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Taako slid the grocery bags off his arm - one trip, hell yeah! - and hummed to himself as he began unloading the food. Chicken, broccoli, eggs, mushrooms...mostly the basics, plenty of produce. He was planning to make some fajitas later this week, a new recipe that Joaquin had given him, maybe some meatballs one day too. Tonight’s dinner (sausage, peppers, and onions on a bun, with some cheese melted on top) was long over. His grocery order for the week hadn’t been ready for pickup until late, and now he was ready to get this food put away and relax. Kravitz padded into the kitchen behind him, his socks swishing subtly on the wooden floor.
“Need any help, darling?”
Taako handed him a bag to be unloaded in the pantry while he filled the refrigerator, which Kravitz graciously took and set to work.
“Any chance you got Fantasy Oreos?” Kravitz asked him, carefully arranging the jars of tomatoes on the shelf in front of him.
Taako stalled, an orange in one hand and the refrigerator door held open with the other. “No, I….no, I didn’t. Sorry, babe.” He’d carefully planned the dinner menu for the week before placing his grocery order, but hadn’t thought to factor in Kravitz’ sweet tooth.
“It’s alright,” Kravitz assured him kindly, but Taako still quietly kicked himself for it. He usually asked Kravitz if he had any requests before placing a grocery order - why didn’t he do that this time?
“I can transmute some crackers if you want,” he offered weakly, but Kravitz waved him off.
“Really, Taako, don’t worry about it,” he insisted. “I don’t need them.”
After a few minutes the groceries were in their appropriate homes and a pot of relaxing tea was brewed. Taako and Kravitz retreated to the living room, each sprawling on opposite ends of the sofa with a book in hand. It was how they spent most of their quiet evenings, when their large and loud extended family weren’t around or Kravitz wasn’t being called in to deal with some necromantic emergency. Taako pulled his favorite blanket over his knees. It was hand knit by Istus herself in stripes of pink and blue - his and Kravitz’ wedding colors - and blessed to always be warm enough but never too hot. He wouldn’t often admit it, but Taako relished quiet relaxing nights like these.
Kravitz, on the other hand, seemed fidgety. His knee bounced, occasionally jostling Taako’s book, which he pointedly tried to ignore, and he was continually threading his fingers in and out of the silky yarn of the knitted blanket. He kept glancing up, seemingly unable to focus on his own book, and finally tossed the blankets off his legs and stood. Taako reluctantly set his book down and watched as Kravitz wordlessly wandered back into the kitchen. A minute or two later Kravitz called to him from the kitchen.
“Do we have the stuff to make cookies?”
Taako smirked to himself, tossing his book and blanket aside and rolling off the couch. He found Kravitz standing in the pantry, studying the baking staples but still looking wholly lost.
“We should be able to whip some up with what we’ve got,” Taako answered, leaning against the door.
“Is it...too late to make cookies?” Kravitz asked a little hesitantly, as if he was afraid Taako would complain he was too tired to start baking so late at night, but Taako shook his head.
“It’s never too late to make cookies, my man,” he assured him. “What kind did you want?”
Kravitz shook his head. “Not sure,” he murmured. He reached out and picked up a bag of chocolate chips, but immediately looked disappointed. The bag was nearly empty. With a contemplative expression he looked at the shelf, picking up a box of unsweetened chocolate instead.
“I could make that sweet pretty easily if chocolate chip is what you want,” Taako offered. Kravitz thought about it, but then something else caught his eye.
“What about this?” he asked, picking up a couple squares of white chocolate. “Would this be good in cookies?” Taako beamed.
“Hell yeah, kemosabe! Gettin creative in the kitchen, I can dig it!” Kravitz was blushing as Taako put on his apron. “Tell ya what, you are in charge of what goes into the cookies. Go wild.”
“You trust me with that?” Kravitz asked.
“With your sweet tooth, yes,” Taako assured him as he pulled out his personal cookbook. It was filled with recipes he and Lup had written together, recipes he’d gleaned in his century of travel, that one scone recipe he’d managed to squeeze out of Paloma, and even a few he vaguely remembered from his childhood with his aunt.
“Do you have a cookie recipe we can use?” Kravitz asked from where he was continuing to rustle through ingredients in the pantry.
“Listen,” Taako assured him, flipping through the pages, “this book has an entire chapter dedicated to cookies, and it’s...twelve pages long.” His eyes landed on the recipe he wanted and he slapped the book down on the counter with a satisfying thud as Kravitz emerged with the white chocolate squares. Taako promptly shooed him back to the pantry to fetch a few more ingredients while he gathered bowls and measuring spoons. One measuring cup fell from the cupboard in his attempt to carry too much, but he managed to catch it against the counter with his hip before it fell to the ground to break.
“Careful!” Kravitz called fondly as he exited the pantry, arms full.
“S’all good, I got it,” Taako assured him.
Kravitz worked slowly to chop the chocolate while Taako buzzed around him, mixing up the rest of the batter. The knife Kravitz was using looked awfully small in his large, strong hands - definitely not the best knife for the job, Taako thought, but Kravitz was so focused he couldn’t bear to stop him.
In fact, the whole scenario is far too charming. Much more than he would ever admit. Taako cooked with Lup all the time. Being in the kitchen with her was as natural as breathing. He even guided Angus around the kitchen occasionally; of course, that was only after their traditional dance of the boy asking and asking and Taako refusing until he pretended he had been annoyed enough and gave in to get the kid to shut up. Angus was smart enough to know Taako never meant it and actually liked having him around, but Taako was too stubborn to give up the pretense. Kravitz on the other hand didn’t join him in the kitchen often. The man would probably live off takeout and frozen dinners from Fantasy Costco if Taako wasn’t around to cook, if he bothered to eat at all. So having him take interest in working in the kitchen? Seeing him show even the slightest creativity, even if all it consisted of was picking a different kind of chocolate? Watching him work so hard with that tiny, stupid knife? It was stupidly endearing.
So maybe Taako was a little distracted when he reached in the counter above him for the salt, because instead the jar of oregano fell out, nearly hitting Taako in the head, and landed directly in the batter.
“Dammit!”
Kravitz looked up in surprise, an expression of concern passing over his face for only a moment before he realized what had happened. The laughter that broke out of him lit up the kitchen. Taako shot him a look, one that attempted to be angry about being laughed at but failing greatly. Instead he started giggling himself as he pulled the now sticky jar from the batter. He thought just a moment too long about licking the jar clean and Kravitz noticed, quickly taking the jar from his hands to wash in the sink before he could act.
With the batter done and the oregano cleaned, Kravitz slid his chopped white chocolate into the dough, also emptying the chocolate chip bag into the dough for good measure. Taako instructed him to prepare baking sheets with parchment as he folded in the chocolate, then began scooping spoonfuls of sticky dough and handing them off to Kravitz. Taako smiled to himself as Kravitz rolled the dough carefully in his hands, taking the time to seriously contemplate how widely to space them out before delicately placing the dough on the sheet. Kravitz managed to successfully place about half a dozen dough balls on the sheet before Taako caught him slipping a spoonful of dough into his mouth. Taako laughed at him, elbowing him in the ribs and eating a spoonful of dough himself. Why not, right? Might as well. Fuck it.
Kravitz picked up Taako’s cookbook after sliding the filled baking sheets into the oven. “So is this the recipe we used?” he asked, running his fingertips along the edge of the pages. Taako peeked around his back over the page and nodded. “We didn’t use the nuts,” Kravitz observed.
“Course not,” Taako said. “You were in charge of the fillings. You didn’t choose nuts.”
“But we have nuts,” Kravitz said, looking up to meet Taako’s eyes. He looked concerned and perplexed, as if he was afraid he had chosen wrong. Taako shrugged.
“You didn’t want nuts. Nothing wrong with that.” Taako took the book from Kravitz and smiled a little. “My aunt had this...nut chopping...thing,” he said quietly. “It was like this jar with this handle that you turned that spun these blades inside that chopped the nuts. I haven’t been able to find one in this plane, but...I liked watching the blades spin.”
Kravitz was watching Taako speak with some of the sappiest eyes he’d ever seen. Taako felt his face heat up and stuck out his tongue.
“I’m sure we could find a way to get something like that made,” Kravitz said, unfazed. “I don’t doubt that savior-of-the-planar-system-celebrity-chef-Taako-from-TV can get a custom kitchen gadget made.”
“Yeh, maybe,” Taako mumbled, his smile sneaking back as he shut the cookbook. Suddenly his ears perked up in alarm. “Shit! Did we set the timer?”
“Got it,” Kravitz said, snagging Taako’s egg timer off the counter. “How long?”
“Go for eleven minutes.”
“Done.”
“Alright, well. We got some downtime til the cookies are done, so…” Taako stood on tiptoe to pull a bottle of wine off the top of the fridge and waggled his eyebrows at Kravitz. “Shall we?”
Kravitz smiled, already holding two wine glasses in one hand, and offered his elbow to Taako. He took it with a smirk and sauntered back to the couch, his chuckling husband in tow.
Taako was ready to relax. He had his book again, his cozy blanket, a freshly filled glass of wine. This time he’d even turned around on the couch and forced Kravitz to accept him leaning against his side, not that Kravitz would ever protest.
The problem was, Kravitz did not seem ready to relax. His fingers were playing a rapid melody on Taako’s shoulder, seemingly independent of any conscious thought. His glass of wine disappeared much faster than usual, as if he hadn’t bothered to savor it at all. Finally he stood up off the couch, sliding unceremoniously out from under Taako. Taako tried to protest, but Kravitz had already disappeared back into the kitchen. He groaned loudly and rolled himself onto the floor to follow.
“What gives, my fella?” Taako blinked at Kravitz over the rim of his wine glass as he stood in the kitchen doorway. “I thought we were gonna chill till the cookies were done.”
Kravitz was poking through the drawers, and after opening and closing several, finally turned around with a metal spatula. His triumphant grin quickly turned sheepish, and Taako swore he saw him blushing a little.
“I...I know I can’t take them off right away, but...I want cookies.”
Taako snorted. “You dingus. You’d think you were a starving man. You remember you don’t actually need to eat at all, right?”
“As if you’ve ever let me go without food before,” Kravitz pointed out.
“Whatever,” Taako waved off his comment. “I cook for me, my dude. You’re just a convenient excuse to not waste the leftovers.”
Kravitz feigned an offended gasp. “Why, Taako!” he cried, his hand flying to his heart. “You mean to tell me you don’t care about my tastes at all?”
“Nope,” Taako replied, popping the ‘p’ as he stepped up to his faux-flustered husband.
“So all those times you made that delicious risotto?” Kravitz asked, leaning closer.
“Just because I love risotto,” Taako answered, defiantly meeting his gaze.
“And the calzones?”
“Only for me.”
“What about that soup you made once? What did you call it? With the onions?”
“That was the Fresh Onion Soup, and no, I made it only for my benefit. Because it was a new recipe, and I needed practice.”
“So you’ve never once cooked anything because you thought I might like it?” Kravitz asked, almost whining. His lips were fighting not to break into a grin, and they were very close.
“Not even once,” Taako whispered. He could feel Kravitz’ breath on his cheeks, and he became marginally aware that he was holding his own.
And then the timer rang.
“Cookies!” Kravitz cried, all flirty pretense dropped as his eyes widened and his lips finally split into a smile. He spun towards the oven, and Taako exhaled sharply into the air where he had been sure a kiss was nearly about to land.
Kravitz placed the sheets of cookies on top of the stove tenderly, as if carrying a fragile treasure that he was afraid to drop. Some of the cookies had spread too wide and their soft edges pressed together.
“Heh,” Taako chuckled quietly. “Megacookie.”
Kravitz stood over the sheets for a moment, the spatula he’d found still in his hand, looking contemplative. “What if we just lifted the whole parchment sheet onto the cooling racks?” he asked. Taako hummed thoughtfully.
“I’ll give it to ya, that’s something I’ve never thought to try before,” he admitted. “Let’s give it a shot.”
Kravitz carefully picked up the edges of the paper, nervously laughing when one cookie attempted to slide away, and Taako slid the cooling rack underneath, catching the cookies just in time.
“Success!” he cried triumphantly, placing the rack safely back on the counter.
The kiss that finally landed caught him off guard. Taako had been focused on the safety of the cookies for the moment and hadn’t seen Kravitz rapidly leaning in. He stumbled backwards a step, his back catching against the counter and his hand landing precariously close to the otherwise safe cookies. He felt himself grinning against Kravitz’ lips, which was altogether awful kissing form and resulted in the kiss being mostly teeth. Kravitz grinned back, huffing a small laugh against Taako’s face. He cupped Taako’s jaw with both hands, running a thumb across Taako’s cheek before attempting a kiss that was a bit more graceful.
“Grossarooni, sirs.”
“Oh gods, it’s the kid!” Taako shrieked, pulling away and glaring half seriously at Angus, who was standing in the kitchen doorway in his fuzzy slippers. “Get out! No kids allowed! This is strictly a grown-up zone! How’d you get over the baby gate?”
“This has never been a grown-up zone, sir, just as there’s never been a baby gate,” Angus replied, clearly unruffled by Taako’s outburst.
“It’s nighttime,” Taako continued to protest. “Shouldn’t you be in bed or something?”
“You know very well you have never set a curfew for me,” Angus pointed out, padding across the kitchen floor.
“Wouldn’t be worth my time if I did,” Taako grumbled. His voice was softer than he intended; as much as Taako wanted to be annoyed at having his smooches interrupted, he found his heart wasn’t in it.
“Did we wake you up, Angus?” Kravitz asked, much more concerned with being gentlemanly than upset about a bit of interrupted romance.
“Not at all,” Angus assured him. “I was reading when I detected the smell of Taako’s baking.”
“Not my baking tonight, bubuleh!” Taako exclaimed, fondly punching Kravitz on the shoulder as Angus’ eyebrows went up in surprise. “Tonight’s cookies are courtesy of Death himself.”
“Now, that’s barely true,” Kravitz protested. “I chopped some chocolate.”
“Shut up and take the credit I’m generously trying to give you,” Taako snapped. He turned away, lifting the previously forgotten spatula to cut apart the cookies. He offered one wordlessly to Angus, who took it with a smile and leaned against the counter beside Taako.
The three of them formed a silent line together, their backs to the counter and cookies in their hands. The cookies were soft, the white chocolate still gooey and warm, and left a sticky feeling on their fingers. Taako broke his cookie into bite size pieces, watching the way the melted chocolate pulled apart before popping a piece into his mouth. To his right Kravitz took slow and deliberate bites, humming to himself with closed eyes as he savored the flavor, and to his left Angus nibbled around the edges of his cookie, showing more restraint than any adolescent boy rightfully should. Despite taking their time, the number of cookies behind them dwindled with surprising speed.
“So whaddaya think?” Taako asked past a mouthful of cookie, elbowing Angus. “How did Mr. Bones do?”
Angus smirked, glancing from Taako to Kravitz past the side of his glasses as he swallowed. “They’re baller.”
***
KRAVITZ’ TAAKO’S CHOCOLATE CHIP NUT COOKIES
½ cup butter, room temperature
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup white sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 cup + 2 tablespoons flour, sifted
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup nuts
1 6-oz package chocolate chips
2 squares of white chocolate, chopped + whatever chocolate chips you have left
Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream butter and both sugars in a large bowl. Add vanilla and egg and beat to combine. Sift dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix to combine. Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts white chocolate chunks and leftover chocolate chips. Use a tablespoon to create even scoops of dough and roll into balls. Place dough balls on parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool before consuming eat immediately.