I impulse-wrote this, don't ask why.

"No!" Noodle shouted.

"Baby-girl," Russel said gently, "if you don't eat yo vegetables, you won't get dessert."

"Dessert?"

"Yes. If you eat yo vegetables."

"No! No veggie!" Noodle crossed her arms and glared defiantly at Russel.

Russel sighed. "No dessert, then."

"Yes! Dessert! Dessert!" Noodle chanted.

Obviously he wasn't getting through to her. Time for another method.

"Look," he motioned to 2D, who was poking at his broccoli. "He'll get dessert. He's eating his veggies."

2D looked up. "Oh er, actually I don't feel like my veggies tonight. Can I get my dessert now?"

Russel glared at him. "No, Dee! Eat yo damn vegetables!"

2D sadly looked down at his plate, still chock-full of broccoli and carrots. "Do I have to?"

"Yes!"

"Chill out Russ. Skipping out on yer veggies never hurt anyone." Murdoc said as he got up from the table and carried his plate over to the bench.

Russel squinted. Murdoc's plate still had green and orange on it.

"Muds!" He shouted before Murdoc could sneakily dump the broccoli and carrot into the bin. Murdoc jumped.

"You haven't yo vegetables either!"

"Come on Russ, no one likes vegetables. Only those bloody doctors who try to tell you all sorts of crap about how 'too much alcohol' is bad for you, but then again, why would you listen to them?" Murdoc rolled his eyes, annoyed that he had gotten caught.

"Sit." Murdoc obliged.

"Now," Russel said in the calmest voice he could muster. "If y'all eat yo vegetables, y'all can have dessert."

Noodke stuck out her tongue in disgust, 2D groaned and Murdoc said "nah thanks, mate."

Russel was actually a little dumbfounded by their stubbornness. He couldn't understand the logic behind their decision. If you don't eat the healthy stuff first, you don't get the sweet stuff. How was this such a difficult concept to wrap their heads around?

Just then, Murdoc stood up, followed by Noodle.

"Whaddya think yo doing?" Russel asked, getting really tired on their shenanigans.

"Getting some dessert. Getting sick of sitting around doing nothing. Gotta have my sugar fix too, you know." Murdoc responded, rolling his eyes as if was the most stupidest question he'd ever had the misfortune of being asked.

"Yes dessert! No vegetables! Yucky!" Noodle added.

That did it.

Russel beat Murdoc to the fridge and pulled out the coveted dessert: lime jelly. It sat in a large glass bowl.

Russel grabbed a large serving spoon and sat down. Excited, 2D shoved all the vegetables off his his plate and held it out, waiting for his share.

But Russel just looked at him and laughed.

"If y'all want dessert, eat yo vegetables. I hope I don't have to tell y'all again."

And with that, he spooned out a large amount of jelly and stuck it in his mouth. The other three watched in horror as he slurped the jelly down, savouring the taste, a look of pure bliss on his face.

"You don't know what y'all are missing..." He prodded. He picked up another large spoonful and began eating that too.

It was chaos as Noodle, 2D and Murdoc began trying to eat their now long cold vegetables as fast as they could in hopes of getting a share of the jelly. Noodle was cramming as many pieces of carrot into her mouth as she could. 2D was hurriedly picking up the veggies that he had swept onto the table. Murdoc ate and swallowed so fast that he choked. When 2D gave him a hearty whack on the back, a piece of broccoli came flying out and landed among the broccoli on Noodle's plate. Noodle, understanderbly, was very upset by this.

Russel laughed so hard that he nearly choked, too.

He'd never had so much fun forcing them to eat their vegetables before.