Pizza
#2 of While Moms are Away
Lewis and Tango wake up with empty stomachs.
Lewis wakes up, laying in Tango's arms. The dark room is quiet, aside from the dragon's heavy breaths. It must be late, because only moonlight shines through the living room window, giving the room a barely visible tint of blue.
Lewis wriggles free from her arms and sits up on the couch. He yawns and stretches his arms up in the air, growling a bit as he does so.
Standing, he stumbles over to the light switch. Upon flipping it, harsh yellow light floods the room.
Lewis shields his eyes and groans, turning away from the burning bulbs.
Frustrated with the light, he heads into the kitchen, where the familiar and comforting darkness embraces him.
He ventures over to the oven and peers at the sharp green numbers on its face.
8:39
"Damn, so late?" he scratches his cheek.
After standing there in the dark and looking around for a moment, he decides he needs to eat. He walks to the fridge. It's still stocked to its brim with fresh foods.
"Ughhhh..." Lewis groans and slouches down where he stands, looking up with a frown.
The contents of the fridge rattle slightly as he closes the door. The sound of him walking and nothing else fills the room while he returns to the living room. He lightly slaps Tango to try and wake her. Of course, it doesn't work.
"Daaaaangit. I gotta make some freakin toast." he complains, looking up with the same irritated frown from earlier.
After staring at the sleeping dragon for a moment, he smiles. The peace on Tango's face fills him with a unique form of satisfaction and joy.
"Welp, gotta feed ya." he says, walking away from her.
Once in the kitchen, he puts two pieces of bread in the toaster, then waits. He stares at the white box, squinting slightly at it, waiting for it.
About two and a half minutes later, the now toasted bread pops up without warning.
Lewis jolts a tad and closes his eyes for an instant. He sighs.
"Still startled me, damnit." he picks the toast from the machine and puts it on a foam paper plate without buttering it.
The smell of the slices hovers out into the cold dark kitchen. Lewis stares at the slices, something bothering him.
"Hm..." he stands in thought, squinting at nothing. "The fuck?" he continues.
His ear twitches and he shakes the thought off and mozies back into the living room.
Pushing gently into her scaled belly as he sits on the couch, he takes a piece of toast and slaps her in the face with it.
Tango's eyes twitch with activity, and she licks her lips.
Lewis pushes the toast against her snout. She smells the heated bread and inhales sharply, pushing into it a bit. After a moment, she opens her mouth and takes the entire piece into it. Her eyes open and she chews fast, like she hasn't eaten all day.
"Aww, is the dragon hungry?" Lewis pets the side of her face.
Whimpering with excitement, she swallows what's in her maw. A big smile appears on her face and she hugs Lewis, crushing the plate and the second piece of toast between them.
"Nhhh Tangoooo! You got crumbs all over me..." Lewis hugs back and smiles despite the complaint.
"I'm sorry!" she says before licking him a few times.
Lewis pulls away and grabs the plate and toast from their lap. He takes a bite of the toasted bread.
"You hungry, girl?" a few crumbs spew from his mouth as he asks.
"Yes!" Tango's tail starts up and slaps the couch's arm rest.
After smiling at her for a moment, he looks over at the dog, Fluffles, who's still asleep on the recliner next to the couch.
"What about Fluffles there? You think he's hungry too?" he points at the huge mound of white fur.
"Ah! Fluffles!" Tango stands and turns to the dog.
Fluffles opens his eyes and watches her speed walk to him. Both Fluffles's and Tango's tail wag. Tango picks the big cloud dog up and cuddles with him, nuzzling her face into his. The dog's big and poofy fur is soft compared to Tango's scales.
"Haww, let's go feed him, yeah?" Lewis stands and stretches again.
"Okay!" Tango books it to the kitchen, carrying the big white dog with her.
Lewis follows her and flips the lights on.
"Where's mommy!?" she turns to Lewis, tail wagging as usual.
"I'm not exactly sure, Tango. She hasn't made any food. It seems like we're on our own this time around." he goes to the fridge and opens it.
"But!" she frowns now. "I wanna see mommy!" she whines.
Lewis smiles and doesn't look at her for a moment. Instead, he smells something in the fridge. It's something rancid and clearly very expired. He sniffs the cold air inside it, cocking his head at whatever he's smelling. After a few moments, he sniffs lower, zeroing in on the bad smell.
"Welp. Something is rotten." he opens the bottom left drawer, moving the meats around.
The room falls silent as he digs around. Soon enough, he finds the source of the putrid smell.
It's an egg. A big one that certainly isn't a chicken egg.
"This is..." he squints at it, then realizes what it is.
"Tango, what did we tell you abo-" he turns around to find that Tango isn't there.
"What..." he looks about the empty room, and the living room. She's not downstairs.
Lewis sighs and figures he needs to look upstairs. He starts up the steps, shambling at a pitiful pace.
"Ughh...stairs." he slumps and breathes deep as he climbs them.
The light from the kitchen continuously fades away as he scales the steps. Once at the top, he walks straight to the main bedroom. He looks in the main bedroom to find Tango nuzzling into Francine, still holding fluffles as well.
Francine just groans in half awoken annoyance.
Lewis can't help but smile as he walks over to her.
"Tango, leave mom alone, huh?" he gently pulls at her.
"But I love her!" she cheers, reluctant to get away from her.
"I know, me too, but she's tired. Let her sleep, okay?" he keeps pulling.
"Nhh okay!" Tango switches her attention to Lewis, licking him upside the face.
"Hehe, come on back downstairs. I need to talk to you about something." he gestures to her to follow.
Tango puts her dog down and follows Lewis. They all three walk down the steps, and into the bright kitchen.
Lewis goes to the fridge and pulls out the rotten egg. It has tiny green scales, and takes his entire hand to hold. After closing the fridge, he shows it to her.
"Girlie, didn't we tell you that these go bad?" he asks.
Instead of answering, she lets out a little whine and frowns.
Lewis sighs and says "Tango, I know you're proud of it, but we have to throw it away."
"But it's mine!" her eyes start to water.
"Aww please don't cry. You'll make another one. You'll make them for a long time. And then one day, when you find the right person, you'll make a big one." Lewis caresses her face.
"Really?" the frown remains, but he's stopped her tears for now.
"Yes, girlie. The big ones have babies, remember? These small ones aren't valuable. And that's why you shouldn't feel bad about throwing them away, or eating them." he explains, staring into her eyes the whole time.
"But...nhhh..." Tango sniffles and looks at the egg.
"Just wait, Tango. This one is rotten and nasty. One day, you'll have a big one that will hatch into something beautiful." Lewis starts walking it to the trash can.
Tango watches as he disposes of it. She sniffles again but doesn't cry.
Lewis goes back to her and stares at her with a smile.
"Who knows. Maybe you'll populate the world with your babies." he suggests.
"Y-you think?" she sniffles again.
"Maybe. I'll tell ya what, girlie." Lewis takes her face in his hands. "I'll make us a pizza. Homemade. How does that sound? Would that cheer you up?"
Tango goes from frowning to beaming in an instant. Her tail starts up again and Fluffles has to move out of the way so he doesn't get smacked by the thing.
"There's that smile." he smiles back.
"You know how to make pizza!?" she licks him once out of sheer excitement.
"Ehhh mostly. We gotta get a dough recipe." Lewis pulls out his phone.
"Okay!" Tango stares at him while he looks for a recipe. She just stares and does nothing else.
After about a minute, Lewis looks up at her with a half smile.
"You don't gotta stare at me, girlie. Hug Fluffles or something." he nods towards the fluffy dog.
"Ah! Okay!" in an instant, Fluffles is in her arms again.
Lewis chuckles and browses his phone till he finds an easy recipe. It doesn't take him long.
He goes to the also filled-to-the-brim pantry and gathers everything that's necessary. Taking multiple trips, he places the ingredients on the counter.
"Hmm..hopefully it doesn't taste like nothing..." Lewis whispers to himself.
Reading the recipe to himself, he feels less and less confident in his absent cooking skills.
"Proofing...huh...fuuuck..." Frowning, he starts mixing the ingredients. Foolishly, he doesn't measure most of the ingredients. He pours the stuff in with reckless abandon.
It takes him a while, but he mixes everything with a rubber spatula and ends up with a bowl of sticky dough. He stares at it.
"Fuck you for needing to proof, asshole." Lewis tells the dough.
He sets the oven to preheat and puts a paper towel over the bowl to let the dough proof. After doing so, he looks at Tango with pursed lips.
"So uh...Tango..." he scratches the back of his head.
"What!?" she snaps her eyes to him with her usual goofy smile.
"We need to let the dough proof. It's gonna take about an hour." he explains.
"What does that mean!?" she asks, tail stopped.
"It means we need to let it sit for a bit. Sorry, I forgot about that process." he frowns.
Tango puts her doggy down and sprints to Lewis, hugging him with near bone-crushing strength.
"Don't be sad! It's okay!" she closes her eyes and nuzzles the compacted fox.
"Nhh too tiiight..." he exhales, eyes nearly bulging from his skull.
"I'm sorry!" Tango lets go of him.
Lewis puts his hands on his knees and breathes deep for a few seconds before looking back up at her.
Her eyes are big and focused on him. Frowning, she licks him.
"It's okay, girlie." he chuckles and pats the side of her face.
Tango smiles now and her tail starts again.
"Now, what do you suggest we do for an hour?" he asks, still petting her.
"I don't know!" she cheers.
"Hehe, let me think..." Lewis stares at her, big grin on his face. Thinking, he cocks his head at her.
"Hey, Tango, how long has it been since you uh..." he doesn't finish.
"Since I what!?" she waits.
"Since we uh...you know...relieved you?" he pussyfoots around the matter at hand.
"What do you mean!?" Tango continues to stare at him.
Lewis sighs and says "Since you had sex, Tango."
"I-I don't know! Don't worry about it!" her smile becomes nervous.
Lewis looks at her with his head tilted down, like he's looking over a pair of glasses.
"Tango, I know you don't want to be a bother, but you know we can't ignore it. Not till we fix you." he states as a fact.
"But I don't wanna get fixed! I hurt mommy getting fixed!" her eyes water up.
Lewis's bottom lip wobbles a bit.
"I know, Tango. I know. But if we don't take care of it, you could hurt more people. You don't want that, do you?" Lewis caresses her chin.
"No!" she lets a few tears out now.
"Aw, Tango...nooo..." he sniffles now and wipes them away. "Come on. It'll be fun, okay? It's not a bother to me at all." grabbing her arm, he pulls her towards the living room.
Tango follows, still reluctant to give in.
"I'll even give you some ice cream after we eat the pizza, okay?" he sits her down on the couch.
Smiling again, she gladly accepts once ice cream is mentioned.
"Okay!" she licks Lewis.
"Good. Now lay back and let me do my thing." he pushes her back gently by her shoulders.
Tango lays back, and they begin.
It doesn't take long before Tango is 'relieved' all over the couch. She's left huffing and puffing in bliss and sprawled out.
Lewis stares at her for a moment.
"I'm gonna get some paper towels." he walks towards the kitchen.
Tango just grunts and sighs, catching her breath.
Upon returning with some paper towels, he wipes her and the couch off.
"There we go. You're set for a while. Assuming nothing sets you off." he pulls her pants up.
"P-pizza!" she sits up and wags her tail, all exhaustion gone.
"How about we take a nap. It's only been like 5 minutes." Lewis sits next to her.
"But! I'm hungry!" she whines, frowning.
"I know, me too. But you know what? If we lay down and nap, we won't feel the hunger till we wake up again! Then we'll keep making the pizza." he says, looking her in the eyes.
"Okay!" her tail wags again.
"Mhm. So lay down and I'll set us an alarm." Lewis pushes on her shoulder again.
Tango makes a happy little whine and lays down.
Lewis sets an alarm on his phone and lays down as well.
After a few minutes, they're both asleep.
The house is silent as they sleep on the couch. Silent until the phone goes off, blaring some sort of factory alarm.
Lewis jolts awake, tensing up rapidly in Tango's arms.
"Oh maaan." he writhes out of her grip and snatches his phone from the floor, shutting the thing off.
Tango remains asleep as Lewis stands and stretches. He looks at her and smiles for a second.
'You get to wake up to some pizza.' he thinks.
Without a sound, he makes his way back to the kitchen.
Digging in the fridge, he gets a cheddar cheese wheel out and cuts a big slice from it. He takes a cheese grater and starts grating it. It floods the room with a fragrant cheesy smell.
"Oh fuck yeah, that's good shit." he practically moans over the cheese and grates it faster.
Soon enough, he grates the whole block and smirks at the shredded gold.
"Welp, now for the sauce." Lewis tosses the grater into the sink next to him, leaving it there for someone else to worry about.
He turns from the sink and sees Tango standing in the doorway.
His eyes widen and he jumps in his own skin.
"Tango! Fuck you scared me." holding his chest, he breathes hard.
"I'm sorry! I smell cheese!" Tango jogs over to Lewis and gives him a quick hug.
"Aww, it's okay. And yes, cheese. I was just about to knead the dough." Lewis says, despite originally going for sauce.
"Okay!" she pulls away and stares at him.
Lewis gives her a grin before going to the dough. It's much bigger now, and almost overflowing out of the bowl.
"Wow. Nice." taking the dough out, he slaps it onto the counter.
Tango looms over him and watches as he forces the dough flat.
He struggles to force the dough into a proper shape because it keeps sticking to the beige countertop.
"Damn, shoulda used some flour on this." he says to himself.
As he continues to struggle, he hears Tango breathing down his neck.
He ignores it, but occasionally flicks his eyes up at her, unable to hold back a smile.
"Tango, can you get me a big pan? You know, the one we make frozen pizzas with." Lewis asks, still focused on shaping the dough.
"Okay!" Tango digs through the cupboards while Lewis stretches the dough.
"Here!" she says, setting the circular pan down next to Lewis.
"Good girl." Lewis says, transferring the dough from the counter to the pan. It's misshapen like a newborn human's skull.
"Alright! Now for the s-...the sauce." his smile goes away.
"Sauce!" Tango cheers.
"Yes, girlie." he ventures to the pantry again and grabs a jar of spaghetti sauce. He stares at it, lips pursed once again. Figuring there's nothing else, he takes it anyway.
Once Lewis is back at the counter, he pops the jar open and pours the stuff on the pizza, using a spoon to smear it all over the center.
"Nice nice." setting the jar aside, he grabs a handful of cheese and sprinkles it on the sauced dough.
Tango drools on his shoulder while she stares at his work.
Lewis chuckles and looks up at her.
"Girlie, you must be real hungry, huh?" he scratches her chin.
"Ah! Yes!" Tango licks his neck.
Shuddering, he leans away from it.
"Maaan that one was so wet." Lewis says, sprinkling the rest of the cheese on.
"I'm sorry!" Tango nuzzles him instead.
Lewis chuckles and says "You don't have to apologize for everything, girl."
"Nhhh, okay!" she backs up as Lewis puts the pizza in the oven.
"Alright, now we just wait about 12 or so minutes." he sets the timer and sits down at the table.
"What do we do till then!?" Tango asks.
"Cuddle your doggo." he browses his phone.
"Ah! Fluffles!" picking the dog from the floor, she nuzzles him close.
"Oh, wait, we still gotta feed him." Lewis says, standing and heading for the pantry again.
He gets a big scoop of dog food out from the bag in the pantry and lets it all slide out into Fluffles's food dish next to the fridge.
Tango watches Fluffles close as he walks over and starts eating.
Lewis smiles at the two before burying his face back in his phone.
For the next twelve minutes, they wait in silence. As the time passes, the room fills with an odd smell of spaghetti and bread.
Lewis gazes at the oven, wondering if the pizza will even be edible.
After what felt like forever, Lewis stands and goes to the oven. He opens it to reveal an oddly shaped, oddly smelling, oddly colored pizza.
"Whoof. That's weird." he says.
Lewis looks around for oven mitts before looking at Tango.
"Hey, Tango." he says.
"What!?" she whips her head to meet his gaze.
"Wanna grab this for me? You are heat resistant, aren't you?" he scratches the back of his head.
"Yes!" Tango skips to the oven.
She reaches in and pulls the pan out with her bare hands, setting it on the stove-top.
"Nice! Man you dragons are neat." Lewis notes.
"Ahh! I'm neat!" her tail wags.
"Hehe, yes, girlie. You're very neat. Now let's cut this thing." he says.
Lewis stares at it before realizing he has no pizza cutter.
"Right. Welp, I'm usin' my hands." grabbing on to the hot crust, he pulls fast and rips the whole thing into two uneven halves.
Closing his eyes, he yanks his hands away after ripping the pizza, waving them through the air as if they're on fire.
"Owie wowie!" he yelps.
"Are you okay!?" Tango asks.
"Yep! I'm fine! Fine." he says. 'You're an idiot' he thinks to himself.
"Is it ready!?" Tango gets close to the mess of pizza flesh.
"Yep! Just take the bigger half." Lewis points to the slightly bigger side, careful not to touch the thing again.
"YaY!" Tango picks up her half by one end and chomps a big bite out of one side.
Lewis just watches as she shoves the thing down her gullet, eyes a bit wide with a half smile on his face.
"We gotta get you to slow down sometime." he says, knowing full well she won't hear it.
Tango finishes the whole half in about thirty seconds. Her tail can be heard wagging back and forth.
"Hehe, did you like it, girlie?" Lewis pets her.
"Yeah! It tasted like spaghetti!" she cheers, sauce on her snout.
Lewis laughs for a few seconds.
"You can have my half too." he says, sliding it to her with one finger.
"Really!? But what will you eat!?" she looks at Lewis, frowning and concerned for his health.
"I'll just have ice cream, girlie." he pats her arm.
"Nh! Icecream!" she rushes to finish the other half.
Lewis smiles at her before going to get the tub of ice cream out of the freezer. It's orange sherbet flavored. He scoops it out into two bowls while Tango finishes up.
"Tango, come here. Sit and eat this cream with me." he sits, already eating from his portion.
Tango just makes a happy sound and rushes over to devour the ice cream.
Lewis watches her eat the stuff way too fast.
About 30 seconds later, she finishes it and frowns about something. She holds her stomach and winces.
"Tango? What's the matter?" Lewis frowns now too.
"C-cold..." she whimpers and starts to shiver.
"Awww is the big dragon cold? Come here to the couch." Standing, he walks to her and leads her back to the couch.
"I'm a furry creature. Use me for warmth." Lewis offers, sitting on the couch.
"YaY!" Tango snatches him up and lays down with him.
"Hnngg yep...just like that...oof..." Lewis is crushed, but enjoying her company.
They both drift off to sleep.