A Magical Meal

Wyatt, Chris, and Melinda decide to surprise their parents with breakfast in bed...

Muffled giggles were heard in the early hours of the morning. The house was just beginning to be lit by the sun's rays as it rose into the sky, dissipating the night which had reigned just moments earlier. And while most kids would take the chance to sleep in as late as they could that weekend morning, there were three children in the house who were already up.

Wyatt, age nine, tiptoed out of his room, followed by his two younger siblings. The children had planned this for the past few weeks, and now that it was time, Wyatt could hardly wait for everything to happen. His parents would be really proud, he thought.

Peering down the hallway, Wyatt indicated to both Chris and Melinda that it was safe to leave the room. Melinda stepped forward and giggled quietly. Wyatt shot her a warning look. Piper sometimes seemed to have supersonic ears and would usually awake at the slightest sound coming from her children. Luckily, there was no change in the two sleeping figures in Piper and Leo's room.

Wyatt sighed in relief and pushed Chris forward. Chris almost looked scared as he tiptoed around his parents' open door, and then hurried down the stairs after his sister. Wyatt checked on his parents one more before orbing down to the kitchen, reveling in the power that he'd mastered so early while his younger siblings sometimes had issues.

As he reappeared in the kitchen, Wyatt was unsurprised to see Chris's face set in a disapproving and slightly jealous look as he appeared. Four-year-old Melinda was too occupied looking in the refrigerator to do much more than smile at her older brother before beginning to peruse the fridge shelves again.

"What are we cookin'?" she asked in her young voice, her eyes large as she turned to Wyatt for direction.

Wyatt considered the question carefully, wondering just what he would like to be surprised with as breakfast. What breakfast food was his favorite? Chris sighed and sat down to wait, knowing that this might take a while. Melinda waited as well, the fridge door open and releasing all the cool air inside into the warm kitchen.

Finally, Wyatt thought of something. "Pancakes!" he exclaimed. Nothing was better than pancakes, he thought.

Melinda nodded and looked back in the fridge. "What do pancakes have?" she asked herself.

Chris stood up and stood behind Melinda. "Milk, and eggs, and flour, I think," he said. He was the only one who actually paid attention while their mother cooked. Melinda was still too young to pay attention, and Wyatt was usually distracted by performing some forbidden magic or another. Piper would only interrupt her cooking to yell at her oldest son before continuing.

Wyatt grinned. "We should put chocolate chips in it too!" he said. He opened his hands and a bag of chocolate chips orbed into it. Ignoring Chris's disapproving look, Wyatt set them on the counter before beginning to look for a bowl to put the pancakes in.

Chris gave Melinda the carton of milk to carry before grabbing the eggs himself. He held them carefully out as he put them on the counter. He didn't want to break any eggs yet.

Melinda found the flour, and all the ingredients were now on the counter, waiting to be mixed up. She looked at Wyatt expectantly. "Now what?" she asked.

Wyatt frowned. He honestly had no idea.

Chris decided to take over. "We mix up the flour, the eggs, and the milk," he said.

Melinda brightened. "OK!" she exclaimed. She tore open the bag of flour and began pouring a large amount in a salad bowl one of her brothers had found. Flour rose up from the bowl into the air, making her sneeze. "Achoo!" More flour sprayed out onto the counter, but none of the children paid it any mind.

"That's it," Chris said, his eyes wide at the huge amount of flour in the bowl. He then shrugged it off, though. He wouldn't mind pancakes that morning either, and neither would his siblings, he was guessing. "Now the eggs," he said.

Wyatt grabbed one of them, grinning. "I'll do it," he said. "I'm the oldest, after all." He cracked the egg against the bowl, and the entire shell caved in. Wyatt's hand was covered in the gooey substance before the whole thing dropped into the bowl.

"Wyatt!" Chris complained, fishing out the largest bits of shell. "That's not how you do it!"

Wyatt looked into the bowl, and at the bits of shell in the egg. He figured he might as well leave it. Nobody would notice with all the chocolate chips. "Well, it's not as easy as it looks," he said, grabbing another egg. This time, he focused on it carefully and orbed everything out from the shell and into the bowl, making a perfect egg. He smiled. "Check it out! I invented a new way to cook!"

Chris rolled his eyes. "Fine." He turned away to grab the milk while Wyatt put more eggs into the mixture. When he turned back, he saw Wyatt ready with what had to be the fifth or sixth egg. "No! That's enough!" he said, trying to remember how many eggs Piper put in her pancakes. Maybe more milk would balance it out?

Chris began to pour, trying to mentally measure how much milk had to go in to balance out the other ingredients. He figured a lot of it. After nearly emptying the carton, he set it aside and looked at the mixture critically. "I think that's good," he affirmed. "Now we just mix it."

"I wanna mix! I wanna mix!" Melinda exclaimed, jumping up and down on the chair her brothers had set for her to reach the counter in excitement. Wyatt ruffled her hair affectionately before orbing a whisk into her hand. Melinda set to mixing with great gusto. Spatters of the mixture landed on the counter and on hers and everyone else's pajamas. Nobody minded, though.

"You forgot the chocolate chips!" Wyatt dipped his hand into the chocolate chips and released two large fistfuls of them into the mixture. By now, the bowl was nearly full to the brim, but all the children thought it looked pretty good.

However, they had a new challenge ahead of them.

"Um, now we have to heat them," Chris said, eying the stove worriedly. Piper had spent a long time invoking the fear of the stove in each of her children, particularly Wyatt who seemed to have no problem getting himself in trouble. By now, all three children knew that touching the stove would incur the wrath of their mother and most likely get themselves burned. They hadn't considered the fact that a stove was necessary to cook. "We should have just done cereal," Chris muttered under his breath.

Wyatt shot him a glare, but couldn't figure a way out of this either.

Luckily, Melinda was there too. "You can use my oven," she said. Her mother had bought her a little toy oven to bake little cakes. It was manufactured by some toy company or another and had so many safety features that it was almost impossible to burn anything with it.

Wyatt brightened. "Cool! Thanks, Mel!" He closed his eyes and Melinda's oven appeared on the counter before him. It was pink and white, and had a few little pans that came with it.

Chris instantly noticed the size of the pans and sighed. They would be there all morning, he thought. "I have an idea," he said, wondering at how dire the situation was for him to utter the words he did. "We can just use magic and do it that way."

Wyatt frowned. "How?"

Chris gestured his siblings back and away from the stove. He stood with the counter between him and the scary appliance. With his telekinesis, he turned the stove on, set a pan there, and carefully poured some of the batter into the pan, making one enormous pancake.

"Chris, you're a genius!" Wyatt hugged his brother with his eggy, floury, arms. By then all the children were covered in a mixture of flour and batter. Chris squirmed until Wyatt released him. "While you do that, Mel and I will get plates and trays and stuff."

Chris nodded, concentrating on the pancake. It was hard to see just how ready it was from the other side of the counter, so he lifted himself up to sit on it. When he saw bubbles in the batter he used telekinesis to flip it around. Then, Chris realized he'd forgotten something. He'd forgotten to put butter in the pan so the batter wouldn't stick. His telekinesis, carefully used, seemed to still be able to flip the pancake, but he had to put in some for the next one. He ignored the little bit of pancake that remained stuck to the edges.

The pancake was nearly completely brown from all the chocolate Wyatt had put in it, but Chris didn't mind. He liked sweet things as well. He busied himself with that while his siblings puzzled over the coffee pot.

"How do we tuwn it on?" Melinda said, sticking her fingers in her mouth. They tasted like batter.

Wyatt looked at the little appliance, opening it up. "I think you put the coffee here," he said, pointing to a little area. "And water here," he opened up another little compartment. "And then you just plug it in."

"OK," Melinda nodded, before giving Wyatt a bag of coffee.

Wyatt sniffed it and wrinkled his nose before filling the coffee compartment to make what he thought was the right amount but was actually going to make the strongest coffee ever. He then poured in water and turned it on. The appliance began to work, and both of the siblings looked at each other and grinned at their success.

"What now?" Melinda asked.

"We grab milk and sugar and stuff, and then cups and plates for Chris to put the pancakes, and then syrup and whipped cream," Wyatt instructed.

Melinda nodded and hopped over to the fridge, pulling out what her brother had instructed while Wyatt lowered plates from the counters with his abilities. Soon, both the siblings had set out a couple of lovely little trays, each with a cup of extremely strong and bitter coffee, a cup of milk, and plates.

Wyatt figured he better try the coffee to make sure it was all right. He took a sip of the hot liquid, and it not only burned his tongue but made him grimace. "That is so gross!" he exclaimed. Chris shot him a look but he ignored it. He didn't want his parents to think he'd done a bad job, so he began pouring liberal amounts of sugar in the drinks, and topped it off with some milk. The cups were now scarily full, warning the children that they would spill with even the slightest movement. "Are you done with the pancakes, Chris?" Wyatt asked.

Chris nodded. "Yup," he said. He telekinetically put three huge pancakes on each plate. They looked fluffy and brown, if a little black around the edges. It was truly a miracle Piper hadn't run downstairs already, not only from the noise her children were making but from the smells of burnt pancake and coffee.

Melinda smiled and began to liberally cover the pancakes in syrup, while Wyatt followed suit and covered them in whipped cream, making a happy face on the top pancake of each plate.

The three children then stepped back, admiring their handiwork. Before them, they believed, was the most delicious breakfast anybody could ever make. However, they were now faced with a new challenge.

"Wyatt? How do we get them upstairs?" Chris asked, eyeing the trays nervously. They looked heavy and wobbly, and he was scared of spilling the drinks. Piper would be furious if that happened.

Wyatt thought carefully. "We go upstairs and then orb the trays!"

All three children thought this a reasonable plan, so they hurried up the stairs and into the bedroom, where their parents were still miraculously asleep.

"Surprise!" they yelled.

Piper sat up instantly, her hands before her as if to blow something up. The three children threw themselves to the ground, recognizing their mother's attack pose.

"Whaaa…?" Leo's voice was heard under the blankets. He sat up, looking at his wife with bleary eyes. "What happened?" he asked.

The children, realizing they were out of danger, hopped onto the bed. "We have a surprise," Wyatt said to his parents.

Piper frowned quizzically. "Oh really?" she asked.

Melinda nodded. "Yup!" she said, bouncing slightly on the mattress by her parents' feet.

Wyatt closed his eyes and two laden trays appeared on both Piper's and Leo's laps. The two grown-ups looked at the food, amazed.

"You guys did all this?" Leo queried, grabbing Chris, who was closest, and hugging him tightly while being careful not to move too much and spill the food.

"Yeah," Chris said, his young voice muffled slightly by his dad's arms.

Piper smiled at the food, despite it looking rather tragic in her chef's eyes. She was still extremely proud of all her babies. "This is amazing, guys!" Hugging her oldest and youngest, she closed her eyes and inhaled happily, trying not to think about the state of the kitchen.

"Try it, it's delicious!" Melinda prodded a syrupy pancake with her little fingers.

Wyatt realized he'd forgotten silverware and instantly orbed them to his hands. "One for you and one for you," he handed a fork to each of his parents.

Leo took a fork and began to cut a bite-sized bit out of the huge pancake while Piper sipped the coffee. "Wow," she said, fighting the grimace that wanted to surge on her face. The coffee was strong and sweet and slightly disgusting, but she wouldn't tell her children that.

Leo forked a piece of pancake into his mouth. It was ridiculously sweet. Something crunched in his teeth, and he wondered what it was, but he grinned anyway. "You were right, it is delicious," he said, wondering just how much of the pancakes he had to eat for his children to be satisfied. They weren't particularly bad, but all the sugar on them made him want to cringe.

Piper suddenly thought of something, and she jostled the tray, spilling a little coffee, as she sat up even straighter. "Guys, you used the stove to make these, right?"

All three children hung their heads from the tone in her voice. Wyatt summoned up the courage to look up first. "Yeah," he said, "but we were super careful and didn't do anything!"

"Well did you turn the stove off?" Piper asked.

All three children looked at each other. Oops.

(A/N) OK, guys, this is hot off the press! No seriously, I just wrote it, like now. So, there are probably mistakes in it but I did promise I'd update today, so here it goes! I hope you enjoy this little oneshot! I know I enjoyed writing it :) The kids are so cute!

As usual, thanks to everyone who read this little series, added it to their Alerts/Faves, but super duper special thanks to everyone who reviewed. You guys rock: makoto20, Crystalzap, SchwuppDiDupsi, charmedeva, wiccawhitewitchcharmedfan, habibagora, and Fanycharmed. All of you guys are truly amazing for having told me your thoughts in a review! Anyway, I'll leave it at that. A reminder that I do take suggestions for new oneshots, and may write any of them if I get inspired. Please tell me what you think, reviews to writers are like oxygen to writers (well, they breathe too, right?) So unless you want me to suffer from review deprivation (that's an actual disease, trust me. It's scientific name is careorecenseo :P ) Anyway, you don't want me to have that, right? It sounds scary! So, leave me a review below and I will love you forever and remain healthy enough to write another little story! No promises about one next Friday, but I'll try, OK? Forgive me if I don't, though. I'm leaving the country. Anyway, review! And see you later!