Who: Aramis and D'Artagnan. When: March. Ish. Where: Aramis' home. What: D'Artagnan learns how to make cheesecake. Rating/Warnings: Low/None. Status: Complete.
D’Artagnan was being decidedly more careful these days. He hadn’t been in a fight, or been in areas where a fight could occur in some time but he needed to get out of the house or go crazy. Threats around or not, he wasn’t going to let it keep him inside. He loved Athos, but both of them needed to be social. He was reconnecting with friends more and was glad he had an excuse to show up at Aramis and Porthos’s place again.
He’d picked up wine on the way over, unsure if Aramis could have it or not-but it’d at least be there when he was able otherwise. They’d started to gain quite the experience with wine since the dreams. D’Artagnan found he favored red wines, so that was what he brought. He knocked at Aramis’s door and waited for his friend to answer.
There were a few mixed emotions Aramis had regarding his young friend. It was hard, really, to say whether they were all born from his indifferences in the dreams or something based in reality, so he tried to pay them no mind. Really, he was happy for his friends. In all the time Aramis had known Athos, he had never seen him quite so delighted as he was with D’Artagnan, and Aramis was ever the hopeless romantic. Besides, it wouldn’t do to have friendships waste away over petty trifles.
At the knock, there were the sounds of a curiously excited puppy and Aramis shooing him away from the door. When the door opened, Aramis smiled out at his friend. “Come in. Quickly. Mousqueton’s been very good at his obedience classes but I still think he’ll dart out the door when he gets the chance to. Porthos isn’t home to reel him in.”
D’Artagnan too had a few strange new dream feelings, but he was trying desperately to ignore them. They were just dreams, he still liked being with Aramis. He didn’t feel as connected to this round of dreams, so those feelings thankfully were easier to push down for the time being. He just wanted to hang around his friend today, not deal with dream things.
“You’ve already got him in training?” He slipped inside and shut the door behind him quickly. He hadn’t considered it yet for Grim..”Brought wine, but wasn’t sure if you could have it..either way, keep it for cooking or something if you can’t drink it?” He wasn’t sure if it fell under Aramis’s Lent thing, but he handed it over and then knelt to give the puppy some attention. Side eyeing the nearby cat.
"Porthos was insistent. And I agree. If we're going to have a baby around, then the dog should be well behaved." Aramis cooed for a moment at Mousqueton in French, as he was in the habit of speaking in French to Bazin.
"Oh, thank you." He took the wine. "I'll save it for when I can drink it. It will be the first thing I open on Easter. Speaking of, do you and Athos have plans for Easter?" Aramis headed into the kitchen, where he slipped the bottle into the wine rack. "We should do a proper dinner."
He gave it a bit of an amused look. “I seem to be having a bit of luck getting ours to listen to me. But Athos is the soft hand in this round. Go figure.” He watched Aramis with the puppy and a softened expression. He was going to be good to that kid of his, and it warmed him.
D’Artagnan gave him a smile as he stood to leave the critter to his own devices. Not that I’m aware of, but I like that idea. We aren’t really big on holidays it seems, but we like any opportunity to get together.” He leaned on Aramis’s counter. “I was considering taking up that fencing thing again more regularly though. They have a beginner class during the week.”
"I was hoping to join a football league this season. Er, soccer," Aramis said, to avoid confusion, "but I hardly have the time now. But yes, you should. I miss having big dinners with my family, and you can practice one of our desserts for it."
At that, he motioned to the counter which had a variety of ingredients on it. "I figured everyone loves Nutella, and then we'll also make a fruit based one for your barbecue."
"You should try. I'm rubbish with kids but you know if you need the help you can count on Athos and I." He paused and looked over at him awkwardly. "I..about before. How I reacted the first time? I'm sorry. " It had been on his mind a while now. He didn't agree with what had happened but it wasn’t his life. If Aramis and Sharon were okay with it he was going to accept it. He would be there for them.
He glanced over at the items that had been laid out and nodded. "I'd eat that stuff with a spoon by itself if it was an acceptable breakfast. "
There was a moment where Aramis listened as D’Artagnan spoke, and he shifted his gaze to watch the younger man from the corner of his eyes. His body language relaxed and then he shrugged. “Yes, well, it’s all behind us now. Certainly we weren’t ever going to force people to be involved. Most importantly, I’m happy, and Sharon is happy, and Porthos is happy. It’s just - a lot. For me, I mean, personally, it’s a lot for me to settle down in a matter of months like this. It does nothing for my anxiety when my friends seem unenthused, you know?”
Aramis picked up the Nutella and waved it a bit. “We do eat it by the spoon. I had to buy this yesterday and tuck it away, otherwise Porthos would have snuck half the jar away by now.”
“I know.” He’d put quite a bit of thought into it obviously. Took him a while to figure out how to respond to change, but he finally did. This one had taken the longest. “So long as you’re all happy, that’s what I want.” He gave Aramis a friendly clap to the shoulder before awkwardly moving over toward the opposite side of the counter to watch him with the nutella.
“Noted. I’d buy a stash of my own but Athos would find it, and hide it with my others and ration as he see’s fit.” He gave a slight scoff to the act, but was more amused than bothered really.
Aramis made no comment on it. He wanted to, quite badly, but he couldn’t quite think of anything to say that didn’t sound snarky. So he left the comment about Athos rationing things alone.
“No bake cheesecakes are about as easy as you can get,” he said instead. He pushed a paper over to D’Artagnan, which was a recipe that Aramis had typed out for him. Aramis didn’t need them anymore, but he knew D’Artagnan would need one until he got better practice. “I mean, any time you don’t have to deal with ovens is easy. Basically you mix everything together, put it in the pan, and let the fridge do all the work. Once you get all right at this sort of thing, I figure then we can work with chocolate.”
"I managed to make the other ones you gave me decently enough with some practice. Athos says he doesn't mind doing the cooking but I feel bad sometimes." He looked over the recipe with a nod. "He already does do much I wanted to do at least something for him. " He knew Athos liked cheese cake so this was going to be perfect. "I don't know what it is about the oven that makes things that much harder. " He frowned at it warily ands nodded. "Any chocolate no bake things? "
“Because ovens are temperamental,” Aramis answers, easily enough. “They’re not ever the same, so baking times and temperatures aren’t ever exact. If you’re not used to cooking, then you can’t tell when things are ready.” Then he raises his eyebrows. “Only if the chocolate is already in the form of a spread or is in chip form. I don’t trust you to melt down chocolate just yet.”
"Tell me about it. Microwaves, I can use those like a pro, but not an oven." He shrugged and began to look for the items they needed for this recipe. "So. Athos and I were talking about your wedding. Are you doing all the planning yourself or did you hire someone?" It made D'Artagnan incredibly twisted up inside to plan things, apprehensive was a pretty word for everything he felt when trying to keep everything together. Melt down would be more appropriate. He never had been the planning sort. The pans mostly were already out, all he had to do was copy the measurements of various things and he should in theory be fine. And not be a giant soupy mess of cheesecake. In theory.
Aramis began to lead D’Artagnan through the recipe. He was very insistent that things be measured properly, as something being a bit off could greatly affect the end result. At the younger man’s question, Aramis himself looked momentarily twisted up inside.
“Ourselves,” he said. “I wouldn’t be able to leave it in anyone else’s hands. I have to know exactly what’s happening and when and why. And there’s not much time, is there? It’d be so expensive with our time crunch.” Aramis paused. “My mother is helping, a bit. Mostly my sister. Since Porthos and I live across the country it’s hard for us to do it properly, but I trust them.” “Hmm.” He hummed a bit as he looked over the things he was doing. So far so good, until the eggs. He was basically a terrible klutz when it came to soft breakable things. He broe 3 before getting any ino the actual mixture itself and groaned in annoyance at them all.
“I don’t even know where to start..” He admitted, the whole wedding planning thing was overwhelming to him. He’d thought of just letting a designer do it all, but at that point Athos may want to just take over.
"I'm too much of a perfectionist. And impatient." Aramis handed over a cloth for D'Artagnan to clean his mess. "And I know I want to marry Porthos. I can't imagine any life without him. But I don't know if I'm marryable. You know? I can't imagine why he thinks it's a good idea, or why he likes me so much. I'll just be happy when the wedding's said and done."
"As long as he seems to think so, that counts for a lot I think. " He gave him a warm smile as he went about cleaning up the things he broke and realized they were unnecessary. "I have no idea what I'm even doing. " cream cheese was a thing he knew he needed thigh, he began putting it into the right mix as he focused on this recipe and not what he'd seen from other bakers. "Athos was married once before.." he couldn’t help but be a little self-conscious about it.
Aramis merely hummed at the admission. “No doubt she was a fine upstanding citizen,” he quipped, because Aramis had very little doubt that it wasn’t something that would mirror Athos’ dream marriage. There was, for a moment, where Aramis considered bringing up that he himself used to be engaged before, but he decides against it. It’s a story he keeps to himself, and he’d rather talk about other people than himself.
“You’ll want to make sure you beat it with the sugar until it’s all nice and smooth,” he said, watching D’Artagnan carefully. He got everything ready for their crust to be made, then brought over a pan.
"He doesn't talk about her much. He only ever said she was kind. So she must have been in comparison..." He winced at the idea of him being with Milady in this reality too and shook his head as if to clear the image of it.
He was glad for Aramis’s voice breaking up his thoughts as he tried to follow the advice he was given. "Like this? " he seemed to do okay with supervision but without it things entirely unraveled.
Aramis gracefully moved on from the subject. He looked into the bowl and gave a nod of approval. “Perfect. It’s not so hard, is it?” Of course, Aramis had been doing this for years, but he really felt that anyone could bake if they just put their minds to it. When the mixing was done, Aramis showed D’Artagnan how to pack the crust into the pan. “And now we pour the mix into the pan.” D’Artagnan couldn’t help but be a little proud when Aramis praised his work. Even after everything else had happened he still looked up to him. He nodded and stood back to look at it before taking up the crust he’d been handed and moving to put it in the pan. “Surprisingly not. But I suspect my kitchen may be trying to thwart my attempts on purpose...Can I take you home when I need to cook? Maybe it’ll listen to you.” He mused, obviously he knew he couldn’t but the idea was entertaining.
“I suspect Porthos might complain about that,” Aramis replied, looking amused. “And you don’t like Bazin. Which, in retrospect, I think is sort of funny given that in the dreams you and Bazin don’t get on well. Though I’m much more amicable to kitty Bazin than person Bazin.” He snorted.
He hummed at that and made a face. “Wouldn’t do then. You’ll both just have to come.” Problem solved, both of them were good cooks too even if he failed the current recipe miserably they wouldn’t go without. He gave him a scheming smile, but then made a face. “Even if that cat has it out for me I’d sooner take him over person Bazin as well.” Bazin’s in general just didn’t sit well with him. Speaking of, where was the demon cat in question? D’Artagnan gave a suspicious look around the kitchen but seemed a little relieved not to see him.
“He really gets useless over time,” Aramis said, with a sigh that was almost regretful. He’d had higher hopes for Bazin, but Aramis wasn’t surprised that he would ditch whatever dead weight had attached itself to him over time. Pushing the thoughts from his mind, he looked down at their now full pans. “Perfect, now we just put these into the fridge and wait.”
D’Artagnan nearly made a comment about Bazin’s uselessness, but decided against it and nodded. He was glad Aramis turned their attention back to the pastry though he frowned. “..The true agony.” He said with a bit of an over dramatic pout as he leaned against the counter and looked up at his friend. “How long? Isn’t the freezer colder? It’d go faster.”
“The real success to cooking,” Aramis said, giving D’Artagnan a pointed look, “is waiting. Time is very important. Come on, you’ll hardly even notice the time, we’ll go sit outside and drink iced coffee and have lunch or something.” He nudged the younger man toward the door that led to the backyard, following behind.