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“Dad, I don’t think the batter is supposed to look like that” Christopher comments idly, looking up from his phone to assess the damage his father has done to the kitchen.
“What? Why, what’s wrong with it?” Eddie abandons his post at the stove to glance into the bowl with a frown.
“Its too… liquidy” Chris scrunches his nose in disgust as he stirs the mixture. Eddie’s frown deepens and he shoots a look at the recipe.
“I don’t know, bud, the author is clear about how the Maldives are the best place to vacation, but they don’t say what the consistency of the batter is supposed to be.”
“Hmph” Christopher makes an unimpressed sound. “It looks like pancake batter not muffin one.”
“Well… muffins are mini cakes placed in little pans… so.” Judging from Christophers glare Eddie did not make a compelling argument. He sighs. “Do we add more flour?”
“Do I look like a baker, Dad? Ask Buck.”
Eddie shakes his head. “No, come on, we can handle one, simple muffin recipe.”
Chris shoots him another, dubious look. “You are burning the caramel.”
Eddie curses and gets back to the stove. The once golden liquid is now sticky brown and… yeah that pot is not going to be usable.
“I will give you five bucks if you take the blame for that one” Eddie says quickly. He has ruined one too many of Buck’s pots already.
Christopher narrows his eyes and tilts his head in a way that reminds Eddie scarily of Buck. “Fifty.”
“What?” Eddie exclaims outraged. “What do you need fifty dollars for?”
“You know that the pot you burned was gifted to Buck by Bobby?” Fuck. “If I’m taking blame, I need a good recompensation for the sad eyes Buck will give me.”
Eddie grumbles unhappily but he crosses the kitchen to open the swear jar and take out a fifty.
“I don’t think that’s allowed.”
“Do you want your money or not?” Eddie raises an eyebrow at his smartass of a son. Chris sighs, as if Eddie was the one being difficult in this situation.
“Fine” he concedes and pockets the bill. “But I still think we should ask Buck for help.”
“No, Chris. This is supposed to be a nice surprise.”
“I think the collateral damage will overshadow the nice part of the surprise.”
Eddie glares.
“…Sure, Dad. He will be thrilled.”
“That’s the spirit.” Eddie grins and tussles Chris’s hair with a flour covered hand, making Chris produce the most teenage face Eddie ever witnessed.
“Now that that’s settled. More flour?”
Chris sighs. Eddie has an opinion that if he could, his teenager would switch to a strict sigh dialogue.
“I guess a cup more won’t hurt” Chris answers and Eddie hums in agreement, adding it in into the mixture.
“Mix it up while I save that caramel?”
“I don’t think I can mix long enough for that to happen.”
Eddie rolls his eyes. Who taught that boy sass again?
Oh, right he did.
Well fuck.
“Watch it” Eddie says turning back to the pot. He attempts to scrape the burnt part of the bottom, but it seems he forgot to turn the heat off, so now every part is the burnt part. He sighs in defeat.
“Do you think we can substitute caramel sauce for maple syrup?” Eddie glances back at his son.
Christopher hums. “Both gold, sticky and sweet. You may be cooking, Dad.”
Eddie blinks slowly.
“No, I am baking.”
Chris’s sigh sounds even more pained than before. “Never mind.”
Eddie chooses to ignore his sassy teenager. He fishes out a bottle of syrup from the cupboards and pours some into the batter.
“Wasn’t the caramel supposed to be poured on top of muffins?” Christopher asks catching some of the syrup stream on his fingers to lick it off. Eddie would smack his hand away, but he does not want to be sticky.
“What does it matter? Caramel taste is caramel taste.”
“It’s maple syrup.”
“Same thing.” Chris does not seem to have a good answer to that, so Eddie chooses to count that as a win.
“It looks too liquidy again.” Chris notices.
“Well, we did pour another liquid into it…”
Christopher hesitates. “Maybe one more cup of flour…?”
Eddie shrugs. “What’s the worst that can happen.” he grabs the container and dumps some more flour into the bowl.
“What ingredient was next?” Eddie asks and Chris glances back down at his phone to see the recipe.
“Muscovado”
Eddie blinks slowly. “Bless you”
“Ugh- no, it’s a kind of sugar.
“Ah. Yes. Well sugar is sugar, yeah?”
It’s Chris’s turn to shrug. “I guess.”
Eddie grabs the sugar container from the counter and adds it in.
“Are you sure that was not salt?” Chris asks. Which, rude. Eddie can differentiate salt from sugar, thank you very much.
“Yes, I’m sure” he insists, but then leans down to smell the now empty container. “On second thought-“
Christopher groans. “Seriously?”
“Shush. We can just add more caramel-“
“Maple syrup.”
“- to it. It will even out.” Christopher does not seem convinced, but if Eddie stopped what he was doing just because of that every time- well hm a lot of things could potentially be better, actually. But he is sure that enough sugar should hide the flavor of salt, so he ignores Chris and pours enough syrup into the batter for it to turn golden brown. And, well-
“Dad, It’s-“
“If you say liquidy one more time-“
Christopher smartly does not finish his sentence. Eddie grabs a muffin tin and starts to carefully pour the batter – or, uh, golden soupy liquid with flour chunks - into them. He fills all of the spaces and there is still over half of the mixture left. He frowns.
“Does it still look like pancake batter?”
Chris tilts his head. “Kind of? Dad, what-“
Eddie pours the rest of the contains of the bowl into the pan. Chris thumps his head on the counter.
The door creaks.
Eddie and Chris share a panicked look before looking at the door. Or, more like at Buck who just came through the door with a grin.
“Hey, guys!” He exclaims with a grin. “What are you-“ Buck stops noticing the state of the kitchen. Flour on the counter, floor and in Chris’s hair. Eggs, whole somehow, on the ground. Eddie realizes then that they forgot to add them to the batter. He is not sure how they ended on the ground, but that’s the least of his worries because Buck’s gaze lands on the pot.
“Chris did it” Eddie announces. Chris shoots him an annoyed look but when he turns back to Buck its all innocent, sad eyes.
“Sorry, Buck” Chris says but Buck seems to not be fully listening.
“What on earth were you guys trying to make?” he questions stepping inside the room.
“…Caramel muffins?” Eddie supplies weakly.
“They are neither caramel nor muffins” Chris adds unhelpfully.
Buck blinks and then bursts into laughter. Eddie would be offended but his not-quite-muffin-pancake started to burn in the pan, so he franticly attempts to flip the weirdly bubbly blob.
“Why would you let your dad in the kitchen, Chris. You should know better” Buck scolds, his eyes still crinkled with laughter. Chris makes a face.
“This is all your fault. You should not have left us alone.”
Buck laughs again and ruffles Chris’s curls.
“Sorry, bud.”
“Don’t feel sorry for him he has been sassing me for the last hour” Eddie chimes in after transferring his monstrosity onto the plate. It looks alive and that scares him. He is starting to reconsider putting the muffins in the oven now.
“You probably deserved it judging the state of my pot.”
Eddie splutters. “I told you, Chris did it-“
Buck gives him a deadpan look. “Chris does not have his crutches in the kitchen, but I’m supposed to believe you let him stand and continuously stir… what was that even supposed to be?” he sniffs. “Caramel?”
Eddie grumbles.
“I will take it as a yes.” Buck seems way too amused for the situation, Eddie decides.
“I was trying to make something nice for you…”
“I told him to wait for you” Chris chimes in. Eddie flicks flour at him.
Buck ignores them in favor of dipping his finger into the batter and licking it into his mouth. He coughs and Eddie pouts.
“No, no- it’s uh great” Buck assures when he sees Eddies expression. “I can taste um…”
“Flour with a hint of salty maple syrup?” Chris suggests.
“Yep” Buck agrees. “You know that’s almost like salty caramel.”
“Don’t encourage him” Chris groans and Eddie covers his sons mouth.
“Thank you, baby, I knew you would appreciate my efforts” Eddie says and accepts a kiss from Buck, ignoring a muffled gagging sound from Chris.
“But maybe let’s not put that in the oven.” Buck adds. Eddie is inclined to agree. He is not sure they could ever get the smell out of it.
“I’m sorry the surprise did not work out” Eddie murmurs, releasing his son who promptly escapes the kitchen. If Eddie was not distracted by warm hands on his waist he would call after him and get that fifty back.
“What do they say… it’s the effort that counts, yeah?” Buck says with a twinkle in his eye.
“I certainly put a lot of effort” Eddie agrees.
“Guess that means you love me lots, hm?”
“I love you so much that I won’t even make you try the concoction that came out of the pan.”
“And do you love me enough to never bake again?” Buck adds with a shit eating grin.
“That too.”
Buck’s laughter gets swallowed by Eddie’s mouth on his. They will have to clean up soon, order dinner because the kitchen even with cleaning might be out of commission for a while. But for now, Eddie is content to accept the affection from his boyfriend without worrying about any of that.