Fourth Floor Common Room | Friday Evening

[district12baker.livejournal.com]

Peeta had almost been here for a full week and the whole thing still didn't feel quite real to him. Not living in fear was a new thing, and he wasn't quite sure how to react to it so he decided to settle down and do something familiar to clear his head. That something being baking, obviously. The kitchens were well stocked enough but the equipment was different than what Peeta was used to so he decided to stick with making cupcakes rather than anything too elaborate. The first batch was done and cooling and the second was almost ready to go in the oven. He was even making his own buttercream frosting because that can of pre-made stuff he found in the pantry was gross.

It wasn't so much clearing his head so much as it was a nice distraction, but he would take what he could get.

[Baking is so an identity. Open of course]

Comments

[taseredagod.livejournal.com]

Darcy had smelt something baking and followed her nose. "Did you make those from scratch?" she asked when she finally found the source. "Can I have one?" Really Darcy?

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Oh god, please say you're sharing those." Tony hadn't eaten anything that didn't come wrapped in plastic since his trip to the mainland, so...

Okay, that wasn't an excuse, but it was still there.

[district12baker.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, of course," Peeta said, nodding towards the ones on the cooling rack. "There's no way I can eat all of those myself."

Actually he probably could.

[district12baker.livejournal.com]

Peeta nodded. "Of course. I'd be kind of a jerk if I made a ton of cupcakes and kept them to myself."

And Peeta prided himself on his non-jerkiness.

[taseredagod.livejournal.com]

Darcy hopped on a chair an helped herself to a cupcake. "Thank you! Oh, I'm Darcy. Not just some weird cupcake theif."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"You are my favorite new person," Tony said, coveting those cupcakes with his eyes. "You are new, right? I haven't been holed up that long."

Only a few days. That barely counted.

[taseredagod.livejournal.com]

"I was going to say that there's way too many for him not to share, but then I remembered - teenage boys." Darcy commented around her own cupcake.

[district12baker.livejournal.com]

"Peeta," he said, giving her a smile. "And there's nothing weird about being a cupcake thief. I can't blame people, really."

[taseredagod.livejournal.com]

"See, now I'm just imagining a guy dressed as a cupcake running through people's living rooms." Darvy considered this. "So where are you from? Aside from somewhere that had amazing cupcakes, that is."

[district12baker.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I'm Peeta," he said. Peeta finished icing his latest batch of cupcakes and slid the baking rack over towards Tony. "The icing's homemade."

You picked a good day to be social, Tony.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"We're like black holes," Tony agreed cheerfully.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

Damn right. That or the smell of baked goods lured him into a clever trap. If the host of Cupcake Wars showed up, he was running away.

"Tony," he offered in response, grabbing the offered cupcake. "You mean frosting doesn't always come premade in a can?"

Joking! Mostly.

[district12baker.livejournal.com]

"I'm from a place people don't recognize," Peeta said. "Aside from the guy who picked us all up on the shuttle."

"Ever heard of Panem?"

[taseredagod.livejournal.com]

"Or very deep cravases." It made sense in her head, okay? "I love that this school has random free food."

[district12baker.livejournal.com]

"I didn't even realize frosting did come in a can before I got here," Peeta admitted. "Granted that stuff in the pantry barely qualifies as frosting."

[taseredagod.livejournal.com]

Darcy considered this. "Is it anywhere in the United States?"

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

Much like Darcy, Toby'd been drawn in by the smell of baking. He grinned when he saw whose handiwork it was.

"Does being fake-siblings warrant sharing?" he asked.

[district12baker.livejournal.com]

Peeta nodded. "It's what the United States might turn into a couple hundred years in the future."

[district12baker.livejournal.com]

"If fake-siblings are anything like my real siblings then you probably should have helped out with the baking," Peeta teased. "But I guess I can let you off the hook this time and let you have cupcakes."

[taseredagod.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Darvy said and chewed. "I'm from Arizona." She chewed some more. "That sounds ominous."

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Are you one of the people from the past?" Because that just sounded weird.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"I know, right? Just hang out by a common room and someone is bound to feed you eventually." They were so screwed for the real world if they got into that habit.

[dollpocalypse]

"There's cupcakes!"

Yes, Topher. The cupcake smell was why you'd come up here, remember?

And that would be one getting swiped off the cooling rack. "Dude," Topher said with a mouthful of cupcake in his mouth, "is this buttercream?"

APPROVED.

[district12baker.livejournal.com]

"That's a state, right?" See, he was picking up on things. "We're divided into districts when I'm from. Mine's in this general area, nearer to what's known as West Virginia now."

[solarhippie]

Karolina's player had given up on sensible bedtimes weeks ago was another person drawn in by the smell, though she'd actually been on her way up to the roof. To scope out flying opportunities. Maybe.

But she was fine with a detour when it smelled this nice.

"Oh, hey, the cupcakes aren't a myth after all!"