HOKAY. Taking a break from Chasing the Truth. It's time for a one-shot! This one was a real quick one, so...yeah. Nothing phenomenal. XD
Summary: Ratatouille Crossover, one shot. When Sora goes into the supposedly haunted kitchen in Hollow Bastion on a dare, he expects to see a ghost or two. What he does find, however, is anything but a ghost.
Little Chef
By FlikFreak
"They say the kitchen in Hollow Bastion is haunted."
Sora would have exploded with laughter when he heard it – especially considering that it came from Leon of all people – but part of him had a strong feeling that the man wasn't kidding. Yuffie had nodded in agreement when he had made the statement, and Sora's belief that this was all some sort of joke turned into annoyance. Even so, Sora knew that Leon had his own odd side, considering how the man had barely managed to explain the ninety nine missing puppies in Traverse Town without looking away and falling unusually silent. With that said, Sora came up with an idea.
One of the committee would go into the kitchen and cook something, as that seemed to be the only time anything strange happened. As luck would have it, when they drew straws, Sora got the longest, and he wound up trudging toward the castle with a vaguely drawn map to lead him to the kitchen and an apron shoved into his arms by Leon. Behind his back, he could hear Yuffie and Cid making a bet ("Twenty munny he runs out screaming!") and Aerith wishing him luck.
The castle's kitchen was more impressive than Sora had anticipated. It was fairly large, much like one in a gourmet restaurant than anything, with the same dark color scheme as the rest of the castle. The food cabinet nearby was slightly open, and overall the kitchen was quite clean. Sora sighed, tying on the apron that Leon had given him and pulling out one of the old cook books in the corner, picking a recipe and gathering the ingredients.
Soup isn't that hard to make, he told himself as he pulled out a few spice bottles from a top shelf. Mom made it for me all the time.
After Sora had pulled everything out, he set to work. After several minutes, he was nearly half-way through the recipe and absolutely nothing was wrong. No ghosts, no mysterious sounds…nothing. "They said this place was haunted," he muttered, chuckling. "Doesn't seem so haunted to me."
A hissing sound caught Sora's attention, turning his gaze to the stove. His eyes widened. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" he cried as he hurried over and began stirring a bit frantically. Geez, does it really not take that long to boil over?! It was then that Sora stopped and looked closely in the pot he was working with.
I didn't add any onions.
A chill went up Sora's spine. Maybe this was what Leon meant. Maybe the kitchen really was haunted. But no…that was just silly. How bad could it be for food to cook itself? Even so, Sora was a bit uneasy, and went to cutting some lettuce. He turned back around just in time to see some unfamiliar leaves (probably spices) fall into the mixture. He blinked, doing a double take. "Odd," he muttered. "What's going on here?"
There was a tiny, almost completely unnoticeable sound of a few utensils clattering over head. Sora's head snapped up. Was this part of the so-called haunting, too? He shook his head. For Ven's sake, food cooking and preparing itself was a pretty lame haunting. Rolling his eyes, Sora went to gather some of his previously diced tomatoes and put them in. Luckily, nothing had changed this time. He gave a sigh of relief and went to reach for the salt when he found that he didn't have any. He smacked himself for his forgetfulness. How could I forget? You put salt on like, everything. And with that, he headed for the cabinet.
He was just reaching for one of the larger salt containers when he heard more rattling in the kitchen. He froze, old instincts from his many visits to Halloween Town coming into play. Okay, someone is definitely in here. He crept slowly out of the cupboard, eyes locked onto where the soup pot was, and inched his way toward it. He had half a mind to summon the keyblade, but there was no way he'd ruin all that hard work. He watched and waited for a good thirty seconds before something happened.
There! A few chopped carrots flew from one side of the pot and into it. Sora blinked, watching as a ladle spun around and a little creature climbed up it, sniffing the air deeply. Is that a…a rat?
Sora was about to charge forward when the rat climbed back down the ladle and scampered up to the shelf above the pot, carefully maneuvering around some of the spices. A few more diced onions fell in, and he carefully poured some crème down from the shelf into the pot. As the little rodent continued scampering around, adding spices here and sniffing the air there, Sora found what he was seeing hard to believe. Is he trying to…?
The rat must have noticed Sora because it froze, staring at him with wide eyes. Sora just blinked, approaching. "You've been the one adding stuff this whole time?" He asked. The little rat nodded, and Sora felt a grin climb up his face. So he was cooking. That's…weird. "So this kitchen isn't actually haunted?"
In response, the rat seemed to squeak a few times – probably laughing at the concept as much as Sora had – and shook his head. Sora chuckled. "I thought so."
As interesting as the encounter was, Sora wasn't done with the soup yet. He started forward, stirring it a bit and still blinking a few times when the rat tossed in a few spices here and there, squeaking every now and then in protest to a few of Sora's actions and pointing him in the right direction. It was strange, listening to a rat for cooking advice, but the end result was surprising. Upon finally being finished, Sora was allowed a taste test, upon which he shot back in awe. "This tastes amazing," he remarked. "I've got to show this to the others. Is…that alright with you?"
The rat nodded eagerly, leaping off of the table and onto Sora's arm, scampering up to his shoulder and then onto his head. The tiny claws on the rat's feet tickled his skin, and his chosen perch reminded him strongly of where Mushu would stand as a summon.
As he prepared to take the soup back to the committee, Sora smirked. Yuffie was totally going to lose that bet with Cid.