Rachridgeback: thanx. lol, it was close wasn't it? well here's the cooking lessons.

Disclaimer: xenosaga is as much mine as i am a girl... and i'm a guy... so it ain't mine...

Chapter Four:

Cooking Lessons

((Shion Uzuki))

Morning had come and I entered the kitchen. I didn't eat much at the restaurant last night... maybe I should've. But regardless, I was hungry. Not many people were there... chaos was there... Captain Matthews, and Jr. were there too.

"Hi everybody." I said cheerfully.

"Hey there chaos." Jr. replied. "You hungry?"

"Yep! I'm starving!"

"Well no luck for ya." Matthews said. "Shion won't cook for us."

I stared at chaos... and instantly knew the problem. "She probably just needs some help. Would you like some help Shion?" I asked, giving him a stare that said 'you-better-say-yes.'.

"Yes, thank you." he replied, walking to the back of the kitchen. When we were finally out of earshot he began begging. "Please, Shion, help me cook! These guys are monsters when it comes to food!"

I chuckled, and began getting out the ingredients. "Well, now you know what I go through when those guys are hungry. Here..." I laid out all the ingredients.

"But... I seriously don't know how to cook! I've never even used a knife before!"

"Oh... time to test my teaching skills... ok. Curry is basically rice and meat cooked together with a spice sauce." I took out the rice cooker. "Here, I'll cook up the rice, you cut up the meat."

"Um..." not saying anything, chaos took out a knife and began chopping. Though he was chopping, it wasn't... a good kind of chopping. "Ow!" I heard him gasp, minutes later. I quickly turned to him, and he was sucking on his finger. Blood was on the knife.

"Hmm... maybe I shouldn't have asked you to cut the meat. Ok, here..." I washed off the knife as he put a band-aid on the cut. Giving him the knife, I put both my hands on his, helping him to cut. "See... gently. You're in no rush."

We suddenly stopped working and looked at each other. He gave me a sheepish grin, and we moved closer to each other. It was just like last night... only this time... "Woah! Sorry!" Jr's voice shook us out of... our moment. "Didn't know anything was happening here." he snickered.

"Jr.!" I instantly took my hands off of chaos' "We're... ah..."

"Busy." chaos finished for me, continuing to cut as if nothing happened.

"Suuuuuure you are..." Jr. laughed.

chaos put down the knife, and frowning, stared at Jr. 'Wow...' I thought. 'That's a good impression of me...'

"Jr. you better not tell anyone about this... not that... anything happened. Ah..." we both blushed, and went back to work.

"Uh huh..." he said, not believing us. "Well... a bowl of curry may... keep me quiet!"

"It's coming, it's coming!" chaos yelled, shooing Jr. away. "Now get out!"

"Wow..." I said, amazed at chaos. "That was... just like me!"

"Well..." he put the meat in a pan. "If I look like you I should act like you, shouldn't I?"

I giggled. "I guess you're right. Now let's finish this up." I showed him how to create the sauce, as he plated up the rice and the cooked meat. "Now... just pour the sauce over the rice... and that's it! You've got curry!"

chaos groaned. "It's so complicated!"

"No it's not!" I pushed the button beside the stove, making a bell ring all over the Elsa. This signified that food was ready. "I'll go serve this up, you cook some more. Everyone's bound to be here soon."

As I served some food to Jin, Alan came and sat by him. 'Odd...' I thought. 'What would Alan want with Jin?'

I know that Ziggy always tells Jr. that eavesdropping is bad, but I just had to know what was going on. Pretending to clean the table behind them, I listened in. "Um... Jin? Can I ask you something?"

"Why certainly." Jin replied calmly.

"Um... do you think Shion likes chaos?"

"My sister? With chaos?" he sounded amused by Alan's worry. "No... if she was interested with him, I'd know about it. Trust me." Alan sighed very loudly. "Why do you ask? Are you interested in Shion?"

"What?" he pulled back quickly. "No, no, no! I was... er... just wondering!" he laughed nervously, and I headed to the back of the kitchen.

'We should be more careful around Alan...' I thought to myself.

"Well!" I put away the last of the dishes. "I'd say that that was some er... good cooking."

"Are you kidding?" chaos laughed. "They said the rice was not cooked enough, the meat was overcooked, and the sauce was too spicy!"

"Well..." I put on a worried face, as I did for everyone outside. "Shion is a little sleepy... her cooking skills may be a little off..."

"A little off?" he asked, grinning. "Try beyond fixing!"

"Oh it's not that bad!" I put my arms on my hips. Remembering that chaos never did that, I put my arms back to my side. "All you have to do is let up on the spices, and watch your cooking times!"

"Easy for you to say... you do it all the time!"

"Well... at least you get the idea. So now what?"

chaos suddenly jolted. "I have to teach you how to navigate the Elsa!"

I sighed. "Do we have to do it now?"

"Yes!" he peeked into the kitchen. "I've gotta do it now, while everyone is still preoccupied. Captain Matthews would get a little suspicious if I was teaching you about the navigation system and he was there."

"Ahh... alright. Let's go." we sneaked out of the kitchen.

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A/N: OMG! i'm so ticked off! i was had a bunch of this typed up after this chapter... like 3 chapters... and i opened up the original to save the next chapter as a seperate document... and i went to save... and i hit save instead of save as! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! meh... i'm so depressed now... R&R plz... ((begins muttereing to self about how annoying it's going to be retyping those chapters))