MAKING BREAKFAST:

The early morning sun filtered its rays through the pulled down blinds, casting a faint orange glow on the two sleeping men. Limbs and legs tangled up within silken sheets, as a body stirred restlessly, pulling the blankets over spiky locks and mumbling incoherently beneath his breath. Of course pulling the warm covers exposed the other and they were forcefully yanked back with a curse, as he tried to reclaim the stolen sheets.

“Kuso…Vegeta…you are taking up the whole blanket…” the taller man grumbled, trying to steal the sheets again.

“I don’t think so, Kakkarrot!” came the muffled reply beneath the covers. “You need to get up. It is your turn to make the breakfast today.”

Goku blinked for several seconds, allowing the words to sink in. Chikuso! How could it be his turn already? Why yesterday….Oh, yeah….Vegeta made waffles yesterday. Sighing in defeat, Goku yawned and stretched stiff muscles as he tried to figure out a way to get out of the blasted sheets. Kicking and mumbling under his breath, he finally landed flat on his face on the carpeted floor, making his mate chuckle lightly.

“You should laugh…” Goku frowned, picking himself up and stumbling blindly to the bathroom.

Clad only in black boxers, he finished his business, brushed his teeth and washed the sleep away from his eyes, before trudging wearily down the stairs. Vegeta and himself now lived together in one of the many condos that graced the Capsule Corporation compounds. Smiling softly, Goku remembered the day they had decided to move in together, or rather, the day Vegeta had demanded he move in with him. The prince had stomped over to Goku’s small countryside home and had ordered Kakkarrot to pack his stuff, saying that he needed a sparring partner and couldn’t waste his time flying back and forth to contact the taller man. Goku had nearly laughed at the excuse, but he had indulged the smaller saiyan and had decided to move in, to the confusion of his family, especially Chi-chi, who had finally agreed with the new arrangements, on the grounds that she be compensated financially, every month.

Goku opened the large refrigerator and ransacked its contents looking for something, anything to make. He thought that Vegeta would have figured out by now that cooking wasn’t his forte. They had made arrangements on the meal thing. Every other day was set-aside for each man to display his culinary skills. Vegeta somehow managed to make his own days seem easy. Either the man had been a professional cook on his former home planet of Vegetasei, or he was just gifted, Goku would never know. What he did know was that, whenever Vegeta cooked, it was always a sight to behold. The meals tasted wonderful and the kitchen always seemed to remain spotless, after all the food that was presented. However, what Goku didn’t know, was that Vegeta always made sure he bought the breakfast or any other meal for that matter, from a nearby café, very early, without the taller man’s knowledge. And so it was always set before Goku could get down.

“I guess I will have to make something simple.” He finally mumbled, looking in dismay at the ingredients he had set out on the counter. Eggs…about ten cartons, Bacon….a huge slab of it, Ham….two huge ones stood to side…and the largest bag of pancake mix ever seen…. (Thank Kami for Capsule Corp. discount cards). Finally, clapping his hands together, he announced loudly,

“Alrighty, then! Time to make breakfast!!”

Vegeta’s brows drew together in a confused frown. Raising his head from beneath the soft comforts of the blankets, he sniffed the air. Yep! There it was again. That sickening, burning smell.

~ Grrr…Kakkarrot. Can’t you do anything right? ~

Slipping out of the sheets in a hurry, also clad in black boxers, he stormed out of the room, racing towards the kitchen, before it became too late.

Goku waved the napkin feverishly over the smoking burner. All he had tried to do was boil some water to get the eggs ready and now this….apparently he had set the burner too high and all the eggs were now a nice sienna colored waste.

So he had decided to make pancakes. Problem was, he couldn’t read the directions very well and he had had to rely on the pictures on the pancake mix box. Pouring the mix in was easy enough, but he couldn’t figure out what it meant by adding the eggs in. So all he had done was toss in the decent looking ones, shells and all, and had mixed it into the dough, adding a generous amount of sugar and milk and thereby creating a very gigantic and sticky mess.

“KAKKARROT! What do you think you are doing?” Vegeta screamed in panic, as he saw the burner flare up again with a small fire.

Goku turned a flour-stained face to his companion and grinned sheepishly, still trying to put down the flames. “ I am sorry, Vegeta…I told you I couldn’t do this.”

Vegeta rushed to his side, yanking a nearby napkin as he began beating down the flames as well. Five frantic minutes later, the flames died out and Vegeta rested his hands on the counter, taking in deep breaths and counting slowly to ten. Goku stood nearby, twiddling thumbs and feeling very, very foolish.

“What am I going to do with you, Kakkarrot?” Vegeta asked, sliding a wary glance to the taller man.

“Ummm….” Goku began. “I am really, really sorry, Vegeta. I did say I wasn’t that good at this cooking stuff.” Another awkward silence fell, before Goku blurted out, “I know! Why don’t you do it, Vegeta! I mean you are great at cooking, so you can manage it, right? And I promise…I will make it up to you. Pleeeeeeeeeeeease!!” He begged, turning on the mega-charm.

Vegeta felt his face pale. Good lord, no! How could he tell Kakkarrot that he couldn’t cook either? All this time, the other man had believed in his culinary abilities and he couldn’t even boil water. ~ Chikuso! We could always eat cereal…~

“Alright, Kakkarrott. Hand me the thing over there…” he said, pointing towards the bacon, not really sure about what he was supposed to do with it, but heck! He was the Prince and no job was too difficult for him.

Goku handed over the bacon, leaning into Vegeta eagerly, as he watched the man turn the packet over and over again in his hands. After five minutes of this, Goku raised eyebrows and dared to ask the scowling man,

“Umm…Vegeta?”

“What?!” Vegeta snapped, getting agitated at the close inspection that he was receiving and the obvious cluelessness he was projecting.

“Are you looking for the instructions?” Goku asked, trying to hide a grin.

“I do not need to look for any instructions, Kakkarrot! I can read, you know!”

“Okay.” Goku smiled and then leaned against the counters again, staring at the smaller man with growing amusement.

Vegeta felt his face grow hot. Of course, he should have read the directions. Seeing the tiny writing, he read them silently to himself. ~ Hn. doesn’t look that difficult. Just toss them on the frying pan and that’s it! ~ “Hand me a frying pan, Kakkarrot!” he barked.

Goku passed it over silently, watching as Vegeta began trying to light the burner. After switching and fiddling with the switches for several agonizing minutes, he jumped up a bit, startled at the flash of blue, which signaled that the burner was indeed on. Giving a small smile at his accomplishment, he placed the pan on the fire. Turning to the other man, he crowed smugly, “That’s all you had to do, Kakkarrot. Just put the pan on the stove and then fry the blasted whatever the heck this thing is called.”

“Bacon.”

“Yeah…whatever.”

Both men fell silent as they watched the pan sizzle….with nothing in it. Goku watched as a thin line of smoke began rising out of the pan and clearing his throat again, he dared to ask the temperamental Prince.

“Aahh…Vegeta. I think the pan is hot enough now. You might want to put in the bacon.”

“Gee…Kakkarrot, if you knew so much about cooking, why the hell didn’t you do it then?!”

“Sorry…I will shut up now.” Goku raised his hands in apology and then resumed his position amongst the white counters.

Vegeta began cutting out the strips of meat and then gingerly placed them into the sizzling pan, watching in awe as they shriveled up and browned almost immediately. Filling the pan with the long strips, he replaced the half-empty bag and rubbed his hands in satisfaction. Smiling broadly at his partner, he said cheerfully,

“Why don’t you watch the bacon? I will get started on the coffee or something.”

Receiving a nod from Goku, Vegeta spun around and began opening cupboards looking for where his former mate, Bulma, could possibly have left the damned drink. She had come in last week and had made the dark, bitter-tasting liquid, which Vegeta felt he could do on his own. It had looked easy enough. Finally finding the bags of ground coffee beans, he took them over to the coffee machine and stared blankly at the black object.

~ Okay, now….think, Vegeta….how did that Onna make this blasted thing? This would teach me to pay more attention. ~

Holding the handle to the kettle, he pulled it out and placed the dry bags straight into the container, shoving it right back into its compartment. Taking the entire contraption to the sink, he filled up the slight opening with water and set it back on the table, waiting patiently for the black drink to brew. Five minutes later and nothing doing, he scowled in growing anger and impatience and was just about to blast the whole thing to pieces, when he noticed that the cord was not plugged into the wall. Sighing in disbelief at how dumb he was being, he yanked the black rope and began searching for an electrical outlet. Unfortunately, the closest one was next to Goku, who at the moment was having a very hard time trying to remove the now burnt and crispy bacon strips away from the bottom of the frying pan. Plugging the coffee machine quickly into the outlet, he rushed back to the other man’s side.

“Chikuso! Kakkarrot! What are you doing, now?!!” Vegeta yelled, putting on the vent as he tried to see through the growing haze in the smoky kitchen.

“Sorry, Vegeta…It’s just that…” POP!!

The loud sound startled both men as they swiveled around to face a very jittery coffee machine. The kettle had somehow managed to detach itself away from the machine itself and now it was spilling its murky contents all over the kitchen counter and onto the floor. Sparks flew off the electrical outlet, as Vegeta realized that there were too many things already plugged in there as well.

“Kami! Look out, Vegeta!! It’s gonna blow!!” Goku screamed out in warning, before a very loud BANG rang out across the Capsule Corporation grounds.

Fifteen minutes later, two very exhausted, smoky and dishelved Saiyans were sitting on the kitchen floor, propped against one of the cupboards, as they stared at the charred remains of what used to be a spotless kitchen.

“You didn’t have to final flash the coffee machine, Vegeta.” Goku said wearily, shutting his eyes and leaning his head against the wooden doors.

“This was supposed to be your breakfast, Kakkarrot! Every time you do something, it always turns into a war zone!” Vegeta snapped in irritation.

“I said I was sorry!” Goku snapped back in return.

“Whatever you say, Kakkarrot…”

Silence fell as the two men contemplated the damage done. Finally,

“I have a confession to make…...” Vegeta mumbled softly, staring at one charred wall.

“What is it?”

“I…I…I….Kuso! I cannot cook, Kakkarrot!” Vegeta said quickly, feeling his face grow hot in embarrassment.

Goku remained silent for a few minutes, before saying, “Yeah…I kinda figured that much out myself, with your…umm…skills….this morning.” He turned around to grin sheepishly at the now scowling Vegeta. Snorting in reply, he turned his face away.

“Sooo…if you can’t cook…how do you get all those meals to the table, every time?” Goku asked, raising eyebrows in question.

Vegeta grinned and pointed to the cordless phone that had somehow managed to survive through the destruction.

“The Tasty Menu Restaurant. I have it on speed dial.” Vegeta crowed triumphantly.

Goku stared open-mouthed at his mate. “Why, you little devil!” He finally blurted out, grinning in response.

“I never did say we couldn’t eat out, you know.” Vegeta said, smirking lightly, as he jumped to his feet.

“Is that so?” Goku replied, standing up as well, as he pulled the smaller man into his arms. Leaning forward to brush his lips against the sugar coated ones before him, he moaned softly, whispering into Vegeta’s ears,

“Race you to the bathroom, koi. And when we are done, we can go ‘out’ and eat and then you can help me redecorate the kitchen.”

Giving Vegeta one more breathless kiss, he raced out of the kitchen, leaving the smaller man still frozen in place. Finally snapping out of his daze, Vegeta growled in annoyance,

“Hey!! Kakkarrot! I am not doing any stupid race with you and I sure as hell am not going to help you redecorate anything!! I am your Prince, dammit!! And I do not redecorate!! And you cheated too!!”

And continuing with his endless tirade, he stomped upstairs to the showers and his waiting mate.

THE END.