Day 18: Is your character a good cook? What's their favorite recipe, whether they're good or not? (Microwave mac-and-cheese applies.)

alt title: food for thought

For the next ten minutes, Gilbert waited for Lovino to cook him more pasta than he could ever eat. Food was apparently a comfort thing for Italians, something they brought with them into New York through generations of immigrants (every Italian food place he went to gave him extra for free when he looked upset).

Lovino pulled a kitchen chair over next to the stove and made Gilbert sit in it so he could keep an eye on him. At first Gilbert felt a little aggravated that Lovino thought he needed to be minded like a child, but after the fifth time in as many minutes Lovino dropped a kiss on his forehead he found it didn't bother him so much.

"Eat," Lovino told him while setting a plate in his lap. It wasn't piled as high as he expected but it certainly was a lot of food. He didn't hesitate in following Lovino's order though, stabbing his fork through several noodles and putting them in his mouth. He supposed they were good. Right now, everything tasted like ash.

Lovino sighed and pulled up his own chair, close enough that their knees were touching. "I want you to keep eating and listen. Don't interrupt me." Gilbert nodded. "There is no such thing as a minor infraction with me."

The pronouncement startled Gilbert into dropping his fork but he recovered quickly. According to Lovino, even not following the order to eat could get him in serious trouble.

The Italian seemed to see his racing thoughts because he reached forward and laid a hand on Gilbert's thigh, his thumb rubbing gently. "Not in the way you're thinking. Anything you do that's a breach of contract is enough to be punished for. My first contract, that included cheating, repeated lying, and purposefully disobeying explicit orders, and even that one could be argued against." He put his hand over Gilbert's on his fork, stopping him from compulsively shoveling food into his mouth. "You would never be punished for leaving a room I didn't tell you you couldn't leave."

Gilbert felt more than a little nauseous. "Can I put this plate down?" he asked in a much weaker voice than he intended. Lovino sighed but nodded and Gilbert lowered the plate and fork to the floor. He didn't look back up and Lovino sighed again, more angrily this time.

"You don't have to ask for shit like that, Gilbert. I don't know how to get it through your head that I'm not trying to fucking run every instance of your life." He stood abruptly, pacing the length of the kitchen. Gilbert followed him with his eyes, his body automatically tensed and readied to bolt if Lovino made any sudden movements toward him.

"Sorry, I won't ask again," Gilbert murmured. Today was turning out pretty not-awesome. He just wanted to go on a date, he never should have suggested going over to Lovino's house.

"Stop fucking apologizing." Gilbert's mouth shut automatically. Lovino walked slowly over to him and took his hands, pulling him to standing; Gilbert went willingly and let Lovino guide him out of the kitchen, leaving the plate on the floor. "That wasn't an order. I… I forget you weren't raised like… other people I know."

Gilbert made a questioning noise, barely noticing the details of Lovino's room as he was pushed inside. Lovino closed the door behind him, sat Gilbert on the bed, and knelt to take his shoes off. The sight of Doms in such a position always made Gilbert feel viscerally uncomfortable so he closed his eyes.

"Raised like who?" he ventured, opening his eyes again when Lovino stood.

"Friend of Feliciano's. I'll introduce you two one day… I'm not sure how you'd get along." A short hum of acknowledgement, and then Gilbert stayed quiet while Lovino removed his own shoes and unbuttoned his shirt most of the way. He sat on the bed next to Gilbert and rested light fingers around his waist. "I'm sorry I've been so short with you. And don't take this opportunity to make a short joke." The German wanted to laugh at that-he loved to make jokes about Lovino's height until the other man kissed him to shut him up-but he couldn't work up the energy.

Lovino seemed to understand that he found it funny, though. He shifted Gilbert to lie on his side and laid next to him, facing him. "I was under a lot of stress until today and I just took it out on you. I didn't mean to curse at you."

Gilbert waved his hand dismissively. "We curse at each other all the time. Didn't bother me."

"I think it did." Lovino took his hand and kissed his fingertips, making Gilbert's face flame red. "You know I don't mean it, right? You've been through different things that I'm used to and it frustrates me, but you're worth it." Gilbert wasn't sure if he could get any redder than he was at that moment and wasn't eager to test it.

"Can we just talk about it later?" he asked, curling closer to Lovino. The Dom seemed happy that he felt he could ask. He nodded and pulled a throw blanket over their legs, leaning forward to brush his lips across Gilbert's nose.

After a lot of thought, I've decided that I don't mind how "OOC" everyone is. I haven't gotten any outright complaints about people being out of character but I'm sure everyone has noticed that they don't exactly follow strict to canon. But the thing is, from panel to panel, Romano and Prussia's relationship goes from mutually respectful to almost shippy to playfully disrespectful (seriously, go look at every comic where they interact. It's adorable).

I'm characterizing them how I want to, and in a way that fits the story. They will get back into "canon" periodically, especially when they're around other people like Germany or Austria. Most of the time, however, they're going to be two characters who aren't in a relationship in canon being written into one, in an alternate universe no less. I think it's not asking much to be afforded some leniency and wiggle room in characterizations because none of these situations would ever happen!

Sorry for those paragraphs, tl;dr I know they're OOC and I'm not going to let that bother me.

Thank you all so much for reading.