[O] A Newcomer's Ambush

Being asked to do things suddenly meant that he had little time to bolster himself up.

Ti was generally a nervous person. He needed time to gear himself up to perform in front of people.

"I'm not very good at doing much other than Ballet, sorry."

Ti ruffled his hair and chewed on his lower lip.

"Booooring." Daji sighed, crossing one leg over the other.

"Maybe we can do something else. What about we try to make the most disgusting soup ever and then give it to someone?" They cackled. "That sounds fun, right?"

Of course, Ti didn't look like the type to join in on antics like that, but it was worth a shot.

Ti chewed on his lips, mulling over the idea.

"I know the perfect victim."

Rai's boyfriend deserved a little kick sometimes. Especially with all the things he said offhandedly.

Ti grinned widely, his eyes twinkling with mischief. "Let's do it."

Daji grinned, eyes widening with pleasant surprise.

"You really mean it? Perfect!"

Downing their tea at an almost dangerous speed, they returned to the kitchen counter, leaving the cup by the sink.

"Do you have a blender?"

"It's in the cupboard next to you."

The blender was something that Ti used often. He lived on banana smoothies.

The shifter stood and made his way towards the pantry. That's where most of the best (or worst, perhaps) ingredients would be.

"What should we start with?"

Daji opened the cupboard and took out the blender, dumping it on the counter. They plugged it into the wall and then followed Ti into the pantry.

"Oh, you've gotta have raw eggs."

The fox rummaged around the shelves, taking any strange ingredients they found like curry powder and lime pickle.

"Uh-huh."

Ti was quick to retrieve a carton of eggs.

He deposited them on the counter next to the blender, then made his way towards the fridge.

There'd probably be some interesting ingredients in the fridge.

Daji brought their collection back to the counter and laid it out there, before opening up the blender.

They cracked about two eggs on the side and into it, before adding some dollops of lime pickle, curry powder, marmite and mint sauce.

"This better have a good reaction. Everyone's been boring since I got here! No offence."

Ti laughed as he tossed an avacado towards Daji.

"Liq always has good reactions. He's like a five year old sometimes." The man, for his size and age, really was a child 90% of the time. Ti was certain he'd give some good reactions.

Ti carried on rooting through the fridge again, looking for things that could go together and make a terrible flavour.

Eventually Daji found a knife to carve up the avocado and take the seed out. It could break the blender if they put it in whole.

"Who is Liq exactly?" they asked. They hadn't even given a thought to the prankee, only the prank.

Soon there was an already foul-smelling mush in the blender. "Put some last things in, then we can give it a spritz!" That probably wasn't the right word, but give them credit.

"He's my sister's punching bag." There was a pause before he corrected himself. "Sorry, boyfriend."

Punching bag was probably a better term. Or living dildo. Both worked pretty well.

Ti spooned some mango chutney into the blender then fixed the lid on.

"Ready?"

Daji snorted in amusement. "I'd like a punching bag too one day."

The fox nodded enthusiastically and helped to keep the lid on. Then they smashed their fist on the blending button, watching the mush turn into even finer mush.

"Do you know where exactly he is?" they asked.

"Yeah, me too." Someone to vent on and cuddle with sometimes would be nice.

"Probably still at work." If not, he was on his way back from work with Rai. "He doesn't work too late unless its a weekend night."

Weekend nights he was always out til the early hours of the night. They were lucky that it was a weekday. Liq'd be back to try their wonderful soup.

"Ohoho!" The fox cackled sinisterly.

With a few more impulsive presses on the button, the mixture looked complete. "Now we heat it up and pretend we just made it."

Daji got a big cooking pot out from the cupboard and poured all of the concoction into it, before placing it on the stove. "Uh, how does this work?"

Ti pressed his lips together as the smell of the concoction hit him. The smell, surprisingly, wasn't too bad. That would work in their favour.

Liq was going to hate it, though. He couldn't wait.

"We should probably do something about the colour..."

It was a strange colour. It would probably be better if they could get it to a normal colour so they could pass it off as something else.

Daji hummed in thought. It was true, the 'soup' looked a little suspicious by sight.

"Is there food colouring anywhere? Or maybe we could put ketchup in to make it red, like tomato soup."

The fox managed to work out how to turn the stove on, and grinned victoriously.

"The ketchup might be a good idea."

Liq would eat it if he just said it was tomato soup. And then Liq would be expecting a certain flavour and be even more shocked.

Ti disappeared into the pantry and returned once more with a large bottle of tomato ketchup.

He grinned as he unscrewed the cap and began dolloping it into the soup.

Daji started giggling even more, eyeing as the sauce of destruction made its way into their broth.

It was starting to bubble now, meaning that it was almost complete. They sure hoped that their victim came home soon!

"You're a good partner in crime," they said, aiming for a compliment.

Ti pulled open a drawer at his hip and began stirring the soup so the ketchup would mix with the soup.

It was starting to look more and more like tomato soup now.

He gave a shy smile at the compliment. "Th-thank you. You're a good partner in crime, too."

"Hahaha, this is foolproof," Daji bragged, admiring the mixture.

The fox crossed one bare foot over the other as they leant against the counter. "I may be a partner in crime, but I'm also a master of crime. Good thing you got on my good side, buddy!"

Which was weird, too. They'd completely forgotten the fact that he was a dog.

"And even if it isn't, it's good enough to fool Liq." Liq, at times, was a huge fool. This would easily fool Liq.

Ti continued to stir the thick, gloopy soup, grimacing a little bit.

He didn't envy Liq a single bit.

"I'm very lucky then," the boy laughed, ruffling his blond hair idly.

"You are very lucky," they repeated.

Daji jumped up and sat on the edge of the counter, swinging their legs over the edge.

"What now? Do we just sit here and wait?" As ever, the fox had a bit of a short attention span.

Ti shook his head.

"I don't even think he knows where the kitchen is." For someone that lived here more often than he lived at his apartment, Khaliq was more than a little bit helpless.

"Let's give it fifteen minutes, then we can head up to the room."

They could stake it out in their room.

"Okay then." What a painful fifteen minutes it would be.

They decided that making small talk was now too excruciating.

"Hey, what's that?" they asked, pointing to somewhere under Ti's neck. Before he even had the chance to react they flicked him on the nose. "Gotcha!"

It was a victory, even if they cheated.

Ti was watching the soup bubble intently when Daji asked the question.

He was in the process of turning to the fox to ask him to repeat the question when his nose was flicked. His brown eyes were wide for a moment as he processed what happened.

Then he gave a quiet giggle, a small grin pulling at his lips.

That little joke hadn't been played on him since he was still in juniour school.