Work Text:
A delicate balance, one that laid in having perfect control. That was how Tarn described it to him. Helex couldn’t say he was wrong. Not when the nearly finished product bubbled and fizzed in a large pot in front of him. Warming energon over an open flame for most bots was basically asking for a permanent deactivation. As an artform, it had been one of the first to fall by the wayside when the war broke out. Somehow, Helex had not been at all surprised to learn Tarn was well-versed in it.
Now? Helex could say he knew how to handle a pot over fire nearly as well. He tried not to think about how long it took him to reach this point, though. It was much better to simply use his hard earned skill to impress the rest of the team, in his opinion. And impress them he would.
His smaller arms confined to working the pot and whisk over the flames shooting from the hob, Helex shifted through the neat little selection of additives arranged in the nearby cupboard. The DJD as a whole weren’t much into fancy fuels, but they did occasionally seek indulgence in favored sprinklings. While those particular favorites were very far apart in flavor profile because his teammates were just like that, Helex actually had a more nuanced understanding of blending than anyone he knew. Functionism had outright ruined any chance of his putting that knowledge to use professionally, though. Stupid Functionists.
Helex now having the additional knowledge of preparing fuels over flames? Oh, he would have taken the Cybertronian culinary world by absolute storm. He sighed and slumped a little in despair for all that laid so very far beyond him now. A dangerous hiss from the pot in front of him, though, brought him right back out of that slump. He uprighted the pot and removed it from the direct heat for a few crucial moments.
“Frag, that was close,” he muttered, glancing toward the little shakers he was pulling out of the cabinet. Currently in his hand was the lead chloride. “Ugh, don’t even know why we have that one. No one ever uses it.” He shoved that shaker back and grabbed the one next to it, setting it on the counter beside the others.
A quick look proved the energon safe to bring back over the heat and fortunately not spoiled from the near disaster. As hard as it had been at times to find, wasting fresh energon was the last thing Helex ever wanted to do. (It was a different matter when it was partially processed and leaking from a grayed frame. A very different matter.)
Keeping most of his attention on the once again cheerfully bubbling pot, Helex shuffled through the shakers sitting on the counter beside the manual heating surface. “All right,” he said as he plucked the first from the counter. “Start with a small touch of iron, blend until fully melted.”
Next came a somewhat larger sprinkle of platinum and a dash of tin. The energon was taking on the slightest of green tints, pulling away from the standard magenta pink. The next addition would make the transition much stronger, wiping the pink out near entirely. This time, he popped the top off the shaker and used a good sized scoop, gently tapping the powdered chromium into the mix. A whisk blended it all together with a few swift stirs. Helex paused to let it all simmer for a few kliks.
The pink dissipated from the bubbling energon more and more with each passing nano-klik. It was almost ready for the final additive, by his calculations. The final additive needed the previous additives to be stable in the mixture before it could join the party. All he needed was an unbroken and very pale green color to let him know.
By the time the mixture was ready, Helex’s olfactory sensors were alight with the tantalizing perfection that was four very disparate additives coming together in a way most would never expect. A pleased smile stretched across his face as he made a gentle addition of the purest thallium he’d ever seen.
He folded it into the mixture, the pale hue rapidly turning the color of newly budded organic leaves. Not that he’d describe it that way to his teammates—especially not Tarn, who most favored the culprit—but it was absolutely lovely. He gave it a few more stirs as the last powdering grains smoothed into the mixture. The scent had gone from syrupy to something that bordered on outright elegant. Something only the hoity-toity-est of mechs would have been able to get their hands on way back when. Helex felt a burst of pride in himself. He had made that happen.
As he turned the flame out and moved to take out a selection of glasses suitable for such a special concoction. He set out the glasses, then turned back to grab the pot, and halted as he glanced at the additive shakers. There were five of those, but six glasses.
“Ah, scrap,” he muttered. “Forgot Nickel’s favorite.” It was simple enough to add her to the mix, though. Her favorite was merely a well-known enhancer: sodium chloride. He left the pot where it sat and made quick work of rimming the glasses with a smear of coolant around the edges and dipping them into a bowl of salt. He looked them over and gave an approving nod before setting them on a plain tray he’d scrounged from the back of another cupboard. “There we go.”
Grabbing up the pot with careful hands, Helex made careful work of pouring the slowly cooling energon into the arranged glasses. There was enough for everyone, taking their relative sizes and necessary consumption all into consideration. Of course, no one had better ask for seconds as they didn’t exist.
Helex started to set the pot aside, then stopped. He glanced around the kitchen, finding himself safely alone. His long glossa slithered out and he touched it to the fancy energon left clinging to the sides. Oh. Oooooh. That was good. He shuddered in bliss, optics dimmed with pleasure at the taste. This was going to get him extra points in everyone’s favorite mech category.
Touching a finger to the side of his helm as he set the pot into the sink for later clean-up, Helex opened a comm to all of his team. “If you’re not all in the galley in five nano-kliks, be prepared to know that you’ve missed out on the best thing to ever slide over your glossa.”
He didn’t wait for any responses. Hefting the tray with only care that he didn’t knock anything over, Helex headed for the door between the kitchen area and the galley. They might be on the hunt for the next target on the List, but they could all still stop to eat.