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It starts out as Bonnie’s idea, as a way to understand each other better.
(“You guys should swap hobbies for a day!” She had said when Clemont phoned. “It’ll be a fun way to learn about each other.”
Clemont had looked at Cilan, who looked intrigued by the idea. On the one hand, it would be nice to share hobbies and explain why he liked inventing. Bonnie didn’t even really know. On the other hand, Clemont was notoriously bad in the kitchen.
He really didn’t want to extinguish another fire in the kitchen. But if Cilan was interested...
“All right.” He had said.)
Now in Cilan’s kitchen, staring at a recipe for bread while the smell of smoke and melted plastic permeates the air, Clemont thinks that agreeing to Bonnie’s idea in the first place was a bad idea. He has no clue where he went wrong, he’s pretty sure that he followed the recipe to the letter, and yet...
Yet the two loaves of bread were nothing more than charred remains.
“Okay, so, um...” Cilan begins hesitantly. “I think I know what went wrong. The oven racks were too close together, the temperature was set wrong, and you, um, left it in for almost triple the amount of time.”
“Well, at least this time, I didn’t need to use a fire extinguisher.” Clemont jokes. He looks over to Cilan, who somehow has char in his green hair and a red face, and cracks a nervous smile.
“There’s one other thing,” Cilan says. “When I smelt the smoke, I rushed in, right?”
“Right.” Clemont has no idea where Cilan is going with this.
“I may have, um, accidentally left some plastic nuts and bolts near the heat gun when it was on. And now they’ve melted.”
Oh.
Oh no .
“I was wondering where the plastic smell was coming from,” Clemont says, trying not to freak out. “Okay, first, that heat gun needs to be turned off. Then we’ll open as many windows as we can, get some white vinegar, and find some candles and dish soap.”
“It is off now!” He says. “I’ll get the white vinegar – how much do you think we’ll need?”
(Later, when the smell of smoke and plastic is no longer present, Clemont and Cilan will laugh and say they’re terrible at what the other does. Even later, after they start dating, they will joke about how they both managed to nearly cause a fire by trying to impress the other.
Years later, though, Clemont will still be a horrible cook and fires will be common in their kitchen.
But that’s later.)