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Ehwa was furiously reading through the recipe Viole had given her to see what had gone wrong with her stew to have it looking so grey when there was a knock on the door. She shoved the paper onto the counter and stormed over to the door, throwing it open.
“What is i-? Oh, it’s you”.
Standing at the door was Hwaryun, piercing crimson eye crinkled up in amusement. She wore a deep grey sweater dress and black tights that on anyone else would be at most comfy, but on her was criminally unfair. Ehwa really couldn’t stand these FUG guys, walking around like they owned the place and looking better than you doing it.
“Yes, I suppose it is,” Hwaryun smirked, folding her arms together leisurely, like she had all the time in the world.
Ehwa put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot, “What are you doing here? Can’t you tell Viole’s out with your,” she gestured around her head, “Guide sense stuff?”
Hwaryun chuckled and Ehwa felt a shiver run down her spine. FUG people sure were creepy like that. Yes, that was it. Ehwa was creeped out, nothing else.
“Maybe my ‘Guide sense stuff' led me to exactly where I needed to be”.
“Well that’s not purposefully vague at all,” Ehwa said sarcastically, but her words were overtaken by the beeping of the oven.
“Oh shit! I totally forgot,” She said, rushing over and pulling out rolls that could politely be deemed as being ‘incinerated’. She growled angrily and slammed the plate down onto the counter, sending the rolls that weren’t stuck down flying.
Fuck. Why was this so hard? She was supposed to be a shining beacon of her family but she couldn’t even fucking cook right, let alone control her own powers. She had tried taking over cooking duties from Viole again, to prove herself, but she just kept failing time and time again. It had gotten to the point where some of the others would go and get take-out while she was still cooking.
Ehwa blinked back tears of frustration as she gripped the edge of the counter, looking around at the disaster area she’d turned the kitchen into. Behind her, there was a thoughtful hum.
“Yes, I can see that I’m exactly where I need to be,” Ehwa turned around and came almost nose to nose with Hwaryun, who was graciously not wrinkling up her nose at the burnt smell of the kitchen. They were so close, Ehwa could smell whatever citrus perfume Hwaryun had put on and her beautiful crimson eye took up most of Ehwa’s vision. She was overwhelming all of Ehwa’s senses, taking up all of her thoughts.
Ehwa backed up abruptly, which meant backing herself into the counter, face burning, “Wh-what do you mean?”
“It seems like you’re still just a girl who can’t even cook,” Hwaryun said, a teasing glimmer in her eye.
“Hey!” Ehwa protested, despite how right she was. She felt like she was exactly where she had been when she had first discovered what her family did to the Zygaenas. She huffed at that thought, crossing her arms.
“But,” Hwaryun said, “I think I can help you with that”.
Ehwa’s arms fell down in her confusion, “What do you mean by that?”
“I know how to cook”.
Ehwa’s mouth went agape as she thought through the implications of that sentence, “You think I’m gonna let a FUG criminal cook for me?!”
Hwaryun took a step closer, until they were back in the same space again, “I think you should let your friend’s Guide guide you through how to cook something edible”.
There were so many things wrong with that sentence. First of all, Viole was not her friend. Second of all, she could cook edible food alright? She’d only ever set a sandwich on fire once and that wasn’t even her fault. And thirdly-
“You want to teach me how to cook?”
“I think someone needs to before you set the whole building on fire”.
Which, fair.
“And that someone has to be you?” Ehwa asked.
Hwaryun made a point of looking around the living area, “Do you see anyone else here?”
Ehwa hated that she was boxed in by the other’s logic. It would be nice for her cooking to not be a complete failure, and Viole had tried to teach her before to no avail, so maybe this could possibly be a viable option.
She huffed, sighed, and said, “Fine, teach me how to cook”.
“Teach me how to cook---” Hwaryun led, a hand on her hip.
“Teach me how to cook, please, okay? What, do you want me to get on my knees and beg?”
Hwaryun smirked, like she would have loved for that to happen, but simply said, “Alright, I’ll teach you. Now let’s see what you have that we have to work with, because we’re not going to be able to fix this”.
She gestured over at the grey stew and black rolls and Ehwa could see her point. There really was no fixing that.
Ehwa then watched with only a few quips and comments as Hwaryun rummaged through the pantry and refrigerator, pulling out what she said she could work with. Finally, she pulled the half-full bottle of vodka out of the freezer.
“What are you gonna do with that?” Ehwa asked, from where she was sitting on the kitchen counter.
“We’re making penne alla vodka. What were you doing with it?”
“Wangnan found out Viole’d never gotten drunk before,” Ehwa sheepishly admitted, “There used to be five more bottles. Apparently Goseng knows how to make cocktails and Viole liked them so much he didn’t notice he was drunk till he was wayyyy past wasted”.
Hwaryun laughed at that, a real laugh that moved her chest and curled her cheeks. Ehwa sat there in awe, she didn’t know that the Guide could laugh like that, that she could laugh at all. A rosy tinge was brought to both their cheeks, for two very different reasons. Ehwa found herself wanting to trace the laugh lines of her face, the crinkles by her eyes, and she was shocked off of her seat at that realisation.
“So…” She segued awkwardly, “How do we do this?”
“Well first, we have to cook the penne, which means boiling a pot of water. I think you can handle that much at least”.
“I totally can!”
She totally couldn’t. She’d burnt the pot so many times they had to get a new one, but she had to save face in front of the Guide. She poured water into the pot and set it at the burner, before turning up the dial.
A shock went through her system when a hand went over her own, turning the dial down, “You don’t want it up all the way, that’ll burn the pot before it boils the water”.
Ehwa was stuck, face bright red, until Hwaryun moved her hand away.
“Oh, thanks,” She said shakily, “I didn’t know that”.
Hwaryun smirked, still so, so close, “Well now you do, and I’m sure I just saved many more pots in the future”.
“Y-Yeah…” Ehwa said, not paying attention to Hwaryun’s words, but rather her lips, glossy with some kind of subtle makeup that Ehwa was not even pretending she didn’t want to know the taste of.
“So now we just wait until the water comes to a boil”.
“Yeah” Their breaths were mixing, and Ehwa had never felt so intimate with another person before, despite being in much more illicit situations. Though, her kidnapping was as far from her mind as possible right now.
“Can I kiss you?”
“Yeah-” Ehwa stuttered to a stop, processing what Hwaryun had asked, “No. I mean, uh, yes. I mean, yes plea-”
Hwaryun swooped down and brought their lips together, and the last thing Ehwa saw before closing her eyes was her expression. Like a cat that got the canary.
Hwaryun licked at the seam of Ehwa’s mouth, nudging it open, and Ehwa finally got a taste of her. Freshly peeled oranges, just like her perfume. It was overwhelming, it was addicting. Ehwa grabbed Hwaryun’s dress and tugged her in closer between her legs, deepening the kiss.
Hwaryun had one hand curled up firmly in Ehwa’s hair, and the other slowly moving down her back. Ehwa let out a yelp when it landed on her ass, but Hwaryun swallowed the noise and used her grasp to bring her even closer.
Ehwa wrapped both her arms around Hwaryun’s neck as the other woman nipped and sucked her way down her neck, leaving her breathless. Hwaryun nipped at the center of her throat and sucked, tearing a moan out of Ehwa that made Hwaryun chuckle. In response, Ehwa marked up the space behind Hwaryun’s ear.
They met back in the middle and Ehwa sighed into the kiss. It sapped all the air out of her lungs and made everything around them fuzzier. Only Hwaryun was in bright, sharp technicolor, gorgeous from every angle.
They separated for air, and Hwaryun purred into her ear, “Darling, you’re so pretty it hurts”.
Ehwa blushed, but took it as the challenge it was. She nipped on Hwaryun’s earlobe, a sensitive spot from her shivers, and whispered, “If you’re hurting then I must be in agony, because you’re gorgeous”.
Hwaryun obviously wasn’t anticipating a comeback, so the blush on her face that appeared was all the more beautiful. Ehwa kissed it, going from one cheek, across the bridge of her nose, to the other cheek. Hwaryun caught her mouth in a heated kiss at the end of it, bringing the hand that was in Ehwa’s hair beneath her shirt, playing with the clasp of her bra.
“Oh shit,” Ehwa looked over at the stove, “The water’s boiling”.
“Can’t we ignore it?” Hwaryun whined. Whined. Ehwa patted herself on the back for her superior kissing skills.
“No,” She said, taking the chance that this wasn’t just an isolated incident and pecking Hwaryun on the lips before she got out the pasta, “Now how long do I boil this?”
“15 minutes, now come back here,” She commanded, a goddess in messed up makeup.
Ehwa took her time pouring in the pasta, licking her lips, tasting citrus. She’d never be able to eat an orange again, probably. She turned around to see Hwaryun sitting on the kitchen counter, foot tapping impatiently. She took the time to relish in this control she had, that she could get Hwaryun pent up and out of character, before she gave in and walked into her embrace.
This time, they were slower, perhaps even a little sweeter with each other. There were questions, so many questions, Ehwa wanted to ask. But those could wait until after the food was cooked. This time was theirs, and only theirs.
Hwaryun sucked down on the junction between Ehwa’s shoulder and neck, and Ehwa gave into the desire to drag her fingers through crimson hair. Her choice was awarded with a soft moan from Hwaryun, so she did it again, combing her fingers over her scalp.
Ehwa felt hands on each side of her face, and she looked up to see Hwaryun smiling gently at her. Before she could say a word, Hwaryun began kissing all over her face, murmuring indulgences in between.
Ehwa had been called ‘beautiful’ before, but she’d never been called ‘lovely’ or ‘angel’ or ‘sweetheart’ and the names left her a blushing, blustering mess. It was completely unfair, but Hwaryun wouldn’t recede until she had kissed every part of her face. By the time she was done, smiling down at her work, the pasta was done as well.
They worked in tandem to make the sauce, Hwaryun giving instructions and ingredients, and Ehwa cutting them up and putting them together. This was the calmest she had felt in a kitchen in her whole life. Everything felt like it had stakes, that failure was death, even the kitchen, but now, with Hwaryun brushing a hand against her hip when she went to grab the garlic, Ehwa felt safe.
After the sauce was cooked, they combined it with the pasta. Ehwa bit her lip nervously as Hwaryun took a bite. When she got the thumbs up, Ehwa cheered and brought Hwaryun into a hug.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”
Hwaryun pulled away slightly, before leaving a lingering kiss on Ehwa’s lips, “You’re welcome, sweetheart”.
Then, the front door opened and Prince’s voice called out, “What smells so good?”