GOTHAM: BEYOND EVIL || Damienette

30 - The Soy Sauce Sabotage

It was Pancake Day.

Damian explained that every year, on July 7th, the Waynes would gather in the kitchen of the Manor and make pancakes. It was also a competition, since this house never seemed to run without it.

Jason and Stephanie, Tim and Barbara, Damian and Jon, Dick and Bruce.

Alfred and Selena were supposed to judge, so they ditched the house and went to give company to Jon's grandparents. Apparently, Jon's grandparents lived in Kansas, so I wonder how they would get here soon.

For the past 4 years, Damian and Jon were winning the competition, since they were the only ones who even bothered to step in the kitchen on normal days. It wasn't really surprising.

Lila and the others left early in the morning to continue with the tour as planned. The squad stayed back, and joined the competition. The couples split and were busy making pancakes, and unlike the Waynes, it was going pretty smoothly.

After all, they learned from the best.

This was not all of it, apparently. Dick's family was coming from Bludhaven this weekend. And so was Cassandra Cane, another member of the Bat family. So let's say Dick was working extra hard to impress his wife.

But extra, apparently, means flipping the pancake so high, it got stuck to the ceiling.

"MARI, GET IN HERE!" screamed Stephanie, still struggling with the pancake flour. And suddenly, I was part of the mess. About 10 hands reached out to grab me. Jon had grabbed me first, pulling me over to a stove which was set up on the dining table.

There were a series of groans and 'We've lost already' from Alya and Adrien. But first, I was now part of Jon and Damian's team. Of course, there were a few oppositions, but Damian's scream of 'First come, first serve.' shut them up.

It was a war zone in there.

Flour flew around, getting in everyone's hair, Dick's sticky pancakes fell on Jason, and Barbara even set her hair on fire. But our work was going fine. Jon made the batter, I made the pancakes, and Damian poured syrup and plated them.

An hour and a half later, a scream broke through the tense atmosphere.

"THERE ARE ONLY 20 MINUTES LEFT!" screamed Stephanie, her blonde hair now gold with maple syrup. "SO WHAT?!" screamed back Dick, throwing some actually cooked pancakes on a few plates.

"ALFRED WILL BE BACK ANY MINUTE-"

The house went silent. The Waynes stared at each other in worry with their mouths open. The only sound you could hear was the sizzling of the pancakes on the stove which Dick had left on, the food now completely burnt on one side.

Only, this silence was the calm before the storm.

Everyone's brains then went into overdrive as Jason and Tim scrambled to get the cleaning tools. Almost immediately, the game had been called into a truce as everyone switched off the stoves and ran to clean up the Manor.

Some rubbed the tiles, some rubbed the stoves, some took care of the trash and some washed the dishes. Even the ceiling fell victim to the cleaning schemes.

In barely minutes, the house was clean. So clean, it looked like no one had lived there for years. The next few minutes were spent on plating and decorating everyone's dishes, carrying them to the dining room one by one.

Plates were neatly arranged on the long dining table, and whoever finished, ran up to their respective rooms to take a quick shower.

Damian's team was one of the first to finish.