Evicted

Chapter 3

   The light of the sun entered through the window, cascading down on Cyril's skin in a pleasantly warm way. Shifting around, Cyril let his eyes open slowly, drowsily. His tiredness seemed to vanish when he found himself staring into the flat face of Thor, and he remembered where he was. Stretching, Cyril pet Thor on the head a bit and then got out of bed.
   He didn't get dressed yet, as it was still early and they wouldn't need to head to the agency for a while. Cyril put on his glasses and left the room, Thor following him.
   The house was silent. Ray's door remained closed and not a sound came from it.
   Smiling to himself, Cyril assumed Ray was still sleeping, and decided he'd make breakfast for his host.
   In the kitchen, Cyril was quick to start brewing coffee first. Thor watched him for a brief while before wandering off to a different part of the house.
   There weren't a ton of different ingredients to choose from in Ray's kitchen, but Cyril luckily found a bag of pre-made pancake mix.
   All he had to do was add milk, and then he was making pancakes at the stove soon after.
   Eventually as the time passed and the pancakes cooked, he flipped the fourth pancake that'd been poured into the skillet. As he pressed the spatula down gently, Cyril heard Ray's door slide open.
   Ray came walking into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes, his hair sticking up in different directions. He halted when he rounded the corner and saw Cyril. "You're making breakfast?"
   "Yeah. Hope you don't mind." Cyril replied over his shoulder, then turned around to look at Ray. He chuckled a bit at the sight; Ray's hair was wild, yeah, but he was also in his boxers and had his shirt on backwards.
   "You hope I don't mind?" Ray shook his head, laughing lightly. "I'm never up early enough to have breakfast... Thanks."
   "It's no problem." Cyril shrugged, setting the spatula down. "You know your shirt is on backwards, right?"
   Ray looked down, pulling at his collar to find that the tag was at the front. "Whoops." He tucked his arms in and turned the shirt, putting his arms back through. "All better."
   "Well, if you think insane hair is better... That's your call." Cyril shrugged, eyes glowing mischievously.
   "Your hair is all over the place too, mister." Ray replied mock-sternly.
   Cyril was going to give a playful smartass response, but Ray had walked up and began fixing his hair.
   Ray ran his fingers delicately over Cyril's hair, combing some of it into place. "That's a little better. You still look like a mess though."
   Cyril hesitated, but began to lift his hand to fix Ray's hair in return. He was interrupted, however, when a smell met his nose and he whipped around. "Ah! The pancake!" He picked up the spatula and took the pancake out of the pan, putting it on the plate with the others. Luckily it had only just started to burn, and wasn't too bad. "Don't worry. I'll eat that one."
   "Smooth." Ray smirked, walking over and pouring himself some coffee, as well as some for Cyril. "How do you take it?"
   "What?" Cyril asked distractedly, quickly pouring the fifth pancake before he looked over to Ray. "Oh. Black. "
   "Ew." Ray stuck his tongue out in distaste, preparing both of their mugs. He made a show of adding milk and sugar, nodding when he finished as though that was the proper way to drink coffee. He then set the black coffee on the counter next to Cyril.
   "Thanks." Cyril nodded, rolling his eyes in amusement. He blew on the hot drink for a moment before taking a small sip. "Mm, that's what I look forward to every morning."
   "I couldn't go through life without it. I always need a cup of coffee or tea in the morning so I can stay alive all day." Ray agreed, leaning against the counter, watching Cyril cook.
   "Three pancakes each?" Cyril asked, placing the fifth finished pancake on the plate as he poured the sixth, using up the last of the batter he'd mixed.
   "That sounds good to me." Ray agreed, setting down his coffee. "I have syrup and some whipped cream if you want it. I think that's about it though."
   "That's okay. I only ever eat mine with syrup." Cyril answered.
   "Really? What rock did you live under?" Ray blinked, fetching the syrup from the pantry and the cream from the fridge. "Well then you're going to try it with some whipped cream now."
   "Okay." Cyril chuckled a bit, flipping the pancake. It was nice to have someone to make breakfast for and to enjoy it with.
   Cyril took out the final pancake when it finished, putting three on two different plates.
   Both men took one of the plates and went to the counter, where Ray had placed the silverware, syrup, and whipped cream.
   "Put the syrup and whipped cream on every layer." Ray prompted as he began pouring syrup, looking almost strategic as he did so.
   "I don't think I want to know how much sugar this is." Cyril shook his head, but went with it anyway, placing the whipped cream.
   They swapped and added the syrup and whipped cream.
   "Perfect." Ray nodded in approval, then cut into the pancakes.
   Cyril did the same and they both began to eat.
   "It's good." Cyril said around his mouthful when he realized Ray was waiting for a review.
   "I think so." Ray agreed, taking another bite himself. "Pancake mornings were something to look forward to when I was growing up because it was a meal that you could change up yourself. You didn't have to have it like everyone else."
   "I guess I never thought about it like that." Cyril shrugged.
   "'Course you didn't. All you used was syrup." Ray pointed out, then poked at his plate with his fork. "I like strawberries on mine too sometimes. We're definitely going to go all out and get more toppings when we have pancakes again. For now whipped cream and syrup will do I guess. Maybe next time."
   Cyril nodded, feeling a spark of happiness at the thought of eating breakfast with his coworker more in the future. This beat eating alone any day. "Maybe next time."
   They finished up their pancakes and coffee, rinsing the dishes off in the sink.
   "We should probably start getting ready to leave." Cyril pointed to the clock. "Wouldn't want to make everyone wait out on the sidewalk again."
   "Oh, they're just a bunch of complainers. You being late isn't the worst thing that's ever happened." Ray waved his hand dismissively. "But yeah, we might as well get ready I guess."
   They went to the separate bathrooms and showered, dressing and getting ready however else they needed in their usual morning routines. Both regrouped outside the bathrooms at practically the same time, and then they were in Ray's car, off to work.