Title: Simple
Rating: K+
Summary: "Cooking is simple. A little flour, a bit of butter, and you have something there. It's not magical, but it makes sense. It's chemistry." Navel teaches Naomi how to cook and pulls back the curtain on his past.
Author's Note: This is a new version of a fic I uploaded in August 2010 called "Cooking Lessons". This new version is dedicated to all the reviewers of the first version: OnyxienNess, zenbon zakura, Wavebreeze, LittleGuyLover, kjhgfdd, RandomAbadon, XxFaithfullyFallenxX, Sakumi, and a sweet anonymous reviewer. (A special shout out to Wavebreeze, who always leaves such awesome constructive reviews!) Thanks guys!
Reviews, as always, are really appreciated!
"Here, taste this."
Navel and Naomi were in their tiny apartment kitchen, cooking dinner together, a fairly new activity for the fairly new couple. During the first few weeks of their relationship, their diet had subsisted of mostly take-out food, until during a slow weekend Navel said he would whip something up for them and Alyssa. The food that night had been a hit, especially with Alyssa who declared it "better than kung pao chicken and pizza put together!" Soon Navel was cooking more often than not, even baking pastries and breads for neighbors on occasion. Naomi loved when the apartment smelled of baking bread, but she could have done without elderly Mrs. Singh telling her every other day that "she had such a wonderfully handsome husband, who can bake so well!"
Naomi cooked too sometimes, although Navel and Alyssa seemed to silently agree that cooking was most definitely not Naomi's forte. Naomi had admitted as much to Navel, but after having her amazing curry the first night she cooked, he didn't think much of her comment. That is until a few weeks later, after sampling one of Naomi's less successful dishes, and unable to politely stomach the spectrum of bland to salt any longer, Navel had gently suggested he teach Naomi how to cook some new dishes.
"That's delicious."
"Thanks," Navel said. "Can you stir this for a few more minutes?" He returned to some dough that had been left to prove, uncovering the dough to began kneading it.
"I don't know how you do it," Naomi said. "Everything seems so simple, but works out so well in the end."
"Cooking is simple," Navel said to Naomi. "A little flour, a bit of butter, and you have something there. It's not magical, but it makes sense. It's just good chemistry."
"Well, if anything, this," Naomi said, gesturing to the saucepan, "is a perfect blend of myth and science.
Navel smiled. "I'm glad you like it. God, I haven't made this since..." Navel paused and stopped mid-knead, suddenly aware he just led himself in a direction he didn't want to venture down.
"Since when?" Naomi gently pressed.
Navel sighed softly and returned to kneading. "Since I lived with my fiancée."
Naomi knew they were heading into dangerous territory. Their past time in Delphi was definitely off the table for discussion but bits and pieces of their lives leading up to Delphi had been slipping into their conversation lately. Navel was born in Wyoming. Naomi had a brother who lived in Osaka. Small things that didn't affect them directly but drew them, two very private, isolated people, together.
Naomi knew very little about Navel's fiancee. All she knew about Navel's fiancee was gleaned from one photograph. When he moved in with her and Alyssa, Navel only had two photographs in his whole possession. He hung up one photo, of his blonde-haired mother and blue-eyed father with him and his siblings, right after he had moved in with Naomi. Naomi had stumbled across the other photograph while she was helping Navel unpack a few boxes.
The photograph was of a beautiful woman, with deep auburn hair, tan skin, and a dazzling smile, laughing and reaching out in front of her, presumably trying to snatch the camera away from the photographer. When Naomi had asked about the woman in the photo, Navel had bluntly stated that the woman was his ex-fiancée. With a wistful last look, he slipped the photo into the trash. Naomi felt a small pang of jealously grip her but chose not to pursue the subject. There were reasons why Navel and the woman were not married and they weren't for Naomi know. Yet.
"She actually taught me how to cook," Navel said. "When we lived together briefly after we graduated college."
"Where is she now?" Naomi asked.
Navel gave the dough a few last kneads and paused to examine his work. "Can you whisk an egg with half a cup of water? I want to make an egg wash for this bread."
Naomi frowned at Navel, who raised his hands defensively. "Hey, I'm not trying to change the subject, I just need to get this into the oven if we're going to eat anytime soon."
Naomi cracked an egg into a bowl (she was improving – no shell!), added water, and began whisking. "You've never been curious about her? Even with all of the FBI's data at your fingertips?"
Navel laughed. "Doctor, are you implying that I use my FBI clearance for unprofessional personal needs?" Navel asked, the corner of his mouth quirking up in a teasing grin.
Naomi smiled. "Perhaps."
"Yeah, I looked her up a little while back," Navel said. He reached for a knife and cut cross-shaped notches into the bread dough. "She's a teacher now. She lives in Utah with her husband and two kids. I'm happy for her. It's what she wanted."
The sound of sloshing egg and the whisk on glass were the only sounds in the room until Navel took the bowl from Naomi and began covering the dough with the egg wash. Silence fell around them.
"What about you?" Naomi asked after a moment. "Do you have everything that you want?"
Navel turned to look at Naomi, their eyes definitively meeting. "Yes," he said with resolute finality. "I have everything I want."
Naomi looked away from Navel's gaze, feeling a blush creep up her neck. Navel wasn't often direct with his feelings but when he was Naomi could feel the intensity of his emotions. Any slight jealously she had felt for the woman in the photograph, for Navel's once fiancee was gone in that instant.
"If you didn't have raw egg on your hands, I'd come and kiss you."
Navel chuckled and returned to the dough. "I'll take a rain check."
"I was dumb when I was a kid," Navel admitted, covering the bread with the egg wash. "I didn't know what the hell I wanted. Delphi..."
Navel cut himself off. He knew Naomi's stance about discussing Delphi.
"Go on," Naomi insisted.
Navel sighed. "Delphi made sense back then. I was half-way through med school and I found my way to them. They needed me. I knew enough medicine, I was a good shot with a gun, and could keep my head cool in rough situations. I was a valuable asset. It was good money too. Leah didn't seem to agree."
Navel shook egg off his hands and crossed to the sink to wash them. "Can you get the deep pan from the top cupboard?"
Naomi complied and Navel continued, "By then Delphi was already starting to creep into all aspects of my life. After I broke up with Leah, Delphi became my whole life. It wasn't just a job anymore. What they believed in gradually became what I believed in. It made sense to me. For awhile."
"And then?" Naomi asked.
"Then one day a doctor came into my life that never really saw eye-to-eye with Delphi, who questioned their beliefs," Navel said. He turned on the oven to pre-heat it and leaned against the kitchen counter. "She even made me stop on the side of the road to save a guy who was nearly blacktagged because believed that life was worth preserving. She woke me up."
"I see," Naomi said, a small smile blooming on her lips. "I didn't know this doctor meant that much to you then."
"Well, I actually didn't know either until it all came crashing down that day Caduceus raided the Eidoth lab," Navel said. "After a few days on the run, I realized I could actually breathe easy again. I thought a lot about the doctor who was always a pain in my ass because she insisted that people are worth saving. She made a lot of sense."
Naomi looked at her boyfriend. He looked so nice standing there in their kitchen in an t-shirt (which she knew from experience was very soft) with a bit of flour still on his forearms. Who would have thought the man Delphi charged with protecting her, the cold man who was helping to bring forth apocalypse would be helping her bake bread and make pasta in the tiny kitchen of their shared apartment?
But there they were, in sleepy suburban Maine, their child coloring in the next room over, and in the middle of cooking dinner. Life's funny that way.
Navel waved his hands in front of him. "No egg now."
They both laughed and Navel pulled Naomi into his arms, trailing kisses up her neck.
"When I first saw you in David's office months ago, I was so angry," Naomi admitted. "I thought you were the same person I had met in Delphi. But then I saw a change in you... and I just relinquished myself to the attraction I felt for you."
"You know," Navel said, his lips grazing Naomi's forehead. "I didn't just fall for you just because you're absolutely gorgeous."
"Compliments won't help you, Little Guy."
"Hey, I've already got the woman I love in my arms, I think I'm doing alright," Navel said pulling back to look at Naomi, who merely rolled her eyes. "You helped change me," he said quietly. "I'm glad you gave me another chance."
Naomi leaned up to kiss Navel, snaking her arms around his neck and pulling him closer to her. The heat in their small kitchen was becoming unbearable. Navel wanted nothing more than to reach down and tear off Naomi's blouse and reveal more of her silky white skin. The top two undone buttons of her shirt had been teasing him all day.
An electronic trilling noise broke the two from their shared trance.
"That will be the oven," Naomi said. "It's pre-heated."
"It'll stay hot," Navel insisted, kissing her at the pulse point at her neck. Naomi muffled a moan in his hair.
"Naomi! Little Guy!" a voice called out.
Navel and Naomi quickly untangled themselves from each other, as Alyssa burst into the kitchen. "When's dinner gonna be ready?"
Navel ran his hand through his hair, mussing it up further. "Just about thirty minutes."
"Yay! I'm getting hungry," Alyssa said. "I'm gonna get the cat food for Chloe now too, m'kay?"
As Alyssa ran around them and pulled out Chloe's cat food and a can opener, Naomi kissed Navel on the cheek and set to putting the bread dough in the oven.
Navel smiled to himself. It had been a hell of a long journey to get here, but he was damn glad he had made it.
Author's Note: This is a new version of a fic called "Cooking Lessons" uploaded in August 2010. I was going through my published fan fiction on and I just didn't like the original version of "Cooking Lessons". I felt it to be a little out of character, a little too fluffy, very rushed, and just not very good. This new version follows the same basic premise (Little Guy helps Naomi with her abysmal cooking and much kissing follows) but I am much prouder of the writing in general.
(And if you didn't catch it up there, this new version is dedicated to all the reviewers of "Cooking Lessons": OnyxienNess, zenbon zakura, Wavebreeze, LittleGuyLover, kjhgfdd, RandomAbadon, XxFaithfullyFallenxX, Sakumi, and a sweet anonymous reviewer. You guys rock!)
I would really appreciate a review if you had the time! I've been writing a lot more recently and Favorites and Follows are wonderful but I would love some written feedback!