"Poppy, let's use star-shaped, heart-shaped, and flower-shaped cookie cutters," Art exclaimed happily.
Fluke was having a rare day off and he was spending it babysitting Art, Kao's five-year-old son.
Earth and Kao had a major fight and were refusing to speak to each other.
In the end, Fluke was so fed up with their we-love-each-other-but-we-can't-be-together stage and had locked the two up together so that they would sit down and talk to each other. This was not the first time he had seen the couple going through this phase.
Even as a bystander, Fluke found the situation extremely frustrating.
Poor Art was the one suffering the burn from the lack of communication between the pair.
Fluke felt bad for the little kid who was being dragged into the whole situation.
Looking at the cheerful child in front of him, Fluke smiled.
"We will do what Art wants."
Fluke's reply made Art clap his hands happily.
Fluke and Art were baking some cookies.
Art was a big fan of Fluke's baking.
"Poppy, how long do we have to wait to take this out of the oven?" Art asked as he watched Fluke who was sprinkling coco chips over the cookie dough in the tray.
Poppy was the nickname by which Art addressed Fluke.
Somehow, Art had started calling Earth Papa for some reason. When Earth introduced Fluke to the kid, he had called Fluke 'Lung', which didn't sit well with Fluke.
Fluke felt that he was too young to be called 'Lung'. But he was the same age as Earth, so he couldn't ask the kid to call him Phi. Hence he came up with the word Poppy, a combination of brother and uncle.
As someone close to both Kao and Earth, it didn't feel out of place when the kid started calling him 'Poppy'.
"The cookies will be done before the girls get here," Fluke said glancing at the wall clock.
"Then, can I watch cartoons till it's time?" Art asked expectedly.
Fluke smiled and nodded.
The girls were Boun's twin nieces.
After Prem and Boun had reconciled with each other, they often took care of the two girls together.
Today, Boun was out of town and Prem was not good at handling two kids at a time, so he had sought out Fluke's help.
Fluke was happy to help as he adored the two little girls.
Art settled down on the couch hugging Earth's favourite unicorn plushie.
Fluke put on some cartoons for him before making his way back to the kitchen which was a mess from the flour fight Art and he had earlier.
Cleaning the kitchen of the leftover flour, Fluke sat on the counter-height bar stool.
It had been almost a month since Ohm left. He hadn't contacted Fluke all this while. No face timing, no phone calls and not even a text message. Fluke had asked around to Boun, Yacht, Kao, Dream and anyone whom he could think of to get news about Ohm's whereabouts. But, none of them had any idea about it.
Fluke often got the feeling that both Boun and Kao knew some but were unwilling to let him know.
Since Ohm had told him that he was leaving for some family business, Fluke decided not to dig into it.
If Fluke was to say that he didn't miss the big clingy bear, he would be lying. He missed Ohm. He missed Ohm a lot.
During the two months before Ohm's departure, the two had been inseparable.
They texted, called and face timed every day despite their busy schedule. Now, Ohm leaving Fluke with none of those was torture for the latter.
Fluke's thoughts were interrupted by the oven alarm.
Taking the freshly baked cookies out of the oven, he put them on the countertop to cool down.
Fluke transferred a few star-shaped cookies to a plate and took them to Art. He knew that Art had asked to make star-shaped cookies for himself.
Seeing the cookies in front of him, Art greedily reached out.
"Be careful. They are still hot." Fluke warned the kid.
Art smiled at Fluke before picking up a cookie and blowing it cool before taking a bite.
Fluke felt that this nephew of his looked extra cute with his cheeks puffed up while he blew the cookies to cool down.
Fluke watched as the kid munched on the cookies smiling blissfully.
Fluke heard the doorbell ring.
"Prem and the girls must be here." Fluke stood up and opened the door.
His guess was right. Prem was standing in front of the door, with the non-identical twin girls on both sides.
Fluke could see that his friend was extremely tired and drained from his face.
"Poppy" the girls called out happily, leaving Prem's grip and running to Fluke and hugging his each leg.
The girls had followed their elder cousin, Art's way of addressing him as 'Poppy'.
Fluke was happy to see them. He squatted down to their heights and gave each of them a big hug.
"Poppy, P' Art told us that you guys were baking cookies." Lyra, the eldest among the two girls asked excitedly. Her excitement was reflected in her younger twin sister as well.
Looking at the two young girls who were eyeing him hopefully, Fluke said, "So, the two of them were excited about the cookies, and here I am thinking that the two young ladies were happy to see me." Fluke pretended to be hurt, wiping his nonexistent tears away.
"No Poppy, we are excited to see you too. We missed you so much." the girls felt a sense of crisis as they watched Fluke act.
"Did you miss me or missed my cooking?" Fluke raised his eyebrows.
"Poppy you look very handsome today." Leah, the younger twin changed the topic.
Fluke chuckled at the girl's cunning action.
"Come inside, I have already baked your favourite heart-shaped and flower-shaped cookies for you two." Fluke held the door open for the two kids.
The girls happily ran inside and sat on either side of their elder cousin chatting away.
"You have got away around with the kids don't you?" Prem chuckled as he followed Fluke in.
Fluke smiled and shook his head as he watched his friend plop himself on the couch, joining the kids to watch cartoons.
Fluke brought out a few more cookies for everyone and sat next to Prem.
Prem took a bite of the cookies and groaned. " No wonder the kids love you so much."
Before Prem could even touch another cookie, the three kids had finished them all by themselves.
"Poppy, can we have some more?" Art asked pleading with his eyes.
"Not now, it is almost lunchtime. If you eat any more cookies you wouldn't have space for lunch in your stomach." Fluke said sternly.
The three kids poured hearing Fluke's reply.