Work Text:
The setting early winter sun bathed the kitchen in a soft orange hue. Nolan walked into the kitchen, pulling a cookbook off the small shelf. He placed it on the counter, before flipping through it in search of a recipe to attempt. He wasn’t a skilled chef, often overcooking meat to ensure that it was thoroughly cooked — though somehow the outside of the chicken was burnt and the inside remained pink. Theo was asleep in his shared room with Liam, taking a nap after he’d gotten back from work. While Liam was a literal dumpster fire in the kitchen, Theo was a proficient cook, and most, if not all, of the cookware that sat in their shared kitchen belonged to him. Nolan didn’t think to ask where he got all the pots and pans from — because why did Theo of all people need an immersion blender — but Liam suggested David had handed over his credit card to allow the boys to furnish their first apartment together. They couldn’t complain.
Nolan flipped to a page for brown butter pancakes, his eyes glancing over the fairly straightforward recipe. He checked the fridge to ensure they had all the right ingredients, pulling out an egg, butter, milk, and vanilla extract. He was kneeling in front of the cupboard in search of brown sugar when he heard the front door unlock. Liam entered the hallway, stomping his boots to get rid of the snow. He sighed loudly, before throwing his bag down in the hallway and entering the kitchen in search of a snack.
“You cooking?” Liam asked, his lips cold and chapped.
“Yeah, I was thinking I’d make pancakes?” Nolan added, his back turned to Liam. He glanced over his shoulder at Liam who had stolen the cookbook.
“Seems simple enough. Don’t burn the place down,” Liam joked.
“Says the person who set a toaster on fire,” Nolan replied.
“That wasn’t my fault! You didn’t clear the crumb tray!” Liam whined.
“It can’t be that difficult. Theo can make pancakes without using a recipe, so I should be able to,” Nolan reasoned. Liam thought about it for a moment before sitting on the counter next to the stove.
“Can I help?” Liam asked.
“You want to help?” Nolan said quizzically. When had Liam ever helped in the kitchen, especially when Theo wasn’t there to do 90% of it since Liam usually just wrapped himself around Theo.
“Yeah, I mean, Theo just got off a double shift. We could make him dinner. It’d be nice. He cooked a shit ton of pasta for us last night and did the dishes when we went to bed. It’s the least we could do,” Liam explained.
“True. Guess that makes sense. Or are you just getting out of your turn to do dishes tonight," Nolan said, a smirk pulling at his lips. Since they moved in together, they had arranged a chore chart to ensure that everyone pitched in. If you cooked, you didn’t have to do the dishes. Liam was meant to do the dishes last night after the game, but fell asleep and Theo, being the neat freak he was, cleaned up.
“Just let me help and it’ll be edible,” Liam snarled, though there wasn’t any actual venom behind his words.
“Hey!” Nolan said, feigning shock. He rose to his feet after finding the brown sugar at the back of the cabinet. Liam laughed before grabbing a saucepan and some butter off the counter.
“Browning butter can’t be that hard, right?” Liam asked. His eyes flicked upwards to the smoke detector. They hadn’t set it off yet, even during the toaster fire. Liam looked over the directions on how to brown butter before placing the butter into the saucepan. He turned the stove to medium-high, adding in a chunk of butter.
“Just don’t wake Theo, whatever you do. He’s gonna yell at us if we wreck his pans,” Nolan added. Liam gave him a mock salute, smiling. The butter melted in the pan, bubbling slightly. Liam quickly glanced at it while Nolan reviewed the recipe again. Liam was watching a lacrosse video on his phone, before he got distracted after receiving a slew of texts from Mason about his plans for a date with Corey, and Liam, being the puppy he was, completely forgot he had something on the stove. What should have been brown butter was black-flecked butter that smelled metallic. The pan was smoking, and Liam whined, his wolf scurrying away from the pungent smell. Nolan turned the stove off as Liam moved the pan to the backburner.
“You think we can save it?” Liam asked, plugging his nose with his thumb and index finger. The butter didn’t smell that bad to Nolan, but the heightened senses led Liam to back away from the stove. Nolan quickly pulled out his phone googling how to rescue burned butter. He reached for a coffee filter, hoping to be able to separate the still liquid butter from the burnt solids.
“This is why Theo usually supervises when we’re in the kitchen,” Nolan explained.
“It wasn’t on fire, it’s just burnt!” Liam whined, not wanting to admit defeat.
“We need it to be browned, Liam!” Nolan nearly yelled. Liam crossed his arms in defiance. Surely browning butter shouldn’t be this hard.
“Is it salvageable?” Liam asked.
“Not really,” Nolan added, grimacing. “We might just have to start over. I’m gonna do it this time.”
Liam rolled his eyes, thankful that their bedroom was far enough away that Theo, even with his enhanced hearing, probably won’t wake up if they squabble. It was surprising that he was, in fact, asleep, since generally Theo didn’t sleep unless he was exhausted or Liam was holding him hostage by laying on top of him like a werewolf weighted blanket. Liam secretly enjoyed keeping Theo pliant like that, it made his wolf happy to have someone to care for. Nolan attempted to brown a second chunk of butter, watching the pan carefully, before adding some oil to the pan. Liam looked over, confused.
“You didn’t tell me that!” Liam added.
“Adding a neutral oil to the pan increases the smoke point, which makes the browning smoother,” Nolan explained.
“Ok Mr. Chemistry nerd,” Liam mocked.
“Cooking is a science, Liam,” Nolan explained.
“Whatever,” Liam retorted, sticking out his tongue like a child. Nolan laughed, before tuning his attention back to the pan, carefully browning the butter to prevent it from burning as Liam had. Once the butter was browned, he moved it off the heat to cool, shifting his attention to the rest of the pancake recipe. Liam grabbed the saucepan from Nolan quickly rinsing it off since it was still his night to do dishes, although he wasn’t about to admit it. Nolan placed a large mixing bowl in front of Liam before sliding over the cookbook. He tapped on the page with a finger. Liam huffed, reading the recipe as he spun the egg on the counter.
“Think you can follow this recipe?” Nolan asked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
“Shut up!” Liam snapped. He grabbed a whisk from the drawer, whisking together the flour, baking powder and salt. The timer for the butter went off as Nolan grabbed another large mixing bowl for the egg, butter, vanilla, and sugar. As Liam whisked the ingredients together, Nolan slowly added the milk.
“Don’t overmix it,” Nolan directed, “unless you want gummy pancakes,” he added as he combined the dry and wet ingredients into a batter.
“Should we add anything else?” Liam asked, stirring the batter slowly as directed. Nolan tapped him on the hip as he moved towards the pantry, pulling out chocolate chips.
“We’ll make some eggs and call it protein, right?” Nolan said. The athletic trainer didn’t need to know they were falling off their nutritional plan, and they worked out often enough to maintain the physicality of college athletes (Liam had it a little easier). Nolan grabbed the griddle, plugging it into the socket on the kitchen island. He grabbed an ice cream scoop to make evenly sized pancakes. As the pancakes cooked, Liam moved them from the griddle to a large plate. Slowly, the pancakes piled up. Nolan ran a hand over his face when he remembered they had also meant to make eggs. He quickly opened the fridge, grabbing several eggs and cracked them into a small bowl before adding them to the saucepan. Liam grabbed the maple syrup from the fridge, pouring it into the small jug, spilling it on the counter below.
Theo emerged from his bedroom, wearing only sweatpants. He rubbed his eyes, trying to rid them of sleepiness. The bags under his eyes were dark, and he didn’t look that much better than when he had gone to sleep. He leaned against the doorframe, watching Liam and Nolan work in tandem making dinner.
“What’re you two doing?” Theo asked, his voice rough.
“Making you dinner,” Liam said quickly, “as a thank you for last night.”
“You didn’t have to,” Theo added softly.
“We wanted to,” Nolan added.
“And you somehow didn’t burn down the kitchen,” Theo joked.
“We’re not completely incompetent,” Nolan explained.
“I should hope so,” Theo amended. Theo looked around the kitchen, at the small mess that had been created. Flour and sugar lined the counters, there was a subtle smell of burnt butter in the air.
Liam’s hands were still covered with pancake batter as he scooped it onto the griddle. He left the spatula on the counter before he poked Theo in the ribs as Theo squirreled away a pancake. Liam glared at him for stealing a pancake, and Theo laughed. The pancakes were actually edible which was rather unexpected.
“Did you use brown butter?” Theo asked.
“Yeah. We did!” Liam said, smiling as he wrapped himself around Theo in an attempt to tickle him while holding him hostage.
“Liam burned it the first time, but I managed to make it work the second time around,” Nolan explained, laughing at the jumble of limbs across the room as Theo wiggled his way out of Liam’s reach.
“Your pancakes are about to burn, Li,” Nolan said.
“Theo distracted me! No walking around shirtless! That’s a rule!” Liam whined, trying to look serious.
“Is it now?” Theo coaxed. Nolan laughed as he put the eggs into a bowl and slid it across the countertop.
“You walk around shirtless all the time, Liam. Just because it’s inconvenient right now doesn’t mean you make it a rule,” Nolan explained.
“You’re supposed to be on my side” Liam scowled.
“Calm down, Liam, he’s not taking sides,” Theo purred.
“Urgh I hate you both,” Liam said, grabbing the plate of pancakes and carrying it to the living room. “You both don’t get any,” he huffed. Theo rolled his eyes and laughed as he walked up to Nolan. Liam turned around, watching as Theo whispered something in Nolan’s ear. Nolan pursed his lips, trying not to laugh. Liam growled. Theo laughed before carrying the eggs, plates and cutlery to the living room, where they often chose to eat even though they had more than enough space in the kitchen. Liam sat on the couch with his arms crossed, his brow furrowed after being left out of whatever secrets Theo and Nolan were sharing. As much as it irked him to have Theo sharing secrets with Nolan, it was nice to see that Theo had finally settled down enough from the craziness of the stuff with the pack to finally have found his place here, with Liam. It also meant with each passing day, Theo was less likely to make the threat that he was going to leave Beacon Hills. He often said it to get under Liam’s skin, knowing that Liam would leave too if Theo did. That being said, when Theo placed the plates on the table, Liam yanked his wrist so Theo evidently sat in his lap, holding him captive. Theo didn’t mind, it felt nice to actually be wanted.
“No secrets, remember? We have a rule about honesty,” Liam said softly. They didn’t actually, more just Theo wasn’t allowed to lie to anyone except to Stiles because they hadn’t yet gotten to the stage where Theo and Liam could tell Stiles they were having sex.
“Its fun seeing you riled up,” Theo said, stuffing a pancake into his mouth as he prodded Liam in the ribs.
“I hate you,” Liam said, pouting.
“No you don’t,” Nolan interjected.
“Eat your pancakes mr. chef,” Liam coaxed. Nolan laughed.
“You are still on dishes, Liam,” Theo said, leaning his head on Liam’s shoulder.
“Whatever,” Liam said, rolling his eyes before Theo began to tickle him. “Ok ok! I’ll do the dishes!”