A/N: I actually really love this one. Mr. Bobby Nash makes an appearance ;)

Day 9: Cooking Dinner

Title: Dinner Disaster

Chimney thought he had come up with one of his best ideas yet. He had decided that he was going to surprise Maddie by cooking her dinner. He had asked Bobby for a simple recipe that he couldn't mess up, and he had given Chimney a recipe for Three-Cheese Lasagna. Bobby had told him that it was one of the most simple things to fix. And Chimney had been confident that he could do it.

That was ten hours ago.

Now, he was standing in his kitchen with dirty dishes, pans, and Three-Cheese Lasagna that looked like it had been run over by a car. His apartment also smelled like it was on fire; most of the lasagna was burnt.

Chimney paced across the kitchen. He didn't know what to do or how to fix it. He was out of time because Maddie was going to be there soon. He didn't even have time to wash all the dishes, get rid of the god awful smell in his apartment, and act like the whole thing never happened.

"Oh, god!" Chimney groaned as he eyed the lasagna when he walked by it.

Truthfully, he really shouldn't have been surprised that it ended in a disaster. He never cooked. He never had any time or he was too tired to even try to when he got home from work.

But he really wished it would've worked out this one time. He just wanted to surprise Maddie and make her smile.

Chimney sighed as he got out his phone and called Bobby. He honestly didn't know why he was calling him. It wasn't like Bobby could magically fix the mess he had made.

Bobby picked up the phone within seconds. "Hey, how's that lasagna going?"

"It's awful, Bobby!" Chimney shouted.

"Tell me what step you're on, and maybe I can help you."

"I'm way past the steps. I'm at the part where I throw it in the trash."

"Chim, did you follow every step on that recipe?"

"Of course I did! I even double checked myself at every step. I don't know what happened. I just wanted this to be perfect for Maddie."

"Don't be too hard on yourself. Things happen, and Maddie will understand."

"But-" Chimney started to say, but Bobby interrupted him.

"Hey, I'm proud of you. You should be proud of yourself too."

"Bobby, you wouldn't be saying that if you were standing in my kitchen right now."

"I would because you actually tried to cook dinner yourself instead of asking me to do it and then pretending that you did. It didn't turn out great, but at least you tried. That's the most important thing."

Everything Bobby had said was true. At least he wasn't pretending to be someone he wasn't anymore. He didn't want to do that with Maddie. All he wanted to do was show who he truly was.

"Look, I know you were only trying to make Maddie happy, but she'll still appreciate what you tried to do for her."

"You think so?" Chimney asked.

"I'm sure of it. Everything will be okay."

Chimney sighed. Bobby was always right, so he was probably right about this.

"I'm sorry I called you," he apologized.

"Don't be sorry. I don't mind at all. You can always call me if you ever need anything."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome… and I'll teach you how to make lasagna or anything you'd want to learn how to make."

"Really?" Chimney asked.

"Of course."

Chimney smiled. "I'd love that. Thanks. You have a good evening, and tell Athena I said hi."

"I definitely will. I hope you have a good evening too. Bye."

"Bye, Cap."

Chimney ended the call and looked around his kitchen. He decided to throw the lasagna away because he definitely wasn't going to let Maddie eat that. He began to throw the dishes in the sink, and then he heard a knock at the door.

"Hang on a minute!" He shouted.

He mostly finished putting all the dishes in the sink and he rushed over to the door. When he opened it, Maddie's brows raised as she looked at him.

"Hey," he said out of breath. "Come in."

Maddie walked in and she made the strangest face.

"I, uh, I'm sorry about the smell. I was trying to cook dinner."

Maddie smiled. "I've never seen you cook dinner."

Chimney laughed nervously and shoved his hands in his pockets. "That's the problem. I never cook. I was just trying to change it up today and make lasagna."

Maddie moved past Chimney and went straight to the kitchen.

"Where is it? I want to try it," she said.

"I threw it away," he said as he walked towards the kitchen.

"Chim!"

"Maddie, I would've been the worst person in the world if I would've let anyone eat that. It could've sent someone to the hospital. If you think the smell is bad… it looked twenty times worse."

Maddie gave him a sad smile. "I'm sure there could've been something on it I could've eaten."

Chimney shook his head. "Nope."

"So, why did you decide to cook today?" Maddie asked after a moment of silence.

Chimney lowered his head and looked at the floor before he decided to look up at Maddie again.

"It was supposed to be for you… a surprise, but it didn't go as planned and I'm sorry-"

Before Chimney could even get out his whole apology, Maddie had rushed over to him and wrapped her arms around him. She had crashed into him so hard that he went backwards and his lower back hit the countertop. Maddie rested her head on Chimney's shoulder and a small smile formed on his lips.

"Thank you so much," she said. "No one has ever fixed me dinner before."

"Maddie, I- technically I didn't. It was ruined," he reminded her.

"I don't care."

"But-" Chimney began but Maddie interrupted.

"No one has ever bothered to try to make me dinner, so I don't care that it didn't turn out right. You attempted to make me dinner, and that means so much to me, Chim. Thank you so much."

Well, Bobby had definitely been right. Maddie still appreciated it after all.

Chimney hated knowing that no one had ever bothered to try to fix her dinner.

He was definitely going to take Bobby up on his offer to teach him how to cook. He would learn how to fix something even if it was going to kill him.

Maddie pulled away and walked over to the sink.

"Wow, this a mess," she said as she began to grab the dishes. She turned on the water, and Chimney walked over to her.

"Maddie, what are you doing?" He asked.

"I'm washing the dishes," she explained as she looked at him.

"You don't have to do that," he said.

Maddie shrugged. "I know, but I want to, and you're not going to stop me," she teased.

Chimney sighed. "Move over. I'm not letting you wash all of this by yourself. I'll wash, you rinse."

Maddie shook her head and smiled. "No. I'll wash, you rinse."

"Do we have to do a round of rock-paper-scissors to settle this?" He joked.

Maddie turned off the water and dried her hands.

"Let's do this," she said before she laughed.

They stood in front of each other, and they got into position. Chimney stared at his hands.

"Look at me. You might cheat," Maddie said.

He laughed. "Who cheats during a game like this?"

"Buck used to. He'd watch my hands and tried to change what he was going with at the last second. He used to cheat all the time."

"Wow. That sounds like Buck," he said as he looked at her. He stared directly into her eyes. "Are you ready?"

Maddie nodded.

"Rock paper, scissors… shoot!" They both said at the same time as they looked at each other.

"Chim!" Maddie shouted and he jumped.

"What?" He asked.

"You didn't do anything!"

Chimney looked down at his hands and Maddie was right. His hands were somehow by his side.

Oops.

He had paid more attention to Maddie's face instead of concentrating on their game.

"I uh, I wasn't ready," he said quietly.

Maddie laughed. "You're so silly. Let's try it again."

Chimney nodded and looked at her face again.

"Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!" They both said, and Chimney focused on trying to get the words out so he wouldn't get distracted again.

"Ha! It's settled," Maddie said. "I wash, you rinse."

Chimney looked down, and he had "paper" while she had "scissors".

"Ouch!" Chimney shouted as Maddie pretended to cut his hand.

"Chimney," Maddie barely got out before she laughed.

She turned around and went back to the dishes. Chimney stood beside her.

"So… we could order takeout for dinner later… if you want to," he said.

Maddie looked at him. "Can we go out?"

"Yeah, definitely. What do you wanna do?"

She shrugged. "We could go eat, watch a movie… and then I don't know. I guess we'll just see what else we can get into," she said as her eyes moved down to his lips.

Chimney was so thankful that he was near the counter because he had to grip it just to keep standing.

That hadn't been the first time that he had caught Maddie staring at his lips, but it had been the first time she said something suggestive while she did.

"Does that sound okay to you?" Maddie asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"Yeah," Chimney said. "It sounds great."

Maddie nodded and passed a clean plate to him so he could rinse it off.

Chimney turned on the water, and he began to smile.

He couldn't wait to find out what the evening had in store for them.