I Up My Boyfriend Game With The Help Of My F̶a̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ Bother Figures [closed post]

[summerdude]

Magnus shows up to the kitchen earlier than the agreed-upon time, since he's actually really excited to fold tamales (and learn how to prep the individual components thereof) with a couple of his favorite people. When he gets there, he remembers having to teach Galahad about hand-washing, and thinks about the fact that both Sagramore and Lan Wangji are from old-timey places. When they arrive, they'll find him scrubbing down the countertops, making sure they have a clean workspace.

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[summerdude]

"Cool," says Magnus. He's pretty sure his masa is ready, so he sets to the task diligently. "Sagramore, what kind of food did you grow up with? I know you had kibbeh but that's all."

[sagramore]

"Oh, Christ. Well, you know, I lived in Hungary until I was about ten years old, so lots of spices, all kinds of spices. Lots of kefir and cheese, lots of stews. Cold soups like meggyleves, fermented vegetables, things like that. One of the cooks used to make kifli. And then when we moved to Constantinople, that's where I had kibbeh, except we call it köfte, and where I started drinking coffee, but what I remember most was the abundance of fruit -- apricots, pomegranates, dates, figs and quince, all kinds of fruit. A lot of rice, yoğurt, minced meat-- oh, dolma and sarma, but I always hated those. That might be more answer than you're looking for."

[lightbearinglord]

With Magnus asking Sagramore questions again, and Sagramore answering at length, Lan Wangji is perfectly content to drift back into silence and listen. Little of this sounds familiar, aside from the fermented vegetables and a few of the fruits, but it's peaceful to absorb the information. In the meantime, he begins pulling the corn husks out of the water and patting them dry with towels.

[summerdude]

"Do you think one of those would be better than dates?" Magnus asks. He's looking at the dates. He likes them, likes how sticky-sweet they are, but they're not, like, revelatory to him the way they are to Sam. He's a little worried that they might be dry in all that masa. "Do you think any of the fruit you grew up with would work?" he asks. "It sounds like Turkish fruit is kinda similar to Iraqi fruit anyway." He sighs. "I guess we could also definitely use a Mexican fruit. Guava might be nice? But I also can't stop thinking that it would be cool to do a nod to Sam with these guys."

[sagramore]

"What about apricots? They're not too sweet -- they're used sometimes in meat dishes too. And if they're dried they won't add too much liquid to the masa."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji glances up from his quiet little husk-drying project. "Sizhui likes apricots," he offers. They are a fairly rare treat at the Cloud Recesses, where most meals are roughly the same day to day, but he had never been able to resist spoiling his favorite disciple just a little when returning from summer night-hunts.

[summerdude]

"Sizhui?" Magnus asks, trying -- as usual -- to pronounce it right. "Who's that?" To Sagramore, he says, "It's worth a shot, right?"

[sagramore]

"We might as well." But then he falls quiet, in case Lan Wangji wants to answer the question.

[lightbearinglord]

"Lan Sizhui," Lan Wangji corrects himself. "A Lan disciple. I have mentioned him to you." It's nearly the most evasive answer possible, which is objectively ridiculous. In this setting, he could as easily say Wen Yuan, who became Lan Yuan, who became Lan Sizhui, the only living remnant of everything that Wei Ying once stood, and ultimately died, for and suffer no consequences. Protective habits are not easy to break.

[summerdude]

"Oh, the one who's like," Magnus starts, and then cuts himself off, clearly amending his thought. "Really important to you?"

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji catches that redirection, but doesn't comment. "Yes." Really important to you is as good a description as any. He pauses in his work to think of Sizhui, whose birthday he recently missed, who was unerringly kind to Wei Ying from the moment of his resurrection, whose voice he hears, from time to time, when Magnus says Hanguang-jun! in that sweetly uncomplicated, trusting way. If not for A-Yuan, he would be a different, much colder man today.

[summerdude]

It would be so stupid for Magnus to get a little jealous at everything clearly packed inside that simple little 'yes,' so he absolutely totally 100% doesn't. "So let's try apricots, then!" he says. Honestly, if it turns out bad, it's everyone else's fault. They both know he doesn't know the first thing about how to make cooking work.

[sagramore]

"Apricots!" says Sagramore, sensing that it may be time to move things along. "Half a cup, do you think?"

[lightbearinglord]

There is a certain phantom of the sensation that Lan Wangji has missed something, or erred in some way, but perhaps that, too, is only a ghost of his imagination. He glances at Magnus. "That depends on how many we are making today."

[summerdude]

"I mean, it only makes sense to make a ton," says Magnus, fully throwing himself into this topic, since he doesn't have any feelings about Lan Wangji not-adopting someone Magnus has never even met and whose name he'd never heard before three minutes ago whatsoever. "The classic way is to freeze a bunch so you can have them whenever, since they're pretty labor intensive. But we could do some apricot and some fresh... something. Like strawberries or guava maybe?" He frowns. "Is that too much? That's probably too much. We already have two flavors of savory."

[sagramore]

"No, no, strawberries sounds excellent. That one will be wet, the apricots will be dry, we'll learn something about textures. I'm all in."

[lightbearinglord]

"I have not had strawberries," Lan Wangji admits. He is, however, willing both to try them and to experiment generally. "I agree that we should make a significant quantity."

[summerdude]

"Cool." Magnus grins, and then looks down at his cutting board. "Do you think this is enough cheese?"

Then he does a double take. "You've never had strawberries?"

[sagramore]

"My lord," in scandalized tones; this is definitely a silliness he's willing to play along with.

[lightbearinglord]

About to answer the first question, Lan Wangji stops and looks between the two of them. He at least realizes quickly enough that he is being teased. "There was a cake at your birthday celebration flavored with them," he amends, and does not say the least disgusting among the cakes, "but we do not have them where I come from."

[summerdude]

"Dude," says Magnus, in his most commiserating of tones. "That blows."

[sagramore]

"It's a pity." He goes to the fridge to get some, and brings back a small paper carton of tiny alpine strawberries, the variety he's familiar with -- they don't look much like the cultivated Virginia strawberry of North America.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji considers warning them both that he often doesn't care for new foods, but they may as well find that out for themselves. "I will try one," he allows.

[summerdude]

"Oh, I love this kind," Magnus says, seeing what Sagramore's brought over. He takes one and pops it into his mouth. "The ones in Jotunheim are like this, except like twenty times bigger. Because of, you know. The jotuns."

[sagramore]

"They won't be wasted if you don't like them," he tells Lan Wangji, amused.