It's okay, I'm still alive! But now that summer is over and I have a busy schedule, the story has taken second priority. Don't worry though; it won't be abandoned.

Warnings: Is this yaoi, you ask? Of course it is! I write nothing BUT yaoi! For those who are still hopelessly green, yaoi is boys with boys (or in this case, men with men, rawr). The pairing is, or eventually will be, Cid/Vincent. If you don't like that then you either stumbled across this by accident, or you're in some serious denial; whatever the reason, just hit the back button.

Disclaimer: The story is mine, but sadly the characters are not - they belong to Square Enix/Squaresoft, and that Japanese guy whose name I can never remember. I can't prevent it, but please don't steal the fic idea; you can come up with your own.

Chapter four, otherwise named: 'It's about time we had some darn fun in this story!'

He didn't recall any recent tornados, but it certainly looked as though the kitchen had been hit by one.

Making his way through the chaos, he narrowly avoided slipping on a slab of butter that had landed on the floor, although he did manage to step on what looked like pistachio nuts and bits of broken chocolate. An egg yolk slowly ran down the wall; next to it were the curtains, which appeared to have been dusted in sugar. And there was flour everywhere... including all over Cid.

"Chief?" Vincent asked, trying to hide his smile, because Cid clearly wasn't in a good mood, "Care to explain what happened here?"

"Shera kept naggin' about how I should try doin' more than just makin' tea in the kitchen," Cid snapped - and, as Vincent had predicted, he was very pissed off, "So I thought I'd make brownies, just to prove I can cook."

"...I think you may have failed that particular mission, Chief."

"Shaddup!" Cid brandished his wooden spoon, and in doing so sent a splatter of melted chocolate against the wall, "My brownies will turn out perfect, just you wait and see. They should've had long enough to cook by now..."

He opened the oven door, which sent a cloud of smoke throughout the entire kitchen; wisely, Vincent decided to open the window. Once the residual fog had cleared, Cid set the tray down on the table...apparently none-too-thrilled that his brownies were black, not brown.

"I'm waiting, Cid, but I'm not seeing," Vincent murmured with barely-concealed amusemant.

"You be quiet," Cid growled, before scratching the back of his head, and unknowingly covering his hair in chocolate, "I don't get it...where did I go wrong?"

"Well..." Vincent saw the cookbook resting on the table - judging from how spotless it was, it had only been glanced at, "Why don't you tell me what you did?"

"I dunno...I just gathered everythin' into the bowl. One slab of butter..."

"Did you soften it first?"

"Soften?" Cid blinked, "Nah, I just put it in there. Then I added the chocolate, then I remembered I had to melt the chocolate, so I took it back out again; then I put in the flour, and a packet of sugar-"

"Wait, a packet?"

"Well yeah. The more the better," Cid stated, as though it were the most obvious thing on the planet, "So then I added the white chocolate and the pinocchio nuts or whatever they're call- oh wait, no I didn't. Must've forgotten 'em," He shrugged, "Eh, whatever. And after all that, I put in some chilli powder."

"What?" Vincent glanced at the cookbook; no, chilli powder was most definitely not on the ingredients list, "Why on earth would you add chilli powder...?"

"For that extra kick, of course!" Cid boasted, chest swelling out with pride, "It's a secret Highwind recipe!"

"Chief, one does not normally put chilli powder in sweet dishes. It doesn't really go."

"What're you talkin' about? My Ma used to put it in everythin', and I 'aint suffered any long-term damage!"

"I wonder," Vincent muttered.

"But even with the chilli powder, it still ended up like this," Cid prodded the burnt mess with a spoon, only to find that it wouldn't come back out, "I don't get it; why didn't it turn out perfectly?"

Vincent contemplated writing a list, but decided that it would take too long, "...Let's just start from scratch, Cid. I'll show you how to do it properly."

"Didn't peg you as the brownie-makin' type, Vin."

"Didn't peg you as the frilly apron-wearing type, Chief," Vincent shot back, looking at Cid's - although more likely Shera's - decorative apron. Cid's response was to go bright red and splutter obscenities whilst Vincent calmly removed his cloak.

"We should probably get a new bowl-" Vincent began, but paused when he saw Cid's stupefied expression, "Cid, is something wrong?"

"No, it's just..." Cid's gaze swept up and down the other man, "It's weird seein' you without all that #!£&in' red cape in the way."

Vincent was tempted to roll his eyes, but instead gave a sigh of "Honestly..." and gathered everything they would need.

"Alright, first we'll need to grease the tray."

Cid blinked; "Grease the what now?"

"I'm guessing you didn't do that the first time," Vincent turned the baking tray upside-down; sure enough, the burnt leftovers clung stubbornly to the metal, "Never mind...here, cover this new tray in butter."

And so for the next 20 minutes, Vincent heated the chocolate and butter whilst Cid lit his cigarette on the oven flame. Then Vincent stirred the flour and caster sugar whilst Cid smoked out of the window. Then Vincent mixed the chocolate and flour plus a few whisked eggs whilst Cid futilely tried to scrape the last brownie attempt into the bin. And finally Vincent added the pistachio nuts and white chocolate into the mixture whilst also preventing Cid's attempts to spike it with chilli powder.

"Now it says to cook it for...for..." Cid squinted at the cookbook, somewhat worrying since he was holding it centimetres from his face, "50 minutes?"

"30 minutes," Vincent corrected him gently, "Maybe you should consider getting reading glasses, Chief."

"My eyesight is fine," Cid huffed, slipping the new and considerably improved brownie mix into the oven, "Now what do we do?"

"Now you clean the kitchen, since I doubt Shera will be happy to see this mess."

"But...but...you won't help me?"

"I shall not. You were the one who caused this," Vincent replied sternly, only to receive a pleading gaze. Whilst Cid was anything but cute, he was pretty damn persuasive, and Vincent could already feel his resolve weakening.

"...Fine," He sighed at last, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation, "Really, Cid, the things I do for you..."

"You love me really," Cid was wearing that confident grin of his that meant he'd won, "So, er, where does Shera keep the cleanin' stuff?"

"You're insufferable, Highwind," Vincent told him blankly, and armed Cid with a mop and bucket, "Get to work on the floor, and just throw that old baking tray away. I don't think your chocolate-chilli mix is ever going to come off."

"You're just jealous 'cause you didn't come up with the idea," Cid sniffed, but his expression quickly melted into a smile, "Hey...thanks, Vin."

Vincent permitted the barest of smiles, "You'd be lost without me, I know. Oh, and you still have chocolate in your hair."

"Huh?" Cid reached up to brush the residue away, but Vincent beat him to it, pulling chocolate free of the short blond strands.

"Got it. Be more careful next time, hm?" Vincent teased lightly, "Oh, and you still have to clean the walls."

"What..." Cid shook his head, expression bewildered, "How come I get covered in chocolate, whereas you don't have a speck on you? Your hair's #!£&in' longer than mine!"

"I didn't decide to wage a war against the kitchen, Chief," Was Vincent's reply.

Thirty minutes later, when the brownies were cooling and the kitchen had been restored to its previous state, Vincent and Cid were stood at the table with a bowl of leftover brownie mix between them.

"Shera would probably want a taste," Cid announced, clapping his hands together gleefully, "But she 'aint here, so it's all ours!"

"Cid...you're aware that there is raw egg in that mixture?"

"So what? I'll be fine," Cid shrugged, before the trademark cocksure grin emerged again, "Food poisonin' #!£&in' runs away when it sees Cid Highwind!"

"I'm sure," Vincent murmured softly, and figured that salmonella wouldn't be so bad if he had Cid to share it with. A single, slender white finger skimmed the edge of the bowl before travelling back to his lips; from the corner of his eye, he could see Cid staring at him with a mix of fascination and...hunger?

"Cid?" His voice seemed to snap the other man from his trance, "Are you alright?"

"Fine, fine," Cid answered, and dipped two fingers into the bowl, "Just don't want you eatin' all the mixture, that's all."

"Greedy," Vincent scolded lightly, but allowed Cid his share; between them, the bowl was soon empty.

Shera seemed honestly surprised to find brownies waiting for her, made by Cid no less - Vincent decided not to mention the fact that he had done most of the actual cooking. It was reward enough to return to his room - he'd stopped thinking of it as the guest room by now - for the night with a smile on his face, something he couldn't remember doing for a long time.

Funny though, he could never quite forget the smell of brownie mix and nicotine.