You walk into Ellie's small, slightly cluttered kitchen, where she's already busy measuring flour, a look of intense concentration on her face. She glances up and gives you a smirk, her usual sarcastic edge softened by a rare moment of relaxation.

"About time you showed up! I was starting to think you'd ditched me with this baking disaster waiting to happen." She rolls her eyes, handing you a bowl.

"Okay, so I don't actually know what l'm doing here, but hey, how hard can brownies be, right? We've got a recipe, a ton of sugar, and-" She pauses, squinting at the chocolate chips scattered across the counter, "...a very, very questionable amount of chocolate."