Third Floor Common Room - Late Afternoon 1/31/08 - Thursday

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He hadn't been able to catch Andrew, but hopefully the other boy would be along sometime soon. He hoped. Or he could go look for him as soon as all the ingredients were in.

He was having a little trouble figuring out if he should spice it, was all. He knew what he liked, which was plenty of spices, all different kinds. Sometimes they'd make his mouth numb and other times they'd make him dizzy but it tasted wonderful and it kept the monkeys out of his food.

Hence he'd rather gotten accustomed to it.

But Andrew might not like it, and it wouldn't make sense to make dinner for someone if they couldn't eat it.

[ooc: open as a common room is! the food is mostly for someone specific but do feel free to come by as Liir generally cooks for many and this is no exception. he's cooking something like chicken chutney with rice, if you're wondering what it might smell like]

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[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

There would be no searching needed, as Andrew had been buzzing by the common room every fifteen minutes or so to see if Liir was there yet.

He tried to sneak up behind the other boy, attempting an ambush hug.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

A wonderful thought, just not the best person to try it on. He'd been rather victimized early on by Manek, one of Fiyero's children, and as he'd shown in Fandom Invasions earlier in the day, it made him rather skittish.

Luckily for Andrew, his instincts were more along the 'flee' line than the 'attack'.

As such, however, the spoon was dropped onto the stovetop and Liir both turned and sidestepped away. He almost shouted before realizing it was Andrew.

"Oh," he said, the first part of the sound louder as he tempered his voice. "I was wondering when you'd, er, be by."

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

Andrew jumped back at the reaction, feeling guilty, but not guilty enough to keep him from smiling really large and laughing.

"I'm sorry. Note to self, no sneaking up on cute boys cooking," he said.

"If I'm bothering you and the, uh," he gestured at the stove and the spoon, "creation process, I can come back later."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

Liir shook his head almost too fast, nearly fast enough to dizzy himself, and reached out to take Andrew's hand.

"No. Don't go, please?"

He wanted to kiss him again. It was distracting.

"But there is a present for you on the table."

Because people had given him presents here and they'd made him feel so wonderful... so Andrew deserved one too.

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

Andrew readily took the offered hand, and stepped in close to Liir. "You got me a present?" he asked demurely, fighting the urge to rush over and grab it off the table.

"You didn't have to do that." He bit his lip. He really wanted to kiss him, but wasn't sure how Liir felt about public displays of affection.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He blushed, just a little, before turning to look at Andrew, look him in the face.

"I wanted to," he said. "And it was budgeted for besides."

He questioned if he should kiss him before deciding asking would be best. Both for them in general and for the fate of the food cooking behind him that didn't have time for him to stare at Andrew all day.

"Can I kiss you?"

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

"Yes, please," Andrew said without hesitation.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

The food forgotten if just for the moment, he leans down just a little to take a kiss from Andrew's lips.

Mmm.

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

Yep. The light headed feeling he had gotten the first time they kissed rushed back. He liked it. A lot. Liir's lips were just so... nice.

And he wasn't going to pull away first.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

...it took him something like a minute to realize that dinner would be ruined if he didn't pull away. It was hard, though. Like ducking under the water, away from the air. It took a split second of madness, it seemed, to do it at all.

He breathed out, eyes dilated far enough that the green was a thin strip around the rest and he closed them for a moment before getting a smile on his face. His mouth had resisted, probably in the hopes of going back to where it'd been.

"Dinner," he said, just a little hoarsely. Then he tipped his chin to the table.

"Present. While I finish dinner. All right?"

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

Andrew glanced over at the waiting gift and broke into a grin. "If you insist," he said.

He walked over to the table and pulled the present towards him. Then he looked over at Liir, waiting for some sign that he was watching and that it was okay to go ahead and open it.

Plus, he just really liked watching Liir.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

Liir gave a laugh and a flick of his hand. Come on, open it.

He turned to check on the chicken (the rice was wonderful and took care of itself), but kept one eye on Andrew as he did.

"I took a guess. I hope I didn't guess wrong. I picked something practical."

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

Andrew restrained himself from ripping the package open like he normally would. He wanted to Liir to see how much he appreciated the gift. It was a random gift! Totally uncalled for, and that just made his heart flutter.

He held up the candle and smiled. "It's perfect!" he exclaimed. "And totally something I can put to good use."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding and smiled in relief.

"I'm glad. The girl at the shop said it could be burned 'to increase power' I think she said."

He shrugged.

"I just like the color and the scent, but I figure you should know."

He turned back to the chicken.

"Um, you do like chicken, right?"

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

"It's a very nice color," he commented. Then he sniffed it, and suddenly his mind was a whirl of clothes and bath water and soap and lips and dripping wet hair.

"This is the best candle ever," he whispered to himself.

"Chicken is great. It's my favorite meat," he said much louder, turning towards Liir.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"And it smells good?"

That was important, after all. The smell of the chicken was pretty strong, since he'd seasoned it well and there were vegetables in there with it. Also, it was almost done.

No. Done.

"Are you very hungry? And, um, I guess we'll have water since I didn't think to get anything to drink."

He ran a hand through his hair quickly, trying to tame it a little but the soft curls refused to do much of anything but be soft curls. He reached up to the cabinet and got out a pair of plates.

"I'll leave the rest for an hour or so if anyone wants," he told Andrew as he opened the pot of rice. The bottom had burned just right, as he liked it, and a touch of butter added before he mixed the upper layers made it smell even better. He served up for Andrew, rice on one side and chicken with vegetables on the other, before starting to scrape up the rice for himself.

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

"It smells divine, and I'm starving," he said, and he was. "I'll grab the water."

Andrew hopped up and took two glasses down from the cabinet, filling them from the tap.

He sat them on the table and then turned back towards Liir. "Thank you for cooking." He took another step close, wanting to steal a kiss before he ate and got all self-conscious about his breath.

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

Liir gave him one for free before getting his burnt rice on his plate, piling the other quarter with rice unscathed.

Then the chicken went on the other side.

"Just tell me if you like it. I'm always worried I'm going to get it wrong, as it's been years since I saw Five make it, and the Witch never liked it. The monkeys would eat it, though, so I could make it when she wasn't there."

Nanny would also complain about the damn heathen seasonings when he made it, but she was easier to ignore. Also, she ate it anyway.

He sat at the table in the seat next to Andrew. He'd never understand the idea of being across the table from someone you were trying to enjoy.

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

It smelled really exotic and inviting. He brought a forkful to his mouth, blew on it a little, and then gave it a taste, chewing thoughtfully.

"This is really excellent."

He dug in, asking between bites, "So who was Five?"

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"One of Sarima's sisters," he said as he put a forkful of rice and chicken to his own mouth.

"There were a lot of them, so we just used numbers. It was easier."

He beamed as he chewed, swallowed, and then spoke again.

"I got it right then. Oh, I haven't had this in ages."

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

He looked interestedly at Liir's plate. "Is it better when the rice is burnt like that?" He started to grab a bite off the other boy's plate but waited for permission first.

"And who was Sarima again?"

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Sarima," he corrected absently, pronouncing it a little differently. "And it's just the rice from the bottom of the pot. That's what I used to get, so that's the part I got to like."

He used the fork to tear off a part of the browned rice. It was crispy, and tasted a little more buttery than the rest. It was also rather chewy.

"Sarima was Fiyero's widow," he explained after he put the piece on Andrew's plate. "She was the mistress of Kiamo Ko, dowager princess of the Arjiki. Nor, Irji, and Manek were her children. I grew up with them for a time."

His eyes darkened just a little as he mentioned Manek.

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

Andrew reached under the table to place a hand on Liir's leg. He had a mental image of a young boy with vibrant green eyes and dark curly hair scraping at the bottom of a pot, and it hurt his heart.

"I'm glad you're here," he said after a moment. "And not because you've cooked me tasty food."

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He smiled faintly at Andrew's hand and slipped his own under the table to cover it, give it a faint squeeze.

"I'm glad to be here too," he said after he'd finished chewing.

He nudged Andrew.

"I never would have met you otherwise, after all. Or Karal or Teddy or Miss Lulu or Professor Ambrose or Millie. Or Ino or Lana..."

He smiled.

"The list is starting to get disturbingly long."

[wannabe-pan.livejournal.com]

"That's what you get for being so sweet," he said with a smile, picking up his fork and trying the browned rice.

It wasn't bad, but he figured he would stick to the fluffy stuff.

"Is there anyone from Oz that you want to, um, stay in touch with or see again?"