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Fiora was humming in the kitchen before she went to answer the knock on the door. Shulk had just come from selling some spare parts in the commercial district and was not looking forward to this evenings plans, even if they were with the lady he was lucky enough to call his girlfriend now. Fiona opened the door and smiled at Shulk before getting straight to the point, “So, are you ready to learn how to cook?”
“Not exactly, but it should be easy when I have the best teacher.” Shulk replied with a smile.
“Sure,” Fiora said rolling her eyes, “well we are starting off with something simple enough that even you shouldn’t be able to mess it up.”
“What did you have in mind?” Shulk asked, peering around the kitchen looking for ingredients.
“I haven’t gotten the supplies out yet, nosey. But we are going to make some simple pasta.” Fiora said, as the opened and ruffled through the pantry getting all the ingredients out and setting them on the counter. “Shulk, can you reach in that cabinet and grab the biggest pot?” She asked, pointing Shulk in the direction of said cabinet. Shulk grabbed the pot from the cabinet and before he could set it down, Fiora spoke up again, “Fill it a little over halfway with water from the tap for us, will you?” Shulk just nodded and took the pot over to the sink and began filling it with water. “So did you sell any good parts this morning?” Fiora asked as she laid out all the ingredients they would need for cooking.
“It was a slow day but I did stop and talk to Sonia today, Rocco has started as an apprentice for Dean doing weapon development, Liliana, on the other hand, says she wants to become a soldier like Désirée.” Shulk continued to ramble on about his talk with Sonia today, before setting the pot on the stove and taking a second to look at the ingredients laid out on the table, “So, what kinda pasta are we making?”
“A very simple fried garlic oil pasta. It was one of the only things I thought you might be able to cook without burning the place down.
“Fair,” Shulk responded bashfully as he scratched the back of his head. “Last time I tried to cook, I was trying to cook a fish for Riki above a campfire and the next thing I knew the fish was on fire. Riki and Reyn wouldn’t stop laughing about it all night. Speaking of Riki we should go visit the littlepon tomorrow if we get a chance I hear that Kino always rambles on to his dad about being the next Heropon and I can’t blame him for wanting to be the next Heropon with the standard Riki has set for future Heropons. On the other hand, Nene has become a big help around the house following closely behind in Oka’s footsteps, plus I know that Nene loves to hang out with you when you go to visit. So how about a trip to see all the littlepon tomorrow? We can even bring Riki and Oka some leftover pasta… Depending on how it turns out.”
Fiora’s elbows were rested on the counter and her hands were supporting her head. She loved listening to Shulk talk and she could listen to him talk all day long. It was when Shulk stopped talking that she had to really think about everything he just said. Cooking. Riki. Littlepon. Now she was caught up. “Uh, yeah, we should defiantly go see them tomorrow,” Fiora said with a smile. “And we can bring them some pasta if you ever get to cooking it.” She exclaimed with a laugh.
“So, what’s first?”
“First, we need to boil the water for the pasta,” Fiora stated turning the appropriate hub on the stove top on, before setting a pan on the hub beside the pot and turning it on as well. “Now in this pan we will be frying our garlic in the olive oil. So take the oil and measure it in here and then pour it in the pan for it to heat up.” She handed Shulk a measuring cup as he picked up the oil and carefully measured it before pouring it in the pan.
“Now what?” Shulk asked looking at the stove in confusion.
“Well we have to wait on the water in the pot to boil, and the oil in the pan to heat up. So we are just waiting.”
“Well, how was your day?”
“I went to the residential district to check on some of the construction today, but besides that, I cleaned around the house, since no one else will do it.” Fiora teased with a smile.
All Shulk could do in response was roll his eyes as he moved closer to wrap his arms around Fiora’s waist giving her a hug, to which she gladly wrapped her arms around Shulk’s shoulder to hug him back. He gave Fiora a short but sweet kiss on the forehead before looking deeply in the eyes. “Thank you for everything you do.”
“I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for you.” Fiora responding placing a small kiss on the end of his nose. Shulk moved in to give Fiora a kiss on the lips before the bubbling over of water could be heard from the stovetop causing Fiora to jump back out of Shulk’s arms. Quickly moving to the stove and taking the water off the heat for a moment, to add in salt and a small amount of oil. “Grab the pasta!”
“Got it!” Shulk exclaimed shoving the pasta towards Fiora.
“Pour it in the pot, dummy!” Fiora shouted moving the pot back onto the heat and stirring it as Shulk poured the pasta in. She took a deep breath before stepping back to talk to Shulk again. “Sorry, that just scared me… Now, let's move onto the oil.”
“It’s okay,” Shulk laughed. “You knew cooking with me was going to be a challenge.”
“Yes, but it was a challenge I wanted to take on,” Fiora Smiled. “Now I already separated the garlic from the bulb you just need to put it in the oil now. And be careful! The oil might splash you if you are not careful.” Shulk took the garlic and carefully added it to the pan, as Fiora watched closely over his shoulder. “So now I just need you to keep stirring that until the garlic is golden brown.”
“What about the cheese?” Shulk asked pointing to the Parmesan on the counter.
“Don’t worry, that will go on at the end.”
“Or I could just eat the cheese now.” Shulk joked as he happily stirred his garlic in the pan as Fiora kept checking on the pasta to see if it was done. The smell of garlic was getting to Shulk, causing his stomach to scream out in pain. He was very hungry. He hadn’t exactly eaten lunch today when he was out selling parts, he had only grabbed an apple in the commercial district, but he was sure if he told Fiora that she would beat him up for not taking time to have a proper lunch. So he continued to stir the garlic, even if the wonderful smell was causing him pain.
“Garlic is done,” Fiora stated looking over at Shulk’s pan before reaching over to grab it and remove it from the heat until the pasta was ready. After another moment the pasta was done, and Fiora took to staining all but one cup the pasta water on her own, just to make sure that Shulk wouldn’t hurt himself. “Now bring the pan back to the heat and I’m going to add the pasta to it. I just need you to keep twirling the pasta around in the oil to make sure everything is combined.”
“I can do that!” Shulk exclaimed as he moved the pan down to the heat and twirled the pasta as Fiora had instructed. Once all the pasta, along with the pasta water, was incorporated Shulk took the pan over towards the two plates on the counter.
“Well, we survived.” Fiora chuckled as she separated some of the pasta onto the plates and set the pan down to let the rest cool so that they could save the leftovers later. Fiora quickly grabbed the cheese and sprinkled it on top right before Shulk was about to walk off with his place. Once the cheese was added, Shulk happily hummed on his way to sit down at the table with his food. Shovelling a large pile of pasta into his mouth as soon as Fiora sat down.
“Oh, this is amazing!” Shulk exclaimed with his mouthful of pasta. “We are definitely taking this to Riki and Oka tomorrow.”
“I’m glad you like it.” Fiora said with a smile digging into her own plate of food. It was better than anything she could have made on her own all because it had the added love from Shulk in it. Needless to say, the two of them enjoyed every last bit of their dinner before curling on the couch together, stuffed and very tired from dinner.