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He was late. Again.
The pink-haired mechanic was used to this by now. Lounging on the couch in the rather large house, Kazuichi Souda waited in the living room alone. His occasional glances at the door with each slight noise he heard were pretty much just reacting to false hopes. No matter how many times he looked at the door, Gundam wouldn’t walk through it.
Now, this wasn’t an uncommon occurrence. Souda was almost always the first home, and Gundam was almost always late. They both had their own shops, they both made their own hours, but they seemed to have different ways of running their businesses. Gundam still woke up earlier, but that was just to tend to the animals that lived in the house and on the farm before heading to his pet shop. His was also out further than Souda’s auto-repair shop. Souda strived towards straight 9am to 6 or 7pm working days, whereas Gundam, hoping to give animals good homes with young owners, needed to keep his shop open more in the evening. Gundam didn’t take out of work lunch breaks, and usually wouldn’t come home until around 8, 9, or sometimes as late as 11pm. He’d come home to Souda usually having ordered some pizza and falling asleep on the sofa and would carry him to bed.
Had today been a normal day, Souda wouldn’t have really cared that much about Tanaka’s lateness; Souda was used to taking care of the variety of animals in his boyfriend’s care. Today wasn’t normal, however. Today was Gundam Tanaka’s birthday. Souda had talked with him in the morning about how he should close up shop early and come home so that they could celebrate together and have a good dinner at a restaurant or something, but Tanaka was set in his ways. Souda zoned out during his lengthy lecture on why he needed to work as long as he did, but he did catch something about introducing children to proper animal care and how it’d be selfish of him to just close up suddenly on a random day. He will forever regret ever trying to argue with Tanaka and his elaborate linguistics that made talking to him beyond his comprehension on occasion.
Even with this, though, he thought that Tanaka would have made it back home by 8. He was mistaken as the clock chimed. 8, 8:30, 9, 9:30. The incessant ticking of the grandfather clock was maddening. He’d tended to the animals, the tv was showing the same old crap that it normally did, and boredom was getting to him. “Damn him…” He said, twirling his always ready wrench in his fingers. “Outta all days to work late, ya had to pick today…” He groaned, eyeing the clock again. “It’s almost 10. He’s gonna miss out on his entire day…”
It was then that another sound was heard. Souda jumped from his seat on the couch and fell backwards, over the back of the couch, landing on his head. It was a growl. “Hey, if any one of ya mangy mutts is fixin’ to pull a fast one on me, ya better think twice!.” The growl was heard again and Souda pulled his hat down over his eyes. “D-don’t ya dare get any closer ta me…” The grumbling noise was heard again, and it was close, it was then that he’d realized what it really was.
He looked down and it was his stomach growling. “Shit, I forgot ta feed myself…” He looked around again, just to make sure he wasn’t dismissing an actual animal problem, and then to the clock. “It sure is getting late… I better eat…” Hopping to his feet he walked into the kitchen to get the take out menu, as he normally would, but just as he started dialing for pizza, an idea hit him. “Tanaka shouldn’t have to eat cold pizza leftovers for his birthday… he also shouldn’t have to cook…” Looking over at the pans sitting in the dish rack, he was struck with inspiration. “Maybe… I could try cookin’!” He hung up the phone and started thinking. “But what do I cook… I ain’t no master chef like Hanamura, and Tanaka doesn’t eat meat…” The task was starting to seem more difficult. Admittedly, he never did any cooking beyond a TV dinner and had memories of burning grilled cheese when he tried to make a sandwich. Sure he was in his early teens when that happened, so he HAD to have gotten better by now. He handled welding torches and cars now, cooking a meal couldn’t be that difficult.
He wandered over to the pantry and looked for something he, with his lack of skill, could cook. It was getting close to the time when they’d go shopping for the few things that Gundam couldn’t grow in his garden so the stock was a little low, but, he managed to find a box of spaghetti and some tomato sauce. “That’s it, Spaghetti! Just boil some water, heat up the sauce and add some vegetables. Perfect!”
After trying to remember what Gundam used when he cooked, he settled for a double pan for the noodles and a reasonably sized sauce pan for the sauce. He also went over to their fresh fruits and vegetables storage and picked out some good looking red and green peppers and some mushrooms to chop up and add. He figured that he had a good attack plan.
After filling up the double pans with hot water he poured the spaghetti into the pan and turned the burner on. “It’s just boilin’, so I don’t have to worry about it too much…” He then turned, found the cutting board, and put the pepper on it. He looked at the large knife in his hand and carefully sliced it through the green pepper, confused when he hit something half way through. “What the…” he put more force into it, cutting all the way across the pepper, even through the stem. When it split, he could see what the problem was, and almost facepalmed. “Oh… it has a core…” He could practically hear Tanaka’s condensidening voice at his lack of plant knowledge stating “the seeds for my plants have to come from somewhere, you know” He would make sure with the red pepper to not repeat his mistake.
As he chucked the core of the pepper into the trash, he went to turn on the other burner and heat up the sauce. He looked at the noodles and figured that the fact that they weren’t still standing straight up in the the pot, half submerged, and were now sort of clumped at the bottom seemed like a good sign. He just whistled and didn’t give the noodles much second thought.
He whistled and chopped up the remainder of the pepper, moving on to the second one, removing the core and seeds first this time, and then the mushrooms, pouring the chopped up bits into the sauce pan, stirring it.
He was about to taste test the sauce when nature called. “Shit.” He ran for the nearest bathroom. His liquid diet of almost all cola did have some negative side effects other than Tanaka wanting him to brush his teeth before they made out.
When he came back to the kitchen, the water in the noodle pot was almost boiling over. “Woah there!” He ran over and shut off the burner. “Good… that could have been bad….” He lifted up the pan and moved it to the sink to drain the water. He pulled out the inner pan that had holes in it and put it in the other side of the sink to drain while he dumped out the hot water, very careful to not splash it too much and burn himself.
He lifted up a noodle with a fork to look at it. They seemed soft, almost too soft. He cringed slightly. “I better not have messed this up…” He brought the pans back to the counter by the stove as he shut off the sauce. As he stirred it, he noticed it was a bit darker and thicker than what he was used to in Tanaka’s cooking. “Crap… maybe I should just start ove-” He was cut off when he heard the sounds of the clock striking 10:45 and a door opening. “Shit, he’s home…"
Souda was mildly panicking, worried that maybe he hadn’t properly cooked the dish, but he didn’t have time, so he mixed the pasta and sauce quickly before running to the living room again.
Gundam was at the door, removing his coat. He assumed that Souda had, once again, fallen asleep before he’d come home. Gundam sighed, he didn’t really like staying out so late and missing Souda during some of the few hours that he wasn’t at work. But he was confused. Usually by now Souda had ordered pizza, and then fallen asleep without putting the leftovers away or throwing away the boxes. “Souda! I have returned! Where, by chance, are you?” As Gundam pushed the swinging door to the kitchen open, he felt something bump into him. “Oh, there you are. I would have thought you to have fallen asleep by now.”
Souda scratched the back of his head nervously. “W-welcome home, Tanaka-san. Yeah, I know, but, well, it’s yer birthday and I figured we celebrate it right! How’d we do do that if I’d been asleep when ya got home?”
Gundam raised and eyebrow. “Oh? What is this celebration of which you speak? I still don’t fully understand why you mortals wish to celebrate my day of entering existence.”
“Well… I cooked dinner for ya!” Souda smiled a bit, proud of the fact that he at least tried to cook. “I know you are probably really tired after workin’ all day, so I thought I’d do a lil’ extra thing so that you could relax.” A faint blush formed on Souda’s face. “T’was the least I could do for ya…”
Tanaka was a bit surprised, but equally confused. Souda? Cook? He never expected Souda to know HOW to cook. “R-really? That wasn’t a necessary task for you to preform.”
“I know it ain’t necessary for me ta cook for ya. That’s why it’s a surprise present for yer birthday!” Souda gritted his teeth, a little frustrated with Tanaka’s reaction.
“Alright, alright. Calm down. We shall eat the dinner that you prepared for me!” A small smile snuck it’s way onto Gundam’s face.
“Good, then come into the kitchen and let’s eat!” Souda’s stomach grumbled again as he said this, causing him to blush a little as Tanaka smirked a little. “Hey, watch it you!” Souda glared, but Tanaka just kept on smirking as he sat down at the table.
Souda scooped some of the spaghetti onto two plates and carried them over to the table. He placed one in front of Gundam and the other with himself as he sat down.
Gundam looked at the noodles before him. The sauce did seem a little darker than what he was used to, but it couldn’t be that bad. He lifted up some of the noodles with the fork on his plate, most of which tore as he tried to twirl them around the prongs. “Hmmm…” Once he finally had enough onto his fork, he moved it to his mouth and took a bite, a wave of horror passing through his body. ‘Oh no not again...’ He slowly chewed and swallowed the food, looking at Souda’s anxious face as he ate it.
“Well, what’d ya think?” Souda was on the edge of his seat, hoping that he did a good job on the meal.
Gundam managed to force out a response. “It’s good.” He kept eating it, he was used to eating things that didn’t quite match his idea for how food should taste. He had put up with it his entire life. He could tell the pasta was overcooked and the sauce had burnt. Souda wouldn’t have known this, however.
“Well, great. Let’s chow down then!” Tanaka stared intently on the fork as it went to Souda’s mouth. That lie would be over as soon as it started. As souda tried to eat it he pretty much spat it out immediately. “What the hell! It tastes all burnt and gross!” Souda looked up and saw that Gundam was looking away from him. “Tanaka… Ya lied ta me? Why? Ya know this is my first time cookin’, it’s not like it was gonna be perfect.” Souda was sniffling slightly. He was a little upset that Tanaka lied about how the food tasted. But it was in that moment that he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he looked up to see Tanaka looking down at him. “Wha?”
“Please… don’t be upset. I wish to tell you a story.” He bent down. “When I was younger, my mother would prepare my meals for me. My mother was an angel in all respects of the word. But, she did lack a certain worldly skill that most mothers are expected to have. She was unable to cook very well. Her meals, no matter how much she tried, were toxic and distasteful. It broke her heart that she couldn’t give me satisfactory meals. Regardless of that, I ate it. I ate every last bite until my plate was clean and if offered seconds, I would oblige and eat those too.” He pulled off Souda’s beanie to run his fingers through the pink locks. “We both knew that the cooking was bad, but I ate it anyway. It may have given me this cursed poison touch, but I cared too much about her and the love and caring she put into every meal to upset her.” His eyes locked with Souda’s. “Please Souda, understand this. I care about you as much as I cared about her. I didn’t wish to upset you. My mother tried her hardest, and so did you. The amount of love and thought you put into this meal… I am thankful just for that.”
Gundam smiled, and Souda’s face flushed bright red. The breeder hugged the mechanic. “T-thanks man, I guess I just didn’t see it that way.”
“It’s alright, dear. I’ll order the pizza this time. And I promise, I’ll always close shop early on my birthday, and we’ll go out to eat. And maybe in time, I could… instruct you on how to properly prepare meals.” Tanaka’s face reddened slightly, and his attempt to hide his embarrassment was halted as Souda stood up and grabbed his other hand.
“Happy Birthday, Tanaka-kun.” Souda smiled slightly and kissed Tanaka’s cheek. “I love you.”
The breeder used the hand on Souda’s head to tilt it up by the chin, and locked lips with him. Separating with a sincere smile.“Thank you, Souda-kun. I love you too.”