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Eli couldn’t understand why he had woken up.
“Thrawn?” Eli mumbled, stretching outward, reaching into the space next to him.
There was no one lying there.
And then he finally noticed it. The high pitch of the fire alarm, the smell of smoke.
Eli bolted upright, scrambling out of bed and flying to the kitchen. His heart was pounding in his chest.
He opened the kitchen door, expecting billows of blackened smoke and tongues of fire and his partner passed out on the floor.
Thankfully, the horrors Eli was picturing weren't there.
There was, however, Thrawn. He was standing in front of the stove, a small cloud of smoke emitting from a blackened husk in the pan. The Chiss was looking down at his failure, a disappointed look on his face.
“What are you doing?” Eli sighed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Its like-” he glanced at the chrono “three in the morning”
“I was hungry,” Thrawn said, picking up the ruined pan and tossing it in the sink, no doubt for Eli to inevitably clean up later. He walked over to the fire alarm, still beeping on the ceiling.
“Need a hand?” Eli asked.
“I do not” Thrawn said calmly. It was slightly out of reach from Thrawn’s height. Normally he would just jump and turn it off in an instant, but gaining ten odd kilos in the form of a baby tended to hinder stuff like that.
Eli let him have a few attempts of reaching awkwardly before going to grab a stool. He placed a stool by Thrawn, stepped on it, and turned off the racket with one push of a button.
“Thank you” Thrawn said, his face slightly flushed.
“You’re welcome” Eli snorted, placing the stool back. “But why burn the place down in the first place? Ever heard of fruit or chocolate? Things that don’t, again, burn the place down?”
“I did not want to cause a fire” Thrawn said, that sad frown back on his face. He sat down at the kitchen table, his arms cradled around his stomach. “I have watched you make this many times now, I thought I knew how”
Eli rolled his eyes. No matter how many times Eli had tried to teach him, Thrawn had never quite gotten the hang of cooking. Eli trusted him to monitor pans and time food duration in the oven, and he could chop (some) vegetables decently. But after the fish pie incident, Eli had taken over nearly all mealtime duties.
“What were you trying to make?” He asked.
“The egg fried bread you make for breakfast sometimes,” Thrawn replied. “The one from Ryloth”
Eli knew the one. Unfortunately, frying bread successfully was still beyond Thrawn’s skillset.
“Next time I’ll show you how to make it properly” And be on hand with the fire extinguisher.
“I look forward to it”
Eli grabbed Thrawn’s hand, tugging him lightly. “You coming back to sleep?”
Thrawn resisted his pull. “I am still hungry”
“Okay” Eli pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “Grab a snack, just, don’t do anything with the stove again, okay? I don’t want to wake up to the smell of smoke again”
Eli turned to go back to bed, but Thrawn did not let go of his hand.
“I was craving fried bread, however” Thrawn, honest to Force, pouted .
“Thrawn. . .“
Thrawn looked up at him with a hopeful look. “Your child is craving fried bread”
Eli groaned, shaking his head. “Didn’t you just ruin our one frying pan?”
Thrawn hesitated, before raising Eli’s hand to his lips, softly kissing the back of his hand.
Eli exhaled loudly. “You’re gonna be the death of me, Mitth’raw’nuruodo” he whispered, lifting a hand under Thrawn’s chin, raising his head till their eyes met.
“Indeed” Eli ran his hands through Thrawn’s sleep-mussed hair, pulling him closer. He kissed Thrawn softly, which Thrawn responded to eagerly. The contact slowly grew heated as it continued, Eli resting his knee on the chair between Thrawn’s own legs. Thrawn, in turn, placed a hand on Eli’s hip to pull him closer against his chest. Eli nipped Thrawn’s lower lip, a soft moan welling in his throat in response.
Thrawn finally broke away, resting his forehead against Eli’s. “I must say, our baby would really like this fried bread”
Eli sighed, but withdrew anyway. He went to the sink and pulled on washing up gloves. “This baby better be damn cute, that’s all imma say”