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Dark landed in front of the grocery store with a loud thud. He slammed the main door open and stepped inside, instantly met with the fearful eyes of the few shivering silhouettes that were the customers and employees, lumped together as they scrambled to hide behind a desk in the corner.
He rubbed his hands together. “Aw, did I scare you? Well, you are in luck, I’m too busy to bother with your useless existence.” His eyes sparked as he looked away from them. “Today, that is."
He nonchalantly made his way inside the store, softly humming something to himself as he picked up an array of different things in his hands. The eyes of the hidden sticks were still pinned on him.
Eventually, Dark picked up one more box and tapped some combination on his wristband, making all the items he held dissolve into code.
“So anyways, I’ll see you all another time.” With a leap, he ignited his fists and bursted out from the ceiling, creating a powerful gust of wind that knocked down the majority of stalls and the now unstable roof of the building which collapsed on itself.
* * *
A few minutes later he was pacing around at his house, emptying packages onto the kitchen counter and slamming down their contents. Chosen was away as expected, which meant Dark could and would try some things out. This time, he’d decided to try cooking.
Neither Chosen nor himself had any knowledge regarding the art of the kitchen, which left them to venture in the city to grab prepared meals more often than not. At most, Chosen would make some half-burned toast for the both of them. That’s why Dark thought he’d change that.
As with most of his ideas, he wasn’t quite certain where this one stemmed from. Sometimes, it was pure impulse and the power of a random thought. Others, it was experimentation, which often led him to new developments later down the line. That was how many of his inventions had come to be, after all. This time it could as well stem from simple curiosity. He liked to think he did it to secure his spot as the best among the two.
In some deeper way, it might also be about gratitude.
Gratitude to Chosen, who had done so much for him. He’d saved his life. He’d shown him the world. Learning how to flip a pancake was the least he could do in return.
Not that he’d ever admit any of this to him.
Honestly, it probably came from watching that neat cooking show the other day.
Dark flicked his wrist and a red holographic display appeared in front of him. He tapped some prompts on it, reading the text for the recipe that popped up and then closed it, turning back to the mess he had created on the counter.
“Alright food, get ready to be prepared,” he said, cracking his knuckles.
He threw a bowl on a table. Cracked some eggs, added half of the flour, some sugar (okay, maybe a little too much sugar). He looked at the rest of the ingredients on the table and shrugged, throwing some of each in. Some oil, milk and chocolate, in. Cinnamon and vanilla, also in. Everything goes, in the bowl. Well, throwing stuff definitely wasn’t the best way to preserve them from spilling everywhere but alas.
Then he was supposed to mix it. Frankly, he found the conventional mixing technique to be ineffective and slow, instead deciding to cover the bowl with another bowl and violently shake it until he thought fit.
Then the baking. Dark opened his display again and… Did that thing want him to use an oven? Ha! Sure he would, if he was one of these powerless city sticks. But he was the Dark Lord, the greatest of them all. Who needs an oven when you have fire?
“Medium heat, huh? Too bad I only know burning,” he laughed and his hand lit up into hot flames below the bowl. “More heat for less time, it's simple math!”
Before he could even think about it, he heard a crackling sound and the bowl ended up exploding in his face. He coughed out the dust and smoke, mumbling curses under his breath. The entire kitchen was a gigantic mess, with black stains from the explosion littering the walls and portions of the ingredients everywhere. Dark wiped his face irritated, looking around for the cause of the blunder.
Turns out, spilling all the flour and the cinnamon while preparing to light a fire is not the best choice. Especially not when you have explosive powers and you think you're too good to follow instructions. Dark cursed some more with a groan.
As the icing on the now destroyed cake, he heard rustling from outside and the sound of footsteps. “Cursors, Cho, great time you found to return,” he hissed, slamming a fist on the counter.
The first reaction was shock. This shock quickly morphed to bewilderment as he looked more closely to what used to be their kitchen. “What the…” he trailed off as he spotted Dark fidgeting with his thumbs and the shock turned to exasperation. “What did you do?” Chosen said.
“Tried to make a cake. It blew up. Who knew cakes can be explosive, eh?” Dark avoided Chosen’s glare as he gestured to the bowls.
“A cake?”
“Yep.”
“And it blew up?”
“Yep.”
The elder rubbed his forehead. “You’re the only person I know that could manage this.”
Dark shrugged. “I’m the only person you know, in general.”
Chosen didn’t pay any mind to his brother as he stepped behind him, toward the stacked bowls and opened them. What was inside was… certainly something, but whatever that something was it wasn’t any kind of cake they knew of. It was a black solid material, hard as a rock, split into pieces among the surface of the bowl’s inside space, with some kind of goo splattered in the side.
Dark grimaced as he saw it, laughing uncomfortably to himself at the view. “Wow. That... doesn't seem edible,” he exclaimed softly.
Chosen raised an eyebrow. He grabbed the largest piece of this object and without so much as a second thought, he took a huge bite from it.
Dark stared at him in disbelief. “Cho. That’s pure coal.”
“It’s a little too sweet but eh,” the black hollowhead remarked as he bit through the rest of it, much to the younger’s bewilderment.