Warning: grammar

Disclaimer: no character is mine.

It's Cooking Time!

Part 26

Deathmask had been very busy since he was back to the mansion, humming lightly as he chopped onion. The rice had been boiled for a while with stock and butter. On the counter, there were several kilos of aubergines, tomato, eggs, meat, and gamberorosso. Several bags contained of flour, caster sugar, cocoa powder, cheese and bottles of wine. He practically ignored the traffic that had come and go; several gold saints had been coming into the kitchen in effort of finding hangover cure after last night beer chucking. He smirked; Dohko had been kind enough to let him out from the drinking, the other not so much.

Most of the gold saints had been roped into drinking competition. No one could back out from it except Aiolia, Deathmask and of course Shion. To make it worst, the Chinese man actually teleported from the garden to his room and out with his rice wine stash… the one with 57% alcohol in it? That was the downfall. No surprise that the one who could hold the challenge was Alderbaran and Aphrodite. The bull star could hold the alcohol due to his massive body and Aphro… all of them knew he was practically immune to plant toxic, beer and wine were all plant based fermentation…

Shion was horrified but thankfully had shooed all the teens into the mansion as soon as Dohko come out with his rice wine. Most of the gold saints had either dropped 'dead' or throw up, not used to Chinese wine mixed with beer too. Sure was fun putting their 'drop dead' comrades and taking care of the drunken one. The current Pope had been glaring at the Libra this morning since he had to bridal carried his drunken protégé to the bedroom last night.

Deathmask let out another chuckled, washing eggplants then chopping into 2 cm thick. A groan made the man looked back, finding cranky Saga making his way to the refrigerator. The older lad opened the fridge and peered in, taking a can of soda out. One hand pressing the cold can onto his temple.

"Hangover?" The crab signed grinned. The long hair man growled and murmured, opening the can in process.

"Fucking headache." He hissed, sipping the liquid slowly, taking a seat on some chair that had been placed in the corner. "I wished I threw up last night."

"Like what Milo and Shaka did?" He cringed. He was the one who escorted both of them into the toilet. Yeah, Deathmask was being nice to his juniors for once. Another reason was no one sober enough to help with it yesterday, Aiolia and Shion had been preoccupied with the others.

"They threw up their alcohol back and clever enough to stay put, escaping." He hissed once again. As if fate was mocking him, Milo had just walked in into the kitchen. Yawning and moving toward the cupboard, looking quite refreshed actually.

"Morning." He greeted, searching for something to eat. He took the morning leftover croissants and munched. Shifting toward the fridge to take half filled milk carton, peering inside before drank from it directly.

"Great." Saga frowned; his headache was thumping inside his skull.

"You looks bad, Saga." The Scorpio noted. There was a glare. Deathmask lined the eggplant he cut on the tray and sprinkle some salt, letting it to rest. He moved to the grinded meat, to put some seasoning. This time, Shaka arrived to the kitchen too.

"Good morning." The blond saint paused. "Hangover, huh?"

"Tsk." The oldest saint twitched his eyes then walked out from the kitchen as fast as he could allow without hurting his head.

"Did I say something wrong?" Deathmask let out a snort of amusement. The Virgo saint looked at his peer questioning, the Scorpio friend could only shrugged.

"Milk?" Milo asked, offering that 750ml milk carton, he was back to chewing his croissant.

"Sure…" After taking his share of food from the cupboard; both the gold saints settled on that small table for late breakfast and sharing milk. After all, both had been eaten nothing since throw up last night. The crab sign practically ignored his juniors and began to clean gamberorosso to be marinated.

"Mask, last night, than-" The Scorpio saint began but was quickly cut.

"Stop right there." He said without looking, both his juniors looked at each other in silent. They don't understand why Deathmask always want to be view as evil even after the war was over.

Saint

Seiya

It was not long before two cosmos reappeared inside the kitchen; one of them was that familiar dark God cosmo. Hades gave the trio a glance, was vanishing before everyone could say anything else. Shun blinked. One second he was in Acheron and another second he was back in mansion. Both Shaka and Milo had acknowledged him slightly. There was a growl as Deathmask whipped around, tray of marinated eggplants on his hands.

"Now, you two, out from here. I need that table." He said walking toward it and glanced at the teen. "And you, stop dilly dally, apron on!"

"Yes, chef!" Shun quickly ran out from the kitchen, taking his apron.

"You don't need to be so rude." Shaka commented; his face didn't show any emotion but his usual voice was a little higher; after all he viewed Shun as Virgo cloth successor.

"My kitchen my rule, you two out!"

"Geez, and I thought you were being nice for once." Milo murmured, finally walking away, throwing the finished milk carton into the trash bin. Shaka let out a sigh as he too walked out.

"…" The Cancer saint let out a sigh of relief. Cooking had become his way to drive out the other, to leave him alone. After the Wailing Wall and the war with Asgarian, he felt he had lost himself. As a gold saint, the said Cancer cloth had dispossessed and rejected him. In war with the Asgar, he even refused to wear the cloth, fearing rejection. The Cancer cloth once again recognized him as the right owner; The battle with Andreas proved that he still had his conscience, that Athena had forgiven him. But the problems remained.

The twin, Shura and Aphrodite had gained the respect back since Hades battle and Asgar war. Deathmask however was different. In Hades battle, he didn't help much, being defeated quickly by Mu. In Asgard, afraid of rejection made him dismissed Aiolia so casually; making any respect he had depleted from 0 to minus. He only know how to poke fun the other, torturing, and being evil for so long that he didn't know how to act when he was surrounded by the other for 24/7. That's also why he avoided being alone with his juniors most of the time.

Shura or Aphrodite usually present whenever he joined into mission, serious or ridiculous mission alike. Not long ago, he had one mission with Aiolia and Camus. He was impatient or maybe because he wanted to avoid both of them thus he went on his own, leaving both his juniors behind. Problem was he was dealing with wine induced centaurs near Dionysus' temple.

Flashback

The order was just to subdue but the centaurs were drunk and violent and… too many to handle. He was cornered, thankfully Aiolia came just in time to knock some of them with his lightning bold and Camus was able to blast some with his Aurora Execution. Still, one of the centaurs was able to launch arrows. One arrow was uncomfortably close to his neck. Camus was able to shield him with the ice but another stray arrow had been able to stab the ice master on his unprotected upper left arm. Meanwhile Aiolia was able to speed light into the centaur and subdue him quickly but the damage however minimal was done. Or so they all thought. Aiolia was mad at him and he was defensive, almost punching the younger male. What stopped them was Camus who suddenly dropped to the ground, coughing blood.

When the word 'poison' came from the Aquarius saint, the Leo saint was in panic. Camus, always being a clear head was able to telepathically ask Mu to teleport either Milo or Aphrodite before losing consciousness. First on scene was Aphrodite, he worked quickly realizing the poison might spread fast. His Pisces cloth resonance with the Aquarius, asking the cloth to remove itself from its master. After the cloth was back into pendant shape, Aphro used the white rose to pierce near Camus' heart. The white rose could remove blood but it could also be used to remove poison. Another minute tick by before Milo appeared, quite pale too.

Camus broke into fever in the first and second day. Both Milo (It took some efforts and persuasion to force the Scorpio out from Aquarius' bedroom) and Aphrodite took turn nursing and observing the ice master. Athena had also came to heal the 11th temple guardian from any remaining poison (if there any) and the arrow's wound. His pupil was worried sick too, asking Aiolia several times about what had happen but the Leo saint kept quiet. What happens in that mission stayed in the gold saints rank and Pope. But Camus rarely make mistake so it was clear as day that someone had fuck up.

End of flashback

"Chef?" The voice of the resident God saint stopped his trail of thought. The older man blinked once. He looked at the green hair saint, groaning lightly before depositing the trays to the table.

"Now, make yourself useful, mince that meat."

"Yes." Shun moved to grab meat processor from the cabinet and began to work with it. Uncomfortable silent issued. There was only the sound of machine. Deathmask washed the prawns and de-shelled it one by one before putting them to marinate in lemon and olive oil. The boy was glancing once in a while, observing what the chef had done. The mince was done in no time and Shun was wondering of what else to do. "Anou (um)."

Deathmask glared lightly, he moved to the rice that he had cook and checking. Satisfied with the rice, he removed the pot from the fire. Breaking lightly the rice, the chef mentioned to take the meat to him. Shun was given the pot of rice and motioned him to put that thing away. Then the Cancer stars took a huge frying pan. In the olive oil and chopped onion, not long it was the mince meat turn to be fried in high heat. The peas, wine and tomatoes were next then water. The Andromeda saint was watching since he didn't know what else to do and he noticed the man didn't really want his help.

"Chef?"

"You still here? Just do whatever you want." Deathmask said dismissively.

"But."

"I'm doing just fine, now get lost." It was five minutes later that he noticed the younger man hadn't move out from the kitchen. He turned around and glared. "You still here?!"

"Yes, you said I'm free to do whatever I want. Can I watch?" Shun wanted to shrink in size but he really want to learn. Everyone knew, the blue hair saint was unofficial resident chef and he could whip up some amazing Italian food. The older man growled slightly but he didn't say anything at all as he continued to reduce his meat stock. The teen watched him carefully as the man moved to the other things to do. This time, shells for his dessert. Both stayed in silence but this time, it was comfortable silent. Deathmask face relaxed when he was working on the dessert, a reminiscence of his teacher. His lips moved up into a slight smile.

To be continue

Authoress note: Thank you for following and favoriting this story and even my old fics :D