Cookies and Crying
His new job with John wasn't... Great. Klaus had never had to work a day in his life and he certainly had not wanted to start now and he had made sure that was everyone else's problem for the first month or 2 while Salami grinned and bore it, working to take care of his duties on top of his own and the guilt started to build on top of the fact that he kept noticing dissapointed and unhappy looks from John which did something to the attention loving salazzle. So finally, he started trying, and by started trying, he tried to bake some of the cute pokemon cookies they had. It seemed easy, with a simple recipe in the book and he had seen even other newbies manage it well and he figured it'd be a great way to show his own growth and ability to do so. Plus, he had seen the older man praise the newbies exceptionally for even trying and some part of Klaus craved that kind of almost paternal praise and attention.
Growing up while his parents provided his every want and need, it was all material. They where busy, they worked all the time. His birthdays where just gift cards and tons of toys and shiny things and told "We'll be here next year."s and the only way he had ever gotten attention was with wild, dramatic tantrums as he threw things and screamed and cried while many house staff including his nanny tried to calm him. He had been slowly learning from both Axel and Salami that this didn't always work in his favor and it was distressing to lose his main method of emotional output and so he realized it was best to try to get the praise he required in other ways. He had only tried cooking a few times since the pancake incident and they all had ended the same much to Klaus's dismay, and so he tried following the instructions step by step and taking his time on what was meant to be his lunch break.
He prepared everything and shaped the dough as well as he could, using Spicy's face as a visual reference for a pokemon face and hoping it'd look less like an oval once it baked. "Not to say you look like an oval, babes." He mused to the pokemon who was watching from over the cafe counter curiously, as his long fur couldn't be contained in a hair net. "I'm just a shoddy baker." He said quietly with a frown, continuing to try to prepare the icing after shoving the cookies in the oven. His talking to the pokemon had definitely gotten Salami and John's attention as the magikarp man came over to see what his boyfriend as doing and John watched from over his newspaper wearily. Klaus's excitement at potentially being told he did a good job was quickly squashed as he pulled the cookies out of the oven.
They had spread, they where just splattered uneven circles now. He felt tears in his eyes already and tried to keep his cool, maybe he should save them with decoration? No, it was fruitless he quickly realized. The icing he had made was either too thick or too runny for the different colors and so in the end it all had swirled into an unappetizing, muddly brown that hardened and left him just, deflated. Salami hugged and patted him assuringly. "They taste great though, babe! You'll get the shaping down, it's your first time!" He cooed, kissing the man's head repeatebly as the tears continued to build up until he broke into hiccuping sobs over his failiure even as Salami held and kissed and cooed at his partner. He barely noticed John coming over to percieve his 'failiure' before much to Klaus's surprise, taking one of the cookies and popping it in his own mouth to try. He knew Salami was biased and would say anything he made was immaculate but through his tears he saw a surprised look on the mans face. "These actually taste pretty good, you just need to freeze the dough for them to keep the shape. Keep up the good work." before walking back off.
With a sniffle, Klaus silently glowed at the praise and wondered if he could be a good baker after all.
