Title: Kryptonian Cooking Lessons
Fandom: Young Justice (tv)
Characters: Kon Superboy and Miss Martian, friendship fic!
Summary: After spending the last week bonding over old television programs with Superboy, M'Gann discovers that while other people's emotions and motivations are quite simple to understand and forgive, Earth cooking is not.
Notes: Unbeta'd, apologies for abrupt tense changes and any general mistakes. Like several others, I am very disturbed by the fact that the only girl on the team (so far) has been relegated to scapegoat/cookie maker. Especially since Megan is so kick ass. This is my attempt to explain why she was the one burning cookies in episode three, and why Superboy's extraordinarily plain (and quite lacking) apology was able to make things okay so quickly.

With thanks to theoreticalpixy for amusing me with talk of cookie dough and teleporting.



"Are you sure this is what humans do? Surely there must be something else we can try since this isn't work--"

"NO!" Superboy snapped at her. "This is what humans do when introducing themselves to someone. Do I need to show you the proof again?"

The "proof" was roughly a hundred hours of several decades-old sitcoms that he had forced her to watch in the week they had been given to settle into their new home. However, watching Superboy struggle through his third batch of cookies, M'Gann was beginning to think that he had misunderstood the point feeding house guests. Either that, or he was purposely trying to mislead her about Earth customs, which she sincerely doubted. They hadn't known each other for very long, but she had already figured out that behind his short temper was a kind heart.

Regardless of his reasoning though, he did look very cute in the apron they had found in a closet. She would have to see about getting him to put on one of those beautiful dresses the housewives wore in the sitcoms.

Sitcoms... She was enjoying learning more about Earth culture, and the language was filled with many exciting foreign words and concepts. There were so many things that were singularly Martian or human, things that one place had and the other did not.

Things like chocolate chip oatmeal walnut cookies.

She was drawn out of her thoughts by Superboy's frustrated growl.

They had both decided that his first batch of cookies somehow tasted strangely like what Superboy had called "turkey." His second batch had looked beautiful but had a texture similar to the metal pan they had baked them on. This third batch was burned as black as night.

She knew it was rude, but she couldn't help but laugh at this latest failure. She tried stifling it behind her hands at Superboy's glare.

"Why don't we just give them some of these cookies?" she asked after her laughter had settled, indicating the bag of pre-made cookies she had been snacking on.

"That's not how it works!" Superboy was angrily scraping the charred cookies into the trash receptacle.

M'Gann giggled again and rolled her eyes. "Do you want me to try?" she asked. It doesn't look that hard, she thought to herself. "Maybe you're doing something wrong? We can always just give them something else?" She thought about the the delicious pizza they had eaten the night before. It hadn't been the first time she had eaten the dish, but it tasted so different from the pizza she had eaten before. Earth had such exciting food in so many varieties.

"Fine." Superboy threw the tray into the sink angrily. "You try it. I'd like to see you do better." He stalked out of the kitchen.

M'Gann put away the cookies she had been eating and glanced over the recipe Superboy had been using. It looked simple enough. Even without reading his mind, she could tell Superboy was nervous about re-meeting their team members. He was probably just letting that emotion get in the way of his concentration. But she was looking forward to Aqualad, Kidflash, and Robin's arrival. And she loved Superboy's idea of surprising them with a yummy treat.

#

She grinned at the slowly rising mounds of dough in the oven. The recipe had been just as easy to follow as she had anticipated, and her new team mates would be arriving shortly.

"What's that smell?"

She turned to find Superboy standing in the doorway.

"They're my cookies! Don't they smell delicious?"

He scowled at her. "I thought you were just going to give them the packaged cookies?"

She shrugged. "I changed my mind. I can show you how I made--"

"Aqualad's here," he interrupted her. "Red Tornado is on his way." He turned and left the kitchen.

M'Gann stuck her tongue out at his back, a gesture she had learned from the television they had watched together. She didn't understand why he had to be jealous just because she could make better cookies than he could. She wasn't jealous that he knew so much more about Earth cultrue than she did. She was rather grateful they would be living together, so that he could explain the cultural differences that she still found occaisionally baffling.

Sighing, she glanced at the oven, briefly debating whether to meet Aqualad or wait for the timer to go off. She still had several minutes until they would be ready. There was no reason why she couldn't say hello to Aqualad first. It would be rude to not greet him.

Smiling, she left the kitchen in search of the two boys. She had just enough time to say a quick hello.

When she finally found them, the two were gathered around the view screen.

"When Red Tornado gets here, we're going to ask him if he has a mission for us," Aqualad said in lieu of an actual greeting, as the transporter beeped and announced the arrival of Robin and Kid Flash.

#

Superboy apologized after their debriefing, but that still didn't change the fact that M'Gann was upset about him snapping at her in front of their team mates--and about her cookies. While it was easier for her to understand Superboy losing his temper because he felt left out (clearly Cadmus hadn't felt the need to teach him any sort of social skills when they had implanted his education), she just couldn't figure out where she had gone wrong with the cookies. People, she decided, were much easier to understand than cooking. She would just have to stick to ordering pizza and eating pre-made cookies.

A knock on her door caused her to jump a little. She wasn't used to Superboy looking for her after they had split off to their separate rooms for the night.

"Come in!" she called.

The door opened, revealing Superboy and a plate covered with a napkin.

"I brought you something," he said hesitantly, and held the plate out.

M'Gann lifted the napkin off his peace offering. She gasped and then grinned at the sight of fresh baked brown squares. "You made cookies!"

Superboy laughed. "These are actually called brownies. I couldn't figure out the cookies."

She tentatively took a bite of one of the brownies and was surprised by the taste.

"You don't...like them?"

She chewed as slowly as she could, being careful to swallow before speaking. Having to communicate verbally was going to be a lot more time consuming than she originally thought. "They are..." She hunted her vocabulary for the right word to describe what she had just eaten. "They're wonderful!"

Superboy smiled. "I'm...sorry. I should not have yelled at you earlier. I just--"

M'Gann held up her hand and reached for another brownie. "You're forgiven. You've been very patient explaining Earth things to me. I'll just have to be patient with you. We all have our differences." She took the plate from his hands and lead him to her bed. "Besides," she said, sitting down. "You made me brownies."

He sat down next to her and reached for the plate. "Thanks."

They sat silently for a few moments, the only sounds in the room coming from their chewing, before M'Gann finally spoke.

"Can you show me? How you made these, I mean."

"No."

She felt a bristle of annoyance at Superboy's refusal. Perhaps she had forgiven him too soon.

"I..." He glanced at her sheepishly. "I bought them. Like this. I couldn't figure out this recipe either."

A wave of laughter washed away her annoyance. "Well then, we'll just have to try together tomorrow." She was pretty sure neither of them would probably ever figure out how to bake, but at least they would always have prepackaged snacks to fall back on.