A/N: I had no idea what to write for this one so I thought outside of the box a little bit. It paid off, because I actually kind of love it. I hope you do too!

Day 20 | All Starz + Mariah (minor Rick/Mariah) | Rated: T

Wings

"How the hell did it come to this?"

Rick meant the question, muttered low under his breath, to be rhetorical, but Emily turned to him and said, "I wonder that every time I'm stuck babysitting you three."

He was going to assume she meant him, Michael, and Eddy, not Mariah whose back they were currently conversing over. He scowled at her and she took a sip of her water with lemon in response. Emily was lucky Mariah was sandwiched between them in the booth, or he might have tipped her cup back while she drank.

"Don't loop me in with those bozos," he grumbled, jabbing his thumb across the table.

Michael and Eddy were sharing the other booth. Currently they were leaning over the table, pointing to something on the menu that Mariah was taking a keen interest in. Rick knew better than to think they were giving her a friendly recommendation – he'd been to this restaurant before.

"The Ghost Pepper Wing Challenge," Michael said with grandeur, enunciating every word for maximum emphasis.

"Complete that baby and we all eat for free," Eddy added, "if you think you can handle it."

Rick groaned and massaged the bridge of his nose. He was getting a migraine. It happened a lot when he was around the other All Starz for extended periods of time. It didn't help that he'd finished his first beer before the waitress had returned to take their food order. Now he had nothing to drown his irritation with until she came back.

"You don't have to do it, Mariah." He ignored the way she looked up at him curiously in favor of glaring at Eddy and Michael. "They put everyone up to it because they're too cheap to pay for their own shit."

Eddy rolled his eyes, that dumb cocky grin never leaving his face.

Michael scoffed and said, "Please, I own baseball gloves that cost more than all of our lunches combined."

"We just like to know if people can do it," Eddy added innocently before Michael could go off on the usual tangent about whether Rawlings or Wilson gloves were better. "None of us have been able to."

"None of you?" Mariah asked, peering around the table at the rest of them. Rick could tell by the elevation of her eyebrows that her interest officially piqued and fought the urge to groan again. He really wished he had another beer.

"Well, Emily's never tried," Eddy amended.

"I have better things to do than wreck my digestive system so you can get a free meal," she said, not even bothering to look up from her phone. She was probably answering work emails because she had no idea how to take a day off.

"What do you even have to do?" Mariah asked, looking puzzled by Emily's words.

Michael and Eddy bumped fists victoriously, happy to have claimed another victim. Emily's gaze snapped up from her phone in disbelief. She probably assumed, like Rick did, that Mariah was smart enough not to be suckered in by their teammates.

"Curiosity killed the fucking cat," Rick muttered.

"The goal is to eat half a dozen ghost pepper wings in under five minutes," Michael said, ignoring Rick's commentary. He was craning his neck in search of a waitress, eager to get the ball rolling.

"That sounds easy."

"They're whole wings. And you aren't allowed to drink anything or throw them up," Eddy chimed in. He was either pacing himself with his beer or talking too much – Rick was gonna go with the latter – but he took a long swig before continuing. "They're probably the spiciest wings in the city. I swear they're hotter than normal ghost peppers."

"Please. How many ghost peppers have you actually had?" Rick asked skeptically. He was tired of this bullshit already, which was exactly why he didn't seek out Michael and Eddy for company.

Before Eddy could come up with a good lie for Rick to call him out on, Mariah rested a hand on Rick's forearm and squeezed. That was a surefire way to get his attention. And to make Eddy waggle his eyebrows like a douche. Rick looked at her hand, then her face, and raised an eyebrow in a silent question.

"How many did you eat?"

"What?"

"How many ghost pepper wings did you eat before you had to throw in the towel?" Mariah asked more specifically. There was a mischievous smirk curling onto her lips and Rick knew there was no way she was backing down now. "I want to know how many I have to eat to beat your record."

Rick answered "four" at the same time Emily said "three and a half" and Eddy snickered. Michael was too busy kneeling backwards on his seat, flirting his way through the wing order, to notice anything else. Their waitress was blushing and definitely slipped him her phone number before she left. Rick wanted to leave too – so fucking bad.

"Well, I'll just shoot for all six," Mariah said. She took a drink of water in preparation and then slid the glass to the other side of the table into Eddy's waiting hands. "I can handle spice."

"Famous last words," Michael laughed. He had his phone out and was plugging in the waitress's number already.

It didn't take long for the wings to come. Their waitress delivered them flanked by two other employees. One of them held an extra bottle of ghost pepper sauce marked with a skull and crossbones. Without prompting, he drizzled some on top of Mariah's already smothered wings.

"Ready?" the other one asked, thumb hovering over the button on a stopwatch.

Mariah nodded and the staff began a countdown. Rick had forgotten how much of a fucking production this was, as several other patrons stood up at their seats or gathered around to watch. Eddy was counting down with the crowd and Michael had already begun filming the challenge on his phone. Emily was the only one who looked as annoyed as Rick felt.

When the count reached zero, Mariah dug in.

She seemed to have a system for breaking and eating the wings, and she left the cleanest bones he'd ever seen. He let himself be a little impressed, even as he watched for signs that the ghost pepper was getting to her. The sauce was making his eyes water from where he was sitting, for crying out loud.

Once she passed wing number four, the crowd started to get even more pumped up. Eddy and Michael were banging their fists on the table and there were people chanting Mariah's name. This was gonna be all over the internet later and Rick couldn't even give a fuck because he was too busy staring at her in total disbelief.

When she tossed the last bone from the last wing down on the plate, the crowd roared. Michael and Eddy leapt to their feet to congratulate her with a round of high-fives. Emily looked shell shocked. The waitress was the most helpful of all and set a glass of milk down in front of Mariah, which she accepted gratefully.

Amid all the chaos, she beamed at Rick with eyes rimmed in red and fingers still coated in wing sauce. It was absolute fucking insanity that he had to tamp down the urge to kiss her. He could only laugh and shake his head.

A/N: I love the All Starz. So chaotic. I do feel bad for never including Steve, so I'll have to remedy that soon. I have my eyes on him for another prompt. ;) I also love the idea of Mariah being able to handle the spiciest of foods when the boys can't lol Had fun with this.

Thanks for reading!