1994~Kai Parker

Waffles

   The smell of freshly cooked waffles roused me from the depths of slumber, and as I stirred awake I was startled for a moment at being on the couch before I remembered last night's events. Along with that remembrance came thinking of how I kissed Kai and ended up saying Love you, good night to him. I smacked my hand on my forehead at the slip-ups. How could you have been so careless?

   "What are you so distressed about?" Kai inquired as he waltzed into the room with a plate stacked high with chocolate chip waffles.

I left the question unanswered as my eyes became fixated on the breakfast Kai had made, thinking of how soft and buttery and delicious it must be, and he chuckled at my reaction.

   "Here you go." he said as he extended the plate towards me.

   "Thanks K-"

I cut myself short as he retracted the plate and leaned his head towards me and turned to the side.

   I raised an eyebrow, perplexed by the move, and in response, Kai tapped his cheek with his pointer finger and said, "Well this seems to be the way that we thank each other now, and considering that I brought you food I thought that this was going to be, like, a regular thing."

   Crossing my arms in defiance, I said, "Seriously? It was a one-time error, Kai, don't make it anything it's not."

   "What?" he said mockingly, "I'm simply basing my conclusions off of the concrete facts of last night."

I just stared back wordlessly to emphasize where I stood.

   "Fine, no kiss, no waffles."

   My jaw dropped at the ultimatum, and I said, "Well that's not fair!"

    "Oh, I'm sorry, who kissed who first last night?"

   "It was on the cheek. And no, I shall not be doing it again."

   "Oh, well that's too bad because I make the best waffles. Such a pity that you have to miss out," he said before he sighed out, "Well, I suppose the only thing for me to do is to just sit right here and eat them because I could never waste good food."

He sat down on a chair, picked up the fork and began to move it towards the waffles as if he were in slow motion. My stomach growled loudly as I watched his charade go on until I couldn't take it anymore.

   "Fine, I'll do it."

   "You'll do what?"

   "You know what."

   "Oh no, I'm afraid that you must clarify."

   I rolled my eyes and said "I will kiss you for the waffles, ok? You win."

He tilted his head before he picked up the plate and walked over.

   "To make this a binding agreement, we must shake on it."

   "Whatever," I said as I stuck my arm out and shook his hand, annoyed by how he was drawing the whole thing out.

As soon as I let his hand go, he bent down, grabbed the sides of my face and kissed me, hard, his lips crashing against mine as I, after the initial shock, began to sink into it. It was positively electric, and I let out a little sigh as he moved his hands through my hair towards the back of my head to gently hold it as he sank deeper into the kiss. Just as we found an exhilarating rhythm, he pulled himself out of it, turned around and handed the plate to me.

   "Now was that so hard?"

My mouth was hanging agape, and I closed it, head still spinning from the absolutely earth-shattering kiss.

   "But that...that wasn't on the cheek." I managed to say.

   "Well duh. You said that you'd kiss me but you didn't specify where. Next time you need to be a little more clear with your directions." he quipped as he got up to walk out of the room.

   "Kai!" I cried out in exasperation, failing to come up with anything more eloquent to say.

   "What? I figured that I might as well have a little fun while you keep trying to hide your undeniable attraction to me."

   "Wha-...I-..."

   "See? Don't bother trying to deny it. I felt everything that I needed to feel and heard everything that I needed to hear just now to confirm that I was right. Do you always sigh like that when you kiss someone just for the waffles?"

I had no response to his increasing brashness regarding his feelings towards me and mine towards him, and he just winked at me as he handed me the fork he had been holding.

   "Enjoy the waffles. I hope that you looove them." he said, drawing out the love before winking as he turned around and left the room.

Safe to say that he heard me last night then. Absolutely shell-shocked, I slowly cut into the waffles as I stared blankly at the wall, eating them at a snail's pace as I tried to process what had gone down. Did that seriously just happen?! My mind kept replaying the kiss over and over again- the way it sent shivers over my whole body, the sensation of his lips on mine, the gentle caressing of my hair- and I hated the way I wanted to throw the mouthwatering waffles aside, storm into the kitchen and kiss him all over again. I shook my head rapidly back and forth, trying to get it all out of my head, but the thoughts refused to be dislodged. Well shit. My plans to suppress my feelings for Kai and carry on as friends had clearly been thrown out the window, and it was pointless to try and play dumb now. So should I just...do what I feel? Follow my heart and all that shit? Even after finishing the waffles, I couldn't come up with an answer. I didn't want to ask Kai for anything at the moment, worried that I'd be tempted to make- out with him on sight, so I swung my legs over the edge of the couch and stared at my swollen ankle. Slowly beginning to put weight on it, I eventually got all the way standing, and, even though it was pretty uncomfortable, I found that I could walk. I picked up the plate and limped into the kitchen, scanning it for Kai before I got all the way to the sink. Suddenly, I was picked up from behind, and I let out a little scream of alarm before I realized that Kai had slung me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

   "What the hell are you doing?!" I shouted in protest as he walked back over to the couch and laid me back down on it.

   "It hasn't been 48 hours yet, you shouldn't be trying to walk."

   "Well..."

   "That must have been one hell of a kiss for you to go to those lengths to avoid interacting with me again."

Can he read my mind or something? I remained silent again, not knowing what to say about it all yet.

   "Listen, it's fine that a literal sociopath is being more open about their feelings than you right now, but don't let your denial get you hurt or something, alright? That's just stupid."

Although it pained me to admit it to myself, Kai was right- he had been open before, and now I was being as guarded as he had been on several occasions. I just huffed and sat back into the pillows, mind racing.

   "Is there anything else I can get for you, Queen of Denial?"

   "No, thank you." I replied, choosing to ignore his little quip.

   "Fine." he conceded as he shrugged and left the room.