And Everything Goes Wrong

Inez peered into the doorframe, glancing around so she could see the room in full. Darkurra was on the other side, laying down on her bed, still as could be. The silver fox seemed to be asleep; her ears hadn’t perked up when Inez entered the room. The pale blue cat approached her bed, and, sure enough, she was out cold.

She must be tired from all that work and worrying yesterday, Inez thought. I’ll let her sleep in today, she deserves it.

Inez walked away from the bed and left the bedroom, making her way back to the messy living area. There was a lump of stuff littered on the floor, stuff she’d have to deal with later. She’d left a large sketch sprawled on the table, waiting to be colored in, but she hadn’t made any progress on it that day. She sat down and got back to work on it. What else was there to do? The feeling of pure boredom felt like it would consume her if she didn’t do anything. Yet still, her brain refused to let her truly get anything done. She was making some progress now, but it was slow and drawn out, and she desperately wanted to drop the colored pencil and do something more entertaining.

Screw it, I’ll just work on this later, Inez thought. But what do I do now? Oh! I’ll heat up breakfast for Darkurra so she doesn’t have to do it later. I’m sure she’ll appreciate that. I hope she doesn’t mind me using her stuff, though.

Inez sprang to her feet and dashed over to the kitchen. She dug through the fridge, trying to find something easy to heat, and she pulled out a pack of frozen pancakes. Good, Darkurra liked those. She glanced at the back of the packaging, trying to figure out what needed to be done. Cluelessness took over her foggy brain as she realized just how little she knew.

Let’s see, I could just heat this in the microwave, but using the stove will make these better. It says to heat these up on low, but wouldn’t heating them up for less time on high be faster? I’ll do that!

Inez grabbed a pan and placed it over the stovetop, turning it on before she could forget. The stove fizzed and crackled when it was awakened. She opened the package of pancakes and prepared to put them on, but she stopped herself. Something was missing.

Wait, wait, wait. Didn’t Darkurra say something about cooking oil preventing stick or whatever? I’ll need to add that first! Let’s see… Oh, the bottle’s right there!

Inez picked up the bottle and looked at the instructions on the back, hoping for a hint on how much to add. Skimming wasn’t yielding much, until she went over the text again and saw exactly what she needed, right at the top, of course. If she’d have just paid attention she would’ve saved some time. Just a few drops were needed. Not too much for the small pan, which would be drenched if she added too much more. Inez added the oil and turned her attention back to the pancake package. She hoped she’d be able to get this over with quickly, so as to not waste even more of her precious time.

Alright, everything else from here should be smooth sailing, just gotta make sure to flip the pancakes after like 30 seconds… Oh no! What happened here??

The pan had burst into flames. The orange fire flared and burned, threatening to touch the top of the range if Inez didn’t take action soon. She scrambled to figure out what needed to be done; if she couldn’t get herself together soon, everything would burn down. She’d have failed to make things easier for Darkurra, instead causing the both of them much undue stress. Why did things never work out in her favor?

Okay, don’t panic, need water, need water, need water… wait! Darkurra said that’d make a stove fire worse! What stops these types of fires again? Come on, brain, think!

Inez glanced around the kitchen in a panic, hoping for any kind of hint to jumpstart her memory. Why did her brain have to be so useless, so stupid, in a moment as important as this? Why couldn’t she just be efficient like everyone else? The flames raged on, bright as ever. Inez tried to use her fire magic to control them, to force them to subside, but it wasn’t working. She really was a failure at everything. Suddenly, a certain something in the air drying rack caught her eye. A lid. Of course, that was what stopped oil fires. How could she’ve been so forgetful?

That’s it! I’m saved! Alright, now just grab the lid. Lid, lid, lid, lid…

Inez dashed over and grabbed it in a hurry. If this didn’t work, she really was doomed. She then rushed back to the stovetop and slammed the lid onto the pan, sending her prayers to the gods. The fire subsided, its once bright orange flames now reduced to nothing more than a smolder when covered. She used her fire magic again to see if she could detect anything, and found nothing. Inez breathed a sigh of relief and turned off the stove.

Phew, that was a close call. She turned her attention back to the frozen pancakes, which she’d never gotten to put in the pan. Guess I’ll just have to microwave these…

Inez got out a paper plate and threw the defrosting pancakes onto it. Then, she shoved it into the microwave and allowed it to heat up for the allotted time. She stared into the microwave window as the plate rotated around and around, every inch of it being heated through by the radiation. Her boredom was back, strong enough to kill her. It, and the microwave, stopped with a loud beep blaring through her thoughts. Inez pulled the plate out and set it on the table.

Darkurra’ll appreciate it if I put syrup on them for her, now I just need to find the bott—

“Good morning, Inez…” 

A sudden voice from behind her interrupted her thoughts. Inez spun around, and, sure enough, Darkurra had woken up. She was still rubbing her eyes, and she seemed to be forcing herself to pay attention to what was in front of her. Good thing Inez had finished heating up the pancakes.

“Oh, uh, hi there!” said Inez. “Uh… I have pancakes! Look!”

Inez frantically gestured over to the table, hoping to get the message across clearly to her tired girlfriend. Darkurra glanced at it before she sat down, staring at the plate in silence.

“...There aren’t any utensils here,” said Darkurra. “Can you please grab them for me?”

“Ah, right! Sorry about that.” responded Inez.

Inez scrambled over to the drawer and pulled out a fork and knife. She also grabbed the maple syrup bottle, which had slipped her mind as soon as Darkurra had entered the room. She set both of them down before she sat in the chair beside Darkurra, watching her with intent eyes, waiting for acknowledgement.

“By the way, why did you leave a lid on the pan?” Darkurra asked. “I don’t remember the instructions saying anything about a lid…”

“So, uh, about that…”

Inez recounted her kitchen escapades with a sheepish smile. Of course, she omitted a couple things, like how she forgot that water wouldn’t stop an oil fire, and the fact she’d chosen to ignore the instructions for the recommended stove setting. That was too embarrassing, even for her. Darkurra listened closely, at first with curiosity, but her expression grew increasingly worried as the story continued on.

“So, yeah, that’s how things ended up like this…” Inez finally finished her story. A brief pause followed her words.

“Inez, I love you,” said Darkurra. “But please, never use the stovetop without my help again. At least until you get the hang of things, alright?”

“Okay…” Inez hung her head in shame.

“Oh, don’t feel bad about what happened, though.” Darkurra leaned over and gave Inez a kiss on the forehead, giving her a smile when she pulled away. “I still appreciate the gesture. Thank you for thinking about me.”

“Alright,” said Inez. “Is there anything else you’d like me to do for you today?”

“Well, to start, I’d appreciate it very much if you cleaned up the living room floor for me.”

“Can I do that later? Don’t really feel like it right now, y’know.”

“I’d like it picked up by the end of the weekend, if possible.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll do it tonight. Hehe.”

Inez could feel her mind start to relax from earlier. She wasn’t just a burden on Darkurra, after all. Sure, maybe heating up food for her girlfriend didn’t go too well, but she could always do other things to take the burden off her, right? Besides, even when she did mess up, Darkurra would always remain by her side to support her.