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Tommy and Määnin were spending a quiet Thursday afternoon at the former's apartment. Määnin hadn't officially moved in, at least not yet, but he might as well have with how much time he spent there. Tommy and him were always together, it seems. That day they didn't have much of anything going on. No band practice or no gigs, so they were more than content to spend the day in each other's company, not doing much of anything. They were currently sitting on the couch, sprawled out as much as they could be. Together they took up most of the couch. Neither of them minded as there was plenty of space for both. Tommy was leaning back as far as he could go, and had even closed his eyes. The last minutes had been spent in a comfortable silence.
"Hey Toms, have you ever made pancakes?"
Määnin suddenly spoke up, prompting Tommy to sit back up a little straighter and turn his head.
"No? I don't think so. I was never allowed to do more than to eat what batter was left in the bowl when I was a kid. Why?"
He seemed a little bit confused about Määnin's choice of topic. Sure, food might have been one of their favorite topics, especially the burgers and fries from Grillen, but they never talked about pancakes.
"We could try to make some. Could be an.. interesting way to spend some time."
"You and me?"
Tommy asked, now surprised. He kept staring at Määnin's face, trying to see if his best friend was just fucking with him. But as so many times before, Määnin was quite hard to read. He had the shades on and his expression remained neutral even when he also sat back up and glanced at Tommy.
"Mm-hm. Unless you don't want to.."
"No.."
Tommy blinked slowly, like a cat, and only then seemed to realize what he was saying. As if he'd ever turn down a chance to spend even more time with his favorite person.
"I mean, yes! Yes, I do!"
He might have sounded just a little too eager and desperate. Määnin grinned at him and was the first one to stand up.
"I thought so. Come on then, Toms."
"Wait, right now?"
Tommy then also got up on his feet and started following Määnin into the kitchen.
Tommy reached into his jeans' pocket and pulled out his phone to look for some recipe. Sure, making pancakes wasn't going to be the most difficult thing in the world, he was sure of it, but it was still probably a good thing to have a recipe they could follow. Especially if both of them could be quite disastrous in the kitchen. Tommy opened the first recipe he set his eyes on. Said recipe was also the very first search result, but it seemed good and straight to the point.
"So, Toms, what do we need?"
Määnin asked after Tommy had stared at the list of ingredients for a while in silence. When Tommy still said nothing, Määnin showed up by his side, resting his arm on Tommy's shoulders.
"Tommy? Are you still in there?"
Määnin continued, poking a little harmless fun at him. Tommy finally shook his head, as if to pull himself out of the thoughts he'd gotten lost in.
"Sorry, yeah, I was.. thinking,"
he mumbled and avoided looking at Määnin as he was sure that his cheeks were starting to heat up after just a casual physical contact and some teasing words. Instead, he kept his eyes on the phone.
"Okay, so.. The first two things are one big egg and milk,"
Tommy said and breathed out as Määnin walked away. He had to remind himself to keep cool. There was nothing out of the ordinary that Määnin leaned into him the way he'd just done. Tommy's mind was just refusing to be normal.
Tommy stole some quick glances at Määnin and went over the rest of the ingredients. After a while most of them had been placed on the kitchen counter. All except one.
"What is vanilla sugar? I don't think I have it.."
Tommy mumbled, face in very gentle frown.
"We can just skip it, then,"
Määnin decided right away, with a shrug.
"Are you sure?"
Tommy asked, sounding a little hesitant. But only a second or two later he nodded, having made up his mind. It was stupid of him to even think about doubting Määnin.
"You're right. We wouldn't have needed much of it anyway, I'm sure it's fine."
Tommy watched, way too intrigued, as Määnin cracked an egg into a bowl they'd found at the very back of one of the cupboards and added the more or less required amount of milk. Sure, they should have measured the ingredients, but being just a tiniest bit off wouldn't hurt that much. Then, in went the sugar, baking powder and a pinch of salt. Everything seemed to go relatively okay until Tommy set his phone down on the counter and stepped forward to help. He managed to knock over the bag of flour in his eagerness to get back to Määnin's side. Some flour had already ended up on the counter, and to prevent the same happening to the rest of the bag, Tommy grabbed it and lifted it back up with enough strength for some of its contents to end up all over his face, some even on his neck. Määnin couldn't help himself and started laughing as Tommy started sneezing. Still, after no longer than a few seconds, he started to feel bad and stepped in to lend a hand.
"Don't go anywhere, Toms,"
he said as he reached for the paper towel holder sitting on the counter by the wall.
"I won't.. What are you doing?"
Tommy asked as the sneezing subsided, his eyes following Määnin's every move.
"Helping you,"
came a response from the sink, over the lazy sound of running water.
"Close your eyes."
Tommy obeyed right away, having full trust in the man now standing in front of him. Only a little while later he felt a hand calmly take a hold of his chin. And then, the wet paper towel on his face.
"Toms, you're an idiot,"
Määnin added as he worked, his touch much more careful and gentle than Tommy still at times thought he was able to pull off.
"No, you.."
Tommy mumbled in return, keeping his eyes closed like Määnin had told him to, and immediately felt stupid.
No, you.
He really was an idiot. But Määnin didn't seem to mind his dumb response. Or so Tommy hoped. He could only focus on the low rumble of Määnin's laughter while he wiped flour off of Tommy's face. There was no way his cheeks weren't red. It felt like he was blushing around Määnin all the time, lately.
The skin on Tommy's neck was especially ticklish and he felt a thousand little sparks of fire come alive inside him as the paper towel, and Määnin's fingers first touched it. He tried so hard to stay still and to keep his expression neutral as Määnin took care of the rest of the mess.
"There.. I think that's all done,"
Määnin said afterwards. If he had noticed Tommy's probably obvious attempts at not squirming, he didn't comment on it. From there they added the melted margarin to the batter and gave it a good whisking before putting the bowl in the fridge for a bit so that the batter could rest.
Suddenly they had some time on their hands and nothing to focus on. They only stood there in the kitchen, close to each other for some time until Määnin said:
"I think I've got a way for us to kill a bit of time.."
Tommy looked at him right away with some obvious curiosity in his eyes. He didn't resist what Määnin was about to do. He never did. Instead, he only waited. Quietly, for once in his life. Määnin stepped even closer to Tommy who had been almost like frozen in place. He barely reacted even when Määnin lifted up his hand and used his thumb to wipe off a splatter on Tommy's cheek. He had of course whisked the batter a little too furiously. The soft touch was what finally brought Tommy back to life. He instinctively leaned back against the counter behind him as their lips made contact. Both men eased into it right away. Tommy was just about to close his eyes when his elbow touched the extra egg they'd forgotten on the counter. It rolled off before either of them could do anything and fell on the floor. The sound of the egg cracking made Tommy laugh directly against Määnin's lips. The sound of his laughter was bubbly, happy and real. It was the best sound Määnin had ever heard.
After being so rudely interrupted by the runaway egg, they focused on their kiss once more, Tommy's arms landing comfortably around Määnin's waist.
Letting go of each other proved to be a little harder than they'd imagined.
"The pancakes won't bake themselves, Toms.."
Määnin mumbled at last when Tommy was still latching onto him like a burr. It wasn't that Määnin didn't want to keep kissing Tommy, but they still had some things to finish doing first.
"Right.. Yeah.."
Tommy said reluctantly as he removed his arms from around Määnin. He slipped away, although his every move was slow and reluctant. Still, he took the bowl out from the fridge and set it back down on the counter while Määnin found the frying pan and placed it on the stove.
"Isn't this too runny?"
Tommy asked as he eyed the batter doubtfully and reached for the whisk once more.
"No, it's supposed to be like that,"
Määnin pointed out calmly.
"Is it? I don't know.."
Tommy muttered and started whisking it again. Määnin rolled his eyes behind the shades and stepped closer to take the whisk away from Tommy.
"Toms, stop whisking it. It's fine,"
he tried to convince Tommy and took a hold of the whisk so that their hands made contact.
"No! It's mine!"
Tommy started arguing because of course he did and held onto the whisk even tighter. Määnin couldn't keep himself from sighing.
"Look, Tommy, I know it's yours. But what I'm saying is that you really don't need to whisk it anymore, it really is meant to look like that,"
he explained as if one would do to a child. They ended up wrestling over the custody of the whisk for the next while. In the end Tommy did finally have to let go of it as Määnin pretty much forced him to. And the end result was quite messy as both of them were covered in batter.
"I've never made pancakes in a frying pan before!"
Tommy then said as he looked at the pan on the stove.
"Why are we doing it like this? You just whisk everything together like we did and then pour the batter on a baking tray! And then the oven takes care of it for you."
"And have you done it that way before, Toms?"
Määnin challenged him playfully. That shut Tommy up.. for a second or two.
"...No. But neither have you! Wait.. Have you?"
"Once or twice,"
Määnin told him with nonchalance, leaving Tommy to just stare at him.
"Wait, really? When? How come you never told me?"
Tommy bombarded him with questions without stopping to even take a breath. Määnin simply shrugged at this.
"Long ago, by now.. And with you there were always more important things to do than talking about pancakes."
Tommy watched as Määnin put some margarin on the frying pan which had warmed up just about enough on the stove while they'd had their playful argument.
"I think you're pouring in too much batter, Toms,"
Määnin said as he kept a close eye on Tommy.
"No I'm not. How would you know?"
"I know that you're making flipping the pancake harder on yourself,"
Määnin added with a smirk.
"You'll be harder by the end of this.."
Tommy mumbled under his breath without thinking, leaving Määnin to stare at him.
"Is that so..?"
Määnin simply asked in a much-telling way.
"I can't wait."
The next moment of panicking arose when it was time to flip the pancake.
"How am I supposed to flip this? With a spatula, right?"
Tommy asked quickly and already started searching through the drawers.
"Tough guys do it with a confident flick of the wrist,"
Määnin said and demonstrated what he meant as Tommy watched and paid close attention. What he did right there was luring Tommy into a trap without the man even realizing it. And of course Tommy wouldn't have said no, anyway, as he was always wanting to look tough and cool in Määnin's eyes. He did just what Määnin had showed him, only much more aggressively, managing to get the pancake stuck to the ceiling.
"Uhh.. Määnin?"
Tommy's confused voice brought Määnin's attention to him.
"Holy shit, Toms."
Tommy would have laughed at how casual Määnin sounded, had he not been too busy staring at the ceiling.
"How do we get it down from there? Do we.. wait for it to fall, or.."
Some of the still raw batter dripped onto Tommy's shoulder but somehow he didn't even notice. Määnin did but said nothing about it.
"I guess we could try to shove it down or something,"
he commented instead. And thankfully Tommy had an idea. It also gave him a reason to do something other than just stand there with his eyes wide. He ran off into the bathroom and grabbed a mop from the farthest corner.
"Let's try it with this,"
he said as he returned. From the corner of his eye he saw Määnin give him an approving nod. And so, Tommy positioned himself under the pancake but enough to the side so that it wouldn't fall on his head and ruin his favorite cap. He started poking at the unlucky pancake with the mop handle, his face in a focused frown. After going at it for a while, Tommy jumped out of the way even further as the pancake gave in and fell onto the floor with a quiet splat. Both Tommy and Määnin stared at it for a few stunned seconds, until Tommy finally muttered:
"Fyrbanna.."
Of course Tommy wouldn't give up and wanted to try again. His next attempt at flipping the pancake was only slightly better. That time he got nothing stuck anywhere, but was still too eager and used too much force. He sent the pancake flying and it probably would have landed on Määnin's head if he hadn't ducked out of the way just in time.
"Alright, Toms.. Let me show you how to do it,"
Määnin suggested and calmly pushed Tommy to the side with no attempts at starting an argument. Tommy simply took his place next to Määnin, making sure to pay close attention. And Määnin, of course, made it look so effortless and tough. What else was the man going to do? He was Määnin, after all.
"Wait, how did you do that? Can you show me?"
Tommy asked in awe. Määnin turned to look at him and then motioned for Tommy to come over. When the next pancake was ready to flipped, Tommy stood closest to the stove once more. Määnin settled right behind him, placed his arms on both sides of Tommy and and took his hands which were holding onto the frying pan handle.
"Are you ready, Tommy?"
"Always for you,"
Tommy responded a little breathlessly. Määnin then did what he had done previously, only this time together with Tommy.
"That is so fyrbannat awesome.."
Tommy managed to say.
After all the effort they ended up with a small tower of pancakes. Some of them were a little burnt, some others undercooked. But there were also some that looked perfectly fine. Tommy was secretly so goddamn proud of them both. Much more of Määnin, of course. And speaking of Määnin..
"Have you taken a look at yourself since we started, Toms?"
the man asked.
"No..?"
Tommy said in a questioning tone and finally looked down, noticing the plentiful stains all over his clothes. The half-dried, still sticky batter covering his shirt made him frown.
"Fyrbanna.. I think we'll spend the rest of the day doing laundry?"
he then suggested with a smile. An actual, real smile that was only ever saved and meant for Määnin.
"That.. And cleaning the kitchen. Think of the pancakes as our reward for when we're done."
And then they kissed again, this time properly. Määnin reached up to take Tommy's cap off and continued to hold onto it tightly as they both again leaned into the kiss, forgetting about everything else, even the state of both themselves and the kitchen.