Chapter Text
Vee Tower, Pride Ring, Hell. Year 2020 - Pre-Series
Cooking.
A staple activity for humanity. One that reached back to the days of old, where groups hovered over open fires to cook their hunts. A grown necessity and an enjoyed activity in the centuries that followed.
It was one he enjoyed greatly.
It wouldn’t be something anyone would expect, not when looking at him. Most would barely even think he’d stepped into a kitchen, yet be capable of having the ability to cook, likely just believing he survived only on electricity or maybe even energy drinks if they were to push it.
That was a complete lie.
Despite having a tv for a head and a mostly metallic body, he could eat, he had to eat, he enjoyed eating. He was a big foodie and in that came a love for cooking.
The flavours, the sweet, the sour and the spicy. The textures. The smells.
And mixing them together and making something from that was the fun part of it. The best part of it.
Cooking was his escape, a way he could wind down after a long and busy day of boring meetings and staring at monitors, because as much as he loved technology and his company, it was his job, something that even he needed a break from from time to time. It was a break in his, sometimes, bland and very similar days.
In his human years as a teen, when he was an overworked and underpaid cook at a small shitty diner, in a tiny kitchen barely big enough to move around in, it would have been the opposite, but now he loved it because he was cooking for his own enjoyment, for himself. Able to now experiment and test flavours in different ways, something that back then he and his family were most of the restricted from due to money issues and were left most of the time with much blander and cheaper ingredient options which usually made a meal just enough to satisfy an appetite and hardly for a spectacle of taste.
His love for cooking was also a tribute to his wonderful mother, the one who’d taught him everything she knew after his begging from the ripe, young age of 4, guiding his hands with her gentle but firm teachings until she was too sick to even get out of bed. The one who was hopefully living her life in Heaven to the fullest in a way she hadn’t been able to on Earth, along with his two younger siblings, Susie and Ben, who he hoped had made it up there and that his Mom managed to reunite with.
He still adhered to her teachings even decades later and occasionally he found himself making one of her dishes which she’d taught him, though adding different spices and ingredients which she hadn’t had access to at the time. They were always a huge hit with the other Vee’s.
Being the only of the trio that could actually cook, he found himself being the one to cook dinner for the three of them everyday. Not that he minded of course, the day he let Val or Velvette in the kitchen would be the day he was impaled by an angelic spear, which meant never unless he wanted Vee Tower to burn to the ground.
No, that would never happen. Not on his watch. Not in his kitchen it wouldn’t anyway.
Vox was brought out his thoughts, head snapping up as the sound of the timer for the oven beeped and straightened from where he was hunching over the countertop and swept towards the oven to peek if the contents was ready.
Tonight was a dinner of chicken enchiladas with a grilled corn salad. A tester for his cooking segment on his show tomorrow and a recipe that he hadn’t tried before.
His eyes ran scrutinisingly over the steaming, tasty-looking enchiladas before he deemed them cooked enough and slipped on his oven gloves to remove the tray, the stream leaving slight condensation on his screen as he held it and put it on the counter.
He quickly wiped his screen with a towel to remove the condensation and then he rushed to grab plates and began to plate up the enchiladas and grilled corn salad, giving everyone a similar portion size, and leaving enough remaining for anyone who wanted seconds. He then spent a few moments making it look nice, because presentation was very important.
Once he was done, he grabbed Velvette and Val’s plates first and swept into the dining room where Velvette and Val were waiting at the table.
“Hey V!” Velvette looks up from her phone as he entered, swinging her legs off from the table and scooting her chair in. “Whats on the menu for tonight? I’m fucking starving.”
“Chicken enchiladas with a grilled corn salad. This is a tester my cooking segment tomorrow, so give me your honest review and critiques.” He placed one plate in front of Velvette, who’s pupils grew with hunger as they fell on her meal, before moving a placing down Val’s.
“Gracias Mi Vida.” Val reached and pressed a kiss to the side of his screen. “It looks increíble. I don’t think I’ll find any issues with it.”
“Me either, this looks fucking amazing V.” Velvette praised, snapping a few aesthetic shots of the meal on her phone.
“Thanks guys.” He grinned pridefully as he straightened, absorbing the praise like a sponge as he always did about his cooking. “But seriously, be honest, I can’t be cooking this tomorrow if it tastes like dog shit.” He called back as he walked back into the kitchen to grab his own plate and the cutlery for him and the rest before returning and taking his seat.
Velvette and Val were right though, it did look good. But the meal looking good was nothing compared to the taste. He’d done some slight tasting at intervals during the cooking process as any cook does, but he had yet to taste the final product.
But he didn’t allow himself to just yet, passing out the cutlery, and waiting for Val and Val to start first.
“Don’t be so harsh on yourself V, I’m sure it’ll taste just as good as it looks.” Velvette argued, before taking the first bite of her enchilada.
He waited in impatience as she chewed, his mechanical heart fluttering nervously as he waited for her review. If this was bad, he’d have to find another recipe to showcase tomorrow.
His nervousness faded as she let out a moan, her eyes practically rolling to the back of her head. “Fuck V. How do you fucking do it?”
He sighed in relief. Okay, a good response. That meant it wasn’t awful.
Val took a bite next, and though is reaction wasn’t as vocal as Velvette’s, him shovelling in another mouthful as soon as he’d finished his first was good enough of an answer.
He took that cue to start his own, cutting off a small bit of his enchilada before popping it into his digital mouth.
The flavours burst on his tongue and tastebuds and he hummed in enjoyment. It was so good. Then he tried to the salad. It was just as good.
Not to be self-centred and what not, but he had to mentally pat himself on the back. He was a fucking good cook.
He had another mouthful and then another. Filling the empty pit in his stomach as he remembered he’ missed lunch because he’d had a meeting.
“Honestly V, I had no idea why you didn’t go into the restaurant business. You’d make a bloody killing with your cooking.” Velvette bemoaned, having finished her enchiladas and moved onto her corn salad.
He shuddered just thinking about it. “Ugh, never again. I already had the taste of that in life and I would never go back.” Even if this time around, he would be calling all the shots, he wouldn't go back into the food industry even if you paid him too.
Soon, the plates were empty, with the red and yellow stains of sauce and cheese being the only remainder of the meal, Val’s and Velvette’s more so as they had gone back for seconds and were now bickering over who got the remaining for a third portion.
He found himself smiling, not his usual wide grin or his smirk, but a smaller but genuine smile as he watched.
Its not often he felt reflective, but sometimes he couldn’t help it.
Sometimes he just couldn’t believe how lucky he was to have this.
His life when he was human hadn’t been….easy to say the least.
And growing up, his life had been difficult, a struggle. After his Mom had passed, it had just gotten worse and worse, some parts from his doing, but most not.
The cruel world throwing hit after hit at an innocent child, moulding him into something more calculating and cruel. Throwing the worst at him and forcing to adapt, sometimes not in the best ways, to survive.
All of which which made him end up here, instead of with his Mom in Heaven. Something that even though it hurt him, very much so at first, he held no regret for. Even if every day he missed her.
He’d made his choices and he would forever deal with the consequences. He’d made peace that he’d never make it to the golden gates a long time ago.
Sometimes he wondered if she would be proud of him and his choices, ones in life and in death. Would she be proud of the man he’d become? So different from her wide eyed and innocent little boy, who looked at the world with such innocent joy and optimism. Probably not, and honestly he wouldn’t blame her. When he looked in the mirror, he barely saw the person he had been before, and not just because now he had a tv for a head.
But he hoped that even after a lot of the unsavoury things he’d done, one thing that he hoped his mom could be proud of was of him keeping her memory alive.
Cooking had been hers and now it was his. A piece of herself that she’d gifted him and something he wouldn’t let falter or fade. He would keep alive, just like his love for her. Just like his love for his siblings who he’d never had the chance to see grow up.
Even in the dark, there was some light at the end of the tunnel for him, even in Hell. Because even if he’d lost his first family, he’d gained another abate a different kind of one. Another who despite how annoying they could be, he cared for full-heartedly. That despite how often he wanted to strangle them, mostly Val, for their idiocy, he loved them, even though he would never let them know just how much.
“So what did you think?” He brought himself back to reality, letting smile fall, replaced by his usual facade, his usual grin on his screen as he rested his hands on the table, pressing the tips of his fingers, in the staple sitting position of professionalism. “Your honest rating please.”
“10/10 as always mi amour.” Val crooned, leaning back in his chair.
Velvette nodded, not looking up from her phone which she’d grabbed. “I agree, it was good V, though maybe a go easy on the cheese. I think I’m gonna need to upsize my clothes if I eat that again.” Velvette said, her nails tapping on her phone screen as she wrote a review post for the meal's photo's on her Sinstagram. Hopefully all good like she’d said and would be good free advertisement for tomorrow’s segment.
“Well I’ll take that into account Velvette.” He chuckled.
Looks like all in all, it was a success.