Ignorance

A loud thunderclap echoed throughout the house, rattling windows in their frames. Zephyr's eyes shot wide open as his entire body tensed up.

"Damn it," he muttered as he sat up. He looked around the room. It was dark, but enough light streamed in to tell him it wasn't night.

How long had he been out? He checked the time on his phone. 12:26 PM. He must've slept for seven hours.

The sound of rain hammering against the roof had gotten louder. Another thunderclap boomed through the air, causing the lights to flicker for a few seconds before coming back on in full again.

Zephyr groaned and rubbed his temples. There was no way he could go back to sleep now. Not with the storm raging like this. With a resigned sigh, he stood up and headed into the kitchen.

As soon as he walked in though, he froze. The smell of something hit him like a punch in the nose, making him gag.

The aroma was unlike anything he'd ever smelled before; it was acrid, sulfurous, and somehow sweet at the same time. It was like someone had mixed a bunch of sugar with rotten eggs and garlic and then set the whole mess on fire.

He coughed, covering his nose and mouth with his sleeve. There was smoke in the room, almost like a haze. The hum of the stove's kitchen hood was whirring at full blast.

"O-oh, you're up," a voice called out, startling him.

"Audra?" Zephyr asked, spotting the girl standing by the sink.

She was holding a textured sponge and scrubbing one of his pans with all her might. Her face was scrunched up in concentration, and her tongue stuck out as she tried to clean it.

"Y-yeah, it's me. Um, welcome back to the waking world. Are you hungry?"

"…" Zephyr stared at the lump of black before turning around.

"Can you pretend that you didn't see me?"

"Wait! I'm sorry! Please don't leave!"

Zephyr turned back. He hadn't actually intended to. He just wanted to tease her before going to help her out.

However, he was caught off guard by the genuine desperation in her voice.

"I'm not. I was just playing with you. Anyway, what did you make? Er, try to make?"

She deflated as he approached.

"Egg salad sandwiches. At least, that's what I was going for. The eggs started smelling real bad though, and then they caught on fire. That's when I started freaking out."

"…Egg salad sandwiches? How the heck does one set that on fire?"

"I said I was sorry! I just wanted to wake you up to a cooked meal for a change instead of the other way around. You know, keep up the reversed role schtick for a bit."

"Reversed role?"

"You know, I take care of you like you've been doing for me. Like the invoices from—um, actually, never mind."

Zephyr's brow raised, but before he could comment, Audra fumbled with her phone and shoved the screen in his face.

"Anyway, to answer your earlier question, the recipe said to use hard-boiled eggs, but I couldn't find the pot. So I tried using the pan. I um, figured I could use scrambled eggs instead of boiled ones."

Zephyr sighed as he did his best to comprehend the ridiculousness of the situation.

"How'd that work out for you?"

"They started sticking to the bottom of the pan and I couldn't scrape them off."

"…Did you use cooking oil before you started?"

She didn't respond immediately, though she eventually muttered, "I've… never needed it before."

Ah, that explained it.

"Your old pan probably used some kind of non-stick coating then. Mine is just cast-iron. Although, the one you found hasn't even been seasoned yet."

"Seasoned? Like, with salt and pepper?"

"Not quite. You heat it up, coat it with a layer of oil, and then bake it to seal it in. It's a process that makes the pan naturally non-stick."

She wilted with the information, and her movements slowed.

"I guess I should have done that. B-but I didn't know! You have to believe me."

"Calm down. I believe you."

The early days of his cooking flashed in his head alongside the smell of charcoaled food. He smiled and gestured to the pan sitting on the counter.

"Alright, now hand it over."

Audra slowly complied and passed it to him.

"You're not mad at all?"

"Nope. It'll take more than that to get to me."

He inspected the pan carefully beneath the kitchen's light.

"Hmm, the burnt bits aren't stuck on here too badly. We can fix this by letting it soak in soapy water. Here, I'll show you."

He turned on the faucet and filled it halfway before setting it aside.

"Now we just leave it like this for just a minute or two and let it do its job. Can't leave it for too long though or else we might risk it rusting."

"…Cooking's so complicated," Audra muttered.

"In some ways. However, it's not too bad once you get used to it. Now why don't I show you where I keep my pots next for future reference?"

"I guess… where were they though? Some pocket dimension?"

He pointed to a cupboard above the sink.

"There, I keep it and all my other cookware in that one. The stuff I don't use too often is in that one." He pointed to another cabinet next to the fridge.

"Oh," Audra said as she opened the cupboard on her tiptoes. "That's one problem taken care of at least."

"One problem? Was there anything else that went wrong?" he asked as she pulled out the pot and set it on the stove.

Audra immediately broke eye contact.

"…Sort of. The recipe called for mayo, but I couldn't find any. So, I looked in the fridge for something that could replace it."

Zeph's heart stopped.

He had a terrible suspicion about what she was about to say, and he hoped that he was wrong. But alas, it was confirmed when she pulled out the container.

"This stuff is called aioli, right?"

He had to hold back a tear after seeing the nearly empty jar.

So that was why he'd smelt garlic.

That aioli had been a gift from Minerva. He'd been planning on finally using some of it for some burgers this week, though he guessed those plans were nixed.

"It looked pretty similar to mayo, but I uh, might have messed up and accidentally dumped out most of it."

He sighed and smiled.

"I mean, you're not wrong about it being similar to mayo. But, uh, did you say you accidentally dumped it out?"

"Yeah. I was trying to pour some into a bowl, but it slipped out of my hands. I had to wipe up most of it off the floor."

Zephyr shed a tear at the culinary casualty.

"…Well, at least there's still a little left we can use. Also, another thing for future reference: you may want to try spooning it out instead of pouring the entire jar out. You'll get more control over how much you actually use, and you won't have to worry about dropping it."

Audra's face went blank.

"Oh. I probably should've thought of that before. Especially since my hand is awkward to work with in the first place."

She raised her left hand—the cybernetic one—wiggling its fingers.

"It's got the grip strength of a vice, and it can be precise if I put my mind into it, but when I'm not paying attention, it tends to fumble a lot. So um, sorry."

He waved her off. "Like I said, it's fine. Let's just finish the rest together. It'd be a waste to stop here."

He walked over to the fridge and grabbed the ingredients they needed to finish the sandwiches: pickle juice, mustard, paprika, and salt & pepper. He didn't have any chives, but he figured that it wouldn't matter much at this point.

"You say it's fine, but are you really sure, Zeph?"

"I am. There's nothing wrong with being ignorant if you're willing to learn."

He placed all the ingredients together as he motioned her over.

"So then, let's get to it. I won't stand for either of us being ignoramuses."