Chapter 7: He Can Cook?

Darkness again? Yep, it was the exact same dream again. It was almost annoying to him by now that he wasn't getting any closer to finding out why he was just getting this particular dream for the past few days. Almost annoying to him. He did want to know who was kissing him though, since he thought it'd be nice to see how clearly had the hots for him. In a dream. God it's pathetic...

This time, instead of just one, he opened both his eyes; he wanted to see who it was for real now. But again, he would be denied; a blur. However once again he did notice more of this woman. She seemed fairly tall, she had rubbed her hands over his arms and he could feel her bare fingers; so she wasn't wearing gloves.

He wanted to know more about this mystery woman so this time he reached his arms out slowly to try and feel her, if there was any clues; it could be anyone he knows after all. He reached for her shoulders first and slowly trailed his hands down her arms, at least he was sure it was her arms as he had shut his eyes again.

He did feel clothing, so this woman wasn't completely naked at least. Shame... He thought to himself but then in a quick change of his usual character, threw the thought away and carried on feeling and touching this woman's body. His hands went to her stomach, though not too low since he thought knowing what's happened so far he'd be woken up right when he was feeling 'those' parts. Seemed to be clothing there too.

So there were a few people he could think of just from this, but he kept going, to her legs. A bodysuit maybe? Or long socks? Or boots? Couldn't tell even if he did open his eyes, it'd just be an annoying blur. So he might aswell do what he should have done in the first place. Go to her face. He lifted his hands up and started to cup her face in his hands...

Or he would have done, if he didn't wake up. Joe's eyes shot open in realisation, he wasn't much closer to figuring this mystery woman out. Dammit! He thought angrily to himself. He sighed and looked around the cabin. He saw in the window that it was night-time. Guess his sleep pattern was bit screwed now, not that it was a major problem considering what everyone else went through on their adventures.

He moved his leg to help himself up when it softly hit something on his bed. He lifted his head up to notice something he somewhat didn't expect. Rita sleeping while sitting at his bed. Guess there were more tests to do than I thought. He felt himself smile softly at the sight of the mage sleeping peacefully. She's cute when she's asleep like this. But then his eyes widened a little and then he shook his head. Cute? Jesus, Judith was way more of his type than anything.

Not to mention all the other women he (claims) to have been with before, none of them were anything like Rita. "God knows what I thought there." But he did look at the sleeping mage again for a few moments, watching her chest move slowly up and down as she breathed. He slowly sat up. "Well, regardless, I can't leave a hard working mage sleeping like this can I." He maneuvered himself to quietly get himself out of bed without disturbing the mage. When out, he quietly moved behind her.

"Knowing Rita, I gotta make sure not to wake her up here..." He whispered to himself as he got his arms behind her back and under her legs as he slowly moved her onto the bed, taking special care not to wake her up. He slowly but quietly got Rita's shoes off as he then went to the table in the middle of the room and sat down.

"Why did Rita actually detect aer coming from me? That shouldn't be possible." He wondered if this had any connection to his new body in this world. But then a smirk came onto his lips. "Then again, if this indeed possible and Rita figures this out, maybe I'll be able to use all my moves with no fear of knocking myself out. It might even work when we get home." God he was looking forward to Nordapolica.

His smirk quickly passed as he then realised something. "What the hell is there to do before we get to Dahngrest though? Can't listen to music all night. And I'm not getting back to sleep anytime soon, not to mention everyone else is probably sleeping outside." He looked around then noticed one book in particular on the floor, which he picked up out of curiosity. "Ah right, their recipe book. Hmm..." He then shrugged to himself. "You know what, why not?" He opened the book up and got to reading.

A few hours had passed, and Rita began to stir. Though there was something she doesn't normally expect when she was waking up; she could smell food. And... it smelt good. Rita slowly opened her eyes and saw she was laying on a bed. The same bed the hedgehog was in. Did he move me here? So then where is...? Her train of thought was interrupted when she turned around and noticed that the yellow hedgehog was doing something he himself didn't think he'd be doing.

He was cooking. There were a few plates on the table and various ingredients set around the place while he kept his eyes focused on the recipe book he became oh-so interested in. Rita rubbed her eyes and brought her attention back to the smell she noticed earlier. It did indeed smell good, but of course the smell doesn't mean everything when it comes to food and one's cooking ability. She slowly moved her legs so she was sitting up on the bed, noticing that Joe seemed oblivious to her waking up.

He had no idea how many hours had passed since he started, but he sure as hell didn't expect cooking would be so easy here for him. Granted, everything he tasted back home seemed good to him, but what about everyone else? He was trying every recipe in the book. He easily made some sandwiches and some croquettes for himself, but now he was trying some other recipes out for everyone else, taking note of the little 'marks' everyone left by certain recipes; he guessed that's what everyone put as their favourites.

Rita slowly got up and rubbed her eyes. "What're you doing? When did you learn to cook?" The hedgehog snapped out of his cooking frenzy and looked at the mage. "Sorry, didn't notice you were awake." He quickly took a look at the pan he was using and stopped frying whatever it was he was cooking. "To answer your question, all I've known to cook before was simple-ready meals. But after finding this book here, I decided to try everything out."

Rita sat down at the table and raised an eyebrow. "But why? We can all cook fine you know. And should you even be up? I'll need to do more scans and tests on you eventually." Joe shrugged. "I just thought why not, since you lot are helping me figure everything out. I guess this was one way I could repay your hospitality I guess." He turned and gave her a quick grin. "Besides, from what I saw, you've been doing enough scanning for the night. You can take a quick break at least." The mage sat back in slight surprise. "So it was you who moved me onto the bed." The hedgehog nodded. "Couldn't leave you sleeping like that could I?" Rita nodded slowly. "I guess..." Her attention then turned to that smell that brought on her curiosity in the first place.

"So chef, what're you cooking then?" The hedgehog opened up the pan and put what he was cooking into a bowl. "Rice. Gonna make some Rice Ball's, since judging by this mark in the book, it's one of your favourites." Rita grinned. "Sure you can handle that? It's harder to do than those sandwiches you seem to have mastered already." This brought a competitive smirk from the yellow hedgehog.

"Guess we'll see won't we? You're eating some of them." Rita then shook her head while waggling her finger. "Oh no no no, you're getting the first taste here. As it's one of my favourites, you wanna make sure you haven't screwed this up don't you?" Joe chuckled. "Tell you what, we'll both try them at the same time." He took the rice out of the pot and started to make the rice balls. Rita then smirked back at him.

"That a challenge or something? Tell you what, if I like the rice balls you make I'll... kiss you for ten seconds." Joe gave a confident grin in response. "Oh? Then if you don't like them then I'll... do the cooking for everyone the whole time I'm here with you all and you can run any and every test you want on me with no objections." Rita's smirk grew wider. "Deal!" The hedgehogs smirk faded a little when she said that.

"I was kidding."

"Too late, let's try these things out!"

And now the pressure was on him. He didn't want to do all the cooking the entire time he was here; what if he would end up being here for a few months? Or even a year? He did just get an interest in cooking, but jesus he didn't want to do that non-stop. Not to mention he knew Rita was bluffing when she said she'd kiss him. She was freaked out the first time she saw him, he was surprised he didn't make her skin crawl, never mind want to kiss him on her own free will.

He spent a few minutes making sure the rice balls were perfect, all the while Rita was egging him on in an attempt to screw with him. "Come on, you don't want me to kiss you or something?" The hedgehog was getting annoyed, he wondered why he took a sudden interest in this. God he was regretting it already. When he was finally done, he put all six rice balls on a plate for them both. Rita had been grinning the entire time, fully confident that even though she was hoping she'd hate these, she would at least knock the hedgehog off his high horse.

Joe sighed. "Well, shall we?" He took a rice ball from the plate and watched Rita do the same, that grin still plastered on her face. "Hope you learn quick, cause I doubt everyone will want bad cooking the whole time you're here." The hedgehog sighed again, he knew he screwed this up. "Enjoy." He then took a bite of the rice ball he held and Rita did the same with hers.

The hedgehog immediately hated it. He shut his eyes tight in disgust as he grabbed a bag and spit it back out, coughing a few times to get all the flavour out. He grabbed a bottle of water he took out earlier and took several swigs from it. Never eating rice again... He took a pen and made a little mark to point out that he hated the recipe, still coughing a little from the bad taste.

He noticed Rita hadn't said (or gagged) anything, so he looked up at her. She had a stunned look on her face as she held the other half of the rice ball in her hand. Joe sighed again as he got another bag and held it out for her. "Go ahead, no point torturing yourself." Rita's look didn't change, she seemed frozen. Joe looked at her with a puzzled look. "Rita? Are you okay?"

She swallowed the rice she had in her mouth, then slowly looked down at it, then a rapid blush came across her face. "This is... this is..." A very slow grin started to emerge on the hedgehogs lips. "This is?"

"Amazing..." Rita quickly ate the rest of her rice ball and took all the others in simarly quick fashion, eating them all. "These are awesome! You should've learned to cook ages ago!" Rita quickly took the recipe book and made some extra marks on the Rice Ball recipe, seemingly signalling that she just wanted the hedgehog to cook them for her from now on. Joe scratched the back of his head sheepishly before grinning at her. "So, I guess that means I won our little bet then."

Rita immediately stopped writing. Oh god I forgot... The blush came right back onto her face as she slowly looked back up at him. "Y-You know... I-I was kidding too ya know..." The hedgehog laughed as he stood up. "Now now, we had a deal. I lose, I cook for everyone while I'm here. I win... you kiss me for ten seconds. And last I checked, you loved my cooking; so that means I win."

Rita was almost shaking. B-But... Look at him! He's not even h-human! She would never admit to be scared of anything, but kissing something that didn't look human? It almost terrified her. She only said that because she was that certain he wouldn't cook them that well. While she was in her thoughts, the hedgehog had sat right next to her and was right in her face; that grin stuck on his face.

"Well, I'm waiting genius mage. It's just ten seconds, it won't kill you." Rita was blushing like mad and was shaking very noticeably at this point. She turned her head away. "J-Just aslong as you shut your eyes before I do it. There's no way you're watching me to do this..." Joe smirked at her. "Aww, and I wanted to see your face when you were ready to kiss. Too bad."

"D-Do you want this or not? J-Just do it already!" Joe snickered. "Alright, your rules Rita." The hedgehog closed his eyes and waited for her. Rita honestly had never kissed anyone before, though she obviously knew how to and she had seen several people kiss eachother. But she never thought he first kiss would be with... well, a yellow hedgehog who looks nothing like a normal hedgehog should.

She put her hand on the table, shaking like crazy. Nerves, nothing more surely. She didn't want to look at him during this, not to mention she had no idea what she would do if someone walked in during this. She shut her eyes tightly and very slowly started moving her head and body forward. Ten seconds... That's all it is, just ten seconds... T-Ten seconds... She then felt her lips touch him. Her eyes closed tighter as she wanted it over with. God knows what he was thinking right now.

A cough came from the direction she was facing, which made her eyes snap open. To which she didn't see the hedgehog's face right by her own. It wasn't even near her; her lips were on... his fingers? "I know you don't want to do this Rita, I'm not that sick. You're shaking so much from this, you don't know how bad I'd feel if I made you do this."

Rita blinked at him, almost unaware what was even happening. Joe smiled at her innocent face, which was still blushing like mad. "I'm glad you liked my cooking though. When I cook again, I'll make sure to stick to your favourites." He took his two fingers off her lips and got up and went to the door of the cabin before looking back at her.

"Want everyone else here for a late night dinner? I can try to cook everyone's favourites if you want. I'm sure Nexus can probably help." Rita just turned to face him, almost dazed from disbelief. "I...I..." Joe smiled at her. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna say anything about this whole thing." He walked out the door to get everyone, while Rita just sat there stunned.

She turned around and sat on the bed, still shaking and blushing. She couldn't believe he would be so... caring like that. She was certain he'd just take her kiss with everything he had right there. She shook her head to get the thoughts out of her head. "Idiot..." She said to herself, not believing she let herself get so worked up about this. But she was glad she was spared that more-than-likely disastrous moment.

She did slowly smile however, thankful that he did do that. "He does know how to cook. I think everyone could take lessons from him." She then quietly laughed. "Well, when it comes to Rice Balls anyway. Not sure how he'll do with the more complicated stuff." She then got a mischievous grin. "Maybe I'll tell him to make the old man some Sorbets..." She snickered as she stood up and cleaned up some of the left-overs while waiting to see if they would indeed have that late night dinner.


Don't worry, this won't be a RitaxOC story, so you don't need to get your sick-bags. My character won't be paired up with anyone outside the Sonic universe. Hope you lot are enjoying the story so far.