Title: The Pink Lady Feuds
Characters: Teito, Konatsu, Katsuragi, Haruse, Hyuuga, Kuroyuri
Rating: T because Kuroyuri has a mouth
Word Count: 1,700
Timeline: AT - If Book One basically never happened and Teito joined the Black Hawks as expected
Other: Unbeta'd. Sorry for any mistakes
It was due to a loud crash that Teito finally glanced up from his book, several hours having passed from the last time he took a break from his almanac of the 'Evolution of Zaphion Over the Centuries'. It wasn't as interesting as it sounded, not that the teen noticed much. He blinked emerald eyes as they began to water, coming to adjust to the low light of the recreation room. On the other side of the large glass windows, the sky was dark, dusted with constellations and wisps of clouds. There was no moon.
At the lack of a follow-up noise, Teito returned to his book, settling more comfortably into the couch. With his back pressed to the armrest, he melted into the well-worn cushions, feet tucking beneath one of them. All he needed was a blanket and he'd be completely comfortable. But that required Teito to leave his spot on the couch and trek to his rooms, of which he'd rather avoid, if possible.
"Sounded like it came from the kitchens."
Reluctantly, Teito glanced across the room to the blond seated on the floor, legs tucked beneath the low coffee table, papers strewn about in a manner that only Konatsu Warren found organized.
"That's nice," Teito drawled, eyes drawn back to his book.
The night was quiet, or, had been quiet, and calm (had been), and it had been so long since the Black Hawks had had a vacation between missions. This was their vacation, this lull time as they sailed across the sky back to the Barsburg stronghold, so to speak, and Teito was going to enjoy it to the fullest. So move from his spot he was not, and nothing—
CRASH!
"I don't think we should ignore that," Konatsu stated, not looking up from the contracts he was forging with his superior's signature.
"We shouldn't," Teito began, burying his nose deeper into the large book, "but we could."
It took another crash and muted shouting for Teito to throw down his book, properly sit up, shove his socked feet into his boots, and stalk crankily towards the kitchens near the back of the ship. The blond had made no noise, but Teito soon found the young Warren following silently behind him, soft amber eyes straight-forward and harden as if mentally preparing himself for the insanity to come. Teito just took it in stride.
Though he did not expect to walk into the airship's kitchen to be immediately covered in flour. It came from absolutely nowhere, and blasted him full on the face. He coughed and a puff of the powder floated away in the air.
"What—?" he began, because unlike Konatsu, he had no patience for his teammates, for none of the Black Hawks. Except perhaps Katsuragi, because he liked the man, the man was quiet if not slightly insane from time to time. But he was far better company than Kuroyuri or his silent advocating begleiter, Haruse, of which the duo would be taken ten times over the train-wreck that is Hyuuga. That was Konatsu's problem to deal with. "What the hell!"
"Teito-kun," at Teito's right, Katsuragi appeared with a dry towel that he handed over to the young teen. "You are uninjured, I presume?"
"Yeah," the teen hid a sneer as he ducked his head and dusted his hair, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Completely intact."
"Sorry, Tei," Kuroyuri, equally covered in flour, though not as noticeable against his light-pink hair, pouted from across the two large kitchen islands. Once Teito glanced up, cloth over his mouth as he tried to clean the taste of flour off his tongue, Kuroyuri pointed to Hyuuga with a deadly glare. "I was aiming for that piece of shit."
The man in question stood seemingly innocent in the center of the two islands, a disarming grin turning his mouth as he twirled a whisk between his forefingers. "You just came in at the wrong time, Kid."
"I wouldn't have come in at all if there wasn't crashing!" Teito turned to Katsuragi then, who was flour-free, unlike the other two (Hyuuga having white spots across his dark blue apron). "What was the crashing?"
Katsuragi sighed and shrugged helplessly, gesturing to the mess in the kitchen. Cooking and eating utensils were everywhere, a few embedded into the walls; what looked like a fire had been put out with a handful of damp rags on one of the stoves; pots and pans littered every available surface, along with flour, a bottle of oil was still spilling its contents onto the ground in a trickling stream, and somewhere in the mess, there was a timer going off.
That did not forebode well for Teito.
"I am not cleaning this," Konatsu muttered beneath his breath, kicking the bowl that once held all the flour currently on Teito's person across the floor.
"I was attempting to teach Hyuuga-san and Kuroyuri-kun how to bake a pie." Katsuragi sighed. "It is not going as well as expected."
"No shit," Teito muttered darkly as he continued to run the towel down one side of his face. "Why bother teaching them anything when you know how they get?"
"Hey!" Hyuuga started, looking indignant behind his dark glasses. "Katsu is a horrible teacher! And that one provoked me," he jabbed a finger towards Haruse.
Kuroyuri slammed his tiny fists against the marble counter, causing two eggs to roll off the edge and die a tragic death. "Haruse did nothing, you fucking freak! You bumped into him!"
"He should watch where he's going!"
"You should shove it up your ass!"
"Children!" Teito snarled, staking forward and picking up wayward utensils on his way to one of the kitchen islands. Satisfyingly slamming the bits of metal and wood onto the counter, he glared at the two bickering, sparing Haruse only because the man looked pathetic sitting in the corner plucking harden bits of flour from his hair. "I rightfully don't care who did it. What I want is this place clean—"
They both whined in unison and Teito just could not help himself – he slammed his forehead onto the counter.
"Look, Teito is right. This place is a mess," Konatsu took up where Teito left off, walking into the fray to place a consoling hand on the brunet's shoulder. "What if Chief Ayanami came in here and saw all this?"
"We were doing this for him," Kuroyuri pouted, drawing small animals into the white dust on the counter.
At Konatsu's raised eyebrow, Katsuragi answered. "They heard Ayanami-sama make mention of his interest in apple pie."
"So we're making him some!" Hyuuga grinned broadly, holding up a small, pinkish apple for the whole room to see.
At that, Teito glanced up. "You can make pies from apples?"
The group looked at him curiously; even Haruse in the corner had a small percentage of emotion on his usually stoic face.
"You can make pies from lots of things," this came from Katsuragi, voice gentle and patient as ever. "Berries and apples are vastly more popular, though any fruit can be turned into a pie with the right knowledge. Meats as well; custards, cream—"
"I get it," Teito cut in before the man could lose himself to his culinary knowledge. The teen then straightened his uniform, dusting off what he could of the flour, made it worse, and just decided to leave it. Teito sighed tiredly, greatly missing his book and his comfy place on the couch. "Lots of pies with lots of fillings. I get it, I get it."
"So you've never had any?" This was Konatsu's simple inquiry as he began to move about the kitchen to pick up utensils, pans and pots without seemingly to notice he was doing so.
"Um," Teito shrugged and joined the blond in picking up scattered equipment towards the opposite end of the kitchen. "It's not something they fed us at the academy. Fruits and deserts and the like were saved for special occasions, and I wouldn't really participate in any of that."
There was a breath of pause before Hyuuga appeared at Teito's side, whisk still in hand and a frown pulling his mouth, causing surprised a jolt from Teito, who dropped a rolling pin in the process.
"I told you to stop doing that!"
"It's so sad though, you poor child!"
Teito evaded the hug like a pro.
" I've never been fond of sweet things," he growled and attempted to will away the heat rising to his cheeks but without much luck. He ducked behind the counter to collect some spoons.
"That is blasphemy!" Kuroyuri cried out at the same time Hyuuga gasped "How can you say such lies?"
"Perhaps we can make something for Teito-kun, as well as Ayanami-sama," Katsuragi voiced, the corners of his eyes wrinkling as he smiled gently.
"Cheesecake!" Kuroyuri exclaimed excitedly, turning bright eyes onto his begleiter. "Haruse, can we make cheesecake?"
The man nodded. "Of course, Kuroyuri-sama."
Hyuuga turned to Katsuragi then. "Do you know how to make cheesecake?"
"There is not a food item you can name that I do not know how to recreate, Hyuuga-san," the aged brunet chuckled. At that, Hyuuga and Kuroyuri both, and with insertions from Haruse and Konatsu from time to time, attempted to stump the senior officer with a food he knew nothing of – and though they attempted to trick him, the man easily called them out on it.
From across the kitchen, Teito grinned fondly. The kitchen was still a mess, most of the ingredients were on the floor, or the walls, or on each other, but the group was happy, and smiling, a rare commodity what with the pressure put upon them by the Barsburg royals to fix their problems, and that was all the sweet Teito really needed in his life. This, his family. His crazy family, but his nonetheless.
As he placed a few more bowls and forks on the counter, he found some apples that survived the battle, hidden behind a blender. He took one, inspecting its reddish-pink color, the smooth skin – it fit nicely into the palm of his hand.
Teito took a bite, and found he liked the flavor very much.
End.
A/N: YES. I KNOW - hate me, I haven't updated anything in over a year (for those who know me by my previous works). I've been lacking inspiration, but this is me trying to get back on the bandwagon. I'm working on three separate projects (this will be the fourth), one of which is H. So, HUZZAH~ :D Let's see how long this lasts. Anyway, that's not why I'm writing this a/n. I am writing this a/n to let you guys know that Apples is a sort of...not drabbles, but kinda? The stories that follow are not meant to be read as a single entity. They are all separate, should be read as separate, because then it'll just get weird and confusing. They are just connected with the main theme which is, YOU GUESSED IT, apples. The apples in question are in the titles - I won't name them specifically in the stories because that's boring :P Well, that's all I wanted to say. Thanks for reading thus far, and for my faithful readers, thank you for putting up with my shit. You are all saints[hearts]!
Reviewers will receive complimentary pies provided by the handsome Black Hawks boys.
[Disclaimer: Pies may not be edible.]
