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“You come here often?” Chris asked the first thing when he stopped next to Leon at the cafeteria, flashing him a smirk. All he got as a response was a chuckle and a headshake, as he had said the exact same thing pretty much every single day since Leon had taken the temporary consulting job that brought him to the BSAA main facility nearly daily. Truth to be told, it was less joking than he was trying to make it seem, but he was atrocious at flirting. Especially when he was this interested.
So Chris had pretty much resigned himself to the fact that he’d say the same lame pickup line every day at lunch until Leon wouldn’t be coming over any longer and he’d have officially lost this window of opportunity. He sat down across the table from Leon, his attention immediately drawn to the delicious looking lasagna he was having. A little sadly Chris poked at his own meal, the weird-looking casserole type of thing that he knew from experience tasted like absolutely nothing. “That looks good,” he said, “I didn’t realize they had something else than …whatever this is.”
“Oh, they don’t,” Leon answered, grinning as he glanced up. “No offense to the great BSAA, but I don’t think anything they sell at the cafeteria here is as good as this.” He had leaned his cheek into his palm as he looked at Chris, gesturing vaguely towards his food. “Wanna taste?”
Eagerly Chris reached out and dug his fork into the lasagna, taking as big a forkful as he possibly managed. And hell, Leon hadn’t been exaggerating, it was so goddamn good that Chris kind of spaced out for a second just relishing it. “This… this now is like heaven,” he burst out, before he even managed to second guess his wording choices. “You’ve got to teach me how to make this!”
Leon made a noncommittal sound at first, until he realized Chris was still looking at him all earnestly. “Really?” he asked, “I didn’t realize you had an interest in cooking.”
“I don’t,” Chris blurted out, only afterwards cursing his tendency to immediately speak his mind. He rolled with it though, figuring out that this was as good a time as any. “But this is seriously great and I’m tired of eating this …cardboard mush they call food here.” He reached out with his fork again, but only when he received a nod from Leon he took another forkful of that incredibly delicious lasagna.
“Honestly, Chris,” Leon shook his head a little, but there was a smile dancing on his lips, “I’m not—”
“Please?” Chris burst out, uncaring that his mouth was still half-full of food.
Leon paused, really looking at Chris and the puppy-dog eyes he was directing at him. He opened his mouth to reply but then hesitated, changing his mind before he said anything. He laughed a little disbelievingly, and when he finally spoke what came out was “Sure. You free this Sunday?”
*
By the time Sunday rolled around, Chris was more than a little excited. Leon had asked for him to come over at ten thirty, and Chris was punctual to the last second. First thing they set out for was the grocery shopping, and Chris felt more than a little useless as he kept pushing the shopping cart and watched Leon follow a mile-long list, collecting enough food to last for at least a week.
They got back to Leon’s building and it was only when they stood in front of a door and Leon rang the bell that Chris realized it wasn’t Leon’s door. “What’s going on?” he asked curiously, but there wasn’t any chance for him to get a reply before the door swung open, an old lady practically beaming at Leon.
“Leon! How good to see you again!” She reached up to grab his shoulders so she could pull him down, planting a kiss onto both of his cheeks before patting one softly. “I have some new recipes we should try out, I’m sure you’ll love them.”
“You’d make anything tasty, Martha,” Leon smiled at her brightly. Then he turned to look at Chris, nodding towards him as he addressed her. “I hope you don’t mind that I brought a friend. He’s been really enjoying your cooking lately. I barely get to eat any of it myself.”
Chris could feel his face heat up and he wanted to protest, tell her that he wasn’t eating so much of Leon’s lunches that the other man had to go hungry. Yet he didn’t really manage to get a word out, not before she was laughing, shaking her head a little. “Oh, that has to change. We’re going to make enough for all of us this week!” She was already ushering them in as she spoke, greeting Chris with a soft pat on his bicep.
Which is how not more than five minutes later they were standing in the kitchen, side by side by the sink peeling potatoes. Martha had disappeared into the living room to go through the dozen cookbooks she had, just because apparently seeing Chris had reminded her of one recipe she was absolutely certain that he’d enjoy.
“She is really… something,” Chris muttered in a low voice as soon as they were alone, arching an eyebrow at Leon. “So this is your secret? You make a nice old lady cook for you?”
Leon laughed. “Please. You can’t make her do anything. She just showed up on my doorstep one day, with cookies, and I invited her in because I have manners, thank you very much.” He didn’t know if he’d been the first person in the building to actually welcome her so warmly, but for him there hadn’t been any alternative really. Nice old ladies with cookies were meant to be asked in for tea. “She took like one look into my fridge and told me she’d ‘fix everything’.”
“And I did!” Martha announced as she waltzed back into the kitchen. “He comes over every Sunday and we cook a week’s worth of lunches and dinners for the both of us! He gets to eat well,” she smiled at Leon, and it was clear already from that one look that she basically considered him her own grandson by now, “and I don’t need to cook only for myself.”
“Everyone wins,” Leon agreed, nudging Chris with his elbow. “Although you need to be more careful with those, you’re peeling off more actual potato than skin.”
“Well excuse me!” Chris pretended to be scandalized. “I haven’t had anyone teach me how to do this properly. You know my skills are limited to boiling water.”
“Oh, you will learn,” Martha cut in again, reaching out to pat Chris’ shoulder lightly. “Come back next week, and I promise you it will be less than two months and you’ll know your way around a kitchen! You do know the saying: with great cooking you can win the heart of anyone you set your sights on.”
“Anyone?” Chris asked. Maybe he was being a little too obvious, a little too open with his emotions, but he couldn’t help but give a long look at Leon. That was the only reason he was even here to begin with, as he’d thought he had a foolproof plan to get to spend one-on-one time with him. And even though that may have backfired, this was nice, too.
Leon didn’t even notice the look that had been given him, too focused on his task. Martha however, arched an eyebrow at Chris and didn’t even try to cover the upwards quirk of her mouth. Way to go, Redfield, Chris told himself, you’ve been here for a few hours and already the little old lady knows of your big dumb crush.
Thankfully she didn’t comment on it, only laughed and agreed with a nod. “Anyone. Now let me show you how I want the carrots chopped.”
Martha was good at giving clear, concise instructions and soon Chris found himself actually enjoying the moment, the way he could keep busy with his hands but didn’t need to think too hard on what he was doing. Most of the time he kept listening to Leon and Martha chat, enjoying the easygoing atmosphere, only occasionally offering a comment or two in between.
There was so much food Chris could’ve sworn it was enough for a month, but then again, it was supposed to be enough for all three of them so maybe the others knew what they were doing. Besides Martha let them taste whatever they wanted, and as much as they wanted, so they ended up overeating already before they were even done with all of the courses on Martha’s list.
“I gotta say,” Chris practically moaned around a spoonful of the best soup he’d ever had. “This has been the best day of my life.”
“Oh, sweetheart,” Martha laughed, obviously pleased. “You haven’t even seen anything yet. Wait for the stew to be ready and then we can have this conversation.”
“Can’t wait,” Chris grinned. He set the spoon down, turning a little towards the doorway. “I need to use the bathroom?” He wasn’t sure why it came out as a question instead of a statement, but he didn’t have the chance to try remedy the situation.
Leon was the one who answered, gesturing towards the correct direction. “Take a right, it’s at the end of the corridor.” He smiled, genuinely happy that Chris seemed to be enjoying himself. He’d been a little nervous about bringing Chris here, but seeing how everything was unfolding he couldn’t help but to think this had been one of the best days of his life, too. Maybe that set the bar low, but it still wasn’t every day that he got to relax around familiar faces, got to feel safe and almost… normal.
At first Leon didn’t even realize he was staring as he followed Chris go with his gaze. There were something like butterflies in his stomach, hints of excitement, and he really hoped that Chris would come back some other weekend.
Martha cleared her throat and that snapped Leon’s attention back to her. She was smiling but there was something sharp in her eyes, and she arched an eyebrow almost theatrically as she spoke. “It’s good that you brought your friend.” She paused for a moment, expecting a reaction, but as Leon just looked at her she huffed. “Come on, young man, I have eyes. I’m old, not stupid.”
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” Leon answered but he couldn’t hold back the stubborn smile. He ducked his head, before he realized he was basically hiding behind his hair and that at least didn’t help him trying to look uninterested. “It’s really not like that,” he tried to explain, but he knew her well enough by now, realizing when it was the best to relent. “I’d like for it to be, though.”
“Have you told him that?” she asked.
Of course she zeroed in on the only thing Leon didn’t really want to admit to, but he only sighed. “No. But I will.”
“You’d better,” Martha huffed, but then melted into a smile again. She reached out and squeezed Leon’s forearm a little, dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Tell me, does he have a sweet tooth? I have this amazing recipe for a chocolate raspberry tart that I haven’t gotten to use in almost a decade.”
“Hey!” Leon protested. “I have a sweet tooth, why is this the first I’m hearing of this?”
“Honey, don’t be jealous,” Martha laughed. The alarm for the stew went off and she immediately turned to check on it without even missing a beat. “I’ve baked you pretty much every other chocolate treat in existence. And remember, I even made you that blueberry mousse I haven’t made anyone else.”
She continued to chatter on about all the recipes she’d picked just for them, and Leon found himself smiling as he leaned back against the counter, just listening. Maybe he indeed could ask Chris to make this a regular thing and come back next week, too. If he knew Chris at all, the man had enjoyed this as much as he had. It at least didn’t hurt to ask.
*
“Here are the rest,” Chris said as he set down the pile of Tupperware containers onto Leon’s kitchen table. “Want to freeze some of it already or should it all go into the fridge first?” He had listened to the same instructions that Leon had, but wherein Leon had seemed to know the drill and understand every word, it had just sorta went in one ear and out the other with Chris.
Leon seemed to have noticed, as he gave a small headshake and a fond smile. “You want me to write down what she instructed? Or just. Bring them over to your place tomorrow?” He looked up, almost hopeful, vulnerable in a way he never let himself be in front of others.
“That would be great,” Chris agreed, a tad breathless. The moment felt delicate, like he would never get an opening like this, so he blurted out the first thing that was on the forefront of his mind. “Thank you. For this.” He met Leon’s gaze straight, hoping it was visible how much he meant what he said. “She kind of invited me over next time too, so… if you don’t mind?”
“Of course I don’t,” Leon answered easily, and something loosened in Chris’ chest.
“Although she kind of ruined my plans,” Chris added, chuckling a little. Maybe it was time to take the leap now. So he steeled himself, and took the step. “I kind of wanted to get some time alone with you. I didn’t know you had a secret grandma, I just thought you were a great cook. And I figured, if you were so good at cooking you could easily teach me, too.”
“Sorry to have ruined your idea,” Leon said, but didn’t sound sorry at all. Instead he was grinning, something sparkling in his eyes as he went on. “You know what I am really good at, if you still want me to teach you something?”
Chris frowned, confused. “What?”
“I’m a great kisser.” Leon shifted, his grin not fading in the slightest as he only leaned back against the sturdy table behind himself, almost as if he was inviting Chris to step closer. Unless that was only in Chris’ imagination because holy hell he wanted to, so badly.
For a moment Chris only stared, until the penny finally dropped. Unable to hold back his disbelieving excitement, he barked out a laugh, before nodding hastily, more than once. “Hell yeah.”