#tennocreate

“Sorry,” Zaethrin said with a soft giggle, fully entering the room. “I thought you heard me come in.”

“It’s fine,” Arthur sighed, moving on to the next task--tying together a bundle of dried herbs. “I have an apron for you on the stool there. Just wash your hands and we can get started.”

“Alright,” the tenno said. From the corner of his eye he saw Zaethrin pick up the dark purple apron and look at it. He watched him hold it up, head tilting slightly.

“Everything okay?” Arthur asked as he turned, an eyebrow raised. He was a little surprised to see disappointment cross the other man’s features as he glanced down at Arthur’s apron. What…oh…right…

“Oh, and please don’t forget the cute apron.”

Sol, the drifter couldn’t have been serious about that…could he?

“Yeah, everything’s good,” Zaethrin replied, with a bright, genuine smile. He put on the apron and tied it off in the back before asking, “So…where do we start on my culinary journey?”

Arthur couldn’t help but return the smile, it was infectious. He went back to his preparations as he replied, “We’re starting off easy today. I want to see what you know already, so I picked two simple recipes. The stew and the…grilled cheese.”

Zaethrin laughed, a light airy sound, shaking his head. “If you had to eat the same cubed rations day after day for centuries on end, a grilled cheese would look divine to you too.”

“Fair enough,” the soldier chuckled. “We’ll start the stew, then make the grilled cheese as it…well, stews.”

“Sounds good to me,” Zaethrin said, chuckling softly. He slid up next to Arthur, observing what he was doing. “What’s that? And why are you tying it up?”

“Herbs for flavor--rosemary, thyme, and bay leaves,” Arthur answered, holding the bundle up by the string. “And I’m doing this so it’s easier to fish out of the stew. I’d rather not get a bite of a leaf or stem if I can help it.”

“Makes sense,” the tenno murmured, stepping back a little when Arthur moved to pull over the cutting board.

“What are your knife skills like?” he asked Zaethrin as he placed a peeled carrot on the board and started to roughly chop it.

“Uh…well, in combat they’re pretty good? And you know I can cut up my food into perfect squares...”

“That’s true,” Arthur chuckled, finishing the carrot he was working on and sliding the board over to the tenno. “You should be able to handle the rough cuts then, just be careful to not catch a finger with the knife.”

“I think I can manage that,” Zaethrin said, taking up the knife and starting to chop up another carrot. 

Arthur nodded in approval before working on getting the beef ready..at least he hoped it was beef.

“Where’d you learn how to cook?” the other man asked.

“Mainly from my mother, much to my father’s chagrin,” Arthur replied with a soft chuckle, “And I picked up a few things while traveling with the military.”

“He didn’t approve of you learning to cook?” Zaethrin inquired, pausing what he was doing to look at Arthur, his brow furrowing in confusion, “But it sounds like a useful skill to have.”

“My father is very set in his ways,” the protoframe sighed, shaking his head, “Stuck in the idea that only women should be in the kitchen…didn’t mind me learning to cook in the wilderness, of course, because that’s survival skills.”

Zaethrin snorted, going back to chopping, moving on to the potatoes. “He would have gotten along with my mom’s parents then.”

“They didn’t want you to learn to cook?” Arthur queried, glancing over at the drifter.

“No, the opposite actually,” the other man replied.

“Oh,” Arthur murmured before what Zaethrin said clicked and his brow furrowed, “Wait…what?”

“Hmm?” Zaethrin stopped what he was doing to look at Arthur again, who stared right back.

“If they have a similar belief as my father…why would they want you to learn to cook?”

There was a long moment before something seemed to click for Zaethrin and soon soft laughter rumbled from the tenno’s throat. “Oh right, you weren’t there when I was discussing some of the implants I have with Amir, when this came up, were you?” he asked, with a small grin as he tapped lightly on the cognitive relays that lined the right side of his head.  

Arthur wasn’t sure if that was a rhetorical question, but still shook his head. He became worried when Zaethrin’s shoulders tensed slightly and he looked...uneasy? Worried?

“I uh…” the tenno cleared his throat, “I wasn’t born male…and my mother’s parents didn’t…agree with my identity when I came out. They still wanted to mold me into the ‘perfect wife’ to marry off.”

It took Arthur only a moment to absorb the information he was given. He was a little surprised, sure, but he was more focused on the latter part. “Huh…what absolute wankers,” he finally said, almost growling it out.

Zaethrin laughed again, fuller this time as his face lit up with a smile and his shoulders relaxed a little. “No clue what ‘wanker’ means, but from your tone I’m going to assume it’s not a compliment.”

“It’s not,” Arthur chuckled, going back to trimming the fat off the beef. “Although, I have to admit I’m surprised the future isn’t more accepting.”

“I mean, it is…at least compared to what I’ve read about this time period,” the drifter explained, “But if you weren’t Orokin, a lot of things came down to money and influence. My mom’s family came from money--‘posh’ is the word Quincy used, I think. Very set in their ways and always wanting to further their influence to go even higher up the social ladder. Mainly through marriage--thank Lua my parents never bought into that shit and put a stop to any bullshit my mom’s parents were trying to pull...”

“I’m almost afraid to ask…”

“It was nothing super nefarious…well, compared to other things I’ve dealt with,” Zaethrin sighed, placing the last of the cut up potatoes in the bowl before starting on the celery, “But they had a marriage arranged for me.”

“Shit, what rubbish people,” Arthur commented, shaking his head.

“Agreed,” Zaethrin chuckled.

A comfortable silence fell over them as they continued to work on the stew. From the corner of his eye, Arthur saw Zaethrin glancing over at him every once and a while. He was about to ask if there was something wrong when the other man released what could only be described as a squeak. A really adorable squeak at that.

“Zae?” Arthur asked, looking over at him, both curious and amused, “Everything alright?”

“Yup,” the tenno said quickly, pulling his left hand to his chest. “...just realized how sharp this knife is.”

The protoframe sighed and chuckled, holding out his hand for Zaethrin’s. “It was bound to happen, I would have been more surprised if it didn’t. Let me see, please?”

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