"So like… What are you gonna do to that chicken?" Amu asked as she walked in the door alongside Ikuto.
"Well, I found a note on the fridge from the people who own this house that we're aloud to use the things they have in the fridge and pantry, as long as we promise not to clean it all out. So I've got some lettuce and other veggies… You think you can handle making salad?"
Amu tried to hold back a giggle.
Ikuto started to unload the groceries, "Why are you laughing?"
Amu covered her mouth as she giggled, "You said 'veggies.'"
Ikuto smiled at her, "Is there something wrong with saying 'veggies' instead of 'vegetables?'"
Amu only laughed in response and she went to the fridge and grabbed the lettuce, tomatoes, olives, and carrots. She dug through drawers and cabinets until she found three bowls and a knife to cut the vegetables.
"Oh by the way, I don't want tomatoes," Ikuto said as he started to cut the raw chicken breasts into strips.
"Gosh, you're so picky," Amu said.
"No I'm not," Ikuto frowned at her while he washed the strips of chicken.
"Um, yeah, you are. You don't like dark chocolate, you don't like pecans, you don't like tomatoes, what else do you not like?" Amu started to tear the lettuce and put it in the bowl.
Ikuto placed the chicken on the cutting board and looked around for the salt and pepper, "Do you really want a list?"
Amu started to cut the carrots into little cylinders, "Yep."
Ikuto heaved a heavy sigh, "I do not like tomatoes, dark chocolate, pecans, cashews, soy sauce, green grapes, raw celery, raw broccoli, bacon, ham, and I mean the lunch meat kind of ham, not like pulled pork or pork butt, um… lunch meat turkey, hot dogs, mayonnaise, mustard, squash, green peas, flat green beans, peanut butter, duck, udon noodles, okra, beets, collards, cauliflower, shrimp, cucumbers, sweet pickles… Would you like me to keep going?"
"See, I told you you were picky," Amu tossed the carrots into the salads.
"No I'm not," he retorted.
Amu raised a brow at him, thinking of how many different foods he had named.
"Okay, okay, I'm picky. Oh well, get over it," Ikuto poured some flour into a large plastic bag.
"Point proven," Amu smiled devilishly at him.
"Hey, can you get me some bell peppers out of the fridge?" Ikuto asked.
"Some… What? What are those?"
Ikuto sighed, "The big red and yellow things in the drawer at the bottom. Oh, and get me some olive oil out of the pantry, and a stick of butter out of the fridge too?"
"Okay then," Amu said. She went over to the fridge and looked through the drawer at the bottom for the big red and yellow things, "How many do you want?"
"One red and one yellow, please," Ikuto started to put the chicken strips in the bag.
Amu grabbed one of each, and grabbed a stick of butter. She placed them in front of Ikuto and went over to the pantry to get the olive oil. She examined the label then handed it to him. Then she went back to her salad, putting little black olives into each salad, and cutting the tomatoes and placing them in two of the salads, leaving the third one tomato-free for Ikuto. She lined the salads up and went over to watch Ikuto prepare the chicken and peppers.
Ikuto shook the zip-lock bag that contained flour and the peppered and salted chicken strips. When he felt that the chicken was covered enough, he got the olive oil and poured it into the pan. He waited for a minute or two, then grabbed the bag of chicken and flour. He grabbed a small pinch of flour and dropped it into the oil. When it touched the hot olive oil, the flour suddenly disappeared. He pulled out another pan, poured more olive oil into it, and let it sit in the back while he started to put the chicken into the first pan. The chicken sizzled and let out a delicious aroma as they simmered. Ikuto checked the second pan using the same flour method and just as before the flour disappeared. He cut the bell peppers into strips and put them into the pan along with the butter. The vegetables sizzled and the chicken sizzled. Ikuto took a step back from the stove to go get a fork. He dug through drawers until he could find one. While he was searching through one he said to Amu, "Hey Amu, you see that seasoning rack by the stove?"
"Yeah," she glanced over at it.
"Look through it to see if there's anything in there called Beau Monde, please," he said as he opened another drawer looking for a fork.
Amu turned around and looked through the rack for the Beau Monde. She was confused by all the different spellings, "Uh, how do you spell it?"
"B-e-a-u M-o-n-d-e," he opened another drawer.
Amu looked through the bottles of spices until she found one that matched, "I found it."
"Okay, thanks," Ikuto said as he opened another drawer which finally had the forks.
Ikuto grabbed a fork and went back to the stove and started to turn the chicken strips over to their opposite sides. He stirred the vegetables a bit and then grabbed the Beau Monde from Amu and sprinkled it generously over the bell peppers. He mixed it all in, "Hey Amu, can you set the table?"
"Sure? Where's all the stuff?"
"Um… The plates are in the very right cabinet I think, and the forks and knives are in the open drawer over there. Oh, and the napkins are under it.
Amu went up to the cabinet and grabbed three plates, went to the drawer and grabbed three forks and three knives, and grabbed a stack full of napkins. She opened the wooden sliding door and entered the dining room where she set the table with a plate at the head of the table and a plate on either side of it. She put down the forks, the knives, and the napkins and walked back into the kitchen, "Now what?"
Ikuto was taking the chicken strips out of the pan and onto a plate, "Go put the salads on the table and you and Shiragin go wash your hands."
Amu grabbed the salads and put them on the table, Ikuto's on the right of the head, Shiragin's on the head and hers on the left. Then she walked into the living room to get Shiragin to tell him that dinner was almost ready.
Ikuto seasoned the chicken with a last touch of salt and pepper, and then took the pieces of chicken back to the dining room. Then he went back to the kitchen and brought the bell peppers out to the table still in the pan. He dumped the chicken strips into the bell peppers and stirred them together. He took the old chicken dish back into the kitchen and put it in the sink and washed his hands. As Amu and Shiragin came out of the other bathroom where they had been washing their hands, Ikuto made his way back into the living room with salad dressing. He had also brought in drinks, a coke for Amu, a coke for Shiragin, and a water for himself. He sat down at the seat that was his, the salad without the tomatoes, and waited for the other two.
Shiragin and Amu soon entered the room. They took their seats. Shiragin sat at the left of the head, leaving Amu to take the head. She felt sort of embarrassed sitting at the head of the table but she didn't know why.
"Oh…" Ikuto said as he stared at the pan, "I'll be right back." He made his way back to the kitchen and came back out with a serving spoon, "There we go." He scooped himself some food.
"So what is this?" Shiragin asked Ikuto.
"Chicken tenders and bell pepper cooked in Beau Monde," he said. "I don't think I've made this for you yet."
Amu grabbed the serving spoon after Ikuto and scooped herself a helping of food. Shiragin followed in suit. Amu grabbed her fork and played with her food a bit, trying to decide what to eat first. Should she eat the chicken or the pepper first?
Ikuto could see the thoughts all over Amu's little face, so he grabbed her fork from her hand and, with an exasperated expression on his face, stabbed the pointed end through one end of a bell pepper, through a piece of chicken, then through the other end of the bell pepper. Amu looked astonished. Ikuto handed the fork to Amu for her to eat with. She took the fork and ate the whole thing at once and it was delicious. She tried to do the same thing Ikuto had done by herself, but failed.
"Amu," Ikuto sighed, "Just eat one at a time, it's okay, you don't have to do it like I did."
Ignoring Ikuto, Amu successfully got her fork through the middle of a pepper and then a piece of chicken. After she had eaten about half of her food, she moved onto her salad. She picked up the dressing, looked at the label, and put it back down.
Of course, Ikuto noticed and said "Oh, who's picky now?"
"Its salad dressing," she argued, "They come in different flavors so that if you don't like one you can have another flavor. It's not like I hate as many foods as you do."
"Mushrooms!" Ikuto said.
Amu raised her brows.
"I just remembered," Ikuto said quieter, "I don't like mushrooms either."
"Oh," Amu said.
The three of them ate their dinner and filled the dining room with pleasant chat about the tour to come and their next destination, the Bahamas. When they all had their fill, Shiragin went to watch more TV, but not finding anything that interested him, he handed the remote over to Amu, who found some cartoons to watch. Shiragin fell asleep. Ikuto sat on the couch beside Amu on his laptop. He was on a website that Amu had never seen before but she didn't pay much attention to it.
"Oh, Amu, I just remembered, I think I saw some ice cream in the fridge. Do you want dessert?"
"What kind of ice cream is it?"
"Its chocolate, and there are some strawberries and bananas if you want a topping," Ikuto started to get up to prepare himself a bowl.
"Yeah, can I have bananas on top please?"
"Can do," Ikuto said as he wandered back off into the kitchen. He got two bowls, two spoons, a knife, a couple strawberries, a banana, the chocolate ice cream, and chocolate sauce. He put three large scoops in each bowl and then he cut up the fruit. He put strawberries in one and bananas in the other. Then he grabbed the chocolate syrup and drizzled it over the ice cream. He stuck the spoons into the ice cream, but the other things away, and carried both bowls back to the living room along with a paper towel for each person.
"Here you go," Ikuto held the bowl out in front of Amu.
"Thanks," Amu looked down at the bowl. There was the chocolate ice cream at the bottom and there were slices of banana artistically placed into the creases of the frozen treat and it was all topped off with a drizzle of chocolate syrup. She took her spoon and dug it into the partly frozen ice cream making sure to get half a slice of banana with her ice cream and syrup. She took a bite and the cold ice cream froze her mouth. She continued to eat while she watched TV, something about a yellow sponge that lives in a pineapple.
When Amu and Ikuto finished their dessert, they decided that, because of the jet lag, it was probably best that they go to bed. They went up to their room and left Shiragin, who had fallen asleep already, on the couch in front of the TV. Amu claimed her green bed and Ikuto his blue. They flopped down and Amu, being closest to the light switch, turned the lights off.
Ikuto counted. He was tired but he couldn't sleep. He listened to see if Amu was asleep, listening to her breathing pattern, listening for a snore. She was asleep. Ikuto couldn't do anything but count. He counted, he got up to 4,392 before he finally fell victim to dreamland. Nevertheless, he couldn't stay asleep for long. He woke up at exactly 10 o'clock, again at exactly 11 o'clock, and again at exactly 11 o'clock. The rest of the night followed in suit.
At 3 in the morning Ikuto finally sat up. He rubbed the hair off his forehead and ran his hand back over his head, "Great," he said in a whisper to himself, "Insomnia."
A/N- Haha… I do not own Spongebob! Or Shugo Chara for that matter. Remember to review!