Day 21 Challenge: Cooking

Title: "Student"

Enjoy!

Gilbert stared at the lump of…was it food? He wasn't quite sure anymore, despite the fact that he had prepared it himself. He let out a groan, hitting his head against the table in front of him. This was all just a waste of money at this point, he would never get as good at cooking as all of the other students here.

"Fuck my life," Gilbert grumbled. His brother hadn't even been sure when Gilbert had told him he wanted to try going into cooking. He'd changed his mind on possible career paths since freshman year of high school almost constantly. One year, it was a mechanic, one month it was an artist, one day it was costume designer, for a while he was sure he'd be a producer, then he decided he wanted to own his own business. And he had been absolutely sure that he wanted to be a chef. And he sucked at it.

"I see you still haven't improved, Mr. Beilschmidt," the teacher, this obnoxious Frenchman named "Monsieur Bonnefoy", walked up to him. In hindsight, if Gilbert paid more attention to the man, he would have noticed that, under different circumstances, they could quite possibly be friends, but that wasn't important.

"Nope," Gilbert grumbled, not even looking up from his spot on the table.

"It has occurred to me that you might be in need of a tutor," Monsieur Bonnefoy continued and Gilbert glanced up at the man, as he was standing. "So I talked with Mr. Williams for you."

"Who?" Gilbert sat upright. He didn't pay much attention to the people in this class, but if this person was "outstanding" enough for Monsieur Bonnefoy to use him as a tutor for his most helpless student, he had to be good. So why hadn't Gilbert heard of him?

"You will sit with him for the remainder of the class," Monsieur Bonnefoy smiled. "He sits at the back, the desk to the right."

Gilbert glanced back at where the teacher had pointed and, at first, didn't see another person at the desk he referenced. After a short while, however, he saw one person. He was small, a little frail, but he was sitting in front of a beautiful concoction that looked way better than anything anyone else in the room had.

They cleaned up, Gilbert threw his sad excuse for food in the garbage, then he picked up his cooking utensils and moved to the back, next to the kid, who looked at him, slightly wary.

"I don't bite," Gilbert scoffed at him and the boy jumped slightly but nodded anyway. They sat in quiet after that while Monsieur Bonnefoy continued his lesson. They were apparently going to prepare another kind of food later and then be dismissed, but Gilbert would have to wait for that moment while he pretended to listen to the teacher.

His thoughts were focused on the person next to him, who seemed to be completely enthralled by the lesson. The more Gilbert looked at him, the more he noticed that he was actually pretty adorable. Damn him for not noticing this little gem before that moment. He noticed that he had the smallest of ticks, like moving that little curl in front of his face occasionally, only to not notice it going right back to where it was before, bouncing his left knee, tapping his finger on the table when he wasn't taking notes. He laughed at a joke that Monsieur Bonnefoy made and Gilbert fought back a smile at how cute it both looked and sounded. This wasn't as bad as Gilbert originally thought it would be.

Finally, Monsieur Bonnefoy stopped droning on about whatever the hell it was that they had to cook and told them to go ahead and start. That was when Gilbert noticed that there was nothing on the board to tell him what the hell it was they were supposed to be making.

"Shit," Gilbert muttered to himself, glancing at "Williams" (whatever the hell his first name was), who gave him a sympathetic smile. Still adorable.

"I'm starting to think that the reason you're failing isn't just because you can't cook very well," Williams sighed and moved his notebook to the center of the table carefully. On it, in incredibly neat handwriting, was the recipe they had to prepare as well as the steps to make it. "It's partners this time, which is probably another reason he brought you back here, since neither of us sits next to somebody."

"Right," Gilbert nodded with a sigh. The recipe was a little complicated and they had a little over an hour left in class to do it.

"Let's get started, eh?" Williams asked.

"Yeah," Gilbert nodded once again and he pulled out a few bowls while Williams went to fetch ingredients. Immediately when he came back, he began to sift the flour easily. "So…first name. Teach didn't give me yours, just your last name."

"Oh, um, Matthew," the kid glanced at him for just a second before returning to his work. "And you?"

"The Awesome Gilbert, at your service," Gilbert smirked.

"Great," Matthew nodded. "If you are at my service, please separate these three eggs for me," he delicately pushed a bowl that held three eggs towards Gilbert, who sighed slightly before nodding and doing as he was told. He couldn't just sit there and watch while Matthew did the project on his own, that would be unawesome of him.

"So, you're apparently pretty awesome at this," Gilbert attempted to start a conversation. He always hated working in quiet, he needed something else to occupy his mind. "How long you been cooking for?"

"Since before I could walk properly," Matthew smiled cutely and Gilbert smirked. Great conversation topic, good job Gilbert. "I've always loved cooking. What about you? What made you want to come here?"

"Uh, more or less on a whim, I guess?" Gilbert shrugged and Matthew gave him another task that involved stirring dry ingredients together, including the newly sifted flour, while Matthew took the eggs and started mixing the wet ingredients together. "I've never really been sure on any career path I've chosen so far."

"Well, you're not exactly a natural with cooking," Matthew chuckled while he fixed the way Gilbert was holding the fork that he was using to mix the dry ingredients with. "Stir it in less of an oval and more of a circle. And make sure you get the stuff that sticks to the edges."

"Yes, sir," Gilbert smirked, doing as he was told while Matthew stirred together everything he needed in practically no time at all. And he did it with a finesse that Gilbert honestly couldn't replicate. "So, what do you want to do in the future with all of your fancy cooking skills?"

"Well, if I could own a restaurant, that would be fantastic," Matthew smiled before taking Gilbert's now mixed bowl and adding the wet ingredients before he handed it back to Gilbert, who started to stir again while Matthew watched him carefully. "Being able to cook for hundreds, maybe thousands of people and have them leave happy would be the best thing in the world for me. And being at a place where no one can really see helps, too. I mean, it's nice to have people acknowledge that it's me cooking, but talking to people isn't really my strong point. I'm rambling, sorry."

"Nah, I don't mind," Gilbert shrugged. "It's kinda nice, actually. Hell, if you want, I could help ya with that restaurant, not with cooking, obviously. But I would make a hell of a host, I'm great with people."

"That's sweet of you," Matthew smiled slightly. "I may just take you up on that offer."

"Are you really sure you should trust me with this part?" Gilbert asked warily.

"It's a garnish," Matthew giggled. "It's not that hard to put a garnish on top of a steak."

"What if I tilt it wrong or something?" Gilbert asked.

"You can't," Matthew laughed. Gilbert sighed and carefully placed the stupid little garnish thing on top of the steak with so much concentration that his tongue stuck out slightly. Matthew laughed again just as Gilbert placed the garnish on it before stepping back proudly. "You did it wrong."

"Wait, are you serious?" Gilbert gaped at him and Matthew laughed again.

"I'm just kidding with you," Matthew laughed, holding onto his stomach. Gilbert scowled slightly. He'd known Matthew for a month now, making random recipes every other day, and he hadn't failed anything since they started working together. Though he found that he was even more distracted than usual. Distracted by the cute smile, the adorable laugh, the way he talked about that restaurant he wanted to open. He was failing everything else in that stupid class. "You shouldn't take everything so seriously."

"I think that's my line," Gilbert smirked. But he was a little depressed, deep inside. The class was about to end with the semester and Gilbert sure as hell wouldn't be invited back for the next level. Matthew would probably skip or something, considering how good he was at it. He would have to take a chance to make sure he could keep seeing Matthew, but he was awesome, he could take a chance easily. "I got a question to ask you."

"Can it wait a second?" Matthew asked innocently. "Monsieur Bonnefoy is about to come and check your work."

"Yeah, sure," Gilbert sighed.

Weeks passed. Weeks. And everything possible happened to stop Gilbert from asking Matthew the all-important question of going out with him. Being his fucking boyfriend. He was just annoyed at this point. But he was going to do it today, their last day of class. He waited patiently outside of the door and it felt like his foot was tapping the floor about 1,000 times a second. But it felt like he was waiting forever. Finally, finally, Matthew showed his face, walking quickly to the door, though he gave Gilbert a confused look when he saw him hanging out in front of the door.

"What are you doing outside of the classroom?" Matthew asked.

"Waiting for you," Gilbert replied as smoothly as possible and Matthew raised an eyebrow. "I still have that question to ask you."

"Do you think it could wait until we get in the classroom?" Matthew asked. "Class starts in a few seconds."

"No," Gilbert said hurriedly and Matthew blinked at him. "I mean, not really. It's just a little complicated to ask and-"

"I thought you said you were good with talking to people," Matthew laughed slightly and made a move to enter the classroom. Gilbert stopped him the only way he really knew how to, and it was, admittedly, a very stupid way. He pulled Matthew into a kiss. The smaller male jumped slightly, but, much to Gilbert's relief, he actually kissed back. And it stayed like that for a few, blissful seconds, before they pulled apart. "If that was your question," Matthew smiled slightly at him, "whatever it was asking…sure."

And he disappeared into the classroom. Gilbert fist-pumped proudly into the air with a wicked smirk on his face.

More writer's block on this one, too. I dunno, I'm not that into cooking so I couldn't do too well with this prompt. If you are curious, my cooking skill is about on the level of Arthur Kirkland. In any case, it's done, they're cute, what else is new?

Please review.

And join me for tomorrow's challenge, In Battle, titled "I Spy".