I doubt she'll be reading this since she's not a fanfiction person, but this chapter is for Izzy! (And if you are reading this, yes, I am taking your cheesecake incident!) Remember, there are other ways to ruin things than burning!
...
L and Watari had agreed to never talk about the washing up incident ever again. After L had recovered from his concussion and Watari's broken finger had healed, it was back to business as normal. But after a week or two, L became bored again. There just wasn't anything to do. And, stupid as it sounded, he actually wanted to cook something again. It didn't have to be fairy cakes. Maybe he was just not very good at cooking fairy cakes in particular. For all he knew, he could be fantastic at cooking. Just not fairy cakes.
L braced himself as he knocked on Watari's door. Hopefully Watari would understand.
"Yes?"
"Um... Watari?" Watari looked at him suspiciously. The last time L had used that tone of voice, it had ended up with a huge mess in the kitchen, a broken microwave, a concussion, a broken finger and several assorted cuts and bruises.
"Yes, Ryuzaki? Spit it out." He asked. L gulped.
"I know you're probably going to say no, but... I'd like another try please. At cooking, I mean."
"RYUZAKI! I can't believe you're even considering that! Remember what happened last time?" L smirked.
"We agreed not to talk about that. And anyway," he added, serious again. "It might just be fairy cakes I'm not very good at. We could try something different, something that won't make a mess and doesn't require cooking so it can't get burnt."
"But... I don't want a repeat of last time!"
"It won't be a repeat because we won't be cooking the same thing. And anyway, I promise that if I do make a mess this time I will clean it up myself and not make a fuss about it." L promised. Watari looked at him suspiciously.
"How do I know you won't refuse to clean up?"
"Um... you'll have to trust me."
Watari groaned.
"Fine. We'll make strawberry cheesecake. But if there's even one speck of mess, you will be cleaning it up." L nodded earnestly.
"The first thing you need to do is make the base." L watched as Watari removed a pack of plain digestive biscuits from a cupboard. "Weigh these out." L weighed them. They didn't have any chocolate on them, so he didn't even consider eating them. Once he had weighed them, he turned to Watari.
"So now what?"
"Now, crush the biscuits." L stared at him.
"Crush them? Are you sure?"
Watari sighed. "Yes, Ryuzaki. Crush them." L shrugged and tipped the biscuits out onto the table, before getting a rolling pin and rolling it over the biscuits. Once they were sufficiently ground up, he spread the crumbs around the table with his hands. Watari turned round and saw what he was doing.
"Ryuzaki! Stop!" He yelled.
"But you told me to crush them!"
"Not on the table! How are you going to put that in the mixture? And why were you spreading them around like that anyway?" L looked confused.
"But I thought you spread crushed biscuits on the table to stop stuff sticking there!"
Watari groaned. Again. "For a start, Ryuzaki, that's flour you do that with, not crushed biscuits! Where on earth did you get that idea from?" L shrugged.
"I knew you had to spread something on the table to stop stuff sticking, and when you asked me to crush the biscuits I assumed it was crushed biscuits."
"..." Watari was speechless. Again. He found his voice. "Well, never mind, just leave them there for now, I suppose... anyway, now we need to melt some butter." He handed L a tub of butter. It was very cold.
"Has this been in the freezer?" L asked. Watari nodded.
"We only had frozen stuff, but we're going to be melting it anyway so it shouldn't matter. Weigh it out."
L stuck a knife in to scoop out a lump of butter. It went in fine, but unfortunately it didn't want to come out. L yanked at the knife.
"Watari..." Watari came over and tried to remove the knife. It was stuck. He groaned.
"I guess we'll have to wait until it's defrosted a bit." He turned to get the next ingredient out, and L had an idea. He picked up the butter, still with the knife stuck in it, and put it in the shiny new microwave they had bought to replace the one he had broken. He pressed a few buttons, and the microwave switched on. Watari heard the sound and turned round.
"Ryuzaki! You don't put metal in a microwave! Or butter!"
"Well, why not?" His question was answered when a blue flash emitted from the microwave. He jumped back in shock, then ran and pressed the "stop" button.
"That's why you don't put metal in a microwave!" Watari groaned. "I hope you haven't broken this one too." He pressed a button, and the door opened. L removed the butter, and pulled the knife out.
"See? It was a good idea after all!" He pronounced. Watari pointed at the actual butter.
"No it wasn't." L looked down, and saw that the butter had totally melted. All of it.
"Oh..." He shrugged. "Well, that saves us the bother of melting it in a saucepan!"
Watari sighed and removed the butter from L's hands, placing it on the table next to the breadcrumbs. He then tested the microwave. Sure enough, it was broken. He groaned. Meanwhile, L was weighing out the liquid butter. He had actually managed to get himself a bowl to mix the butter and breadcrumbs in, and was sweeping the breadcrumbs off the table into the bowl.
"That's the second microwave you've destroyed in two we..." Watari stared at L. He was mixing the two ingredients together, and he wasn't making a mess! He stood there, silently, waiting for L to finish. When he had finished, he turned to Watari.
"So now what do I do?" Watari could only stare. There was no mess, anywhere!
"Watari?" Watari snapped out of it.
"Um, yes. Now..." he consulted the recipe book, "you can start blending the strawberries." He watched L walk over to the blender, and a sudden worry struck him.
"And don't forget to put the lid on the blender!" Of course, L wasn't listening.
L tipped the chopped strawberries into the blender, and searched for the lid. He couldn't find it, so he shrugged. If he put the blender on a low enough speed, it should be alright. He looked at the confusing knobs and dials on the blender. It looked like... that one should control the speed. He turned it completely to the left. That should be alright. Then, he plugged the blender in and switched it on.
The first thing Watari thought when he was hit with sticky red stuff was Oh my God, L's got his hand stuck in the blender. Then he realised it was strawberry.
"RYUZAKI! I told you to put the lid on!" L was sitting there, covered in strawberry. He licked his fingers absently, looking like some insane serial killer covered in blood (A/N Beyond Birthday! :D).
"Oops. Sorry, I didn't hear you. Plus, the stupid blender has its dials the wrong way round. I thought I was turning the speed down." He looked at the ruined kitchen.
"Well, we've got this far so we may as well carry on." Watari groaned and sat down.
"Are you alright, Watari?" L asked, concerned.
"I'm fine. Please, continue."
Eventually, L had managed to blend some more strawberries (with the lid on the blender this time), and mix them with the whipped cream. Now all that was left to add was the cheese. He looked in the fridge, and removed one packet of cream cheese. He tipped it in, and mixed it with the other ingredients. Watari stood up, feeling slightly amazed.
"Well, now all you have to do is put the base into the dish and put the mixture on top..." he faltered as he remembered that L was not the best person to trust to put things accurately in a dish. "Actually, I'll do that bit if you want. And then we'll put it in the fridge for a while." L agreed.
Watari frowned as he picked up the packet of cream cheese on the table. There was something funny about it... he turned it over, and the words "LOW FAT" caught his eye. He groaned, horrified. All that effort... for nothing! It wouldn't work with low fat cheese!
L and Watari looked at the cheesecake. It wasn't exactly solid. L pushed the dish, and the mixture slopped in the dish, some of it going over the edge. L looked at Watari.
"It's not meant to be like that, is it?" Watari put his head in his hands. He didn't have the heart to tell L he'd used the wrong kind of cheese. Maybe if L realised he was just rubbish at cooking generally, he'd stop. There was just one thought that cheered him up. He looked at L.
"You promised to clean this up!"
