Chapter Text
Rody Lamoree was a man open to suggestions. If you told him to try something new, he would try it, he would do it. (Especially if you were Manon or Vince.)
Of course, because he was so open to the suggestions, that was the very reason he was able to be convinced by Manon to try and bake.
First, you have to know some things about him. Rody Lamoree is the type of guy to get BANNED from the kitchen. Outright kicked out. There’d be a huge sign specifically blocking him from entering. He’s the type of guy that, under any circumstances, should not be allowed to touch an oven. He shouldn’t even be allowed to touch a microwave. Lord knows what he’ll be able to do in the span of a few minutes.
He’s a walking bomb. He’s a kitchen hazard. He lit cereal on fire. Cereal! His ability to cook was to be considered a talent at this point. It was amazing, astonishing, that he could screw up so badly. Rody’s cooking skill was truly a special ability, not in a good way of course.
And now his kitchen was on fire (again) and Manon was screaming.
It all started with Manon calling him at 8:47 am.
“Rody! Rody!! Rody!!!” Her voice was loud enough to make him go deaf.
Half-asleep, half-awake, Rody falls off the couch to pick up the phone. “Mm…Manon? Is that you…?”
Rody would probably be able to hear Manon’s yelling from miles away. No need to call him. “It’s October 16! Do you know what that means? Rody, wake up!”
He had to move the phone away from him so his ears wouldn’t start bleeding. “Wha…Calm down, it’s October 16. What does that mean? Did something happen? Did someone die?”
“Rody…it’s Vince’s birthday today!”
And Rody was finally awake. “Actually?! He jumped and flipped at an old calendar that hung in his shabby apartment. “It is his birthday today!! It’s Vince’s birthday!!”
Internally, Rody wanted to cry. How could he forget Vince’s birthday? He said that he loved and would do anything for Vince. Bullshit! Aah! How can I say that when I forgot his birthday! It’s not even that hard to memorize a simple date and still manage to let it slip my mind…
He had met Vince at the randomest of times. After Manon broke up with him, he started working at some fancy restaurant to earn money, hoping to win her back. What fancy restaurant you might ask? La Gueule de Saturne, owned by Vincent (Vince) Charbonneau. It didn’t take too long for the two to get to know each other. To describe it in one sentence, ‘It was basically black cat and golden retriever dynamics’. Rody, the energetic and hopeful waiter and Vince, the cold (to mostly everyone except Rody) and harsh cook.
It didn’t go unnoticed by the cooks that Vince definitely treated Rody differently. There was a stark contrast between the way he spoke casually to him and the way Vince commanded the cooks. Despite Rody’s upsetting breakup, he couldn’t help but feel something burn inside of him. Something he didn’t understand, something he didn’t wish to understand. Feelings. Feelings of love, affection for someone. Rody didn’t want to think about it.
It took a little bit of time. The auburn-haired didn’t accept his feelings at first. Can a guy like another guy? Is it possible? Is it…normal? Of course, Rody felt that it was wrong. It was absurd. Men loved women, and women loved men…right? It took time to get used to. His feelings were like a needle. Slowly pricking him until it actually hurts. Thus, he gave in. It wasn’t surprising that Vince had some feelings for him too. Vince had originally been approached by Manon. The two of them talked and presumably dated. But after Vince heard of Rody and her past relationships, he broke it off. Vince said that he wasn’t too interested anyways. (Yeah, because he was interested in Rody.) Either way, Manon heard the news and congratulated the two. It was awkward. Trying to get used to everything and repairing relationships. But I think it’s fine now. I hope she doesn’t hate me over it. And truly, she didn’t. It still hurt a little to Rody, but he was fine.
Back to the present, 9:00 am, Manon arrives at Rody’s apartment with two large grocery bags filled with baking materials. At the same time, kindly scolding Rody for forgetting his birthday.
“Rody, you gotta do better than this! I know you sometimes forget things but this-this is way too much! Remember for your birthday Vince sent you flowers AND baked you a cake!” Manon lightly smacked him on the head as she walked in.
Rody cried out. “Ahh I know! I’m a bad partner!” and sighed, “I can’t believe it didn’t come across my mind…I don’t know what got into me…”
Manon crossed her arms. She really saw him as a little child. His self-destructive nature, his personality, the way he would do anything just to see you smile, it was overwhelming. She cautiously walked closer. “Rody…deep breath. Don’t worry about it. I’m here for a reason!”
Rody slowly looked up at her.
“Let’s go, stop acting so sad! It’s only-” She checked the clock. “-only like 9 am! You’ll be just fine! Ask Vince for a day off. We can bake a cake ahead of time and then you can take him out to a park or whatever you plan on doing, then at night you can bring him to your apartment!” She started pulling out baking ingredients from the bags. “Are you going to help me or sit around like that all day?” Manon kindly smiled at him.
Rody got up and walked over, feeling embarrassed. “You’re right…thanks for that…”
She smacked him lightly. “You can’t have me doing all the work! This is your boyfriend’s birthday. Most of the effort should come from you!” He would appreciate it a lot more if it was from you.
Rody carefully poured out the items in the bag. Flour, sugar, butter, lemons…so many things. There were also random foods and fruits mixed in the bag. Decorations such as balloons and party hats were also near the bottom of the bag. “Manon?” he looked over at her, “are we going to be using all of these things? Why do you have lemon-scented cologne…?”
Manon smiled innocently. She looked like a sweet angel. “Nothing! You’ll see later! Let’s focus on decorations. Are you guys going to celebrate his birthday at a restaurant?”
Rody smiled sheepishly, “Uhh…I doubt I can afford to. I think it’ll be here in my apartment. I doubt I can get into his house.”
Manon looked around. “...”
To be putting it lightly. It was a mess. Disastrous, to say the least. Uncleaned dishes, stains all over the floor and walls, unopened boxes and outdated furniture, it was horrendous. She’d been over at his apartment many times but she still can’t help but feel surprised. Manon looked at Rody again, smiling happily.
“...” she said.
“...” he replied.
His apartment was going to need more than some cleaning up. To put it lightly, it needed a whole damn makeover.
Thank god Manon learned a little bit of interior design basics. She never thought she’d need it in this situation. Rody would probably need a whole new apartment, new wallpaper, new flooring, new everything.
“Come on, let’s not waste any time!”
First things first, cleaning up the area. The two of them moved about Rody’s apartment, picking up and throwing away scattered trash and papers. The next thing was rearranging his furniture. The blankets, random sheets, and pillows were moved out of view, stored away for later. Then came the boxes which were neatly stacked in the very corner. Rody’s bicycle (which was originally blocking the hallway to his room) was propped up against the wall. Even his closet had to be organized. Manon even offered to help him clean up the leak from his bathroom.
His apartment finally started looking a little more proper. It was much more spacious and garbage wasn’t all over the floors.
Rody wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. “Woah…it looks better already!”
He looked around, all that was left was the dishes and peeling wallpaper. Rody looked around to find Manon. “Manon?”
Manon was laying on the ground, breathing heavily. She stared up at him in all seriousness. “Rody. Every month I am going to come to your apartment, whether you like it or not, and make you clean it. Understand?”
Rody shamefully scratched his head. “Yes ma’am…” Manon hasn’t changed at all.
11:30 am, the two of them successfully cleaned Rody’s apartment to look presentable.
The two of them high-fived each other. “God bless!” Manon said, puffing a sigh of relief.
The sun had long risen and Rody’s first task was done. “Thank you so much for the help Manon. I honestly couldn’t have done this without you.”
“Don’t worry about it! I’m rooting for you guys!” She winked at him. “Now, for the cake part. Lemon flavored, right?”
Rody’s shoulders slumped. Just the thought of baking gave him a headache. He couldn’t make a peanut butter jelly sandwich, how was he going to make a cake? “Uh yeah probably…I mean, it’d be pretty weird if I just sent him a lemon for his birthday.”
The two stood there in front of the stove, thinking. It was true, Vince liked lemons specifically because of the sting. The sourness of lemons vaguely resembles taste. It was enough for him to feel something.
Manon perked up. “I thought of making a lemon curd cake for him. I bought some ingredients for making it. You could cut up some actual lemons and put it on the side!"
Rody had no idea what she was talking about. Lemon curd cake? Isn’t that the same thing as lemon cake? There’s a lemon curd cake?? “No idea what that is but I’m sure Vince will like it! It sounds…fancy and expensive.”
The brunette squinted at him. “Rody, the ingredients were like 30 dollars at most.” She cracked her knuckles and looked through the ingredients. “C’mon! Let’s not waste any time.”
He was more than happy to help. But to be completely honest, the taller man had no idea how to bake. Zero experience. “Manon…how do we make the cake?”
Manon looked like she was waiting for this moment to arrive and proudly pulled a cookbook out of the grocery bags. “One step ahead of you!”
In Rody’s eyes, Manon literally looked like a god right now. She was the god of salvation. She was literally saving his ass. It was as if there was a beam of bright holy light shining down on her.
Manon flipped open the cookbook, “Okay, we’re going to make the curd, the filling, with egg yolks, lemon juice and zest, salt, and sugar. We should heat it over medium-heat for like 20 minutes.”
“Easy enough right?”
Oh how wrong she was.
Rody was responsible for stirring the ingredients together while Manon started to decorate the apartment. She stepped out of the room for two minutes. Two! The mixture was already smoking and turning black.
Rody slowly turned his head back at her. “Hi Manon…”
It took around three hours. Three hours to get the cake properly finished. Those three hours included making the curd three times because they kept black. Those three hours included putting out fires because Rody left the stove on for too long. Those three hours included basically cleaning up all the messes, remaking parts of the cake. Those three hours also included the two of them going out to buy more ingredients. It was wonderful. In the end, they didn’t get any of the decorations done. But at the very least they finished the cake.
Manon and Rody both sighed. They both shared one thought at the same time. Never again. We’re using store-bought cake whether he likes it or not.
The end result of the cake didn’t look too bad. The icing was a perfect mix of yellow and white. Some parts of the bread inside weren’t fully cooked but that didn’t matter did it? Neither of them wanted to try it though.
Manon and Rody then moved on to buying and arranging the decorations.
Considering Vince’s choice of furniture, they decided to go for a dark-ish theme. Not the ideal color for a birthday celebration but hopefully it would please Vince.
“I doubt that Vince would enjoy a birthday party at all…” Rody groaned. It’s his birthday. Not everyone likes birthday parties or celebrations in general. I just want him to be happy. Would this piss him off?
Manon stared daggers at him and smacked him. “Rody. We’ve already spent half a day setting this up. Don’t tell me you're chickening out?”
Rody didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “No ma’am…” he paused, “but do you think he’ll like it? I mean, Vince doesn’t exactly give off…partygoer.”
Manon sighed. That was probably her tenth sigh today. “Rody. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as you’re making it, he would one-hundred percent love it. And if he doesn’t,” she smiled reassuringly, “I’ll beat him up!”
The red-head couldn’t help but laugh. “Thanks Manon. Thanks again.”
Manon lightly hit him on the head. “Think about yourself for once! Stop saying thanks so much! You need to stop doubting your own abilities! Actually, on second thought, maybe you should doubt your cooking abilities…”
“Hey!”
***
Rody looked around his apartment.
Manon looked around Rody’s apartment.
Together, the two of them internally cried tears of joy. A horrendous, malfunctioning, apartment has been transformed into something new! God bless!
“We did it, Rody!” Manon cheered, “The floors are clean! The trash is in the trash can! The bathroom isn’t leaking! The wallpaper…is good! Your apartment is finally decent enough to look at!”
My apartment wasn’t that bad…
Birthday balloons floated around the apartment while a large banner with the words “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” hung behind his couch. Had they been more colorful, it would’ve given off a brighter feeling. But no, they were black and red. At least Vincent would like it.
Rody smiled. The cake is ready, the decorations are ready…all I need is the person himself.
But again, things were weighing on his mind. Would Vince like it? Would he appreciate it? What if the cake tasted bad? What if he didn’t like the colors?
What if it wasn’t good enough?
He smacked himself. I’m determined to make Vince happy! Even if he doesn’t like the decorations or the cake, at the bare minimum I’m going to squeeze a smile out of that guy!
“Manon, thank you so much today! I’ll definitely pay you back! How much money do you need?” The taller man looked like a child, grinning from ear to ear.
Manon was almost blinded by the light coming off of Rody. “Don’t you worry about anything! Just make sure to make your boyfriend happy!” She winked at him. “Worry about the money later!”
“Thank you so much!!” The redhead checked the clock. “I need to get going! Vince’s going to kill me if I’m late for work!” He was already running to get changed.
“Don’t you dare leave yet!” Manon grabbed the lemon cologne from the bottom of the bag. Like a grim reaper coming after a soul, she used every little ounce of strength in her legs to run up Rody (scaring him half to death in the process). Without wasting a single second, she sprayed him in the face with it.
“Aah! Jesus Manon!” Rody burst out into a fit of coughing. “What the fuck? Why is the smell so strong!”
She precisely chose certain spots on his body and continued applying the fragrance. “I was just messing with you, don't worry!” She took out something from her pocket. “Here. One more thing, keep it on you and take it with you.”
“What is it?”
The object in question was a box. It was small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.
Manon sighed. “Well…just in case. Vince is probably going to go crazy just at the sight of you. This is just protection. You know how he is, he’s absolutely crazy when it comes to you. Hell, he’s probably going to eat you alive. I can’t have you dead can I? I mean, if you were dead, who else would please Vince…or maybe he might do it with you even if you were dead? Who knows? I just can’t have you dying, you have to be safe…”
Manon…what the hell are you talking about?????
And with that, Rody was off to work. “Thanks Manon! I owe you!” He was out the door.
I’ll finish work and then invite Vince over! Perfect! I will make this the best birthday celebration of his life! I swear!