The day began relatively harmless and normal. On mission done, a bunch of files written, corrected and delivered and the time for lunch approached. Lucifer crossed her arms, sighing as she gazed at the taller male in front of her who seemed to be just as keen as her about this talk.

Disobeying orders. Again. At this point, she didn't expect anything different from him. Normally, she would have let him die out there for all she cared, but ever since her promotion she had the reasonability to keep him alive - his opinion on the matter be damned. "At this point, I may sound like a broken record but you act like a rebellious kid." Her tone was streaked with a tinge of amusement and weariness. He just gave her the blatantly annoyed and semi-deadly glare he always gave her and stayed silent.

"If you want so desperately out of this unit, you just have to ask, Death God." He still flinched slightly as she used his nickname to refer to him but he tried to play it off as if he didn't care. For someone so silent, he was awfully easy to read. The hints Lindow had dropped here and there about him, were also helpful. "Look, I wouldn't care that you are a death seeker in denial. My only request is that you do that 'death-seeking' somewhere else and not in this unit."

This time, he parted his lips, slightly offended – judging the deep growl that emitted out of his throat but before he could get a chance to complain, the sound of an explosion echoed through the hallway. Both of their bodies went rigid, their heads snapped towards the source, listening attentively. Carefully she tried to concentrate, seeing if she felt a tingle in the back of her head. Slightly confused she tilted her head and frowned as she didn't feel it.

"An experiment gone wrong?"

Soma didn't look at her, eyes moving around the hallway, searching for traces of smoke. "Wrong floor. Besides that, the doors and walls in the laboratory are enforced and soundproof. It wouldn't make such a noise." He snarled slightly and grimaced. God Eaters had enhanced senses due to their Oracle Cells and his ears were probably ringing. "Ah? Does sound differently when something explodes in the laboratory?"

"…Not all of the old man's inventions are foolproof and safe to use."

Lucifer's head tilted back to look at the ceiling. "No alarm either." Whatever happened, couldn't be so bad but still it was explosion. So she decided to at least take a look to find the source. Her subordinate decided the same and trailed silently behind her. As they reached the section which veterans lovingly called 'Rookie quarters' or 'Fresh meat section', they already could see and smell smoke. Then hurried steps. Someone was running towards them. Kota suddenly emerged out of a side corridor and almost bumped into them.

"W-Woha, sorry!" Soma just glared at him in his usual way. "Watch where you are running." Kota smiled nervously before he straightened his posture. "Good thing, I found you. We kind of…need help?"

"Need help? With what?" Then Lucifer sighed. "What did you do?"

"I did nothing. Alisa somehow…well…just take a look at it for yourself." The smoke was coming out of her room and the smell had become more poignant. Kota moved to open the door. "Hey Alisa, I brought Lucy and Soma to help you to…" He couldn't even finish as a very angry voice answer him. "You did what?!"

Then the anger manifested itself as a flying croaked pan which Kota and Lucifer barely dodged and ended up hitting Soma who was the least prepared for such an onslaught square in the face. "Oh shit, Soma's down! Maybe I should call for backup and…" The youngest male already turned to leave this sticky situation.

"Not necessary." Lucifer muttered under her breath, grabbing him by the shoulder and forcing him to stay. "Alisa, stop throwing things, already! I'm not going to leave either way." She waited a few seconds to see if the coast was clear and then moved in into the room. Now it didn't only smell like smoke and a little bit like black powder but as if something had burnt to death. Alisa was sitting on the floor of her kitchen corner right in front of the oven which looked everything else than operable. The girl was drenched as the fire sprinkler above her had gone off.

Lucifer tried to take the scene in and tried to conclude what happened. "Did you put explosives or bullets in the oven?"

"What? No!" The girl crossed her arms and looked offended.

"Then did you experiment with new bullets?"

"No!"

"Then a new recipe for a land mine?"

"There are no explosives involved!"

"Alisa tried to…uhm…" Kota's explanation became stuck in his throat as Alisa threw him a glare so deadly that it put Soma's to shame. Lucifer sighed. "Alisa…What did you do?"

"I tried to…" The last word was so quiet that she couldn't hear it. "Pardon?"

"She tried to cook." Soma answered instead in his usual grumpy tone as he pinched his nose and tried to staunch the flow of blood coming out of his nostrils. At least he was spared from the downright nasty smell. "Cook?" Lucifer's frown deepened and looked at Alisa who stared at the floor, ears and face red. She had known lunatics who may as well thought about cooking bullets but she never had seen such a disaster.

"I will note that I will never let you handle explosives." With a sigh, she turned to the rest. "Alright. Kota, talk to Tsubaki. Not that anyone panics from a cooking incident. Then please get me Sakuya. Death God…" She paused and mustered him from head to toe. "You might want to see the sickbay. Not that a broken nose would destroy your handsome face." He grumble something under his breath before he walked out the door, accompanied by Kota who gave her a thumbs up.

Slowly Lucifer took off her jacket and dropped it around Alisa's shoulders. The girl flinched as the warm, recently worn fabric hit her cold and wet skin and she looked up at her questionably. "Stand up and sit on your bed. I will bring you a towel to dry your hair." Without losing another word, the older woman slipped into her bathroom and emerged with a couple of towels in her hands as Alisa did what she was told to do. Lucifer dropped a towel over her head.

"Sakuya will look her over, just in case but I think it is a suitable punishment that you clean up this mess by yourself later on." Alisa just nodded meekly. "What did you cook? Maybe the rations we get are…"

"Cookies."

"What…?"

"I tried to bake cookies." Alisa wanted to drop dead on the spot as her leader just stared at her with a disbelieving expression gracing her features. "Wow…" She muttered, glancing back at the ruined stove and then to her. "You are pretty sure that black powder wasn't mentioned in the recipe?"

"It already told you!"

"Calm down, but you have to admit that this is quite an impressive failure. It reminds me the first time I prepared a mine. Let's see it from the optimistic point of view. As I came out of it, I wasn't exactly unharmed." She rolled up the sleeve of her left arm, turning the elbow towards Alisa. The skin tissue there was streaked with cuts and was obviously burnt in the past but it seemed like it was fading a little bit. "The Oracle Cells do a pretty good job. It's almost scary. Although my left ring finger still feels numb and is slightly slower when I try to curl it up." She slowly made a fist, making it apparent that the finger was didn't seem to react as fast as the other.

"Why would you tinker with explosives in the first place?"

"I grew up outside the walls. Knowing how to tinker and use explosives is more or less part of the 101 of scavenging. It doesn't hurt aragami but at least gets their attention for some time."

"Outside the walls?"

Lucifer nodded. "Outside. With all the nasty surprises you can get but don't break your head over it." The older woman paused. "Why do you suddenly want to make something? If you want something to eat use the canteen. Much less dangerous."

"I-I didn't want to make something for myself."

"Oh?"

"Alisa! Are you alright?" Sakuya burst through the door, looking at the disaster before her. Lucifer chuckled slightly. "Yeah, everything alright. Just a little embarrassed and shocked, I think."

"God, Alisa, why did you blow up the stove again."

Lucifer's smirk faded. "Again?" She then turned back to the girl who shrank away. "…Alisa, mind explaining why you are becoming a hazard to kitchen utensils?"

"U-Uhm…"

"Lucifer, mind if you speak outside?"

"I don't mind…" Sakuya stepped out of her way, smiling at Alisa. Once outside the room and the door closed, the medic cleared her throat. "Don't be too harsh on her, she tries to make something for you."

"For me? Did I say something offending and now she tries to poison me for it?"

"No, no. Just…you are working hard and Kanon told her that you liked sweets, so one thing led to the other."

"Which ended in her blowing up kitchens…I get it. I'm fine with no presents or when she buy them. I would rather have that than somebody getting seriously injured by that. But I guess, she has learned her lesson."

"You have noticed by now that she can be very stubborn."

"She will get over it." Lucifer faintly smiled.

The leader of the first unit took these words back as Tsubaki informed her that Alisa would be banned from the canteen kitchen for life after she almost blew it up. Lucifer sighed as she glanced up from the report on her desk and straight on the bunch of black cookies which more resembled coals than sweets. She had accepted them to spare Alisa from the humiliation and further kitchens to become the girl's victims.

"Why do cute things always come with such a dangerous aftertaste?" She mumbled under her breath as she played with one cookie and then chuckled. "Things I do when she gives me that innocent look…"