The sound of frying came from the kitchen area, along with the sweet aroma of garlic being sautéed in olive oil. Lovino's stomach started to grumble at the scent. He put down the book he was reading and headed off to the kitchen to see how things were. Antonio was busy frying things up when Lovino saw him. The Spaniard tossed vegetables in and shook the pan expertly. It took him only a glance to notice that Lovino was standing under the doorway.
"Hey Lovi? Could you chop the tomatoes please? I'm kind of busy."
Lovino's stomach groaned noisily. He wanted nothing more than to eat already. "Fine, but I get to have one tomato for snack."
"Sure. Go ahead."
Lovino went ahead and washed a handful of tomatoes before laying them out on the chopping board. But before chopping everything, he ate one small tomato to keep his hunger at bay. He chopped them in wedges, which was what the recipe required. As he was almost done with the tomatoes, Antonio spoke up. "I'll also need you to remove the seeds, okay?"
The Italian froze. Did he hear that right? "Remove the seeds?" he asked, to which Antonio nodded. It sounded completely absurd to him. What was the point of removing the seeds? Why weren't the seeds needed? The recipe just said tomatoes. Not wanting to waste time on arguing, he complied.
Lovino reluctantly took out a small spoon and started to scrape off the seedy part of the tomato. One by one, he hollowed out the tomato wedges and threw the seeds into a nearby bowl. When he finished, Antonio grabbed what he could of the tomatoes and tossed them into the tomato sauce he prepared. The smell of the bubbling tomato sauce filled the room.
To Antonio's left, Lovino stood awkwardly before the bowl of tomato seeds. He bit his lip uneasily before he opened his mouth to speak. "What are we going to do with the seeds?"
"Throw them away, of course," Antonio answered nonchalantly.
Lovino twitched at the thought of throwing away perfectly good parts of a precious tomato "Are you fucking messing with me?"
"No. I'm serious, Lovino. We're not going to use those seeds."
Lovino continued to just stare down at the bowl. It looked like an awful lot of waste to throw it away. Why didn't the recipe need them anyway? It was still tomatoes. His stomach grumbled. By then, Lovino decided to eat them.
After making sure that Antonio wasn't looking, he snuck away the bowl full of seeds and the small spoon. He plopped himself down on the couch and began to eat. Sure, it wasn't the same as to eating a whole tomato but it was still part of a tomato nonetheless, and Lovino was going to eat it, damn it. No stupid Spaniard was going to fucking make him throw the tomatoes away.
A few minutes later, Antonio went to check on Lovino and to tell him that the food was ready. When he saw the Italian boy, he was sitting comfortably on the couch with tomato seeds stuck on the corners of his mouth. In his hand was a bowl with only remains of what appeared to be tomato seeds. Antonio shook his head, smiling to himself. "Did you eat the tomato seeds, Lovi?"
Lovino puffed out his cheeks. "Damn right I did. What's it to you, fucking tomato bastard?"
"I told you to throw them away, didn't I?"
"Yes, but I'm not going to be the one who just wastes perfectly good tomato seeds in this house." He crossed his arms over his chest in protest.
Antonio laughed. "Come on. Dinner's ready."
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After the two ate the meal that was prepared earlier, Lovino finally remembered to ask why the seeds needed to be removed.
"The texture is different when the seeds are included in the sauce," Antonio answered chuckling, still not over the fact that his adorable Lovi ate the tomato seeds.
"Well, fuck the texture! I don't like wasting a good part of a tomato!"
"So was the sauce I made good?" Antonio asked.
Lovino crossed his arms. "If you ask me, I think it would've been better off with the seeds in it."