wouldn’t say I don’t know how to, but…” Phil ducked his head and reached up to slowly rub at his neck. “It hasn’t turned out. Yet.”
Niki’s raised eyebrows scrunched together as she smothered her laughter behind a hand. She turned to Ranboo, who was also laughing from across the room. “What about you, Ranboo?”
Ranboo’s laughter died down. His heterochromatic eyes squinted in concentration and his tail swished quickly behind him. “I-um, I-I don’t think so? I don’t think I know how to bake. At least, I don’t remember how to, or remember knowing how to, or remember baking at all. So.” He shrugged.
Niki scratched the back of her head and mimicked his shrug. “That’s okay. There’s a first time for everything.”
“And a last time,” Techno grumbled, hunched over with his arms folded.
Niki walked over to him and put a light hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry! I promise, it’s not as hard as it seems,” she reassured him, waving her other hand. “And we’ll all be working together.”
--
Techno looked out over the cozy kitchen, now cramped with four people, many pots, bowls, and a dangerous amount of sugar. “Yep, not as hard as it seems. Definitely.”
Niki looked up from where she was pulling out a large bag of flour. “I have the recipe memorized, but I can write it down so you guys can check it for yourselves. I know reading stuff helps some people.”
Ranboo perked up. “Oh, that’d be helpful.” Niki nodded, set the flour down and began writing in a neat yet slanted handwriting with a blue pen. While she did that, Phil kneeled by his furnace and got a fire started.
With a sigh, Niki straightened up and pulled an apron on. “Alright, do we have everything?” She announced, scanning the kitchen as she tied her apron. Her eyes stopped at Ranboo standing rigidly with his shoulders hunched, wringing his large hands as he eyed the vegetable oil and milk. “Ranboo, you can combine the dry ingredients.”
Ranboo’s eyes widened. “O-okay.”
“Here.” Niki slid a medium-sized bowl over to him. “Now just put the flour, baking powder, and salt in.” As she listed each ingredient, she passed them over to him. After thoroughly reading the recipe Niki had written out, Ranboo slowly measured out each ingredient and gently poured them into the bowl.
Niki pat Ranboo on the back with a smile. “Okay, Technoblade, do you want to handle the wet ingredients?”
Techno shuffled from foot to foot. “Uh, sure.”
“Alright, you’ll beat these until the mixture is light and fluffy.” Niki pushed over a large bowl, the butter, sugar, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. “This should only take about four minutes.” She pulled a small, worn timer out of her inventory and set it. They all watched in a comfortable silence as Techno awkwardly followed Niki’s instructions. “Next, the eggs. One at a time.” Phil handed Techno a carton of eggs. “Oh, make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure everything gets incorporated,” Nike advised. Techno nodded and furrowed his brows as he carefully scraped the sides of the bowl.
“Phil?” Phil looked up from reading the recipe over. Niki gestured to both of the now full bowls. “Wanna mix these together?”
Phil nodded. “Yeah.”
Ranboo poured half of the dry ingredients into the large bowl and Techno poured the milk in as Phil stirred. Once he got the thumbs up from Niki that it was mixed well, Phil mixed in the other half of the dry ingredients.
“I can already tell these are gonna taste really good,” Niki said softly as she poured the batter into a cupcake pan.
“They better be,” Techno mumbled over her shoulder, watching as she slid the pan into the furnace. She laughed and smoothly set her timer to 18 minutes.
“While those are in the oven, we can make the frosting.” Niki rinsed out the large bowl from earlier and handed it to Ranboo. “Here, Ranboo, you can do the first step again.”
Ranboo laughed, “What an honor.”
As they took turns making the frosting, Ranboo interrupted their small talk, “Can we make the frosting pink?”
“Sure! Any particular reason why, though?” Niki asked, tilting her head questioningly.
“You’ll see.”
“Kinda sus,” Techno mumbled. They all burst into laughter but it was cut off by Niki’s timer going off. Niki scooped up a toothpick and an oven mitt. She slid the pan out of the furnace just enough to test one of the cupcakes with a toothpick.
“Alright,” Niki muttered to herself as she took the pan out. “We’ll have to let them cool before we can put the frosting on.”
Phil peered down at them. “They look edible.” Techno nodded in agreement.
Ranboo began digging around the kitchen loudly. After a minute of rummaging he turned around and slammed down a few old containers of sprinkles. “Are they cooled off now?”
Niki poked at a cupcake with her fingertip. “Yes, I think so.”
Ranboo pulled the frosting bowl to him and grabbed a cupcake out of the pan. He turned his back and quickly decorated it as the rest of the Syndicate watched with raised eyebrows. Ranboo turned around just as quickly, holding the finished cupcake up for all to see. “Look! It’s a Techno-cake!”
“No, no, wait a minute,” Phil laughed, grabbing the cupcake out of Ranboo’s clawed hand. He carefully grabbed two sprinkles and placed them on the pig face as downturned eyebrows. “ Now it’s a Techno-cake.”
“I can’t believe you guys,” Techno groaned over the laughter bursting from the kitchen.
--
“Since we made a dozen, there’s enough for everyone to take three,” Niki explained once they were done frosting all of the cupcakes.
Ranboo placed his three into his inventory. “Nice. I bet Tommy and Tubbo would like one.”
“I bet they would,” Techno grumbled, rolling his eyes. Phil frowned and roughly elbowed him in the ribs, earning him an “oof”.
“I’ll probably go bring these to them now, actually.”
“Oh, I think I’ll head out as well, Ranboo,” Niki agreed, grabbing her share of cupcakes. “Thank you guys for all the help. It wasn’t as bad as you thought, yeah?”
“Yeah.” Techno and Phil waved until they were out of sight.
--
“Why do these have Technoblade’s face on them?” Tommy asked, scrutinizing his cupcake.
Ranboo pulled Michael onto his lap and handed him his cupcake.
“It could be any pig, though,” Tubbo reasoned through a mouth full of chewed cake.
Tommy scowled and jabbed a finger into the pink frosting. “No, I know a dickhead’s face when I see it.”
--
Niki looked up in surprise as she entered her underground city. “Oh, hi Jack!”
Jack Manifold jumped up from the chest he was sitting on and waved back. “Hey, Niki.”
“Would you like a cupcake?” Niki offered, pulling one out of her inventory and holding it out to him. “I made them today, so they’re fresh.”
Jack Manifold’s eyes widened. “That-that would be nice. Yes, thank you.” He smiled softly and took the cupcake from her hand.
--
“I can’t remember the last time I had cupcakes,” Techno sighed, looking down at the two cupcakes left.
Phil leaned back in his chair and stared out into the sparkling snow. “I can. I tried to make a cake for-for Her. But, it failed spectacularly, as you can imagine,” he laughed sheepishly.
“Yes, I can.”
“Oh, shut up.” Phil rubbed the back of his neck and continued. “But yes, it went terribly, so I ended up just buying some cupcakes from a bakery in the nearest village.” He smiled fondly at the memory.
Techno glanced at him, then turned his gaze to match Phil’s. “Well, since you kinda know how to make them correctly now, you might just have to make some for Her.”
Phil snapped up in surprise. “You think so?”
Techno shrugged. “Couldn’t hurt. Probably.”
“Probably.”
Techno leaned over to grab another cupcake.
“I thought you didn’t like sweets?” Phil asked with a grin.
Techno scowled and shoved his shoulder. “Shut up.”