Ryo eyed his captive carefully. He
was tricky, this one. He’d almost escaped twice already today, only
to be caught and again subjected to Ryo’d mind-numbing surveillance.
Now, his charge sat uncomfortably in a hard wooden chair, bound by ropes,
cloth swaths, and more than a few rolls of duct tape, so that he was barely
visible. Only his eyes remained untouched, and they blazed with impotent
fury at the Ronin leader.
“Oh, give it up, Cye!” Ryo snapped at
his difficult friend. “You know that if you hadn’t tried so hard
to escape you’d be free now!”
The only answer to this comment was an
even more baleful look and an accompanying mumble from beneath the mummifying
layers. Ryo almost regretted what he was doing, but he had pulled
the short straw...
Annoyed, he shook his head and went back
to his game of solitaire. Originally, he was only supposed to keep
the English boy out of the house for a few hours. Unfortunately,
that had proved to be too hard to do. He had finally given up, and
had to resort to force to keep Cye in place. It didn’t seem that
Cye was too thrilled with Ryo’s solution, either, from the looks that he
kept throwing. Ryo muttered a silent prayer that the others would
be done soon. How long could it really take?
A resounding crash echoed from the kitchen.
Cye glanced up in horror and cast a pleading look at his jailer.
Who knew what they were doing in there? He’d been trapped in the living
room for what seemed like an eternity. And all the while, THEY were
in his kitchen. With nobody to supervise them! The sounds of clanking
metal and glass filled the air like a horrible symphony, grating on his
every nerve and increasing his nervousness with each clang.
It had to have been forever he’d been
trapped out here! He glanced at Ryo again, but saw his ‘friend’ deeply
engrossed in the card game. A mumbled sigh escaped him and was lost
to the million layers that bound him. It seemed like he was stuck
for the time being.
“Oops...”
“Oops, what?” Kento asked his blue-haired
friend. Rowen was supposed to be mixing icing to top the cake the
four other Ronin Warriors had decided to make for Cye’s birthday.
“What did you do now?”
A single glance more than provided the
answer. Instead of the creamy mixture he was supposed to have, Rowen
had somehow managed to get powdered sugar all over everything...
except the bowl he was supposed to be mixing it in.
“It wasn’t my fault! the bag wouldn’t
open!”
“Well, get a different bag then! And this
time, use scissors... don’t rip it open!” Kento shook his head impatiently
and began to sweep the extra sugar off the counters. Seeing nothing
else to put it in, he dumped it into a small bowl for the time being and
went back to reading the instructions in Cye’s big black cookbook.
“Two whole eggs, one cup of water, a half cup each of sugar and vinegar...”
“Slow down...I’m not that fast, you know...”
Sage gently chastised Kento, turning from the refrigerator and depositing
the eggs in the small bowl on the counter. He turned to the cupboard
and stopped in his tracks. “Now what kind of cup do you suppose he
meant?”
A loud crash sounded from the other side
of the kitchen, where Rowen had accidentally knocked over the glass pan
they were going to bake the cake in. The other two jumped and quickly
turned to look at the crystalline shards that now covered the floor.
“Way to go, bright boy... NOW what
are we going to bake it in?” Kento was clearly annoyed.
Rowen shot him an unworried grin.
“Hey, don’t worry... he’s got a million a’these things! Now, let’s
see...” He rummaged through a few cupboards before selecting a large, heavy
iron skillet. “This thing looks big enough... it should work...”
Cye was starting to seriously worry.
The house had suddenly become far too quiet. Valiant fighters his
friends might be, but cooks they definitely were not. The abrupt
silence chilled his blood more than any battle or disaster ever could.
What could they be doing in there? They didn’t know a spatula from a blender,
for crying out loud! He shook his bangs out of his eyes with an impatient
shake of his head. How could they do this to him?
He raised his head to glare at his captor.
Ryo had apparently given up on his card game. Instead he was intently
staring at the TV, which was showing some sports program. He practically
shook with rage. How DARE he sit there so calmly? Didn’t Ryo know
what this horrible suspense was doing to his friend? Did he have no pity?
Didn’t he realize that if Cye ever got free he was going to hunt them down
one by one and torture them?
As if he sensed the hostility behind this
thought, Ryo looked up at his bound friend. A smirk crossed his face.
“You know, it’s only for your own good.
You’ll love your surprise when it’s done.”
Cye’s responding glare would have frozen a volcano.
Ryo shuddered and began to reconsider.
He couldn’t let Cye loose...with the mood his fishy friend was in, each
of the conspirators would die a horrible death, probably many times over.
Still, maybe it would be a good idea to get him out of the house for a
bit...
“If I undid the tape, would you hurt me
right now?” His response was an evilly gleeful look. Ryo gulped.
Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea...
Suddenly, inspiration struck. He switched
the channel to an ocean documentary and lifted his friend’s chair~with
Cye still firmly taped to it~to a place where the set was easily visible
and cranked the volume.
Bingo! The animosity faded from his friend’s
eyes. Ryo breathed a sigh of relief, then returned to his forgotten
card game. It wasn’t as interesting as sports, but at least he’d live through
it.
An acrid, burnt smell filled the kitchen.
Three heads slowly turned to look at the oven. Three faces registered
shock and dismay at the black smoke that seeped out of the corners.
Three friends watched a moment in mute horror as the smoke stained the
white ceiling grey.
Sage silently walked over the oven and
turned off the heat. Anxiously he reached for the handle and opened
the door, coughing softly as a cloud of black smoke billowed out to meet
him. He pulled out the small, hard, black object that looked like
a grotesque mockery of a cake. Placing it on the counter, he looked
at the others.
“Strike two.”
Ryo sniffed at the air. Burnt cake? That did not bode well. The documentary was almost halfway over... He hoped that Sage, Kento, and Rowen would be able to pull this off before Cye returned from his TV-induced stupor to the real world. If not... well... it would not be pretty.
With no more than two minutes to spare,
the door to the kitchen burst open, framing a triumphant looking Rowen,
covered in a thick layer of powdered sugar. He looked at Ryo and
nodded, then disappeared back into the kitchen.
A relieved grin plastered itself over
Ryo’s face. He had known that they could do it... it had just
taken a little longer than expected. Still smiling, he sauntered
over to the TV and switched it off, then began the long process of untying
his slowly reviving friend.
The trio exchanged happy, exhausted glances. It had taken forever, it seemed, but they had finally made it. Cye would be proud of them, making him a birthday cake all by themselves. It wouldn’t win any prizes to be sure. Instead of the smooth icing and intricate designs that Cye decorated with, this cake had tiny sprinkles shaped like shells on top of a layer of messy, delicious, sea-green icing. Nodding to each other, they paraded out of the kitchen and into the dining room.
Cye sat at the head of the table, glancing
irritably at Ryo, who had insisted that he remain seated calmly for just
five minutes. “You’ve already waited for three hours...what difference
will a few minutes make?” Cye wanted to tell him exactly how much of a
difference it would make, but decided against it. If nothing else,
he had a few more minutes to plot his revenge.
Suddenly the lights went out. He
looked up to see a tiny parade wind through the dining room toward him.
A rousing, off-key chorus of Happy Birthday was sung and the cake was placed
right in front of the startled birthday boy. After they finished
Cye sat mutely for a moment, overcome by emotion. It wasn’t a work
of art, but the gesture touched him.
“Thank you, my friends...” The phrase
trailed off. The others exchanged proud, happy grins.
“So how long are we going to stand here
looking at it? Let’s eat!” Rowen yelped enthusiastically. Sage restored
the lights and the party began.
Afterwards, Rowen and Kento went to the
living room to watch a hockey game. Cye gathered the plates and headed
toward the kitchen, while Ryo and Sage exchanged knowing, half-fearful
glances.
“Five?” Ryo started.
“Four...” Sage agreed.
“Three...”
“Two...”
“One...”
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY KITCHEN?????”
~The End~