Title: Pancakes, Interrupted

Author: GageWhitney

Rating: T

Pairing: Nathan/Audrey

Disclaimer: Very much not mine.

Summary: The smoke detector is still beeping incessantly and the smell of burning food is heavy in the air. He's ninety-nine percent sure his partner has something to do with it.

Note: For serenitymeimei's prompt in the comment fic post at the havenmaine LJ community.

Something's burning.

He realizes it slowly, the smell drifting into his consciousness and starting to rouse him from sleep before the shrill beep of the smoke detector makes him bolt upright in alarm.

"Audrey?" he mumbles.

He rubs his eyes and blindly reaches a hand out to wake her, only to find that she's no longer next to him in the bed. He looks around his bedroom, squinting at the sudden brightness, and wonders idly what time it is.

"Audrey?" he calls, louder. No response.

The smoke detector is still beeping incessantly and the smell of burning food is heavy in the air, so he quickly locates his flannel pants and pads out in bare feet to find the source. He's ninety-nine percent sure his partner has something to do with it.

"Audrey?"

She's frantically waving a dish towel at the too-high-up smoke detector and spins around when she hears him come in. "Sorry, Nathan," she says with a grimace. She's wearing his grey t-shirt from the night before.

He waves a hand in front of his face, the smoke pricking at his eyes. "What's going on?"

"Can you take over? Please?" She throws the towel at him and rushes over to open up the windows. He abandons the towel-waving in favor of hitting the kill switch on the smoke detector, and finally it's blissfully quiet in his kitchen.

"Thanks," she says. She turns to the stove and removes a frying pan containing a black lump of something unidentifiable. With a spatula, she starts scraping the charred remains into the trash can.

"What were you trying to do?" he asks. He pulls the cord on the ceiling fan to try to disperse the smoke more quickly.

"Well, I thought I'd make us some pancakes," she says sheepishly. "Except then I got distracted by finding syrup and making toast and trying to set up the coffee maker, and almost burned your house down."

His eyes dart around anxiously. "The toast?"

"Still toasting," she says with a sigh. She puts the frying pan back on the stove. "It'll be a few more minutes before it's burned."

He grins at the way she screws up her face and steps closer, pulling her up against him. "I appreciate the effort," he says, voice low and rough with sleep.

"I think they were going to be good, too," she says. She sticks a finger in the batter and holds it up to his lips. "Taste. Made it all by myself."

He grabs her hand and licks the batter from her fingertip. "Mmm. Not bad. Your recipe?"

"Bisquick's," she confesses, and he kisses her. He rakes his fingers through her hair, and she sighs and scratches her nails down his side.

"I think we can salvage this breakfast," he says. He drops a kiss on her forehead. "If we can avoid being distracted, that is."

"Well, then maybe we should try again later," she says, grinning wickedly. She tugs gently on the waistband of his pants. "To be honest, I have no interest in paying attention to pancakes right now."

He unplugs the toaster and makes sure the stove is off before he kisses her again, and they forget all about breakfast for a while.