Andrew
Mel and June spent a good few moments staring at one another, puzzled, neither of them seeming to understand one another. For both of them, English was not their first language, but they didn't share another which they might use instead, so they were forced to make do. It was worth it, but it did make for a rather awkward situation. 

"Potions!" Mel confirmed, a cautious and uncertain dint to her otherwise confident tone. She forced herself to think. Sometimes thinking was important, apparently. 

As she thought, her eyes met June's. The moment was mesmerizing - it felt a little awkward, certainly, but not in a bad way...? Either way, it stopped her train of thought dead in its tracks.

Her eyes shifted away at the exact same time as June's. She forced a giggle as well. She was hardly at ease, but she was more at ease than she would've been with someone else. "Yeah," She agreed, "It's not mine either. I'm better at French."

An idle glance at the batter got her back on track. "But, um, it's not that! We added everything already. It's..."

How should she put this? Her head was starting to hurt a little from all the thinking. Even though she hadn't thought of just actually *Saying* The thing in French and hoping June could infer. That might've worked better, if the thought actually crossed her mind. 

"It's, like, splitting smaller bits of dough away from the big ball of dough! So we get a bunch of normal sized cookies and not one giant cookie. We still have to do that!"
Joel
The tension in June's eyebrows relaxed when Mel actually started explaining what the two of them had to do. It was so *Obvious.* June placed a hand to their face, covering one of their eyes in dramatic embarrassment. A flush crept up their cheeks, tinting them pink. 

"Right, that makes sense." June said, in a softer tone than usual. "I should've known."

They found themselves softly laughing for a second or two to fill the empty space, a bad habit of June's. They reached their arm over the counter and grabbed the mixing bowl. June practically bounced and jingled over to the oven. They stood in front of the parchment lined cookie tray and looked over their shoulder at Mel. 

"Do you want to help me make the potions?" June teased. A playful smirk on their features, before they giggled and returned to facing their gaze forward.

The bowl was placed beside the tray on Mels side, so if she did decide to help she would be closer. June reached into the bowl and grabbed about a tablespoon of cookie dough, making sure to get equal amounts of gummy worms and chocolate in each scoop. They rolled the mixture in their palm to make small balls, and pressed them flat to the tray once they were done.

June didn't space them out all that much, but more dough on the tray meant more cookies right?
Andrew
Mel got a sense that she maybe didn't get the right word. Normally, the embarrassment wouldn't get to her - but that was the *Thing* About June. Mel was more genuine - and consequently, less guarded - around June, and suddenly, the embarrassment of having gotten that wrong actually managed to get to her head...

...And to her cheeks, turning them a delightful shade of amaranth pink. She giggled, letting some of the tension dissipate, and tried to ground herself.

"O-oh," She practically stammered out, still getting her bearings, "Yeah, sounds great!" She rushed to June's side, grabbing a similar amount of dough to June and rolling it between her palms, and suddenly, it was as though the embarrassing mistake had never been made at all.

Little did she know, as she spaced the cookies far too close, that more embarrassing mistakes were being made by the second. If the two of them could even stand to look the other in the eye after this evening, they probably already qualified as the very best of friends.

For now, though, cookies! There were gonna be so many. It was gonna be great.
Joel
June felt at ease around Mel. Having her by their side, just laughing and rolling dough, it felt as if all their worries disappeared. June didn't have to worry if they were too annoying or loud. Jokes and bad ideas floated around them in a comfortable cloud, June could feel nothing but happiness here. 

They continued to work the dough into small balls, and with Mel's help it went quicker than if June had done it by themselves. Within minutes, the bowl was empty and the tray was packed full of chocolate gummy worm cookies. The oven beeped, perfect timing, and June put the cookies inside. 

They brushed their hands together in accomplishment and looked over at Mel. A cherry-picked smile rested softly on June's features. 

"We make a pretty good team, don't we?" June winked and nudged Mel in the shoulder with their elbow, it was light and playful. A tint of pink lingered on their cheeks. They laughed a little and then pulled out their phone to set a timer.

"The cookies will be done in... 10 minutes!" They beamed. "Wanna hear about the last time I tried to make cookies in the meantime?" 

June looked excited to share their embarrassing story, but wouldn't start unless Mel wanted to hear.
Andrew
Whenever Mel spent time with people, she'd spend the whole time thinking. She'd think about what to say. She'd think about how to react. She'd *Think* About how to *Feel.* It was difficult and tiring. Back home, she'd done it out of necessity. At Newton's Cradle, she realized it was *Habit.*

But with June, she dropped the habit. Something about June's particularly in-your-face appearance and demeanor had shocked Mel out of her own head - and she'd found that the right words, reactions and feelings came to her naturally.

That was... Nice. Spending time with June was nice. Uncomplicated.

The feeling of an elbow hitting Mel's shoulder elicited a merry chuckle. "Yeah! I bet we could do anything if we wanted to." She was beaming. Things were good.

*10 minutes.* Mel nodded in acknowledgement, throwing a furtive glance at the clock, subconsciously drawn by the mention of minutes. The time was 10:32. Mel nodded again. "Yeah! But, like, uh... It's like 30 minutes after curfew already. We should, like, go somewhere else with the cookies once they're done. I really wanna hear your story, though!"
Joel
June followed Mel's gaze over to the clock, it *Was* After curfew. They scowled, despite not feeling particularly mad, before pulling their mouth back into a relaxed smile. June couldn't care for rules or control. They were an avid hater of curfew and broke it whenever possible. However, it seemed to matter to Mel so June could play along for her sake. 

"Ah yeah, I would offer my dorm but Amelie said I should stay out of it for a while. Something... Medical." June waved their hand in a circle, almost as if they were dragging the words out of their head. "Its no problem though, just a bit of an inconvenience at moments like these." They felt themselves force a smile after their words, and give a particularly wry laugh. 

It was difficult being roommates with Amelie, but not for the reason she was so keen on pushing. June was less worried about her condition and more worried about the fact Amelie seemed to be actively avoiding them. June felt something, inky and black, seep into their brain. They dismissed the thought almost immediately, right now Mel was the priority and so was remaining happy. It wasn't the time to think about their troubles. 

June turned their gaze and started to tuck away ingredients. Moving their hands from one thing to another, it was a good distraction.

"I can clean up in the meantime and by the time i'm done, the cookies should be as well!" Grabbing a cloth, they started to wipe up the spilt flour and cookie dough. "Then I can tell you my wacky story." They giggled and turned their attention back to cleaning.
Andrew
Mel was no more fond of the curfew than June was. Not at all. However, she figured the night guard might steal their cookies, and cookies mattered more than breaking the rules out of spite - not least because they were June's cookies.

"My dorm, then!" Mel nodded, still beaming. "I don't have a roommate or anything, so there shouldn't be a problem. I call dibs on carrying the cookies!" She was still beaming, still in the same safe, downy cloud of happiness when she noticed - saw, heard - something, something she wished she didn't.

A little twitch in the corner of June's smiling lips, a sharp tone in their laugh. *June was like her,* Mel realized. They had the same cheery optimism, the same bright smile... And the same tendency to hide their true feelings when they didn't fall in line with the image they wanted to project.

Still, it seemed like the cleaning was providing a good distraction. June seemed decently happy again. Mel couldn't quite tell if it was a front, but even if it was, trying to interrupt whatever June was doing probably wouldn't help - so, instead, Mel decided to help distract some other day.

"Hey, did I tell you about the new place I found in town? We need to go sometime, it's really cool! If you go down to the train station and across to the other side of the tracks where there isn't any road, you can walk along the grass by the track for a bit and there's some old railway cars where they've set up a little café! I don't think a lot of people know about it, which is good 'cause there isn't a lot of space in there, but it's still really cool!"
Joel
"Sure! We can go to your dorm." June felt themselves light up a little. "Ive never been there so it'll be fun."

June continued to clean, making sure the kitchen was tidied up properly. They had a bad habit of being rather messy, but always knew to clean up afterwards. As June kept moving, Mel talked about her new findings. June paused for a second to give her their undivided attention.

"Really? That sounds so cool!" Their voice already returning to its normal sugary sweet tones. "We definitely need to go together sometime. It'll be a good way to spend an afternoon. I've always loved cafés." The thought of going to a cafe with Mel again already made them feel better. 

June spoke as they moved through the kitchen. They tucked various tools back into drawers, and it didn't take long for the kitchen to look back to new. Except for... The cookie dough on the ceiling. June looked up at it, and thought carefully. *"Carefully"* Might be an overstatement, because as soon as they got an idea they were going to put it into action.

"Hey, have you ever seen my powers?" They looked at Mel, June clearly had an idea.
Andrew
"Yeah, it'll be fun!" Mel agreed. As June moved around the kitchen, it got systematically tidier - at a far slower pace in the moment, but it would probably be quicker for June overall. Mel would usually just hide all the dirty implements and then clean them later, or put them in the dishwasher, or something.

Mel was smiling, but still observing June closely. June seemed to be getting happier again as they talked about the café. That was good. Mel could rest easy again.

"Yeah, me too. It's really pretty out there, too. It's, like, a green area in the middle of the city, so it sorta looks overgrown? I'm really glad I found it, it's super cool."

Mel's eyes followed June's, onto the ceiling. There was cookie dough up there. Mel could get there - no issue - but... June wanted to, so she shook her head. "No, I don't think so..." Her eyes lit up. "Are you gonna show me?"
Joel
June gave Mel a smile, one that definitely looked like they were about to do something cool. Or at least, June *Thought* They were going to do something cool. They didn't have the time to think if it actually was.

"Yeah, watch this." 

June focused for a moment, and felt the buzz of the kitchen fade into the background. They lifted up their arm, and turned to the side, remaining focused. Slowly, June's arm started to stretch and a figure started to take form. A head turned off of Junes, pulling their features into two. The strands connecting them broke and with the lowering of June's arm, the identical clone was standing directly beside them. A dull dead look on its features.

The clone stood there, almost as if it was awaiting command. The expressionless look was quite stark in comparison to June's bright excited smile.

"Isn't it cool?" June squealed. "Ive been practicing." They announced, proudly.

Without a word from June, the clone got down on one knee and held its hands outwards like a stepping ladder. June grabbed a paper towel and placed their platformed shoes into the palms of their clone. It was a solid hold, and with a quick movement June was lifted up towards the ceiling by their duplicate. 

June got the dough off the ceiling, and hopped off of their clones hands. They landed on the ground with a very loud thump, and managed not to fall. 

"Look, I can make it smile." The clone lowered its hands, and smiled. If you could even call *That* A smile. Its lips stretched too far upwards and its eyes were dead and terrifying. If anything it wasn't welcoming, but June seemed overly excited about its *Progress.*

June laughed at their own display, and gave a dramatic bow before snapping their fingers like an unhinged showman. 

The clone disappeared into a cloud of pink smoke, a sudden poof of glitter and sparkles. Just as quickly as the cloud came, it left and so did the clone.
_ _

"Its really useful I think." June looked at the timer they set on their phone. "Oh! The cookies should be done soon! Perfect timing!"
Andrew
Mel watched intently as June began elongating, another them literally splitting away from their body as if by mitosis. Not that Mel would actually know what mitosis even is. She just watched as one June became two, though one wasn't quite like the other - in that it looked emotionless, dead inside. Mel could relate to that. She felt like chuckling, but she held that in.

As June gushed and the clone moved, Mel found herself just... Staring. She wasn't *Afraid* - the dead eyes were certainly the kind of thing that would scare some people, but if anything, Mel found them oddly relatable. No, it was something else. Something that kept her focus firmly glued to the clone of June, as opposed to the actual June gushing about said clone.

As June stepped up to the ceiling, kept aloft by the clone, Mel said nothing. As they cleaned and got back down, Mel said nothing. As the clone smiled in a way very much unlike how any human would, Mel said nothing. And as the clone disappeared in a puff of smoke, Mel said nothing.

Something deep in Mel's eyes had ignited at the display. It wasn't fear, or hatred. It was nothing like that. It wasn't even particularly *Directed* At the clone - no, it was something about Mel herself, something that the clone had merely brought to the front of Mel's mind.

As the clone was gone, Mel slowly regained her senses. She nodded, trying her best to be enthusiastic even though she had barely registered anything. "Yeah, it's cool!" She's sure she would've said more than that, if she knew what to say. "C'mon, let's get the cookies out before the night guard shows up and eats them all."

She laughed. It was forced.