november yumary otp prompt challenge!

burnt dinner

Mary knows when she fucks up. It's an immediate feeling that's bold in her chest. If it's devastating enough, it feels like her heart is sinking. Most of the time, it's just a "don't do that again" mental note in her head, and she moves on.

This is not one of those times.

When the bitter smell filled her senses, she thought her heart had truly fallen to her feet. If it did, it wasn't crushed under her black flats as she ran to the kitchen.

The oven clouded over in dark smoke, and she hissed a curse loud enough for the poor 2nd grader next door to hear. Without preparation, she opened the oven door, and the smell intensified. Mary covered her nose with her arm, but her sheer black sleeves made it a fruitless effort. She opted to breathing through her mouth as she slipped her oven mitt on. The intense heat of the oven pinched her skin as she slide the glass dish out of the oven and onto the stove beside it. She slammed the oven shut and turned off the heat before looking at the damage.

Charred. Abso-fucking-lutely charred.

The sprinkles of parmesan over the penne shapes had dissolved into rocks that were small enough to be mistaken as restaurant pepper. The pasta itself was like the street Yumeko was driving on right now.

Mary groaned at the reminder. She threw open the utensils drawers and pulled out a fork. Stabbing it right in the middle of the dish, and cringing at the crunch, she tried to pull a piece—more like chunk—out, but it was too tough to pull.

Before she could curse about anything else, there was a knock at her door.

She took the biggest breath she could without her nose and walked to the door. Honestly, she had no idea what she was going to say, but if she dwelled on it alone for any longer, the dish was going to be splattered on a wall, and she'd have to pull out the broom.

Mary opened the door without another thought which was an extra mistake she'd made that night. Yumeko's gorgeous smile lowered as Mary stepped out and closed the door behind her.

"Is everything okay? You look stunning," Yumeko asked, adding the compliment as her eyes studied Mary's black jumpsuit.

"Um, no, it's not. I- wow- I was doing some last-minute cleaning, and before I knew it the house smelled like shit and the oven was smoking and the damn pasta was literally a boulder, and then you were already at the door-"

"Hey," Yumeko grabbed Mary's fisted hands and calmed her steadily rising voice. "It's alright, really."

"But it's not, because I wanted to do something nice, and I wanted to have a nice dinner with you!" she whisper-yelled.

"Mary."

"Yeah?" the pain bled through her tone, giving up on pushing her anger to hide her disappointment.

"I really appreciate it. You're so sweet, and we can still have a good date. I promise," Yumeko's eyes were soft even with the striking eyeshadow surrounding it.

Mary ignored the tears prickling in her vision: "You look really beautiful."

"Thank you," Yumeko giggled. "Do you wanna order take-out instead?"

Mary nodded, "Yeah, but I would feel bad making you drive back home."

"Why would I do that when your apartment is right here?" Yumeko reached past Mary to open the door.

"Wait, you do not want to smell how bad it is in there," she halted her.

"If I'm going through it with you, it can't be that bad," Yumeko opened the door and immediately covered her nose.

Mary stifled a laugh, as she followed behind her: "I told you."