Hell's Kitchen

*****

"Feed-me...feed-me..."

Bit Cloud had the second-biggest mouth on the team. Jamie cringed at the blond warrior petitioned tirelessly for supper.

"I keep telling you, it'll be ready when it's ready," Jamie grumbled.

Bit groaned. "But I'm hungry NOW!" He perked up suddenly. "Hey Leena, where'd you get that?"

Leena Toros had the biggest mouth on the team. And it was full of donut. "Fuffmichuff suffahuff," she responded, and then swallowed. "From my secret stash."

Bit looked puzzled. "You don't have any donuts in your secret stash."

Leena polished off the last of the donut. "Not in any of the ones you know about."

Bit mulled this over as Leena stomped from one foot to the other, turning it into a sort of impatient dance. "Hurry up, Jamie! I'm starving!"

Jamie had had enough. He growled and yanked at the tie of his apron, throwing it to the floor and stepping on it as he exited the kitchen. "I've had it! If you two are so hungry, make supper yourselves."

Doc Toros noticed Jamie's stormy expression and wondered what had happened to ruffle the Wild Eagle's feathers. The sound of Bit and Leena screaming did not overly upset him. It was a sound that rang through the base at least seven times a day.

"Okay! Okay! We need to stay calm!" Bit shrieking, grabbing the still-wailing Leena by the shoulders and shaking her. "Leena! Pull it together!"

Leena slapped him, and they both immediately quieted, the wails giving way to sighs.

"Whoa...thanks, Leena, I needed that," Bit puffed.

"Welcome," she said absently, sliding down to sit on the floor in shock. "What are we going to do? This has to be some kind of terrible dream!"

Bit's stomach growled, but he set his jaw. "No! We can do this!"

Leena looked up at him. "Have you gone MAD?"

"No! Jamie gave us a challenge--I say we take it!" Bit smacked a fist into his open hand.

Leena's eyes went wide; she was starting to get it. "So we'll do it ourselves..."

"...and not give him any food!" Bit finished triumphantly.

"Yeah!" Leena got to her feet.

"Done, then!" For possibly the first time ever, Bit Cloud and Leena Toros shook hands.

*****

"How hard could this be? All you have to do is follow the directions." Bit was wearing an apron that read, "Kiss the Cook".

"JAMIE does it every night. WE can do it." Leena was wearing an apron that read, "Kiss Me and You're Dead Meat". She rummaged through the cabinet. "What was Jamie going to make?"

Bit grinned. "Well, since WE'RE cooking, I say we make whatever we want. What have we got?"

Leena's eyes gleamed. "There's cake mix."

"Done. Let's have it." Bit reached for the box.

Leena opened the refrigerator. "Here, catch." She tossed an egg to Bit. Being Bit, and less than careful, he made a valiant effort but wasn't able to catch it.

He smiled sheepishly at Leena, who really should have known better, considering he was Bit and she was Leena.

Leena frowned and placed two more eggs on the counter. "Just get them in the bowl and beat them while I get the water." She went to the sink.

"Whoops, think I got some shell in there. Oh well, it'll be fine." Bit shrugged and cracked another egg. "Whoops..."

"I don't like what I'm hearing over there," Leena said from the sink.

"We'll just have to chew really carefully, okay?" Bit retorted, gesturing with the spoon and getting egg yolk on the counter and refrigerator door.

"I REALLY don't like the sound of that." Leena brought over a cup of water.

"We don't have any butter, but we have this." Bit held out a tub of margarine.

Leena tilted her head to one side, then pronounced in favor of the margarine. "It'll have to do."

"This just doesn't seem like enough baking powder," Bit said, measuring again.

"Then put more in!" Leena said, getting impatient as she beat, beat, beat the cake batter with all the ferocity of her battles against enemy zoids, the Backdraft group, Harry.

"You're right." Bit added more baking powder.

Five minutes later, the cake was in the oven. "Why is this taking so long?" Bit whined.

Leena was one room over, messing with the video game unit. "Here. We can play 'House of the Dead' while we wait. Get your gun, Bit."

The blond warrior smirked. "You're going down, Toros!"

Leena laughed. "Not on your life, Cloud!"

*****

Brad had taken the Shadowfox out for a run. He frowned absently as his stomach growled, and decided to check on Jamie in the kitchen.

A zombie's head exploded onscreen. "Woo hoo!" Leena crowed.

"If you keep taking away all my target points, I'm unplugging your gun," Bit threatened.

"Don't you dare, I'll give you such a beating," Leena warned.

Brad moved to tell them to keep it down, but his nostrils flared and interrupted the thought.

"Is something burning?" he asked.

Bit and Leena gaped at him, then at each other. As one, they shrieked and dropped their guns, running into the kitchen.

*****

Bit and Leena were scowling at each other over peanut butter sandwiches. They probably would have been yelling "YOU should have"s at each other if they hadn't been busy stuffing their faces. Besides, the peanut butter locked their jaws.

Jamie was mourning in the kitchen. "You guys made a huge mess in here! The oven's ruined! What am I supposed to do?"

A spark of understanding passed from Leena to Bit and back again.

"You know, it isn't fair for Jamie to cook ALL the time," Leena said, tearing a crust in half.

Bit fielded her fly with his eyes shut. "Yeah, Leena and I could do it a couple of days."

Jamie's eyes bugged out. "No way! You two aren't setting foot in this kitchen unless it's to steal a Ring Ding from the refrigerator! No one's cooking from now on except me!"

The Wild Eagle stomped off. Silence draped itself comfortably over the table for a few minutes, then was broken by giggles.

The pilot of the Liger-Zero and the pilot of the Gunsniper exchanged a high-five.

*****

Bit and Leena ran through my speech class again the other day, yelling insults at each other. One of them turned into this story. Poor Jamie!...

Bit and Leena love to tell me stories. It's getting them to be quiet that's the trick *^_^* Please review!...