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In general, Gilgamesh liked to cook.
But he never really thought about becoming a chef, at least not until Thena came into his life.
He liked feeding Thena and her family. Thena’s smiles would come out as she chomped down on meat pies. Druig would stuff his cheeks with finger foods, which always make him look ridiculously young. Sprite would poke fun at her siblings while chowing down on tempura. Heck, even Ikaris would smile whenever Gilgamesh made stew.
Even if he couldn’t fix everything that was wrong, he could make them good food.
That became especially true when Thena had a hard time eating things when she was on too many medications to count. Gilgamesh tried his best to cook her healthy foods that were easy to digest. The times he had managed to get her to smile were far and few in between back then, but it was worth it every time.
He just always wanted to cook for her and be by her side. He loves to see her happy. Even now, he does his best to find new recipes and try out new things so that she’s always has something to look forward to.
Cooking was his love language.
That’s probably why Druig came to their place on his day off to say, “I need your help.”
“Wow, four words I’d never thought I’d hear for you,” Gilgamesh stated as he moved the plates away from the table, “If it’s murder, I just broke my cleaver, so it’ll have to wait. Also Thena would be better for that.”
“Ha. No. Can you help me cook something?”
Gilgamesh stopped in his steps. “Cooking? You?”
Druig is… Very much someone who does not cook. If it weren’t for the fact that Gilgamesh sent him home with leftovers from the restaurant, he would only survive on fruit, coffee, and any kind of processed snack he could get his hands on at the grocery store. In other words, he would eat like a university student.
He leaned towards Thena, putting a hand in front of his mouth, “Am I dreaming?”
“He’s asking because his dear Makkari has an undeniable sweet tooth and he wants to do something special for her for their date tomorrow,” Thena explained before taking a gulp of her tea.
Ah. Romance.
“Who knew you’d ever feel anything besides disdain, anger, and indifference? I’m really happy for you man,” Gil said as he gave Druig a hefty pat on the back. “So what were you thinking of making? Cupcakes? Brownies?”
“She likes churros.”
Churros come together fairly quickly. The batter’s pretty easy to make with things they already had in the fridge. The only tricky thing is how many eggs to put in, but once he’s showed Druig what the trick is, it should work out. “Yeah, we can do that.”
Maybe they can’t do that. At least Druig can’t if he’s that far away from the oil.
“It’s not gonna attack you,” Gilgamesh gently reminded.
“I know that,” the younger muttered, inching closer to the hot oil.
His hands shook as he cut the batter into the oil. The batter fell into the oil with a “splat” like a fish going back into water, causing oil to hiss out of the pot.
“Shit!” Druig immediately pulled back in fear as the oil spat out at him. But then bumped into the counter behind him and let the pastry bag fall out of his hands, causing the batter to go everywhere.
Meanwhile, Thena was tending to her little herb garden on the balcony, paying no mind to the chaos that Druig was creating.
Gilgamesh turned the heat down and picked up the discarded pastry bag. “Alright, first things first. Don’t do that.”
Druig muttered a “Sorry,” before helping to clean up the mess.
“It’s ok. Let me show you the trick.” Gil held the new pastry bag closer to the pot of boiling oil, “You’ve gotta cut closer to the pot so the oil doesn’t bounce back at you. Like this.” With a ‘snip’, the oil sizzled around the batter, “It’ll be easier for you to do it one by one so the temperature of the oil doesn’t cool down. Once it’s golden, you take it out and coat it in cinnamon and sugar,” he explained while removing the hot churro and rolling it in the cinnamon-sugar mix, “Got it?”
Druig nodded, taking the pastry bag back, “Thanks.”
Gil watched him carefully to make sure he wasn’t holding the bag too far away. The dough sizzled more gently this time. Druig’s shoulders relaxed in relief for a moment before remembering that he needed to watch it before it burnt.
“Why’d you wanna make something anyways? You could’ve just taken her to a bakery and let her pick out something.”
Druig carefully fished out the churro from the oil before answering, “She gave me a scrapbook of everywhere we’ve been so far. So I wanted to give her something that I made for our date tomorrow.”
“Don’t you normally give her flowers?”
“I’m used to making bouquets because of work, so I wanted to give her something that I put more effort in. Besides, she loves surprises.”
“I’m sure she would be happy with anything you give her.”
The first day he had her deliver lunch to Thena and Druig, he didn't expect her to come back with a flower nor did he expect Thena to tell him about how Druig was swooning. But every time Makkari returned with more flowers and an extra hop in her step, he knew that there was something mutual and true between them. It was only a matter of time.
He hadn’t been expecting for Druig to make the first move, he definitely thought that Makkari would be the one to ask him out. But what does it matter when they’ve ended up together in the end?
“Since Makkari’s one of my employees and I knew her before you, does that mean I should give you one of those talks about how you shouldn’t hurt her?”
Druig clicked his tongue in a hiss. “Kingo already gave me a shovel talk.”
“It was quite a performance,” Thena stated, returning from watering her herb garden. She waved her phone around with a smirk.
“You got a video?”
“Karun was recording,” she answered as she pulled up said video.
“I thought I broke his camera!”
“You didn’t break the memory card. Now hush.”
Druig grumbled and turned back to making churros as Thena and Gil watched the video play.
The video started with an intense close up of Kingo’s face. Like you could see the pores on the man’s nose. The video then zoomed out to get a fuller view of Kingo’s face.
“Are we rolling?”
“Yes sir!”
“Alright, Karun. I want you to know that this is the most important thing that I will ever have you film. It’s even more important than when we filmed that Tiktok dancing to BTS’ Permission to Dance, do you understand?”
The camera moved up and down as Karun shouted, “Of course sir! I’ll be sure to capture every moment of your greatness!”
“Perfect!” Kingo took a deep, dramatic breath, “I am about to embark on a very important mission. I am going to give Druig a warning that should he ever mess with Makkari or hurt her in any way, that I’m gonna be there to make he’ll be sorry. And more. Now Kari, if you’re ever watching this, I am well aware that you can take care of yourself and that you could definitely take Druig in a fight, like I would totally bet my entire acting career on it, but I’m doing this because I care. And because I don’t know when I’ll have this chance again, so I’m gonna go for it.”
With a dramatic turn, Kingo slammed open the door of the flower shop, “Druig!”
The camera focused to Druig who looked to be in the middle of moving a flower vase with Thena in the background. Druig’s eyes were wide in shock as the taller man strutted over.
“We need to talk.”
“Kingo, I swear to God, if this is another one of your damn pranks-”
“Ah, ah. I’m talking now,” he interrupted. The camera zoomed in, “You should know that if you ever make Makkari cry then I’m gonna give you something to cry about. If you ever hurt her, then I will hunt you down to the ends of the Earth and make sure that you’ll never recover from it. It’ll be worse than Zeus’ punishment to Promethus.”
The camera zoomed out again.
“How was that Karun?”
“It’s perfect, sir!”
“Great! I’ll use this in their wedding video! Also, Thena I made sure to transfer you the money for the bet, since I don’t carry cash anymore. Byeee!”
“What the fuck Kingo! Karun, give me that damn camera!”
Druig ran towards the camera, there was a shot of the ceiling before the screen went to black.
“Wow, you looked like a deer in headlights!” That was quite the performance, he wondered if Kingo made that up on the spot or if he actually thought about it beforehand. “So how much did you get from him?”
Thena smiled radiantly, “Enough.”
He returned her smile. He loved it when she looked happy. It reminds him of when they were in university, when Thena won her fencing matches. Maybe they could do that on their next day off. Or sparring. It’s been a while since they’ve done that too.
“If you’re done with that, can we get back to more pressing matters?”
The burning smell and the sight of charcoal dough was enough of a sign for Gilgamesh.
“So… I can see where we can improve.”
Thena’s bite sounded like a large “crack”. Was it even a bite if her teeth couldn’t go through it? She waved around the burnt bit of dough, “I don’t think this is edible.”
“How long did you leave it in for?”
“I wanted to make sure it was done!”
“It is cooked.”
Druig groaned and plopped his face down in his hands in despair.
At this rate, he’s mildly worried that Druig will burn something down while he’s not watching. Maybe working with a lot of oil wasn’t the best choice for him. At least not right now.
Just because Makkari likes churros, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Druig has to make churros does it? He just wanted to make a dessert for her, doesn’t that mean any dessert is ok? What’s something simple that doesn’t involve heating anything up? Something that Druig can make on his own…Oh!
“Let’s make a fruit trifle instead,” Gil suggested.
It was something that he used to make for Thena a lot on the days that she didn’t want to eat much. It’s soft and pretty light. Sweet, but not too sweet. And he would always try to put in as many kinds of fruit so that it was colorful like the flowers she loves.
Druig looked up, confused, “A trifle? I couldn’t even make a churro, what makes you think I can make a trifle?”
“You can use ladyfingers and whipped cream from the store. As long as you have good fruit, it’ll taste good.” Luckily, there was always fruit in their house. Gilgamesh pulled out berries, kiwis, and bananas and offers Druig a knife and a reassuring smile, “You can do this.”
He stares at it for a moment before taking the knife.
Gil positions himself so that Druig can see what he’s doing, “Cut the fruit into about the same size.”
The younger man carefully followed his example. “Like this?”
“Yep. Once we’re done cutting, you can add the fruit in alternating layers with the ladyfingers and whipped cream. Try to make the layers even,” he explained as he filled up two cups with all the ingredients, “And it’s done.”
Gil pushed one of the finished cups towards Thena who accepted it with a smile. “Thank you.”
“You make it look easy.”
“I’ve just had a lot of practice. Come on, you should give it a try.”
Druig seemed hesitant after the churro catastrophe, so he started off slowly adding strawberries to one of the cups then the whipped cream and the ladyfingers. He seemed to get the hang of it by the end. It was a bit lopsided in some areas, but it still looked pretty good.
“Yeah, it’s great for your first try.”
“Really?”
He looked to Thena, waiting for her reaction. Thena bit down on it. That’s a good sign. She chewed slowly, contemplating the taste. Finally, Thena gave an approving nod, “It’s good.”
“Really?”
“See for yourself.”
Druig examined it cautiously before taking another bite. His eyes lit up. He took another bite. “It’s actually half decent.”
“See?” Gilgamesh patted him on the back, “Let’s try to make a few more for tomorrow.”
In no time, they had a box full of little trifles with different fruit combinations.
“Keep them in the fridge until you serve it.”
Druig nodded. “Thanks for helping.”
With a smile, Gil pulled the younger man into a bear hug, “Anytime man.”
Makkari’s eyes lit up when she saw the little desserts. In awe, she asked, You made these?
“Just for you, my love.” She grabbed her spoon and drove in. “Is it good?”
Makkari nodded. Before Druig could say another word, she held out a spoonful of trifle to him. She looked at him with a smile. Snacks taste better when we eat together.
“Well if you insist, my beautiful Makkari.” He opened his mouth and chomped down on the spoon, not breaking eye contact with her. He could feel whipped cream at the edge of his mouth and her eyeing it. “See something you like, milady?”
Without a hint of hesitation, she quickly pulled him into a kiss. When they broke apart, she licked her lips in delight that she had gotten the cream off. Just you, my sweet, sweet Druig.