xp_logs | Meggan and Molly (Backdated)

When Molly has a nightmare, Meggan tries to comfort her and ends up giving her a few hats. This, in turn, leads to the two venturing downstairs for a pre-dawn breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes, with chocolate milk, and a promise to give her hot chocolate with more chocolate chips later, when they watch the sun come up.

The moon was high in the sky but was covered by clouds, casting the room in darkness. The digital clock on the nightstand read 3:07am.

The sound of rustling came softly, then became louder as a quiet whimper emerged from under the covers of one of the bed. The whimper soon turned into a more insistent, frightened cry as the girl underneath the covers thrashed around in her bed.

Meggan woke in a flash, not knowing what the sound was for a few moments, until she gathered her bearings. “What? Oh…Molly,” she murmured, remembering the other girl as she hurriedly climbed out of bed. It was very late, or very early, she groggily thought for a second before getting a good look at the clock. She went to sit near the head of the Molly’s bed, and reached out to give her shoulder a gentle shake. She was ready to float straight up if Molly accidentally ended up lashing out in her sleep at any point. She wouldn’t blame her.

“Shh…wake up, Molly, you’re safe,” she whispered, unable to keep the concern out of her voice. This was a really bad dream judging by those cries. “Molly, can you hear me?” She cautiously reached to stroke her hair just a little, hoping that might comfort her. “Whatever’s going on isn’t happening anymore if it ever happened before. You’re safe here, you hear me?” She couldn’t risk saying it wasn’t real, because she didn’t know what the nightmare was about. She didn’t want to be lying to her.

Molly flailed when Meggan touched her on the shoulder, letting out a scream. But all the squirming started to subside and she began to relax when she began stroking her hair. Slowly, Molly began to stir and looked up at Meggan with fearful but blurry eyes, hampered by the veil of sleep.

"Mom?' she said softly as she saw Meggan's hair glowing in the moonlight but her face covered by shadow.

“I’m sorry, no,” Meggan said with a soft shake of her head. Only half awake for the moment, then, that didn’t surprise her all that much. That was an improvement, but she moved just a little so that Molly could see her better. “I’m not her. It’s just me, Meggan.”

She started to reach for the light switch, before hesitating. It might startle Molly if she wasn’t completely awake yet, so she asked instead, “Do you need me to turn on the lamp for a minute? Or is this okay?” It was probably best to just give Molly a minute or so to really wake up after whatever she’d been dreaming.

Molly quickly nodded. "P..please," she said. She didn't want to be in the dark.

Sitting up in bed, Molly pulled the covers up to her chest far enough to where only her face was showing. She was actually without a hat for once, a rare thing that made her seem less vibrant and bubbly than she was.

Even though her mom wasn't there, having someone else made her feel better.

She didn't say anything, an even rarer feat, and just stared at Meggan, eyes occasionally darting around the room.

Meggan took the opportunity to turn on each lamp on the night stand, before returning to sit on Molly’s bed. “There we go, we can see each other now.” She blinked for a moment before her eyes adjusted. “How’s that, then? Or do you need me to turn on the ceiling light, too?” She wasn’t going to push her. If she wanted to tell her about what she’d been dreaming about, then she could tell her in her own time. She was ready to just scoot over and hug her, but didn’t want to startle her if she was already upset like this.

“Hey, you’re safe and nothing's going to get you now,” she whispered. She brushed some of Molly’s hair out of her face where it had fallen. “Whatever it was is over now. I’m here if you need me. What do you need me to do?”

Molly shook her head. "It's okay...these lights are good. Thank you," she said quietly. Any lights were nice. She didn't want to be in the dark right now.

"I don't know if I can go back to sleep. Can...you stay up with me until I do?" she said.

She thought it was nice when she brushed away her hair, it still made her feel like her mom. Even if sometimes she wanted to be "independent" and do grown up things, sometimes it was good to have a mom-like person around.

“Of course I can. I’ll stay right here, won’t leave this spot unless you need me to,” Meggan reassured her. If she accidentally drifted off before her, she would just have to hope that she would be poked awake. Now what could make Molly feel better?

“So what do you feel like doing until you can go back to sleep? Just talk?” Just until Molly could get over whatever awful thing she had been dreaming about. An idea struck her at that moment, but she didn’t know if Molly would be up for it. Would a new hat help out? She remembered a few oldish Halloween ones she still had around. She would try it.

“Or maybe…we could get you a new hat before everybody else wakes up? I have two from Halloweens past in a box under my bed, and a Christmas hat with antlers,” she offered. Under the bed, there was no possible chance of throwing on a Halloween costume in the dark than if it were just shoved in the closet on a hanger. “You can keep them if you like them. If you want to do that? We don’t have to, if you’re not up to it right now.” Get that collection growing a little more. It looked like the only ideas she could muster at this late hour were giving Molly hats or doing floating somersaults like an astronaut around the room to help cheer her up.

Molly was quiet for a few moments, just staring at Meggan before she nodded a little, the hint of a smile forming on her face.

"What kind of Halloween hats are they?" she said softly.

She didn't know if she wanted to talk yet. But maybe it would help her not sleep until she could sleep. If she really wanted to sleep she could hit something with her powers but they would probably get mad. But she didn't want to sleep, actually. If she closed her eyes she saw the bad things still.

“This last Halloween, I dressed as Dread Pirate Roberts. It's not completely a hat, I guess," Meggan admitted with a small grin. "It’s a bandana. The bandana has eye holes, so you can see through it.” If Meggan had bought that wide brimmed Zorro hat, she could have given it to Molly. As she spoke, she dragged the box with the hats and smaller items from beneath her bed. She kept bits of the costumes, because you just never knew if you might need some part of them again for any reason, no matter how insane. “It could sort of pass for a hat, if you wanted it. Or if you just wanted some kind of mask for any reason.” She thought a moment, before offering, “I could help you dye it to something else another shade if you didn’t want it to be black or one color?”

Meggan brought both the Halloween bits as well as the Christmas hat over to Molly, so she wouldn’t have to get out of bed to see them if she didn’t want to just yet. She didn’t want to rush her. “The year before Dread Pirate Roberts, I was just a rainbow since I waited a little bit too late. Wore a couple things that worked for that, and made a few multi-colored zebra-like stripes. Do you think you’d want this knit cap, with almost every color there is?” It even had little pink and orange pom poms that hung down around the ears. Would it fit Molly? It looked like it would, and she hoped at least one of them made Molly feel better. “And the year before that? No hats for me, sorry, since I was an angel statue and just…shifted my body and hair gray.”

Molly looked over Meggan's offerings, and as she did, the faint smile grew more and more, especially when it came to the bandana-mask and the hat. The RAINBOW hat, with bobby things. She loved bobby things.

"I really can have all of them?" she asked with a hushed whisper of hope.

She didn't know which one she liked best, they were all so cool. And with the bandana-mask she could use it for her superhero costume. She already had a name picked out.

“Oh, yes,” Meggan nodded. She was pleased to see that smile, small though it might be for now. “You can have them all. If you like them, I mean. There’s absolutely no reason in the world I can possibly think of for why you couldn’t have them all if you did,” she was quick to assure her with a grin.

"Do you need the bandana to be changed to a different color? Because we can do that, too," she offered. Somehow, she could also just picture Molly running wild if someone found a thrift shop that specialized in hats and nothing else. Did a place like that even exist? She couldn’t be sure, but she almost wanted to find out.

Molly immediately reached a tiny hand out, grabbing the rainbow hat and the bandana. She put the bandana mask over her eyes, tying the back, then put the rainbow hat over all of that to make her look a little bit like Dumb Donald from Fat Albert.

"It's okay, I like black. It reminds me of Zorro," she said. He had a sword.

"Does it look okay?"

“It looks great,” Meggan confirmed. And it did. It looked extremely cute on Molly. “As long as you can see through the layers? It looks like you can.” She could see her eyes through the rainbow weave. “I have the boots, too, with buckles like a pirate,” she offered. “But they might not be the right size for you. At least two sizes too big.” And then there was one more piece that might complete Molly's costume, if she needed it. She might as well see if Molly would like a fake sword. She suspected she might.

“I don’t suppose you’d want a sword? It was to complete the Dread Pirate Roberts look, but it could pass for Zorro’s, too. Really more like the kind used for fencing, and it’s not pointy.” It was too long for the box, so it leaned against the wall in her closet. Nobody could get hurt with that one. If it were sharp, she wouldn’t have bought it for a costume.

Molly tilted her head a little at the word 'sword,' getting that look on her face like someone did when there was too much awesome information. She quickly nodded.

"Yes please."

All of that would go really great with her costume. She still needed a cape but maybe she could make one. But she had the mask so that was a good step.

A thumping noise against the window made Molly jump and she quickly looked toward the window, balling her hands up into fists, but a soft tremble ran through her, barely visible from the covers.

It didn’t take more than a moment to retrieve the little sword from the closet. Meggan passed the item to Molly, before trotting over to the window once she saw that tremble. She recognized that sound, but pulled back the curtain just enough so Molly could see it for what it was. “It’s okay, Molly. See there? It’s not anything bad. It’s just a branch, getting moved about by some wind. Some extra snow’s just weighing it down a little bit.”

If it still did that once the snow melted, maybe she could ask Kurt or someone else to saw the branch down, just a little bit for Molly’s sake. It might not even need that. Maybe just snap the weakest bit closest to the window. No more scraping or bumping or any other noise that might terrify someone at midnight. Returning to Molly’s side, she caught that tremble, and before she knew it had sunk down on the bed beside her, one arm around her to try to comfort her.

“You know what? I think that just might be the same branch I’d get snagged on if I weren’t able to float through just right. I can’t be sure until morning.” Technically, it was early morning now. She meant a brighter part of the morning, when everyone was up and moving around.

Molly glanced over to the window skeptically at first, but relaxed at Meggan's explanation, and her arm around her. They were in the school, full of mutant people with powers who could stop bad things. She didn't need to worry.

"Just a branch," she echoed, nodding. She could even see the shadowy outline of it now from where they were sitting.

"I can punch it if it was a bad guy,' said partially for Meggan and partially for herself to hear. She didn't want to come off as a wimp. Everyone else here wasn't a wimp!

She fell silent for a few moments.

"Are you sure the Nanny and the Robot are still in prison? And they're gonna stay there?"

“Yes, you could. Or you could just throw something big at the bad guy…like the bed we’re sitting on. Waste of a perfectly good bed, but you could do it,” Meggan agreed.

She desperately wanted to reassure Molly about the two staying right where they were, but didn’t know how to go about it without coming off as the biggest liar in the world. She settled for what she grasped of the situation, and rubbed the other girl’s shoulder slightly. “Molly…I believe that if they weren’t still there, Kurt have teleported in here and told us the very second he heard. Or someone else would have run in with the news before running off again to fix it.”

So far, there hadn’t been warnings from anyone so things were most likely fine. “Unless that happens, just remember that they are still sitting in a prison cell.” Even supervillains had to rest sometime. They couldn’t always be plotting jailbreaks, could they? After that thought passed through her head, she whispered, “I really hope they stay there, too.”

Meggan brushed some hair away from the other girl’s face, wondering something but almost not sure if she should question her about it. Carefully, she asked, “Molly, I know it’s probably not any of my business, and you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but…was that your nightmare? Something about those two?” It made sense.

Molly fiddled with the bobby things, focusing on her fingernails, which were way too short. She finally nodded.

"I was...in the car with my mom and dad and the Robot kept smashing it but instead of trying to get me out like before he just kept...smashing it until he smushed it down and it...the car...kept getting smaller and smaller and smaller..." she said, shrinking in closer against the pillows.

"And...the Nanny was saying we were all bad so we all deserved to be smushed. And I heard my mom yelling for me and then she got really quiet and my daddy was covered in red..." She sniffed, tightly clenching one of the pom poms. She looked up.

"What about a tank?" she said softly. They were heavier than a truck, right? That'd show him.

Meggan didn’t know what to say after that, so she just brought Molly closer for a small hug. Molly might not appreciate being cuddled, so she tried to leave that part out, hard though it might be. She hadn’t imagined anything close to that, even if she suspected it was something horrific to leave her so upset. “You do not deserve to be smushed, Molly, and you’re not bad, Meggan said quietly, but firmly. “Try to remember that, next time you go to sleep, if you can think of it,” Meggan said gently. What else was there to say after a description like that?

“Tanks could work, sure,” Meggan nodded. She understood what Molly was talking about. What was heavier than a tank? “How about a cement mixing truck? I mean, if you let all the cement stop swirling and mixing long enough that it gets nice and hard? Do you know if that’s heavier than a tank?” If she could just get her to think about that, maybe she wouldn’t be focused on the worst of that nightmare. Even if it was for just a minute or two.

Molly rested her head against Meggan's chest as she hugged her, frowning. She nodded a little. "She said my parents were bad and she wanted to save me from them...I know they're not. They help people. And...and I know I'm not bad either but..."

Molly furrowed her brows, clenching her jaw.

"I really didn't like her. Smashing open a car with people inside it is really not cool."

She looked down thoughtfully at Meggan's suggestion.

"I dunno about a tank...I've never seen one up close," she admitted. They looked pretty heavy, though.

"Maybe Angel could make the cement really hot and it'd dry fast? She can make microwaves. But not like...the box...the stuff that makes the stuff in the box get warmed up. And it's not fire either, but it can make fire if it’s hot enough, I think."

Her eyebrows rose, scrunching her as she tried to remember what Kyle said before finally relenting.

"It's very confusing."

Meggan had seen at least one tank, though it was admittedly from a far off distance. Aside than that, it was always on television, so she wasn’t the expert on them by any means and had no idea as to the actual weight. Could it be more than a few tons? She assumed it would have to be.

She shook her head, knowing how big of an understatement that was. “No, it really isn’t.”

Meggan scrunched her nose for a moment. “I know exactly what you mean. Radiation’s not it, right? Was part of it a word like thermal or thermo? Or something close to that?” She shook her head after a moment of trying to guess, knowing it would probably come to her in a few hours if it weren’t any of those. Even if she did feel more awake than not, a vaguely sleepy brain still did not make a person the world's fastest thinker.

“But, yes, Molly. I’m pretty much positive that Angel could do that to the cement.” With a small smile, she added, “It’s got to be better than sitting there and waiting and wandering around for a few hours while it very slowly sets. I don’t think any bad guy would willingly wait that long.” They would be miles away by the time it was hard.

Molly shook her head. "I'm not sure. I just remembered the 'not fire' part. But the radiation sounds kinda familiar...well...all of that sounded familiar anyway. It sounded sciencey."

She then giggled, the first one all night. "Yeah, bad guys just standing there'd be dumb. Maybe Kurt can use the Vulcan death grip!" He had ears like a Vulcan.

Glancing up to Meggan, Molly then looked back down, suppressing a yawn. She was getting sleepy again but she still didn't want to go to sleep just yet. Maybe. She wasn't sure.

“Or the regular nerve pinch would work better? It would just knock them out and he could come up from behind, instead of jumping up or teleporting in front of them and grabbing their face,” Meggan suggested with a grin. She had seen just enough episodes of various Star Treks to know the difference between the two. She couldn’t see Kurt using a Vulcan death grip on anyone.

She risked a quick peek at the clock, once she noticed Molly’s near brush with a yawn. It was a few minutes away from being 4 in the morning now. "Whenever you feel ready to try again with sleeping? I promise I'll wake you at the first sign something's going on, okay?" She didn't want to force her into it if she wasn't ready yet. "But if you don't feel like it right now, then...we could watch the sun come up? Or go raid the kitchen under cover of darkness, or whatever you feel like doing."

Molly's eyes got all wide at the mental image Meggan painted. She rather liked it.

"That'd be awesome," she said. It'd be like SpyNinjaFu.

She glanced toward the window at the suggestion, biting her lip thoughtfully.

"How about sun AND food?" she said.

"Can we make pancakes? It's morning kinda. With chocolate chips!"

“We could do that, sure,” Meggan nodded with a smile. “If we have chocolate chips, you get chocolate chips.” Were they added before or after you cooked them? She would find out “I think there’s enough time for us to do both if we head for the kitchen now.” Things should go fine, so long as she didn’t burn something in the pan. She knew to keep a close eye on it, so that wouldn’t happen.

After a moment, Meggan casually wondered, “We couldn’t do the whole watch the sun come up thing from the roof, could we?” Or there could be some hidden ice, and Molly might slip unless she tied a good and strong rope around her waist and held on tight. She didn’t want to see her fall off the roof. She had a better suggestion, that wouldn’t lead to any accidental injuries.

“Do you want to bundle up and wait on the lawn after we eat? Or even just the front door? A window near there. If we waited for it outside, we could grab some hot tea or hot chocolate first to keep us warm.”

"There's some chocolate chips in one of the drawers, I checked," Molly said, nodding. She got bored earlier, which naturally led to nosy.

At the suggestion she climbed out of bed, showing off her Batman pajama set complete with rainbow colored socks with toes.

"How would we get up to the roof?" Molly asked curiously. Was there a ladder?

"Hmmm..." Molly paced a little. "There's a swing on the porch, right? What about there?"

“Maybe through the attic, out a window? But that’s probably a very bad idea, with ice and everything,” Meggan pointed out.

“Yes, there is a swing—that’s a perfect spot to watch from,” she agreed. They wouldn’t actually be traipsing through snow if they just stuck to the porch. They wouldn’t need boots, but she slipped on her old Kermit the Frog slippers over her socks for warmth. “After we’ve made the pancakes…want to add some of the leftover chocolate chips to your hot drink before we head out there? It’ll make it just a little bit sweeter.”

Taking the cue from Meggan, Molly got into her own slippers, fuzzy bright blue Cookie Monster colored ones (no eyes, though, maybe she could glue them on), and headed toward the door.

"Oooh, that'd be yummy. Julian made me some hot chocolate before with hazelnut. It was really good."

“It sounds like it.” Meggan knew they would have to take great care to keep from waking anyone up between their floor and the kitchen. An ill-timed loud whisper might do that, and a grumpy person could send them straight back to their room, pancake-less and missing out on a sunrise. She grabbed a warm jacket for later as she followed Molly to the door.

Before she opened the door for the two of them to go creeping downstairs, she warned, “Now, we have to be very, very quiet. There’s a bunch of sleeping people between here and there.” A mad dash downstairs would make too much noise.

"Kind of like hide and seek," Molly whispered, ducking down reflexively. Or a video game. Your mission: don't wake up the people or there will be waves of bad.

She nodded. "Okay," she added, still softly. Glancing around, she opened the door and began to quietly tip toe. Given her size, when she was actually trying, she made very little sound at all.

Meggan could have just levitated a couple inches off the floor to avoid making any noise in the hall, but where was the fun in that? It was just an unfair advantage, too, since Molly couldn’t do it. She switched off the lamp nearest to the door, so light suddenly spilling into the hallway wouldn’t wake anyone up.

“Exactly like hide and seek, just with much more sneaking.” There was a slightly different variation of seeking to it, too, since breakfast was involved. They wouldn’t need a flashlight to navigate the halls, would they? A quick peek out the door showed there showed that it wasn’t pitch black, so probably not. “I promise I won’t start humming the Mission: Impossible theme and give us away,” Meggan whispered, as she waved Molly ahead of her.

Molly couldn't help but giggle at that, cause now she got the song in her head. And now she wanted some spy gear. She crept past her, making her way down from level to level, by now pretty much knowing her way down a little better than the first time Julian had caught her.

When she finally made it down to the first floor she wanted to jump up and down and make lots of noise. Expecting her to stay quiet for too long was like asking someone to hold their breath for ten minutes.

"Can I talk now?" she whispered, eyebrows rose hopefully.

”Just so long as there’s not any shouting between here and the kitchen…yes, there can be talking,” Meggan whispered back after a moment’s deliberation.

They weren’t near any bedrooms now, so it should be fine. Sudden loud noises from this floor might not be as bad as it would be if they were still near the bedrooms, but they still had to be careful until they reached the kitchen. Not as quiet as mice, though, since they rustled too much. Plus, with all this sneaking around, Meggan almost felt like she should be dressed like a cat burglar, in black from head to toe.

Molly quickly nodded. "Cool!" she said, a little loud, though, and quickly covered her mouth.

"Mmmrry," she said.

The house always looked different at night. Maybe because it was all dark cause of the wood and stuff. She wasn't too scared now, cause she knew it didn't happen and Meggan made her feel better about all the people with powers there.

"Can we have chocolate milk too?" she whispered. Chocolate Milk and Hot Chocolate and Chocolate Chip Pancakes. Chocolatetopia. This was something Molly liked quite a bit.

Meggan paused a moment, listening for any noises of people, before shaking her head. “Don’t worry, nobody heard. It’s okay.” A moment later, she unintentionally stepped just the right way to cause the floor to faintly squeak. She hoped it didn’t matter now, since the kitchen was just ahead. “Just like nobody heard that,” she muttered with an embarrassed smile.

Chocolate milk, too? “People will wonder where all the kitchen’s chocolate disappeared to between yesterday evening and today,” Meggan teased. “But…yes. Wash down your chocolate with more chocolate, just for this morning.” They couldn’t sneak downstairs like this every morning after all. “You can have yourself a pre-dawn chocolate explosion today.” With all the chocolate they would soon have coursing through their systems, neither of them would likely need to worry about drifting off because of getting up so early.

"Gnomes did it?" Molly offered helpfully. After all, this school had mutant powers, perhaps they also would believe in gnomes?

"Chocolate is important every morning, though. It's good for you. It has antiox...something in it," Molly added. She read it somewhere.

"We need spy costumes."

“I think you mean antioxidants,” Meggan corrected. The two of them had officially made it to the kitchen door without being caught, so she ushered Molly inside. “They might not help you anymore if you’re going plowing through a chocolate mountain every morning, but they would still be in it, I guess.”

“Unless someone just so happened to conjure one of them up, I don’t think people could believe the garden gnome thief theory. Even if it would be funny to try it,” she mused with a grin. You never knew, though. Stranger things had happened.

“With little gadgets like night vision goggles? All the better for you to sneak downstairs without bumping into things or using a flashlight,” she agreed. She began the process of digging through drawers and cupboards to find everything. She held up the package of chocolate chips in triumph. There were slightly more than she’d anticipated, so Molly could have exactly the amount she craved for her pancakes.

Molly quickly scurried in with Meggan's nudging, looking around with a sense of gleeful purpose, then held up her fists in ecstatic confirmation when she saw the bag. Soon there would be pancakes. Chocolate ones.

"Gadgets and boots and rope and masks," she said. She really liked masks. And hats. Hats were like masks kinda.

"Maybe one of the magic people could make a Gnome? I hear Amanda can do stuff! And Nico?" she said.

"I wonder if anybody ever tried to make a chocolate chip pancake cookie...would that work?"

Meggan looked from the pancake batter to Molly as she considered that. “I think you need a different batter for that, or it’d probably burn. Or they’d just turn out really soggy.” She found a thing they could use to make triangles in the pancakes, but wasn't sure if that would make it take longer or not.

She could practically see Molly begging Amanda or Nico or someone else to make gnomes real, after locating a replica of that little garden gnome from a commercial. Bad idea. Really, really bad idea. Magic stuff didn’t always turn out so well—but how could she divert her attention from it? Hats! Of course!

“They might be able to, but I don’t really know,” she admitted reluctantly. “Let’s save asking for gnomes for a day when we really do need a bunch for a medium-sized army. If we do.” She didn’t know what that occasion would be. “Tell you what. Neither of us tries to ask Amanda to make a gnome when she's too busy, I'll buy you a brand new hat. Would you want a cowboy hat?" With a grin, she added, "Or one of those black ski mask things, if you want to be a spy?”

Hats were indeed the perfect distraction for Molly. At least, whenever she wasn't too keen on something. She wasn't too in love with gnomes. She just thought they'd be funny, like the ones on the travel commercials.

"Maybe... a cowboy hat? Cause then people would think we were robbers too if we wore the ski masks and that would be bad," she said. A lot of people were buying her hats lately. It was nice but wow, it was like hatopia.

She peered at her for a moment or two.

"Can I help?"

She liked to try to bake things. Her mom never had time to bake. Her daddy didn't either. There were some unsuccessful baking times but she did make some stuff a couple of times. The smoke alarm didn't go off once!

Meggan nodded, understanding how extremely bad that would be. “You’re right. So I’ll get you a cowboy hat. Get enough of them, and we might have to get you something like a shoe rack, but for all your hats.” Or hang them off every available space. Computers, lamps, bed posts, doorknobs…people…

“Yes, you can. Do you want to try flipping them when they look closer to done?” Two people stirring and flipping might make things a difference in speed. If something went wrong, and it went up high enough to stick to the ceiling or somehow splatter a wall, well…Meggan could always come back after they watched the sun come up, but before anyone else walked in on it and start scraping things off.

“Want to sprinkle in the chocolate chips as we go, too?” That way Molly could have just as many as she craved, without Meggan accidentally underestimating or overestimating the amount.

Molly nodded. "They get melty and it's really goood," she said, then squinted at the pan. Peering at Meggan just to make sure she really did say she could.

"Like...up in the air flipping, though, right? My mom never let me do that. That'd be awesome," she said in a hushed, excited whisper.

“A big yes to air flipping. High as we can safely get it, with one of us still able to get it in time,” Meggan offered with a smile. After a moment’s thought, though, she added, “Just…not hard enough that we accidentally hit the ceiling with it, okay? That would be a waste of a pancake.”

Since it wouldn't be much longer before it was safe to try that, she waved Molly over to show her how to hold it to get that to work. She'd seen it done a couple times before, and it just didn’t seem right to have pancakes done without at least one air flipping.

Molly nodded with seriousness. "Yeah, it'd get covered in dust bunnies and that'd be gross," she said. She scurried over, getting in close to try to watch very intently. Pancake flipping had to be an art, y'know.

"We need chef's hats."

Just as long as they didn’t accidentally spill anything on it, well…it shouldn't be a problem. “Check the cupboards to your right,” Meggan suggested. If she left to check herself, a pancake might become seriously overdone. Or maybe just a little too crispy around the edges.

“I know I saw some aprons in there, so maybe there’s a hat or two to match? Maybe in the back.” If so, maybe it would fit one of them. Find out if there were hats in a closet or cupboard, then start to flip the pancakes.

Molly laughed. "They really have chef hats here too?" she said as she did like Meggan asked, rummaging through the goods.

"Dude, this place has everything!"

She got kind of quiet before peering innocently over her shoulder. "Do you think they'd let me have one?"

Making cereal in the morning with a chef's hat would be so much cooler than a regular hat. Then she could pretend to speak French.

“I hope so,” Meggan offered. Surely someone would let Molly keep it. “I don’t see why they wouldn’t let you. Maybe you could ask Kurt or another teacher when everyone else is awake. If someone says no to keeping one you find here…we can check a cooking store if you want?" It was the best suggestion she had. "If they keep sporks in stock, I think they might have hats, too.” She’d looked at a catalog once, and the varieties of spoons listed were just mind-boggling to her. A spoon was just a spoon, right? “I’ll help you look, I promise.”

Meggan poked the pancake, before grinning over her shoulder at Molly. “Once you get your hat on, you can flip this pancake. I think it’s nearly ready for that.” It seemed to be turning brown on that side, so now was the perfect time for flipping.

Molly got to actually flip the pancake? She really was a big fan of this idea, which made her search for the hat even more dedicated and frantic until she started tossing things out of the cabinets: table cloths, napkins, a ladle, a couple of dish towels....

"I can't find the hat and I want to flip the pancakes!" she proclaimed.

A hat wouldn’t be tucked away in a drawer. It wouldn’t fit if the top were large enough. Meggan knew there was an old ‘Kiss the Cook’ apron, because she had seen it once. A hat might be with that. But not in one of the lower cabinets?

“And flip, you will,” Meggan laughed as she made room for Molly to join her. She would start to gather everything that had been tossed, while Molly flipped. “You start flipping, and I’ll get to rummaging through the kitchen closet in the back? Maybe something was shoved in there by accident.”

Eventually Molly was stacking various unused appliances and supplies on the ground beside her, small enough to practically climb into the cabinets. Her bright blue slippers wiggled back and forth as she rummaged.

"Oooh, cookies!" Molly said as she held up a bag of Hydrox Sandwich Cookies.

Meggan hadn’t seen that brand in the kitchen before, and almost did a double take as she caught sight of the expiration date printed on the edge of the bag. She took a closer look before shaking her head with an apologetic grin. “I love cookies, too…but I don’t like them when they might have a life of their very own. Look at this date, Molly, they’re ancient cookies. They’re 2002 cookies. They've had a very long life for cookies.”

Why hadn’t anyone managed to devour them back then? Who forgot about cookies, and could this be the world record for how long cookies just sat there? After a moment, Meggan gently suggested, “Maybe hunt for a bag of Oreo’s instead? Unless somebody ate them all, I saw them yesterday. After we eat the pancakes and watch the sun come up, we can come back and grab a handful of those?”

"Hot chocolate AND pancakes AND oreos?" Molly said, wearing an astonished grin as she poked her head out from the cabinet. She was the best roommate/adult person ever.

She pondered Meggan's earlier comment. "So they're wise?" she said. If they had a very long life, did that mean they were smart cookies? Was that what that meant? She didn't think cookies had brains. It seemed silly.

Meggan nodded. “Yep, all three,” she confirmed. Wise cookies could be scary cookies. “Only if they’ve grown a brain, too, in the last 8 years,” Meggan joked. “Mostly very, very sick, and they’d make us very sick. Or they’re just hard enough to hurt a tooth.” If they had grown a brain, she hoped they wouldn’t try to take over the mansion.

Meggan trailed her finger along the package, leaving a streak in the dust where it had been. “The cookies could be dust now, too. One good shake, and poof. Just powder with some cookie chunks.” She wouldn’t mention the possibility of some kind of bug.

She shook the dust off her finger, and checked the pancakes again, hurriedly turning them before they could get a chance to burn. “They’re perfect to flip now, if you’re ready to try.”

Molly's thought about petrified oreos, running around with a syringe laughing manically were quickly dispelled by five words: they're perfect to flip now.

"Cool!" she said, ready to take the spatula when offered.

"Hey, maybe we can have pizza tonight? Then we can flip dough up in the air! Hmmm...what else can you flip..."

Meggan handed Molly the spatula, giving her plenty of room to work. “I think omelets could be flipped, but you have to have a knack for it. Burgers can be flipped.”

“I’m not so great at flipping pizza dough,” Meggan admitted. “I think it lands on me more than in my hands…but with you there as an extra pair to catch, maybe it’d work a little bit better. We could try. See if we can make a pizza. If it all goes wrong somehow, we clean up fast as we can and order out?” There was bound to be some shredded cheese in the refrigerator, and canned tomato sauce somewhere. She could look up the exact amount of time for cooking a pizza.

"Yeah...people mess up a lot on pizza in the movies. But we could practice," Molly said, nodding as she grabbed the spatula and slid it under the pancake, picking it up off the skillet.

Pausing a moment, she looked to Meggan quizzically. "Um... now what?"

“Now, you very gently flip it up with the spatula, like this,” Meggan said as she mimed the motion with her wrist to clarify. “And then you catch it with the skillet. Just be careful not to let it go too high.” As long as it didn’t miss the skillet when it came back down, they wouldn’t be out of one pancake.

“Just flip it as many times as you think it needs a good flip, and I think that’s really all there is to it unless it’s not done,” Meggan advised. Someone somewhere must have thought staring at a skillet and turning something was dull if they didn’t flip their food high up into the air. They were smart. “Grab a plate after that and breakfast’s ready.”

Molly nodded in affirmation. "Right!" she said, squinting in concentration. She extended her hand to get the pancake to flip off of the spatula, but whenever it started to come down, she misjudged the angle. The result was almost in slow motion.

"Noooo...!" Molly said as she dropped the spatula and tried to catch the pancake with her hands reflexively.

“Oh! No, no, don’t grab it, too hot,” Meggan breathlessly warned as she simultaneously tried to catch it with the skillet. She had remained close, just in case Molly needed a helping hand with that first flip.

Half of it ended up draped in the safety of the pan moments before it would have reached the floor, the other half in danger of falling out for a second time until she could get to a spatula. It was mostly done, and therefore not dripping on anything, and she was in a rather awkward looking half-crouched, half-seated position. Meggan’s main concern, however, was Molly. “You didn’t burn yourself, did you? You’re okay?”

Molly peered at Meggan, hands still outstretched, since the whole incident happened within seconds. She closed her hands, then nodded.

"Slippery little bugger," she said sheepishly, using a phrase she heard somewhere. She extended her hand to Meggan in case she needed help.

"Sorry. I didn't want it to fall on the ground. Then it'd get gross stuff on it."

“Very slippery,” Meggan agreed. She realized it was a good thing she had grabbed the skillet with the hand holding the oven mitt, or that might have really hurt. She accepted the hand up, watching that pancake as she got back to her feet to make sure it wouldn’t dare to slip over the side. “Thanks. It’s okay. I just didn’t want you getting burned. Piping hot pancake might hurt.”

”Yeah,” Meggan grinned. “We really don’t need lint sticking to it when it’s only just moments from being delicious on a plate.”

Molly nodded with whole-hearted agreement, not too bothered since she wasn't burned AND the pancake was saved. Still...

"Yeah...eww." She didn't know how dogs ate stuff off the floor.

"Let's do some more! I'll be more careful this time!"

That more than summed it up. Dust bunnies on food were definitely ew for everybody.

Meggan nodded, willing to make more even at the slight risk of accidental pancake slinging. Everything was back on the safety of the stove now. “Three more sound good to you? That way, we each have two, and still have time to eat them, and get ourselves hot chocolate before the sun comes up.” It was good that sunrise was a little bit later in the winter. It meant they had some time.

She walked over to the mini bar and hopped up on the seat, propping her chin in her hands. "Can I watch you do one, though?" she said.

"I wanna make sure I do it right."

“Sure you can watch,” Meggan assured her as she got started on making the next one. “Then you can try again with the one after this. If you think you want to?” Once the second pancake was ready, she could try to flip it as slowly as humanly possible, so Molly could get every move down when it was her turn.

As Meggan worked Molly tried her hardest to pay attention but the thick wall of fatigue that she had been keeping back was finally busted when her body caught up with her mind in the realization that she was happy and safe.

So when Meggan turned around, she found Molly fast asleep on the counter, her chin still rested in her hands. Her pirate mask had started to come loose and was falling halfway off, giving her only one eye hole through the mask.

Meggan looked over, a question of whether or not Molly even more chocolate in this one dying on her lips. She resolved to just make the rest of the batch as quietly as she could so as not to disturb her. Molly needed the sleep, and she didn’t seem to be having any nightmares from what Meggan could tell just from looking at her face.

Once everything was finally finished being made, she leaned over and gently shook Molly’s shoulder. She was in position to grab her arm in case she happened to slide off her perch. “Oh, Molly,” Meggan whispered. “Breakfast is ready, so you need to wake up if you think you can. You don’t want me to have to eat it all by myself, do you?” She hoped the promise of food would wake her, as her own stomach chose that moment to make its emptiness known.

Molly's eyes fluttered open, the words 'breakfast' coupled with the heavenly smell helping to wake her up a little more.

"Oh...pancakes..." she murmured before sitting up, nodding as she stifled a yawn. She reached up to take off her mask but left the hat on.

"I don't need to be Princess Powerful right now cause everyone'd know it was me."

She peered at the pancakes with a broad smile.

"Those are beau-ti-ful pancakes," she said, nodding.

“Now we’ll see if they taste as incredible as you think they look,” Meggan teased as she put Molly’s share on a plate, placing it in front of her, before getting her own.

“Next time we make pancakes, it’ll be a time that isn’t very early morning, ” Meggan offered, before taking the first bite. “So I can show how I flipped these, if you want.”

“Do you want regular pancake syrup…or this chocolate syrup drizzled on top of the baked in chocolate chips? Because we could try that, see how you like it. I found it while you were sleeping.” She held up the bottle for Molly.

Molly tapped her chin thoughtfully, though there wasn't too much time between ponderings and her answer: "Chocolate syrup please!" she said.

"Next time we can put fruit in it maybe? Strawberries are good!"

She liked to try new stuff a lot.

“Chocolate syrup coming up. Tell me when you think it’s enough,” Meggan warned as she started liberally drizzling the pancakes. She had a feeling the cut off point might just be when the chocolate outweighed the pancake.

Meggan tilted her head to think that over, barely needing a moment. “When they’re in season, sometime in the spring, with fresh little slices of them all over? That sounds delicious, we have to do that,” she agreed.

Molly squinted as Meggan squeezed, waiting until the pancake was completely saturated before holding up her hands. "Now!" she said.

MMmmm chocolate.

"Yes! And LOTS of whipped cream!" It would be like strawberry shortpancakes!

Meggan grinned, creating a huge mound of whipped cream in the middle of Molly’s pancakes. It didn’t even take a second thought for her to do the same to her own. “If you can find the pancakes under all the chocolate and whipped cream, then early bird breakfast is served,” she said with a laugh.

Meggan realized she had almost forgotten the chocolate milk, pouring each of them a tall, cold glass once she had retrieved it from the refrigerator.

Molly peered down at the glass, then the pancakes, then the glass, then the pancakes and let out a sigh of contentment.

"Awesome," she said as she picked up her fork and started to dig in, taking a huge bite of the chocolate-and-whipped-cream-laden concoction that left her face completely dirty.

"Thanfoo meggn! if rill gud!" she said between mouthfuls.

This would be a very, very messy exercise if chocolate and whipped cream covered both their faces, as well as their pajamas. Just in case, Meggan grabbed a dozen or so paper towels. Before she took a first bite, was amused to observe Molly’s face accumulating more and more chocolate and whipped cream, and casually slid some of the towels her way.

“You like it, then? I’m glad they were worth getting up extra early for,” she said as she took her own first bite. “Mmm. I did get it right, didn’t I? Not bad,” she murmured with more than a hint of relief.

Molly nodded with a huge, messy grin as devoured her super awesome pancakes.

"Thanks!" she said after taking the napkin, wiping off her face as best she could. But chocolate was persistent and while the whipped cream was wiped away, most of the chocolate syrup and chocolate chips still remained.

“No problem. If those napkins don’t help you,” Meggan said between bites, “then try sticking your face under the faucet.” She couldn’t help the tiny giggle at all the stuff clinging to Molly’s face. “Or just make the napkins wet. That’s probably easier.”

"The faucet might be kinda hard. I'll do the napkins!" she said as she hopped off the barstool and headed to the sink to run the water. She watched the white napkin turn darker as the water made it wet.

"Thank you for staying up with me," she said quietly.

“You’re welcome, and it's fine,” Meggan replied. “You know...you can always wake me up if you have a nightmare again and need some company, if you need to. I won’t be angry, remember that,” she offered seriously. She might be groggy for a few minutes, but she couldn’t be mad at Molly. It wasn’t her fault. And it was never fun to deal with nightmares alone.