That night's dinner was the most exciting I've ever had in a while.

Before we all sat down, I had taken the chili oil jar from the kitchen and placed it in the center of the table. When Lionel said it, he asked, "Is that the thing you wanted me to try?"

"Yes, it is," I said. "I'll serve it for you, because you don't want to put too much at once."

Once dinner started and our plates were brought out, I carefully skimmed a bit of the chili oil and put it on everyone's plate except Lionel's, saving his for last. I instructed them to just eat a small bit first and see if they liked the taste. For Lionel, I reached the spoon farther down the jar and also scooped up the seeds and some of the residue left behind before pouring the spoonful on his plate.

"What's this stuff?" he asked.

"It just makes the flavor stronger," I explained. "You can still eat it."

I gave myself a heaping spoonful of the chili as well and rinsed the spoon I used to serve in my soup before setting the jar back down and closing it.

"Alright, you guys can try it now!" I said cheerfully.

Learning from his mistakes, Rex only dipped a tiny corner of his fish into the chili oil. Everyone else, however, ate quite a lot of the chili.

Thankfully, everyone except Lionel didn't have very big reactions to the spice, just teary eyes and desperate grabs for their water. The oil itself wasn't the spiciest part, it was the residue and seeds left behind that really intensified the spice. Lionel, on the other hand, was choking and gasping for air hurriedly shoving ice cubes from his drink onto his tongue to try and rinse off the flavor.

"Are you okay?" I asked, not expecting that big of a reaction.

"What is this!? Is my tongue melting off!?" he gasped, feeling for his tongue with his fingers.

"It's alright, that's just the special flavor of chili," I said, now feeling kind of bad for tricking him like this.

Rex was struggling to hold back his laughter, while also taking gulps of his water. In the end, it took a few minutes of Lionel holding ice to his tongue for the pain to dull to a manageable level.

"You were trying to poison me weren't you," he scowled at me, wiping his mouth.

"I wasn't!" I protested. "I just thought it would be funny! If it makes you feel better, Rex reacted the same way you did when he tried it for the first time."

At that, Rex's face burst into flames, "No I didn't! I wasn't holding ice on my tongue for five minutes!"

"It was not five minutes," Lionel insisted, "It was barely for one minute!"

They devolved into an argument as I sighed and just continued to eat my food.

A/N: Merry (Late) Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!