Strange Surprise
It was a beautiful spring day, the sun gleaming down from the wonderfully blue sky. A gentle breeze tousled the light brown and cream coloured fur of the avamal Timothy, who wandered the bustling streets of the city to pick up his partner Ale. He had an amazing tea party planned for the afternoon and the weather looked so promising that the gentle Timothy was excited for it already. This wasn't the only reason, though: Ale told him he had a surprise a few days earlier and had been acting mysterious ever since. In fact, he hadn't even seen the bartender the last few days at all, which was odd in itself. Usually Ale went whereever Timothy was as they grew inseparable over the course of their already long-lasting relationship. So naturally the tea lover was extremely curious as to what his lover had planned for this very special spring day. You know, he himself had a surprise planned: he wanted to ask Ale to go steady today.
Rounding the last street corner Timothy finally laid eyes on the cozy, little bar the other avamal lived above. This early in the day the small business was still closed, the windows dark and the building eerily quiet. The only life sign was a steadily growing cloud of dark smoke that crept out of a window on the upper levels where the residents lived. Frowning a bit the soft gentleman stepped closer and tried to assess the situation. If it were for anyone else the gentleman would've worried even more but regarding Ale this could only mean that he was working in the kitchen - something the drunkard wasn't very good at. At all. Using his key Timothy opened the front door on the lower level, walking up the flight of stairs and coming to a halt in front of the flat door. Carefully he pushed it open, slowly gaining sight of what happened inside.
The smell of burnt food was overwhelming and almost nauseating. A wave of smoke made it's way out of the cracked door and into the hall. Ale was busily working in the kitchen, loud music busting out of a speaker somewhere among the incomprehensible chaos he had created. Dancing between the counter and the oven Ale swung a whisk covered in some kind of batter, splattering some of the mixture onto the floor and cabinets. "What is going on here?", Timothy asked with a confused and wary smile, trying to speak over the music. Ale, finally noticing his partner, became a beaming pile of happiness. "Hey, baby!", he shouted over the noise, trying to find his speaker somewhere between his mess. His partner sighed softly when the wanna-be cook finally managed to lower the volume to a minimum and his ears weren't hurting that much anymore.
"What are you doing?" Timothy came closer to the self-proclaimed danger zone named kitchen from where he could take in the whole sight. Something was baking in the oven and the various amounts of pans and bowls with batter remains.. "Are you baking a cake?" Timothy lifted his brows, half impressed and half concerned. Was this what Ale was trying to be so mysterious about? Ale himself laughed his unique, ear-shattering laugh and nodded. "You caught me!", he admitted with a lopsided, loveable smile. He put on some oven mitts and opened the stove, pulling out a rack with a baking dish with some slightly burned contents. The cake had an odd shape, almost like a.. "It's my head!", screeched Ale with giddy excitement in his voice, giggling away cheerily. He was right, there he was - recognizable despite Ale's missing talent for cooking and baking. He was a bit misshapen but you could tell that it was the brown and golden patterns of the beer enthusiast.
"I'll add the white with whipped cream!" Ale almost miracled a bowl of cream into his left hand, a spatula for smearing and forming in the other one. Timothy chuckled, gently lifting the bowl out of his grip. "Sure, but maybe I could help? We should let it cool down a bit first, though.", he offered with a soft smile. "Was this what you had in mind as a surprise?" Ale opened the kitchen window as far as he could, letting fresh and cool air into the smoked out room. He placed the cake near the breeze to cool it down a bit quicker before turning around to his lover. "Yes! It's for the tea party, you know!", he grinned. "Unfortunately the first one got burned a... a bit." His yellow fingers pointed toward the trash can and when Timothy looked into the bag he could only see black, crumbly remains. That explained the smell, at least.
"I definitely could say that you surprised me.", he praised lovingly, pulling the other avamal into his embrace. Placing a kiss on his forehead he let his hand run through the dusty fur full of flour. "Glad my plan somewhat worked.", the bartender grimaced, snuggling into the hug a bit. His eyes wandered over the mess still filling most of the kitchen, wide in shock as if he noticed the chaos he left behind just now. "Fffffuck.", he breathed out, staring into the room and contemplating his life. Timothy loosened his hug and immediately started to grab some of the dirty pans to throw into the sink. "Come on, I'll help you. That way we'll be done quicker so taht we can leave for the party.", he offered with a motivating thumbs up. Ale let out a loud sigh, taking the sponge that Timothy offered him. "Okay, let's do this."