#i want to go there and press dough and spread sauce and put cheese and pepperoni on it :(

[solacedeer]

i love my job and i’m very happy there and now that i have a day off i feel like.m this

[starryriize]

— ✧ • ˳೫˚ part of my valentine event!

೫ pairing: bf!wonbin and gf!reader

೫ summary: you and wonbin spend the entire night making pizzas

೫ genre/word count: really fluffy and cute! 761 words!

೫ author’s notes: stop i love this sm 😭 this is peak love to me fr :(( making food esp pizza >>>> (why do i feel like i could’ve made this so much better fr)

The smell of rosemary and thyme mixed with the aroma of fresh dough filled the entire kitchen,  reminding you of your childhood in your grandma’s home. The idea of making pizza was your boyfriend’s, so he called your dad to ask for his iconic family recipe. He’d given Wonbin the list of ingredients, emphasizing over the phone that he could not forget the most important ingredient: love. “I once made pizza without love and it tasted terrible! So, don’t forget it!” Your dad’s enthusiastic voice echoed in Wonbin’s mind. Perfect for Valentine’s Day, he thought to himself. 

“Y/n! Could you get the flour too, please?” You poke your head out from the pantry, hands filled with various herbs, spices, and of course, tomato sauce. You laugh, putting the ingredients on the countertop. "Sure, love." Flashing a smile at you, he thanks you, carefully adding the flour in. He gestures for you to come next to him, holding his dough-covered hand out for you to grab. You giggle, taking his hand, eyes flicking upward at his face. Removing his hand from yours, he wraps both his arms around your waist, lightly lifting you to sit atop the counter. After placing you down, he goes back to the dough, kneading it lightly.

Turning to look at the dough, you notice the marinara sauce jar is open. So, impulsively, you reach down, dipping your finger in the sauce and wiping it on your lips. "Look honey, do you like my new lipstick?" You wiggle your eyebrows at him, excitedly pointing at your lips. Wonbin lets go of the dough ball, turning to look at you. Throwing his head back in laughter, he leans over, staring at you intently. His eyes flick from your eyes to your marinara sauce-covered lips, resisting the urge to kiss the sauce off of you.

"Yes. It's a pretty red on you." Wonbin softly whispers, leaning in and giving in to his urge to kiss you. It was a soft kiss, like something out of a movie scene. It was in this moment, as he pulled away, that he knew. You were his future. Smiling, he says, “I need to finish the pizza, love. The dough has to prove for an hour or so.” You feel the heat on your cheeks rising as a small smile grows on your face.

Atop the countertop, you had the opportunity to admire your boyfriend as he focused on slicing mozzarella cheese. Taking a small piece, you bring it up to his mouth. Knowing what you wanted, he opened his mouth, letting you feed him tiny pieces of the cheese on the cutting board. “Mmphm-,” he paused, chewing before continuing, “you do realize that I have to use these for the pizza, right love?” You giggle mischievously, flashing a threatening smirk at him. You knew you didn’t look threatening, not with the flour all over you and the residue of dough on your face and shirt.

“You’re not scary, y/n.” He rolls his eyes, pressing a soft kiss on the crown of your head before turning to the dough, carefully removing it from the proving bowl. It smelled amazing, just like how your dad told him. He must’ve made it with love, you think quietly to yourself.

Grabbing two rolling pins, he divides the dough into equal portions, handing you a portion to make into your own heart pizza. “Could you pass me some oil, please?” He nods, momentarily pausing, rolling out his pizza to pass you the oil. He watches in admiration and pure love as you spread oil on the pan itself as well as the bottom of the pizza dough. Taking your hands, you carefully shape the edges and creases, forming it into a medium sized heart.

“I love you.” He whispers out, surprised by how soft his voice sounded even though it was just the two of you in your shared apartment. You giggle, sighing softly, replying, “I love you more.” He smiles, continuing to make his dough look more heart shaped, quietly spreading the sauce and adding some shredded cheese. You put the mozzarella that you’d previously been feeding to your boyfriend, onto your own pizza.

Handing the pizza to your boyfriend, you can watch eagerly as he puts them both in the oven, asking for a 45 minute timer from Siri. The two of you shared more kisses and soft laughter that night as you enjoyed the pizzas you’d both made with love. Your dad was right. Pizza does taste better when it’s made with love.

[onlyswan]

summary: in which jungkook likes cooking late at night.

→ pairing: jungkook x f!reader

→ genre: fluff

→ warnings: making out

→ word count: 1.4k

—

a loud crash echoed in the apartment when jungkook accidentally nudged the almost empty tall glass of water from the counter. shards of the broken glassware were scattered all over the marble floor, and for a few seconds, he only stared at them mindlessly with a wince on his face clueless on what to do. until he realized that he might’ve woken you up from your much deserved slumber in your shared bedroom. where you were currently patting the empty space beside you in search of the body warmth of your boyfriend.

the ear-shattering noise was the reason you jolted awake from your sleep, but you thought it was from the bad dream you were having. your first instinct was to drown yourself in jungkook’s embrace and hold on to him for dear life to make sense of the real world once again, but when reaching for him turned out to be fruitless, you cracked your eyes half-open. he wasn’t there.

with a sigh, you forced yourself to come out from the cocoon of thick and warm blankets on your bed. goosebumps rose on your skin and you shivered involuntarily. you hate that feeling. you slipped on your slippers and peeked your head in the bathroom.

“jungkook?”

you waited for a moment. no answer. you looked back at the digital clock on the nightstand and it read 3:29 AM.

“oh hell no,” you murmured in realization, already knowing where he was and what he might be doing.

you padded out of your room still half asleep, feeling cold and as dramatic as it sounds since you did just wake up from a not so pleasant dream, lonely. before making your way to the kitchen, you wrapped yourself in the blanket that was on the couch and nuzzled in its softness.

jungkook’s doe eyes widened even more at the sight of you entering the kitchen. “wait! are you wearing slippers?”

and so, you were right. he was cooking again. he was in the middle of chopping tomatoes for the pizza when you came in. he was done with onions and bell pepper, which were neatly chopped up beside him. you silently thanked the heavens that he decided on pizza tonight instead of baking like he did two weeks ago, when he stayed up the entire night and slept the entire day and you basically only consumed cake for the next three days.

“yeah, the floor is cold.” you answered quietly, walking towards him for a hug. he was relieved with your answer, wrapping his arms around your figure and holding you close to him, but still careful not to touch with his hands and stain the blanket.

“did i wake you? sorry, i broke a glass.”

you pulled away a bit to look at his face. “that was you?”

he nodded, and he couldn’t help pressing a loving kiss on your lips. you looked so adorable in your sleepy state, staring up at him with barely open eyes and a small pout. “did you think it was a burglar or something? sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

you were going to mention your dream, but decided against it later on. you didn’t want to make him feel bad. “big dummy. are you not hurt though?”

he chuckled and shook his head in response, pulling away from hugging you to go back to his task at hand. “do you want some pizza? i promise it’ll be quick.”

you hopped on a stool on the other side and watched your boyfriend concentrated on cooking. “quick, really?”

he chuckled at the suspicion evident in your voice. “really! making pizza is not as hard as you think.”

the tomato sauce was already spread as evenly as he could make it be on the pizza dough. he sprinkled the cheese. “put a little bit more, pleeease.”

“i already put a lot!”

but still adding some more adhering to your request, then followed by the other toppings.

“aren’t you tired?”

his back was facing you as he was cooking the meat on the pan, looking like an expert with the way he was flipping them in a relaxed manner, as if he’s done this a thousand times.

he caught you mid-yawn when he turned to look at you. a faint blush appeared on your cheeks when his laughter filled the kitchen. “no, not really. it looks like you are though.”

you frowned at him, tugging on the blanket that was slowly slipping off your body. “i am. do you have any idea what time is it?”

“three in the morning?”

he turned the stove off and went on with generously putting meat on the pizza.

“so, you do know,”

you laid your arms on the counter and rested your cheek on one, taking in your boyfriend working diligently in the kitchen. the thing about jungkook is when he finds interest in something, he will never stop until he gets sick of it. it’s pretty much pointless to try and intervene, plus you don’t mind having a chef for a boyfriend, too. you jokingly complain about the late nights but you know this is also the only time he has to do stuff like this, so yes, you just watch him from the counter run around the kitchen every early morning. mostly because you refuse to go to sleep alone when he is home.

“you can go to sleep, if you want. i won’t be able to eat everything. you can have some later.”

you let out a sound of disagreement. “nuh-uh. looking at it made me hungry so you have to feed me now.”

“anything for you, baby.”

the pizza was finally in the oven. he washed his hands and immediately went to embrace you again. your head was leaning against his chest and he was stroking your soft hair gently.

“it’s so cold tonight,” you said absentmindedly, tracing the tattoos on his forearm and up to his shoulder. the thoughtless but sweet actions made butterflies in his stomach flutter around.

he fixed the blanket wrapped around you upon hearing your words. “hmm, i’ll keep you warm.” he cooed, pressing a kiss on your forehead.

“can’t you kiss me properly?”

he raised his eyebrows at you, a smirk forming on his lips. “you know damn well i can do better than properly.”

“i’m not sure, i’ve only been getting a peck here and there.” you looked up to him innocently, his eyes already trained on your lips.

he smashed his lips against yours, arms supporting your body from falling off the stool as you weakly grasped at the cloth of his shirt. you never learn, he thinks. teasing him like that always ends up with you getting all weak and putty in his hands, but maybe that’s what you are after. the thought drove him wilder, tilting his head to the side to deepen the kiss.

“yah! what are you do-” you squealed when he lifted your entire weight effortlessly to make you sit on top of the counter before pulling you again for a kiss. he was so tall that there was practically no difference between your height despite being sat on the high counter.

the two of you made out while waiting for the pizza to get done cooking in the oven, with your hands tugging and playing with his hair and his carressing the exposed skin of your thighs. you both pulled away breathless when the timer went off, jungkook rushing to the oven to reveal the product of his late cooking session.

you hopped off the counter and picked up the forgotten blanket on the floor. “wow, that smells fucking good.”

he gave you a teasing smile. “aren’t you glad you stayed up with me again?”

“just never bake again at this time, i’m begging you.”

you winced when you burned your fingers trying to rip off a slice of pizza.

“it’s still hot! who’s the dummy now?”

you glared at him. “great. we’re a couple of dummies.”

“i take it back. we’re much more sophisticated than that.” he laughed, finally succeeding in taking a piece for you.

“sophisticated as in eating homemade pizza at three in the morning?”

“yes. homemade is the keyword. you hear how that makes that sentence sound cool?” he looked even prouder seeing you happily eat what he cooked. he enjoyed doing it more knowing you have no filter when it comes to things you don’t like.

“will we only eat pizza for the next month?”

he paused for a few seconds, chewing slowly. “most probably.”

“how sophisticated.” you took another slice and smiled at him sweetly. “where’s the hot sauce?”

[love-takes-work]

Bixbite’s Perfect Pizzas

Here’s how to make pizza from scratch--Bixbite’s way!

Includes veggie pepperoni and a fish made out of banana bread because your chef is a vegetarian

Recipe inspired by pizzas pictured in Steven Universe Future: “Guidance”!

See more SU food tutorials!

I can't chop ingredients instantaneously like Bixbite, but I know how to make a pizza.

There's one thing I will not be doing authentically; that pizza has a big old whole fish on it. I'm vegetarian so I will be including a fish made out of bread.

Pizza dough has to rise so I recommend making the pizza dough first and then making a bread fish during the rise time.

Part One: Recipe for Two Pizzas

I have taught pizza-making on this site before! I'll simply repeat my recipe for Fish Stew Pizza with a few tweaks.

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water, 110º F to 115º F / 43º C to 46º C

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon salt

2 to 2 ½ cups flour

Get the water ready. Make sure you take the water’s temperature. If it’s not hot enough you could fail to activate the yeast, and if it’s too hot, you’ll kill it.

Pour your sugar into a bowl. Add the warm water and stir it until the sugar dissolves. Then pour in your yeast and stir it up, and leave it alone for about 10 minutes. The yeast will foam and puff up.

Combine your ¼ cup of vegetable oil with your 1 teaspoon of salt and ¾ cup of flour. Once it's mixed, add the yeast and stir until smooth.

It will be sticky. From here add another cup of flour, work that in with the fork, and begin adding more flour in increments of ¼ cup until you have a dough that is the right consistency. You are looking for handleable, non-sticky dough, but it should be very malleable and soft, without becoming crusty.

You’ll need to work that dough for 8 to 10 minutes. Knead it in the bowl until the time is up.

And then you put the bowl in a warm spot and cover it to let it rise. It should take at least 45 minutes to double, but it's fine if you leave it up to 1.5 hours.

This is where you can jump to the bread fish if you like. I will continue explaining how to get through to prepared unbaked crusts here.

Punch the dough down.

You will now divide the dough in two. This recipe makes two pizzas. In this recipe, one with be the fish and veggies pizza and one will be a pepperoni pizza as pictured with Bixbite.

Take your one ball of dough and begin to spread it out on a 12-inch pizza pan.

A really helpful tip for this dough: You should roll the dough out from the middle of the pan using the heels of your hands. Do NOT stretch the dough–it tears. Do not pinch the dough’s bubbles or pick up pieces of it to plug holes. Do not throw it in the air. Little by little, press and roll until it begins to spread out toward the edges of the pan.

You should try to leave a little border for the crust.

Normally, what follows here is pizza sauce, cheese, and toppings. So that's where we stop and move to how to make the fish!

Part Two: Bread Fish

Disclaimer: I do not recommend actually using this as a pizza topping. This is just for fun.

Folks, because it holds its shape well and is moist, we're going with BANANA BREAD for our fish!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine or butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 3/4 cup mashed ripe bananas (4-5 medium bananas)

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

And you'll need a fish-shaped pan! Some of these types of pans are only for jello and aren't made for the oven so be careful to properly investigate which kind of pan you have.

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350° F / 175° C. Put a little oil in your pan and spread evenly. In a large bowl, cream the sugar and butter, mixing together into a rough even mix. Add in the eggs.

Peel the bananas and press into goop with a fork or use an appliance of your choice to whip them. Get just under 2 cups--doesn't have to be an exact science.

Add bananas, milk, lemon juice, and vanilla, and beat until smooth.

Then add flour, baking soda, and salt.

Pour into the pan. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

Note: don't fill the pan too full. I was able to make a half dozen banana muffins (baked at 25 minutes) in addition.

When it comes out, cool for 5 minutes in the pan on a rack. Then turn onto the rack to cool fully. It should come out easily if you greased well, but if it's still sticking, try a frosting knife to pry it out.

The fish is ready to be a topping!

Part Three: Dressing the Pizzas

Once you've got your crusts ready, you want to start with pizza sauce and cheese.

Now, Bixbite demonstrates her amazing even cutting technique on a pepperoni pizza. Which means the pepperoni pizza was cooked and prepared first. It's the easy one, so let's do that.

I put pepperoni (in my case, Yves brand vegetarian pepperoni) on the pizza, added more cheese, and topped with more pepperoni! Then I baked it at 350° F / 175° C for about half an hour.

After it came out and cooled a bit, I took a cue from Bixbite and Amethyst's evaluation of her precision cuts and used tools to measure my angles.

Lookit that 'za, brah.

Next is the more complicated one. Let's have a look at what, besides the fish, we are putting on Bixbite's pizza.

Okay! We have a cucumber (weird!), mushrooms, a red pepper, garlic, and a red onion.

I can do that!

But now it will be a bit of a journey to do what Bixbite did.

Right. So...the fish gets sliced in horizontal cuts. Easy enough.

Pepper, onion, cucumber, and mushrooms are easily sliced the way they're portrayed here. I'll do that first. (Cut out and discard center pulp from the red pepper before you use it.)

The garlic's not so simple because you can't just chop the whole thing up into bits like that straight from the bulb. (At least, you shouldn't.) Here's a mini-lesson on preparing fresh garlic:

1. Peel as much of the papery exterior off as you can

2. Pry the individual cloves apart; whack them with the side of your knife if necessary

3. Chop off the tip of each clove and press each under your knife with a couple whacks to loosen the clove skin, and peel

4. Chop garlic into slices, then cubes, then rock your knife over the pieces to mince

Okay! Add all the veggies to the pizza!

Add fish too, lol

Sorry, I'm not gonna actually bake the pizza with bread on it again. We'll have to pretend. Looks delicious after cooking with just the veggies!

And that's how you make a pizza like Bixbite! I hope you enjoyed that!

See more SU food tutorials!

[realcube]

date night with iwaizumi

1k event | navi | masterlist

(a/n) ♡ story mode for @triniteaaa​! i hope you enjoy bb!

content warning ♡ swearing & somewhat play fighting

he held your hand tightly in his own, admiring your figure with his jacket draped over your shoulders as he led you back to his house. the hostile rain cared not for either of you as by the time you reached his driveway, you were both absolutely drenched – he had given you his jacket in hopes it would provide you at least some protection from the harsh climate but apparently not. you took his hand, preventing him from approaching his door and instead halting him in the middle of his empty driveway. peering over his shoulder, he wore a confused expression which you were ready to meet with your bright smile. "dance with me." you sung, a sudden wave of excitement washing over you and before iwaizumi could protest, you had already slipped your hands around his torso and begun a less than amateur waltz; it wasn't meant to be elegant though, you just wanted to move with him in the rain.

he chuckled, watching with pure adoration as you danced your heart out while he simply trailed along, trying his best not to be a hindrance to your momentum. as much as he enjoyed the feeling of the world dissipating around your unified souls basking in bliss, the final move he made was when he placed one of his hands on your waist and slipped another behind your head to dip you – which he did successfully, pushing his lips against yours for a heated kiss as he did so – then proceeded to lift you up and carry you inside, fleeing from the rain.

a slight squeal escaped your lips as he gently put you down, removing his jacket from your shoulders and hanging it up with the rest before his gaze fell back on you. the corner of his lips twitches into a smile, "you're soaking. hold on, i'll go get towel." he said, walking passed you as he made his way towards the laundry room, but as soon as he had his back turned, you slipped your cold, damp hands under his shirt and then pressed it against his bare skin, causing him to arch his back and hiss in response. "fuck off." he chuckled, his tone gleeful but his gritted teeth making it sound oddly sinister. it didn't help when he jolted around to showcase his cold, almost blue-tinted hands, "keep your cold-ass hands away from me." you obliged, but only so you didn't have to feel the wrath of his even colder hands against your warm skin. after iwaizumi dried you off – as well as himself – he changed into his pyjamas and lent you a hoodie that you could wear since your clothes had to be put in the dryer and you didn't bring a spare set. but he didn't make a big deal about it because this gave him an excuse to force you into his seijoh hoodie and there is nothing he loves more than seeing you parade around with his number on your chest. both of you were hungry so decided to try make pizza. "catch." you whipped your head around to look at him before blurting out, "what--" splat "hajime! why couldn't you have just handed me the dough like a normal person?!" you glanced at dejected piece of dough sprawled across the kitchen floor due to your slow reflexes and iwaizumi's poor judgement, "that was a waste of perfectly good dough. now, who's gonna clean that? because it isn't going to be me." it actually was you who ended up cleaning it because iwaizumi was very invested in creating the perfect pizza for y'all to share. from the way he gracefully swiped his spoon across the surface of the dough to spread out the sauce, to how he carefully sprinkled grated cheese on top of it. you peered over his shoulder to look at the progress of the masterpiece and you were in complete awe upon seeing how pristine it was, "that's so sexy." iwaizumi almost snorted at your comment, tapping your face with his hand to transfer the flour onto your cheek, "never call my pizza 'sexy' ever again." you obliged once again but seeing it's magnificent form exit the oven once it was cooked was the definition of 'sexy'. it's hot aroma travelled through the house until it reached the hallway, so you immediately waddled over to the kitchen to snatch a slice from the pan. however, as soon as you swooped in to grab some, he feistily yanked it away, craning out his neck to direct your attention onto his cheek. "payment." he insisted, and once you figured out what he was referring to, you lightly pecked his cheek and cheered as he finally allowed you to take a slice. the rest of the night was spent cuddled up next to him on the couch, a horror movie of your choice playing on the TV while you both tucked in to the delicious pizza. one of his arms rested on your shoulders, holding you close enough to his chiselled chest that you could practically hear his heart beat. most of his attention was on the screen, however he did notice when you perked up slightly at a jump-scare, hence his lips curled into an amused smirked. "you're scared?" he inquired casually, taking another bite of his slice as you clutched his shirt as if your life depended on it. "uh, no! of course not." you shook your head, scoffing at how he could make such a ridiculous accusation. but your confident façade was short-lived as a shriek left your throat when you heard the sudden, pitchy beeps of the microwave go off from the kitchen. he rolled his eyes, placing his slice back down in the pan, wiping his hands before using both arms to pull you closer to him until you were tucked away nicely in his embrace and he could rest his chin on top of your head. "c'mere, scardey-rat." "you mean scardey-cat." you corrected, your voice muffled since your face was pressed tightly against his warm, heaving chest. "i meant what i said." he cooed, planting a soft, elongated kiss on your head – trying to stifle chuckles as you playfully punched his chest, demanding an apology. eventually, he loosened his grip on you to allow you to glare up at him, being met by his goofy grin, "love you." "i love you too, i guess." you murmured, averting your gaze and burying your face into his chest once again so he didn't see the mischievous smirk tugging on your lips. "you guess?!" iwaizumi snapped, aware that you were just joking but playing along, none the less. "well, guess who's gonna be single?" then proceeded to gamesomely smack the top of your head; which you reciprocated by pinching his cheek.

“you’re so mean to me, iwa.” you joked with a pout, suppressing a giggle as he trailed kisses from your cheek down to your neck, the tip of his nose tickling your skin. his fingers finding their way into yours, rubbing small circles on the back of your hand as he hummed into the crook of your neck, “yeah, because i love you.”

[trillian-anders]

cinnamon rolls

pairing: chef!bucky x plus!reader

warnings: fluff, domesticity

word count: 1517

description: chef!au; bucky thinks you’ve been working too hard

dish requested by @technicallykawaiisoul​

just a taste masterlist

Stark tower was a marvel. 

The floor to ceiling glass windows, the open layout efficiency. Bucky was expecting cubicles. He wasn’t expecting to step off the elevator and be able to see straight back to his girl’s office over the heads of people sitting at glass desks with computers that looked straight out of a sci-fi movie. 

He’d told you when he was a kid he’d been obsessed with Howard Stark. The inventor. He wasn’t, however, a fan of his son Tony. The man you worked for. 

“He calls you all hours of the day,” he whined, burying his face into your neck, “You’ve gone in two weekends in a row now.” He knew your job was important and he knew you were coming up to a big tech release that you were in charge of the marketing for, but also… he wanted you to stay in bed with him on his one day off this week. 

The restaurant was close to opening and both him and Sam were putting in 16 hour days finishing the menu, choosing silverware and dishes, talking with food distributors, negotiating a seasonal menu, and now hiring a staff. They had to hire a ton of people to open a restaurant and the days were taking a toll on them, but they knew it would be worth it once the restaurant was actually up and running. 

That’s why he found himself here, after simple texts over the last few days and not enough time between the two of you to actually see each other, he brought lunch. 

He’d never seen you at work, the most he’d seen you was during your lunch hour or in the few minutes when you came into either of your apartments and had given him a swift kiss before changing. 

But you looked so serious here. This was your job and from what he could see you were pretty good at it. 

You looked focused on something on your computer screen, leg folded under you, typing. Papers spread across your desk. He knew from experience that those papers were charts of numbers, control group responses, and test results from the tech crew that went in and troubleshooted the product that Tony Stark and his team had come up with. 

Your brow furrowed, he figured you could feel his eyes on you because you looked up at him, face instantly relaxing and a soft smile pulling on your lips. His heart leapt in his chest. 

“What are you doing here?” laughter in your voice, you stepped from the desk to softly, chastely, kiss him. He could feel the grin pulling on his cheeks. 

“I missed you.” A flush to yours. “I brought lunch.” The paper bag held in his hands, stacked with paper takeout containers, food he’d cooked at the food truck and brought up to you. “You haven’t eaten yet, have you?” Your eyes were shining, and he felt so strongly in his chest his love for you. 

“No,” your hands on his stomach between you, “Not yet.” 

There was a small sitting area in your office, complete with a glass coffee table that he spread out everything he’d made. 

“You’re gonna make me gain weight,” you laughed, “I’ve been doing so well.” Bucky rolled his eyes, settling against the back of the couch with his plate. A spicy creole rice, fried okra with a tiny ramekin of dipping sauce, and catfish. They’d gotten fresh catfish this morning and he’d saved a few pieces for him and his girl. 

“Not that it matters anyway,” He shrugs, “But I’ll grill it next time.” You shot him an irritated look. A grin on his face as you dipped fried okra into the savory sauce, humming in satisfaction as the spicy flavor hit your tongue. 

“What is Sam doing?” Right now, Sam and Peter were working the truck, Bucky on his own little lunch break before he’d swap out with Sam before giving Peter his break. Pete had just switched to half days at school, taking night classes at ESU because not only was the kid hard working but he was also extremely smart. 

“Counting down the minutes until I get back probably.” His shoulder pressed to yours, the two of you enjoyed each other’s company during a lunch hour that was over far too quickly. 

His fingers traced patterns on your thigh, head leaned against yours and a content sigh left your lips, “I should get back to work,” you say, but make no move to leave. Bucky hums, fingers gently squeezing your knee before leaning forward and packing up the leftover food. 

“You wanna keep some of this for later?” You hadn’t responded yet when Bucky began putting a small portion of each in a separate container with the plan to stick it in your office’s fridge. The phone on your desk rang, shrill and loud. You quickly push yourself off the couch to grab it,

“Y/L/N.” Bucky watches your brow furrow, your eyes meeting his and rolling before you sigh heavily, “Yeah, I’ll be right up.” The phone clicks heavily against the cradle and Bucky watches you roll your neck, fixing your blouse from where it was untucked during lunch. “I have to get going.” 

“Are you gonna be around for dinner?” He asked, even though he already knew the answer. You sigh, wrapping your arms around his waist and he leans his head over yours. 

“Probably not,” mumbled into his chest, “But I’m gonna be off tomorrow, so I’ll come over when I’m done.” Pulling back he presses a soft kiss to your lips before saying, 

“I’ll make dessert then.” 

It was late, almost a little too late when Bucky was rolling out dough but you’d called him a few minutes before. 

“Thank you for leaving those leftovers from lunch,” He could hear the echo of the parking garage, whenever you stayed late at work you always felt more comfortable calling him and talking until you made it safely to your car. He would insist on talking to you until you’re in your front door, or his. 

“How bad was it?” He could hear the beep of your car alarm being disarmed and the satisfying slam of your car door. “Pretty bad,” It was a moment before you connected to the bluetooth of your car and then you continued on, “So before a product goes on the market there’s obviously market testing and our IT department has been working hard cranking out the last few bugs, but they found a huge problem in programming so we had to have an emergency meeting about a delayed release date and I just want this to end.” Bucky sprinkled cinnamon sugar over the dough rolled out on the parchment paper he’d laid out on his butcher block counter top. 

“Once this is over,” He began, “Why don’t you think about sending your book to a publisher.” There was silence on the line, the oven beeped in the background as it finally reached baking temp. “C’mon babydoll, it’s good! It’ll totally get picked up.” He could hear you sigh on the line, not answering still. Phone held between his ear and his shoulder he rolled the dough tightly before cutting it and laying it in the pan. “I’m just saying, think about it.” 

“I will.” Bucky knew it wouldn’t be the last time the two of you would have this conversation, but it also wasn’t the first time either. The cinnamon rolls were in the oven when you entered his apartment, the small bachelor pad that had a navy blue cashmere throw on the couch you gifted him because “You don’t have a blanket to lay on the couch with?” it also had two drawers worth of your clothing, a spare toothbrush, and a full row of your skincare products in the bathroom. 

He could hear you kick off the heels you’d been wearing all day, groaning as you shuffled into the kitchen and sat heavily into the bar chair just feet away from him, resting your head on the counter. Soft lips pressed to the base of your skull, his arms wrapped around you from behind. “Hey.”

“Hey.” A quiet hum. “It smells amazing in here.” Due to the bubbling cinnamon sugar covered dough currently in the oven. The stand mixer was slowly whisking confectioners sugar, cream cheese, butter and vanilla together. 

“I told you I was going to make dessert.” 

They were warm and gooey, with just a little extra icing. The cinnamon rolls burned your fingers as you pulled it apart, steam rising from the center, your leg laying over his lap, his fingers tracing patterns on your thigh in a gentle foreplay as you enjoyed each other for the second time that day. 

“I’ve really missed you.” You mumble against his lips, the sweet icing kiss that turned into another and another that ended with the two of you wrapped around each other, snoring heavily, fully clothed and getting the first good night of sleep the two of you had in a long time.

.

.

.

taglist //  @93generation​ @technicallykawaiisoul​  @bookish-shristi​ @saturnki​ @jennmurawski13​ @geeksareunique​ @the-soulofdevil​ @tinmunky​ @gifsbysimplysonia​ @alwaysbenhardysgirl @beck-alicious

[marveloussupernerd]

Yoosung is so under appreciated in this fandom >:( if you could write about cooking in the kitchen with Yoosung that would be fantastic >:)

YES poor sweet bby Yoosung. I get why ppl think he maybe doesn’t have a personality esp in other routes but also ... he do b a college student I don’t have a personality either JSJSJ

Cooking - Yoosung Kim

Summary: Yoosung is best boy. And best boyfriend. He wants to make you a special dinner since you just moved in with him and you offer to help

You had finally unpacked the last of your boxes. You were officially moved into Yoosung’s apartment. With all the threats of the hacker, which shouldn’t have been much of a big deal since Seven and V supposedly took care of them... but Yoosung wasn’t sure. He was stressed with you in that apartment. Still, it wasn’t until the next school year came along that he was looking for a new apartment to lease and offered to look for a larger one so you could move in.

You had stayed the night at Yoosung’s dozens of times, but this was different. The energy was different. You never had to worry about what time you were going home. It was like every second was a date. But also, it was going to be hard to stay focused working from home with him by your side. All an adjustment, but more than worth it to stay with your perfect boyfriend.

The two of you were sprawled out on the couch, exhausted but satisfied with your hard work moving everything in. Yoosung’s head rested on your shoulder; he pushed off from his position to look at you. “Can I make you dinner? Anything you want,” he offered.

“Oh it’s chill. We can just get a pizza.” The last thing you needed right now was a mess in the kitchen. Making food was way too much work.

“B-but!” He protested, his voice cracking, “this is our first night living in the same house together. And you want to celebrate it with pizza!?”

You shrugged. “I’m really craving pizza.”

“Have you ever made pizza?” Oh boy. It was like a lightbulb went off over his head. He was always overcomplicating things, but that’s one of the reasons you loved him so much.

“Of course. I feel like everyone’s done that at like a sleepover before.”

“You’ve done that at a sleepover!?” He seemed to not believe you. “I’ve... never done it before. But we could try! If you’re willing to help me out.”

You sighed, pushing yourself off the couch to stand up. “I would’ve been totally fine with just ordering but... of course I’ll show you. I don’t know how well I remember though.”

He was pulling up a recipe as you spoke, just in case you did forget a part or two. But it seemed like he would rather learn from you, as he set the phone face-down on the counter and focused on you, rolling up your sleeves. “First we need dough. I’m imagining you don’t have frozen pizza dough here.”

He chuckled, shaking his head.

“That’s okay! Technically we could make it from scratch but... you don’t have any yeast, do you?”

He shook his head no again, his ears heating up red. “I didn’t realize that was a thing to have.”

You giggled. “That’s okay! We can improvise.” He grabbed his phone while you turned to the fridge, sorting through to find anything that could be used as the crust.

“Got it!” You called, pulling out a roll of Pillsbury crescent roll dough. “This will work just fine. You wanna open it up and try and make it into a nice flat pizza shape?”

He took the roll from you eagerly, smacking it against the table to open it up. “I love this stuff. I think it’ll work pretty well.”

“Now while you do that... we need sauce. You have any sauce?” You turned back to look at him, tongue stuck out as he concentrated on smushing the sides of the dough together.

“Huh!?” He looked up at you. “Oh, yeah. It should be in the little side door thingy in the fridge.”

Well Ragù was admittedly not your first choice, but how different could pizza and pasta sauces be? (AN: as an Italian who makes both homemade... they rlly aren’t too different and I’ve def made pizza w pasta sauce before oop)

You set the jar of sauce next to Yoosung. “This is shaping up to be a very nice pizza. Now how about cheese?”

His grin on his face widened. “I’ve got a ton of different cheeses. Makes me feel fancy.” He abandoned his workstation to walk to the fridge with you, opening it up and opening a drawer which had just... wow... a lot of cheese. “We’ve got parmesean, mozzarella, brie, provolone, American...”

“Mozzarella. That’s the traditional kind.”

“The shredded kind or the string cheese kind?” He asked. You wanted to laugh but... oh boy he was serious.

“Shredded, Yoosung.” You couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m sorry. You’re so sweet and cute.”

“Don’t call me cute,” he pouted, tossing the bag of shredded cheese to the counter. “I’m very mature.”

“Of course you are,” you teased. “You do have like a million different kinds of cheeses.”

He sighed, rolling his eyes, then making his way back to the dough. It looked pretty good honestly. You grabbed a baking tray and set the dough on it. “Now we can add the sauce and start jazzing it up,” you instructed.

Yoosung got to work on the sauce. Or... opening the jar of sauce. He was putting a lot of muscle into it, but it was not working.

“You need some help, Baby?” You offered, batting your eyelashes at him so he wouldn’t get mad at the nickname.

“Yes,” he whined, passing the jar to you. “I can’t get it.”

You popped the jar open in a few tries. Granted, it was hard to open. He wasn’t absolutely crazy. “There ya go.”

He made his way behind you and wrapped his arms around your waist. “You’re so strong. And talented. And smart,” he complimented.

You leaned back into his touch. “So are you. That was tough to open.” You grabbed a spoon and put it in one of his hands that was on your waist. “Help me spread the sauce?” You asked, looking up at him innocently.

He couldn’t say no to your puppy dog eyes. The two of you dipped your spoons into the sauce, plopping down sauce and spreading it out across the dough. He got a little too violent with dropping sauce, splashing some on you by accident. He hadn’t noticed until you jumped, cringing.

“Aw Honey, you’ve got sauce on you!” He exclaimed, setting his spoon down and using the pad of his thumb to gently wipe it off your cheek. “Ah, I-“ he glanced anywhere but to look at you, still flustered by the intimacy of the action. He was so adorable; he had his arms tight around you but was embarrassed by wiping sauce off your face. He let out a sigh and put the sauce-coated thumb into his mouth, sucking off the sauce, his face bright bright red, his eyes looking anywhere but at you.

“I, uh, think the sauce is all done,” you told him, trying to put his attention elsewhere. He jumped, his hand leaving your hips, and made his way over to grab the cheese.

The two of you sprinkled a ridiculous amount of cheese on the pizza, making sure no square inch was uncovered. And with that, you were able to put it in the oven. You hopped up onto the counter to sit and wait, coaxing Yoosung by your side with a tilt of your head.

He stood to the side of your legs, and you rested your hands on his shoulders, later opting to loop them loosely around his neck. “We did pretty good, huh?” You commended, unable to wipe the smile off your face.

“I think it was a great first meal. Well, I don’t know if it’ll taste good yet, but I had fun with it,” he nodded eagerly.

“Yoosung, I’m so happy to be here with you.” You leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to the corner of his lips.

“Me too.” He pulled you back in before you could completely move back to begin with, connecting your lips right on with his this time, one of his hands settling on your hip and the other on your thigh.

The timer sounded; the pizza was done! Yoosung’s face was bright red, as it always was after you kissed. You’d think he’d be used to it by now, but he wasn’t. He was just as sweet as always. He looked so cute putting on his oven mitts to pull the tray out of the oven. The pizza smelled good. You were just proud that you made something together.

[talesfromthesnogbox]

Roses Are Red...

Summary: Eddie really can't explain why he brings a dozen red roses home for his friend on Valentine's Day. After Ch2 idiots to lovers fix-it fic.

Words: 2,409

AO3

Roses Are Red...

Eddie took a deep breath before opening the door to Richie’s (and now his) home. They’d been living together for over a year, and it wasn’t out of the ordinary for one to bring home a surprise every once and a while, but this… this was Valentine's Day. 

“Eds!” He was immediately greeted by Richie’s voice from the kitchen. “Eds I’ve got a surprise for you—”

His voice trailed off as he watched Eddie approach, his arms full.

“Hi.”

Richie was stood at their kitchen island, covered in flour. “I… um… it’s Valentine's Day, so I figured we could make homemade pizza or something—what, what’s with the roses?”

Eddie looked down at his arms, almost as if he’d forgotten he was holding a bouquet of a dozen red roses. “Oh… um… I dunno.” He flushed.

Richie frowned. “Did someone at work give them to you?” He smiled when Eddie shook his head no. “So spaghedward has a secret admirer then?” 

Eddie scoffed at the other man. “No, I just… I picked them up on the way home from work. And these.” He held up a small pastry box, two red velvet cupcakes with plush white icing and red heart-shaped sprinkles on them. “I thought… well… I don’t know what I was thinking honestly.” 

The taller man gasped mockingly. “My oh my, mama, a gentleman’s brought me flowers!” Eddie rolled his eyes, he expected one of Richie’s ‘voices’ to make an appearance, but he wasn’t expecting blushing southern belle. 

“Shut up. What kind of pizza are you making?” 

Richie giggled, dusting flour over the surface of the dough to roll it back out. “I dunno, I just bought a bunch of toppings and figured we could make our own personal pizzas. Thought it could be a fun little thing for dinner.” He adjusted his glasses, averting his eyes as he spoke. “So, am I getting a little taste of what the missus was treated to on the day of romance?” 

Eddie frowned, searching the cabinets for a suitable vase. He eventually found a glass pitcher that would do the job. “Ex-missues. No, she didn’t like flowers, thought it would set off my non-existent allergies.”

“Oh. So you got them on the way just because?” 

“Yeah I guess. I’d never brought home flowers for anyone and, and I guess I just wanted to see what it felt like to bring home flowers for someone.” 

“Ohhhh so they are for me then, are they?” 

“No! They’re for… they’re for… us.” 

“Us?” Richie peered over the dough circle he was shaping in his hands.

“Yeah, you know, the two of us that live in this house.” He loosened his tie and sat across from Richie at the island.

“And what exactly convinced you, as a newly single man, to bring home a dozen red roses to your gay, very single and available roommate slash best friend?” 

Eddie threw his hands up, exasperated. The truth was, he didn’t really know why he decided to bring flowers home for Richie. He saw them on his way home and thought they’d be a nice gesture, but there was definitely a fluttering deep in his belly when the florist had asked if he was bringing them home to someone special. Richie was someone special in Eddie’s life, he always knew this was a fact, and never denied it, but just how special he was… Eddie didn’t even think he knew the answer to that.

“I don’t know, Rich, what do you want me to say?” 

Richie giggled. “Getting heated there shortstop? Chill Eds, I’m just messing with you. They’re beautiful, thank you.” He was definitely fishing for something, and Richie’s heart sank a little when Eddie immediately didn’t admit the roses meant something. But friends did things for their friends all the time for Valentine's Day, right? Ben used to make the Losers a homemade card each with a little poem, and Stan… well Stan didn’t do anything if he was being honest, but it seems like he got his footing now with Patty and their mini-Uris, still cooking in Patty’s belly. 

“I’m not… ugh, you’re welcome.” He was silent for a moment, watching Richie shape and form the soft pillows of dough into the perfect pizza rounds, thin crust just like Eddie liked it, and cheese stuffed crust on his own. 

“Would you like to come do the honours of topping your pizza Mr. Kaspbrak?” 

Eddie smiled and walked around the island to join Richie on the other side. “Sure, what do I do?” 

Richie handed him a spoon. The thing about Richie that surprised Eddie the most was how competent he was in the kitchen. There were definitely a few misses in his culinary escapades, but many, many more hits. He had a good handle on Italian, and Eddie trusted from the delicious smells wafting from the pot beside him that this homemade pizza sauce would be delicious. 

“Plop a little bit in the middle and spread it out. Not too much or the crust will be soggy. Yeah, just like that.” Richie handed him a bowl of shredded cheese and showed him how to sprinkle it evenly, dusting little flakes of oregano on top. It felt so domestic, moreso than it ever had, the two of them cooking together. Eddie couldn’t help but feel like he was catching a glimpse of what it would be like if Richie were more than just his friend, and it warmed him inside. He found himself leaning in to the taller man as he watched Eddie over his shoulder, his elbow bumping the soft belly just behind him. It was nice, and Eddie couldn’t deny that his heart got caught in his throat as Richie looked down at him with pride.

“Cool, so we’ll pop these in the oven and come back to them in a bit. What do you wanna do tonight loverboy?” 

Eddie rolled his eyes. “Fuck off. Just because I brought those stupid roses home.” 

Richie chuckled lowly. “Eddie K, king of romance. Who would have thought?” 

“You’re insufferable. I’m going to change, put a movie on or something.” 

When Eddie came back into the room, Richie was already lounging on the couch with Sixteen Candles loaded and ready to go. 

“Clearly sappy gestures of love aren’t your thing, so I figured a good old John Hughes throwback rom-com would be safe.” 

“Dude, would you just drop the roses thing already?” 

The oven timer beeped, and Richie jumped up to plate the pizzas.

Eddie sighed, dragging a hand across his face. For the tenth time in a matter of minutes, he questioned why he felt the need to bring Richie roses.

“I don’t know, okay?” 

“Sorry, what was that?” 

“I said I don’t know. Everyone at work was talking about the dinner reservations they’d made, and the fancy jewellery they’d bought their significant others, and I just… I don’t know, maybe I was jealous?” 

Richie frowned, taking a bite of his still too-hot pizza. “Jealous of what?” 

Eddie shrugged, searching for the words. “Jealous of how easy it seems to do something like that. I don’t know! And then when I was walking to my car, I just… I passed that florist, and something… something compelled me to go in. Maybe it could be that easy, but obviously it isn’t!” 

“Ooh you know me baby, I’ve always been easy.” Richie winked.

“But you really aren’t, asshole!” Eddie slapped a hand over his mouth, not feeling in control of what was coming out of it anymore. “I—I… Richie, what are we doing?” 

Richie’s eyes narrowed. He set his slice down and wiped the bits of sauce and crumb from the stubble on his chin. “What do you mean?” 

“I mean… I just… I feel like… Ugh I don’t know what I feel! Sometimes I’m fine, I’m great, life goes on like normal and I don’t think of you every second of the day, and then sometimes I walk past a flower shop and see red roses and it’s like something inside of me is just screaming to do something romantic. But the second you question me, I turn into this!”

Richie presses the tips of his fingers together, steepling them under his nose, deep in thought. “Eds. I just want to make sure we’re on the same page here before I go and say something stupid, but is this… are you trying to tell me that you’re—”

“Maybe! I don’t… I don’t know. My coworkers, they just were talking about their wives and how amazing they were and all that, and I just wanted to gush about you. I wanted to tell them that you’re an amazing cook and how nice it feels when you massage a knot out of my shoulder after a run. And that sometimes I’ll lean into you on purpose when we’re just hanging out because I know that you love to hold people, and it feels so good when you hold me. And even though we’ve known each other for like thirty years, I’m still amazed by how much I learn about you every day, and I’m not sick of you! Even when we spend all day hanging out together, I take my time going to bed because I don’t want to leave your side.” 

Richie blinked. “Um… that sounded pretty gay Eds.” 

He threw his hands up. “Do you want me to get any gayer, because I can definitely go there if you want.” 

Richie’s eyebrows raised into his hairline. “Wow. How much gayer can you go?” 

Eddie stared at him incredulously. “Do you know how nice your ass is?” 

“Woah! Eds, okay yeah, that’s pretty gay! How long have you been bottling this all up?” 

“Dude, how long have you known me?” 

Richie chuckled. “I know you’ve always been a tight-ass with a tight ass if that’s what your asking.”

“No, Rich, I’m saying—I don’t know what I’m saying. This is dumb. Forget this conversation ever happened please.” 

“Are you kidding me? Mr. Squats-at-the-gym-every-day told me I have a nice ass, I’m wearing that with pride. C’mon Eds, what are you thinking in that tiny little head of yours.” 

“I’m thinking you use humour as a coping mechanism and you’ve done nothing but make jokes this entire time so you definitely don’t feel the same way I do.”

Richie shook his head. “You say you learn something new about me every day, so here’s a new one for today. I’m making jokes because I’m guarding my heart Eduardo. I’ve been trying to not get my hopes up about us for years. It’s your first Valentine's Day as a divorced man, and I’m trying not to act too excited by the fact that what you said to me not two minutes ago kinda sounded like a confession of love.” 

Eddie went silent, weighing his options. That moment seemed to be a liminal space, a meeting point between two worlds, and the scale could be tipped either way at any second. On the one hand, he could brush it off completely, pretend it never happened and go back to being friends, although their relationship would be strained at first by the gravity of what they each knew now. On the other hand, he could spill the beans, tell Richie everything, ruin their friendship wholly and completely, and move onto something more, but they’d never be able to come back from that. They’d never be able to come back to being just friends if they tipped the scale and gave into what they truly felt inside. The cards were pretty well all laid out on the table already, either had a hint that the other felt something past friendship for the other, and now someone just had to take the next step to solidify that. From the way Richie wrung his fingers together, Eddie knew it would have to be him. 

There was no time to contemplate it anymore. The seconds passed by like hours, and every moment Eddie continually thought of why it would be a bad idea, he could see Richie’s resolve breaking. This had to be a split second decision, he knew it did, either he would say something, or he’d drop it. But Eddie wasn’t like Richie, he’d never been good with words, his sharp tongue wasn’t entirely clever, just fast. He’d never be able to weave the words in a way that showed Richie how conflicted he was, so instead, he acted.

Eddie’s hand on Richie’s cheek was cold and demanding as he pulled the taller man’s face closer. The gap was closed before Richie even knew what was happening, and their lips pressed together with a satisfying smack. Eddie’s heart was in his throat. He did it, he actually did it, and the world hadn’t collapsed. 

Richie settled into the kiss once the initial shock had worn off, taking the lead from Eddie. He breathed out heavily, breaking their connection earlier than he would have liked, and looked at the other pointedly. 

“I brought home roses for you on Valentine's Day because I love you.”

“I made homemade pizza on Valentine's Day because I love you. And I bought a fancy bottle of wine but that’s for later I think.”

Eddie chuckled. “Look at us, we’re a mess. Were you ever planning on telling me?” 

“Of course not! Do you know how long I’ve wanted to kiss you?” Richie took his hand. “Remember that party Mike threw for Bill’s sixteenth and Bev started that game of truth or dare? I only because she promised to dare you to kiss me. And she didn’t!”

Eddie laid a peck on Richie’s lips, just because he could. “There, we don’t need Bev.” 

“I’m calling her and telling her she’s cancelled.” 

“Maybe let’s just spend tonight together and cancel her in the morning.” 

Richie laughed and pulled Eddie closer. “Sounds like a plan spaghetti.” 

Eddie snuggled further into Richie, but reached for his pizza. “Pass me my plate, I need to actually taste this thing before I can brag about how good a cook my boyfriend is to my coworkers.” 

“Boyfriend?” 

Eddie clammed up. “Is… is that alright?” 

Richie nuzzled his face into Eddie’s hair. “Of course it is, I love you.” 

A warmth spread through Eddie’s belly. “I love you too. Now pass me my pizza so we can finish and tear into those cupcakes.”

[uas-fics]

Title: Thanks For The Tea

Summary: Kenny goes to cheer with this cute goth boy brooding in the corner of City Wok.

Rating: G

Ships: Stenny

Content Warnings: N/A

Others: Read on Ao3

~~~~

The boy had sat in the corner booth of the restaurant for about an hour. In all that time, he had gotten up only once to grab some crab rangoon from the buffet. When he sulked by Kenny, he heard him mutter about how he couldn't believe City Wok didn't serve coffee past noon.

Kenny rested against his mop, trying not to stare at the other boy. He knew him from school, but for the life of him couldn't remember his name. Something with an S, or maybe an M. He had a short name, too. Sam or Mark or Steven, maybe.

The mystery boy pulled apart the fried dough wrapping of his crab rangoon. He tentatively stabbed at the cream cheese, the white a stark contrast to his black nails. Now that Kenny thought about it, everything about him seemed out of place to be at a cheap Chinese restaurant.

Black eyeliner, black lipstick, black shirt, even a black stocking cap. Everything but his skin looked like it had been dumped into a pot of ink. He looked like someone who should be sipping coffee at the Denny's outside of town, not forcing down crab rangoon at City Wok.

He's a goth, Kenny remembered abruptly. That explained all the black and the sulking, at least, but Kenny couldn't help but wonder why he was here by himself. As much as the goths like to preach about not being ‘a puppet to the clique machine of society,’ they tended to stick around each other. Seeing one of them alone without an obvious reason was a rarity. Usually, when a goth got dragged into City Wok, they were with their families.

"What some tea?" A voice took him from his thoughts. Kenny turned to see one of his coworkers standing beside him, a tray in her hands.

"What?" Kenny blinked, hoping she hadn't noticed him staring.

"Tea." She repeated, holding the tray closer. "Table four didn't know hot green tea costs extra and sent it back." A small, metal teapot and two white mugs sat on the tray. Steam wafted up from the spout.

Kenny wrinkled his nose up at the offer. He'd tasted that tea before. It was bitter, and he could only stomach it after five sugar packs had been dumped in the cup. His coworker shrugged at his reaction, about to take the tea to the back, when an idea hit Kenny. He grabbed the tray from her hands.

"Actually, I changed my mind." He told her, carefully kicking his mop bucket behind a fake plant. "Tell Mr. Kim I'm taking my last break." Before she could reply, Kenny walked off.

He took a breath as he neared the goth boy's table. The goth looked up at him, and Kenny stiffen, feeling a blush start to creep up his cheeks. Everything about the goth monochrome black and white, except for his sapphire blue eyes.

Those eyes bore into Kenny before he snapped in that distinct goth drawl, "Can I help you?"

Kenny swallowed his embarrassment before setting the tray down. "I, uh, I heard you, earlier, say you wish we served coffee. It's not coffee, but it's like it. Bitter, hot water, but green not brown..."

He wanted to kick himself. He sounded like a total doofus. 'But green, not brown'? What was he even trying to say?

The goth eyed him critically before reaching for the handle of the teapot. He touched it then froze.

"Am I going to be charged for this?"

"Oh, no, no, no! It's on the house, from--it's on the house." He caught himself. The last thing he wanted was this, admittedly cute, goth boy thinking Kenny was trying to flirt with him or anything. He wasn't going to make any advances until he was sure he was available.

The goth nodded and poured the green tea into the coffee mug. Mr. Kim claimed he did have more traditional cups for the hot tea at one point, but over time they had all been lost or broken, and he didn’t bother to replace them.

The goth took a drink before his face twisted in disgust. "Wow. Bitter, hot water, like you said."

"Sorry, I can get you some extra sugar if you want." Kenny offered, trying not to glance at the sugar packets already on the table next to the soy sauce. He couldn't afford to look like any more of a dingus.

"No." The goth took another drink. "It's like my soul, only not as dark and tormented."

Kenny laughed, but quickly covered it with a cough when the goth fixed him with a puzzled look. He rested his hand on the table.

"So, I think we're in the same grade. I know I've seen you before. What's your name? I'm Kenny." He smiled with as much friendliness as he could put into it.

The goth sipped before replying, "Raven."

'Raven.' So Kenny had been way off in his name guesses.

"That's a cool name, dude." Kenny complimented. Raven didn't reply, instead he shrugged.

They lapsed into silence after a few heartbeats. As they did, Kenny couldn't help but admire him. Normally, he avoided the dark and broody types for more upbeat people, but something about Raven made him put his predisposition aside. Raven was cute, had a strong jaw, a nice face. Now that he was close enough, Kenny could tell Raven's skin wasn't natural that pale. Instead he wore a very light foundation. Accented with the dark eyeliner and lipstick, he looked almost ghostly.

"--here?"

"What?" Kenny blinked.

"I said, how long are you going to stand here?" Raven asked irritably. "Don't you have orders to take or something?"

"Naaaah," Kenny chuckled. "No waiting for me. I'm on my break for the next couple of minutes." Raven opened his mouth, but Kenny quickly went on before he could shoo him away. "What are you doing here by yourself? Where are your friends?"

Raven scowled into his tea. "I don't have friends. I walk this mortal coil as alone as when I was born."

A flirt about taking some of that loneliness away pressed against Kenny's teeth, and it took everything he had not to let it slip out.

"Oh, that sucks." Kenny said instead. "I hate being alone. I used to keep all sorts of strays as pets when I was little, so I'd always have someone around. It was all going great, until Mom found the baby raccoons I kept in my closet."

Some of the irritation in Raven's face lefts, and he perked up with something almost like a smile on his lips.

"I have a dog." He admitted, some of the goth drawl slipping from his voice.

"A dog? I love dogs! How old is he? What breed?" Kenny asked, though he didn't care much about the information. Mostly, he just wanted to see if he could get Raven to actually smile. Oh, his smile must be cute. Kenny found himself willing to say anything to see it.

"He'll be seven this year. The person we got him from said he's part doberman and part rottweiler." A grin spread across Raven's face as he spoke. As Kenny had predicted, it was super cute. "Sparky's a big slobbery mutt. If he knows you'll feed him under the table, he'll set his head in your lap while you eat and--" Raven froze, cutting himself off. His smile slipped from his face.

He continued, his goth drawl back in full force, "I mean, he's a great dog, as far as companions to march towards the black void of de--" He groaned, dropping his head into his hands. "I can't do this."

"Dude?" Kenny asked with a frown. "Are you ok?"

"I can't do this." Raven repeated. He peeked up at Kenny with those sapphire eyes. A shudder ran down his back. With a sigh, he asked, "What do you do, if you're not who you want to be?"

Before Kenny could answer, Mr. Kim called him from the front. There was a spill near the bathrooms. He swore he had longer before his break was over. Or maybe he didn't. It was easy to lose track of time while admiring someone. He knew that from experience.

"I gotta go." He told Raven. "If you want to keep talking, I get off in another hour and a half. Um, meet me outside."

Raven's face remained emotionless. He didn't respond, instead turning his attention back down to his tea. Kenny sighed inwardly, heading back to where he hid his mop bucket. When he wheeled it from behind the plant, he looked over his shoulder towards Raven's booth.

It was empty.

Kenny spent the next hour and a half in a disappointed daze. This was probably the only opportunity he would ever have to talk to Raven without the rest of the goths throwing judging looks his way. Kenny didn't need anymore judging looks than he already got normally for his ratty appearance.

He hung his apron up on the nail in the back before reaching for his backpack. He pulled his pack of cigarettes from the front pocket as he stepped out the back door of the restaurant. Flipping open the pack, Kenny was greeted with even more disappointment. His pack was empty. Empty just like the back booth.

With a swear, he crumbled it up and tossed it into the dumpster. In all likelihood, his brother had probably stolen the last few from him. Not that Kenny could complain and demand them back since Kevin had been the one to buy the pack for him in the first place.

Great, this day couldn't get any worse. He couldn't wait to sulk home. Maybe he'd drop by Kyley-B's house on the way home, instead, see if he could use his puppy-dog eyes to garner sympathy, and maybe some free food, from Mrs. Broflovski.

"Hey, um, Kenny, right?"

Kenny jumped, spinning around. From beside the fence dividing City Wok from the sushi house next to it, Raven pushed himself up.

"Oh, yeah! Raven, you're..." Kenny trailed off, trying to keep himself from becoming tongue-tied. He took a breath before continuing, "you still want to talk?"

"Yeah, I mean, sure, whatever. Not like I have anything better to do." Raven's shoulders slumped forward. The action sent some of his hair into his face. It didn't look like that unnatural black that some of the other goths had. Kenny didn't think it was dyed.

"Awesome." Kenny flashed a crooked grin.

"Alright," Raven nodded. "Follow me. I don't want to talk here. The smell is giving me a headache."

As they started to leave the alley, Raven took a turn to the left and went down the road towards Skeeter's Bar. Kenny raised an eyebrow and followed behind him. As they passed the bar, he glanced through the front window.

He let out a sigh of relief when he didn't see his dad inside. More times than he cared to admit, he had to drag his dad off the bar stool on his mom's orders. Once he started working at City Wok, the orders to do so only increased. Leading his belligerent dad through the streets sure didn’t help with the judging looks, either.

Pushing the thoughts from his mind, he jogged back up towards Raven.

"The woods?" Kenny asked as they stepped over a large fallen tree branch in the path. "You're not an axe murderer, are you? I mean, just in case I need to pretend to be a virgin or something." For the briefest second, Raven smiled at Kenny's joke.

"No. It's private here." He paused at the crossroads up to the old Mephesto Labs before jumped up to sit on the wooden fence. Kenny leaned against the map signpost, putting his hands in his pockets.

He pursed his lips a moment, going over his thoughts. Once he collected himself, he said, "Back at City Wok, what did you mean when you asked if I knew what to do when you don't like who you are."

Raven glanced to the side. He opened his mouth once, shut it, opened it again, before shaking his head. "No, you know what? This is stupid. Never mind. Forget you even saw me."

"Wait! No, dude!" Kenny put a hand reflexively on his arm. "It's fine. I've got nowhere to be, and if you're worried about me judging you, I won't. Promise." Their eyes met and Kenny prayed his sincerity shone through.

Raven pursed his lips then sighed. He slipped completely off the fence but didn't walk away, instead leaning against it.

"'What do you do, if you aren't who you want to be,' is what I asked." Raven shut his eyes. "What am I to you? You don't know me, but what do you see me as?"

"Cute?" Kenny blurted out. He blushed and took a step back, suddenly remembering his hand was still on Raven's arm. "I mean, shit, goth! Goth! I see you as a goth."

The wry smile that appeared when Kenny called him 'cute' faded when he answered 'goth'.

He looked down at his hands. "I became a goth in third grade. Before that, I was just another conformist running the rat race, trying to stay popular and well liked." He laughed, but it was cold. "I was on the football team. Star quarterback, actually. Or as 'star' as an eight-year-old can be."

"Really?" Kenny questioned, astonished that a goth would ever be on a sports team, let alone an MVP.

Raven nodded. "Yeah, but once I became a goth, I dropped the team. It made my uncle and dad cry. I couldn't be the preppy, happy-ass jock they wanted me to be." He spat the word 'jock' like it was a swear.

Kenny hummed. "I sit with one of the basketball players at lunch. Kyley-B? The kid from New Jersey? And he isn't what I would call 'preppy'."

Kyley-B was pretty far from a traditional 'preppy, happy-ass jock' as Kenny could fathom. He was loud, easy to anger, used odd combinations of words that Kenny was ninety percent sure were insults. If not for his athletic skill, he probably would have been kicked from the team years ago.

Raven's face scrunched up. "I know not all jocks are preps. I'm not stupid." He shook his head, slumping farther down until he sat on the cold earth. "What I'm saying is this. I gave up being what my family thought I should be, to be what I thought I should be. Now, though, I'm not sure if this is what I really want."

Kenny frowned, crouching down next to him. "What? You don't want to be a goth anymore?"

A half shrug. "I dunno. Yes? No? I just...don't know. I like my friends. Henrietta, Michael, Pete, Frickle, and I go way back. They've been there for me. I can't just leave them," He rolled his head back, "but I don't want this anymore. I want to wear colors again, not just black. I want to play sports for fun, not just for a passing PE grade. I know it sounds hypocritically coming from  me, but I want to be a conformist again."

Kenny pursed his lips in thought. After a moment, he said, "Will that make you happy?"

"What?" Raven asked, brows furrowed.

"Will that make you happy? Will branching out and trying to be something else make you happy?" Kenny tilted his head. "You know it's not a bad thing to go through phases. Everyone does. I went through a superhero phase that lasted for two years. Looking back it was pretty embarrassing that I ran around with underwear outside my pants, but, I got it out of my system.  Maybe being goth was your phase. Maybe being a 'conformist' will be a phase. Either way, you gotta do what makes you happy, so I say branch out. Find yourself. Be who you want to be."

He smiled brightly, trying to cover the fact that among his corny advice he had actually mentioned his Mysterion phase. Only he and Butters ever talked about those times, and that was almost always to laugh at themselves.

Raven fixed him with a stare for a long moment. It felt like burning on Kenny's skin, but he couldn't really say he completely disliked the feeling. Raven's gaze wasn't judging, not completely and not in a cruel way like when other people judged him, anyway. It was like Raven was trying to figure Kenny out.

Finally, Raven looked away.

"I always figured you were just another conformist poser, saving face and shit," Raven said, "but, you're actually not terrible."

"I'm not too terrible at a lot of things." Kenny winked, unable to hold back the flirts he'd been fighting off since setting eyes on Raven's cute face. He winced internally, hoping beyond hope Raven would take his comment as a joke.

A blush flared up on Raven's cheeks as he scrambled to stand. "I need to go home. I have a lot to think about." He let out a breath through his nose then turned, holding his hand out. "Thank you. You have...a comforting aura. I'm glad I talked to you. Please, don't tell anyone about this--not that I care what anyone thinks or anything. I just don't want any of this getting to the other goths before I've made my choice."

Kenny let Raven haul him to his feet. "You're welcome, thank you, and you have my word. I won't tell a soul."

Raven seemed to believe that. He bobbed his head before turning and heading off down the path deeper into the forest. Kenny watched him disappear among the dense pine trees before looking down at his hand, the one Raven had held.

He touched his palm with his fingertips. Even if they never spoke again, he hoped Raven would do what made him happy and he was glad if he could help with that.

~~~~

"And then I says, I says to him 'are you talking bad about my brother? No one talks bad about my brother but me!'" Kyley-B slapped his fist against the table, causing the lunch trays to shudder. Butters scooted down the bench to avoid being hit by Kyley-B's waving arms. Kenny unconsciously leaned back, though, from his seat across the table, he was out of slapping range.

Kyley-B made a punching motion in front of him. "So I knock the air out of the bastard, and I show him you don't mess with someone from Je--"

"Um, excuse me?"

The three at the table looked up, Butters peaking around Kyley-B to be able to see.

The boy wore a brown jacket and blue hat, both accented with bright red. Unstyled, black hair stuck out from under the knit hat. For a moment, Kenny didn't recognize him, until he met the boy's sapphire colored eyes. He blinked once.

"Raven?" He asked.

"It's, um, it's Stan, actually. Stan Marsh." He corrected.

Realization washed over Kenny. That's right. He remembered now. Stan had insisted everyone call him 'Raven' starting back in third grade, even had his name changed on the class lists. Once middle school came around and everyone went to different classes, Kenny didn't see much of Stan and his memory of him faded.

"Oh, hey! Hey, dude! What's up? How are things?" Kenny grinned. It was manic, but he didn't care at that point.

Stan didn't wear the same monochromatic makeup as before. The makeup he had on now didn't quite match his natural skin tone perfectly, but it made his face look much warmer than before. He looked even cuter than before.

Stan bit his lip a moment before taking a calming breath. "Kenny, I wanted to talk to you, in the hall." He glanced at Kyley-B and Butters. "If you're not busy."

"Nope!" Kenny jumped out of his seat. Kyley-B gave Kenny a knowing look before rolling his eyes. He spun in his seat so he was directly facing Butters and continued on with his story.

Stan nodded nervously to Kenny, before walking out of the cafeteria. He lead them to the library but stopped before heading inside. Instead, he turned and stepped into the small alcove in the wall, pressing himself between the water fountain and the corner.

Kenny rocked on his heels a moment before asking, "Is everything alright? I see you've got some color going on."

Stan shrugged. "Yeah, thanks, I mean--no, yeah that's what I mean. Thanks, thank you." He took his hat off to run his hand through his hair. "Thank you, our talk really helped."

"Did it? I'm glad!" Kenny said. "I guess that means you decided to rejoin the rat race?"

Stan chuckled. "Yeah, for now, at least. I talked to my friends on Sunday, and, honestly, they all knew it was coming."

"Seriously?" Kenny wasn't sure if he should laugh or not, so he cracked a somewhat sympathetic, half-smile instead.

"Michael said he was surprised I didn't 'go back to being an 'acceptance-hungry poser' years ago. None of them thought I would keep being Goth up for as long as I did." Stan's smile wavered. He said, "They said I can still hang out with them if I want, but that feels, I don't know, othering, I guess, if I'm not a goth anymore."

Kenny cocked his head to the side. "Do you want to hang with me and my friends for a while? Butters is a sweetheart and super friendly, and I swear Kyley-B isn't nearly as bad as he seems."

Stan looked taken back for a moment. He opened his mouth to reply when his hip pressed against the side of the water fountain, causing it to turn on. He jumped back, face red.

Kenny gently put a hand on his arm. "We're playing basketball after school. You can join us if you want."

"I, uh, really? Would that be ok?"

"Sure!" Kenny squeezed his arm. "It's always just Butters and me against Kyley-B. Maybe with three of us, we might actually win a game."

Apprehension clouded Stan's features for a moment before he smiled, that same genuine smile like when he was talking about his dog, and Kenny felt his heart do a backflip.

"That would be cool. Thanks."

"Uh, yeah, t-t-totally, anytime!" Kenny stammered. He coughed into his hand and stepped back. "Actually, um, can I ask you a question? Why did you want to talk to me--not now, but before at City Wok."

Stan fixed him with a similar as when he tried to puzzle Kenny out, then shrugged. "I told you, you have a comforting aura."

"'Aura'?"

"Yeah, Henrietta says everyone has an aura, and some people's auras are just better at inviting others in. Yours is like," He pursed his lips a moment, "and don't take offense to this, I mean it in a good way, a dog. It's just friendly like you can talk to you about whatever, ya know?"

Kenny didn't know, but he nodded anyway. Before he could reply, Stan kept talking. "Can I ask you a question now?"

"Sure, shoot."

The tops of Stan's ears turned red as he asked, "Do you really think I'm cute?"

Kenny swore internally as he fumbled for what to do. He could play it off as a joke, but then if he ever did want to ask Stan out, he would have to own up to his lie. He could admit to it and risk Stan being uncomfortable around him. He could--

"Because I think you're kind of cute, too."

Kenny blinked, dumbfounded. "What? Are you--are you asking me on a date or something?"

"Not yet. I think I'd like to be your friend first." Stan replied. He was trying to play it cool, but the blush and his stiff pose gave him away as just as nervous as Kenny.

The bell on the wall rang then, making both of them jump.

As Stan shot a glare at the bell, Kenny swallowed the lump of nerves in his throat. "Shit, dude, yeah that sounds great."  He patted down his pockets before pulling out a crumbled City Wok receipt and a pen. He scribbled down his number before awkwardly handing it to Stan.

"Here, text me or something and I'll tell you when and where we meet up to shoot hoops."

Stan looked at the number before carefully folding it and put it in his jacket pocket. "I will," He stepped forward, out of the alcove and past Kenny. The crowd of people leaving the cafeteria could be heard down the hall.

"My locker is on the other end of the school." Kenny jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. "I need to get going so I'm not late for class."

"Yeah, mine's just up the hall." Stan nodded in the direction of his locker. The crowd of students was upon them then, and Kenny had to duck and dive around students to get into the flow of traffic going his way.

He looked back towards Stan, but he was already swallowed by the crowd.

~~~~

As Kenny sat idly in chemistry class, waiting for the destruction that came with being partnered with both Kyley-B and Eric Cartman, he felt his phone buzzed twice in his pocket.

Ignoring the arguing over which chemical should go into the beaker first, Kenny slipped it out. They were texts from a number he'd never seen before.

"Hey, it's Stan," the first text said. "In all my thanking earlier, I forgot to thank you for something. I think I should do that before I forget."

Kenny felt his whole body warm in delight as he read the next text.

"Thanks for the tea. <3"

~~~~

AN: This has sat in my drafts for a few months now >>, but now I can say I finally did something with Goth!Stan and City Wok!Kenny.

[milesfromjapan]

Date Night

A knock at the door signaled his arrival. You loved how he insisted on coming all the way up to your seventh floor apartment, despite the lack of elevator in your building, to pick you up. It was the littlest things that made your heart beat a little faster for him. You grabbed your phone, quickly shoving it in your bag, but not quick enough that he hadn’t already started knocking again when you reached the door.

“Wow, you look stunning,” he said with a lazy smile on his face and his fist still on your door like he had forgotten it was even there because you were there to look at now.

“Thanks,” you laughed, “but it’s just jeans and a shirt.”

“Yeah, but it’s you,” he asserted.

You rolled your eyes before grabbing his free hand and leading him back down the stairs he just walked up to get to you. His long legs made him become the leader before you’d even finishes half a flight of stairs. You huffed in annoyance as he pulled on your arm a little due to how far in front of you he was.

“You can take the stairs two at a time. Cut me some slack,” you told him.

“You know,” he jumped to the sixth floor landing, “I hadn’t really thought about that before. My bad.”

You couldn’t pretend to be annoyed for more than a few seconds as a smile spread across your face. Just looking at his excited face made you smile wide. His hair was curlier today than usual, probably because of the rain that had just stopped. Little crinkles formed at the corner of his eyes from the smile he got from looking at you. His denim jacket hung loosely off his shoulders and his sunglasses were clipped to the collar of his white t-shirt. You shook your head a little to yourself as you started continuing down the stairwell with him.

“What?” he asked you upon noticing your head shake.

“You’re pretty cute, Mendes,” you replied.

“Just cute? Wow. Harsh.”

His free hand went to his chest over his heart to try and show you just how much your statement had bothered him. He couldn’t keep up the act for more than a few seconds because, well, it’s you and he’s too crazy about you to be able to find the words. You chatted about his day as you walk to the lobby.

“You know, you should really move. These stairs are a bitch,” he told you as he held open the exit door for you.

“I thought it would make me exercise more. Pretty sure I exercise less now,” you laughed in reply.

He took your hand in his again and pulled you to the right, the opposite direction of the parking lot. You turned to him with furrowed brows and tilted your head to the side to express your confusion.

“It’s really nice out now and the place it’s pretty close by, so I figured you wouldn’t mind a little walk,” he suggested, his face hopeful.

“I am down for a walk,” you told him, making him smile.

He dropped your hand in order to sling his arm over your shoulders instead. With the height difference putting him at a strong advantage, this was his favorite way to hold you. He liked keeping you close, like he could protect you from anyone and anything if you were right by his side. You put your arm around his waist to secure yourself to him and he gave you a quick hug, pulling you into him more and resting his head briefly on your head before pulling back to ask you about your day. With your arm around his waist, his arm over your shoulders keeping close to his side, you felt like there was nothing you couldn’t do.

You could talk to him for hours and never be bored for a second. You never forced a conversation and you didn’t think you were going to have to anytime soon. You clicked from the moment you met and had been finding out just how well you fit together every day since. His large tattooed hand playing absentmindedly with the collar on your shirt as you walked and talked.

“Oh my god, puppy!” you practically screamed when you saw a cute puppy across the street. “I want a puppy.”

Shawn laughed a little and gave you a tight squeeze and a quick kiss on the head.

“You’re allergic though,” you sighed as you looked up at him. “It’s your biggest flaw as my boyfriend, you know.”

“Well, I’m sorry I’m flawed. I’ll just go,” he mumbled in fake sadness as he turned his body a little away from you like he was going to leave.

You wrapped your other arm around his waist and pulled him back to you. You both were laughing and had stupid smiles on your face. You looked at him and his beautiful smile, eyes that draw you closer and close to him, and a jawline you’d kissed so many mornings already, and you thought that just maybe you’d be able to give up your dreams of being a dog parent for him. Just maybe.

“Oh my god, ice cream!” you screamed when you saw the destination of your walk with Shawn down the street.

Shawn let out a big belly laugh as you started to walk faster in an effort to get to the ice cream faster. Shawn obliged and you practically ran down the street holding his head, both of you laughing the whole way down. You stopped your run just short of the building, not wanting to let the poor high school student on summer break who was about to scoop your ice cream see you running over.

Shawn opened the door for you, as he always did, claiming his chivalry was one of the main reasons you started dating him. It wasn’t; it was just one of a million reasons you stayed. You scanned over the ice cream, trying to decide what you wanted. Shawn’s large hand found the small of your back as your eyes scanned over all of the flavors. His hand moved in smooth, calming circles, making you lean into his side. After a long survey of each flavor and careful consideration, you select cookie dough and chocolate brownie. Shawn ended up with mint chocolate chip and vanilla.

“Want to sit?” Shawn gestured to a free high top table in the corner.

“Sure,” you replied. You took a seat opposite him and immediately shoved a slightly too large bite of ice cream in your mouth. He shook his head little at you with a bright, unwavering smile on his face. The smile never went away for you. You were his soft spot and everyone knew it. You looked over toward him and he smiled around a spoonful of ice cream that he was. You giggled and tapped your spoon on the end of his nose with it, making his recoil quickly with a small brown dot of melted chocolate ice cream on the end of his nose. He tried to cross his eyes to look at it with no luck.

“You’re real cute,” you told him as he reached up to wipe the chocolate sauce off his nose with his sleeve.

“Nah, that’s you.”

He got back at you by tapping the end of your nose with his spoon, leaving what was definitely a mint green splotch on the end of your nose. You huffed and wiped it off with your hand, making him smile and drop a quick kiss to your forward.

“The cutest person in the fucking world,” Shawn muttered to you.

You couldn’t stop a big smile from forming on your face. You leaned over the table toward him. He met you the rest of the way and pressed a soft kiss to your lips. You were both smiling into the kiss, which made you feel warm despite the slightly chilly air in the shop. When you started to pull back, he came with you and placed several quick kisses on your lips, making you laugh yet again. He made you laugh and smile constantly, something that hadn’t gone unnoticed by your family when you brought him around for the first time a few weeks ago.

“You’re Shawn Mendes, right?”

You both turned your head to see a girl a few years younger than both of you. Her eyes were wide in amazement that she happened to run across him just out and about in the city. She was clutching her phone, clearly in the hopes of getting a picture with him.

“Yeah, I am. Do you want a picture?” Shawn asked as he dropped his spoon into his ice cream

“Oh my god, yes!” she squealed.

“Do you want me to take it?” you offered.

“You would do that? Yes, please, that would be go great!”

She opened the camera and handed you her phone as Shawn stood up next to her. He towered over her, like he did to you and most other people. You told them to say cheese before talking several photos to try and make sure she got a good photo. He gave her a hug and then you passed her back her phone.

“Thank you so much for taking it,” she said to you before she left to rejoin her parents at their table across the shop

Shawn’s tattooed hand reached across the table in search for yours, which you gave him. He gave your hand a quick squeeze. It was his way of apologizing for the interruption. He knew you said you didn’t mind, but he felt bad each time your dates were interrupted since you didn’t get to have too many of them. You didn’t care. His fans made his dreams possible and that was enough for you.

“Are you ready to go?” Shawn asked you just as you were taking your last bite of ice cream.

“Yep,” you replied.

Shawn grabbed your trash for you and took your hand in his with his free one again. He tossed them away and still beat you to the door to open it for you. As you started to turn to head back to your place after exiting, Shawn’s strong arms wrapped around your waist from behind, pulling you back against his chest. He leaned down to rest his chin on your shoulder.

“I adore you,” he told you before leaving a soft kiss on your cheek. “You’re incredible.”

Your hands rested on top of his and you let out a content sigh.

“You’re amazing,” you said back. “Wouldn’t change a thing about you.”

He kissed your cheek again and you could feel the smile on his lips. His one kiss turned into dozens all over the side of your face and forehead, anything he could reach. You both were laughing by the time he stopped. You spun in his arms to face him so you could give him a proper kiss, pulling him down to you with a hand on the back of his neck. One of his hands left your waist to cup the side of your face, pulling you into a deeper kiss. “Hi there,” he laughed when you pulled away and rested his forehead against yours.

“Hi,” you laughed back.

He kissed your forehead and pulled back. A breeze suddenly passed by, making you shiver. Shawn released you and pulled off his jacket and handed it to you. You tried to push it back to him, but he just pushed it back to. You sighed and took it, sliding your arms through the far too long sleeves since you knew there was no way you were going to win this battle

“You’re so little,” he said as he pushed the sleeve up to grab your hand.

“You’re just a giant,” you replied. “Giant boyfriend.”

“Your giant boyfriend though,” he retorted. “I only want to be your giant boyfriend.”

You smiled to yourself as you started the walk home. His jacket hung off your shoulders and the sleeves puddled around your wrists. You listened to him tell you some story from on tour and you were happy. You loved him. You didn’t know if he loved you too yet, but you hoped he would someday and that hope was good enough for now.

[maknaesdancersrappers]

Ten + Pizza

requested.

idk anon asked for fluff, but I’m really weak in that department.

-

When you had messaged Ten about wanting some pizza and he had replied with “gotchu”, you expected him to bring over 3 boxes of pizza from your favorite pizza place.

But you opened the door after he rings the bell, you were not met with the regular pizza boxes. Instead, Ten had hauled in 3 canvas grocery bags full of what you can only guess from your boyfriend’s mischievous smile.

“Uhm, hi?” You step aside to let him in and he passes by you after a quick peck on your cheek.

“Hello, princess.” He greets, walking straight to the kitchen. You follow him after locking the door and watch him unpack the groceries on your kitchen table.

“What are all these? I only asked for pizza.” You take one of the bags and remove its contents.

“This is pizza! Well,” Ten shrugs and shoots you a grin, “Not yet, at least.” He holds up an elongated can, “Pre-made pizza dough, a can of tomato sauce, some different types of cheese--I got you extra mozzarella, by the way-- I also bought bacon, ground beef, bell peppers, and any other toppings that can go on the pizza.”

“I wanted to eat now.” You grumbled, reading the ingredients on a pouch of pineapple tidbits.

He laughs, “I should have known, but then I realized on my way out of my house that it takes me, even with your help, to choose the pizzas to buy just as long it takes to make some. So, I just bought whatever we needed to make pizzas and we can try to make some together. And even better, we can go crazy on the toppings and have different flavored slices instead of the same 3 variants of we bought 3 boxes.”

You sigh, “I guess you're right-- why are there marshmallows and cookies here?”

“I wanted dessert pizzas.”

It took a while to prepare all the ingredients, opening the cans and chopping up some vegetables but the real challenge was preparing the pizza dough.

You and Ten had debated on how many and how big each pizza should be, you wanted small ones so you could experiment on toppings while on the other hand, Ten wanted one giant one (that's just enough to fit your oven and give it space to grow) where you could just have the same amount of toppings, but it'll be in squares.

You won him over, pointedly quoting Johnny by saying “No one wants to be a square.”

Each of you roll your own small pies, being resourceful by using any straight, cylindrical objects in your kitchen as you did not own a rolling pin. And Ten went as far as flattening it out by covering it plastic wrap and pressing a pan on top it.

His idea worked better.

“(Y/N)! Watch me hand toss it.”

“I don’t think that’s a good ide-Ah!! TEN!” You weren’t able to stop him and by the time he spins the dough with his fingers, it catapults over to you and sticks to half of your face. When you pull it off, you see your make up had smudged on it.

“Oh, shit, I’m sorry (Y/N)!” He fails at holding his laugh back, making you hit his arm. “Ow!”

“Well, we can’t use this now since it wiped off half of my makeup.” You claw off the surface that visibly had the stain of your foundation and tossed it aside. “Let’s hurry up and finish this already, I’m really hungry.”

“Okay, okay, princess.” Ten snorts, bringing the tomato sauce in between you two.

Putting the toppings on took longer than expected. When you wanted to add a few more vegetables, Ten kept picking them off and replacing it with whatever meat he deemed it lacked of when you weren’t looking. You noticed what he was eventually doing and scolded him, forcibly shoving a couple of slices of bell pepper into his mouth. Laughing it off, he promised to put *a few* veggies on half of the pie.

When it came to the dessert pizza, the two of you debated on whether to put hazelnut spread or chocolate shavings as the sauce.

“Why not both?” You shrugged, grabbing a spoon for the hazelnut spread.

“Ah, my princess is so smart~” He coos you, but you merely roll your eyes at him.

“Get to work, Chittaphon.”

Ten pouts at you for a moment before showering the dough with chocolate shavings he grated earlier. While you tried to pry open the the bag of marshmallows, Ten placed oreos and mini chocolate chip cookies all over the pie as if they were pepperoni slices.

“I’m already getting a toothache from seeing this… Maybe we should think this through?”

“What’s done is done, [Y/N]. Let’s get these in the oven.” He teases, placing the dessert pizza on a baking sheet with the other pizza you prepared.

Once all pizzas (a whopping 6 10” inch pizzas) were in the oven and slowly cooking, you and Ten stationed yourselves in front of it and watched it rise.

While waiting, Ten asked about your day, listening to your short rant, and you did the same for him.

“Isn’t this dangerous? Something about radiation or whatever?” You blink at the orange lights of the oven.

“Probably, but it’s so cold~” He pouts, pulling you closer, “And it’s so much warmer here than anywhere else in your house.”

Winter is ending and Spring is around the corner, but the air was still cold and you would still be freezing with just 2 layers of clothing when you leave your house.

Up until the pizzas were done, the two of you talked about random things or watched in amusement when the pizzas’ toppings bubbled and popped, all the while still cuddled into each other's arms.

The first pizza out was the dessert pizza because you noticed the marshmallows turning black and smelled them burning. It wasn’t completely charred but at least the dough was cooked and the rest of the toppings were nicely melted. The rest of the pizzas came out nicely and it took no less than 10 minutes for you and Ten to set up at the living room so you could eat and watch some shows.

“All we need is a camera and we can film a mukbang.” He chuckles, noting how the plated pizzas and bottles of juice and cola are crowding the small coffee table.

“I’d rather film a mukbang with Jaehyun, he’s better at explaining flavors than you.”

Feigning hurt, he retorts, “At least I don’t clap like Taeil!”

That sends both of you into a laughing fit and almost brought tears into your eyes. After calming down, either of you took a slice of pizza from different plates and ate.

“Oh! This really good!”

“Better than the ones we buy from the stores.” You hum, already eyeing the next flavor you want to try next.

“Should we do this every week then?”

You shake your head, “Nah, maybe every other month? We can invite the others if you want! Show them that you’re a genius at making pizzas.”

Ten finishes his small slice and moves onto the dessert pizza, “This would be a hit with the Dreamies, don’t you think?” When he pulls off a slice, the marshmallow goo creating a stringy mess, he’s quick to shove it into his mouth.

Almost immediately he makes a face that makes you laugh, “Is it too sweet?”

He nods his head, gesturing for the water on your side of the table.

When you hand it over, you couldn’t help but laugh at how big his gulps were. “I just want to remind you that you wanted that dessert pizza of yours. Imagine if we went through with putting the peanut butter cups in it.”

“Stop laughing!” He whines, pinching off a piece and feeds it to you before you could push his hand away.

“Ugh! This is a dentist’s money maker!” You scowl, grabbing the bottle of water from him and downing the rest of it.

“Let’s agree to not speak of this monstrosity and serve the others the rest, deal?”

“Deal.”

-

a/n: lol how do u fluff

follow me on twitter? @ohyesjaehyun

[dreamdollxbreezy]

Stage Five

Chase

Tying the apron around her waist I lay a gentle and innocent kiss on her cheek. Turning her lips meet my cheek.

"Daddy help me please." Hope comes over with her small chefs hat undone.

"Mommy what are we making?" Gabby asked.

"Pizza babe remember. Since you girls both did good on the test you had at school this is a personal pizza slumber party for just us."

Our beautiful smarty pants here both got a 100% in a test they individually got in school so I put up this idea. They can't seems to get enough of each other always calling after school. I just love seeing how happy she is with her new best friend. And...spending all this time with Tammy has been great as well.

Things with us are steadily moving in a friendly pace. I decided with Gabe being an ass she needs all the support she can get. He has yet to make any effort with that threat he made which I'm not surprised about. It was just an emotional thing to say since he knows how much gabby means to her. I know personally if Hope's mother ever threaten to take my love away from me it would be war.

"Ok girls let's check everything off. First things first....pajamas?"

"Check!" They had matching Disney princess onesies.

"Pizza ingredients?" Tammy said picking up the pack of pizza dough.

"Check!"

"How about dessert do we have the cake and ice cream?"

"Yes!" They both jumped laughing. It was a beautiful sight.

"Alright let's get started. Tammy if you would cue some cooking music for us please."

She does a courtesy giggling picking up her phone that is connected to the wireless speaker I have. Her hips swing as the music from a movie the girls are familiar with starts up. She dances back over to us bumping my hip on the way.

"Under the sea Under the sea Darling it's better Down where it's wetter Take it from me Up on the shore they work all day Out in the sun they slave away While we devotin' Full time to floatin' Under the sea"

The girls held hands dancing. "You guys are suppose to help us."

"Oh sorry hope daddy. I wanna put the sauce on with lots and lots of cheese." Hope smiled.

I prepared the dough with gabby while Tammy and Hope cut up toppings. Every other second I'd look up at them laughing.

"Mr Chase why do you keep looking at my mommy?" Gabby asked rolling the dough around.

"Well um...your mommy is very pretty." Might as well be honest. Children are way smarter than us adults are willing to admit.

"I know she's says I'm pretty to all the time." She smiles up at me.

"Of course both you and your mommy are beautiful young ladies." I poke her nose making her blush and giggle.

"I like you Mr Chase."

We start pressing out the dough and Tammy bring over the toppings. We let the girls put what they want on one pizza leaving the second for us.

"I saw you over here making my daughter blush." Tammy nudged me smirking. "What were you guys talking about?"

"She caught me taking regular glances at you and I let her know I think both you and your daughter are very beautiful young ladies as is my daughter." Honesty is my thing as you can see.

"Oh thank you. I happen to think you sir are very handsome." She bites her lip putting down a few green peppers.

Stepping behind her I grab the bowl of mixed cheeses. She turns her head watching as I spread it around our pizza. Our hands collide making us both laugh. Turning together our noses rub. The girls laughing catches our attention seeing them watching us.

"Are you gonna kiss her daddy?" They giggled more.

Before I could answer my door bell rings. I wasn't expecting anyone so this is very random. I'm not a fan of in the moment visit from guest.

"Mother....did you call me or something?"

She let herself in along with her plus one. "No just thought I drop by to see my grand baby. Where is my  sweetie?"

"In the kitchen we ourselves have guest." As I'm walking off April makes her presents known. "Yes?"

"Hi?"

"Hello Hope is in the kitchen like I said."

"You don't want to know why I'm with your mother?"

"Not at all. That information does not include anything about our daughter. Why should I be concerned about what you do in your time not with Hope?"

She rolls her eyes walking ahead of me stopping suddenly. "Who are you?"

"Tammy hi. Oh this is my daughter Gabby." She smiled gesturing to themselves.

Both my mother and April looked at me.

"Are you sleeping with my son?"

Tammy(Dream)

"Is that your business?"

His mother made a look of surprise. I know she doesn't think I was gonna shrink back from her. Those pearls and diamonds expensive shit don't mean a damn thing to me. Respect is earned always how many dollars signs you doesn't and shouldn't be a instant respect magnet. I could get all that my damn self.

"Excuse me don't talk to her like that. You don't know who you are messing with." This other chick says stepping.

"I give back what is given to me. What I do with her son is between us it doesn't matter who is asking. Why is it either of you his mother and sister concern what we do?"

"I am not his sister I'm her mother. If you are around my daughter then I have every right to know who you are."

"Oh ok but I told you who I was you didn't even think to introduce yourself honey. You just right on me so again why is it your concern what I do with your daughter father since you two clearly are not together."

These two already getting on my nerves. It's been a great day I've spent with my daughter and now chase and Hope. They not about to come around ruining shit. Mother, baby mamma I don't care no one talks to me as if I'm a nobody.

"Chase why is this woman here with you?"

His mother approaches him. She seems like the overprotective controlling type. Poor Chase.

"She is accompanying Hope and I in celebrating our daughters getting amazing grades in school."

"What happen with Penny she was a lovely girl."

"She also was just another gold digger mother." I saw him look over at Hopes mother.

"And this one isn't? Why haven't I met her until now?"

"I didn't know I was obligated to let you meet everyone I know mother. This is Tammy my friend...this is my mother Joyce and this is my daughters mother April."

Both women look over at me. I could just tell they were judging me.

The smirk couldn't be hidden even if I tried while I wave my fingers. "Girls lets go pick out the movie we're gonna watch."

They both run pass me. In Hopes room I go to close the door as a heel stops it. "Hi mommy!"

She walks in bumping my shoulder. Why oh why must people try me so hard. "Hi baby. You didn't introduce me to your new friend."

"This is Gabby and that's her mommy Ms Tammy." She smiled at me. "She's really nice mommy daddy likes her."

I chuckled shaking my head. Kids are such a hoot.

"More than daddy likes mommy?" This bitch.

"Maybe they almost kissed earlier." Hope tried whispering.

"Ok so what are we watching girlies!? Moana....little mermaid....princess and the frog or Pocahontas?"

"Frozen mommy we wanna watch frozen."

"Ok you guys start watching and I'll go check on our pizzas." After putting in the movie I walk out. The mother took it upon herself to get my attention. "You need something from me?"

"Stay away from my daughter and my man."

"Girl bye. That child is just as much his as she is yours if he wants me around I'll be around. From what I understand he is not your man and never will be again since someone messed up...isn't that right sticky fingers?"

I smirk at her widen eyes. Chase told me all about this one. She damn near tried ruining a family self made business all for a couple of bucks. Now she got the nerve to be all in my face?

"You don't know shit about me. I meant what I said and if I have to say it again we will have a problem."

Walking up I make it known I'm not scared of this bitch. Clearly the money is getting into her head.

"We already have a problem honey. One being your breath...garlic really? And two you are no one to me you put no type of fear in my heart. I've been through hell and back so dealing with a babymomma who doesn't know her place is nothing."

It was a slight stare down but like I said she's no threat.

"April your ride is leaving." Chase came up behind me. His hand rest on my waist. "Is she bothering you?" He whispered.

"No just talking. The girls are watching a movie I was on my way to check on the pizzas."

He nods letting me go I walk off smiling.

"This is what you do Chase? Do I mean anything to you."

Uh...poor Chase.

[mooniessuniverse]

Coming home || Frank Castle imagine

Summary: Frank is in a war and you miss him. - angst, fluff Warning: swearing, angst, grammar mistakes (I will fix it tomorrow loves) Word count: 1787

GIF IS NOT MINE, CREDIT TO OWNER

You worked in this bistro for... how long? Seven months?  Your uniform contained from short blue dress with a white apron today. Sometimes, when you and Cassie, your coworker and a friend who also told you about this job, decided to have a little fun in work, you put white ribbon in your hair and instead of high heels, you’ve been wearing everyday, you put roller skates on your feet. By your opinion, you looked funny - it just showed how hilarious it was for you to work here for a minimum wage. You didn’t like your salary but two of the things that made you stay here was fun you had here and people who came here regularly. They left big tips here and there and you actually liked to talk to them - when they wanted and when you were in a mood.

And today, you really weren’t.

You took cash from soon to be leaving customer. You gave him a weak smile and looked at your friend who was speaking with a cook. You couldn’t hear them but by her wild gesticulation you suspected that Cassie had something in plan.

She decided to not pay you attention for half of your shift together, almost every minute spending on her phone. When you tried to talk to her she shut you up with a shush and looked at her phone expectedly. She was waiting for something to happen. She was acting suspiciously for a few days now but today was extreme. It started to be annoying but you kept your mouth closed because you didn’t want to make her upset.

You took out a big ass chicken pie (from salty dough, with spicy sauce, chicken cubes and four kinds of cheese on a top) ��you had cooked earlier in the morning before shift from under a counter. None of the customers require your attention at the moment, so you turned around where knives and another cutlery was placed. You cut a triangle from it and put it on a plate which you took from a pile. You hoped that your peace offering will work although you haven’t done anything wrong (or you thought so). You needed her, especially in these times because you really missed your boyfriend who was gone for a eight months today and spending your free time alone and not talking about nothing and everything at once was slowly killing you. You craved for a touch of a human you cared about and who cared about you. You just wanted to be held in someone’s hands with a reminder that you are not completely alone.

You turned around to face one of the regulars who visited this bistro as long as you remember working here. He was old, kind and liked to joke around. He was actually one of the people who kept you here.

“Hey, Joe? Do you think you can watch over cash register for me? You will get a piece of this if you do,” you asked him with a puppy face and showed him what’s on the plate.

He looked you up and down and then sighed. “Yeah, go. But you owe me,” he raised his cup of coffee with a smirk on his face.

“Thanks, Joe,” you gave him a little smile before you turned towards the kitchen. Your heels clapped on a chequered floor as you made your way. When you opened door you saw Cassie silently talking to someone on her phone, her back turned against you. Martin, the cook who also owned this place, were who knows where.

Suddenly you felt nervous. “Hey, um, Cassie, I have something to give you. I made this in the morning and I hope you will like it. And accept it. I really need you, you know how I hate these days. You think we could go out tonight and drink until we will forget everything for a few hours?”

“Yeah, ofcourse,” she said and you smiled wildly. But your smile fell again when you realize she is talking to someone on the other side of connection. “It’s awesome idea and she will be over the moon, believe me. And if it will not work out and she will be pissed, you always can have make up sex,” she laughed. She listened to the person for a moment. “Oh, don’t act like you didn’t miss my witty remarks and your lovely old lady. Just don’t be nervous and move your ass over.” She ended the call and turned towards you finally. She looked surprised to see you.

You put down a plate with a meal on a counter and slammed your hands beside it, looking Cassie straight into her eyes. “What the fuck you think you are doing?” you finally snapped. It was happening for too long, you missed your best friend and you really needed her. “You know what day it is and you still ignore me the whole fucking day!”

She put her hands up defensively. “I am dealing with something for a few days now. I hadn’t right mind to think on something else. I am sorry.”

You relaxed a little. “You know you can tell me everything, right?”

She smiled at you and hugged you. “I know but this is really important and I have to handle this on my own. Or you know what?” she held you on a arm lenght. “You will probably find out soon.”

You raised your eyebrows. “What are you planning, Cass?”

She winked at you. “Like I said, you will find out soon.”

You rolled your eyes at her. You hugged her one more time before you had to leave back to work. “I miss him,” you complained into her shoulder.

She wrapped her arms around you more firmly. “I know, baby. He will come home to you soon, I feel it in my bones.”

“Today it is eight months. I want him in my arms and kiss him until he will beg me to let go, you know. Is it too much to ask, Cass?” you lamented and left her arms, wiping away tear which escaped your eye.

She caressed your cheek. “We will buy a five gallons of your favourite ice-cream and look on some cheesy romcom after work, okay? Now, let’s go back to work.”

You nodded slightly and left the kitchen. You ran your hand through your hair as you came back to the cash register. Joe examined with his eyes.

“Are you okay, Y/N?” he asked you, with worried look on his face.

You tried to smile but failed miserably. “Y-yeah, just… Missing someone.”

The doorbell above the door welcomed another customer. You didn’t even look up, just poured some coffee into your cup. You needed more energy and definitely more caffeine in your system. Since Frank left, you drunk your coffee only black, with no sugar. It was a reminder of him, that he is still out there, fighting for himself, for you and for so many other people  in a war he didn’t caused.

Sometimes you wanted to make him stay. To make him stay home, with you. You wanted him to be safe, most preferably in your arms, never letting him go back there, in a freaking war zone. But then you remembered that it’s Frank freaking Castle. He is stupid and reckless and protective and ready to fight for what he believes in and loves. He couldn’t be tamed when it comes to this.

And you loved him. God, you loved him so much. Everytime he came back it seemed like you loved him even more. And he was so, so far away from you.

You hid your face in your hands, trying to calm yourself down before you will have breakdown in middle of your work. You quickly turned your back towards the counter. You took few deep breaths.

“Good afternoon, ma’am, could I get one black coffee or should I come later?” deep voice ordered behind you and you froze. You couldn’t make yourself shift around. You swore that if you turned to him, saw him, your knees would give up and you would fell to the floor. So you closed your eyes and slowly, really slowly, turned over.

Your breath was uneven but you still managed silently question him. “Could you please repeat yourself?”

“Okay, but I think you heard me loud n’ clear, ma’am,” he chuckled. You could hear his smile. That smile you loved, in his roughed voice with emotions.

You covered your mouth as soon as you opened your eyes and saw Frank standing right in front of you, behind the counter. Joe’s eyes jumped from you to man with broad freaking chest, with big freaking nose, his big ass ears and with freaking buzz cut on his freaking head covered by white barrack. He had this smug smile on his face, his dark brown eyes looking at you, almost shining with excitement.

Outside world disappeared. You screeched shamelessly. You ran around the counter to him, he already on his way to you. He spread out his arms and you immediately jumped on him, wrapping your legs around him and hiding your face into his neck. You cried. God, you cried like a little girl and you couldn’t stop. You ran your hands up and down his neck, kissing him into the croak of his neck, re-remembering how his skin feels on yours and trying to grasp that he is really here, in your arms.

“You are here,” you cried out. You were holding him tight, pressing his face to your chest, leaving kisses onto the top of his head.

“I am right here, princess, I am right here,” he whispered as he ran one of his hands up and down your back, another one under your butt, holding you so you didn’t fall.

“Put me down so I can hug the living soul out of you,” you demanded and he laughed, letting you down.

As soon as your feet touched the ground, you wrapped your arms around his chest and he hid you into his arms. “I missed you,” you mumbled into his uniform.

He kissed your head, running his hand through your hair. “I missed you too, princess.”

“I love you so fucking much, please, don’t leave again,” you begged although you knew he won’t do that.

He took your chin between his rough fingers so he could kiss you. The kiss was slow, gentle and so, so much needed.  “I love you too.”

All the sleepless nights you spent crying, worrying sick about him suddenly vanished. Because he was there. With you. Safe.

“I so gonna post this on youtube.”

“Cassandra!”

Tag list: @the-right-drug-wrong-time (Send me an ask if you wanna be tagged!)

[onewfantaesy]

I’ve always really liked your writing and I am always looking forward to reading everything you write. I love love love daycare au! The fluffiness of this au makes me want to cry I love it so much. Could you write some Minho and Taemin moments please? Thank you for all of your writings!

aww thank you so much this really made my day!!

“So, he usually naps from about one-thirty until three, and he likes to have a snack after nap time, and he goes to bed between seven-thirty and eight, but make sure he takes a bath by seven-fifteen. And I usually read him a book before bed and-”

“You already wrote down his whole schedule,” Minho said, smiling. “And I know his schedule. He’ll be fine, don’t worry. It’s just one day.”

“I’ll be back tomorrow at ten,” Key said. “Just - if anything happens, you can call Boa.”

Taemin was still latched to Key’s legs, because whenever he knew Key was going to leave, he clung to his dad’s pants. Taemin was whining and clutching Key’s pants and chewing on his binky. Key sighed, but he bent over and picked Taemin up and smiled at him.

“Daddy’s gotta go, baby,” Key said. Taemin whined louder and shoved himself closer to Key’s chest, pressing his face into Key’s neck. “But Minho is gonna take good care of you, and you’re gonna have lots of fun.”

It took a lot of coaxing and promises of chocolate milk, but Minho eventually held Taemin at his hip and the two of them waved goodbye to Key as he drove away. Taemin had tears in his eyes that had yet to fall, and he was taking in quick, shaking breaths, but Minho only held him tighter and brought him into the kitchen. 

Key had brought over all of Taemin’s favorite sippy cups and toys, and so Minho piled blankets on the living room floor so he and Taemin could play out there. There was a toy tool box with all its contents scattered around the blanket, but after hammering on Minho’s leg for a few minutes, Taemin tossed the plastic tools aside and pushed a plastic cup to Minho.

“Are we gonna play tea party?” Minho asked, pulling forward the plastic tea pot.

“Tea party,” Taemin repeated. “With cookies.”

Taemin dug through his bag of toys and pulled out all the fake food he loved playing with so much. He plopped toy-cookies down in Minho’s lap, and he took his binky out of his mouth to pretend-eat his cookies. When Minho didn’t immediately start pretend-eating his own cookies, Taemin got up and stood next to him to shove one of the toy-cookies to Minho’s lips.

“Mmm,” Minho hummed. “Yummy.”

Taemin smiled, and the two of them continued to play in the living room until Taemin started yawning. When Minho held Taemin and said it was nap time, Taemin narrowed his eyes.

“No,” Taemin said. “Play time.”

“Do you wanna read a story?” Minho asked.

“Yes.”

The two of them ended up on the couch, Taemin snuggled against Minho’s chest. Minho was reading one of Taemin’s favorite books, and Taemin held his binky in his mouth with one hand and used the other to run his fingers over the pictures in the book. His eyes started blinking slowly, and before they were even halfway through the book, Taemin’s head was rested against Minho’s chest. Soft little breaths were leaving his mouth, his eyes were closed, and his binky was close to falling from his lips.

Minho smiled at him, and he put Taemin down on the couch and covered him with one of the blankets Key sent him with. He even piled pillows on the end of the couch and on the floor, just in case.

After an hour and a half, Taemin pushed himself up and looked around the room. His hair was standing up in every which direction, his cheek had lines from the where the pillow was scrunched up, and he had drool running down his chin.

“Daddy,” Taemin whined, rubbing at his eyes. 

“Hey sleepy head,” Minho said, sitting on the couch and pulled Taemin onto his lap. “You’re at Minho’s house, remember?”

“Want Daddy,” Taemin whined, pressing his face into Minho’s chest.

“I know,” Minho cooed, rubbing Taemin’s back and looking around the couch for the binky that fell out of his mouth. When he found it, he pulled Taemin’s face out and held it in front of him.

Taemin took it, but he didn’t look any happier. He stayed snuggled against Minho’s chest, still trying to wake up. Minho had brought out crackers and juice, and they both had a little snack while they read another book together. This one was a book on animals, and Minho used some of Taemin’s toys to play along with the story. Taemin started smiling when Minho made animal noises with him, but he still missed Key.

When dinnertime rolled around, Minho bounced Taemin at his hip.

“Does Taeminnie wanna make pizza for dinner?” Minho asked.

Taemin smiled and nodded, and after a few minutes, Taemin was sitting on one of the counters while Minho rolled out pizza dough. Taemin ended up patting the dough, and Minho was encouraging him and helping him the entire time they made their little pizzas together. 

“You can put anything you want on it,” Minho said. “I got little pepperonis, and ham, and chicken, and anything you want.”

“Cheese,” Taemin said. He put both hands into the bag of cheese Minho had and spilled as much as he could onto his little pizza. 

Minho laughed, and he did stop Taemin from putting too much, but he made sure to send Key lots of pictures of the cheese mountain that Taemin wanted to put into the oven. He also made sure to get pictures of Taemin with tomato sauce smeared on his cheeks and his little hands shoving cheese into his mouth.

“No more cheese,” Minho said, and he lifted Taemin off the counter to put him down at the table. “You won’t want your pizza if you eat too much cheese first.”

“M’thirsty,” Taemin whined, licking at cheese stuffed under his fingernails.

Minho wondered where Taemin’s favorite binky had disappeared to, but he figured that could be a problem for after dinner. He got a new sippy cup and went over to the fridge to see what he had for Taemin to drink.

“Do you want milk or water or apple juice?” Minho asked.

“Juice!”

Soon enough, Taemin was leaning against the back of his chair with his legs crossed and his sippy cup stuffed in his mouth. 

During dinner, Minho made sure to get pictures of Taemin with pizza sauce all over his face and a long, gooey line of cheese spread from the end of his pizza to his lips, a huge smile on his face and his little teeth showing as he chewed.

When bedtime rolled around, Taemin didn’t want to sleep by himself. Minho tried reading his favorite book to him, tried giving him warm milk, and tried rubbing his back until he fell asleep, but Taemin didn’t want to sleep in the spare room Minho had.

“No,” Taemin whined when Minho tried to get up from the bed. “Stay with me.”

“Why don’t you wanna go to sleep?” Minho asked. “You’re sleepy, and it’s bedtime.”

“I’m scared,” Taemin cried, clutching his monkey. “Wanna sleep in your bed.”

Minho smiled, and he let Taemin crawl into his lap. Taemin huddled himself against Minho’s chest, and Minho ended up pulling both Taemin and Taemin’s favorite blanket up to carry him into the other bedroom. It was a bit early for Minho to be going to bed, but he figured he’d at least stay with Taemin until he fell asleep.

“And tomorrow, Daddy’s gonna come back and all three of us are gonna go to Taeminnie’s favorite park,” Minho whispered, pushing his fingers through Taemin’s hair.

“The blue park,” Taemin mumbled, his eyes closed.

“The blue park,” Minho confirmed.

Taemin was asleep after a few more minutes, and Minho stayed a little bit longer until he got up to go make sure all the lights were off and all the windows were closed.

When he came back to bed, he smiled at the way Taemin was drooling on his monkey and letting out soft little breaths. Minho got into bed, fixed the blanket that Taemin had kicked off in his sleep, and piled pillows on the other end of the bed so Taemin wouldn’t roll off.

Minho woke up the next morning to Taemin crawling on his chest, a sleepy smile on his little face. 

“Dada,” Taemin said sweetly, pressing his cheek to Minho’s chest. “S’morning.”

Minho’s chest swelled at the words Taemin said. He’d never called him “Dada” before, and it made Minho laugh and hug Taemin tight. Taemin giggled and clutched his fingers in Minho’s shirt.

They had a lazy morning, the two of them just snuggling in bed with the TV on in the background until Taemin’s tummy rumbled and Key called to say he was on his way back home.

[love-takes-work]

Fish Stew Pizza

Fish Stew Pizza is one of the staples of Beach City cuisine, but it's not a particularly popular item for fans to recreate. Why?

Well, because "fish" and "stew" and "pizza" don't really go in the same sentence too smoothly, do they?

But I found a way to make a pretty appetizing Fish Stew Pizza, based primarily on a combination of cartoon pizzas:

The "Large Pizza, Extra Fishy" pizza Steven was seen hate-eating after Lion abandoned him in "Steven's Lion"

The mushroom pizza his dad got him at the end of "Storm in the Room"

The pepperoni pizza that was used for "pizza rain" during "Joy Ride"

It all starts with a homemade pizza recipe. . . . Learn how to do it if you read more below!

See more SU food tutorials!

For pizza, you will need the following items:

1 cup warm water, 110º F to 115º F / 43º C to 46º C

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon salt

2 to 2 ½ cups flour

Get the water ready. Make sure you take the water’s temperature. If it’s not hot enough you could fail to activate the yeast, and if it’s too hot, you’ll kill it.

First, pour in your sugar. You should stir it until it dissolves. Then pour in your yeast and stir it up, and leave it alone for about 10 minutes.

The yeast will foam and puff up. It should look like this.

Dump the yeast into a big bowl, add your ¼ cup of vegetable oil and stir that in. Then add your 1 teaspoon of salt and begin with ¾ cup of flour to mix in with a fork.

It will be sticky. From here add another cup of flour, work that in with the fork, and begin adding more flour in increments of ¼ cup until you have a dough that is the right consistency. You are looking for handleable, non-sticky dough, but it should be very malleable and soft, without becoming crusty.

You’ll need to work that dough for 8 to 10 minutes. Knead it in the bowl until the time is up.

And then you put the bowl in a warm spot and cover it to let it rise. I like to put it by the window where my plants are.

My recipe recommends 45 minutes to an hour for rising. I waited a little longer than an hour and got this.

Now, punch it down.

You will now divide the dough in two. This recipe makes two pizzas. I used the other pizza dough to make Amethyst's burrito pizza, so from here on in the recipe focuses on the single pizza that we’ll make a Fish Stew Pizza with. Take your one ball of dough and begin to spread it out on a 12-inch pizza pan.

A really helpful tip for this dough: You should roll the dough out from the middle of the pan using the heels of your hands. Do NOT stretch the dough–it tears. Do not pinch the dough’s bubbles or pick up pieces of it to plug holes. Do not throw it in the air. Just use some Sapphire patience and little by little press and roll until it begins to spread out toward the edges of the pan.

You should try to leave a little border for the crust.

Now you want to fill the pizza! Here are the ingredients I used:

Pizza sauce

Pizza cheese

Vegetarian pepperoni

Mushrooms

Vegetarian fish fillets

First, a note on the "fish." I don't eat fish so I bought these frozen fake fish fillets. Before putting them on the pizza, I cooked them separately in the oven. If you get a similar product, vegetarian fish or real fish, you can just prepare the product you have according to the directions. I recommend cooking the fish first (and most recipes will ask you to flip them over part-way through). Mine cooked for about 12 minutes on each side, and then I chopped them into much smaller pieces to become pizza toppings.

While the "fish" is cooking, you can prepare the rest of the pizza. Spread the pizza sauce on the face of the pizza.

Sprinkle cheese!

Add pepperoni! I used Yves brand vegetarian pepperoni because I don’t eat meat, but you can use the real stuff if you want.

Now here's an important trick for oven-baked pizzas that wanna use mushrooms: microwave your bowl of sliced mushrooms for about a minute and drain them before you put them on the pizza. Mushrooms have a LOT of water in them and when they cook they will pee water all over your pizza, making it soggy. Can't have that!

Then add the fish pieces.

Then put it in the oven at 350ºF / 175ºC.  You will bake it for about 30 minutes.

When it’s finished, take it out and let it cool. 

You're done!

"Is it good?" everyone always asks when I make weird recipes.

Truthfully? YES, YES IT IS GOOD. People turn their noses up at the idea of fish on pizza sometimes, but if you like fish, think about whether you would like it topped with cheese, tomato sauce, and a little breading. Yes? Well, that's what this tastes like. Except backwards.

ENJOY!

See more SU food tutorials!

[skamz]

something soft and wintery with evak cuddling in their apartment with hot chocolate all bundled up in blankets bc it's cold (i know it's not winter yet but shhh)

hello you! 💝  it’s not winter yet officially but it’s still cold aaah! i hope this is ok :)

--

isak has been going over his chemistry notes for almost an hour when he hears the sound of their front door opening. he purses his lips together, tries not to smile too wide. but then even is looking up toward him as he clumsily takes his boots off, steadying himself with a hand on the wall, and their eyes meet, and there’s just no way of holding back the grin that spreads across isak’s face. 

“honey i’m hooome,” even says, almost chants. 

isak huffs out a laugh, rolls his eyes a little. “c’mere,” he says, propping himself up on one forearm.  

even hangs his coat and then he’s skipping toward their bed, and isak barely has the time to put his notes down before even is basically lying on top of him. 

“hello there,” even peppers kisses on isak’s forehead, his cheekbone, his nose, below his ear and isak writhes slightly under him, turning his head to the side in an attempt to capture his lips. 

“hello,” he replies, placing a hand on even’s cheek, steadying him. “you’re cold.” 

when their lips meet, at last, isak sighs and closes his eyes. 

“it’s cold outside,” even says against his mouth, and then he’s softly rubbing his nose against isak’s, and isak can feel the contrast between the temperature of their skin. “you’re warm.”  

“baby,” isak whispers, kissing him one more time, slow and gentle, before wrapping an arm around his back, bringing him closer to him. 

isak pats the mattress, in search for their warmest comforter, and when he finds it, he pulls it over their bodies, and when even fits his face into the crook of isak’s neck, isak wraps a second arm around him, holds him close. 

even sighs contentedly, and he feels smaller like this against him, trying to soak up as much body heat as possible. “i love you.” 

and perhaps isak shouldn’t be melting as he holds this tall boy who just got home on this winter day, whose cold cheek is now pressed against his collarbone, but he is, he is. 

he presses a kiss to even’s forehead. “love you too.” 

a few minutes pass and they’re now breathing in tandem, their bodies fitting together like they always do, their temperature almost identical. 

“how was school?” 

“’was good, the usual. the boys miss you.”

isak feels even chuckle. “but i saw them on monday.” 

“you’re very easy to miss, you know,” isak is almost teasing, but he means it.  even is easy to miss, which is why he’s thankful he gets to see him at the end of every day, gets to wake up by his side every single morning. 

isak can’t picture a life where he doesn’t get to have that, really doesn’t want to. 

and it’s one of the few perks of spending parts of their days apart - how wonderful it always feels to be reunited in the end, how right. 

isak holds him just a little tighter. 

“how was work?” he asks. 

“wasn’t busy at all in the morning when it started,” even pauses and yawns. “snowing a lot, and i came up with this...hot chocolate recipe that’s...really great, i have to make it for you later when...”

he doesn’t finish his sentence, and isak can feel the way even’s chest expands slightly against his own, can feel his heart close to his own, and the pulse on his neck where the tips of his fingers are now resting. he takes a quick look at even’s face and smiles when he notices that his eyes are closed.  

isak buries his fingers in even’s hair, breathes him in and eventually he’s also closing his eyes, falling asleep to the sound of even’s steady breathing. 

*

when isak opens his eyes, even is running a hand up and down his chest, under his shirt. he gently scratches his stomach, and isak squirms, letting out a small whine - he’s ticklish, especially when he wakes up, and even loves to take advantage of that. 

“what time is it?” 

“just 19:15″ 

even’s hand goes up and up and he starts tracing lines on isak’s collarbones, and isak sighs, turns his head only to find even looking at him.  

“you hungry?” 

before isak has the chance to reply, his stomach rumbles audibly, and they both laugh a little. 

isak is grating cheese as even spreads tomato sauce on the pizza dough he just rolled out, and when even is done, he comes behind him, pecks him on the cheek. 

isak sits on the countertop as their pizza cooks in the oven, even standing between his thighs, his hands on them as they make-out lazily. when isak deepens the kiss, licking and biting like he can’t get enough, even lets him, only pulls back once to whisper “you’re hungry”, a pleased smile lifting the corner of his mouth. 

and isak chuckles and nods, wrapping his arms around even’s neck, squeezing even’s hips with his legs. “very” 

when they eat diner, even tells isak about the idea for a short film he came up with at work, and isak listen attentively as even tells the story with words and facial expressions and hand gestures. even fetches his notebook from the large pocket of his coat at one point, adds a few notes to the ones he already took as they discuss ideas together. 

isak loves doing this - loves to listen to even talk, loves even’s mind and the way even thinks and creates, loves the way he is. 

isak loves even. 

(he tells him that he does with a kiss on the top of his head, after he stands to pick up their plates and bring them to the sink.) 

even heats up some milk in a saucepan, melts some chocolate into it as isak quickly washes the dishes, and it smells divine in their kitchen. and then isak is done before he is, and he comes to nuzzle the back of even’s neck, and the small exposed part of his shoulder. 

isak is waiting on their bed when even arrives with a mug in each of his hand, and isak smiles at the high mount of whipped cream in the one on the left, knows that that one is his. 

they’re then sitting with their backs against the wall, legs tangled up together under their covers. 

“is it me or is this a little spicy?” 

“i added the tiniest dash of cayenne pepper,” even says. “you like it?” 

“super yummy” isak nods. 

they sip on their hot chocolate as they continue watching master of none on their television, and even wraps an arm around isak’s shoulders.

isak is well aware that it’s cold outside, but right here in this room, there is nothing but comfortable warmth - in the hot chocolate he’s drinking, in the bed he’s sharing, in the blankets covering him, in the boy holding him.  

he looks away from the screen at one point, stares at even’s face for a moment, and then even is looking back at him, and there’s warmth in those eyes of his, in that smile of his. 

isak is well aware that it’s cold outside, but the thing is that he doesn’t really mind the weather. because he also knows that when they are together, even during the coldest days that winter has to offer, there will always be warmth.