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To say that Isak couldn’t cook would be an understatement. The kitchen as a concept was a foreign land he was completely okay with abandoning for good. But Even had this wonderful and dangerous tendency to make Isak willing to push and prod at his comfort zone, and urge it to expand.
Even hadn’t gone into a full blown episode, rather had just had a few low days that he’d managed to mostly sleep off. And as much as Isak was aware that he couldn’t fix this for his boyfriend, the feeling of uselessness wasn’t one he liked to accept.
Really Jonas deserved the credit here (this was mostly stated in case it all went horribly so Isak had a scapegoat)
“ I just wanna do something for him, you know? Small things are nice, I’m just not sure how many small things I’m actually qualified to do.”
“You could just cook him dinner or something, that's a thing couples do.”
“I once burned water”
“Yeah, okay, but now you know how to not do that, right? You’ve learned ”
“That's like, the barest of the bare minimums for cooking, how the fuck is that supposed to help”
“I dunno man, we live in the bright shiny future of the internet, find a cooking video on youtube or something.”
So, after watching multiple Gordon Ramsey youtube videos (and getting caught in a Hell's Kitchen/Hotel Nightmares wormhole), Isak was stood in their tiny barely-a-room of a kitchen, cooking his boyfriend dinner.
He'd chosen a butternut squash soup after careful consideration. Soup was a comfort food, right? And they’d bought that butternut squash a month ago or so for… no particular reason at all.
“Hey, hey look at this, Isak”
“ Mhm? Oh my god”
“ It's literally a penis”
“It really is, Christ, that's not even subtly phallic. No, no we’re not buying that. Put it back, Even I swear.”
“We have to. We can’t just leave this here.”
“What the fuck are we gonna do with a -what is that? A squash?”
It was… going.
He’d half haphazardly cut the squash in half and set it to cook in the oven, lightly showered with olive oil about an hour ago. And yeah, it was a little too brown when he pulled it out but a little brown is better then very burnt as fuck.
He watched the timer countdown, cancelling it just before it hit zero so it didn’t wake his boyfriend. And then countered the masterful attempt at silence by dropping the metal tray against the counter. He froze, straining to hear movement from the bed, but heard nothing and continued on.
Isak grabbed the largest pot they owned and set it on the stove, turning the heat on and pouring in a splash of more olive oil.
He’d seen a hack circling Facebook for cutting onions that involved holding a piece of bread in your mouth -supposedly the bread would absorb any of the evil-stingy particles that would otherwise go for your eyes- surprisingly, this worked rather well.
With the onion and the garlic sizzling (potentially a tad too aggressively) in the pan, Isak moves on to the now-cooled squash.
He managed to scoop out the majority of the flesh without getting too much skin in the pot, and also managed to pour in the boxed broth with no spillage.
The final step was to blend the soup. Oh. Oh fuck.
Understandably, as they were two young-adult/teenagers living on their own, Isak and Even’s apartment was limited to only a few appliances, those appliances being a stove, and a microwave.
No blender. They didn’t even have a kettle or a toaster for Christ's sake.
Isak looked into the lumpy-orange mixture simmering in the pot. Well I can’t just fucking give him that, it looks like a rabbit thew up it’s dinner.
Google.
How to blend without a blender
How to puree without a blender
Can you blend things without a blender
What can i use instead of a blender
Food processor? God no, that fancier than a blender.
Mortar and pestle? A fucking what?
Push through a sieve? A fucking what?
Mush with a fork? Yeah, that has to work.
He took 2 of the 4 forks they owed and set to work. It was gruelling.
He was hunched over the steaming put, trying to squish and break about tiny bits of slippery squash, and with the droplets of hot broth splattered his face, he wasn’t sure if the drip sliding down his temple was sweat or soup.
“I think the soup’s winning.”
Isak shot up and turned to face a half-asleep Even, face still rippled with indents of the blanket now wrapped around his shoulders. A small tired smile pulled on his cheeks as he looked over his soup-covered boyfriend.
“Nah, I think we’re tied.”
“Mhm, sure”
Even ambled over towards Isak and swiped a chunk of squash off of his cheek.
“Brave man. what is it exactly that you’re doing?”
“Making you soup?”
Even smiled at his boyfriend fondly, his hand moving from Isak’s cheek to the back of his neck.
“I didn’t know you could cook.”
“I’m really good at it, actually. I just didn’t want to intimidate you with my very impressive skills.”
“Oh how kind of you, Master Chef. So what were all those times you made me make dinner?”
“Just wanted you to feel useful.”
“Very noble of you”
Isak pressed a kiss to Even’s nose, “Lemme finish up with the soup and I’ll make you a bowl, do you want me to bring it to the bed?”
“I’d like to sit at the table actually, move around a bit.”
“Sounds good. Give me a few minutes?”
Even hummed and quietly moved into the other room, scraping the chair against the floor and pulling it towards the patch of sunlight just in front of the window.
Isak poured the most pureed bit of soup into two big grey bowls, grabbed spoons and headed towards the table.
“Do you want me to take the first bite? To make sure it's edible and all? I haven't tasted it yet”
Even lightly chuckled, “I haven’t got so little faith in you.”
“Bold move there.”
“Together?”
“Sure.”
They both scoop a bit up from the sides of their bowls.
“Ready? 3, 2, 1,”
“...You know, for someone who’s burned water, this is actually quite impressive.”
And it was. The soup was beautifully creamy and sweet, with a warm nuttiness backing up the flavour.
“Told you I was a master chef.”
“You are, maybe now you can start making dinner some days.”
“Oh I wouldn’t go that far.”
They continued to sip on small spoonfuls of soup, the comforting silence only ever broken by the sounds of them blowing away the steam.
“Thank you, Isak” They lightly bumped their shoulders together, Evens hand moving to it's place holding the back of Isak's neck.
“Mm, love you.”
“Love you.”