In the heart of the Cygnus System, a planet known as EXO Planet was already in ruins when Jark Matter appeared.

An evil entity known only as the Red Force made an attempt to destroy EXO Planet by obtaining the life force of the planet itself: the Tree of Life. The Tree was the goddess of EXO Planet and gifted the world with life. Within her trunk was her heart, a pulsing crystal of pure energy that the Red Force coveted greatly. It was the energy of an entire planet and it could be used to create a weapon capable of enacting the Red Force’s control over the entire solar system.

What the Red Force had not anticipated was the Tree bequeathing her power to young warriors in an effort to save all the citizens of EXO Planet. These warriors, so dubbed the Legends, used their combined strength to beat back the Red Force and purge its evil power from their world. The cost of this war, however, was the landscape in ruins and two of their suns turning dark for a time.

It was in that time of darkness after the defeat of the Red Force when Jark Matter darkened the sky further. Their forces were greater in both number and power than what the EXO Legends had faced with the Red Force, yet this did not deter them. The Legends scrambled despite their injuries to beat back this new evil that had set their sights on their home. Jark Matter sought the same energy that the Red Force had, though they called it something else: Planetium.

The Legends tried their best to push back against the fleets Jark Matter and their terrifying Morimarz, but hope was fading fast from them. Surrender was swiftly becoming their only option left as they found themselves retreating more and more with each altercation.

Hope was nearly lost when the Kyurangers arrived.

With the combined efforts of the EXO Legends and the Kyurangers, Jark Matter was defeated and EXO Planet was saved.

And with Jark Matter’s defeat on that world, a celebration was in order.

Within the confines of the Legends’ home base on EXO Planet, a party was being held by the Kyurangers to thank the Legends in helping them defeat Jark Matter. For the Kyurangers, they didn’t need thanks until Jark Matter was fully defeated across the galaxy, but for EXO Planet’s Legends, this was a long overdue celebration for defeating not just Jark Matter but also their prior efforts in defeating the Red Force. Both groups realized that they needed a break from confronting evil, and when the idea was suggested by the Kyurangers’ leader, Lucky, everyone agreed that a party would be a good way to take a breather.

The kitchen in the Legends’ base was high quality, and Spada, the chef for the Kyuranger team, appreciated the variety of ingredients that it provided for his cooking. He had heard great things about the foods of this planet and had hoped to get a chance to utilize his expertise in making culinary masterpieces from what was readily available on EXO Planet. Even with all the damage that the Red Force and Jark Matter had inflicted, all the fruits and vegetables and meats and grains seemed exquisite. The revival of the Tree of Life brought back the crops and gave the planet bounty enough to aid the people now that all external threats had been neutralized. Spada hummed a song as he placed the finishing touches on a cake that he found in a recipe book belonging to one of the members of the EXO Legends team, leaning back to admire his handiwork.

“That looks delicious!” The voice came suddenly, startling Spada out of his pose. The chef looked at the kitchen door to find a young man standing in the doorway, closing the door quietly. He was one of the EXO Legends, but Spada needed a moment to remember the man’s name. They had only known each other for a short time, and the Kyuranger was still not certain as to everyone’s names yet.

“Thanks,” Spada spoke, touching a hand to his chin. “Chen, was it?”

Chen nodded, walking over to sit on a stool at the other side of the kitchen island where Spada’s cake rested. Chen wore at his lips a feline smile, the ends curving up in a way that hinted at both innocence and danger. Though his smile felt duplicitous, his eyes held a genuine warmth and kindness to them that made Spada feel less tense. “I didn’t mean to surprise you like that. I was just coming in to check on you. D.O.,” another of the EXO Legends, “said you’d been in here for a while and wanted to make sure you were doing okay.”

“Why didn’t he come himself?” Spada was aware that D.O. was quite the cook himself, so he quietly wondered if the Legend felt that Spada was invading the Legend’s sacred space. The kitchen could be like a temple or a sanctuary to those who loved cooking enough.

“That big robot cow wanted to test his strength, so they’ve been going at it for a while now,” Chen chuckled.

“You mean Champ?”

“Yeah, the robot cow!”

Spada giggled, resting his hands on the island as he smiled at Chen, “If he wasn’t made of metal, then I would think his brain was made of muscle!”

Chen chuckled, “What if he was all metal except for the muscle brain?”

“That’s a horrifying image,” Spada laughed, “but I have a feeling Champ would love to have a muscle for a brain. Muscles on top of muscles on top of his already powerful electronics!”

“If he knew I was practiced with cybernetics, then he might beg for me to give him exactly that,” Chen cackled.

The chef shook his head, laughing loudly with Chen. They both seemed to acknowledge that none of this was nearly as funny as they were making it out to be, but it was likely a combination of their elevated spirits after defeating Jark Matter and their exhaustion after doing exactly that task.

“So what all have you been making in here?” Chen asked once their laughter had stopped and his breath had returned to him.

Spada adjusted his hat onto his head, grinning as he picked up the recipe book he had been using, “I’ve been using this to replicate some of your local cuisine. It’s been going smoothly!”

Chen reached over and took the book from the Kyuranger, flipping through it with a smirk, “Wow, some of these recipes are really old! This must be D.O.’s book. He collects things like this, but only ever cooks the same meals for us over and over again.”

“Then you’re in luck!” Spada snatched the book back from Chen’s hands, which prompted the man to whine playfully at its loss. The book was flipped to a page and turned back over to Chen, Spada’s finger pointing to a recipe, “This is the cake I just finished making. I’ve heard that these fruits,” he moved his finger to a few of the remaining red-and-white speckled fruits on the island, “have a splendid sweetness to them, which made me want to recreate this recipe.”

Chen looked from the cake in the picture to the cake that Spada had just finished baking. The real life cake had an intoxicatingly sweet scent and looked nearly identical to the one in the photo, save for a few flourishes added by the Kyuranger chef. The cake itself had a thick, moist base that was flecked with the innards of the speckled fruits while the top of it was covered in thin slices of the same fruit, dusted with a powered sugar, and covered in a shining crystalline glaze. In the book’s picture, the fruit slices were patterned in lines across the top of the cake, but Spada’s version had two layers of fruit slices. The first layer of slices was like the picture, beautifully straight lines cutting across the moist base, but the second layer had the slices arranged to spell out a word in the native language of the people of EXO Planet: Congratulations! Chen was absolutely impressed.

“Is the spelling correct?”

“Huh?” Chen was so entranced by the cake that he nearly forgot that he was speaking to Spada. “Oh, yeah! You did a good job with it!”

Spada sighed in relief. Chen’s silence for such a long span of time made the chef worry that he had perhaps misspelled the word or even made a mistake in the presentation of the cake itself. He smiled gently and said, “I prepared a smaller version of it, too, as a test. It didn’t come out as well as I had hoped, but the flavor is still good. Do you want to have a taste?”

That piqued Chen’s interest immediately, that cat-like grin returning to his lips. “Yes, please! Cake rejects are still cake!”

A chuckle bubbled up from Spada as he went to the counter behind him and grabbed a much smaller baking tray. As he set it down next to the finished product, it was obvious that its quality wasn’t quite the same as the larger cake. The smaller cake wasn’t quite as moist and the glaze wasn’t as transparent, but it was otherwise close enough that if the other cake wasn’t there, the quality of the cake wouldn’t have been questioned at all.

Chen leaned close to give it a sniff, humming as the scent pleased his nose. “Oh, man! This looks and smells delicious! I can’t believe this is the reject!”

Spada smiled and brought over a pair of plates and forks, setting one plate and fork in front of Chen, then used a cake knife to slice into the reject cake easily. There had already been a small slice taken from the cake, which had been Spada’s trial taste, but otherwise the cake was fully intact. A nice-sized slice was placed onto each plate in front of Chen and his smile beamed warmly at the EXO Legend.

“You get to have a sneak peak before the party starts,” Spada spoke jovially. “But don’t tell Lucky about this. He might be hurt that he wasn’t lucky enough to eat this cake reject.”

The Legend let out a small laugh before digging his fork into the cake. He had had a cake like this before when he was younger. His mother made a similar one for his birthday many years ago and he remembered loving it immensely. As the forkful of cake slipped into his mouth, those memories became even more vivid. It was long before the war with the Red Force, back when everything was peaceful in their small desert town. His mother would try her best to prepare foods that made them forget about the hard life that they lived in the desert. This cake was one of the happiest memories he had of her. The scent, the taste, the texture... everything was a faded memory bursting into clear view.

Spada watched Chen quietly, enjoying his own slice of cake without the rush of nostalgia. He could see the mixed sensation of enjoyment and pain, sadness and happiness combining into an expression that the chef had seen sometimes when intense emotions and memories were housed inside the warmth of a comforting food.

That brief bout of nostalgia soon dissipated, leaving Chen to open his eyes and find them coated in wetness. He had not realized that his eyes were closed or that he was on the verge of tears, and now he was wholly aware of both and slightly embarrassed for it. He sniffled and wiped his tears away with his hand. “This cake is really good,” he said, his voice tense from the strain of holding back tears.

From across the island, Spada settled a hand on Chen’s shoulder, smiling gently at him. “I’m glad that you like it. You can have the rest of it, if you want.”

A silence passed between them, marred only by the occasional sniffing of Chen as he tried to shake himself from his emotions. Spada slowly removed his hand from Chen’s shoulder, feeling he might have had it placed there for too long, but Chen reached up to take the hand into one of his own, gripping it firmly despite the slight trembling. The EXO Legend was still trying to regain himself, keeping that hand held tightly.

“Thank you,” Chen said quietly, drawing the hand to his lips and giving the fingers a delicate kiss. The taste and scent of Spada’s fingers were a mixture of the natural salt on his skin mixed with the sweetness of the cake he had spent so much time preparing. The remnants of the sticky glaze now clung to Chen’s lips and he them to take that taste into his mouth. He hadn’t thought of himself as one to like sweets, but he could be persuaded to change his mind.

Spada’s brain had momentarily stopped working as all of this occurred, not being able to properly index the information being given to him. When he could finally get the wheels of his mind turning again, he carefully withdrew his hand from Chen’s grasp. Chen had already loosened his grip enough to free Spada’s hand and that made it much easier for Spada to move the hand completely back to his side of the island, moving both of his hands from Chen’s view.

“I... I-I’ll go tell D.O. that you’re good in here,” Chen stammered, scooting away from the island. Now that the moment had passed, he was flustered and apologetic. “Sorry about... that...”

“It’s fine,” Spada said quickly. He had yet to fully process his emotions or even truly comprehend what had just happened.

“Can I still have the cake?” Chen asked innocently.

Spada chewed his lip for a second before nodding, “Yes, you can still have it.”

Chen moved to pick up the cake, maintaining a safe distance between himself and Spada as he grabbed the cake and slowly moved towards the door. He paused before opening it, letting out a small noise. “If you don’t hate me,” he said cautiously, “then come by my quarters after the party. We can talk and finish off this cake together.” He turned around and flashed a grin, “I promise not to kiss your fingers.”

Spada returned the smile weakly, “S-sure.”

“However,” Chen added as he walked through the doorway, “I don’t promise not to kiss elsewhere on your body.” He laughed and quickly shut the door behind him.

Staring blankly at the door, Spada let out a long breath. His face was flush as he touched his hands to his cheeks. They were warm, just as he feared. He had been right about that man’s smile – it was indeed dangerous.