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eryiss · 11 months ago

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[Fraxus] Multifaceted - Part 1

Or: The 5 Times Laxus Learned of a New Skill Freed Possessed, & The 1 Time He Fell Victim To Them

Summary: For the rest of the world, it had been seven years. For the members of Fairy Tail it had all been in the blink of an eye. But, for Laxus, that was more than enough time for his closest friend to seem like an entirely new person. This self assured, competent Freed was something new to Laxus, and he found himself enjoying it. Perhaps a little too much… Note: I’m back, probably only for this and then I’ll slink away again. It should have a new chapter every other day. Hope you enjoy. Links: Ao3, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

1: Cooking

Laxus was practically a dead man walking as he approached his apartment building, and wanted nothing more than to collapse onto a bed and sleep for the rest of the week. He couldn't, of course. When he and Freed had been forced to move into an apartment with only enough space for one bed, they'd decided they'd alternate each night on who got to use it, and who had to make do with the armchair. Freed was generous, but he wasn't so generous to give up the bed for a whole week.

God, Laxus missed having a bedroom to himself.

But when you're wiped off the face of the planet for seven years, and your bank decides your dead and absorbs your assets, you don't get to be picky. The jobs coming into the new, barely surviving Fairy Tail were not good. Whereas previously its members had been comfortable financially, they now all had to scrimp and save. Hence, sharing a tiny apartment with Freed.

It could have been worse; a lot worse. He and Freed had always gotten along well, and after a long talk on the boat back to Magnolia's shores, they had an understanding. Things had changed a little between them; Laxus had been humbled after the harvest festival, and Freed had come into his own. He seemed comfortable in his skin in a way Laxus hadn't seen before. He'd always been in control and able to dominate the room the moment he walked in, but now he made it look effortless. Like he was walking with his head held high not because he felt the need to, but because he felt no need not to.

Living together was going well, that was all. Laxus did wish they could afford a better place, and as he trundled up the stairs, he wished they'd found a place on a lower floor.

He forced the door open - it was stiff on its hinges - and it took a second for the scent to hit him. Rich and indulgent meat, thick and butter ladened potatoes, a cluster of vegetables all with the char of a grill, and the slightest whiff of red wine filled the room. After a month of eating bread and the occasional piece of fruit on his mission, the hit of flavour could have made Laxus weep.

"Ah, you're here," said Freed, looking over his shoulder from where he stood at the kitchenette, stirring a pot of something. "I was hoping you'd be back soon. I was a little preemptive with the vegetables."

"You cooked?" Laxus asked, dumping his duffel bag on the floor.

"It seems so, yes," Freed nodded, raising a ladle of cabbage to prove it. "How did it go? Did you get paid this time?"

"I did," Laxus shoved the door closed, half tempted to collapse into the armchair. He stank, though, and if he remembered correctly it was Freed's turn to sleep in the chair. It'd be a dick move to make it reek before Freed had to deal with it. "The guy tried to negotiate the price down after it was over, but I think I scared him."

"Wonderful," Freed hummed slightly. "I can see why no other guild will take them."

The only worthwhile jobs that Fairy Tail had gotten recently were S-Class and A-Class jobs that the bigger guilds would not post. They saw Fairy Tail as desperate and willing to overlook certain issues, some of which consisted of underpayments from the job poster. They clearly had forgotten how Fairy Tail functioned; the guild had always been paid in full, even if they needed to throw a few punches to get it.

"Yeah, it's ridiculous," Laxus agreed, deciding to take a seat at the tiny, rickety dining room table that had come with the apartment. The chair was uncomfortable on a good day, but not being on his feet was too heavenly for him to care. He took a moment to sink into his chair, and watched as Freed opened the oven, taking a steaming dish out. God, the smell! "You seriously cooked?"

"Yes," Freed said as he placed the dish onto the counter. He looked at Laxus with amusement in his eyes. He was so much more open with his emotions now, it was nice. "Why does that shock you?"

"I never knew you could. You used to make Bix do all the cooking on missions."

"Yes, well," he reached for a spatula and broke the surface of whatever was in the dish. "I had always wanted to cook, but for some time I didn't allow myself to learn. I saw it as a frivolity, or something… indulgent. I had other things to deal with."

Other things being Laxus' stupid ego trip, no doubt. "You mean the harvest festival?"

"Among other things," Freed waved off. "When you were gone, I had time to spare, and eventually picked up a cookbook. I got rather good at it, I must say. Though admittedly I had a more generous budget then. But, I've quite enjoyed the challenge of stretching myself. Hence: cottage pie."

He scooped a large pile of meat, veg and potatoes onto a plate. The rich scent that filled the room was drool inducing. "It smells amazing. Don't know what exactly it is though."

"Minced beef, onion, carrots, peas, a few herbs, salt, pepper, a sauce which for the life of me I cannot pronounce the name of - don't you dare tell Bix or Ever, they'll be insufferable - and a dash of red wine. And mashed potatoes on top, obviously," Freed filled two plates with the food, bringing them both to the table. A bowl of mixed vegetables quickly followed, and the already opened bottle of red wine - the cheapest Laxus has ever seen Freed purchase - was placed between them before Freed sat down. "Enjoy."

"I will," Laxus promised, and it wouldn't be a difficult one to keep.

He forked a generous amount of the food and bit into it, a groan of pleasure slipping out before he could halt it. It was simple food, and would have been easy to turn your nose up at if you were a pretentious dick, but it was amazing. The flavours felt exaggerated and brought to life, thick and heavy and so rich.

Freed's eyes were clearly on him, waiting for a verbal confirmation as to the quality. Laxus felt like his partial moan should have told him, and as such didn't rush to swallow. It had been months since he'd had a good meal, and he intended to savour it.

"Oh for heaven's sake," Freed huffed when Laxus immediately went to take another bite. Laxus grinned.

"What?"

"You very well know what," Freed snapped, watching the forkful of food, daring Laxus to try and bite into it. Laxus didn't say anything, but cocked up a brow to prompt Freed. Freed complied. "Validate my ego, you tedious man."

"Hm," Laxus hummed. "I don't know if I've had enough of it yet to come to a fair judgement. Hold on."

As Laxus took a very performative mouthful of food, Freed watched him with a decidedly unimpressed expression. He took a bite of his own food, which he finished significantly quicker than Laxus had. He watched silently as Laxus finally swallowed his second forkful of food.

"Maybe one more bite."

"I think I might actually stab you."

Laxus laughed, slowly placed his fork down and leant back in his chair. Freed faux glared at him, waiting for him to speak.

"Honestly, it's amazing," Laxus said, dropping the joking tone. "I genuinely don't think I've eaten anything this good since I was kicked out of the guild."

"There's no need to exaggerate."

"I'm not, this is amazing," Laxus assured him, watching as Freed started to eat his own food properly. "I'm not gonna pretend that I ate well for any of that time, but this is still so much better. Honestly, after the last couple weeks, this feels like the best meal I've ever had."

"Well then," Freed sniffed slightly. "Don't let it go cold."

Laxus complied, and the two ate their dinner in silence. The food really was amazing, and as cheap as the wine was, it felt like a luxury. All thoughts of collapsing into bed when he got home had been forgotten; this food was a much greater indulgence. That was why Laxus had no qualms about running his finger over the plate, licking it clean.

Freed must have seen that, because he wordlessly took the plate off Laxus and walked back to the counter. As he piled another serving on, Laxus complained that he could have done that.

"As if I'm letting you near my cookware," Freed huffed. "It's the only thing worth a damn in this place."

"What about our friendship?" Laxus teased, leaning on his hand with a smirk.

"Oh don't be tedious," Freed rolled his eyes, but he was smiling.

In that moment, with Freed standing at the counter, serving the fruits of his labour, with a small smile on his face, with his sleeves rolled up and his hair tied back, Laxus realised something. Something he'd never considered before, but in that moment felt entirely obvious. Freed was a very handsome man.

Huh. That was something to think about.

But not at that moment. He had a second helping to devour, and he wasn't going to waste it on the weird fluttery feeling in his chest.

#fraxus #Freed Justine #Laxus Dreyar #Fairy Tail #fanfiction #Writing #Multichapter #canon compliant #Word Count: 1.6k

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holidayvisa · 9 months ago

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23 March 2024 - Flat Barbeque

We'd been planning this barbeque for weeks, maybe even over a month. Today was the day. When I woke up, Maryanne (Jimmy's mom) and Maddie had just arrived at our house. I met Maryanne, and I had a few minutes to chat with her. I played with Maddie a little bit; Maddie is getting close to walking. She stands up and uses her hands on walls/furniture for balance while she walks around. She hasn't walked yet, but we all know it's coming soon! Maryanne entertained Maddie for much of the morning while the rest of us got the place prepped for the barbeque. Jimmy, Arnie, and I started setting up the marquee (tent canopy). Uncle Mitch heard us making a ruckus, and he came over and helped us. It took all four of us to get the marquee skeleton built and the tarp covers up and secured. I didn't want to admit that my ankles were very sore and possibly broken, so I stubbornly decided that I would climb up the step-ladder to secure the tarp over the marquee. My ankles were really sore, weak, and painful. When we'd finished, it looked really nice and, dare I say, pretty fancy! Jimmy adjusted the dangly lights that we'd hung up days before to be inside the marquee, which looked classy. The place was looking good! Jimmy, Maryanne, and Maddie left to take Maddie back to her mom's for a nap, and when they returned, they brought back some food to make sandwiches for lunch. We all had a quick lunch together, and then Maryanne and Jimmy left again to go pick up Maddie and then go on a walk.

Grant, Arnie's brother, showed up around 2 pm; he wanted to get to our flat early because he was trying to sell a couple things that he'd left in our garage, and he had a facebook buyer showing up to check it out. I'd been pretty immobile all day, and I felt unhelpful and a little worthless. I wanted to help get our flat prepped and ready for the barbeque, but I was just not able to help with very many things. And that made me feel sad. Taylor and Arnie got back from their Pac'n'save run, and they'd brought back a little care package for me 🥰: some Shapes, some orange juice, and some Everything Chocolate peanut butter 🥰! That brightened my mood. I baked cookies and put them out on the table for everyone to have. Grant, Jimmy, Taylor, Arnie, and Maryanne all tried my cookies, and everyone said they were delicious! Even Maddie had a little piece of a cookie! I think Grant liked them so much he had a few! I made the garlic lemon butter sauce for the kingfish. And I lathered the kingfish in the butter sauce. Then I put the kingfish back in the fridge. I baked a second round of cookies still part if the first batch.

I brought two fresh-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies in a Tupperware when I drove to pick up Elise. I picked up Elise from her work, and she smashed the two cookies that I'd brought for her! We picked up a pack of Cheeky's from the liquor store and a pack of marshmallows from the local convenient store on our way back to my house.

Back at my house, the party was getting started. Lorna, Jimmy's sister, had arrived, and it was nice to finally meet her. Lorna and Maryanne were preparing a salad and a prawn dish while simultaneously entertaining Maddie. Wilson had arrived since I'd left. I had a couple of drinks, and it started feeling like a party. Jordan and Lidia showed up! Taylor's workmates, Matt and James, showed up. Uncle Mitch and his wife, Izzy, showed up. I cut open the crayfish and pulled out their poop tubes. I cooked the crayfish on the grill with a TON of butter. Elise and Lidia gave me pointers on how to cook up the crayfish, which was really helpful. At some point, I got distracted, and Elise and Lidia took over the crayfish cooking 🤷. Meanwhile, Arnie cooked up a whole bunch of sausages on the other grill. After we pulled the crayfish off the grill, I started cooking up the lemon garlic butter kingfish. Honestly, I was anxious about this. I'd never cooked kingfish before, and I was cooking a whole lot of kingfish for a whole lot of people. Elise and Lidia gave me pointers on the kingfish too. The kingfish turned out SO WELL!!! Everyone LOVED the kingfish! Meanwhile, Taylor cooked up a whole bunch of steaks on the other grill (the one Arnie had used to cook up the sausies). We had a MEAN feast! Salad, prawn dish, sausies, crayfish, kingfish, and steaks. OH MY GOSH the food was all so good! We counted 20 people at one point, and I think we had a total of 23. Joshy and his partner, Debs, came over a bit later, along with Justin, one of Jimmy's other workmates. Arnie's friends Paul and Steve showed up too. Taylor got a fire started in the firepit, and when it got dark, we all hung out around the campfire. Taylor's fire was SO HOT. It was almost too hot to be near. We got out the skewers and we all roasted marshmallows over the fire. At one point during the night, I tried to get everyone to play fishbowl, but it seemed like the majority of the crew was too drunk for a game like that, so we disbanded the game and played beer pong instead. I baked my mom's recipe of brownies. Taylor and his workmates headed out, and we decided to move the party inside. Everyone ate brownies and gathered in the living room on the couches, and we all watched the footage from our descent of Sleeping God the weekend before. Most of the footage was of Jimmy, and there were several moments caught by the GoPro of Jimmy having some freak-outs. Uncle Mitch was giving Jimmy crap the entire time 😂. Everyone loved the banter between Uncle Mitch and Jimmy, and Jimmy was a good sport about it. After we finished watching the GoPro footage from Sleeping God Canyon, we all hung out for a bit longer, but it was after midnight, and people were getting tired. All of my cookies and all of my brownies got eaten! Jordan and Lidia decided to leave, Wilson left to go sleep in his van, Elise went to bed (she had work the next morning). Arnie, Grant, Paul, Uncle Mitch, Steve, and Jimmy went outside to hang out around the fire. I hung out around the fire for a bit, but the oldies were talking about politics and economy and cars and engines, and I became uninterested in those conversations pretty quickly. I headed to bed around 1:30 am.

I'm grateful for the Good Vibes Flat Tribe, Jimmy, Arnie, and Taylor. All four of us pulled together as a team to make this awesome barbeque happen. I'm grateful to Jimmy and Maryanne for the delicious lunch sandwiches. I'm grateful to Taylor and Arnie for thinking of me and cheering me up with that care package. I'm grateful for all of my people - Elise, Jordan, Lidia, Jimmy, Taylor, Arnie, Wilson, Joshy. I'm grateful to Taylor for that delicious steak. I'm grateful to Lorna for the delicious prawn dish. I'm grateful to Elise for catching the crayfish and spearing the kingfish. I'm grateful to Jimmy for all his preparation for the barbeque, including lights and the marquee. I'm grateful for the time I spent with my people; I'm grateful for this wonderful evening. It was the PERFECT party.

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myfootyrthroat · 5 months ago

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Ok, rough recipe (this is off the top of my head so check back for edits): Makes 8 links.

1.5 c cooked chickpeas

.25 c pea protein isolate (unflavored)

.25 c nutritional yeast

1 T smoked paprika

1 T smoked dulse (optional)

1 t dried thyme

1 t dried sage

1 t celery salt

1 t chili powder

1 T olive oil

1 c vegetable stock

2 T soy sauce

.25 c bbq sauce

1 T strong mustard

black pepper

2 c vital wheat gluten

Put everything but the vital wheat gluten in a food processor and grind it down to a gritty paste. It should be just wet enough to have a little 'flow', so add some more liquid if you need.

Once everything is pureed to a goop that juuuuust runs, dump it into a bowl and add the gluten. Mix by hand until there isn't any dry gluten and then mix it like 30 seconds more, just to be sure. Add more liquid if you think you need it, the earlier the better.

Put the whole thing on a scale and weigh it, then divide by 8, and portion it out. Mine ended up with each link being about 125-130 grams.

Form each portion into a kind of log and then roll it tightly in plastic wrap and twist the edges shut. Roll it a little more to even it out. Put them all in a steamer basket and steam for 20 minutes. They're technically cooked at this point, so you can eat them (or freeze most of them for later, as I did.)

To eat: Throw them in a hot pan or on the grill with a bit of oil until they're hot again and have a good sear.

Notes: You can also feel free to add more seasoning. This is what I used this time, and it turned out absolutely fine, but I'll definitely go harder next time I make it. The gluten and pea protein are kind of flavor voids, so definitely use more than you think you need.

Next time I will also probably add a little bit more fat, either as more oil or maybe some nut butter or tahini or something (chili oil for a chorizo thing?). They could just stand to be a bit 'richer'. If you're going to eat them like as sausage and peppers or in a sauce, they'd be great just like this. In a bun with mustard, I'd probably want them to be just a bit... more.

Also, in my recipe shorthand, T = tablespoon, t = teaspoon

I figured how to make Field Roast-equivalent vegetarian sausages from scratch. It's over for you fuckers.

#food #vegan #vegetarian #high protein

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