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Teaser – Yuri accidentally wins over Witcher (and Sodia, sort of) by fixing the results of Flynn's cooking.

Inspiration – Flynn in an apron, again :)

Respect

The first time he does it is at the location that later became Aurnion. By the time the monsters are all dead and everyone has been gathered together in a single place, it was late. It was too dark to safely summon Ba'ul, and the Fiertia, so they opted to stick out the night with everybody else, helping to pitch tents, treat the wounded, and cook.

Unfortunately, somehow Flynn was one of the people who cooked.

Yuri managed to mitigate that disaster by ensuring that only Brave Vesperia, Flynn, and Flynn's two-person posse were the only ones to eat his food. Yuri's group had experience with finding creative ways to make Flynn's cooking palatable and he'd assumed that Sodia and Witcher had too.

It quickly became apparent that this was the first time Flynn had ever cooked for them. Sodia had seemed excited… right up until that first bite when she just about turned red. Witcher started coughing and then stared balefully at his soup. Then they both looked hesitantly at Flynn, who was still serving soup to the rest of the group, as though they didn't know what to say.

Yuri took a small first bite and, sure enough, Flynn had made it too spicy. Turning to their blastia cooled stash of milk, Yuri added some to his soup and tried again. Not quite right, but close. Once he'd toned it down enough, he looked up to see Witcher and Sodia both staring at him with puzzled looks. So he passed over the milk to them and quietly said, "it'll tone down the spiciness without affecting the soup's other flavors too much."

Witcher took the offered milk with a grateful thank you. Sodia humphed and turned away… but added the milk when Witcher passed it to her anyway. When she was done, she returned the bottle to Yuri and refused to meet his eyes.

Flynn, of course, never noticed anything was amiss as he happily ate his too-spicy soup while chatting with Estelle (who'd added copious amounts of cheese to her soup) and Raven (who was tearing up bread to drop in his bowl).

The second time Yuri helped them was at the Hot Springs. While the ladies were taking their turn in the baths, Flynn prepared some breaded chicken in the guest kitchen. Then he preceded to over cook it.

So while the others tried to find some way to make the chicken more palatable, Yuri settled on the tried and true method of ketchup. He took a couple of tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, and some herbs he liked, and made a quick paste out of it, laughing off Flynn's teasing comment about never outgrowing his childhood habits of drowning his food in that sauce.

Just like he'd hoped, the sauce was just what he needed to ignore the taste of the over-done bird. Nudging Witcher, Yuri passed him the ketchup.

"Give it a try," Yuri told him. "It'll cover up the dry taste."

Witcher grimaced at his plate. "Can't be any worse," he muttered, blushing pink when he realized he'd said the words aloud. Mostly because Yuri smirked at him.

Once Witcher tasted a bite of chicken dipped in the sauce, he grinned at Yuri and thanked him quietly. "Looks like there's enough for Sodia to use too," he paused, then added, "mind if I give her the rest?"

"Sure," Yuri shrugged. "It doesn't keep long outside a blastia cooler and there's no point in storing that when we don't use it often. If she doesn't use it, it'll probably just go to waste."

So when the guys went to use the Hot Springs and ladies came back to find the chicken waiting for them… Witcher took Sodia aside and made her promise to eat the chicken using the sauce Yuri made and not to make a fuss about who made it.

"Without Yuri's quick thinking, the food would've been unpalatable," Witcher insisted. "So don't turn up your nose just because..."

"I get it," Sodia interrupted sharply. "Commander Flynn's cooking is… questionable, but Yuri Lowell's isn't. I… I can accept that." She clearly didn't like it, though.

After the world was saved, it kept happening. Brave Vesperia would show up to help out on a job meant to build relationships between the Empire and the Guilds and if Flynn happened to cook during the job… Yuri ran interference.

He taught Witcher and Sodia tricks for fixing food that was too salty. He taught them what to do about food that was too dry. He explained that Flynn tended to like spicier food, so he didn't always realize that he'd over done the flavor because it was to his taste, but not everyone else's, and what sort of coping strategies could get them through a meal other than adding milk to soup.

Eventually, Witcher asked Yuri why he hadn't told Flynn that he wasn't a great cook.

"I mean… we don't because he's our superior and… it's hard to approach him on something like this. But your his friend, so can't you…?"

Yuri smiled distantly and shook his head. "It's because he's my friend I have so much trouble telling him. I cooked a lot when we were growing up because he was so bad at it and he felt like he was burdening me with a chore he couldn't share in. So now that he's better at it – yes, really, he is – when I try to convince him to let someone else take his turn at cooking, Flynn will tell me things like 'I want to make something nice for you, for all the times you cooked something really good for me' and… even if it isn't the best food, he is putting his best effort into it. I don't want to insult that by telling him he shouldn't even try."

Witcher wasn't really sure what to say to that, other than "I'm really, really glad that Commandant Flynn has you for a friend." Witcher wasn't sure, but he thought Yuri might have actually blushed a bit, but in the darkness of the Aurnion evening there was no telling for sure.

"I'm not completely oblivious, you know," Flynn told Yuri one evening. "Sodia actually said something nice about you, without Witcher having to prompt her. It was weird."

"And now I'm confused. You're not oblivious about what and what does this have to do with Sodia saying something nice about me?" Yuri lay on his back, head cushioned on Flynn's lap.

"I'm still a terrible cook, aren't I?"

"Ah… well… I wouldn't say that you're the worst cook in the world..." Yuri hedged.

Flynn snickered. "I used to be. Now I'm a step or two up, which isn't saying much. The Wonder Chef still won't even look at me if we're in the same room. Which, admittedly, has only happened twice since he stormed out on the competition and I'm not sure he knew I was there the first time..." he tugged lightly at Yuri's hair when the raven-haired man snickered at him. "Oh shush you. Anyway. Sodia was trying a new recipe and she thought it was missing something… and she said she'd have to ask your opinion the next time she saw you. Which, not exactly a complement, but she wouldn't want your opinion if she didn't respect your culinary skills. I take it you've been teaching her coping skills for my less successful cooking ventures?"

"Witcher too," Yuri admitted.

"Thanks."

"Do you get why I never said anything?" Yuri asked quietly.

"Yeah. I do." Flynn leaned down and brushed a kiss against Yuri's forehead. "Thank you for that too."