Hello beautiful people! How are all of you, it's been so long!? Some nilly-willy silly filler today so its a bit short – I had this random thought and decided to go with it... THIS is why I should not be allowed near a computer at 2:00 am... And I swear this storyline is gonna go somewhere. Maybe. ? ? ? ? ? ? - ? ? ? ? ?

Songs that are currently awesome:

Stereo by IAMDYNAMITE

Fall Back by The Parlor Mob

Houdini by Foster The People

Shake Me Down by Cage The Elephant

I own nothing but Adriana and Tazia.

CHAPTER FOUR: IN WHICH THINGS ARE BURNED.

Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep!

My hand searched for the origin of the maddening sound and clicked off the alarm. Normally I would wake promptly at 8 am or earlier, but after the shenanigans of the night before, I decided that the upcoming days required me to have as much sleep as possible.

I huddled serenely in my bundle of sheets, trying to take in all the warmth of them. I started to drift back into the security of sleep, but my senses interrupted me. There was a warm scent in the air, one that was very familiar to me.

Smoke.

In a flash I tore off my fabric cocoon and bounded down the stairs toward the origin of the smoldering smell. Frantically I dashed down the flights of stairs, almost falling every few steps in my haste. After managing to not plummet to my death, I made it to the living room. The fireplace was vacant, no furniture was aflame...

Then I heard a distressed mew that I was well acquainted with come from the ruby-red swinging door. It took only an instant for me to be inside the abnormally-large kitchen.

With the amount of smoke that I could smell and the amount of noise that Tazia was making, I expected there to be some kind of wild inferno inside the homey yellow room. There were no large flames, no sister of mine was burning alive, and there was actually no visible damage to anything at all.

Except to the pancakes.

Taz and the kitchen were both absolutely caked in flour. Even though she was wearing an apron, I was pretty sure that her entire ensemble was well stained with batter. It was splattered on the walls, smeared on her forehead, and stuck in her hair - little yellow highlights in a sea of green.

A whole egg carton was barren, left with only a few empty eggshells which Taz had yet to throw out. By my guess, the poor girl had gone through quite a few batches, and all that she had to show for it was a mountain of horridly burnt hotcakes.

I watched as the determined adolescent tried to pan-flip the obviously undercooked pancake. It half-flipped, flopping in half over itself and stuck that way, despite all of the distressed cook's efforts. She cried in melodramatic agony.

In her massacre, she was completely oblivious to my presence in the doorway. Not wanting to watch the struggle any longer, I rapped two knuckles on the doorframe. She perked up instantaneously, dropping her lost cause of a meal back onto the stovetop.

"Adriana!" Taz bounded towards me, catching me in a bone-crushing hug. As she released me, she went back and stooped over the pan. "I'm making pancakes." She proudly announced. I made my way over to the toppling stack of burnt matter. Skeptically, I picked up one of the blobs from the stack with two fingers. The bottom half slid off of itself in a gooey mess.

"...Uh-huh." I saw Taz reach for the abused bag of sugar to start what seemed to be another unfortunate batch.

"I wanted to surprise you with breakfast..." She frowned at the half-baked pancake in my grasp.

"Why don't you let me do the next batch... You just take care of all uh... these things." I gestured to the unidentifiable pile. There was no argument as she thrust the rubber spatula towards me.

"Gladly." While she put her own bowls and pans disorderly into the deep sink, I gathered my own. I couldn't understand why she had to get so many out – all you need is one or two bowls and a pan. Taz probably accumulated eight dishes, not to mention things like various whisks and spatulas.

Cooking had always been one of the best ways to help me relax, specifically with gas stoves. The only way that I can control my combustion is by keeping a close eye on the gauge and emotions, and that still only helped a minimal amount. A gas stove is so simple; All I have to do to rein in the small flame is turn the dial back down. How I longed for plainness like that. It's easy for a normal person to forget how lucky they are to be in control of themselves.

As I was mixing the dry ingredients together and beating the eggs, Taz popped up on my left and shoved a carton of frozen strawberries right in my face. I pushed the box slightly away from myself so I could see her beaming face.

"Can you put strawberries in them?" She loudly inquired. Her childish tone brought the beginnings of a grin to my face.

"Sure." Tazia made some sort of strange teenage noise, and I assumed it was an ecstatic one.

I continued to add the buttermilk, eggs and butter to the dry ingredients and added in the frozen strawberries.

"Hey Taz, did you buy any-" My query was interrupted by the slight squeak of the door swinging open.

Our guest stood in the doorway awkwardly, looking around the kitchen like he looked at our living room the night before.

"I believe I smelled smoke..." He started.

"Oh, Adriana already beat you to that." She frowned. "I was making pancakes."

"...Pancakes?" Loki repeated.

"Barely." I muttered. Taz took no offense and bounded over to him, taking him by the arm. She tugged at him lightly.

"Come on, sit down. Have some breakfast!" He confusedly let Tazia pull him down into the flaking green wooden chair at the table.

Taz continued to tend to him like an overprotective mother, but I paid him no heed. Actually, I was making quite the effort to not look or talk to him at all. Instead, I immersed myself back into my cooking.

I poured batter out of a medium sized ladle onto the buttered pan. The red and beige mixture sizzled on the black skillet and bubbles began to form at the edges. After about three minutes, the air pockets rose to the top of the hotcake, making it ready to flip. I shook the pan back and forth slightly to make sure it wasn't sticking and yanked the pan back and forward, sending the pancake into the air a bit before it laded back on the pan with a sputter.

My sister poked the man in the shoulder.

"She's so good at that, isn't she?" Loki blinked uninterested.

"Tazia, it's a flip, not rocket science."

"Not what?" He interposed. I turned away from him and focused back on making breakfast. Loki looked at Taz questioningly, but she just smiled, blissfully ignorant as ever.

About two minutes later the first pancake was done, warm, fluffy, and golden brown.

Taz tried to make idle chatter with the man – it was more like she just talked about her teenage nonsense while Loki nodded absentmindedly once an a while. He kept his eyes closed, pinching the bridge of his nose like I had done so many times when Tazia spoke.

I'll admit, it was nice to have Loki around, seeing as Taz made her new friend to be her main target. That thankfully took her focus off of me and my life for a change.

I let him suffer for about fifteen more minutes until I had made a good stack of pancakes, enough to overcrowd the medium sized serving platter. The plate was set on the table along with a dish of butter and a gravy boat, filled to the brim with maple syrup - there was really nothing else to put it in.

Once everything was set, I turned to leave the room rather hastily. Though before I could escape, Taz caught the corner of my shirt and tugged lightly, looking at me with muddled eyes.

"You're not staying?" I offered her a blank stare and paused.

"Not hungry." I mumbled. My sister looked at me as if I was the nonsensical one here.

"You made it though." She protested.

"Only because you were going to burn the place down if I didn't." I mockingly smirked at her, receiving an equally sardonic simper.

She let go of my shirt and gave me an expectant look, tilting her head a bit towards the empty chair provokingly.

"Fine." I growled. Taz beamed and clapped her hands proudly at her small victory. I sat in the colorful old chair with obvious indifference.

There was no hesitation for Tazia to start eating, to the point that for a minute she didn't notice the two of us practically glaring in apathy.

After a moment of stuffing her face full, Taz blinked up at Loki and I.

"Wha, ya' not gonna eat?" She managed to mutter out, mouth full.

Me and Loki looked at each other for a split second before getting up and leaving the room in unison.

As I walked out towards the stairs, I could hear Taz:

"...More for me, then."

Gah, it feels good to write again! Sorry, no reviews to respond to thing time around :(