Kitchen Science
"Bienvenue chez Axel!"
Roxas raised an eyebrow at the redhead's bad French, but smiled, anyway. It was the first time Axel had invited him over for dinner, as opposed to out. Whatever that might entail, well, they hadn't gotten that far yet, but he was looking forward to watching his date cook him dinner. There was something intimate and endearing about having someone else cook for him. Maybe it was a little domestic, he thought, but Axel had been doing everything in his power to impress Roxas.
Not that he really needed to, since Roxas was already lusting over him, but then, that made it all the more adorable.
"Thanks. Should I take my shoes off?"
"Whatever makes you comfortable," Axel shrugged, though Roxas noted that he took his own shoes off and set them to one side of the door.
As he followed suit, Roxas glanced around the small living room, and beyond that, the kitchen. It was…normal. Not impeccably clean, but not a mess, either—a place that was lived-in. A few video game cases were strewn on a coffee table along with a controller, other odds and ends sitting on available surfaces, giving the place character. A little bit of nervousness lifted off his shoulders. Yeah, this was very Axel.
"So, I hope you like spaghetti and meatballs," Axel called back from the kitchen. "I thought we could do something a la Lady and the Tramp."
The redhead grinned at Roxas as the blond parked himself at the breakfast bar and rolled his eyes. "I hope you're not serious."
Axel leaned across the counter to give Roxas a peck on the lips. "Deadly serious. I even called Demyx to come and play accordion for us." Roxas snorted and Axel chuckled, returning to flit around his kitchen. The blond rested his chin on a hand and watched him, a comfortable silence descending on them, until Axel broke it, turning back to Roxas. "What are you doing?"
"Watching you." A hint of pink spread across his cook's face, and Roxas smiled. "You're pretty hot, you know?"
Axel practically giggled as he turned back to the stove. "Not as hot as this spaghetti almost was!" He turned back to Roxas, shaking a jar of spices. "I almost put cayenne pepper in instead of—"
Roxas blanched and cut him off. "Uh, Axel, I think the spaghetti is pretty hot, already. And by hot I mean-" he pointed at the pot, where the ends of the pasta were still sticking up out of the water…and burning, "—on fire."
Axel turned to look and uttered a soft "Huh," before grabbing a towel to combat the fire.
"Uhm, isn't air just going to make it worse?" Roxas slid off his seat, moving closer to see if his help was needed.
"Nah, it'll be fine. I'm really good at putting out fires. Starting them, too, but I don't even know how this happened."
Roxas peered around him at the stove, where the fire had indeed been extinguished. He bit his lip. "You don't try to set the kitchen on fire often, do you?"
Axel let out a bark of a laugh. "No, not usually!" They both looked at the blackened ends of the spaghetti, still smoking a few inches above the lip of the pot.
Finally, Axel turned to Roxas. "Well, I've still got some fettuccini!"