Home Cooking, KKM, for stagesoflove
Title: Home Cooking
Author: Ellie Biel
Fandom: Kyou Kara Maou
Characters/pairing: Hube/Nicola
Warnings: humor, written in a blind panic - deadline looming and no idea what to write
Notes: Written for stagesoflove Five Senses, Stage 5 - Taste
Stage 1: Sight
Stage 2: Hearing
Stage 3: Touch
Stage 4: Smell
Eru certainly seemed to be enjoying it, so it couldn't be that bad, could it?
That was what Hube told himself. He'd gone through hard times, scrounged for food, stolen it, gone without it. He was long past the days when he could turn his nose up at simple fare but he'd been back in Shin Makoku for a while now and he'd grown fond of the meals served at Blood Pledge Castle.
He'd grown more fond of the simple meals Nicola prepared for the three of them.
Today, however, whatever was sitting on their plates looked like it should still be moving. He hated averting Nicola's gaze, so he watched Eru pull a strip off it and gum it to shreds.
"She really likes it," Nicola said softly, and since she was now looking at their daughter, it was safe to turn his head to look at her. He didn't want to use the blind eye as an excuse, but it was good to know that he could if he needed to.
He glanced at Nicola's plate. Had she taken a bite of it, or was the missing piece what Eru was gnawing on right now?
He was so busy trying to figure out what it was that he was caught off guard when Nicola asked him, "What do you think?"
Hube didn't think telling her what he thought was a very good idea.
He'd been through worse things in his life. He picked up his knife, carved a slice from a section that appeared to be burnt despite the appearance of the rest of it. Charred meat was better than raw meat, he rationalized, and with Nicola's eyes on him, he put it in his mouth and began chewing.
He was glad when Eru cooed and Nicola exclaimed happily. The moment her eyes were off him, he swallowed it whole.
He was halfway through the meal before he realized that Nicola had yet to touch anything on her own plate. She was too busy watching Eru and Hube thought that the first thing they had to get for their household was a pet. Anything that would eat scraps under the table could only be a good idea.
"I'm sorry, Hube," Nicola said. "You never did answer me. What do you think of it?"
"What's in it?" he said, delaying having to take another bite.
She glanced at Eru again to make sure their daughter hadn't crawled away and out of sight, something she was very good at, and picked up her own silverware. "I'm not sure," she confessed. "This came from Lord Weller."
Hube put his hand out to prevent her from bringing the fork to her mouth. He loved her, after all. It was his duty to protect her from harm. At least Eru had maryoku, and besides, her taste buds were hardly developed.
"This," he poked his knife into it, "is from Konrad Weller."
"Mmm hmm," she said. "That's right. I think he made it himself."
Hube got up from the table, picked her up, and twirled her around. "The kingdom's best swordsman," he told her, "is a terrible cook."
It made a strange sort of sense, if one considered Gwendal's and Wolfram's artistic efforts. It obviously ran in the family. "Konrad Weller is only human," he said. He didn't mean it as a compliment.
"I almost forgot," Nicola said. "I also have some tarts from the castle, too." She looked around. "Eru?" She got to her feet. "Eru! Where are you?"
Hube looked under the table where his daughter sat with a big streak of icing across her cheek and an even bigger smile. Upon seeing her father, she crawled over to him, gurgling happy.
He pulled Nicola into his lap and she reached down to pick up their errant child. She'd eaten every last one of the tarts. Hube looked over at his plate, with only a few bites taken out of it, and then at Nicola's. More than half was gone, and Nicola hadn't eaten any of it.
Eru was clapping her hands and clearly expected her parents to do so as well. Hube looked at the empty plate under the table and back at his daughter, and with a smile gracing his lips, clapped his hands, too.
She definitely deserved it.