Breakfast in Bed
All characters are the intellectual property of Gildedtongue's and Blacktail's players.
Grill yawned and blinked blearily, turning hir head away from the beam of sunlight coming through a gap in the calico curtains. Shi lay under hir thin blanket for a few minutes, taking the time to wake up fully. Around hir shi could hear the quiet breathing of hir siblings. To hir left, the Siamese-coloured Coldeyes was sprawled out on hir side, tail-tip twitching to and fro as shi dreamed. Hir blanket had fallen off hir, leaving hir mostly uncovered. To hir right, the light grey striped-and-spotted form of Coalspot was lying on hir backs, one arm over hir body, the other stretched out towards the wall.
For a few moments the red-furred chakat cub considered staying in bed for a bit more sleep, but then shi remembered what day it was. Shi pushed hirself upright and rubbed hir eyes, then glanced over hir sisters. Shi reached over to Coldeyes first and gave hir a shake. "Hey! Coldeyes! Wake up!" shi said in a low voice.
"Nrrgh," mumbled Coldeyes, wrinkling hir muzzle and rolling over onto hir side.
Grill sighed. Coldeyes was always difficult to awaken. Shi tried again, more firmly. "Coldy! Get your butt up, now!"
"Don' wanna," came the reply.
"Right. Time for Plan B." Grill started poking hir sister in random places until Coldeyes finally opened hir eyes. "Whaaat?" shi whined, blinking as shi focused sleep-fogged blue eyes.
"Get up! It's Mother's Day!"
It took Coldy a few seconds for hir brain to comprehend what Grill had said, but then shi came fully awake. "Oh! What time is it?"
Grill swivelled hir head to look at the clock on the bookshelf. "Uh... just before eight o'clock."
"That should be enough time, I hope." Coldeyes sprawled across Grill's body to wake up Coalspot. "Hey, wakey-wakey!" shi said in a loud voice, grabbing Coalspot's shoulder and shaking rapidly.
"Okay, okay," grumbled the Siamese cub, batting at Coldeyes' hand. "I'm awake." Shi rolled into an upright position, rubbing hir eyes. "I thought school was tomorrow?"
Grill giggled. "It is, but we woke you up because it's a special day today."
Coalspot scratched the back of hir head as shi thought. "Oh, right. We're going to make Mom and Dad breakfast in bed today, right?"
"Yup!" Coldeyes was almost bouncing in hir enthusiasm. "They won't be up until at least nine, so we'd better get started."
It was ten minutes past eight by the time the three cubs had performed basic ablutions and entered the kitchen. "Uh... does anyone have any idea of what to make?" Coldeyes asked.
"Cereal and toast is easy," Coalspot said thoughtfully. "Or oatmeal, or waffles."
"Yeah, but that's boring," Grill protested. "Why not something harder, like bacon and eggs?"
"Why not do everything?" suggested Coldeyes.
The other two were silent as they mulled it over. "Yeah, we could, but we'd make a lot of mess," Coalspot murmured, casting a glance at the counter, which was currently a clean slate.
Grill snorted. "Nothing worth doing has ever been done without making a mess," shi declared, "and breakfast today won't be an exception to that rule."
Coalspot looked doubtful, but shi couldn't really go against hir two more enthusiastic sisters. "So who's doing what?"
"Well, you're the careful one, Spots," said Coldeyes, "so why don't you do the eggs and bacon? I'll do the oatmeal, toast and tea, and Grill can do the cereal and waffles," shi suggested.
"Works for me," Grill replied, rubbing hir hands together. "Let's get started!" The red-furred cub then went to the pantry to fetch a couple of large china bowls, while Coldeyes got the teapot from its hiding place and Coalspot grabbed bacon from the fridge.
As with anything that young ones do, it wasn't long before the first mishap occurred. Grill was just finishing filling the second bowl with muesli when there was a crash of metal. Shi turned to find Coldeyes looking wide-eyed at the floor, where the tin of tea leaves had fallen to the floor and lost its contents. "Oops," Coldeyes murmured apologetically. "Good thing the floor was cleaned yesterday."
Grill helped hir sister retrieve the scattered tea leaves, then left hir to it while shi focused on making the waffles. Shi pulled the waffle iron from a cupboard in the island, put it on the counter and plugged it in, and went to the pantry to get the waffle mix shi knew was kept on the bottom shelf. "Huh... I thought we had some," shi murmured to hirself.
While Grill searched the pantry, Spots was busy preparing the bacon. "Eww," shi complained as shi took out each rasher and dropped it into the pan. They sizzled a little, but not as much as shi'd expected. "Hmm. Maybe the pan needs to be hotter," shi mused, grabbing the control knob and turning it a bit further. Shi waited a short time before adding another rasher, and smiled when it sizzled loudly when it hit the pan. "Yikes!" Shi jumped back as a small blob of fat leapt out of the pan, thus bumping into Coldeyes, who was just filling the kettle with water.
"Aaargh, watch it, Spots!" Coldeyes protested, almost dropping the kettle into sink.
"Sorry! I'm just afraid of being burnt," apologised Coalspot. Shi eyed the pan warily, as if shi expected it to attack hir again.
"Use tongs or something. You'll have to anyway to get the bacon out, Coldeyes reasoned. Shi finished filling the kettle up and stood it back on its base before switching it on. "There. Now I can start the oatmeal."
Grill had managed to find the waffle mix tucked in at the back of the shelf, and was now pouring milk into the bottle. Shi screwed the lid on, and began shaking vigorously. Unfortunately shi hadn't tightened it properly, and milk began to spray out over the counter, the floor and hirself. Shi uttered a rude word that shi'd picked up from hir parents and quickly placed the leaking bottle on the counter. "What else could go wrong?" she wondered aloud as shi mopped up the mess shi'd made.
Over the next few minutes the cubs managed to carry out most of their preparations without much else going awry. When it came to handling the eggs, however, their luck went away.
"I've never been able to crack an egg open without getting bits of shell everywhere," complained Coalspot as shi attempted to crack a third egg into the pan.
"Same here," Coldeyes agreed ruefully. Shi stood next to hir sister, stirring the mass of oatmeal in the pot. "And I always seem to burn the bottom of anything in a pan," shi added with a sigh.
Grill's waffles were looking a bit misshapen, but at least they seemed to be well-cooked. A few were a little too well-cooked, but shi considered them to still be edible. "I think we've done pretty well, don't you think?"
"I guess," Coalspot agreed slightly reluctantly. "We might do better with adult help, though."
"Yeah, but would it be as much fun?" Grill countered.
Coalspot shrugged. "Maybe." Shi cracked another egg into the pan, and watched it join the others in a weird white and yellow mess. "I s'pose I wouldn't feel so bad when I got something wrong."
Grill looked at the digital clock that sat on the windowsill, and saw that it was just about nine o'clock. "We'd better hurry up!" shi urged, willing the waffle currently cooking to cook faster. Shi still had a little bit of mixture left.
A few minutes after nine they'd finally finished. Coldeyes scraped the gluggy-looking oatmeal into two more bowls, trying not to slop any over the sides, and dumped the pot into the sink. Shi brought out the brown sugar, and a bottle of syrup as Grill distributed hir waffles between two plates. Coalspot added her contribution of bacon and eggs, and they all stood around the island looking over their effort. "Oh, damn! I forgot the toast!" Coldeyes swore. Shi hurriedly grabbed some bread from the bread-bin and dumped four slices into the toaster.
"And the tea," added Coalspot. "I'll pour it," shi said, quickly moving to the teapot, grabbing a pair of large mugs on the way.
Grill was fretting a bit now. There was so much food here, and shi had no idea how their parents were going to eat it if they didn't have a table to eat off, unless they came out to the kitchen.
Coalspot rescued hir by remembering that there were some large trays tucked away for taking large amounts of food out onto the deck for social occasions.
Eventually the toast was cooked and spread with margarine, and the tea was poured, and added to the trays. "Wow," Grill murmured when shi saw how little space was left. "All we need now is the card."
"I'll grab it on the way," Coldeyes volunteered.
The other two cubs carefully took hold of the trays and began carrying them slowly towards the bedroom, watching like hawks to be sure that nothing spilled.
When they arrived, their parents' door was still closed, but there were sounds of movement from behind it. "Mom? Dad? Are you decent?" Grill called.
It was a few seconds before shi got a reply. "Uh, yeah! Come in!"
Coldeyes squeezed past hir sister and opened the door, bounding in and heading for the curtains to yank them open, while Grill and Coalspot padded in, their arms starting to weaken from the strain of holding the trays. "Happy Mother's Day!" they called, almost in unison.
Gildedtongue, the leonine mother of Coalspot and Coldeyes, brushed a lock of hair back from hir face and smiled at hir cubs. "Thank you, all," shi said, repositioning hirself in order to take a tray. Hir mate Blacktail, a tiger chakat with a shock of bright green hair, yawned and took the other tray.
"Here's your card!" Coldeyes exclaimed, holding out the card that they'd all had a hand in making.
"Awww, that's so sweet of you!" Blacktail exclaimed, taking the card and putting it aside on the bedside table. "We'll read it after breakfast." Shi looked over the trays. "You three made all this?"
The cubs nodded. "Uh-huh!" Grill replied. "And, uh, a bit of a mess as well," she added sheepishly. "We wanted to do something special for you, and we decided on making you breakfast in bed."
"Well, it looks just fine!" Gildedtongue said, taking a spoon and digging into the sugar to sprinkle it over hir oatmeal.
As the adults ate their breakfast, the cubs sat around the bed watching and talking about the day's plans. It didn't take long for Gildedtongue and Blacktail to polish off their food. "Aside from the eggshells, I'd say you three did a great job of cooking," Gildedtongue said with a smile. "Take the trays back to the kitchen, then you can come back and get some snuggles."
Grill let the other two return to the kitchen, taking the opportunity to get up onto the bed for some early snuggles. "Mm, it was my idea to do breakfast for you," shi said, squirming in between hir parents. "You might want to teach us a few more cooking skills before we do it again, though. It's a lot harder than we thought."
Blacktail chuckled. "I think you did better than I did when I was your age." Shi stroked hir fingers through Grill's hair, scritching at hir ear bases. "We'll see what we can do. It'd be nice to have you three cook dinner now and then."
"As long as you clean up afterwards," Gildedtongue added with a mock frown. "I expect you three to do that before lunchtime."
"Okay, Dad," Grill responded, flicking hir ears at the scritching.
The other two cubs came back into the room, and talk was forgotten as the adults were swarmed over by enthusiastic young ones.
"Glad we had kids?" Blacktail asked hir mate in an aside.
"Despite all the trials of their early years... yeah. I am." Gildedtongue looked over hir three cubs and smiled. "And proud of them."