Challenge Fic: Kiss the Cook
“I just don’t know what happened!”
Kyle was struck speechless at the disaster area that was his kitchen. Every pan he owned was blackened and scattered across the small space. There was a scorch mark behind the stove that blistered the cream paint and a shrill chirping blasted from the smoke detector as Hal stood cluelessly in the midst of the chaos.
“I wanted to make you a nice dinner,” he explained helplessly. Hal offered up a pot whose contents Kyle could only describe as charred. Maybe it was potatoes. Maybe it was beef. Usually he could tell the difference and that made him afraid.
The look on his face must have been discouraging because Hal whipped another pot off the stove and thrust it at him.
“The pudding! The pudding came out alright!” As proof, he stuck his finger into it. He dropped the pot with a yelp.
“It’s hot!” The sheer shock in his voice startled Kyle out of his stupor. Grabbing Hal’s hand, he put the chocolate covered finger in his mouth and immediately regretted it.
“What did you put in this?” A quick dash to the sink had him maneuvering his head between stacks of dishes to drink directly out of the tap. How Hal could make chocolate pudding taste like he had chewed a handful of rock salt was beyond him.
“Well, the salt might have gotten away from me for a moment but that much didn’t spill, did it?”
“Taste it,” he managed between gulps of water. Hal would never hear the end of it from Guy if Kyle ended up in the hospital because of accidental food poisoning.
Hal gingerly tasted his concoction and grimacing, he dumped it in the garbage. “I don’t know what happened,” he repeated.
Kyle wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and looked at the great Hal Jordan standing in the middle of the destroyed kitchen streaked with flour and wearing an apron that boldly declared “Kiss the Cook!” He looked defeated, befuddled, and adorable. Kyle couldn’t resist.
Wrapping his arms around his lover’s waist, he kissed him soundly then chuckled.
“I appreciate the sentiment, Hal. I really do. But next time you get the urge to play Iron Chef for me, could you do it in your own apartment?”