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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[sagramore]

"Galahad is right. Time changes depending on how long the days are." He's helpful!

[summerdude]

"Shichen," Magnus tries again. To Sagramore, he explains, "In my time, every day is 24 hours and every hour is sixty minutes. And every minute is sixty seconds."

[lightbearinglord]

"That is why I told you that a shichen amounts to two hours." It would have been impossible to live here for this long without realizing that his timekeeping system bears so little resemblance to most, and subsequently doing research about it.

[summerdude]

"See, that makes more sense to me than hours that change all the time."

[sagramore]

"The hours divide up the daylight equally. When there's less daylight, there's less time to fill those hours."

[lightbearinglord]

Quite reasonably, he thinks, Lan Wangji asks, "How is the nighttime divided?"

[summerdude]

Magnus would also like to know this! "Do nights even have hours?"

[sagramore]

"Nights have hours, but no bells are rung for them, and they divide up the night, so I suppose they're equal just like the day hours. I should confess I find keeping time very tedious and I don't often bother."

[lightbearinglord]

That sentiment is so alien that Lan Wangji can almost only admire it. He might wonder how Sagramore ever gets anywhere on time, but then he recalls that he was, indeed, late to this very appointment. Well, speaking of time: Lan Wangji plucks the lid off the steamer pot and examines the tamales within. It is difficult to tell until he unwraps one, but they should be done by now.

[summerdude]

Magnus immediately goes to fetch plates. "Here," he says, holding one out to Lan Wangji.

[sagramore]

Sagramore watches. In spite of his usual indifference to food he's very interested to see how these came out.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji takes the plate, then uses a pair of tongs to methodically dish out the tamales, one of each variety per plate. He makes a surreptitious little gesture to extinguish the flame on the burner, then looks levelly at Magnus. "You should be the first to try them."

[summerdude]

"Yeah, cool," says Magnus, who is super totally playing it cool. He unwraps his tamales, heedless of their heat -- it's not like he can't heal any burnt fingertips immediately -- and then grabs a fork and digs in.

And closes his eyes to have another little emotion. They're very good, is the thing, but gods he misses Alex so much. He should be here to try them, too. He doesn't want to worry the adult-shaped adults in the room, though, so he gives them a little thumbs-up and waggles it around while he chews.

[sagramore]

Sagramore meets Lan Wangji's eyes meaningfully over Magnus' head, a look which says this child who is not a child and especially not our child is having an emotion, let's be cool about it.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji holds Sagramore's gaze for that moment with a tiny nod of acknowledgment. His own gaze does, however, flick down toward Magnus and soften directly afterward. He will wait for his own tamales to cool before he unwraps them, both as an exercise of patience and because he does want to give Magnus the space to feel whatever he is feeling.

[summerdude]

"They're good," says Magnus, who is not tearing up.

[sagramore]

Eh, fuck it. Sagramore gives in to his impulses and pulls Magnus into a hug, ruffling his hair. "You've triumphed."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji is abruptly surpassingly relieved. He can usually accept failure in the kitchen with nothing more than passing frustration, but he sees now how much this meant to Magnus. Sagramore has most of Magnus in his arms, so Lan Wangji settles for squeezing his elbow.

[summerdude]

"You guys are sweet," says Magnus, not a little wetly at all.

[sagramore]

"What an idea," not at all letting Magnus out of the hug.