#well it’s still sauce chicken but there’s veggies in it tonight
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mex-sickos · 2 years ago
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Not to ring my own rooster or anything but my esteemed father called tonight’s stir fry “based”
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letterstoanoldfriend · 3 months ago
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Cooking with Cat is, secretly, Jean’s favorite part of the day. He would never admit that out loud to anyone, not even under threat of horrifying punishment, a practice with which he was all too familiar. He is not very good at it, still, but Cat shimmies past him tonight as he is carefully slicing a bell pepper and whistles.
“Those are looking good, Jean! Look at you, knowing which knife to use and using it so well, it’s almost like you’re a real boy,” and she hip bumps him as she continues on her way to the fridge. Jean looks down at his pepper slices. They are uneven in some places, and there are seeds everywhere, and he moves so slowly compared to her fast chopping on the other side of the counter that he sometimes feels as if he’s hurting more than he’s helping, but he feels a sweet tendril of something warm curling up under his ribs at her words, and he feels very much like he might want to smile, if that was something his face was more accustomed to doing. He reaches for the onion, instead.
They work well together in the kitchen, Cat dancing around to the music pouring out of her boombox, chattering away about some of the latest drama with the other Trojans. Jean listens with half an ear, but he mostly lets the sensations wash over him—the sharp smell of spice from the chicken, the dull sound of his knife hitting the cutting board, the warm heat from Cat’s back as she stands at the stove. There is something about being in the space, something about preparing a meal, something about Cat and her music that centers him. He is not hunted, here. He feels safe. He steps up next to Cat, putting the ingredients for their sauce into a battered blender that lives to the right of the stove. She smiles at him as she stirs the chicken into the peppers and onions, asks him how he’s feeling about classes starting soon. He frowns.
“I do not care. Classes are a necessary evil to allow for playing that are ultimately a waste of my time and yours.”
Cat snorts. “You know what I love about you, Jean? You’re just always so goddamn cheerful.”
“It is true,” he argues, “I do not need to know the things in these classes. All I must know is how to play. How to win.”
Cat shrugs. She gestures for Jean to blend the sauce while she grabs plates. He does. When the sound dies down, she takes it from him and shows him how to pour it over the chicken and the veggies on the stove, talks him through how it thickens up over the heat, holds plates while he scoops out portions of rice and ladles the stir fry on top. As she sets the last plate on the counter and switches off the boombox, she points to the meal they made together and says, “there can be more to you than Exy, Jean. If you let there be.”
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justagingerwithredhair · 6 months ago
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The Blue Moon Ball: Feast
Oh food glorious food, how I've missed you so. My mind tells me to try and maintain my composure, but my body has already taken off to the nearest spread. It looks like cheese, grapes, crackers, veggies, pinwheels, dip, all the typical light snacks one would find at a party. I begin to realize the severity of my starvation when I completely disregard the silverware, electing to take matters into my own hands by skewering the snacks with magically made icicles. Absolutely barbaric, I know. I end up crafting a chilled charcuterie kebab and scarfing it down. Did I look refined? Probably not, but at this point I'm too hungry to care much for manners. Ivory must also be starving because he detaches from my staff and starts picking at the vibrant berries. Where we live, our diets typically consist seafood, root vegetables, grains, and magical flora adapted to the climate of a frozen coast, so this dinner will be a welcome change of pace. After satiating ours stomachs on a base level, I can begin to truly appreciate the spread. The variety is astounding! I start to search for a real meal. I look at the dining table and see it stretched the length of the hall to an almost imperceptible length. At glance, it looks to be an enchantment that causes the room to loop on itself to accommodate every guest. How clever! I walk past the chairs and benches until I can find a spot that is open and somewhat close to Lurien. I let him get away once, not again. After walking for a bit, I finally spot him. He is surrounded by friends, all laughing while eating away merrily. It doesn't seem a seat is open in that particular circle, but one is available close enough to get in his sight. Moving quickly, I slide onto the bench next to a stranger.
My my mouth waters as I take in the options: chicken, pork, beef, lamb, fish, vegetables of all kinds, exotic fruit slices that look perfectly ripe, bread rolls of every variety and, oh be still my heart, CALAMARI! Ivory and I notice at the same time and immediately snatch the plate. Such golden crispy chewy goodness paired with thick zesty sauces. As we bite down, that oh so satisfying first crunch is enough to make the whole night worth it. Forget the waltz music, this is the real symphony we needed. The squid's flesh gives way to our teeth and we munch away blissfully. Calamari has always been our favorite. I'm not much of a chef, so making it ourselves has been... difficult, thus we typically depend on restaurants to get our fix. However tonight has increased my standards tenfold. No calamari will ever top this, not in a million years.
After I scarf down the last piece, I scan the table for something more novel but catch the gaze of the woman to my right (@these-detestable-hands) . She wears some brilliant combination of pirate apparel and ball clothes with a red and white polka dot sash. Though that isn't what stood out to me first. As I locked eyes with her, a horrified visage burned into my memory.
"You monster!" she shuddered in a low and tense tone, "That was my sister you just ate!"
Confounded my eyes finish observing her and spot her hair. Well, it isn't so much hair, but red octopus tentacles growing from her scalp. I immediately put the pieces together, and throw myself into a coughing fit out of shock.
"I'M SO SORRY-- I DIDN'T KNOW--"
As profuse apologies tumble out of me, her shell shocked grimace turns into a delighted grin as she begins to laugh unyielding. She pats my back saying,
"Oh calm down red-head, it was just a joke."
My horror subsides and I begin to chuckle a little which then grows into a contagious laughter I must have gotten from her. We both revel in the absurdity of the moment. As we calm down, she introduces herself,
"The name's Haley."
"Ah! A pleasure to meet you, Haley! My name is Seros. I apologize for the whole 'eating your sister' debacle. Think you can forgive me?"
She expels another hearty laugh. We have a delightful conversation over our meals and the time flies. It's not until we say our momentary goodbyes when I realize I have yet to meet with Lurien. I think I still have time. He seems to be up and mingling now! Ok, time to get some answers.
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rinwellisathing · 7 months ago
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It's A Thankless Job: Part 11
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Sentry leaned in, controller gripped tighly in his hand as the characters on screen fought, gritting his teeth as his thumbs moved over the buttons rapidly, Orin beside him, leaning back and biting her lip as the teen focused on her own character. Finally, the masked man on screen posed in a close up, frigid axes forming in his hands and a bloody finish saw the woman he was fighting decapitated, head frozen and then shattered. “FATALITY. SUB-ZERO WINS.” The game announced. On the screen, the masked Tiefling posed in victory. Sentry grinned and set down his controller. “Hey, don't take it too personally, I heard your deliveries are going pretty well.” “The sniveling meat-prey try to cheat us so often, slaughter-kin. But I don't mind it. My blade stays blood-slick with the squirming insides for every time they fail to pay.” Orin replied with a deranged smile.
Sentry nodded. “Well, good for you. I like the way your kills send a message, it's dramatic, it's jarring. I think it really scares people and that's what we need right now.” He clapped his little sister on the shoulder with a grin. “Tell you what, you can have your pick of any of the heads I've got in the downstairs freezer for your next art project.” The teen beamed and nodded her head. “Thank you, Slaughter-kin!” She scrambled to her feet and hurried from the room, long hair swaying behind her. “Well, enough of me being the world's best big brother, time to check in on the family and head out for the night.” Sentry yawned and stretched as he slowly rose to his feet and pulled his boots from their place beside the bed.
Sarevok was, as usual, notably absent from assignments. Sentry smirked when he entered the kitchen and noticed, of course the old man was pissed that Sentry was calling the shots now and likely even moreso that his dalliances with Gortash were giving the family more work than ever. The rest of the family, however, seemed as though they couldn't be happier.
Tomi sat finishing a perfectly portioned bowl of brown rice, chicken, and veggies, her phone open in front of her with a news story on the recent rash of murders pulled up. She was dressed in a chic white blouse and tasteful black slacks, her hair pulled into a bun and a beautifully fitted black jacket draped over the chair behind her. Sentry could already guess she was doing press work tonight. Orin was still in her red gym shorts and tanktop, a plate of pizza bagels in her hand, the sauce staining her mouth like a recent kill. Sentry decided to let his sister be creative tonight. He was curious what she would choose to do to find victims if she wasn't bound by lists and duty rosters. “Are you ever going to cook half the meat in the freezer chests?” Jackal frowned as he watched Sentry enter the room. “Some of us need to store non-humanoid kills, you know...some of us just want to eat some good venison...like normal people.”
“You exclusively target women, Jackal, that's not normal.” Sentry replied flatly, ignoring the question as he pulled a container of cold leftover takeout from the fridge and began to eat. “More normal than cannibalism. Father doesn't say nothin' about having to eat your kills.” Jackal shuddered. “It's fuckin' nasty.” “Actually, it's delicious, but then again I wouldn't expect someone who buys grocery store pre-mades to understand that.” Sentry rolled his eyes. “Anyway, you're at the pier tonight, try and diversify your portfolio a little.”
The drow glared, but turned and left the room to head to his station, muttering under his breath the entire way as he snagged his shabby, weatherbeaten coat from the hook by the door.
“Orin, you've got a free night, obviously we still expect at least three corpses, but you can get them anyway you want as long as they're fresh. Show me what you've got, kid.” Sentry grinned and pointed to his little sister. “So many possibilities...the little prey-beasts skittering about....What mischief can I make?” She smirked. “And, Tomi, obviously you know what you're doing so I'll leave you to that...now, Gabraela, I need you on call for Orin, Jackal, and I. Depending on what each of us are dealing with, we may need some muscle. Try and stick to the park so you've got that equal distance between the upper and lower city...And with all of the assigning done...” Sentry gave an exaggerated bow. “I'll be on my way.”
– Sentry decided to stop by Sharess' Caress to see if Wysp had some free time to plan. As he approached, a short young man ran up beside him, an unctuous grin plastered across his face. “Ah, Mr. Ojeda! I was hoping to talk to you about the try out...” He spoke up hopefully. “It's not a try out, Dolor, it's an initiation test and you continue to be unimpressive.” Sentry sighed, trying to brush past only for the dwarf to cut him off, stepping into his path.
“But I've got some exciting new ideas! Poisons, um...tinctures! Things to make for a very interesting ritual...the element of surprise as well!” He continued eagerly. Sentry gritted his teeth. This idiot spouting cult secrets out on the street, he didn't have time for this. “Listen up, you B-list Bhaalist: My answer is no. Take it up with the tribunal if you want to be one of us so bad...Oh, wait, you've never gotten far enough to impress them. Go figure.” The tiefling shoved past, leaving the young man looking stunned. “Ffion, you are a fucking saint for putting up with that kid.” He muttered under his breath, looking up at the window of the Elminster's Library room and shaking his head as he made his way inside.
Wysp was on stage currently, playing his lute dressed in a shimmering near-translucent button down in deep navy blue patterned in sparkling silver stars. Near the front of the stage, a blue dragonborn woman danced sensually, decorated only in silver jewelry. Sentry guessed Wysp wasn't going to be free an time soon from the size of the crowd, but he sat back to watch for a bit, leaning back in his seat as he reached into the pocket of his hoodie to fish out his wallet. The least he could do was tip his friend since he'd tried to visit him during work. --- “Did you hear about the owner of Sorcerous Sundries?” “They said he was murdered taking the trash to the dumpsters, I thought that shop was in a safe part of town?”
“Well, all the more reason Gortash has my vote. These criminals are getting far too comfortable coming into respectable neighborhoods.” Jaina froze as she overheard the whispered conversation from the quiet study area as she carried books for reshelving. Her brow furrowed as she itched to ask them why it only mattered in 'nice' neighborhoods. She was biting her tongue to keep from saying something, but she knew by now to keep her head down, mind her business, work to make things better behind the scenes. It did no good to get angry and get in trouble. She began to replace the books, covertly still listening to the patrons speak. Her hand moved over the spine of a book as she heard the words 'cult' and 'Bhaalist' enter the conversation. Her eyes fell to the title. “Regarding The Slayer”. Looking around carefully, she slipped the book into her sweater and continued reshelving quietly. With those duties completed, she returned her cart to the front desk and began to thumb through the most recent newspapers the library had received for the archive. One of the latest ones had an image splashed across page one with a blood red symbol splattered across the pavement of an alleyway, emergency services removing a body covered in a white sheet. The symbol was Bhaalist for sure, Jaina recognized it from her lessons on other faiths back in her days growing up on the island and accompanying her mother to the shrine of Umberlee near the shore. But what caught her eye more than that was a familiar face. Blurry and cast off to the side, but a young male Tiefling she vaguely recognized was talking to The Fist in the photo and as her eyes lowered to the article itself, she recognized his name as well. Rolan. Her friend's brother. Lia had joked about him all the time when they'd been in school together when Jaina had first moved to the mainland. She slid her phone out of her pocket and opened a message with Lia.
You: Hey, I just read about your brother's boss. Is Rolan okay? Lia: He'd never admit it, but he's a bit shaken up. Still, he's in charge of the shop now and his boss' will left everything to basically whoever his apprentice was at the time...Seems weird, but I'm happy for Rolan. You: Well, silver linings and all that. A storm at sea washes up the prettiest shells. Lia: Lol I guess so. Though I'm not sure I'll be able to deal with the ego trip once it really sinks in he's in charge of all those important wizard things or whatever is in the living quarters above the store.
You: I know this is kind of a messed up question, but do you think he'd be willing to talk about what happened?” Lia: He won't even really tell me and Cal, it's just the same thing over and over. 'I was stocking the shelves, I heard screaming outside, I got scared and hid.'
You: That's fair. Sorry to ask. Anyway, we should get drinks some time. Let me know when you're free! Lia: Oh, are you buying now that your husband is a big shot politician? You: Lol, we'll see. Lia: Joking, obviously. Jaina placed her phone back in her pocket and continued to examine the news story, determined to find something, anything, more than what it seemed to be. She was getting one of her bad feelings about this and usually she knew them to be correct.
---- The posh town house where the party was being held had a surprisingly cozy feeling inside. A fire crackled merrily in an old fashioned stone hearth, in front of which was curled a long furred Tressym, resting peacefully in the warmth. Book cases seemed to line every wall and the tasteful mahogany furniture gave the entire place a studious feel to it. Wyll thanked the smiling blonde Githyanki woman as she took his coat and welcomed him into the home she shared with her fiance, commenting how nice it was that Kroger was getting out there and meeting people finally. Kroger winced awkwardly at the way his sister spoke about the whole situation, looking like he'd very much like to sink into the floor. “Well, if you two need anything just let me know. I have to go rescue Gale from some very boring colleagues!” She beamed, blue eyes shimmering in the dim lights. “Thanks, Octavia...We'll let you know.” Kroger forced an awkward grin as his sister hurried off, collecting a glass of white wine from a nearby refreshment table on her way. “It seems like she's really happy here, and with her partner.” Wyll commented. Kroger gave a small chuckle and smiled a bit more genuinely now. “Well, believe it or not, for a scholar, Octavia has always been the most outgoing of the three of us. Our sister Lae'zel can be a bit abrasive, and I've always done best in small groups.”
“Honestly I'm surprised, you were very good at that assembly.” Wyll recalled as the two of them entered the main room, mingling with the other guests, most of whom seemed to be wizards and other academic types. He smiled that charming, winning smile. Warm and genuine, not at all a politician's smile, and inclined his head or waved politely when someone recognized him.
“That's work, I pride myself on professionalism.” Kroger replied, subconsciously dipping slightly behind Wyll as they walked, lowering his head a bit. Wyll caught on to his discomfort and gently took his hand, squeezing it lightly. “Jaina's the same way, so I get it. But I'll tell you what I told her: I think if you let people get to know you, you'd find they really like you. Not just the things you know or what you do for a living.” Wyll explained gently. “Heh...I'm afraid I'm really quite boring when you get right down to it.” Kroger brushed off the comment. “A...Anyway, over there.” He nodded in the direction of a man with greying brown hair dressed in a sensible aubergine sweatervest over a lighter purple button down. “That's Professor Dekarios, my sister's fiance. He's very well known and important in his field, with his support I think you'd corner the academic vote.” Wyll looked in the direction Kroger had nodded and assessed the man before him. He noticed that the man seemed enthusiastic about whatever topic he was discussing, but his guests seemed to be listening only out of politeness or a desire to cozy up to him. Further, Wyll could tell the subject had something to do with Kroger's sister from how the man beamed with pride and squeezed her shoulders happily as he spoke. As he made his way closer, he picked up the word 'published'. “Is your sister a writer?” Wyll asked, looking curiously at Kroger. “Sort of. She's a researcher technically, she's been compiling information on various Istik cultures since we were children and she recently attracted a fairly popular publishing company to invest. It's called 'The Practical Githyanki's Guide To Faerun'...The title was much longer, but Lae'zel and I talked her down to just that.” Kroger explained. “It's actually very informative and her field diagrams are quite charming.” “I see. Well, it's wonderful she's found someone so enthusiastic about her work. I think I should go over and congratulate her.” Wyll smiled as he approached the group, not speaking just yet, but listening as Professor Dekarios raved about his fiancee's writing. He noted a grateful smile from Octavia as she saw that he and Kroger were actually showing interest in what Gale had to say rather than treating listening to him as part of a job.
“--The chapter where she discusses the culture of Siren's Cove is really just fascinating, it's a place I think a lot of people haven't had a chance to visit and the culture and customs are fascinating.” He was saying, his expression vividly exuding genuine excitement.
“Siren's Cove? Sorry to interrupt, it's just that my wife is from that island.” Wyll cut in with interest. “Right! That's why she was so familiar when I saw her at Kroger's clinic! Her parents were some of the people I talked to when I was doing my research there! Thalassia...I should have recognized the name.” Octavia smiled. “I hope she's doing well.” “She is. Much better. I'll be sure and tell her about your book, it sounds like she would love it.” Wyll smiled. “Ah, your wife is an avid reader then?” Gale asked, he seemed eager to talk to someone actually interested in conversing with him as opposed to pretending to listen and nodding politely. “Books are her life. She's a librarian after all.” Wyll replied. “I think your collection is the only one I've seen that rivals hers. She would be beside herself in this place.” He imagined the excitement on Jaina's face if she could have a home like this, two floors and wall to wall with books instead of just the apartment. There was another incentive to win, with that kind of money he could give her that.
“Well your family should join us for dinner some night! It's been ages since I've had a chance to cook for a group...this whole thing is catered, you know.” Gale offered, voice brimming with excitement. Wyll got the feeling that being well respected wasn't the same has having a lot of genuine friends and he immediately empathized with this guy. He reminded him of Jaina in many ways. “I'd like that, and I think she would too.” Wyll smiled. “Oh, and of course you've invited as well, Kroger! And Karlach!” Octavia beamed. “Yes, the more the merrier!” Gale agreed.
Wyll smiled, nodding his head. “It's set, then! Just let me know when.” Tonight had gone well, he thought to himself. He'd made a real connection, better than simply hob nobbing with a voter bracket, he seemed to have made a friend, and that was something far more valuable by his estimation in every sense of the word.
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pariahfox · 1 year ago
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Currently taking a little breather in the middle of nomming down on tonight's leftover rice delight. I hadn't made any in a while, and we had suitable stuff, so a version of omuraisu it is.
Tonight's take is sort of a weird-but-tasty cheesedog version. I used sliced-up sausages that were open in the fridge plus plenty of veggies in the fried rice, and layered a little sliced cheese in between the rice and egg. Topping with the classic ketchup, plus a squeeze of sriracha and a sprinkle of crispy fried onions.
My omelet ended up pretty mangled, mostly because the pan wasn't quite hot enough when it went in. May not look nearly as nice that way, but it still tastes good. (But, no photos of the half-devoured plateload of whatever this is tonight!)
If you really don't like ketchup (like Mr. C), I've also made pretty good pizza-themed variations and at least one topped with salsa before. Japanese-style curry sauce is another pretty popular option. Easy enough to turn out vegetarian versions, and I probably would have tonight if we hadn't had the open package of varmkorv at the ready. Pretty flexible all around, in terms of what's likely to be tasty in something like this.
Not a bad filling makeshift meal, at all.
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lifestyle-hub · 2 months ago
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Repeating the Same Boring Meals? Here's the First Step to Meal Prep for a Week!
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Image Credit: Kad
Cooking is art......an inspiring experiment (well, that's just my perspective) but it'll really help if you see it that way. Sure, you'll get tips to level up your kitchen game, but I want you to hit that sweet spot where, as you’re thinking about tonight’s dinner, you suddenly know what you’ll be whipping up two or three days from now effortlessly (yeah, I'm serious.....no kidding)
Mix and Match
Lightly steam or roast a bunch of veggies, cook some grains like rice or couscous, and prep proteins like chicken, tofu, or beans. Now, you’ve got a set of ingredients for endless possibilities!
Change the game by switching up sauces, spices, or combinations. Monday can be a plain rice bowl with veggie or chicken sauce, then maybe beans with a bit of couscous and sauce on Tuesday. Next, you can toss everything into a stir-fry for a whole new flavor adventure.
Later you can use carrots, peas, fresh chili or ground nuts for your sauce instead of veggies like spinach, celery, or broccoli. Tubers like sweet or Irish potatoes can accompany those sauces.
The trick is to first get those basics boiled, steamed, roasted, or fried and stashed in your fridge or somewhere….anywhere….lol…. just preserve them properly. (Get what I mean?)
In case you still find this explanation confusing, chat me up in the comment section. My next blog will reveal and explain more on the second step!
Signing out, kad
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thisislizheather · 11 months ago
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2023 Resolutions Revisited
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Above Photo: The view from Nubeluz, NYC
Time to revisit the resolutions that I made in 2023! This is definitely my favourite post of the year because I will forever love accountability. The best part about making resolutions is going back and seeing how they went in reality. Why are people so anti-resolution? My guess is because most of us think that resolutions are supposed to be serious and not at all fun. Well, news flash - I’m here to tell you that you’re allowed to make fun ones. Also I’m bringing back “news flash.”
Throughout the year, I kept making my seasonal lists (spring, summer, autumn, winter). I got really into making reels, Nathan did his second Tonight Show, I got to visit the abandoned City Hall subway station, I toured the gorgeous Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, went to a tulip farm in New Jersey, we celebrated my dad’s 100th birthday with a giant party and a family trip to Scotland, I saw a ton of shows on Broadway (Death of a Salesman, Moulin Rouge, Shucked, Pictures From Home, Bad Cinderella, Hamlet at Shakespeare in the Park, Six, The Shark is Broken). I started the Summer Saturdays series, as well as Fall Fridays. I saw the Lagerfeld costume exhibit at The Met, I got to see this incredible private rehearsal of a play with Michael McKean, I flew in a Harvard plane, I continued my domination of Halloween, Nathan had three pretty significant pieces written about him in The New York Times, I compiled my favourites of 2023, and I found my favourite summer photos as well as my favourite photos of the year. And here’s how my 2023 resolutions went.
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Above Photo: Family in Edinburgh, Scotland
1. Read at least one book per season.
Spring: Keep Moving by Dick Van Dyke
Oh my god, that’s it. I read one book last year. Nobody tell my dad because that’s embarrassing as hell. That’s the worst I’ve ever done with my reading goals. Definitely aiming to better about that this year.
2. Take Baby Dog on an adventure at least twice a season.
Done! She went to Canada a total of three separate times this year, and I took her on Central Park walks each season. She also did her pet volunteering a few times and I also took her to the air field where my brother and I got to fly in those planes.
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Above Photo: Baby Dog in Central Park, NYC
3. Try at least one new restaurant each month.
January: Carne Mare (such a beautiful space, it’s perfect for a special occasion, caviar mozzarella sticks were slightly overrated but everything else was good), Little Ruby’s Cafe (so great for lunch) & Bistro Eloise (had the best onion soup in all of NYC, that broth was unreal, escargots was fantastic)
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Above Photo: Carne Mare, NYC
February: The Bar Room (the grilled chicken on top of their caesar salad was unparalleled), Nubeluz by Jose Andres at The Ritz-Carlton (everything was great, view is perfect), Golden Unicorn (suck city, don’t go) & Olio E Piu (so terrible, begging you to never go)
March: The now-closed Quality Eats (that short rib hash was great), Wayan (best dishes: the corn fritters, the spring rolls, the lamb kebabs and the chocolate chip cookie with cheddar ice cream) & The Grill (the MP pasta appetizer was the most incredible thing we ate - they used this crank-type machine table-side to make the broth for the pasta sauce out of MEAT BONES and I’m still thinking about it, other highlight was the gluten-free zucchini cornbread)
April: Hawksmoor (flashy and beautiful inside, but no real substance), Pete’s Tavern (space is great, food is fine and service was attentive but odd) & Figlia (best Italian in Astoria, by far)
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Above Photo: Figlia in Astoria, Queens
May: Spirit Tree Estate Cidery (so wonderful, can’t wait to go again)
June: S& P (fine, absolutely nothing special) & Sojourn (the duck spring rolls are insanely good)
July: Superiority Burger (veggie burger was great, everything else was just average), Modern Bread and Bagel (the gluten free latkes and french toast sticks were unreal) & Rubirosa (great space, great food)
August: 111 by Modou in Glasgow (fantastic!)
September: Shukette (truly special), Margaritaville in Times Square (the key lime pie is legit here) & Shopsin’s (great chicken sandwich)
October: Beetle House (too fun) & Oscar Wilde (so seasonally perfect)
November: Kaia Wine Bar (insanely good birria tacos and a great happy hour)
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Above Photo: Birria tacos at Kaia Wine Bar, NYC
December: Mel’s (good, but never need to go again)
4. Properly go on a date with Nathan at least once a month.
Did it! Some of the dates included: going to see Death of a Salesman on Broadway, which depressed us so much that we silently went home and immediately to sleep. He made me see Scream VI against my will, we got drinks at Sunken Harbor Club, went bowling in Astoria, had a night at Rec Room in Square One, saw Talk To Me in theatres, went to Shot of Art together, devoted each Sunday in October to horror movies, we saw The Shark is Broken AND LIFE WAS CHANGED FOREVER (we loved it) and then we went to Maryland for New Year’s Eve.
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Above Photo: Nathan in Baltimore, Maryland
5. Every month, cook something I’ve never cooked before.
January: penne alla vodka (this recipe sucked, but I want to try it again) and lasagna soup (wonderful, definitely would make again)
February: greek chicken meatballs (hard pass, too bland)
March: chicken marsala (I’ve made this at least ten times since March, favourite recipe of the year) & tres leche cake (heavenly)
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Above Photo: Tres leche cake
April: steak Diane (really, really good) & asparagus soup (phenomenal)
May: lemon almond pudding cake (pretty boring, wouldn’t make again) & a classic bread pudding (simple and great recipe)
June: strawberry cobbler bars (good, but nothing to make again) & this dark chocolate cake with this icing (unbelievably tasty)
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Above Photo: Strawberry cobbler bars
July: nothing this month (I’ll blame it on traveling)
August: stuffed summer shells (so, so good) & homemade pizza (which I promise to shut up about after this post)
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Above Photo: Stuffed summer shells
September: tomato tart (good, but a ready-made puff pastry would’ve tasted better here) & pecan pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (meh, don’t need to make again) & pumpkin spice syrup for iced coffee (wow)
October: apple cider doughnut cookies (good!) & a coconut chicken tikka masala (good but I never need to do it again)
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Above Photo: Apple cider doughnut cookies
November: a rice krispies pumpkin pie (hilarious)
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Above Photo: Rice Krispies pumpkin pie
December: espresso martini cookies (good!) & a mushroom loaf (truly great) & chocolate pistachio shortbread cookies (the worst! I think I just messed up the recipe though so this is on me)
6. Go on a solo, alone trip.
Biggest regret on this whole list. I’ve wanted to do this for years, so I might just keep it on the 2024 list.
7. Have at least one advertiser on this site.
Not yet! But I’ll keep trying.
8. On the first of each month, try something new.
Jesus, these resolutions were lofty! Big nope on this one.
9. Buy a keyboard and start playing piano again.
Hahahah, not even kinda. Great idea in theory. I did play piano each time I visited my parent’s house, though, so that’s something. A pathetic something, but a something. Don’t worry, I won’t try to take a half point here.
10. Have my book in at least one bookstore by the end of the year. Even if I have to self-publish and then physically put it on a shelf myself.
Okay, truthfully I didn’t even remember this was a resolution, so I didn’t even submit it anywhere for at least half of the year. But this is exactly why I need to revisit my resolutions list at least once a month. (It’s not lame if that itself is one of my resolutions, yeah?)
One thing that I’m so happy that I kept doing throughout the year? My monthly roundup posts. They’re basically little monthly journal entries that make me realize how good I have it sometimes, and I’m so grateful that anyone wants to read them. Here are the links to the last twelve months of them: December 2023, November 2023, October 2023, September 2023, August 2023, July 2023, June 2023, May 2023, April 2023, March 2023, February 2023 & January 2023.
And here are all the best tweets posts from 2023 as well: January, February, the best Valentine tweets, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, the best Halloween tweets, November, December and the best Christmas tweets.
So if we’re keeping score (we are), I did 4/10 on my resolutions (dear god). But see the thing is - this was one of the best years I’ve had in a very long time, so that’s important to note. You can brutally fail at resolutions and still make some progress because this felt like a very full year with a lot of things that went in the right direction.
2024 resolutions coming tomorrow!
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weaselle · 4 years ago
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cooking for people who have no idea what they are doing (or are just, like, real depressed)
Okay, I’m a professional cook, but also, I get depressed. This is the cooking I do when I’m depressed, because I need the simplest path to a whole meal.
This is not for vegetarians, because, while I wholeheartedly support people choosing vegetarianism, and also enjoy cooking for vegetarians, for me, the simplest path to a meal includes meat. Perhaps when I am less depressed I will work on options.
A lot of recipes focus on achieving food that is in some way special, using special techniques, or using a precise list of carefully measured high-end ingredients... and that’s not this, this is all the parts of cooking that are not those things.
First, shopping
Meats Starches Veggies Sauces Breakfast/Snack
For a whole week you’re going to want
3 kinds of meat, with five portions each. So, for example, five chicken breasts, 10 sausage links, and 2-3 pounds of ground beef. Other possibilities include pork chops, salmon, some kind of steak, whatever. 
You’re going to want up to 3 starches. Honestly I usually stick to just rice, but you can go with rice, potatoes, and pasta. If you want to use quinoa or polenta or something, thats on you.
And, you’re going to want about 3 types of vegetables, again, about 5 portions each -- and try to stay green. So personally, I usually get 5 medium zucchini, 2 medium heads of broccoli, and then either yellow squash or mushrooms. A bag of salad greens is also a good option, and I have an easy way to make a good salad, which I will do as a separate post.
Next pick something easy that works as either breakfast or a snack. For me this is a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and a bunch of bananas. Sometimes it’s nice to have an additional option here, like cereal or yogurt. 
Last, you’ll want 2-5 sauces in bottles. I would definitely recommend a low sodium soy sauce be one of them, and maybe a BBQ sauce for the other. I usually also include worcestershire and sriracha but go with whatever you want, teriyaki sauce, A1, whatever you know you’ll eat. Hell, you can use Italian style salad dressing as a cookable sauce if you really want.
Oh, and If you don’t already have some at the house, you’ll need pan lube: butter and/or some kind of cooking oil. 
Okay! we’re done shopping! Affordability isn’t the main focus here, but is undeniably important -- I live in a very expensive area, this shopping trip is going to feed me well for a week and costs me about $100 bucks. When I was living in Alabama, it probably would have cost me more like $70. You won’t need to get stuff like the sauce and rice and peanut butter every week, so you’re definitely looking at a monthly grocery bill of something like $300 depending on where you live, and that’s not too bad. 
Prep
hell no, I’m depressed, the only prep I’m doing is putting two packages of meat in the freezer and the rest of this stuff in the fridge. You CAN box or bag each portion of meat separately so you can really alternate what you eat -- me, I’m gonna eat chicken for two or three days, then beef for two or three days, etc.
and listen, don’t fuck around with microwave settings or running water on things to defrost them. If you package the meat all up separately, just move a portion from the freezer to the fridge each time you cook dinner. Or, if you do like me, move the whole package when you go to cook your last portion of the previous stuff, and just deal with the fact that it will probably still be a tiny bit frozen when you go to cook next.
Tip: When you cook dinner, you’re going to make enough for lunch. That just leaves you one small meal - I often smear peanut butter on a peice of bread and wrap it around a banana like a taco - fast, easy, practically no dishes, relatively healthy
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Cooking (this is going to take about 25 minutes)
You’re going to need
ONE frying pan, medium size w/ lid ONE boil pot, medium size w/ lid knife, a spatula and a cutting board.
If you want to be fancy, you can include a big spoon. Looks like this
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No matter what the specific ingredients you’ve chosen, the basic format is going to be:
Start your starch heat pan, put meat in the pan flip meat and add veggies, cover with lid remove meat and add sauce finish starch put everything on a plate while it is still too hot to eat and you are standing in the kitchen anyway, wash the like, 4 dishes you’ve gotten dirty. eat.
Okay, before you even get everything else out, start your starch. For rice this means rinse the rice and put it in the cold water and set it on high heat, for pasta this means put your salted water on the stove on high heat. For potatoes, you can use my perfect mashed potatoes recipe (I’ll do that as a separate post) or, honestly, you can wait until you’re halfway done with the rest of everything and microwave the sucker for like 8 minutes. I would never do that in a restaurant, but trying to feed my lethargic depressed ass? Absolutely.
easy rice: Fill your smallest coffee cup with rice, put it in the pot. Rinse. Fill the same cup twice with water, add to rice. Bring to a boil, give a good stir, turn heat all the way down, put a lid on it for something like 15 more minutes.
Okay, now lube your pan. Butter, olive oil, whatever. You’re probably looking at an amount more than a teaspoon and less than a table spoon of whichever you use. Personally I try to use as little olive oil as possible, so I pour a large coin sized amount (a quarter in the U.S.) into the pan, ear off a piece of the paper towel I’m going to use as my napkin for the evening, fold it up tight, and sort of paint the oil around so a little goes a longer way.
Pan lubed? Great, turn your burner on. highest heat will work but is not ideal, medium heat will work better but is still not ideal. Halfway between the two is perfect for chicken, a little hotter for beef, a little lower for fish.
Now remove two portions of your chosen protein (that way you’ll have tomorrow’s lunch too). By the time you get the packaging open and stuff, your pan is probably hot. If it’s not, let it get hot. You don’t want the oil to start smoking (warning, butter will burn faster than oil) but if you shake a single drop of water off your finger into the pan, you want it to sizzle.
If your pan is hot, put your meat in. The more you do this, the more you’ll perfect the timing, but you’re going to cook it for ~about~ 7 minutes before you flip it, maybe a couple minutes longer if it’s chicken or pork, maybe a couple minutes less if it’s beef.
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Now that your meat is in, prepare your veggie. Rinse it off, cut off any part of it you don’t want to eat, and then cut what’s left into pieces the size of a large bite. Don’t worry, it’s going to get a little smaller when you cook it. Take your time, you’ll probably finish in less time than the meat needs.
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Time to flip your meat? Great. Do that, and then dump your chopped up veggie in the pan. It does not matter at all if the pieces are not touching the bottom of the pan -probably most of them will not be, a bunch will be on top of the meat, that’s fine.
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Put a lid on it. Now add your pasta to the water, or put your potato in the microwave, or check your rice. If following my perfect mashed potato recipe, mash now.
Rice tip, checking: eat a grain, you want zero crunch. If it’s not done and there’s no liquid, add a splash of water and stir. It it’s done or close to done, but it is still very wet, give it a big stir and leave on the stove with the lid off for a couple minutes.
Your meat still has like, at least 4 minutes, so rinse off your cutting board and chef knife, get out a plate, table knife and fork.
 Meat done? Great. Take the meat out of the pan, leaving the veggies in. Add sauce to the pan. I like to also use a little wine, because it’s usually already in the house, if you have some and want to, pour a large swallow of wine in the pan with the sauce. I’ll often mix a couple sauces, like worcestershire and soy (makes something similar to teriyaki) or hot sauce and BBQ
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Stir the sauce around with the veggies. This, called deglazing, is an important step for two reasons, 1: it will get up a lot of the flavorful stuff that has stuck to the pan and make your sauce better, and 2: it will make washing the pan much easier. Okay, put the lid back on for one to two minutes, maybe stir a couple times. Basically you want the sauce to stain the veggies.
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Your starch should be done, turn off the burner, put a portion on your plate, and stick the rest in a ziplock or tupperware or something. Go ahead and throw the second portion of meat right in there with it. 
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Turn off the stove and scoop the veggies onto the plate, and pour the sauce from the pan over everything.
Now, while it’s too hot to eat, and you’re standing in the kitchen anyway, wash the pot, pan, and spatula. It should be very easy because of the way you used the sauce and because nothing has had a chance to harden. This usually takes me about 2 full minutes.
__________________________________________________________
OKAY! it’s been 20-25 minutes, you’ve got dinner and tomorrow’s lunch (just add another cut up veggie, pour a different sauce on, and put it in the microwave for two or three minutes) AND there’s no danger of dishes piling up on you :) You can even add “washing last night’s plate and fork for use tonight” to where you rinse the cutting board to really keep it full circle.
It’s not gormet. It IS accessibly healthy, affordable, and easy.
If you are extra depressed, forget the starch and use more veggies; this cuts what little work there is by up to half
Using this format, you can have three good meals per day and only spend 30 total minutes a day in the kitchen — including clean up! (dishes piling up tends to exacerbate my depression and makes cooking your next meal harder)
And it’s easy to give yourself a wide variety, from soy glazed chicken, zucchini and rice one night; to steak, mushrooms and pasta the next; followed by BBQ pork chops, brocoli and potatoes... I suck at math but there’s probably a hundred options
Just to recap, because I know I was very detailed and this might seem overwhelming, once you read through the above to answer any questions you might have, simply
-Start your starch -lube & heat pan, put meat in the pan, about 7 minutes -flip meat, add veggies, lid, about 7 minutes -wash knife and cutting board -remove meat and add sauce to veggies, re-lid, 1-2 minutes -finish starch, refrigerate extra meat and starch  -put everything left on a plate -wash pot and pan -eat.
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haikyuuthots · 4 years ago
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Hey bestie i saw you wanted to requests :)
If it's possible, I would really like some tooth-rotting domestic fluff with Daichi. It can littetally be just us making dinner and doing the dishes in a tiny apartment or something, just nice domestic content :)
Thankiee <3
Sunday Dinner - Sawamura Daichi
Pairing: S. Daichi x Reader
Word count: 1.03K
Warnings: none
A/n: thank u for requesting bestie!! This was so cute to write, I hope you like this. Sending love!
——————————————————————-
Today was Sunday, and it was pretty much tradition for you and your boyfriend Daichi to have Sunday dinner, a dinner where you both cooked something together. You two have busy lives, so you value the free time you have for each other.
Blasting music, mixing the sauce for the pasta you’re making, you feel your boyfriends presence around you, getting closer to your body. His arms gently wrap around your waist as he hugs you from behind, swaying your body gently left to right to the beat of the music. You can’t help but laugh at the interaction, your heart beating so fast from how flustered you felt. You turn your head around to look at him
“Baby you’re supposed to be cutting up the veggies.” You a chuckle out
Still holding you close, he lets out a small laugh “I finished, I just wanted a hug from my pretty baby.” He kisses you briefly on the neck, before he turns you around completely to look at you directly.
You smile graciously as you stare at him, nothing but love filled your eyes. You lean up to give him a small peck on the lips, he reciprocated right away, as he tightens his hold on you.
Pulling away you smile once again
“We need to finish dinner, now go finish grilling the chicken.”
“Fine.” He lets out a small pout jokingly, “but one more kiss.”
You jokingly roll your eyes “so needy.” You chuckle out, he lets out a small laugh at your response, as he leans down to close the gap between your lips.
“You’re so beautiful.”
“Are you only complimenting me so I could finish grilling the chicken instead?” You tease
“damn you caught me.” He chuckles out
You let out a small gasp as you lightly punch him in the arm, pretending to be offended “you jerk.”
He goes to hug you again “I’m just kidding baby, you know I mean it.”
“Yeah yeah” you roll your eyes
He lets out a small laugh, kissing you gently on the forehead. “Fine I’ll gonna go finish grilling the chicken.”
You let out a small laugh as you stare at him walk towards the stove. While he continues to cook you can’t help but stare in awe. You valued every moment of every day you spent with him, especially after a long week of constant work. When you first started talking about moving in together, all you could ever do was dream about having moments like these. Now they were reality, and they’re better than you could have ever imagined.
“And chickens ready!” Your thoughts are interrupted by your boyfriends voice filled with enthusiasm
You laugh “and so is the pasta.”
He starts making his way over to you to pull you into a side hug, while he looks at the food. He smiles looking down at you “well it looks like dinner is ready.”
You stare at him with a smile for a moment “well let’s eat.” You respond
You two sit down for dinner. Talking about your week, your emotions, and other things that interested you. Cracking jokes, and teasing each other about small things. This was something you loved about days like these. Being able to value each other’s presence, and make new memories. That’s what was important to you and to him, there was no doubt that you both cherished moments like these.
Finishing dinner you sit at the table for a moment, while Daichi begins to clear it.
“Baby come sit down with me.” You call out to him
“We need to clean this up darling.”
“And we will but let’s rest first.”
He shakes his head, laughing to himself “so needy.” He responds teasingly, nevertheless he starts making his way over to you.
Sitting next to you he pulls you out of the chair, making you squeal in surprise as he places you on his lap.
You laugh, wrapping your arms around his neck “you scared me Daichi.”
“You wanted me to sit down with you didn’t you?” He chuckles out
“Yeah I guess I did.”
There’s a brief silence, while you two stared at ecahother lovingly, you breaking it first
“Thank you.”
“Thank me? What for?” He responds with furrowed eyebrows
“For being here. Cooking dinner with me, caring for me, loving me.”
“You don’t need to thank me, I wouldn’t wish to be anywhere else, with anybody else.”
He finishes his sentence by leaning in for a kiss. This kiss was longer than the ones before, his grip tightening around you as your hands caressed his face.
Pulling away you respond to his previous statement “I love you. Even if you did burn the chicken a bit.”
“That’s it, I’m never cooking again.” He jokingly responds,
“Awww baby, I’m kidding.” You chuckle out as you prep small kisses on his cheek
“I’m serious though, I love being here with you, I’m glad I get to spend my days with you, I love you y/n.”
Your heart flutters at his words. It was something he said often, but regardless every time he said it, it never failed to make you heart skip a beat.
“I love you too Daichi.” You peck him on the lips once more as you get up from his lap “Now let’s clean up, it’s your turn to do the dishes”
He lets out a small gasp “I did them last time, it’s your turn.” He chuckles out.
You laugh out loud “I know but you know I hate doing the dishes.”
He gets up from his chair as he follows behind you,
“ fine I’ll do the dishes tonight, but you’ll do them next one for sure, I won’t baby you anymore.”
“Deal.”
And so you both spent the next two hours cleaning up the mess in the kitchen, listening to music and enjoying each other’s company. It was odd how much you felt like a married couple even though you weren’t yet. The bond you’ve both created was one that was difficult to explain, because it was just that strong. You loved your boyfriend more than words could ever describe, and he felt the exact same way, you were happy to say that Sunday dinners have become to be the highlight of your week.
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dokifluffs · 4 years ago
Text
Grocery Shopping | Akaashi, Osamu
Pairing: Akaashi X Reader (female), Osamu X Reader (female)
Genre: flufffyyy
Author’s Note: I got inspired while grocery shopping! Please stay safe, everyone! <3
Grocery Shopping | Kageyama, Tsukishima // Grocery Shopping | Sakusa, Atsumu 
Akaashi: 
It was pretty chilly inside and pretty empty since everyone stayed home and only came out when they absolutely needed to
Now it was time for the two of you to make your monthly grocery visit to get foods for the long run
But of course, there were nights where the two of you ordered in
Grocery runs were straight to the point with Akaashi, especially now with quarantine
The two of you dressed pretty comfy with your masks and gloves on securely and made sure to follow the arrows going up and down the aisles
Honestly, you followed Akaashi since he was the main one cooking
You weren’t the worst but not exactly the best cook either
He picked out meats and vegetables, you picked out snacks and sweets to enjoy together
Sometimes you would pick out ice creams to take home for dessert instead of drinks
Akaashi would have to occasionally stop you from choosing too many snacks or drinks but he wouldn’t object when you chose fruits
He found it sweet when your eyes lit up seeing the mangos on sale and the sugary calpico drink
You were excited since you picked out two drinks for the two of you and tonight you were gonna help Akaashi make yaki udon with some bbq on the side
Since it was pretty empty though, there were just workers not doing much
Some from the older men in the butchers made it a point to call out to you by whistling while out as the two of you walked by
Akaashi could see the way their eyes looked you up and down while you didn’t really notice as you walked beside him, hand in hand
He was disgusted by them since they were older while you were quite younger than them so he ended up subconsciously giving your hand loving squeezes and you would occasionally rest your head on his arm as the two of you walked through the store, making sure you didn’t miss anything
He was thankful to have you in his life and to have you by his side during this quarantine even though he did have to pull you away from certain snacks that would ruin your appetite like a certain owl man from his old high school team
Cough Bokuto cough cough
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Osamu: 
Gloves? On. Masks? Secured. Light jackets since it was cold inside? Ch- Osamu sighed when you began to shiver, feeling the cold air tickle your skin through the long sleeve you wore
Guess it wasn’t warm enough still but you insisted you were fine even though he opted to run back out to his car to get a spare jacket
You wore leggings and a simple long sleeve that was more of the athletic type. It was thin and hugged your upper body snuggly, showing off your curves
But now it was serious business. Food shopping
You and Osamu are literally the biggest foodies in the world
He loved it when the two of you were able to come together and find delicious recipes that made both of your mouths water when you watched videos of how to prepare the dish and finally seeing the end result
Even before quarantine, you would drop off bentos with freshly made foods with meats and veggies for him, each time being different and cute
He took pictures of them before eating just to cherish the memory before he devoured that bento
You were waiting at the cart scrolling over your phone to look at the ingredients you needed to make gyudon (beef bowl) and honey soy sauce chicken
Osamu stood beside you as the butcher handed him a bag of chicken legs that you two would use for dinner tonight
He got extra knowing how much Atsumu would also eat but it was good since it meant he could spend a long time cooking with you
But literally just as he was standing beside you putting the bag of chicken into the cart, one of the janitors pushing a mop and cart of water looked you up and down
He felt disgusted like a cold sensation crawling up his spine but he didn’t show it that much on his face
So, naturally, with his hands in his jacket pockets, he pressed his chest to your back and wrapped his hands still in his pockets around your waist, resting his chin with a huff on shoulders
“What’s wrong, ‘Samu?” You asked as you looked beside you to your semi-pouting boyfriend. You patted his face as you twirled your fingers in his sideburns, giving a peck on his cheek
“‘S’nothin’” He said as he continued on with you shopping with you
But overall, he loved how he could share his love of food with you and how you were able to introduce strange food combinations that ended up surprising him how well it worked together
You were able to make this mans melt under your touch
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I cant wait for there to be more Osamu and Atsumu gifs like
~~~~~ Thanks for reading! Masterlist for more! Please do not repost anywhere else!
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secret-rendezvous1d · 4 years ago
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Could you elaborate a little on Harry buying YN food and giving her lots or cuddles when she's a little mad at him? Thank you😊🌹❤
Her silent treatment had started over something so incredibly stupid.
When she woke up that morning, she didn’t expect to trip over a lost gym shoe on her way into the kitchen to make herself some breakfast. Catching her foot on the heel of a bright yellow, still tied at the laces and grubby-looking shoe and stumbling off-guard and banging her other foot on the entryway table that held forgotten house-keys (that belonged in the oak bowl, alongside her own bunch of keys) and an off-white Adidas sweatband that was still, no doubt, drenched in sweat and belonged in the washing basket so she could wash it in the next round of washing due. 
When she hobbled into the kitchen with throbbing toes, she didn’t expect to see her boyfriend staring at his phone with milk dripping from his spoon, cereal littering the kitchen tops and his dirty gym-wear thrown aimlessly on the tiles as if he blindly threw it towards the basket on the other side of the kitchen.
“Good morning, sunshine.”
Her frown stayed permanent to her features, but she would probably tell you it was the pain from her possibly broken toes that had her looking so angry. Her eyebrows furrowed, her nose scrunched and her lips stayed pinched into the straightest line she could muster. Definitely the pain in her toes, for sure...
“You’re up later than usual.”
“Late night work meeting last night,” she grumbled it under her breath, stepping foot over to the sink. Last night had been a mad night for her, the last few hours of her day being thrown off of schedule, so she spent her evening hours and her dinner hours in her office. Leaving Harry to warm his meal up, to watch the telly by himself and to go to bed without his usual goodnight kiss and a cuddle... an end to the day that she wished had never happened. “Do you not know how to clean up after yourself?”
Her hands came down to the counter with a forceful slam of her fists, his spoon clinking in his ceramic bowl and she knew she’d made him jump with her outburst.
In the sink was a plate caked in bolognese sauce and pasta that had dried in the last place it was left on the plate, a saucepan with the remnants of tomato and basil sauce clinging to it and three glasses that had definitely come from him because she’d barely left her office for a glass of water the whole time. 
“I was going to do it this morning, when I got back-”
“Oh, of course you were.”
Sarcasm dripped from her voice and, deep down, there was regret as to how she’d approached the topic.
“I was, honest. I went for my run, came back to eat and then I was going to let everything soak whilst I had a shower and then come down to wash it up,” he explained, pushing away from the island and standing to his two feet, “promise you, I was going to.”
“And what about your clothes all over the floor? Your shoes in the hallway that are just laying anywhere they want? The sweaty headband on the table? We had an agreement,” she huffed, hands on her hips as she swung around to look at him as he steadily approached the sink and set his bowl to the side of it, “we barely made it two weeks without this place becoming a pig-sty.”
“A pig-sty? I wouldn’t say that-”
“What would you say this is then?” She prodded a finger into his chest and looked him in the eye, “this is clean to you? It surely can’t be because I saw how you lived before. You want to live in a cluttered, messy home now? And have someone else clean up after you? Go ahead and live back at your mum’s if that’s your attitude.”
She dropped her eyes as she stamped a foot and left the room, trudging up the stairs with heavy footsteps, leaving him behind in a confused state and a mind billowing with questions; what the hell was that, why didn’t she let him explain and where did that outburst come from?
*
It started with a cup of tea and biscuits. 
Mid-morning and he hadn’t seen her since her outburst in the kitchen. A kitchen that was now spick and span and clear of a single pinch of dust. The sink was empty, the cupboards were full of the clean cutlery, the island and the kitchen tops were freshly wiped down and the washing machine was rumbling with it’s second load of the day - not that he’d had a second load to do but he’d left a pair of his boxers in the basket and had a panic as he looked for any clothes in their wardrobes that he could stick in with the cotton pants. 
He’d even made a run to the shops for her favourite snacks, for their lunch and for their dinner and prepared, mentally, an evening meal that would have her forgetting any of the madness her days could be filled with, thanks to the wine they’d have accompanied with it. The kitchen outburst being put behind them as they moved on and he agreed to comply with their agreement they had made upon moving into their first home.
He could hear her fingers clicking and clacking on her keyboard as well as the tiny sighs coming from behind the door (and he could imagine her running her fingers through her hair with annoyance) as they escaped her mouth; the right time for a tea break, he thought.
His big toe had to knock on the door as his hands held the tray full of her favourite chocolate biscuits and a large mug of the breakfast tea she never had that morning. A strange tension washing over him as he entered and looked at her with soft eyes.
“Thought you could do with a cup of tea. Didn’t get to make one this morning because of me so the least I could do was make you one,” he said softly, tiptoeing across the carpet to set the tray down in the empty space beside her arm, “made a run to the shops to get you some biscuits. Brought you some lunch, as well. A sandwich and those little chicken bites you like so much.”
He grinned but it son disappeared when he barely saw her eyes leave her laptop screen.
“I’m making dinner tonight. Let you have a relaxing night. I’ll make it for seven, if you want me to?”
She hummed but continued to write down bullet-points on a document open on her laptop, her eyes switching from a pad of written notes to the keyboard below her eyes.
“Salmon and broccoli with some herby potatoes and some roasted veggies,” he smiled to himself and his lips stayed curved when she took a chocolate digestive and had a nibble on the edge, “if you want it later then you can let me know. I’ll eat when you eat.”
She bit her bottom lip as she continued to stare at the screen; he was trying his best to apologise and make things right but he needed to learn from where he went wrong, she thought. 
“I’m sorry about this morning,” he bent over and kissed the crown of her head, “I love you.”
And with that, he’d left the room without a word more. The door closing behind him and the sound of the stairs creaking beneath his weight filling her silent office room as she slouched back in her chair and sighed, placing her biscuit down so she could rub her face and close her eyes from a second.
He’d always be forgiven.
*
“It smells delicious in here.”
The voice he’d been wanting to hear all day startled him, his head looking over his shoulder as he stirred the sauce to go alongside their meal. A parsley-based sauce that had been a favourite of hers to eat with a seafood-dish ever since he’d invited her back to his house for the first time to cook for her. 
“It looks lovely in here, too. Not just the food.”
He smiled at her and turned his attention back to the creamy sauce in the pan as she took a wander to the dining table, where two candles were burning and flickering by themselves and a bottle of unopened wine had been left for them to soon open together, place-mats set opposite each other and a bunch of roses sitting in a vase in the middle.
“Not just the room either.”
He snickered to himself and her cheeks flushed, “I should have dressed up if I knew this was that type of meal.”
“You’re fine as you are,” he admitted, “you’ll always look fine as you are, even in the most disgusting yellow-coloured dress known to man. Looking like a mustard pot and still as gorgeous as ever.”
“You like mustard so you’ll always say that,” she pointed out, dragging a finger over the red table-cloth as she circled the island and walked towards him. The pan being moved to the back of the oven top so it wouldn’t burn before the meal was complete, allowing him the chance to turn on his heels and wrap her in a warm hug.
“I’m sorry about this morning, sunshine.”
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled against the apron covering his chest, “I was just tired from last night and angry that I stubbed my toe and you just happened to be there and took the brunt of it.”
He gently swayed them from side to side, the smell of minty potatoes and the smell of salmon washing them as they hugged in the middle of the room.
“My fault thought. Left the shoes in the way and I left the kitchen in a mess when we promised to always help the other by tidying up after ourselves,” he sighed, pressing his lips against her hairline and leaving a kiss to her skin, “just glad you’re back talking to me and everything’s back to normal. Not just because of the food, I hope.”
“You do cook a good seafood dish thought...” xx
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chubbyhl · 4 years ago
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Button Popping (from the vault)
Hi all, a bunch of you requested a button popping scene from my feedee Louis au I’ve been posting about recently, so here’s a loooong scene for you all to enjoy, featuring too small clothes and homemade Chinese food 🥰 
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Louis slipped off to his room, making sure the door was shut tightly behind him before he began to rifle through his closet. Louis was just wearing his pajama pants and a once-loose t-shirt, which now clung tightly to his newfound weight. It would usually be his outfit of choice for a big dinner, but he figured tonight was perfect for something something else. Harry had put in all this effort for him, he wanted to give him something in return.
After a bit of digging, Louis pulled out a pair of pants he had bought a few weeks ago but were already getting far too tight, and a button up shirt that was also growing to be a tight fit.
Louis stripped down, taking a minute to touch and fondle his empty, soft belly with a smile, and then set to putting on his outfit. He had to wiggle hard to get the pants up his thick legs, the fabric clinging uncomfortably tight. He had to hop again to get his ass in them, making his belly bounce as he jumped. He was eventually able to shove himself in, and then he had to suck in hard to get the button done up. It creaked and strained but stayed closed, but the zipper was hopeless, open and gaping and with no hope of growing closed. So he just left it like that, and then moved onto the shirt. He was able to get all the buttons closed, although he had to suck in his stomach again and pull hard on the flaps of the shirt to get a few of them done. When it was all closed up, it was stretched tight against his body, completely smooth and free of wrinkles. The buttons were straining and showed generous gaps of his belly underneath, and he smoothed a hand over all of it, grinning to himself.
He came back outside, then, waddling a bit at the tight fit of his pants. Harry was at the table, laying down all his homemade noodles, dumplings, and egg rolls. He still looked a bit grumpy, but his expression was smoothing over with the promise of a serving a new meal.
And then he looked up, and his eyes turned into two wide, perfect circles.
“Fuck,” he breathed out, straightening up, and Louis just smiled.
“What?” he asked sweetly.
“You – “ Harry shook his head, “You look incredible.”
“Thanks,” Louis smiled, “Thought I would dress up for our special dinner.”
He walked over and plopped himself down at the table, his pants button creaking a bit as he did so. His shirt was still holding up like a champ, but when Louis looked up at Harry, the other man was just still staring. His eyes were dark, and his mouth lolled weakly open as he looked at Louis in his too-tight clothes.
“So can I start?” Louis asked, “I’m hungry.”
“Uh,” Harry said, “Yes, yes, let me get you a plate.”
Harry moved with quick efficiency, putting up a heaping pile of food for Louis. It all smelled delicious, doused in grease and sauce, and Louis already picked up his fork as Harry put the food in front of him. The other man poured Louis a tall glass of soda to go with his food, and then Harry sat down, getting himself his own meal. He had made a small bowl of steamed cashew vegetables, and he spooned it into a bowl now before picking up a set of chopsticks.
“I didn’t know you could use chopsticks,” Louis said, taking his time twirling his noodles around his fork.
“Uh huh,” Harry said, and narrowed his eyes as Louis kept twirling his fork, “Eat your dinner, you fucking tease.”
“Okay, okay,” Louis said, lifting up his fork, “I know how much work you put into it.”
Harry grunted in agreement and lifted a veggie-laden set of chopsticks to his mouth, chewing slowly as he just watched Louis. Louis gave him another bright smile, and then started eating.
Even though his kitchen was a mess and Harry looked like he needed to take a centuries-long nap after this, his food as always was delicious. The noodles were soft and chewy and laden with sweet and sour sauce, and Louis hummed as he ate them.
“That’s so good, babe,” Louis said after he swallowed his first bite and went on to the next. His empty stomach gurgled at the promise of more food, and he kept with big forkfuls of the noodles. Harry had given him a big portion, but soon enough, he was scraping the plate, every single noodle gone. Louis moved onto the dumplings then, warm and so soft. Harry had clearly put a lot of butter in his filling; the grease and butter dripped out the sides of Louis’s mouth as he ate it. He quickly moved on to another one, looking up at Harry sheepishly.
“These took you hours and I’m going to finish them in a few minutes, these are so good,” Louis said.
“Don’t be sorry,” Harry quickly said, “Although, yes, it did take me a long time.”
“Well it’s so good. These are delicious. Better than take away, really,” Louis said. He popped around buttery dumpling into his mouth, chewing quickly. Harry was eating his own dinner slowly, but he had a laser focus on Louis. Louis could feel his gaze, and he tried to shift as best he could, so Harry could get a good view of his body and his straining buttons.
After his third dumpling, Louis was feeling comfortably full, but only half his plate was finished, and he had plenty more food on the table. So, as he had learned to do, he kept going.
He bit into the fried eggrolls Harry had made, which once again were stuffed with just as much melted butter as they had chicken and vegetables. He ate through the four on his plate, and then picked up his fork again to eat the mound of orange chicken and soft white rice on his plate.
Louis’s fork had just scrapped the empty plate when Harry asked “Seconds?” and Louis nodded quickly.
Harry loaded his plate with more chicken, more fried treats, more noodles and rice, and handed it to Louis. He took a moment to take a long chug of his soda, clearly his throat, and then he dug in again.
His belly felt tight and round, pushed right up against its increasingly growing capacity. But Louis was getting pretty bad at stopping at his capacity, so he powered on, welcoming more butter and carbs and fried dough into his mouth.
Harry was completely done eating and had moved his chair forward to watch Louis work through his second plate. It was efficiently being finished; Louis felt his mouth getting sticky with sauce and his breathing was getting hard, his tight belly bloating and compressing his lungs.
Louis finished the plate, and Harry was right there, filling him up with more food, always more food. Louis leaned forward to take it, and the movement of it finally made something come close.  
One of the tiny buttons on his shirt popped, pinging against the floor. Louis paused for a moment, his mouth opening as he looked at Harry. Louis’s belly shifted forward just a bit, still mostly constricted by tight fabric but freed just a bit. Harry just stared back at him, his eyes still wide and his mouth unspeaking.
It made Louis flush, and as he shifted in his chair, he felt every tight button that was pressed against his hard gut, and he wanted them gone. Harry wanted them gone. He didn’t really know what was more important to him; his own desire or his boyfriend’s, but he knew right now they were the same. So Louis kept going.
The third plate was getting hard. Harry had given him an extra eggroll and dumpling from the other plates, a heavy mountain of chicken and rice, enough noodles that they needed their own separate bowl. Harry had also topped off Louis’s soda, and Louis took appreciative sips nearly after every bite. He was really cramming everything now, his stomach protesting and his skin starting to sweat. But his mouth wanted more.
When he’d found the bottom of his third helping of chicken, Louis shifted, and finally, his trooper of a pants button gave up its battle.
It gave a loud pop as it went, hitting the floor, and Louis’s entire belly surged further into his lap, pushing out the flaps of his pants. As it moved, another shirt button gave up, leaving his shirt wide and gaping open. Louis shifted, grunting unhappily at one button that stayed done up on the underside of his stomach, straining against the growing weight but hanging in there. He wanted to undo it, to free himself entirely, but that would be too easy.
So he reached for another eggroll and shoved it into his mouth, and then picked up his soda and took a long chug. He followed the full bowl of noodles, which he shoveled into his mouth eagerly, moaning happily and complimenting Harry’s cooking as he ate.
His belly was drum tight, and he wasn’t even sure he could reach his goal without making himself sick. But finally, the final button creaked and then gave up, popping joining the others on the floor. Louis shoveled the last few forkfuls of noodles into his waiting wait, and when he was done entirely, his stomach was a happy, full, heavy weight in his lap, pale and unencumbered. The only buttons left on his shirt were on the very top of the curve of his belly, pushed up, and across his softening chest. The fabric still felt tight, though, so Louis reached up and undid everything, letting his soft body breath. When he was done entirely, he leaned back with a pleased burp and patted his belly, giving it a little jiggle.
He lifted his gaze, meeting Harry’s, and he saw Harry was flushed red, his eyes nearly black as he watched Louis.
“That was delicious,” Louis said, barely getting it out with all the hiccups crowding his voice, “Think I need some new clothes soon, though. Not exactly a size small anymore.”
He gave Harry a smile and a shrug, delicately rubbing a hand over the curve of his gut, “Or a medium, really. Getting kind of big here.”
He pushed his hips out and rubbed his stomach with both hands, patting and jiggling it. It finally made Harry stand and come closer to him, and then he grabbed Louis’s face in his hands and kissed him hard.
Louis gasped but kissed Harry back. His lips were still sauce-sticky, and it made him blush, knowing Harry could taste his meal on his mouth.
Harry kissed him hard and thoroughly, and then when he was done, he held Louis’s plush cheeks in his hands, looking a him firmly.
“You think you’re big now?” Harry asked, a brow arched, “We’re just getting started.”
He let a hand drop from Louis’s cheek and slapped and rubbed the side of Louis’s gut, making him gasp and hiccup. Both his hands were down soon enough, picking up Louis’s heavy stomach even more from his pants and spreading it out. When he was empty, his belly spread out a bit more, but know it was just a round, heavy weight on his lap.
Harry just looked at him and felt him, shaking his head.
“Christ, if you didn’t eat yourself out of these things, your thighs would’ve split the seams at some point,” Harry said, rubbing over Louis’s legs, where his legs were still covered in skin-tight fabric.
His hands ghosted back up, and he poked at the big red circle on Louis’s stomach were his pants button had dug in, and then up, where the shirt buttons had made smaller indents along his abdomen.
“Fucking incredible,” he sighed, and then looked up at Louis, his dark expression softening, “You’re incredible.”
It made Louis flush with pride. Harry had done this many times, with many times, but Louis was incredible. Louis was making Harry proud with what he ate and how big he was getting. How big he was going to keep getting.
200 was his first goal, but it was clear to him now this wasn’t the end for him. Not even close.
He hiccupped again, and then weakly reached out, making grabby fingers for his soda. Harry chuckled and gave it to him, looking proud at Louis drained the glass.
“Good boy. Soda does your belly good,” Harry said, rubbing Louis’s tight midsection again.
“Tha – “ Louis started, and then was deterred by another hiccup, “Thank you for the food. Was so good.”
“You’re welcome,” Harry said, and then grimaced, “I mean. I have no idea if I’ll make it again. This was kind of a lot. But if you want it, it’s yours.”
Louis smiled at that, and then groaned. His stomach gave an unhappy gurgle as it tried to digest the mountain of food inside of him. He grabbed his belly, and Harry touched his shoulder.
“Time to get you on the couch,” Harry said, “Give you a nice rub down. Gotta make sure all that food turns into fat on your pretty little frame.”
Louis just nodded, and then let Harry haul him to his wobbling, unsteady feet. His belly surged again as he stood, sticking straight out from his open pants, he groaned, pulling on the skin-tight fabric, which were really hurting his legs now.
“We’ll get those off, don’t worry,” Harry cooed, “Just follow me.”
Louis just collapsed weakly on Harry, who managed to hold tight and strong onto Louis’s growing frame, and he let his hot, sweating body be guided back to the living room.
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se0kie · 5 years ago
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kimchi helps the heart heal– myg (m)
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pairing: yoongi x reader
genre: angst, smut, lil dash of fluff
bestfriend!yoongi, unrequited love, f2l
this is for @ficswithluv​‘s luv library project, do check out the other fics they are absolutely amazing and I had such a fun time with the other authors :) 
warnings: angst, unhealthy eating habits, no eating d*sorders but reader is super careless about her diet so if it’s potentially triggering pls be careful!!, dirty talk, vanilla smut really, sliiiightly rough, little to no foreplay (yikes sorry) unprotected sex but reader is on contraception (wrap ur dingdongs)
summary: being dumped weeks before valentine’s day is not the best feeling. sulking and chocolates are the only obvious medication. but your best friend is set on fixing you up and showing you how much more you truly deserve. innocent kimchi jiggae dates or are there deeper feelings behind your and min yoongi’s weekly meals?
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Life is pain. Love is a lie.
There’s no way in hell Rose loved Jack, that bitch just let her man drown. That’s what people do, pretend to love you and then throw you away like some used gum.
Man I hate Eunwoo.
I’m hungry. Should I order? When was the last time I ate something from other than out a takeout box?
These were just some of the thoughts running through your mind. You had just been dumped by your boyfriend and to say the least, you were not taking it well.
You were excited for your first Valentine’s day with an actual valentine, you had been looking at options of restaurants to go to when your then boyfriend Eunwoo abruptly let you know that he in fact did not want to stay together.
No explanations, no excuses, not even breakup sex. You were annoyed and shocked to the point that he left your house and you couldn’t get a single word out in protest. 
You may not have been as upset about losing a boyfriend than you were at the fact that you couldn’t give him a piece of your mind, even angrier because yet again another romantic holiday would pass you by and you would be utterly alone.
Sad.
Pathetic and sad.
You didn’t know why you were so affected by the incident, it wasn’t like you were in love with Eunwoo, yeah sure he was cute, sure he had the body of an angel.
But the only reason you had even started dating him was because... well that didn’t matter right then.
You had fallen into a routine. Waking up at 1 in the afternoon, ordering some or the other greasy, unhealthy food from the large collections of takeout places in your neighbourhood, watching terrible romcoms and ignoring your friends.
They had made multiple attempts at trying to reach you and get you out of your hobbit hole but you tried your damnedest to not give in and suffice to say you had succeeded.
You were caught in one of your usual blank periods of contemplating what was so wrong with you that all your relationships failed, why you couldn’t just satisfy anyone you dated and what the hell would you order for dinner tonight?! You were leaning towards fried chicken and cheese when the bell rang and you were whisked out of your reverie.
You got up from your seat and peeked through the hole in the door.
Somebody was standing outside with bags and bags of groceries, to the point that you couldn’t see their face behind the brown paper bags they were carrying.
You opened the door and without waiting for a word from you the figure rushed into your home and then into your kitchen.
You let out a squeal of shock and followed the intruder, angry and ready to put your second grade karate lessons to the test. But before you could go ahead you heard the man speak, it was a voice you knew more than your own, your best friend since middle school Min Yoongi.
“What the hell Yoongi?! You can’t just barge into my house.” You were furious. Not really, cause it was your closest friend but still you were annoyed and you had been known to be a drama queen of sorts for all your life.
“No Y/N, don’t you ‘what the hell Yoongi’ me. What is wrong with you? Where have you even been?! D’you have any idea how worried we’ve been?! How worried I’ve been??! All I knew was that Eunwoo said something and then left.” 
Yoongi was going off at you and all you could do was stand there and listen to him, after all you knew you were in the wrong, Yoongi was the one person you always stayed in touch with and not speaking to him for a whole week is a never before happened situation. You sighed as he continued with no sign of stopping, “I didn’t know if you were alive, if you died, what Eunwoo did. If he had abducted you and killed you? You’re not replying to your texts or taking any calls, I even emailed you! You have any idea how desperate someone is when they fucking email as a form of communication??!” He finally stopped to gasp for breath after his long ass speech, seeing as you at least had the decency to look sheepish he chose not to continue his tirade and you were grateful for it. Yoongi had a serious parentlike reaction to mistakes and you always felt like you were 5 again being chided by your mom.
Taking his silence as an opportunity you started, “Look I know I was wrong to ignore you but I just needed some time to myself okay? Eunwoo dumped me.” 
Your voice was small and Yoongi felt the sudden need to wrap you in his arms and hold you for hours, comfort you and give you the love you needed. But he knew he shouldn’t test his boundaries so instead he made a little noise in his throat as if to brush away all the explanations he knew you were about to give. He chose to instead divert the topic and make the atmosphere lighthearted , “Whatever, we don’t need to talk about it right now. Anyways I know you’ve probably been eating shitty food and neglecting your health—��� You were about to protest when Yoongi had cut you off. “Do not try to deny it Y/N I know you like the back of my hand” 
He really did know you like the back of his hand.
He continued, “I’ve brought groceries, some veggies and fruits and I’m gonna make you dinner for the next few days okay?” You nodded in agreement. This wasn’t new for you. There had been times when you looked for comfort in unhealthy food and habits and your best friend had come to your rescue to nurture you back to normalcy, besides, Yoongi was an amazing cook and even you were getting tired of the greasy pizzas and pints of ice cream. You knew your body needed Yoongi’s cooking to recover from your junk food spree.
Not waiting for any further conversation, Yoongi went back to the kitchen and you could hear him rustling around pulling out ingredients for dinner. You went to see him and poked your head from the side of the doorway into the kitchen, exactly like you used to when your mom would cook dinner when you were a child. He was cutting pieces of chicken into little cubes and his face had the cutest little look of determination. You couldn’t help but coo internally at how sweet he was being. He was bobbing around soaking noodles in water and mixing sauces together, he looked so domestic and it suddenly hit you just how much he cared about you. Unlike anyone else ever had.
 “What are you making for dinner?”
 “Kimchi jiggae and chicken stir fry. Is that alright or do you want something else?” You hummed in agreement.
Your tastebuds salivated at the thought of it, Yoongi’s chicken stir fry was something you had been eating for years and it only tasted better each time you tried it.
You felt warmth flood at the sight of your friend taking care of you, “Hey Yoongi.”
“Yeah, Y/N?”
“Thanks for caring about me.” You said with a small smile.
Yoongi smiled with a little sigh. You knew it was enough reciprocation.
After a few minutes of comfortable silence though he chimed up, “Hey Y/N why don’t you go take a shower while I get dinner ready? You stink.” 
You scoffed at his statement but you knew your hair was greasy and your body had been subjected to a whole week of sad eating. It was time to get your shit together. So you obediently went to take a much needed shower, letting the warm water roll over you and release the tension from your back and shoulders. You had lost count of how long you had been under the water when you noticed your fingers beginning to prune.
You got ready and left with restless steps towards the kitchen, which was now smelling deliciously of soy sauce and chicken. The dinner table had been laid with plates and heaps and heaps of delectable dishes. Kimchi jiggae, some japchae, chicken stir fry and rice. You sat down opposite Yoongi and mumbled a thank you before digging in. 
Yoongi looked at you fondly as you ate. He hated when you retreated away from him during times you truly needed a friend, he always wanted to be there for you but it was hard when your first instinct was to isolate yourself and drown in junk food. He ate silently with you, chuckling every now and then at your squishy cheeks full with noodles.
After you were both done and the dirty dishes had been cleaned the two of you sat down on your couch, Yoongi insisting on having a talk that was long overdue. He sighed, “Tell me what happened between you and Eunwoo, Y/N.” You looked at him with wide eyes. It’s not like you would hide it from him but the truth is you were embarrassed of what had gone down. “Eunwoo dumped me. There’s not much to it. We were sitting on the couch having a normal evening when he just randomly tells me he doesn’t love me. That he couldn’t be with me knowing that our relationship would go nowhere.” You said with a sad smile. Its not like you were deep in love with him either, but you were excited about being with him. It was your first real relationship as an adult and you were looking forward to being cheesy and going on Valentine’s day dates. What a waste.
Yoongi gave a sigh of understanding, moving quickly to your side and wrapping his arms around your shoulder, pulling your back to his chest. He murmured into your ear, “Oh Y/N, you should’ve told me. I would’ve come over as soon as possible, you had to go through that all alone. Oh sweetie I’m so sorry. He’s an asshole.” You chuckled dryly, “Well I’m more disappointed about the fact that I’ll once again be alone on the wretched day. Can’t believe my one chance at Valentine’s day roses and chocolates is over.” Yoongi scoffed at your bluntness, “It’s okay I’ll be there with you on Valentine’s. Who needs relationships when you can have a best friend, right?” You nodded slowly at his words, basking in his familiar warmth. 
You were grateful Yoongi had barged into your home, that he had taken the first step and extended his arms towards you. You needed him, you truly did... but you were just too scared to reach out.
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It had been a solid week of Yoongi coming over to your home and spending the evenings with you, cooking dinner and then watching trashy movies together. Your house had been smelling deliciously all week, Yoongi had been thoroughly pampering you, with his food and attention, suffice to say your ego along with your stomach were well fed. You and your best friend had fallen into a weird rythm together. He would always show up to your house in the evenings, cook dinner that left you fantasizing about it well after it was eaten and watch movies with you that would obviously be ignored so that you could gossip like you used to when you were kids.
You could also feel yourself slowly slip into the feelings you had before you got with your ex. You had always had a massive crush on Yoongi. He was your senior in school who had taken you under his wing, the two outcasts of Daegu High, it had always been you and him. But you knew that your friendship and bond with Yoongi outweighed your otherwise romantic feelings and you learned to ignore them whenever you were around him, so every single waking moment.
You were getting carried away with your thoughts when you heard the usual ring of the doorbell, you got up from your seat at the couch and opened the door to a red cheeked Yoongi, walking into your home to escape the cold. Not wasting time on pleasantries, that’s just how you two were, he removed his coat and went to the kitchen that now felt more like his than yours. 
“I was thinking we could have some steak tonight, huh Y/N? Feels like a steaks and potatoes kinda night, doesn’t it?” 
You could hear Yoongi’s voice amidst the clanging of pots and pans, you replied, “Yeah I could go for steak. I have some really great wine too,” walking into the kitchen to show him your treasure, “I got it from Eunwoo’s friend when they came over for dinner this one time.” 
You gazed at the dark sheen of the bottle. Eunwoo was useless but at least his friend was still helping you days after your breakup. 
Yoongi nodded, “Yeah sure, as long as you don’t get a wine headache and beg me to massage your head.” You feigned annoyance, “Min Yoongi! How dare you?! You’re the one who gets wine headaches, not me. Do not accuse me of things I’m not guilty of.” Yoongi laughed at your antics, gummy smile on display. You could feel your heart skip a beat at the way his face glowed, it was a feeling you hadn’t felt in a very long time.
And just before you could turn on the full fangirl mode, Yoongi cleared his throat and said, “Help me with the potatoes now, we’ll get done faster if you put your ass to work Y/L/N.” You gave him a dirty look and set out to find the potatoes and peel them.
You found the ingredients you needed for the mashed potatoes and started peeling the skin off while observing your friend spearing the cuts of meat and rubbing them with seasoning. You had always admired how great he was with food, he never cooked for just anyone. You had to be special, someone who Yoongi truly cared about, for him to cook for you. And that’s why you loved it so much that he was always making you something or the other to eat and munch on. It seemed like you mattered to him, like you were someone worthwhile of knowing and being friends with. Surprisingly, it was a feeling you weren’t well acquainted with. 
Not wanting to think about depressing things during such a sweet moment you instead chose to focus on how Yoongi caught his tongue between his teeth while handling the meat, how he peeled the garlic and seared the steaks in the oil. His face had a look of utter concentration and you were sent back to being 13 and making papier-mâché volcanoes for your eighth grade project with Yoongi. Some things never changed.
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Having deemed you useless in the kitchen Yoongi banished you to the living room after you accidentally sprinkled sugar into the potatoes instead of salt, his exact words were “Y/N you are a hazard to our dinner, please leave and let me be.”
Not like you were hurt or anything, pssh.
You watched a show on Netflix while waiting for Yoongi to finish up which was thankfully not very long. You set the dinner table with the cutlery as he served the steaks and potatoes, a delicious smell wafting from your plates. You cut a piece of the meat, seared on the outside and perfectly pink in the middle. You moaned at the taste of the garlic and beef as it spread through your tastebuds. 
Yoongi asked as he watched you, “You like it?” 
“Mmhmm.” You could only hum as you savoured the flavours, an enthusiastic nod confirming your feelings. A small smile made its way to his face as he felt his ego swell at the blissed out look of appreciation on yours. The two of you ate in comfortable silence punctuated with mindless remarks here and there and random questions thrown in. It would have been awkward for anyone else, anyone else but you and Yoongi.
Yoongi swallowed his morsel before saying, “You know Y/N I never really liked Eunwoo. Ever since I met him I always had a bad feeling about him.” 
You set down your fork at having finished your meal and asked, “Seriously? I didn’t know that I just thought you didn’t want to get too involved in our relationship.” You gave a sigh of realisation. This was news to you. Yoongi continued, “No, yeah I didn’t like him at all. He was always so shady, too nice to people’s faces I didn’t think he was genuine at all.”
“Wow, well you know I can understand. He was sort of an asshole. He was always nice to people but he rarely ever said nice things about them when they weren’t around.” You continued, “Guess I got lucky then, huh?” “Yes definitely. You’re too good for that snake.”
“But still it would’ve been nice to have him as my valentine. He might’ve been a reptile but he had a reaaaaally long–” 
“Y/N!! Shut up! I don’t wanna know!!” he squealed.
 You laughed at Yoongi’s horrified expression. It was so easy to rile him up you couldn’t resist it.
“Jeez loosen up grandpa. No, but really I hate being dumped, especially when the dumper is so ruthlessly gorgeous. Ugh.” You sighed. Life was cruel to you, it was decided, you were sure.
Another moment of silence ensued. You glanced at Yoongi and caught him already looking at you. Big brown eyes boring into yours. You were reminded of all the times you had sat across from him like this. You didn’t know what came over you but you found yourself suddenly saying, “Hey Yoongs, you wanna know a secret?” Yoongi hummed in response. A nod followed.
“I used to like you before I dated Eunwoo.”
A pin could have dropped and you would’ve heard it, it was that quiet. Yoongi just continued to look at you, a peculiar expression on his face that you couldn’t quite decipher. Something bordering on frustration and hesitance. “Oh...” All you could do was glance at him and your fingers on the table.
After a moment of mulling over it, he said, “Why are you telling me this? You’re not kidding, are you Y/N? Cause this would be a really cruel joke.”
“No! Of course not! I’m not messing around, I promise. I really don’t know why I said that I’m so sor—”
But before you could get another word out of your mouth his face smoothed over. “Thanks for the lovely evening Y/N but I think I need some time alone. I’ll see you tomorrow.” he said with a sad smile. He gathered his things from the seat beside him, and then he got up and left.
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To tell the truth, you were not expecting to be greeted by Yoongi’s face at your door the next day. You thought you had messed up your friendship for good. Or at least for a few weeks. So suffice to say you were thoroughly surprised to see Yoongi once again barge into your house without an invite and carrying on preparing tteokbokki and samgyeopsal for dinner.
Silence reigned for minutes as you gathered enough courage to face him in the kitchen. You walked into the tiny space of the kitchen and leaned against the doorframe, waiting for him to speak his mind. You were just about to start when he cut you off and said, “I’m sorry for last night.”
“Oh- No it’s okay, Yoongi. I know it was a shoc-”
“No it’s really not okay Y/N. You just shared something with me and I obviously blew it out of proportion. I shouldn’t have walked out on you.” He looked at you he said this, sincerity gleaming off his face.
“It’s okay Yoongs, I wasn’t mad. In fact I should’ve kept it to myself.”
“No!” He said suddenly, cheeks reddening at the realisation that he was way too quick to correct you. Sheepishly, he continued, “I’m really glad you told me Y/N. Thank you.”
Although you didn’t entirely know why he was thanking you, you just went along with it. Not wanting to cause further awkwardness you left him as you usually did, bustling around looking for pots and pans while he entered his own little world right there.
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Dinner had been amazing, as it always is when Yoongi was cooking. After polishing everything off your plates you and Yoongi were now watching Clueless on your laptop, huddled together to keep the chill out. Yoongi’s arm around your shoulder and yours latched across his waist. 
To an outsider this would seem like an intimate position for a pair of ‘just friends’ to be in but you and Yoongi had always been like this. Affection and skinship weren’t things that were openly (or ever) shown to the both of you when you were children, so it only made sense that the two of you looked to the other as a source of comfort. You were never afraid of being your childish self in front of him. One time he had taken care of you when you were drunk off your ass and although you barely remember that night, Yoongi had made sure to tell you had puked on his new trench coat. If it were anyone else in the world you would be mortified, but it wasn’t anyone. It was your best bud Yoongi.
 Not knowing how to deal with this intense nostalgia and appreciation you resorted to what you always did when you didn’t want to get too emotional.
Pillow fight!!!
You reached for the blue throw cushion to your right and smacked Yoongi square in his face. He blinked, registering what had just happened. And then in a split second he had ripped the pillow out of your clutch and thrown it behind him. His arms flew out to trap your wrists in one of his hands as he yelped, “Hey! What was that for? Usually you notify me before smacking me in the face.” You rolled your eyes at how cheesy he sounded, “I’m boorrrreed Yoongi!” 
“Oh well are you still bored now?” He says as he hits your shoulder with the cushion he had apparently been hiding behind his back the entire time. You squealed at the sudden impact and grabbed a pillow of your own, face scrunched up at the soft blows that you were landing on his platinum blonde head.
While the both of you went at each other with all your might you had somehow ended up on top of Yoongi, hitting his chest with a too small cushion that you knew wouldn’t hurt him. Your legs had slotted around his waist and you were currently sat on his thighs. The warmth from his skin soaking into yours.
Limply the pillow you were holding fell out of your grasp as you and Yoongi breathed heavily, staring into each other’s eyes while trying to catch your breaths. Your eyes scanned his face, brown eyes boring into yours, lips soft but slightly chapped, tantalisingly red like cherries smeared upon them. You felt an overwhelming urge to just lean down and peck him. 
Would he taste as sweet as he looked? Yoongi looked at you as you focused on his lips. Waiting with bated breaths to see if you would do what he ached for you to do. He had always been scared of being the one who approached you, the one who put his feelings out in the open for you to accept or reject. He had instead chosen to let you come to him if you felt similarly, he wanted you to be with him only if your heart said so and not because of any obligation you felt towards him. He wanted you heart, not your calculated decisions.
Right when he thought that maybe he was looking too much into it you bent your head down to his and captured his lips in yours.
You could taste Min Yoongi. Soft, slightly rough from the cold and sweet from his strawberry lip balm. You held your position for a few seconds, scared to move in fear of him not wanting it when you felt something below you. Something hard and poking into your shorts, definitely not the TV remote. Unexpected heat flooded through your stomach at the thought of what you had done to Yoongi. Surely this was your doing, you could feel Yoongi starting to kiss you back when he stopped abruptly. A soft “fucking hell” leaving his lips as his gaze flicked downwards to where your core sat upon his. His eyes flew back to yours, strangely apologetic. If only he knew that you frequently dreamt of being in this exact position.
But the last thing you want is for Yoongi to feel uncomfortable around you so like the good, responsible best friend you are you unmount from his lap and put some safe distance between your bodies.
“Yoongi I am so sorry.” you say softly.
Confusion paints his face, “What? Why are you apologizing?”
“I don’t know what came over me, I should not have done that. I’m sorry if I made you feel uncom-”
“Y/N fucking stop apologising for a second.”
You clearly looked shocked at this point you were sure of it, you were expecting the sudden change in tone. “Fine, I just...it wasn’t my intention to come at you without any warnings. Let’s just pretend that didn’t happen.”
Yoongi scoffed internally at your words, what the hell were you saying? Did you not want to kiss him? Or were you worried about what he would think of you? Because he sure as hell did not want to forget about it, it being something he had spent hours fantasizing about. Yoongi felt sudden irritation fill him, you were still rambling about how you weren’t thinking clearly and it was a mistake. All of which was just contributing further to Yoongi’s annoyance.
“Y/N I think I should leave. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He said simply as he picked up his coat and gave you an unexpected kiss on the forehead. A simple brush of his lips against your skin and you knew you had fucked up. You should’ve just stayed shut and let him speak about whatever he was obviously wanting to say.
 Once again you cursed yourself for your inability to read people’s emotions. The last thing you had wanted was to make Yoongi feel uncomfortable but you had failed to consider the fact that maybe he had wanted to kiss you too. As you heard his footsteps slowly die down into the hallway outside your apartment you let out a groan of frustration at your own thickheadedness and burried your face into the blue pillow in your lap. What were you gonna do with all these damned emotions?
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You woke up bright and early the next day, your mood significantly better than it had been the past month. And then you were rudely met with memories of the previous night. Everything flashed past you as you recalled kissing your best friend and the ugly debacle that followed after. You were about to dwell on your stupidity and how naive you had been to think that maybe, just maybe, your friend of more than a decade would somehow return your feelings when your phone rang. You scrambled to find the gadget which had been lodged under your pillow and checked the caller id. It was your colleague Irene. She never really called, preferring to talk over text so you assumed it must be important. Busy conversing with your friend you missed the familiar jangling of the keys at your front door as you made your way into the kitchen to prepare your ritualistic morning cup of coffee.
Unbeknownst to you Yoongi had slipped into your living room, depositing the bags of grocery on the table. He could you hear you giggling in the kitchen and just faintly made out the words you were saying.
“I can’t come Irene, I have...plans.”
A pause, he assumed said Irene was speaking. His brows furrowed as he took in what you had said. Who could you possibly have plans with on Valentine’s? Unless you had struck up a date and hadn’t told him. His heart ached, totally unnecessarily but he was used to it by now.
“I would love to get piss drunk on Valentine’s Irene, trust me, but I have plans with someone and I really can’t ditch.” Another pause and then you were saying, “I mean I don’t really know if it’s a date? We haven’t discussed it yet. But enough about me, you go and have loads of fun for me, okay? I’ll talk to you later, buh-bye!”
He stood near the door, not having moved an inch since he entered.
You were absolutely not prepared to be greeted by Yoongi’s figure as you left the kitchen. You let out a yelp of shock at seeing him. “AGH!! Yoongi?! What the hell? You have got to stop entering my house without a warning, you scared me half to death.”
“Oh stop being so dramatic Y/N I told you I’d come over for breakfast today. And since I know you’re such an early bird I just let myself in instead of waking you up.”
“Oh. Right, of course.”
 After a moment of contemplation you said, “Listen Yoongs, should we, y’know, talk about last night?”
You noticed his eyes widen for a split second and then a mask of composure, smooth and swift, so Yoongi.
“Let’s not. We can discuss it after breakfast, sound okay?”
You hummed in agreement, nodding at his statement.
The both of you stood in the silence. When had things become so awkward between you?
“Hey Y/N?”
You looked at him, telling him to go on.
“I couldn’t help but overhear and uh...are you planning something for Valentine’s Day?”
“Uhh, yes. Duh. You promised to spend it with me, remember?”
Yoongi felt the blood rush to his cheeks, face reddening at the implication of your words. And then those familiar twinges of pain puledl at his heart. He couldn’t bear to keep doing this. Falling back and forth into these weird spaces of loving you and hoping to be with you and then turning back into the mature best friend.
“Y/N I don’t think I can spend Valentine’s with you.”
Your face an image of confusion at his words, “What? Why? Did something happen?” As a new theory dawned on you, “Oh my god, is this about last night? I’m sorry, I really am I shouldn-“
“No! It’s not about that. I just...”
“You just what?”
“I have a date that night. I came to tell you that over breakfast.”
“Bullshit.”
Yoongi’s face easily gave away his lie, he may know you better than yourself but you knew him too. He would never keep something like a date a secret from you.
“Tell me really why you won’t spend Valentine’s with me. It’s about the kiss, isn’t it? See, I knew it, I really am sorry Yoongi. Don’t shut me out because of that I promise it won’t happen ever agai-“
“Damnit Y/N! It’s not about the fucking kiss okay! I loved it. I loved kissing you and that’s exactly where the problem lies. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t keep pretending like I don’t love you. I can’t act like maybe, just fucking maybe you want me the same way I want you. So I’m sorry but I can’t spend that damned day with you, Y/N. It kills me to hurt you like this but I need to do this for myself.”
You were speechless. Words rushing through your mind but none settling on your lips. You really needed to practice how to control your mouth when you were shocked, so many troubles could have been prevented if you’d just. fucking. say something.
But of course, fate would have Yoongi walking out on you. Something that he had been doing increasingly since the past few days. And you, dumbstruck, standing in your living room. Mixed feelings of joy, confusion and sadness rendering you voiceless as you stood and watched your best friend, your childhood crush and the person you loved the most step out of the threshold with faint, glistening tears in his eyes.
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It had been three days since Yoongi’s outburst/confession. You had texted him non stop, called him at least 50 times and yes, even emailed him. You were that desperate. 
But Yoongi was surprisingly resilient, he had ignored all your advances and completely shut you out. You felt stupid and frustrated and stupid yet again, after a point you lost count of how many times you had kicked yourself for being a brainless jellyfish while your first love walked out on you. After confessing that he loved you too. 
Your life was like the worst romcom with all the comedy and none of the romance. 
You sighed, once again forgetting how many times you’d repeated that action.
Finally after a somewhat convincing pep talk (it wasn’t convincing nor a talk, you had watched Marley & Me and cried thrice and then decided to just fuck it all and go for your crush, but let’s pretend it was a pep talk) you decided to take your chances approaching Yoongi. 
You threw on your most flattering sweatshirt and pyjamas and speed walked to the corner take out store that sold your favourite pork ribs and fried rice, placed your order and then thrummed your fingers agitatedly against the counter for the agonising time period of ten whole minutes.
Take out bags in hand you were feeling quite like the prince in a fairytale out on an adventure to woo his princess. Except you weren’t a prince and the only adventure at your hands was finding a damned taxi ready to take you to Gangnam on freaking Valentine’s evening. Yoongi did fit the part of the brooding young maiden sulking in her tower. Oh gosh you were rambling to yourself, the nerves had truly gotten to you.
Finally a cabbie decided to take you to Yoongi’s neighbourhood, surely alarmed at your expression that looked dangerously close to tears.
You tapped your feet inside the taxi, driving the man in the front seat to madness while he drove you to your soon-to-be beloved’s skyscraper apartment. As you reached your destination you shoved a few bills into the driver’s outstretched hand. You rode up the elevator to Yoongi’s flat and hoped with all your heart that he would be home. If you knew your best friend, and you thought you really did, he would be wearing his brown pyjamas binge watching Friends.
You quickly reached his door and sure enough, you could hear the faint shouts of Ross claiming ‘they were on a break!!’
 You smiled to yourself, and rang the bell. Feeling a strange sense of deja vu, you realised that you were in the same position as Yoongi had been in the past few weeks. Bags in hand, ringing the doorbell to the other’s house in an attempt to reach out after days of no communication. 
With horror setting in you thought, what if he didn’t open the door for you at all? What if he was mad beyond repair and you would be left out there in his hallway as he completely ignored you even after you’d shown up at his front door? You were once again, dangerously close to tears when the door flew open, revealing a suspiciously red-faced red-eyed Yoongi. Had he been crying? You felt your heart crush at the thought. You wanted to wrap your arms around him and hold him close and never leave his side.
But first, explanations.
“Hey Yoongs.”
“Hi Y/N.”
You were expecting him to say something, anything. Scream, shout, ask you why you were here. You were completely unprepared for the silence.
“Uh...can I come in? If you don’t mind?”
“Oh yeah, sure come in.”
He stepped aside to let you into his oddly familiar apartment. You had spent countless days and nights here. It had been way too long since you’d visited you realised as you took in the new furniture arrangement.
“I brought pork ribs.” you said with a weak smile as you raised the now cold bag of take out.
“Thanks. Just put it on the counter.”
You did as he said and sat down on the stool opposing the couch.
You started as he sat facing you on the white couch, “I think we need to talk.”
Yoongi chuckled drily, “Yeah I’d say so.”
“You said your piece, but I didn’t really get a chance to say mine. Is it okay if I speak?”
“Listen Y/N you don’t have to coddle me okay? Just say you don’t like me like that and go, don’t dig at the already salted wound I’m jus-“
“Yoongi shut up for a second, please.” you said firmly, you needed him to just shut up and listen for once.
“You’ve been doing a whole lot of walking out on me, right now I need you to just listen to me, okay?”
Yoongi pursed his lips, and after a few seconds nodded, gesturing at you to continue.
“I’ve liked you ever since we got stuck together as outcasts in high school. I’ve liked you since the first time you got into a fight for me, since you started taking care of me and cooking meals for me. I’m so, so deeply sorry I couldn’t say this to you before. I was so afraid of losing your friendship I just couldn’t bring myself to confess.” You could feel fresh tears sting at your eyes, your gaze trained at your fingers that laid in your lap. Briefly you panned your eyes to Yoongi’s face and you were sure his expression was mirroring yours. With a renewed breath of determination you continued, “But i’m not going to sit by and watch you slip through my fingers anymore. I like you, Yoongi. I like you and love you and want you. So much so that it hurts from the sheer need to have you around me. The only reason I could even think about dating Eunwoo was because I was afraid I couldn’t keep up the facade anymore. I love you and I’m all yours, if you’ll have me.”
You breathed, trying to control your uneven heart rate. The muscle pumping like crazy in your chest you were scared he could hear it.
And just like that Yoongi was getting up from his seat and wrapping his arms around your shoulders, his face buried in your hair as you clung to his figure and hid your face in the crook of his neck. He spoke with his voice muffled by your hair, “You won’t believe how relieved I am to hear you say that, my love. I love you, Y/N. I love you, I love you, I love you so so much.” 
“I love you too, Yoongs.” you murmured into his neck. It felt good to say that, as if the invisible weight you’d been carrying for years as unrequited love had just been lifted.
The two of you stayed like that for minutes, hours, you don’t even know.
But now Yoongi had brought his face down to your neck, nuzzling it with his nose and pecking the sensitive spot at the base of your throat.
You could feel the change in the atmosphere, the air charged with electricity, heat flooding your body as the man in your arms sucked bruises onto the smooth skin of your neck and collarbones.
“Let’s go to my bedroom.” Yoongi rasped, voice husky with need.
You stumbled your way to his room, not wanting to take your hands off each other, Yoongi tearing at your clothes trying to undress you.
You broke away for a second and a whine left his lips in annoyance, you giggled at how needy he sounded. Taking off your top and pants you settled into the fluffy blankets of Yoongi’s bed as he hovered over you. Apparently Yoongi was more dominant than you had thought him to be. He continued lapping at your neck, butterfly kisses at your jaw and rough hands on your hips.
“I’m gonna mark you up, gonna let everyone know you’re mine. You’re mine, aren’t you, angel?” He kissed you again but this time it was with more force and urgency. As if he was afraid of you being a hologram, afraid that you would disappear if he didn’t hold on tight enough.
“Yes, only yours Yoongi.” you gasped as he nipped at the spot below your ear. You felt wetness gush through your sex as his rough, calloused fingers swiped at your slit. Prodding at your leaking hole and giving an experimental rub at your swollen clit. A moan ripped through your throat at the feeling. You had been deprived of sex for way too long, along with your heightened emotions at being with the one you loved you were wetter than you’d ever been. 
And Yoongi knew this. “How are you so wet, angel?” he marvelled at the copious amounts of slick you were producing, his cock standing tall with pride knowing he had done this to you. “Yoongi please, I can’t wait anymore please fuck me.” you pleaded.
“Tsk-tsk Y/N. I need to prepare you first baby, I don’t wanna hurt you.”
“I’m wet enough Yoongi please, I need you so so badly please.” You were sure you looked close to tears, Yoongi looking at you with equal amounts awe, adoration and lust.
“Are you sure, sweetheart? I really wanted to taste you before fucking you.”
“We can do that anytime else Yoongi please, please fuck me please!” you would’ve been embarrassed at how whiney you sounded any other time but right then you felt like you would die if another second passed and Yoongi wasn’t stuffed balls deep in your sopping cunt.
“Okay fine, angel lemme just grab the condom.”
“I’m clean, and on birth control. You can cum inside me but just fuck me please, I’m gonna die if I don’t feel you inside me!”
Yoongi groaned at your words, “Fuck, Y/N you’re gonna be the death of me. You’re talking like such a cumslut wanting me to fuck my cum inside you. You want my cum, don’t you?”
“Yes, yes Yoongi I do, please I want your cum so bad.”
“Well what my baby wants,” he says as he lines his cockhead against your cunt, “My baby gets.” He thrusts into you with unimaginable vigour, you feel stuffed and oh so full. Every ridge of his perfect cock pressing into the walls of your pussy. You wrap your legs around his waist and dig your heels into his plush ass. “Yoongi please move.”
He pulls out of you all the way until only his tip rests inside your cunt and then slams back in with an animalistic growl. “You look so beautiful, my perfect little angel, my babygirl.”
You clench around his cock at the nicknames he showers upon you. He pulls out all the way to the tip and thrusts into you again with a jolt, sending you both slamming against the pillows. He does it once, twice, thrice and then you’ve lost count, forgotten your name and who you are as only one names lies on your tongue. Yoongi.
“I’m close Y/N, I want you to cum with me baby, come on angel.”
His hand reaches down between your conjoined bodies to where your clit meets his pubic bone as he thrusts mercilessly into you. Fingers rubbing furious circles against your clit, the squelching sounds of your juices making the scene even more perverse. And with a final thrust you’re cumming with a loud scream of his name as you feel spurt after spurt of hot cum rush deep inside your belly. You pant together as his cock softens inside you and his thick cum leaks out of your battered pussy.
But that can be overlooked for now because you’re in love and together and his arms feel like home when they pull you close to his chest.
You are at the brink of falling into deathlike sleep when you hear his soft voice flow to your ears, “This isn’t a dream, is it Y/N? You’ll be here in the morning, won’t you? Promise me you’ll be here.”
Your chest tightens at how unsure and meek he sounds, wanting to speak a thousand words and kiss him a hundred different ways to show him that you’re real. But in your tired state you settle for kissing the arm that’s around your chest and saying, “You can’t get rid of me even if you tried Min Yoongi. I love you. Now go to sleep and you’ll find me in the morning right here. In your arms.”
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writer-k-pop · 4 years ago
Text
Misunderstood (P3)
네가 정크 푸드를 먹고 있어서 그는 불행할 거야. He'd be unhappy because you're eating junk food.
Description: 8 months after starting work as Soonyoung's secretary at Starlight Entertainment, the feelings you have for Soonyoung only continue to grow. When you accidentally end up confessing to him, will he respond and let you into his life or shut you out? Will what you've seen and learned about him in the past eight months be enough? Warnings: Swearing Genre: Angst, Fluff, CEO!Soonyoung/Hoshi x Fem!Reader Word Count: 5.8k
Seventeen Masterlist | Masterlists
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2 months later
"Late morning, sir?" Seungkwan's voice seeped through the office door.
"Something like that." Soonyoung replies.
I raised my head when the office door opened and Soonyoung walked in dressed very formally. I stood to greet him.
"Morning, (y/n)." Soonyoung beat me to words, "Sorry for being late. I had an appointment."
"Morning." I took my seat again and briefly looked at the calendar, "It wasn't written here."
Soonyoung shook his head, setting up his desk for the day, "It was a last minute thing."
I nodded slowly, "Is it the reason you're wearing formal wear and making me look lazy in the process?" I joked, looking down at my simple but clean outfit.
"Partly yes." Soonyoung answered but quickly rephrased, "I mean, I needed to wear this for the appointment and something I have later on tonight but you could never look lazy. You always look great in your outfits."
My shoulders straightened slightly at his comment. "Oh, thank you."
"Some days, even, I feel like you out-dress me. Which makes me look lazy." He rambled on, trying to make up for something.
I laughed, "That's a pretty high compliment coming from the CEO of Starlight." Straightening a stack of documents, I head over to his desk with the papers and a notepad. "These are the finances from the previous quarter's releases and debuts." I informed him and sat in one of the chairs in front of his desk.
Soonyoung took the documents from me and flips through them before nonchalantly setting them aside. "Our schedule for the day?" He asked, leaning forward, expectantly. I don't know when he started calling it 'our schedule' but I noticed it about a couple months ago. Though every time I try to ask about it, he does what he does best and skirts around it, usually changing subjects. So I decided to just stop asking.
"Let's see." I opened my folder and pulled out the day's schedule, "There's a meeting in 20 minutes about Starlight's finances.”
Soonyoung sighs heavily, "Boring."
"That's what you always say, yet you always pay so much attention in those meetings." I countered but before he could reply, I moved on. "Then you immediately go into rehearsals for Basics and that new group who's name you still have to finalize. They also requested lunch with you so I've arranged for some sandwiches to be delivered to the practice rooms for that."
I glanced up and saw Soonyoung pouting and looking down at his attire which is not fit to be in the practice room.
I nodded towards the closet in the corner, "You seem to forget that you have at least two changes of clothes in there for times like these."
His face lit up at the reminder and I shook my head. Sometimes I believed that if I wasn't around, the poor man would forget his head somewhere.
"What's after all that?" He asked, leaning back in his chair.
"Well, because you were late and missed your 9am meeting, I moved it to 3pm." I read off, "Then after that, there's nothing."
"Great!" Soonyoung suddenly exclaimed. "How would you like to go out with me tonight?" He asked, shocking me into silence.
I cleared my throat, "Uhm, it's not Thursday, Soonyoung. We usually go out on Thursday nights." I said nervously, wondering why the sudden change.
He shakes his head, "It's not Thursday, but we can still have dinner together, no?" He tilts his head to the side in question.
"I mean, yeah, I guess so." I answered, "Where would you like to go? I'll make the reservation."
Soonyoung shrugged, "Wherever you want to go. You pick tonight." He smiled warmly.
I smiled back, though my mind was racing trying to find a suitable place. "I will do that. Anything else?"
"You want more than dinner?" He asked, shocked. "I mean we could also do dessert but that might be a lot of food. And it might be late when we do, are you sure you can stay up that late?"
I chuckled, "I meant about your daily schedule."
He chuckled too and then shook his head.
I took my leave to my desk but halfway there, Soonyoung suddenly remembered one last thing.
"OH!" He exclaimed and I turned on a dime to face him, "Can you go check up on Alissa Kim and her recovery? And maybe bring her some flowers?"
"We can do it together, later." I reminded him, "You don't have any meetings after 3 and I'm sure she'd love to talk to you in person and not just your secretary."
His mouth dropped open in a small 'o.' "Good idea." He gave me a thumbs up and I walked back to my desk.
"Order flowers." I wrote on a notepad as a reminder.
After some minutes of silence, Soonyoung moved out of his chair.
"Aren't you coming with?" He asked when I didn't move from mine.
I shook my head, "Not this time, unfortunately. Seungkwan asked me for some help on a few things."
Soonyoung's shoulders sagged ever so slightly I'm surprised I even caught it.
"And the rehearsals?" He continued, ignoring the remaining time before his meeting which ticks away.
"I will try but I can't stay for the entirety of it." I answered, "Your job may be chunked off, Soonyoung, but mine never slows."
"Well, remind me to change your job description then." He commented.
"You don't have to, I actually enjoy it a lot." I told him before noticing the time, "Now go before you're late for the second time this morning." I shooed him out of the office as he chuckled.
Once the office door was firmly shut behind him, I took my seat again and let out a breath.
Why would he all of a sudden want to have dinner with me? And the disappointment when he heard I wouldn't be joining the finance meeting. Did I imagine seeing the disappointment? He couldn't have been that disappointed when I said I wouldn't be going, could he? And what last minute appointment could he have had without telling me? Maybe he didn't have time to tell me? No, he always tells me about his schedule if it effects his schedule here. So where was he?
During the past two months, I have done well at keeping my personal feelings out of the workplace but just watching him work and the way he treats his employees makes the feelings continue to grow.
"I've got to stop reading into things." I mumbled to myself before shaking out my shoulders and looking at the new emails that have popped up.
"Reading into what?" Seungkwan's voice appeared in the office making me jump and scream in fear.
I spun around to see him standing half in the door with an apologetic look on his face.
"I didn't mean to scare you." He apologized quickly.
Holding a hand over my heart, I shook my head. "I'm fine. You just snuck up on me."
"You scare easily, don't you?" He observed and made his way to my desk.
"Very." I told me then looked at him in warning, "But don't you ever tell Soonyoung that. He'll take advantage of it and one day you may end up visiting me in the hospital."
Seungkwan let out a loud laugh, "Soonyoung wouldn't do that. Not to you. He cares too much." He said, casually.
I paused for a split second, wondering what he meant by his last statement. 'He cares too much.' About who??
"So can you help with the project?" He continued on as if nothing was wrong with what he had just said.
"Uh, yeah." I watched as he grabbed one of the chairs near Soonyoung's desk and dragged it all the way over to my desk. "I think I can mess with the schedule enough to make it happen."
"Are you sure it's going to be okay for me to take that many days off? I've never done it before." Seungkwan worried.
I nodded, "Yes, it's going to be okay. Your sister's wedding is absolutely a reason to take a week off. Plus like you've said before, I'm here now."
Seungkwan gave me a warm smile and wrapped me in a hug, "You're the best."
...
"I have a reservation under (y/n)." I told the hostess when we reached her station.
The restaurant rumbled with the conversations and clanking of silverware but wasn't extremely busy. I was thankful for that considering I was walking around with the CEO of Starlight Entertainment who I also seemed to have a growing crush on. Liking for? Whatever the appropriate term is.
"Right this way, please." The hostess smiled, picked up two menus, and started walking into the restaurant.
As we passed the kitchen, the warm scents of sharp spices and nutty sauces filled my nose and sent my stomach into a spiraling realization of how hungry I actually was.
"Is right here okay?" The hostess asked, gesturing to the table tucked away in the corner.
"Perfect." I told her and she set the menus on the table before heading back to the front of the restaurant.
"I've never been here before." Soonyoung looked around while blindly placing his jacket on the back of his chair.
I took my seat and glanced around as well, "It's been a few months since I was here but it's one of my favorites." The restaurant has changed decors slightly to match the concurrent season but other than that, it was practically the same.
"If it's one of your favorites, what do you recommend?" Soonyoung sat and opened up his menu, scanning the options.
I opened mine, "Would it be cheesy if I said the whole menu?" I glanced at him a playful smile on my lips.
He tried, and failed, to hold back a laugh and nodded, "Very cheesy. But I'm not complaining."
"Then, the pastas are really good and the steak is also excellent." I offered, ignoring the last part.
"What are you gonna get?" He asked, continuing on the path I'd chosen.
"I think," I paused and scanned the pages, "I think I'm going to get the shrimp pasta. It's got lots of veggies." I smiled happily. "What about you?"
"The braised chicken looks good." Soonyoung leaned back, arms outstretched, like an old man reading his morning newspaper.
"Evening." Our waiter walked up to the table with two glasses of water and set them down in front of us. "My name's Bomin and I'll be your server tonight. Are you ready to order?"
I nodded, "I'll get the veggie and shrimp pasta, please."
"And I'll have the braised chicken." Soonyoung added.
"What would you like as a side?" Bomin questioned, "We have a side salad, mashed potatoes, grilled green beans, or steamed vegetables."
"A salad would be great." Soonyoung smiled, brightly.
"And anything else to drink besides water?" Bomin asked the both of us.
"What kinds of wine do you have?" Soonyoung wondered.
"Oh, I apologize for not having that menu ready for you, Mr. Kwon." Bomin bowed apologetically and pulled out a folded sheet from his apron, "Here are our wines for the season."
I glanced at Soonyoung with a "are you serious?" expression but he was too busy reading the wine menu to notice.
After a couple seconds, he frowned. "Who am I kidding? I'm not a wine connoisseur." Then he leaned forward slightly. "Would you pick one for us?"
Bomin nodded, "Two glasses?"
I put a hand on Soonyoung's arm for a moment to stop him, "Actually, I won't be drinking tonight."
"Why not?" Soonyoung questioned.
"It's a week day and I have to go back to the office later to finish up some things." I informed him.
"Just one glass, then." He said and Bomin nodded before walking away with our menus. "But we drink on Thursdays?" He wondered, turning towards me.
"We do. But it's usually when we're completely clocked out." I told him, "Which I am not currently."
"We have a driver so if you're worried about driving..." Soonyoung reminded me, trailing off.
I shook my head, "I gotta have a clear mind for work."
"Is the work too stressful?" He asked, suddenly very concerned.
My eyes widened at the fact that he would even think that, "Not at all!" I waved my hands in emphasis, "It's a personal choice. Alcohol hits me pretty easily."
Immediately the concern was wiped away and replaced with teasing. "So you're a lightweight. And to think I thought you could handle your alcohol seeing as we drink together weekly."
"And here I thought you'd never been here before yet our waiter seemed to know who you are." I raised my eyebrows at him, throwing his joke back at him.
He raised his hands in surrender, "You caught me." He placed a hand on his heart and bowed his head slightly, "My apologies if I have offended you. It was just fun to see you get excited about this place."
"No offense." I told him, "Just tell me next time."
"You got it." Soonyoung nodded curtly just as our waiter returned with our food and his wine.
...
"Can I ask you something?" I set down my fork, my stomach full to the brim with pasta, shrimp, and veggies.
Soonyoung rested his forearms on the edge of the table, fork and knife still in his hands, "Shoot."
"Why don't you correct them?" I questioned, a dull feeling a deja vu rising.
"Who?" He asked, popping another bite of chicken into his mouth.
"The articles that say you're mean, angry, and selfish." I clarified and watch as his chewing slowed down considerable.
"You could always correct them. There's nothing in any company policy or contract that says you can't." He swallowed and took another bite as if my options were obvious.
"I don't do it because I wouldn't ever do anything you didn't want me doing. And it's clear you don't want to fight the articles so I don't." I explained, "But I'm serious, Soonyoung. Why don't you? They're straight attacking you and your character."
After swallowing, he laid down his fork and knife before wiping his mouth with his napkin. "Because they're not entirely false. And at this point, it'd take too much money and time to correct the situation."
He lifted his wine glass to his lips and took a careful sip. 8 months ago, the stark contrast from the media portrayal of Kwon Soonyoung and the actual Kwon Soonyoung would've shocked me to my core. But now, it just made me worry about how that portrayal was effecting him.
"Plus this way," He swirled the wine around in the glass and stared at it. "I get the best of the best trainees. The ones who know about my 'reputation' and who are still brave enough to join my company because they want this career more than anything in the world."
"I don't think any of what the articles say is true, you know." I said going back to a previous statement of his.
He smiled sadly, still staring at his glass. "Then you don't know me."
"Soonyoung." I turned my body more towards him, "I have worked with you for eight months. I have seen you every working day from literally dawn to dusk sometimes. And none of those articles are true. You aren't mean or angry, you're confident and really good at your job. Sometimes a little too stubborn but that stubbornness has gotten you where you are. And you are nowhere near selfish. You are honestly the most selfLESS man I have ever met. I don't know of any other CEO who personally checks on his trainees on a weekly basis. And not just to check their progress but also their mental and physical health."
Soonyoung chuckled but the sad undertone still lingered. "You don't know what I'm like from sunset to sunrise." He stated.
Before I could stop myself, my heart took the reins, "What if I wanted to?"
He looked at me, eyes searching for any signs of a joke being played. I stared back and hoped I didn't just make a complete fool of myself.
"You." Soonyoung finally spoke, "You want to know that side?"
I nodded, lips sealed together, too afraid I'd say the wrong the thing if I used my voice.
"Why?" He wondered.
I took a deep breath, "Why not?" I started, "I've come to enjoy your presence, your personality, and well, you. The way you had only known me for less than a day when you decided to cut off all business with Mr. Park because I was treated poorly at his company."
"That should've been done years ago." Soonyoung interjected.
"But I was the final push to end it." I continued. "And the way you care so intensely for all of your staff and trainees. Worrying about their health to the point of almost panicking when one is hospitalized. Much like a father."
"Anyone would do that." He interrupted, seemingly not wanting to believe my words.
"No. Not just anyone would do that." I argued with him then continued, "You celebrate each of your artists' comebacks and debuts as if they've just won the biggest award of the year."
"None of those explain why you, (y/n), want to know why I say the rumors are not entirely false." Soonyoung shook his head.
"Because I like the man I've seen everyday at work. I admire his ability to ignore the articles and do what he does best: care for and support others." I stated. "I enjoy seeing the little knick knacks that no one else gets to see. The little jokes you throw that no one else understands. Right now, I have your days. Well, most of them. But I want the nights. I want to see who you are when the company ID is not on your immediate person. When your mind isn't focusing on everyone but yourself. I want that Soonyoung too. Not just the CEO version." I finished softly.
"And what if you don't like that Soonyoung?" He questioned, glancing away like if he saw me say the answer, he wouldn't be able to handle it.
"You mean, what if I find the articles to be true?" I rephrased his question and he simply nodded. "From what I've seen, you're not even half of what they claim you to be. Even if you are a little selfish, mean, or angry outside of the company, anyone would understand. Your life's in the spotlight. Your marriages and subsequent divorces were messy and publicized. Anyone would be angry about that. No one wants a messy life. And who knows, maybe you'll be the one who doesn't like non-secretary (y/n)." I shrugged, reality sitting smugly on my shoulder.
"That'd be impossible." Soonyoung whipped around and countered.
"How do you know?" I questioned, "I could be carrying the weight of four divorces and am just hiding it." I joked.
Soonyoung's eyes widen in shock, "Do you?" He lowered his voice and leaned closer, a hint of belief could be heard.
I smiled and giggled, "No, if I went through four husbands in the span of my life so far, I would say I'm a very messed up person."
He let out sigh of relief then glanced at his watch. "Oh shit, it's already 9pm."
"Already?" I snatched my phone from my purse then cursed under my breath when the clock surely reads 9:06pm. "I gotta get back to the company."
Soonyoung only nodded as I stood up. "You go ahead, have Sam take you and then tell him he can go home."
"What about you?" I worried, hands resting on the back of my chair.
He raised his half full wine glass, "I think I'll finish this wine and then take a taxi home."
I shifted from one foot to the other, uneasy about his plan.
"It'll be fine, I've done it before." Soonyoung said when he noticed my nervousness. "Just go and get your work done and then go home and rest."
"Okay." I caved to his plan and turned to leave.
As I thanked the hostess, the realization that I basically confessed to Soonyoung and he didn't give a full answer hits, crushing my soul like a ton of bricks. Sam was waiting outside and opened the car door for me when I exited the building.
"Is Mr. Kwon having a wine night again?" He wondered when he took in my solo appearance.
It took a second to register that he was talking to me. But my voice didn't want to work so I just simply nodded and dipped into the car.
Sam closed the door, quickly moved to the driver's seat, and began the drive to the company. Leaning my head against the window, I couldn't help but replay parts of the night's events. From the aloof conversations during the meal to the sombre atmosphere at the end. The sadness in his eyes projecting his belief in the rumors about him burned into my mind.
'Because it's not entirely false.' Soonyoung's voice echoed in my mind. 'None of those explain why you, (y/n), want to know why I say the rumors are not entirely false.'
"Ms. (y/l/n)?" Sam spoke from the front of the car, breaking me out of my thoughts. "We've arrived."
I looked out the window and sure enough, we were parked in front of the company building.
"Thank you, Sam." I said and then exited the car.
Scanning my ID, I waited for the loud clicks of the doors. As I walked through the lobby, I heard some chatter near the cafe. Walking over, I caught two male and two female trainees snacking on chips and junk food.
"What are you doing?" I asked, making them freeze.
"We were hungry." One of the male trainees lowers his gaze in shame.
"We didn't have enough cash for any meals." A female trainee added on.
"What do you think Mr. Kwon would say?" I said, crossing my arms.
The younger male trainee took in a breath, "He wouldn't be very happy at us for eating."
I smiled sadly. It was obvious that this trainee was new and had read the articles. "You're right. He wouldn't be very happy but not because you're eating. He'd be unhappy because you're eating junk food and not proper food." I looked towards the older trainees, "You know you could've asked for a meal and the company would've paid for it."
"We couldn't find anyone here this late." The second female trainee said.
"What about your managers?" I questioned, eyebrows scrunching in concern.
"Ours went home for the night." The older male trainee said.
"And ours is already really stressed about Alissa so we didn't want to stress him out even more." The second female trainee explained.
"How many of you are here in the practice rooms right now?" I asked, realizing that their hushed tones must've meant they were trying to hide from everyone in the building.
"A few more of us." The first female trainee stated, "They said they weren't hungry so we came out because Tae was on the verge of fainting." She gestured towards the younger male.
I sighed and pulled out my wallet. Sliding out the company card, I handed it to the first female trainee, "There's a sandwich shop down the street that's always open until 11. Go buy enough sandwiches and water for everyone who's in that practice room."
The trainee took the card into her hands with care, as if a sudden movement would break the card in two.
"And when you get back with the food, you can bring the card up to my office to return it." I finished, "And don't do this again."
"You won't tell Mr. Kwon, will you?" The older male trainee asked, worry in his voice.
I smiled and shook my head, "I won't if you leave right now."
With that, all four of them stood up, bowed, and quickly left the building, talking excitedly about what kinds of sandwiches they were going to buy. I watched them until they disappeared from view then began throwing their trash in the garbage can. After their mess was cleaned up, I quickly shuffled to the elevators and didn't even have to wait for an elevator to arrive. Once I reached the tenth floor, I nearly jogged down the hall and into the office.
The draft's deadline was up at midnight and I hadn't even started to organize and make it presentable. Sitting down, I began to type, click, and drag paragraphs and diagrams around into the order I wanted them.
Halfway through my computer haze, a knock sounded from the office doors.
"Come in." I called, thinking it was the trainee returning my company card.
The door opened and closed and footsteps made their way towards my desk. Again, thinking it was the trainee, I didn't bother to look up or take in the fact that the footsteps were much heavier against the floor.
"What was a trainee doing with your company card?" Soonyoung's voice made my entire body freeze. He set the card down on my desk by my keyboard.
Squeezing my eyes shut in failure, I let out a breath. "I caught them eating junk food in the lobby and told them to use my card to buy them and their fellow trainees some sandwiches at the shop down the street."
I reached for the card but Soonyoung placed his hand over mine, effectively stopping me.
"And you weren't going to tell me?" He questioned.
I stayed silent and he took that as his answer.
"That would explain why she looked so nervous when I asked her what she was doing at the elevators." He chuckled. "Where were the managers?"
I looked up at him then. His cheeks were slightly tinged pink so he wasn't drunk but he wasn't completely sober either. His hair looked more messy than when I had left him over an hour ago like he'd run his hand through it one too many times. In his state, I wondered if I should tell him now or wait until the morning.
Soonyoung pouted, "Please? I promise I won't do anything about it until the morning." He held out his pinkie.
I gave him a lopsided grin and connected my pinkie with his. "It was a group of female and male trainees. The female trainees didn't want to bother their manager because their manager is with Alissa. And the male trainees said their manager simply went home for the night."
"He just left them here?" Soonyoung stood up straight, in disbelief. "Absolutely ridiculous." I took the opportunity to pull my previous trapped hand back towards me. The warmth of Soonyoung's hand still lingered on my skin.
I looked up in time to see Soonyoung march towards his desk, muttering something about firing or disciplinary action.
"Soonyoung," I called out to him, making him pause and look towards me. I raised an eyebrow, "You promised nothing until tomorrow morning."
He composed himself and pulled his shoulders back. "You're right. I promised." Then he made his way to small couch opposite his desk, and conveniently perpendicular to mine, and plopped himself down on it.
After eyeing him for a couple seconds, I decided he wasn't going to do anything rash.
"Let me finish this draft and then we can get you home." I told him, eyes already back on my computer monitors.
As I worked, I could feel his eyes staring at me from the couch. I brushed it off, needing to finish it by the deadline but after a while, it became impossible to ignore.
"Can I help you something, Soonyoung?" I asked, looking over at him.
Soonyoung lazily shook his head, "Nope, I'm just lookin' at you."
"Why? Do I have something on your face?" I wondered, hands flying to my cheeks.
He shook his head again, "Nope, you're just pretty."
I felt my heart speed up to 100 miles an hour and tried to hide it. "I think you had a little too much wine. And why did you come back here? I thought you were going home after you were finished at the restaurant?"
"I missed you." Soonyoung sank further in the couch, his head resting back.
We fell into a silence filled only by the clicks of my mouse and the clacks of my keyboard as I tried my best to refocus on the task at hand.
"Say something." Soonyoung whispered just as I saved and sent the document off. An hour before the deadline, but still the latest I had ever turned something in.
"What would you like me to say, Soonyoung?" I questioned, moving towards my email, looking for anything urgent before I took him home.
“Anything." He said softly.
I looked at him from my desk. His eyes trained on the ceiling and his shoulders sagging in exhaustion. I couldn't tell whether the exhaustion was physical or mental.
"Shouldn't it be me asking you to say something?" I countered, watching his face as he tries to decipher what I meant.
He stayed silent as I packed my bag, turned off my computer, and helped him to his feet. The entire way to my car he was silent. I had wanted to check on the trainees before I left but with Soonyoung at my side, that wasn't something I could've managed so I decided to do it the next day when I could sneak away. Knowing the way to his home, I drove us in a never ending silence through the dark night.
When we arrived at his house, he still hadn't said a word. Even as I guided him into his house, his lips stayed shut, voice mute.
"If you're not going to say anything, then I will." I finally spoke, stopping in my tracks. Soonyoung doesn't realize I stopped until he's a few steps ahead and turned around.
"I like you. I want to know every version of you that there is. And I want to make my own conclusions. Not rely on the ones from the articles." I launched into a small confession. "If you don't feel the same, just say so and I'll go back to being your secretary and only your secretary. You just have to say so."
I waited for an answer but he still stayed silent. As I turned to leave, he finally spoke.
"I've never had anyone who wanted to know." He said softly, taking small steps towards me. "Well, there have been a few but they all got scared by the articles before they could make their own conclusions. So I'd learned to just let people believe what they wanted. And then you showed up. From day one, you didn't treat me like the big intimidating boss like the others had. You treated me like a regular, stressed out CEO trying his best to run a successful company."
I looked down, trying to hide a smile at his near exact CEO image I saw.
"I'm grateful for that, you know. But I'm afraid that you'll walk away like everyone else." Soonyoung continued. "That you'll end up hating what you find and leave." By now he was standing right in from of me. Close enough that I saw his longing for me and the fear that rimmed his eyes.
"I can't promise that I won't leave." I almost whispered, "But I can promise I won't be scared off by the articles and make my own conclusion."
He leaned his forehead against mine, "That's enough for me." He mumbled before placing lips on mine.
Wrapping my arms around his neck, it was easy to melt into him and his kiss. His arms wrapped tightly around my waist and I could smell the last traces of wine against his familiar cologne.
We pulled apart but stayed wrapped in each other's arms.
"So I was never reading too much into things all these months?" I questioned, looking into his happy eyes.
"Probably not." Soonyoung smiled.
"Then if you'll give me this answer, when did this all start?" I wondered carefully.
Soonyoung looked off to the side in thought, "Probably a few months ago. I had asked you what 'our' schedule was in the elevator and you had totally missed the fact that I said 'our' and said it all in terms of 'your' schedule."
I put my hands on his shoulders and pushed back slightly. "I'm sorry, I don't remember this ever happening."
"You don't?" He asked, in surprise, "It was the morning when I bought you the apology coffee from the cafe in the lobby?"
"THAT day?" I repeated, "Why that day?"
Soonyoung shrugged, pulled away but grabbed my hand, leading me towards the back of the house. "I think it was the day when I knew you were fully committed to the job and to me. It was refreshing and wonderful to know that I had someone so close who was on my side all the time. At least during the business hours."
We reached the living room and he sat us down.
"And to think, I barely remember that day." I thought back to the day, "Except for the coffee and Alissa's hospitalization, that day is blurred with the rest."
He chuckled, "Doesn't matter much now though."
"I should get going." I said, standing back up, "It's late and you should also be getting some sleep, especially after the wine you consumed."
Soonyoung looked up at me, lips pouted, "Why don't you stay here for tonight?"
I smiled, "Two reasons: 1. I don't have a change of clothes with me and I don't particularly want to show up to work tomorrow in today's clothes. 2. Why would I stay the night at a guy's house when he hasn't even taken me out to dinner yet?"
He opened his mouth to retort but quickly realized I had valid points.
"I win." I stated happily, "I'll show myself out and you get some sleep, mister." I playfully scold him.
"And if I take you out to dinner?" He called out after me.
I laughed, "Then we'll see!"
"Free your schedule for Friday night." Soonyoung basically demanded, "And I mean it, no 'gotta go back to the company' excuses. I'm taking you out on Friday night."
I turned around and waved a hand above my head, "It's a date!"
As I walked away, I heard Soonyoung whisper a very excited 'yessss' to himself and it brought a smile to my face.
I took a deep breath once outside the front door. I didn't know what I would find on this journey but one thing was for sure: Soonyoung wouldn't stop caring for me or making me laugh.
34 notes · View notes
nsheetee · 5 years ago
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domestic | winwin
domestic | m.list
“What do you mean there is no reservation under ‘Dong Sicheng?’” Winwin furrows his eyebrows, “Check again.” He demands, and the waitress looks at him with apologetic discomfort.
“I’ve already checked three times. I’m sorry, sir.” Winwin wracks his brain for the reservation he made months ago; he’s so sure that he called and asked for a table.
“What’s wrong?” You overhear the waitress’ last words and walk up next to your boyfriend to quizzically stare at him. He gives you a tight box smile, letting out an awkward laugh to try and fill the silence between you, him, and the polite waitress.
“There is no reservation under Dong Sicheng.” The waitress repeats respectfully.
“Will you check under Winwin?” You ask and the waitress looks at her paper, head bobbing up to look at you once again.
“I’m sorry. There is no reservation under Winwin either.” You and your boyfriend both sigh and before Winwin can ask the waitress if there are any open tables, you grab his hand and pull him out of the restaurant, down the street, and to the car.
Winwin pouts the entire way home, cursing at himself for messing up your two year anniversary this way. You were so excited when he told you that he got you a table at your favorite restaurant, a place with a waiting list three months long. He can’t help but feel guilty for blowing the night’s atmosphere to an all time low.
The ride up the elevator to your apartment is awkward; you lean your shoulder against the wall while Winwin stands a few feet away from you with his hands in his pockets. You don’t say anything to each other until you’re through your front door, taking off your shoes and turning on the lights. Before you can escape to your room, Winwin catches your hand and brings you back to face him.
“I’m sorry our anniversary turned out like this. I know you were excited for dinner tonight.” He holds both of your hands in his, squeezing your knuckles in comfort. “Is there some way I can make it up to you? The night’s still young, we can do something else.”
You’re about to say something, but your stomach speaks up instead, filling the quiet room with low grumbling. You and Winwin laugh at the perfectly timed rumble and you look towards your cupboards in thought.
“Well, we have pasta and there’s some left over chicken in the fridge. Maybe we can still have dinner; you’re probably hungry, too.” Winwin appreciates your small words of thoughtfulness, a dumb smile rising to his face when you venture over to the cupboard and pull out some dry pasta.
“I’ll boil the water.” Winwin says as he takes off his expensive suit jacket and rolls up his sleeves. He cooks the pasta while you retrieve the chicken to heat it up, slicing some veggies while you’re at it. Winwin concocts a sauce that he swears his mother taught him how to make a while ago, but if he’s being completely honest, he doesn’t really remember the exact recipe.
25 minutes later, you and Winwin sit across from each other at the kitchen counter, food piled on your own plates and a couple random candles you found in your home lit up in front of you. The room lighting is dimmed and you realize that in the midst of making dinner, neither of you changed out of your fancy clothes that you wore to the restaurant. If someone walked into your kitchen right now, they might be very bewildered by the scene.  
“By the way,” You speak up once you and Winwin dig in, “I wasn’t upset over the reservation falling through.” Winwin looks up from his plate, eyebrows slightly furrowing.
“So, then… what were you upset about?”  
“I wasn’t upset, really… I mean, I wanted to eat at that restaurant, but I think Chef Sicheng is the new hot cook in town.” Winwin laughs and shakes his head at your antics. He can’t help how his heart heats up at your next words. “It’s a successful anniversary as long as we celebrate it together. Happy two years.”
Winwin stares up at you from his food; he probably has some pasta hanging from his mouth and the most dumbfounded look on his face but he doesn’t care. Your words make him feel better than he did even five minutes ago, and he can’t help but stare fondly at you as you begin to eat.
“Hey, Winwin, what’s in this sauce?”
“... Don’t worry about it.”
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kinglazrus · 5 years ago
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Make Tacos, Not War
Phic phight 2020
Submitted by @nocturna-starr: Why did Sam Manson choose to be a vegan? Sam explains to Tucker why she refuses to eat meat and why his diet bothers her.
Summary: Sam, tired of Tucker constantly ragging on her for her dietary choices, challenges him to go one week without eating any meat. If he succeeds, then maybe she'll finally tell him why she went vegan in the first place. (A montage of Tucker's first, and only, week as a strict vegan)
Word count: 5339
Monday – The Bet
Monday morning, Sam and Tucker sat down at their usual lunch table without Danny. They were used to him skipping out on quality friendship time because of ghost stuff, but this week, it was his family that had him occupied. Danny had been on edge lately, acting paranoid, and maybe even hallucinating. Danny's little stint on the Spin-o-Matic definitely didn't help.
Sam and Tucker blamed it on lack of sleep because of all the ghost hunting, not that they'd tell the Fentons that. Maybe a little time away from Amity would do him good. Until then, it was just them holding down the fort until Danny got back. This meant that Sam knew exactly what Tucker was going to ask when he opened his mouth after they sat down.
"So, really, why do you­–"
"No," Sam said, cutting him off. Ignoring Tucker's bewildered look, she popped the lid off her pasta salad. It was a new recipe she was trying out, with a spicy almond butter sauce rather than her usual vinaigrette. She was looking forward to it.
Tucker reached across the table, covering Sam's salad with his hand, forcing her to look up at him. "You don't know what I was gonna ask," he said.
Sam glared at him until he moved his hand. Gathering up a forkful of fusilli and red peppers, she took her time savouring the bite, chewing slowly. The sauce could use a bit of a stronger kick, but overall, she liked it. Only once she was satisfied that she had gotten a good taste did she swallow and answer. "Actually, I do, because you ask it every time Danny goes away."
Tucker scowled and folded his arms, unable to argue that point. "Okay, maybe I do. Answer me and I'll stop asking."
"Stop asking and maybe I'll answer."
"That... doesn't make any sense."
Sam jabbed at Tucker with her fork. "Neither does you being obsessed with why I'm vegan."
"I'm not obsessed! I just want to know, there's nothing wrong with that," Tucker said.
They glared at each other. By now, this was all routine. They weren't actually mad at each other, but their conflicting views meant they got annoyed with each other sometimes. It was fine, because they were always friends in the end, but sometimes Sam wanted to eat without someone questioning her dietary and moral choices.
Setting her fork down, she steepled her fingers and fixed Tucker with a calculating gaze. "Fine. I'll tell you. If you go one week with a vegan diet.
"Um, what?"
"One week, no animal products, and I'll tell you. I know that would be practically torture for you, but­–"
"Okay."
Sam faltered, "Wait, what?"
"Okay. I'll do it."
Leaning forward, Sam scanned Tucker's face. He looked completely serious, grinning at the challenge. Sam never thought she'd see the day where Tucker Foley would be excited about eating vegetables, but she wasn't about to toss away such a golden opportunity.
"Okay. It starts tomorrow, goes until next Tuesday. No cheating. I've got a binder of recipes at home that Anna uses. I'll bring it to your place tonight," Sam says. She makes a mental note to talk to Tucker's parents about the bet, knowing how much they love their barbecue nights. With any luck, they will make Tucker stick with the diet. Tucker's mom should. Sam knew how much she liked to cook, and some of her vegan recipes might interest Angela.
"Cool. Wait, who's Anna?"
"Our maid."
"You have a maid?!"
Surprisingly, it took Tucker a few hours to regret accepting the bet. He spent most of the afternoon feeling smug, knowing that Sam would finally divulge why she was vegan. And then, when he got home, opened the front door, and was hit by the glorious smell of roasting ribs, he realized just what he'd agreed to.
"I'm going to die," Tucker moaned. Swinging his backpack off his shoulder, he tossed it into the living room and trudged over to the kitchen. Inside, his mom was working on dinner. They often ate early since she worked the nightshift at the twenty-four-hour pharmacy. Dinner for Tucker and his dad was usually breakfast for his mom.
"What's wrong, baby?" Angela asked, glancing at Tucker over his shoulder.
"I'm going to starve from lack of meat this week," he said.
"Oh, is this about that bet?"
Tucker lurched upright, slamming his hands on the table. "You know about that? How do you know already?"
Angela laughed. Tucker always thought his mom was really pretty when she laughed. "Sam called me not too long ago. I think it's a great idea! We should all try it for the week. As a last hurrah, I'm making your favourite food tonight."
"Cajun ribs?" Tucker asked, earning a nod. "Marinated steak bites?" Another nod. "Beer-braised Szechuan chicken wings?"
"All of it!"
"Mom, you're an angel, I love you so much," Tucker said, practically drooling over the table. If he died this week from lack of protein, at least he will have had one last good meal to remember.
The doorbell rang halfway through dinner. Tucker, sticky-fingered, mouth covered in Szechuan sauce, went to answer it.
Sam stared at the orange sauce staining his lips. "Nice, Foley. That's a great look for you."
"Oh, shut up," Tucker said. He quickly wiped his mouth on the paper towel he'd brought with him. "Thanks for calling my mom, by the way. She's making all of us vegan for the week. I won't even get to come home and smell the sweet, juicy scent of steak and burgers. For a whole week!"
"You can't tell, because it's on the inside, but I'm weeping for you right now," Sam said, deadpan.
"Yeah, whatever. Just give me the book."
Sam passed him the binder. It was surprisingly heavy, filled to the brim. Tucker was impressed the rings managed to hold all the pages. Didn't stop him from holding the binder away from his body like it was a feral animal, though.
"These are all vegan?" Tucker asked, gaping at the pages.
"How many recipes were you expecting?" Sam raised an eyebrow.
"I don't know. Ten? It's vegetables. How much can you do with vegetables?"
Sam shook her head, sighing in disappointment. Clapping a hand on Tucker's shoulder, she leaned and said, "I really pity you, Tucker."
"Hey!" Tucker shouted, indignant. "Rude."
Sam, unswayed, rolled her eyes. "Suck it up, it's not that bad. Just look at a few of the recipes. You might actually like them."
"I am going to die," Tucker moaned. Opening the binder, he flipped through a few pages, his grimace getting deeper with each one. "Veggie burgers? A travesty. Zucchini noodles? Do I have to say it?" He paused halfway through the book, pointing to a stained page. "Fried bean tacos?"
"I use that one a lot," Sam said, explaining away the stains. She wasn't the neatest cook.
"Okay, that one actually sounds kind of good." He snapped the binder shut and tucked it under his arm. "I still don't get why you can't just tell me why you're vegan."
"I could, but it's a lot more fun this way."
Tucker disagreed.
Tuesday – Day One
In the morning, Tucker had a smoothie for breakfast.
"Sorry, baby. I need to go to the store and get some groceries to make most of the really good recipes," Angela said. She sipped at her own smoothie, bags under her eyes. This was her dinner before she would go to sleep. "I don't work tonight, so I'll pick some stuff up later. For now, your lunch is in the fridge."
Tucker shrugged. He liked smoothies, although he wished they were more filling. Downing the glass without complaint, he grabbed his lunch from the fridge—a single container, which didn't bode well—before setting his empty cup in the sink.
"Later, Mom. Have a good sleep!" he shouted over his shoulder before heading out the front door.
Tucker stared in dismay at his lunch. Tomatoes, cucumber, olives, red onions, sliced and diced and tossed into a cheap plastic container with a strong-smelling dressing. And some weird little green stuff scattered all over it.
"That's oregano. It's a pretty standard herb that your mom probably uses all the time. Don't be such a baby," Sam said. She tore into her bean burrito with gusto, smirking at Tucker from across the table.
"It's just... vegetables..." Tucker says.
"It's vegan."
"There's no cheese!"
"It’s vegan. And there's dressing. Just shut up and eat it."
"As soon as Danny gets back from his road trip, I'm going to tell him you tortured me. Tortured!"
Sam ignored him, instead savouring her burrito and silently delighting in what a nice day it was. Sunny, but not too warm, with a cool breeze. The perfect day for lunch outside. They weren't the only ones who chose to sit outside instead of in the cafeteria, but everyone was scattered across the lawn, so it wasn't too crowded.
Tucker groaned. "I gave my mom the whole binder, and she chose to make this?" Looking across the table, he stared forlornly at Sam's burrito. "That at least looks like something I'd eat. This," he gestured to his Greek salad, "is just plant stuff!"
"Congratulations, you know what vegetables are." Sam rolled her eyes as Tucker groaned again. "It's not going to kill you. You didn't have to agree to the bet."
"You didn't have to make it a bet. I just want to know why you don't eat meat, that's all."
Sighing, Sam put her burrito down. She folded her hands on the table and stared intently at Tucker. "I want to know why I have to explain my personal choices to you. Maybe I'm allergic to the preservatives people put in certain meat. Maybe I'm allergic to beef. Maybe I just don't like how meat tastes."
"I think we both know it's none of those reasons," Tucker says. Reaching into his container, he picks out an olive, grimacing at it, and pops it into his mouth.
"You're right. It isn't any of those reasons, but if it were, that would be my business. Do you get people constantly asking you why you eat meat?"
"Well, no, that'd be stupid."
"So why isn't it stupid for people to ask me why I make my dietary choices? I'm tired of having to constantly justify being vegan. Yeah, there's more to it than me just liking vegetables. But, quite frankly, I don't owe anyone an explanation, especially when they're just going to scoff in my face about it and act like it's dumb."
Tucker stared guiltily down at his salad.
Sam stood up, re-wrapping her burrito, and shoved it in her backpack. "If you want to know why I'm vegan, then you have to respect the effort it takes to be vegan first. So shut up and eat," she said before leaving.
Tucker picked at his quinoa cakes, watching them crumble under his fork without actually eating them. Sighing, he stabbed at a chickpea and dragged it through the balsamic sauce decorating his plate, drawing meaningless swirls.
"Something wrong?" his dad, Maurice, asked. Hiding his mouth behind his hand, he leaned toward Tucker and whispered loudly. "Not a fan of the quinoa either, huh?"
"Maurice, you are going to eat every little seed on that plate or else I'm never making you ribs again. You need less red meat," Angela chastised.
"Oh, man," Maurice grumbled, but dutifully went back to eating.
"But your father has a point. What's up, Tucker?"
"I think I made Sam really mad today," Tucker said, lowering his fork. "I didn't think she really minded me asking about being vegan, but she got all huffy talking about respect and stuff."
"Do you respect her?" Angela asked. Her stare was intense.
"I mean, yeah. She's my friend. She's cool, and smart, and stuff." Tucker shrugged. "We wouldn't be the same without her." In a lot of ways no one else would ever realize.
"So, show her that. She wasn't 'huffy,' she was upset, and probably didn't think you were respecting her and her boundaries. Even if it seems like a small thing to you, it could be incredibly personal to Sam." Angela reached across the table and squeezed Tucker's hand. "Apologize to her tomorrow, and then everything'll go back to normal."
Tucker squeezed back, smiling. "Thanks," he said. Feeling better, he finally dug into his dinner. It wasn't half-bad.
Wednesday – Day Two
Catching Sam outside science class, Tucker grabbed her backpack and stopped her from going in. He had seen her from the other side of the hall and sprinted all the way down to intercept her.
"What do you want, Tucker?" Sam asked, shaking him off.
He held up a finger as he caught his breath. For someone who ghost hunted on the regular, he was really out of shape. "I'm sorry," he said. "I was kind of an ass yesterday."
Sam pursed her lips. "Yeah, you were."
"You're one of my best friends, and I respect you, even if I don't always act like it. You don't have to go through with your end of the bet if you don't want to," Tucker said.
"You just want to eat meat again."
"Obviously I want to eat meat again. It's only been a day and I can feel myself wasting away." Sam started walking away. Tucker scrambled to stop her, latching on to her sleeve and saying, "But! But I want to make it through the week. Even if you decide not to follow through, I will."
Sam's pursed lips softened into a smile. "I respect you too, Tucker. I may not like that you're practically a carnivore, but you're a decent guy."
Tucker grinned. Letting Sam go, he straightened up and reached into his backpack. All that honesty made him hungry. He pulled out his snack for the day, homemade fruit roll-up, and took a generous bite.
"You think we could have that exact same conversation in front of Melanie from calculus?" he asked Sam. "She said she really likes guys who respect women."
Sam hummed, like she was actually considering it. "I don't know," she said before walking into the classroom.
"Is that a yes?" Tucker shouted after her, mouth full.
"See you at lunch, Tuck."
"Sam, is that a yes? Come on!"
Thursday – Day Three
A solid block of tofu was not Tucker's idea of a good meal. A solid block of tofu marinated in a Sriracha-soy sauce, grilled, and stuffed into an English muffin was an okay meal. He licked a line of sauce dribbling down his fingers, enjoying the taste of turmeric.
"Is your mom only making the spicy recipes?" Sam asked. A victorious grin overtook her face at the way Tucker devoured his lunch.
"No, she made that fruit stuff, too. Tomorrow's pancakes for breakfast, apparently," Tucker said. He took another bite, chewing happily, and swallowed. "Tonight is some kind of pilaf thing?"
Sam frowned and asked, "Is it the one from the front of the book or the back?"
"I don't know. Why does it matter?"
"There are still a few recipes in there from when I was just vegetarian. My parents wouldn't let me go full vegan when I was younger because they were worried about protein intake," she explained. "Some of those recipes have eggs, milk, and cheese in them still, and maybe some fish. Most of them are at the front."
"Wait, wait, wait." Tucker lowered his sandwich. "Fish?" Last time he checked, fish was meat, which meant it definitely shouldn't be in a vegetarian recipe.
"I had a pescatarian phase before they let me go full vegan. Those recipes have blue circles in the corner. Make sure you warn your mom about them."
"Yeah, sure, whatever. But what the hell is pescatarian?"
A familiar glint entered Sam's eyes. It was the look she gave right before she was about to lecture someone. "I am so glad you asked," she said sweetly.
"No, I take it back," Tucker said, shaking his head vigorously, but it was too late.
"There are actually a few different variations of vegetarianism. Lacto-vegetarians can eat dairy products, but no other animal products. Ovo-vegetarians allow eggs. Lacto-ovo is both dairy and eggs. Pescatarians, on the other hand, usually have no dairy or eggs, but they do eat fish," Sam said.
She was brimming with excitement, eager that Tucker was actually showing interest in her lifestyle for once. In all their arguments about food, never once had he shown genuine curiosity for vegetarianism, only disdain.
"Isn't that kind of hypocritical?" Tucker asked. "Fish are animals. That's meat. That's exactly what being vegetarian is against."
"It depends on why they're vegetarian. It could be for dietary reasons, not because of a concern about animal cruelty. Fish has a lot of health benefits, especially for your heart, while too much red meat is bad for you. Or, they can be using fish as an alternative protein source. While mass fishing isn't without its issues, it has a lower environmental cost than raising livestock."
Tucker stared at her blankly.
Realizing she had lost him, Sam sighed. "Basically, there's a lot of reasons," she said.
Tucker nodded, finishing the last bites of his lunch. Even if he didn't really get what Sam was saying, she appreciated that he tried. Maybe Tucker wasn't a hopeless carnivore after all.
Long after Tucker was meant to be asleep, he sat at his desk, a bowl of Cajun-seasoned popcorn in his lap, and stared intently at his computer. The glow of his screen washed him in pale blue light, glinting off his glasses as he shoved handfuls of popcorn in his mouth.
Opening his browser, he typed into the search bar: what makes vegetarianism better?
Friday – Day Four
"Ha!" Tucker shouted, slamming a piece of paper down on the picnic table as soon as he reached it.
Sam tried to read it, but his hand covered most of the text. Lifting her eyes to Tucker's, she asked, "How were the pancakes?"
"Aggressively mediocre," Tucker said, flopping into his seat. He swung his backpack up onto the table and pushes the paper toward Sam. "I found out your secret," he said in a singsong voice as he reached into his backpack.
Sam snatched up the paper, sparing Tucker an annoyed glare, and scanned it. "Did you print out a page from a discussion forum?"
"I needed evidence," Tucker said. Digging around in his backpack, he searched for today's lunch, eventually pulling out his burger. Portabella mushroom, carrot and cucumber slaw, avocado spread, and a tangy sauce stuffed into a rye bun. He was actually looking forward to this, but he'd die before telling Sam that.
"Evidence of what?" Sam said, giving the page a more thorough read.
"You vegans aren't so great."
"First, I never said we were great. Second, what the hell, Tucker?" Sam's gaze halted halfway down the page.
Tucker grinned smugly, knowing exactly what she had found. "Most of your precious vegetables are farmed using exploited labour. It's practically slavery. At least raising livestock doesn't have that."
"You think big corporations deadest on producing as much meat as possible are against exploiting workers?"
"Well, no, but–"
"And you're forgetting about local farmers. I get my produce as local as I can. I have a greenhouse so I can grow my own food year-round."
"Maybe you do, but I was just–"
"And just because the produce industry isn't 'pure,' that doesn't make certain livestock practices better."
"I didn't say that."
"And I agree with you completely," Sam finished.
Tucker's next protest died on his lips. "You what?"
"I agree," she repeated. Folding the paper Tucker gave her in half, she slid it across the table back toward her. "No mass industry like that is perfect. That's exactly why I try to grow my own food and buy local as much as I can. But one person isn't going to affect much, so I protest, too. I speak out in the hopes that these practices will stop."
"Oh." Tucker deflated, his righteous indignation leaving him in a flash. "At least you know," he added weakly.
They ate in silence for a few minutes, Sam enjoying the very same tacos Tucker had pointed out the first time he opened her recipe book. Tucker chewed thoughtfully on his burger—which he decided was only okay because he didn't like the texture of the mushroom—and turned Sam's words over in his head. He specifically thought about her callout of big industries, something her family was deeply involved in.
"So, does everything you just said have anything to do with why you're vegan?" Tucker asked.
"Three more days, Tuck," Sam said, smirking at him over her taco.
"Ugh." Tucker groaned but let it go. Three days. He could wait three days.
Saturday – Day Five
Standing at the counter, Tucker flipped through Sam's recipe binder, giving it a more thorough look through. He easily found the recipes his mom had already tried, marked with green stick notes. A few more were marked in green. He figured those were ones she wanted to try.
Angela shuffled into the kitchen, yawning.
"Morning, Mom," he mumbled. After a moment, he blinked, frowning in confusion, and looked up. "Didn't you work last night? Why are you awake?"
"Anderson asked me if he could take my shift, needed the extra money. I don't work again until Sunday night, which means you have to suffer through me all weekend, baby," Angela said, giving Tucker a quick hug and ruffling his hair.
"Ugh, Mom, nooo," Tucker whined half-heartedly.
"What are you doing?" she asked, seeing the recipe book laid out before him.
"Well, one of the reasons Sam wanted me to do this was so I could appreciate the effort being vegan took. Or something like that." He waved his hand dismissively. "But just eating the food doesn't take a lot of effort."
A proud small graced Angela's lips. "Do you want to help me cook today?"
Going back to the binder, Tucker showed Angela a page he had marked with his thumb. "Sam's got a couple snack recipes here. Appetizer stuff, like mini-tacos, stuffed peppers, assorted veggie bowls, stuff like that. I thought it might be fun to make a bunch of them."
"That sounds fantastic!" Angela said, giving Tucker another squeeze. "We can pick out which ones you want to make and go to the store. I'm going to tell everyone we run into what a considerate young man you are."
His cheeks flushed in embarrassment.
"We should have breakfast before we go. Anything in particular you want?"
"Um, actually..." Tucker trailed off. Blushing even more, he pointed toward the table. "I tried making the lettuce wraps, but, uh.... yeah."
The lettuce wraps were more like lettuce massacres. The iceberg lettuce wouldn't peel neatly off the head and Tucker ended up ripping most of the leaves in half, resulting in wraps that couldn't wrap around anything. Unevenly chopped vegetables spilled off the cutting board into the table. Off to the side, a ramekin filled to the brim, with sauce dripping down the sides, was in the process of staining the tablecloth.
"You are so lucky I'm here," Angela teased.
"Mom," Tucker lamented, but he actually sort of liked it.
Sunday – Day Six
Tucker rocked back on his heels, cradling his chin in his palm, as he scanned the Nasty Burger menu. He finally understood what Sam was talking about every time she complained about how there was nothing to eat her. For Tucker, who loved big, sloppy burgers, there was an abundance of options. But for vegans? Or even vegetarians? It was woefully lacking.
Which made sense, because it was a burger place. But Sam said she couldn't get a decent vegan meal anywhere in a five-block radius around the Nasty Burger, which meant whenever she, Tucker, and Danny went to eat there, she couldn't pick food up somewhere else and bring it over.
Tucker hummed, looking over his limited options, and almost missed Valerie walking in front of him, heading around the counter to start her shift.
"Hey, Tucker," she said, pulling on her hat. She gave the acne-riddled teen currently at the register a wave. "You can go on your break, I'll take over."
"Thanks, Val," the kid said.
"So, Tuck. Might Meaty Melt with extra meat?" Valerie asked, already punching it in.
"Actually, no," Tucker said. He couldn't decide between the veggie burger or one of the salads. The kitchen probably didn't have a separate grill for the veggie patties. Would the meal not count if it touched beef juice? It wouldn't be the same as eating a beef burger, but Sam always said it made her uncomfortable knowing the veggie patties might have been grilled in raw juices.
"We've got a new meaty burrito, with sausage stuffed beef." Valerie waved to the promotional sign on the menu board.
"Sausage stuffed beef? How does that even work?"
"No idea, want to try it?"
"Not today. What kind of fryer oil do you use?" Tucker asked, finally looking away from the menu.
"Uh..." Valerie frowned. Glancing back at the kitchen, she squinted at the fryers. "I think we just use canola, why?"
Tucker nodded, finally settling on his order. "I'll get the veggie burger, but can I get the patty deep-fried? And no mayo."
Valerie didn't make a move to punch it in. "What?"
"What?"
"You want a veggie burger?"
"Yeah." Tucker shuffled his feet, feeling awkward. "Why?"
"You. Tucker Foley. Carnivore of Casper High. You want a veggie burger. With no mayo." Valerie looked like she just saw her dad petting the ghost dog that ruined her life. She looked like the world had turned upside down.
Immediately, Tucker realized he could have fun with this. "I'm vegan," he said.
Valerie's face went completely blank for one glorious moment before she screeched, "What?!" Leaning across the counter, she grabbed Tucker. "Since when?"
"Uh, for a while now. Geez, where have you been, Valerie? Don't you know meat is murder?" Tucker asked, tutting and shaking his head.
Valerie, looking like she had woken up in another dimension, slowly punched in his order. Her shocked expression had Tucker giggling all throughout his meal. He made sure to look extra pleased with his burger whenever Valerie looked his way.
Monday – Day Seven
Tucker popped the last bite of his burrito into his mouth. It had been an absolute monster full of three kinds of beans, guacamole, salsa, and a wide range of vegetables. His mom specifically saved that recipe for Monday night because she knew it would be his favourite. Chewing fast, Tucker didn't even take the time to savour, instead swallowing as fast as he could and throwing his arms in the air.
"I did it!" he cheered. Pushing away from the table, he leapt to his feet and whooped. He pranced around the room. "I did it, and I didn't cheat, and nobody can ever say I can't appreciate a good vegetable ever again!"
Sam, who had joined the Foley's for dinner that night, shook her head as she watched Tucker. She still had half her burrito left, as did Tucker's parents, because they didn't try to inhale it like they hadn't eaten in a week.
Tucker skipped around the table and stopped beside Sam's chair. "Now you have to tell me."
"I thought you said I didn't have to?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.
Tucker went completely still, his face falling.
Sam laughed. "I'm just kidding. But I'm going to enjoy my dinner first. We aren't all heathens," she said.
Groaning, Tucker returned to his seat. For the rest of the meal, he kept motioning for Sam to hurry up and finish eating. It only made her chew slower. When she finally finished, Tucker eagerly stood up.
"Okay, let's go," he said, grabbing her hand.
Sam pulled back. "Mr. Foley, would you like some help with cleaning up?"
She and Maurice shared sly, conspiratorial grins as Tucker protested loudly.
"That sounds lovely, Sam. Thank you for offering!" Maurice said.
Twenty minutes later, when the dishes were clean, the kitchen was spotless, and the floor was swept, Sam turned to Tucker and said, "Okay, let's go."
"Finally!"
Tucker dragged Sam into his room, closing the door. He took the beanbag chair in the corner of the room while Sam claimed his desk chair.
"So, the reason?" Tucker prompted.
"When people get rich, the first thing they want to do is make more money," Sam started.
"What does that have to do with being vegan?"
"It's relevant! My great-grandfather invented stuff, and he was good at it. Made a lot of money doing it. By my grandfather wasn't as savvy. He took over the company, but he wasn't as innovative. To keep the money coming in, he looked to other industries," Sam said.
"Like farming," Tucker said. "You've mentioned that before."
"Yeah. When I was eight, before he passed away, my grandfather took me to one of his industrial farms. He knew I liked animals and he thought it'd get me interested in the family busy."
"When you were eight," Tucker deadpanned.
Sam nodded. "When I was eight. I saw how horribly the animals were treated there, and it honestly scarred me. I couldn't stand eating meat after that, not after knowing that's how they're treated."
"And that's it?" Tucker asked. He frowned, a little let down. The way Sam built it up, he thought there would be some big reveal. Maybe a deep, dark secret she never shared with anyone before. But it wasn't. She had just been a little girl who loved animals and hated to see them hurt.
"Sorry it wasn't worth the wait," Sam said with a wry grin.
Tucker shrugged. "Eh. My fault for building it up so much." He paused. "Are you going to take over the family business one day?"
Sam lowered her cheek to Tucker's desk and frowned. "I don't know. I don't want everything to be handed to me on a silver platter just because my family has money. I want to work for it. But..."
"If you take over," Tucker said, realizing where Sam was going.
"I can change the way they do things. There are lots of ways to farm ethically. Small local livestock growers? I support them wholeheartedly. They care about their animals and make sure they have good lives before they're killed. I want the Manson Company to be like that," she said. "And until I can make that change happen, I refuse to eat meat.
"Huh. Well, if anyone can do it, you can. I don't think I know anyone as stubborn as you are," Tucker said.
Sam smiled softly. "Thanks, Tuck. That means a lot."
"Now will you talk to Melanie from calculus?" Tucker shot finger guns at Sam. "You never actually said no."
"Oh my god, you're unbelievable." Leaning over, Sam snatched a pillow from Tucker's bed and whipped it at him.
"Hey!" he rolled away, jumping to his feet, and hoisted the beanbag over his shoulder. "Was that a threat, Manson?"
"You think you can beat me, the reigning pillow fight champ since our first sleepover in third grade?" Sam asked, snatching up another pillow.
"I can damn well try!" Tucker pounced.
Sam immediately beat the stuffing out of him. But he wasn't too choked up about it. He made good on the bet, after all. Thanks to that, he now understood Sam a little better. Tomorrow, Danny would be back, and everything would go back to normal. There was no way Tucker would give up his food arguments with Sam, even if they had an understand now. They were just too much fun.
Lying on the floor, panting and wondering how Sam could bruise him with pillows, Tucker hoped Danny had fun this week. Tucker certainly did.  
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