Heart of Steel ~ Winn Schott

Extra Brownie Points

shoutout to SoPointlessFandom for the undying support and inspiration for the brownie scene. Plus she hasn't actually read the story or seen the show but still feels for Winn almost as much as I do.

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"No Alex. You can't turn the oven to six hundred. That's not going to make the brownies bake in five minutes."

Kara snatched Alex's tray from her hands on her way to the fridge, not trusting her to keep a safe distance from the hot things.

"But Kara, that's how that works. The hotter the temperature, the faster it cooks."

"If by cooks you mean burns to a crisp and catches on fire, then yeah. You'd be right," Frankie explained, dicing a handful of almonds before dropping them into her own batter.

"You know, sometimes I wonder how Alex ever eats at home," Winn said, sliding his glass from the sink end of the counter to the other and plopping down at the seat in front of Frankie.

"Trust me Winn, you haven't seen the half of it." Kara deposited Alex's tray back in front of her, pointing a finger threateningly, and returned to her own station with the milk.

Once a year, Frankie, Kara and Alex all went head to head in what Kara had playfully dubbed, 'The Danvers Family Masterchef'. It was probably the single event in her entire calendar that Frankie looked forward to more than Christmas.

She'd asked politely if this year the competition be held in her apartment rather than Kara's, but Kara had refused. Something about you'll know the terrain better if we do it there, and, I get that you're trying to make Winn think you're cool, but you'll destroy us anyway, at least do it with some decency.

Despite that, this year felt different. It could've been the fact that it was the first time doing it with the knowledge that the city could fall apart again at any moment, at least for everyone except Alex considering that she'd been with that mentality for years in secret. It might have also been that they still had the thought of Jeremiah and Hank hanging over their heads.

But this year, the day felt more necessary than ever. It served as a much-needed break from all the alien-fighting mayhem and the repetitive mundane-ness of their normal, human lives. Plus, Kara's powers still hadn't come back - wouldn't come back until she got some kind of adrenaline rush if Winn was correct - and she needed a way to not think about it.

"I still don't see why we can't just put weed in them," Alex muttered, turning the oven to a more appropriate three hundred and fifty degrees and sliding her tray in straight away.

"Because that's against the rules of Danvers Masterchef. Not to mention it's against the law and I don't think Winn would really appreciate it."

Kara only had three rules for the day:

1. Alex was only allowed near knives and stoves under the correct supervision.

2. There was to be no alcohol (or drugs) in use of any dish. This rule was pardoned if the substance was evaporated during the cooking process.

3. There were to be no dishes that contained any form of crab or crab substitute.

The last one was only there because Frankie was wildly allergic to crab. No one actually had enough money to use real crab in their Danvers Masterchef pieces, but it had been added out of solidarity and acknowledgment of the issue.

Since Kara and Frankie were objectively better chefs than Alex and they knew that ovens should be preheated to the proper temperature before use, they were left waiting for the single oven they had at hand to heat up while Alex started cleaning up her considerable mess.