#dorm mates

  The young man paused in his work and glanced at the clock, nearly 2am. 

  “I suppose I should wrap this up for the night,” he muttered quietly to himself.

  Chrollo set down his pencil and stretched in his seat. Due to sitting in one position for so long, his neck, shoulders, and spine all crackled and popped like shipping bubble wrap. He took in a deep breath through his nose in preparation to lose a groan along with his stretch; but instead, he froze with a look of perplexity spreading across his face..

  Sniffing the air a little more carefully, he straightened up in his seat and turned towards the room door that let out into the hallway.

  Is something. . . burning?

  As though the gods were listening, the sudden shrill sound of one of the dorm's fire detectors started blaring throughout the shared living quarters. Chrollo jumped at first, then scrambled to his feet to make a mad dash out of his room. He had to find what was going on and solve the matter before the rest of the alarms were triggered throughout the building.

  From the corner of his eye, Chrollo saw his dorm mate, Illumi, jolt awake so hard he nearly smacked his head on the bunk above him. He was trying to untangle himself from the combination of blankets and waist long hair by the time Chrollo was out the door.

  Chrollo noticed the haze of smoke now lingering in the air during his rapid approach to the kitchen. Having excited the hallway and rounded the corner, he found a somewhat amusing, yet very concerning, site.

  His second dorm mate, Hisoka, was frantically fanning something inside the microwave with a dish towel. Whatever it was, it looked as though it could possibly be on fire as smoke was continuously emitting in concerning volumes.

  Before Chrollo had a chance to respond, Illumi rushed past and shoved Hisoka aside while snagging the dish towel from the red-head’s hands. Using the towel as a mitt, Illumi grabbed the microwave’s rotating plate and removed it. 

  Sure enough, there was something small and black sitting on the glass plate  which had a few dancing flames atop it. Illumi didn’t stop, he quickly set the glass tray in the sink, fetched a large pot lid, and placed it over the burning object. Before any of them could blink, the fire was snuffed out.

  Chrollo was next in action. Eyes locked on the screeching fire detector above, he gracefully climbed up onto the counter top. As soon as he stood, Chrollo reached up and held the reset button long enough to silence the alarm. 

  His body relaxed somewhat and he let out a content sigh when silence suddenly enveloped the household. Dropping his hand, he glared down at Hisoka who had just finished opening all the windows to let out the smoke.

  “Just what in Heaven’s name were you doing, Hisoka?” the shorter man scolded as he climbed down off the counter. 

  “You could have set the dorms ablaze,” Illumi added in his usual monotone voice. His large, dark eyes stared intently at the contents under the pot lid, head slightly tilted to one side. 

  Hisoka scowled then shrugged his broad shoulders, “I was a little hungry. ♠ So I thought some buttered toast would make a good snack. ♣”

  “Wait, you were trying to make toast in the microwave?” Chrollo questioned, confusion coloring his tone.

  “Well, yes~ ♡” Hisoka shrugged again and then smirked, “I just put some butter on bread, tossed it into the microwave and set it for a few minutes. I suppose seven minutes was too long, though.~ ♠”

  Silence overtook the kitchen once more as Illumi and Chrollo stared at Hisoka in slacked jawed disbelief. The red head looked back and forth between his dorm mates and the smirk slowly faded from his face. 

  “What? ♣” he questioned with a hand on his hip.

  The two blinked in unison and exchanged looks.

  “You have no idea how to make toast?!” they both questioned at once.

  Hisoka jumped a bit at the response in stereo. He then narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms over his muscled chest. 

  “Sure I do, I just set the timer too long is all. ♠”

  “Hisoka, you don’t make toast in a microwave,” Illumi said plainly. Chrollo pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head.

  “Oh~?” Hisoka raised an eyebrow and a smirk returned to his lips. “And you know how to make toast? I figured you had your butlers do all the food prep and cooking for you. ♢”

  Illumi stiffened at the red head’s words and pressed his lips tight. Without another word he spun back around, facing the counter. He swiftly removed a slice of bread from it’s bag, closed it properly as Hisoka had left it open, and loaded the bread into the toaster that was in plain view. Adjusting the dial to his preferred level of bread toastiness, Illumi then firmly pressed down the toaster lever and the bread disappeared into the machine. Within moments, a warm orange glow began to illuminate from the toaster’s slots.

  At this, Illumi faced Hisoka and sharply gestured towards the toaster as it did its job.

  “That, Hisoka, is how you make toast,” he stated with a cold edge resonating in his voice.

  Hisoka’s eyebrows had crawled up his forehead to the point of nearly reaching his hairline. His gaze shifted from the toaster to his long haired dorm mate.

  “And the butter? ♣”

  “You put that on after the bread pops back out of the toaster,” Chrollo sighed.

  There was a moment of silence as Hisoka looked between Chrollo, Illumi, and the toaster. He then blinked, smirked, and shrugged his shoulders.