First, they break the eggs into a bowl. Mama lets Dean do that part, and she laughs when it explodes, covering him in a gooey mess. Mama stirs up the parts that actually made it into the bowl, and then Dean smushes a chunk of butter in the pan.

Mama lets Dean turn the dial so that the stove heats up, but she won’t let him mess with anything else until after the eggs are cooked.

Dean gets to push the bread into the toaster and turn it on, and pick out the jelly, too. He chooses strawberry, ‘cause that’s Mama’s favorite.

He settles down to watch the toaster while Mama portions out the eggs onto plates. When the toast pops up, Dean tries to grab it, but Mama catches him and grabs it herself.

She butters the toast, but lets Dean slather the jelly onto the bread. She asks him to carry the bowl of sliced strawberries to the table and sets his plate of toast and eggs at his place. He waits until she’s settled their cups of milk (chocolate, for him) and her own plate of breakfast, and then she tells him to pick out the strawberries he wants.

Daddy’s asleep because he had the late shift again, so Mama sets aside some for him.

“And now, baby boy,” Mama says, “let’s eat.”

He doesn’t wait for the prayer, because Mama doesn’t pray. Daddy does, sometimes, but Mama hardly ever does, even though there’s an angel in Dean’s room.

The angel says his name is Michael, and that he and Dean will be best friends one day.

Mama smiles at him from across the table; Dean knows his mama is the most beautiful woman in the world.

'We're just a breathing, walking cliche, aren't we?' John asked. He and Johnny were sprawled over Johnny's bed, a bowl of Quark filled hot peppers between them.
'Next thing you know I'll upgrade to a red and orange uniform.'
Johnny snickered and popped another hot pepper into his mouth.
'I'll tell your sister to dye your suit red, too.' John said maliciously but with a grin: 'I bet Ben would love that.'
Johnny, still chewing, swatted at John before he swallowed and complained:
'Man, I can't believe how much the others like you. Especially since you're, you know, a supervillain.'
John rolled his eyes:
'Please, this isn't Star Wars. Joining the Dark Side doesn't equal cravings for world domination and sociopathy.' He ate another hot pepper, which, different to JOhnny, didn't stop him from talking:
'And it's not like the Fantastic Four and the Brotherhood will ever face each other in battle. You're not even mutants. And Mags is all for being friends with those people you fight on the battlefield. He says it decreases the number of killed mutants when we fight with the X-Men.'
'Bobby too?' Johnny grinned cheekily.
'Bobby is my ex-boyfriend who cheated on me. That makes him an exception.' John licked some quark from his fingers: 'But hey; Erik understands that. He and Xavier had some rough times too.'
Johnny choked on his hot pepper, manged to swallow and coughed heavily.
'Don't die on me.' John told him, while beating on Johnny's back: 'Your family wouldn't forgive me. Also we didn't have sex yet. Well,' he amended: 'At least not since breakfast.'
'Magneto and Xavier?' Johnny asked incrediously: 'Seriously?'
'Everyone knows that.' John grabbed the last hot pepper and bit into it, closing his eyes to fully appreciate the difference between the hot chili and the thick quark.
'What about Mystique?'
'Mystique's a lesbian.'
'Is there anyone who isn't queer in your Brotherhood?'
'Technically Mags is only m half-queer since he has three kids and a dead wife.'
'Oh.' Johnny looked a bit surprised at that while his hand searched the bowl blindly for another hot pepper. He glared at John:
'You took the last one, didn't you?' John, still chewing the rest of the last one, tried to affect a look of pure innocence. He held the bowl out to John:
'You took the last one, you get refill.'
'I bet you don't make Spiderman go for refills.' John grumbled.
'Spiderman isn't my boyfriend.' Johnny laughed and threw a small fireball at John: 'Noow go.'
John did go, but not before using Johnny's fireball to burn Flamingly Queer into the wall over Johnny's bed.

Warning! Possibility of spoilers up to the episode "Amy's Choice"! Proceed at your own risk!




Jelly Baby

When Amy Pond stepped out of the TARDIS and onto the surface of an alien planet for the second time in her life, she hadn't really know what to expect. The first time, she'd encountered murderous angel statues that had almost killed her before falling to their deaths – no, their un-existances – through the crack that used to be in her bedroom wall. So she'd theorised that things couldn't really go much worse this time around.

The last thing that she expected was a welcoming party.

Especially not a welcoming party that instantly set about crowning her as Queen and throwing a spectacular banquet in her honour.

All things considered, it seemed like an improvement. But if travelling with the Doctor had taught Amy anything, it had taught her that appearances are nothing.

It was quite nice wearing a crown, though.

She was sat at the centre of a rather spectacular table – a structure carved from a humongous piece of smooth, shiny rock that was darker than any other rock she'd seen in her life – with Rory, as her "consort", to her right; the Doctor, at her insistence, to her left; and the strangest spread of foods before the three of them that Amy had seen since a strange man in a blue box had crashed into her garden before eating fish-custard in her kitchen.

But still, everything was going well until the desserts came along.

Oh. Oh God.

She leant over to the Doctor and hissed in his ear, "What is that?"

"What?"

"That. It... looks like a baby!"

"Oh, that. It's a jelly baby."

"It's moving."

It looked real. By God it looked real. It looked like somebody had just taken a human baby, maybe two or three weeks old, and plonked it on a plate with a garnish of mint. Its face was contorted in silent crying and its plump little fists were waving gently through the air.

"You've got to eat it."

"What?"

"It's part of the crowning ceremony. Just eat the baby and it'll all be over and we can leave."

The idea made Amy feel a little bit sick.

"I can't. It's a baby!"

"If you don't, they're going to throw you in a volcano."

"I can't eat a baby."

"It's a great big jelly baby. Don't you like jelly babies?"

"Not when they're looking at me."

"On this planet it's a delicacy." He snapped off one of the baby's gently waving hands and popped it into his mouth. "Mm. Have a taste."

Amy's response was short, explosive and considered in most circles to be reasonably obscene. The response to that of their hosts was not positive.

The reign of Queen Amelia Pond came to a very abrupt end when she, Rory and the Doctor were forced to flee for their lives from the group of angry, offended locals, escaping in the TARDIS in the nick of time.

Better than Angels, perhaps; but when the Doctor asked for suggestions for their next destination, it didn't take her long to pick Earth.

But that was another story though, of course.

Tony grinned and went to kiss Tim's frosting covered cheek.

Tim backed away with a frown. "Tony! That's the third cake you ruined!!!"

It was true. The first was hopelessly burnt when Tony tied Tim to a chair to play 'How-long-before-Timmy-begs-to-come.'

The second never even made it to the oven when, right after Tim finished folding the egg whites into the batter, Tony lifted Tim onto the kitchen counter with a loud grunt, knocking over the bowl of cake batter.

"If you were more svelte, this would be easier!" Tony had grunted.

"If you weren't such a clumsy ass, we would have a cake for Abby's party!" Tim yelled, but then managed to get distracted by what Tony's hands were doing.

The third time, Tim had covered the cake in newly made white buttercream and had decorated the top with pink and yellow roses. He was about to write Abby's name in baby blue frosting when Tony came over, grabbed a dab of frosting with his finger from the side and tasted it.

"Not bad, McGooey Goodness!"

"Tony!! That is a disgusting habit! And now I have to smooth over that side! If you so much as touch this cake again, I'm going to-"

Of course, Tony didn't do threats well. So he grabbed an even bigger chuck of frosting and smeared it on Tim's face, then waited to see if they were headed toward hissy fit or angry!sex.

"Tony..." the slow, annoyed tone suggested hissy fit, Tony noted.

"Come on, Tim, it's just a cake!"

"But Abby's party is in an hour, Tony! That's the third cake you've ruined!" Tim looked like he was resisting punching Tony in the nose when the doorbell rang.

Tony flashed a grin and ran to get it, with Tim seeing that Tony was expecting someone.

As he wiped the excess frosting off with a paper towel, he saw Tony return to the kitchen with a large box.

A cake box.

He opened it to reveal a large sheet cake covered in black fondant, decorated with black roses, purple sugar skulls, and frosting depictions of a mass spectrometer and an electrophoresis readout.

Tim looked at the cake, then back at his own, and sighed. "Fine. Yours is way better. But you could have told me you ordered one - was it your plan to just humiliate me by ruining all my cakes?"

Tony smiled. "Of course not. The other cakes were ruined on accident. My plan all along was to get you to bake a cake so I could lick it off of every part of your body."

Tim stared, confused for a moment, then laughed. He grabbed a hunk of cake from his pink-and-yellow cake and tossed it right at Tony's face.

Tony didn't evade. He just licked a little frosting from his lips and said, "Now I have to shower before the party, McGee. I think I'm going to need some help in there."

Tim smirked. "Just for being obnoxious about it, I'm going to make you wait until after the party."

Tony shrugged. "You're the chef."

Tim smiled and kissed him, tasting sugar and heat and that little bit of nervousness that Tony still had even after months of being together. "Yes, I am," Tim said, "And after the party you're going to pay for anatgonizing me all day."

Tony grinned again. "Wouldn't miss it."