Summary: stinky cannibal and sad bitch cook together. Some wholesome bickering and cooking.

•.✧෴۝෴✧.•

"Do I have to do this?" Zach's voice rises in pitch as he takes the chilled bowl from Gaston. "This is stupid. Honestly, you can't be THAT hurt!" The bigger man scoffs, his brow crinkling in irritation as Zach continues to complain.

"Zachy, please." He interrupts tiredly, rolling his eyes as he does so. "My wrist is still smashed. Besides it's not even that much work!" Zach stuttered angrily as he was cut off mid rant. He turned to his boyfriend, stepping back as he realized Gaston was holding out a handheld whisk for him to take. Zach cussed as he eyed the whisk in the burly man's hand as though it had insulted him. He wasn't going to take it. No, he was not going to take that! He turned his head away dramatically with a loud huff.

"Gaston, I'm not cooking!" His nasally voice whines. "I don't even know HOW to cook!" He fiddles with the string on his apron as he looks on in irritation.

"Baby, there's not even any cooking involved." Gaston says calmly, his good arm wrapping around Zach's waist. "That reminds me, I do need to start teaching you how to cook sometime. You're not always going to have one of those fancy shmancy robots around to cook for you, you know. Besides being able to cook is a life skill everybody should know." The chef holds out the whisk for Zach to take again. Zach was about to object once more before the strange object was shoved into his hand, as if stating 'you will take this and you will like it'. At that point he just decided to give in and take the damn thing. Manual labor. He couldn't believe it. Zachary Ethelind Vermitichen did NOT do manual labor. At least none that didn't involve robotics and inventing. He took a moment to observe the ridiculously huge whisk in his hand. It looked humongous being held in his delicately pale grasp. Big cookware for a big man, he supposed.

"Gaston, I don't know about this. I mean, are you sure this is a good idea?" He glanced at the man, gently setting the cookware down on the counter. "My Zach-bots are the ones that usually cook for me you know. Well them and my Mother whenever she comes to visit. What if I make it wrong and it tastes awful?"

"Look Sweet pea, it'll be easy!" Gaston states, wrapping the thinner man in another one-armed hug. "I'll show you what to do, so you don't have to worry about that. We have all of the ingredients we need right here too, so there shouldn't have to be anything complicated to do on your part. Everything is pre-measured and ready to go -OW!"

The chef screams as he accidentally hit his bandage wrist on the counter, hissing in pain as he backs away. Zach flinches as he hears the scream, almost knocking over the mixing bowl as he jumps in fear.

"Yikes, what happened!?" Zach yells, glancing at the chef's wrist gently clutched in his own grasp.

"Shit, I banged my wrist on the damn counter!" Gaston cussed, resisting the urge to undo the bandages and check if he messed up his injury more. After a second he gave his partner a shy smile. "Hell, I uh, think I'm fine baby. I suppose I really need to be more careful in here." Zach gives a sigh of relief as his body relaxes. Truthfully, a sprained wrist wasn't that severe. It might hurt yes, but most people can go about their daily lives just fine. Gaston however was a man who used his hands a lot. He was a very physical person with a job he was very passionate about. All it took was falling on his arm the wrong way to mess up his wrist, and now he's completely out of commission! And he was not happy about it at all. When he's in the kitchen he's in his element, and now he can't even do what he was born to do!

He was devastated when he got hurt. Even Zack, with his poor social cues, couldn't miss how upset his boyfriend was. So, like an idiot, he offered to help him until his wrist got better. And Zack was really regretting offering his time like that. He picked up the chilled bowl, held it in his hands unsteadily. He was unsure of what to do. Should they even be cooking? It didn't matter if Gaston wasn't going to do any of the work, he was being uncharacteristically clumsy. And on a related note, what the fuck was a whisk? What was Zach supposed to do with that? Was he supposed to stir with it? Zach put the chilled bowl down again, shivering slightly as he warm his fingers.

"Why is everything so cold?" He asked, turning to Gaston, still tending to his wrist.

"We're making whipped cream icing to go on the cupcakes we made yesterday," He says, his attention finally turning away from his injury and back to the thinner man, "we want our icing to have a lot of volume, so we need both the mixing bowl and the whisk to be really cold!" Zach eyes the utensils with concern. It was already getting too complicated for him.

"Why does it need to be cold to have a lot of volume?"

"It helps the cream whip faster. If everything was warm it would stay really loose for longer." Gaston explains, walking back beside Zach and leaning against the countertop. "All right, the bowl and the whisk are chilled, so we can start making the frosting! Like I said, we should have everything pre-measured already, so we don't need to go tearing up the kitchen. I chose a simple recipe so you could follow along easier."

Zack gasped as he moved away from the shorter man. "So I could follow along easier?!" He echoes angrily. "Gaston, I'm one of the world's most accomplished inventors, one of the smartest people on the planet! A genius in my own right! We don't need a "simple recipe"! I bet I could cook Michelin star dishes just as good as YOU!"

Gaston stares wide-eyed at the pale man, his face betraying little emotion as Zach shouted. The taller man practically steamed in anger as Gaston didn't say anything, stomping his foot angrily as he shouted again. "WHAT!? Are you afraid I'll do better than you!?" Suddenly the chef burst out into howling laughter, catching the inventor off guard. He practically doubled over, laughing so dramatically hard that it was insulting. Zach crossed his arms bitterly, his face morphing into a irate expression. How dare he!

"Oh, just what the hell are you laughing at?" Zach sassed as Gaston started calming down. The bigger man gasped for breath, barely even catching a glance at Zach's face before breaking out into another laughing fit.

"Oh, oh I'm SURRRRRE you can, sweetheart!" Gaston howled, his voice cracking comedically as he calmed himself. "I didn't know you went to culinary school! I bet you got yourself about four Michelin stars that I haven't heard about, huh?" He laughed some more, his tired chuckles dying down as he manages to calm himself.

"Oh baby, you kill me sometimes." He sighed, planting a sweet kiss on Zach's cheek. The inventor pushed himself away, his face set ablaze.

"S-Shut up and help me." Zach ordered, already tired of today and wanting to get this whole cooking lesson over and done with.

•.✧෴۝෴✧.•

"Ok, now take the spoon and carefully scoop up the icing a bit at a time."

They had been working for a bit longer than Gaston intended, the kitchen more of a mess then anyone would have anticipated. But the icing was finally whipped, and it tasted delicious! And Zach was now trying his best to transfer the icing into a piping bag, failing miserably.

"Gaston, my arms really hurt." He whined as he held the spoon limply in his hand. "I don't think I was built for kitchen stuff, that whisking really tired me out."

Gaston smiled sweetly, cuddling closer to his taller frame. "Don't worry my little sweet tart, we're almost done!"

Gaston move to stand behind Zack, using his good hand to grab the man's arm and gently show him what to do. "You see, you hold the piping back like this. Yes, like that. And then you take the spoon and you slowly scoop up the icing. But not too much! We want to be able to get as much in the bag as possible and we can't if we take too much."

"Gaston that makes no sense." Zach deadpans, trying his best to follow the chef's orders. They had made quite a bit of icing. Zack thought back to when they made the cupcakes only yesterday, realizing that two dozen cupcakes was probably a bit too much for two people to eat. "Hey by the way, what are all of these cupcakes even for?" Zack asked, turning to see Gaston nuzzling his face in the crook of his neck.

"Bake sale for my niece." He says happily, pulling Zach in for a tight hug. "I promised my sister I would help her."

"Ew, that's so morally good of you, gross." Zach blanched, pretending to gag as Gaston slapped his arm playfully.

"Oh, hush you! They don't know about the side job we share. Endangering animals isn't exactly in the family business, and I'd prefer to keep my family from knowing."

"Playing two-faced, are we?" Zach's smug voice would be so irritating if the chef didn't love him so. "I suppose that's the good thing about not having a family, you don't have to pretend to be something better than you are."

"Who said you don't have a family?" Gaston laughed. "My family already seems to love you, you know?" He watched as Zach went back to transferring the icing again, doing much better now than before.

"Why would they? They haven't even met me yet." Zach pouted as he worked, and before long he was finally done piping the icing. He looked at his work with satisfaction.

"I suppose I've told so many stories about us they feel like they already know you. So far it seems like everybody's all right with us. Oh and my mama, you should see her face every time I mention you." Gaston smiled as Zach finished, giving him a gentle hug before moving to get a closer look. "Oh that looks nice baby! See? You were worried over nothing." A tired smile pulled onto Zach's face. He did do a good job. It wasn't as messy as he feared it would be. The inventor watched as Gaston walked around the kitchen counter, opening up the fridge carefully as he brought out the cupcakes from yesterday.

"There better be some for us." Zach said as he picked up the now warmer mixing bowl. "Like, those little runts better not be the only ones eating cupcakes." He says as he slides his finger around the rim of the bowl, licking the vanilla sweet icing off his finger. His eyes lit up, him humming happily as he does so once more.

"Of course we're going to have some cupcakes!" Gaston says as he gently takes the bowl away from Zach, much to his dismay. "Why do you think I made so many?"

•.✧෴۝෴✧.•

Truthfully the icing process shouldn't have taken as long as it did. It was an easy task to pipe icing onto Twenty four cupcakes, ludicrously simple! Of course, it didn't go as planned, mostly because Zach was busy trying to steal the icing bowl back from Gaston before he could wash it. That was valuable sugary goodness in that thing! There was no way in hell he was going to let him wash it without licking the bowl first! They spent a good Ten minutes fighting over that bowl, laughing and joking the entire time. When they finally did begin icing the cupcakes Zach's perfectionism came out in full force, spending at least Three minutes on every cupcake to make sure each icing swirl was perfectly circular. At first Gaston was annoyed, 'it's for little grub-nosed kids, they're not going to care if it's perfect!' but near the end of it Gaston just had to laugh. It was ridiculous! And honestly he would do the same thing. Hell, he knew presentation was everything, being a Master Gourmet Chef of course. When all was said and done it was well over an hour when they finally finished.

The cupcakes looked so divine! So beautiful, and Gaston was really surprised! Zach looked very proud of himself, and was enjoying the praise his chef boyfriend was giving him.

"My sweet little strawberry tart, I'm amazed!" Gaston said as he looked in awe. "These truly look beautiful!"

"I know." Zack said, carefully taking off his icing stained apron. He looks around and confusion before shrugging and dropping the apron on a nearby chair. "I'm such a culinary treasure." Gaston held back a chuckle as he I turned away, looking through different cabinets before pulling out two clear plastic containers. He places them on the counter beside the cupcakes.

"All right, now all that's left to do is to pack the cupcakes for Janessa tomorrow. She and my niece are coming over to pick them up."

Zach says nothing as he carefully picks up four of the best cupcakes out of the bunch and puts them on a plate. "These are ours." He says poignantly as he puts the plate in the fridge. "These are ours to eat, and if you have a problem with it you can suck it." Gaston rolls his eyes, working carefully to move each of the cupcakes into a container without messing up the flawless icing.

•.✧෴۝෴✧.

They cuddled closer together as they sat on the sofa, the sound of a telenovela blasting as the television was turned on. They snuggled close as they watched, eyes transfixed to the screen. A flamboyant Italian man fell to his knees dramatically on screen, his beautifully masculine features twisted in pain as he cries.

"Oh, WHY won't you LOVE ME GABRIELLA!" He's sobs, his eyeliner running down his beautifully sculpted cheeks.

"That's a mood Alessandro." Gaston says tearfully as he moves his cupcake to his mouth to take a bite.

"I never understood these." Zach says, almost scarfing his cupcake down in one bite. "I mean, they're always so dramatic, and for what?"

"Hush up, it's getting good!" Gaston says as he playfully slaps Zach's leg to get him to shut up.

•.✧෴۝෴✧.•