"How was your weekend, Kaden?"

Niklas packed up his books as they walked down the hall to their extra classes. The cheerful man had chosen entirely different courses, so they'd be seeing each other less.

Kaden smiled, offering a brief answer. "I slept for most of it."

In reality, Reed had found and pulled him to the side, reminding him of his place, and then telling him to befriend Noah for future plans.

Kaden may or may not have been a little sarcastic, all out of good faith towards his darling and wonderful older brother, of course. It ended up with a kick to the stomach, where a purple bruise bloomed.

Thankfully, he'd been long used to the pain and could act normally, for the most part. So long as nothing brushed against the injured area.

He spent the second day of his weekend sleeping—that much was true—recovering and also zoning out with nothing better to do.

"How boring. We should do something soon, how about it?"

"I get tired easily."

Niklas shook his head, refusing no as an answer. "Impossible. Look at you, you're half built of muscle! Anyway, I'll even twiddle my thumbs and sit down to keep you company if you don't want to go out."

Kaden vaguely imagined a scene of just Niklas and him, sitting beside together in the room in silence. The visualized awkwardness made goosebumps run along his arm.

"Absolutely not."

"Then go out with me."

Kaden raised an eyebrow. "I don't have such terrible taste in men."

"......" Niklas frowned, somewhat insulted. "Okay, you know that's not what I mean. I don't have any interest in boring princes that stay inside all day either."

"Would you be more interested in an outgoing prince whose beloved and popular?"

"Yes! And therefore, you should come out with—"

"Should I introduce you to my brother?" interrupted Kaden with a straight face, seeming completely serious in his offer. "Outgoing, popular, royalty. You can leech money off him easily, I'm sure."

Niklas fell silent, defeated. "Stop twisting my words."

"Then stop ignoring mine." Kaden finished, stopping around the corner turn where they'd have to separate. "I'm resting my body the upcoming weekend."

"Resting from what? Sitting in class?"

"From listening to you speak."

Kaden smiled at Niklas's frustrated expression, waving a careless goodbye that only further irritated his friend. He glanced at the schedule tucked in his books, with the general location of his next class.

Culinary class. With Noah.

He hoped the dragon wouldn't assume that he'd only chosen the class to come bother the man, seeing as two of his extra classes were the same, but perhaps it would be beneficial if he did.

Kaden would rather Noah despised him, which seemed to be a difficult ordeal because of the man's strange behaviour in this life. Certainly, the disdain and irritation was all present, but Noah didn't entirely dismiss him in this lifetime.

"....."

More importantly, Kaden was excited to cook.

Wasn't cooking the supposed way to a person's heart? Not that he'd end up with anybody in this lifetime, but it was an interesting theory.

And how hard could it be? Slicing and mixing all sorts of ingredient into a bowl. Something he could do with his own two hands, covered in not the gruesome red of blood, but the powdery texture of flour.

The man's steps had a light skip of excitement as he hurried down the hall.

Five minutes later, Kaden regretted ever stepping foot in the class.

Standing next to Noah in silence beside a clean table, with ingredients spread out, he felt as if the excitement had withered away at the sight of the dragon.

He'd expected the possibility of pairing up for work, of course, but what sort of terrible coincidence would land him in the hands of the most judgmental cook?

The task was to make fried rice with the ingredients before them, in order to demonstrate a basic level of technique and understanding. What did Kaden know about food? Absolutely nothing.

Well, he knew how to eat food. And savour it well.

He stared blankly at the ingredients Noah had selected from the options spread out on the front table, watching as all the students begun to work.

"Alright, let's do this." muttered the man, more to himself than anybody else.

He rolled up his sleeves, excitedly searching for the knife. However, before he could take another step, a cold voice interrupted him.

"Apron."

Kaden glanced back. "What?"

Before he could fully absorb the words, a black apron fluttered over his neck, wrapping around him with a neatly tied bow in the back. The observing students stared enviously, or with peeping eyes at the scene.

On the other hand, Kaden choked.

Quite literally. The string had been pulled tight, no doubt breaking a few ribs in the process as Kaden gasped. It brushed against his bruised stomach, making his reaction a little more exaggerated.

Noah released the string slightly, so that the other could at least breath, and heartlessly double knotted the back.

"....." Kaden tugged at it, speechless. "Hey, it's too tight."

Noah stared at him, and ignored the other's complaints. After trying to stretch his arms back and failing, he gave up on loosening the apron.

Grumbling, he wandered back over to the table and looked down. "What do you want me to do?"

The atmosphere was somewhat rigid, borderline uncomfortable. Kaden could only hope that having tasks would distract them both, and ease the awkwardness that had settled between them.

Noah stared at him, watching as Kaden peeked through the ingredients, finally lifting up a box. Widened, bright eyes reflected the squirming shrimp underneath.

"They're alive?"

The dragon nodded curtly, before saying, "Kill them."

"What?""

Kaden peeked again into the box, seeing a dozen black, beady eyes staring up at him pitifully, waiting for their demise. Suddenly, it didn't seem so incredible anymore.

"Can you kill them?" Kaden turned, smiling. "I'd like to see you demonstrate your great knife skills, oh powerful dragon."

Noah pursed his lips and sneered, "Can't kill them?"

"....."

The more Kaden looked at the squirming shrimp, the more uncomfortable he felt. Sure, he was a murderer with countless lives on his hands, but it wasn't as if he had a dozen people staring up at him as he slaughtered mercilessly.

Who made eye contact with their killing target?

On the other hand, it was true that he would be cooking and eating them later, so it was hypocritical to pity an animal he intended to kill, regardless.

Whatever the case, Kaden didn't want to do it. And when one doesn't want to do something, the best thing to do was to find a victim—a kind soul who would do it instead.

"I'm too kind." said Kaden.

Noah replied immediately. "You're the furthest thing from kind."

"I'm an empathetic person who understands the emotion of the shrimp."

"Are you implying that you are a shrimp?"

"No, I'm proving my empathy."

"You're afraid."

"I most definitely am not."

The exchange continued for several moments, with Kaden's excuses growing more ridiculous by the minute. Noah glared at him, and with a knife in his hand, he felt incredibly intimidating.

Finally, Kaden admitted, "The more I look at them, the more certain I am that they're sending me prayers not to kill them."

"....." The other felt a little speechless. However, looking at Kaden's honest, green eyes, it seemed that the strange reason was true. "They will die even if you don't kill them."

"I think I prefer cutting vegetables."

Changing the topic, Kaden wandered over to the cutting board and placed a carrot in the center. For some perplexing reason, the man grabbed the largest knife on the counter—a butcher's knife—and raised it high with two hands.

Noah's eyes almost popped out in surprise.

"Are you a fool?" Noah stopped Kaden before he could slam the knife down. "What're you doing?"

"That's my question. Why are you stopping me?"

Saying that, Kaden crashed the heavy blade down, a loud bang startling every person in the class. Everybody watched in horror as Kaden continued to rain down heavy blades, ignoring the disbelief in his partner's gaze.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

The carrot was turned to pitiful chunks before the class' view—but the odd thing was, each slice was precisely aimed and actually didn't look as terrible as one would assume from such chaotic movements.

Finished and thoroughly satisfied with his work, Kaden pushed all the pieces into a bowl to use for later and looked up at Noah eagerly.

Noah stared at him silently.

Why was it that this person's face seemed to be happily asking for praise after such a terrifying act?

"...have you ever cooked before?"

"I haven't," said Kaden as he stretched out to grab another vegetable—which Noah smoothly stole away into his own grasp, away from the other. "But I'd say I'm experienced with a knife."

Noah sighed, rummaging for a different knife and grabbing a second cutting board to place next to the other one.

He exchanged a chef's knife for the butcher's knife still held tightly in Kaden's grasp. Then he grabbed two onions, placing one on each board.

"Take off the skin."

"...?" Kaden, slightly confused at the sudden orders, obediently followed the instructions.

"Cut it in half."

Kaden cut the onion in half.

"Place the flat side on the board. Curl your fingers to form a claw."

Kaden turned over the onion, and then frowned. "A claw? I'm not you, I don't have claws."

Another sigh, before Noah directly reached out and bent Kaden's fingers down to make the shape of a claw, moving the hand onto the onions before moving back to his own board to demonstrate.

"Watch. And then do the same."