Toki was aware, far in advance, that this sort of thing would happen. He'd known that Sakura and Rui were going on a bit of a retreat and that Shibuya had gone with them for added protection and he knew all too well what that meant for meals. There would be no one to cook at Shibuya mansion that night; it would be Ogami, him, and Yuuki left to fend for themselves in the cold and desolate wilderness. Well, that metaphor was a bit extreme. Her highness had left several piles of distinct ingredients with meticulous instructions behind for the reluctant trio to make some sort of easy dish or another. Peppers and meat and various other foodstuffs littered the countertop and Toki found himself staring at them without much hope.

Ogami had cheerfully offered to make them a meal straight from the cans in the back of the pantry but Toki, with his aristocratic tongue, had vetoed the offer immediately. Yuuki had watched in apathetic stasis. The next option had been to ask Heike; while Toki was not entirely sure that he lived there, it was worth a try. He knocked on the door next to Yuuki's and, much to his surprise, did find Heike behind it. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the gleeful look Heike gave him at the prospect of cooking removed him from the list of viable chefs.

Toki briefly entertained the idea of ordering out; he was not known for his cooking ability and God (or more likely the devil) knew what monstrosity of a meal Yuuki would create. Unfortunately Rui had made it clear that if any of the food she'd left out was wasted skulls would crack and heads would roll. Rui never bluffed.

His options exhausted, Toki decided that it was his turn to attempt to cook; it was going on seven at night and Yuuki was complaining, quite loudly, that if he was not given food soon he would make the meal himself. Toki was not willing to risk that.

Half an hour later, with Yuuki's voice several decibels higher, Toki had little to show for his effort but a pile of charred vegetables and was willing to do just about anything to get Yuuki to shut up and get some food in his stomach. It was a great moment of weakness, he would say later. He was starving, he was tired, and his ears hurt like hell. He could not be held accountable for his actions, particularly the part where he gave Yuuki control of the kitchen. It was only logical, he insisted, that he evacuated the room immediately after.

There was smoke.

There was fire.

There were, perhaps, several inexplicable explosions.

Strange smells and odd sounds drifted out of the kitchen and not even Heike dared to investigate whatever was idly bubbling upon Shibuya Mansion's stove. Minutes passed or perhaps it was hours- to Toki it felt like days- before Yuuki emerged, an oven mitt perched upon his head and a hissing pot restrained with both hands. "Dinner's done." he said and Toki thought that he'd never been so terrified by those words in his entire life. Hands, Heike's hands, grabbed his wrists and pulled him into the kitchen.

The food that greeted Toki's plate was, much like Yuuki, haimish in nature. It did not sparkle and gleam as it would if it had been prepared by Tenpouin's legion of private chefs, nor did it bubble and skirr across the plate as Toki had expected; it merely sat there looking mildly unappetizing but mostly unassuming. It was now well past nine and Toki would gladly describe his current condition as "starving." Starving was not, however, enough justification to eat something that Yuuki had made, particularly something that looked like a brown lumpy mass on his plate. The dish was not moving of its own volition at the moment but that didn't mean that it wasn't napping.

But Yuuki was not the sort to let his effort be wasted and his tactless stares eventually wore Toki down. He scooped some of the offending foodstuff onto a spoon and stared at it. This seemed to please Yuuki, but not completely placate him. His gaze remained fixed somewhere just to the left of Toki's head. The spoon closed a distance that felt like miles between his plate and his mouth and, without a moment of hesitation, he took a bite.

And then he took another.

And another.

He wasn't sure why he hadn't realized it sooner; Yuuki never had to try to succeed in anything and cooking was no exception.