Saba's cooking. drabble 1

I wonder what will happen when all of us left the hostel and live in apartment? So I made a drabble on US.


#Drabble 1-scene:kitchen, when Saba is preparing meal for all of us.


It’s a battle of pride when it comes to defending her kitchen, and Saba does it like a mother lion kills for her cubs. Said is first to go down.The last thing she remembers before lifting the cover off the pot of stew that had been bubbling wafts of aromatic nabe for the last twenty minutes was a sharp pull from behind, and strong arms pinning her down to the floor so fast it happened in a blur.

nabe a.k.a sukiyaki

"You are not laying a single fingernail on that soup," Saba warns in a tone that borders on growl.


 Her triceps flex splendidly and Said is surprised she even has the guts to be staring at them.


"But Saba, I only wanted to try," she squeaks, her belly growing cold from the diffusion happening between the frozen tiles and her exposed skin. She tilts her head backwards as far as it would go before any more would twist it the wrong way permanently.


"More like destroy," Saba bites back, releasing Said from her painful hold. The leader groans, waggling her arms to get the blood pumping. "Shake them outside," Saba orders. "The last time you came in here I had things falling all over the place. Big actions are meant for dance stages, not kitchens."


Said crawls out, tail tucked between her legs, sitting appropriately outside the unseen line Saba had drawn out for them many times before. She watches Saba bustle about the small area, commanding the atmosphere. She cooked, she cleaned, she cared - and she amused – because at this point Jai walks in with drool sliding down the corners of her open mouth.


"What’s for dinner~" she asks jovially, before shrieking like a banshee. 


"Yah! Yah SABARIAH KESE! Put that down! Yah! Are you insane?!"


Said plays Peeping Tom from afar, safe behind the wall of support she had clung to as she watches Saba turn into Rambo cum Terminator I-kill-you. The eldest brandishes two spatulas in her hand like butchering knives, aiming them at Jai like machine guns ready for target practice.


"Dinner’s not ready till half an hour," Saba grits in her most sinister Johnny Depp voice ever. She makes a psychotic dash for Jai, who banishes all thoughts of snacking before mealtime. 


"Yah damnit! I’ll be back!" Jai yells, frightened yet unwilling to surrender. Said grins stupidly when Jai sprints across the invisible line, because Saba stops right in front of the barrier, guarding the entrance to her kitchen like a demented dragon. Jai sticks her tongue out at her senior from behind the “safety” of that line, and gets a she-should-have-seen-it-coming knock on the forehead from Saba’s spatula. 


"Asta la vista baby~" the oldest member calls after as Jai runs off to complain to Ana, who – smart at all the wrong moments – knew when to keep out of restricted zones established by Sabariah Kese.


The leader had been about to walk away and find something less interesting to do when Dila ventures bravely into the lion/tiger/jaguar den. "Saba, I demand food," she hollers boldly, Tarzan style.Saba’s back is to Dila, but Said should have guessed the look of pique on her face as the last of the dumb fools walks into her sacred shrine of herbs and spices and instant noodles.Unaware in her search for RUSKI and the likes, her head plunged deep in the cupboards, the younger doesn’t sense Saba’s stealthy approach. She captures only a flicker of movement after she closes the swinging doors – then lo and behold – Saba has her wrists held in a vice-like strangle.


Dila laughs, thinking it funny, but Saba’s grip tightens. Said from another dimension can see the terror that flits across Dila’s eyes when she realizes her friend is going to eat her up like the Black Widow Spider sucks blood out of its prey.


"Saba, why are you holding me so lovingly?" Dila asks, still capable of making sarcastic remarks despite the situation. "Let me go."


"I’ll let go if you promise you won’t disturb the kitchen until dinner," Saba retorts. 


"Say it!" Dila’s expression turns helpless as she struggles against Saba, whose might still surpassed her by a matter of one year.


"Help~" Dila cries as loud as she can, her plea ricocheting off the walls of the kitchen – an animal about to be slaughtered. Said doesn’t dare try. 

"Jai!~ Help me!~" the younger continues, although Jai from not so far away has moved on to things other than food, discussing anime with Ana like they hadn’t been informed of Dila’s fight for survival.


"Promise me, and then I’ll let you go," Saba threatens, eyeing her boiling soup. She twists Dila’s wrists together menacingly –"Yah okay forget it dinner’s ready," she snaps, letting the younger member go. She had spent the past half an hour restraining idiots.


 Ana crosses the line immediately at the sound of "dinner’s ready" and is the first housemate who doesn’t get attacked.


"Smarty-pants," Dila taunts, and Ana wriggles her fancy behind in Dila’s face. Said comes out of hiding, clasping her hands together in thanks for the food. She heads straight for Saba, who scoops soup into her bowl until her rice turns porridge.The older members take their food out to the balcony, absorbing the calm that seeps out of the frosted air, steaming their faces with smoke from their bowls.


"Saba, are you sure you’re only human?" Said teases, her lips swelling from the truckload of red hot chili pepper Saba must have thrown in.


"What?" the eldest inquires, giving Said a questioning look. "What did I do?" she asks precariously. Cast under the full moon, Saba is a brand new discovery - rare and precious - more costly than gold.


"No Saba, you didn’t do anything," Said replies, wiping tears of love and burning spice out from under her eyes.

And sometimes, she thinks, Saba doesn’t even have to.