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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[lightbearinglord]

"The onion must be cut into large pieces and the garlic peeled." Presuming that they will divide the tasks as they see fit, Lan Wangji, who has found a cleaver and a cutting board, starts to tidily chop the pork shoulder into its own large pieces.

[sagramore]

"Garlic or onion?" to Magnus.

[summerdude]

Magnus's knife skills are still pretty limited to murdering people with them. He wants to improve them, but for now -- "I'll take the garlic," he says, starting to separate out the cloves.

[lightbearinglord]

With two considerably more talkative people around, Lan Wangji lapses into peaceful silence. He finds a large pot, scrapes the pieces of pork into it, pours in a couple of cups of water, and begins measuring out the various spices fetched by Sagramore. He does, however, pause to watch Magnus for a moment, then takes one of garlic cloves and his knife and demonstrates to him how to brace the blade against a clove and give it a single blow with the heel of his palm to peel it easily.

[sagramore]

Sagramore is pretty good at mincing things, he does it for Laertes all the time. He raises his eyebrows at the garlic smash, making internal notes.

[summerdude]

"That's cool," says Magnus, and smashes a clove between his fingertips. "Wait, do you want these to be, like, fully intact?"

[lightbearinglord]

"I did," Lan Wangji says, "but this will be fine." If this recipe is so precise that one crushed garlic clove will spoil it, he stands very little chance at making it correctly anyway. As Magnus and Sagramore finish their tasks, he goes to assemble ingredients for the sauce, beginning with plucking two bags from the cabinets, one containing guajillo chiles and the other full of ancho chiles. It also calls for another onion, so he passes that wordlessly to Sagramore.

[sagramore]

He tosses it in the air and catches it, for the sheer pleasure of being silly, before he makes a cut and begins peeling off the crackly brown outer skin. "So these are things you've tried before, Nuszka?"

[summerdude]

Magnus peels the next cloves more sedately. He looks up at Sagramore's question. "Me?"

[lightbearinglord]

Sagramore is very obviously not addressing Lan Wangji. He gives Magnus one invisibly amused look about it, then scoops up Magnus' garlic along with Sagramore's first chopped onion and adds all of that to his pot. Self-indulgent and barely even sorry about it, he does, of course, light the burner with a little two-fingered flick of controlled qi.

[sagramore]

"I honestly have no idea how I'd begin to make Lan Wangji's name smaller, so it has to be you."

[summerdude]

Magnus considers this. "I guess Hanguang-jun is an embiggening, not an ensmallening," he says, thoughtfully. "And yeah! I love tamales. Alex grew up with them."

[lightbearinglord]

Theoretically, Lan Wangji could propose one or two possible diminutives for his own name, but he doesn't care to hear any of them from anyone but his husband. When he was very small, his mother and, occasionally, his brother called him A-Zhan, but that was so long ago it hardly feels real. "My birth name is Lan Zhan," he offers. After a beat, he adds, "Do not call me that."

[sagramore]

"No fear," with his usual airy hand gesture, only this time he has a knife.

[summerdude]

"Can I say it once to make sure I'm pronouncing it right?"

[lightbearinglord]

"Mn," Lan Wangji agrees, because there is very little within reason that he would actually deny Magnus. He starts removing the stems and seeds from his assortment of chiles.

[sagramore]

Sagramore listens, as he returns to dicing the onion very small.

[summerdude]

Oh, well now Magnus is self-conscious about it! He pauses in peeling garlic and says, "Lan Zhan?" a little uncertainly, but clearly trying very hard to get the tones right.

[lightbearinglord]

It is surprisingly jarring, but Lan Wangji can hardly object, since he gave his permission. He considers, then says, "Acceptable."

[sagramore]

Short work is being made of the onion. It's a bit of a trial to shut up and listen for once, but Lan Wangji and Magnus are clearly having a moment, so he manages.

[summerdude]

Magnus nods seriously. "I won't say it again," he promises. "Thanks for letting me try it out." He's done with the garlic, and he pushes it toward Lan Wangji.

[lightbearinglord]

It's only a name -- but it is a name that crossed no one's lips, except occasionally his own in introduction, for thirteen years. "Thank you," Lan Wangji tells Magnus, ostensibly for the garlic. It goes in another pot along with the chiles, water, a few more bay leaves, and Sagramore's second onion. He lights that burner as well, then has to admit, with some gravity, "I have never used a blender."

[sagramore]

"Oh, neither have I. Magnus, can you shepherd us?"

[summerdude]

"I haven't used one since I was fourteen," Magnus says, with a tiny little flashback to smoothie all over the small apartment kitchen, the first time he decided he wanted one while his mom was at work. "...but I guess I watched Janet use one a couple weeks ago, and it won't be hard to remember the basics. We need to blend something?"

[lightbearinglord]

"The sauce," Lan Wangji clarifies, with a nod at his smaller pot. The larger, with the pork, is just beginning to think about simmering.