As Axiom slept, Cell began thinking about what had changed in this timeline for Axiom to appear. Sifting through his memories, he came to the only logical conclusion: Axiom had time traveled.
__
The next few hours passed uneventfully. Axiom slept, and Cell simply stood there, growing increasingly bored until Axiom finally woke up.
Axiom slowly sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and yawning.
Cell sighed at the sight. "So you finally woke up."
Axiom nodded before narrowing his eyes at Cell. "You… did you not sleep?"
Cell smirked. "Sleep? Hah! Who do you take me for? I'm perfect. I don't need sleep."
Axiom's eyes softened in understanding. "Then what did you do while I was asleep?"
Cell paused, knowing full well he had done nothing but stand there for several hours. "…I stood here. I mean, what if someone had come to challenge me while I was away? I couldn't have that," Cell rationalized.
Axiom paused at that, not entirely understanding how a living being could do such a thing, but he chalked it up to the "perfect lifeform" nonsense Cell kept spouting. He nodded and stood up.
"Another game, or do you want to end it on a loss?" Cell held up the Uno deck, hoping the last part would entice Axiom enough to play immediately.
Axiom opened his mouth, then closed it, scrunching his eyebrows. He had forgotten that living bodies needed food, and now the hunger had returned in full force.
"I'm hungry," Axiom informed Cell before turning and launching off, heading for the same house he had taken the Uno deck from.
It took less than a second for him to hover above it. This time, he saw police cars and yellow caution tape surrounding the house. Axiom had momentarily forgotten that he had killed the man for shouting at him.
He looked down at the crime scene for a few moments before flying to a different home a few blocks away.
Grabbing the handle, he tried to open the door, only to find it locked. Thinking for a moment, he lightly kicked it, sending it flying off its hinges and granting himself access.
Walking inside, he surveyed the home, searching for the kitchen.
A few seconds later, he entered it and saw the stove on, a pot of water sitting above the flame, not yet boiling.
Axiom looked around, knowing someone had been there not long ago.
"I can hear you," he lied, hoping to force the homeowner out. There was no movement—no sound at all.
He looked around again before opening the fridge and grabbing the first edible thing he saw: a carrot.
He stared at it briefly before taking a bite, then searched the fridge for something more appealing. Finding nothing that piqued his interest, he turned his attention to the pot of water, now beginning to boil.
"I won't kill you if you cooperate, human." He meant to sound reassuring. In his mind, pretending they weren't there would be enough reason to crush them—especially since he was hungry.
Out of the corner of his eye, Axiom spotted movement near the entrance. In an instant, he flew to block the door, still chewing on the carrot.
Looking slightly upward at the human, he noted that this one was female. It didn't matter to him. He floated up slightly, picked her up, and flew back to the kitchen—slowly, unsure whether a normal human could survive his usual speed, having already learned from the previous one.
The woman struggled to free herself, though her attempts didn't even make Axiom glance at her.
Upon arriving in the kitchen, he placed her down near the stove. "Cook, and I'll let you live. I'm hungry."
She stood frozen, like a deer caught in headlights, until a light kick snapped her out of it. She quickly began preparing the meal she had likely intended to make before.
Axiom watched over her shoulder as she added pasta to the salted water. Frankly, he had very little knowledge of food. Most of the information he had acquired in the past, he had discarded, so the entire process intrigued him.
He observed as she mixed eggs, cheese, some kind of meat, and black pepper, combining it all in a pan with some of the pasta water. When she reached for a plate, she nearly dropped it from sheer nervousness, but Axiom caught it and handed it back to her.
She plated the spaghetti carbonara and handed it to Axiom along with a fork.
He carefully plunged the fork into the dish, lifting a sizable portion to his mouth, ignoring the burning heat radiating from it. His ki and natural physiology were strong enough that it didn't burn him.
Tasting the carbonara, he was pleasantly surprised. It tasted amazing.
He hadn't actually planned to keep her alive—not after she tried to run—but this made him reconsider.
Shoving the rest of the dish into his mouth, he set the fork back on the plate.
"You know, I really wasn't going to keep you alive."
The woman looked shocked, terrified, on the verge of tears.
"But this meal changed my mind. I'll let you live on the condition that you cook for me."
She began crying—not out of sorrow, but relief. "Yes, I'll do it. Just don't kill me."
Somewhere in Axiom's heart, a sense of satisfaction emerged, as if a part of his nature that had long been suppressed by his rational mind was finally allowed to bloom.