Work Text
“What smells so good?” asked Keith, wandering into the kitchen. Hunk looked up from where he was reading, beaming.“Garlic knots! I found all the substitutes I needed at the last swap-moon. I’m making a sort of ‘Ersatz’ lasagne to go with it and everything! We’re eating Italian tonight, Keith!”Keith didn’t think much of the idea - at least, not until ‘dinner’. To help the Paladins better integrate into space, Princess Allura had implemented ‘days’, with the castle brightening and dimming in time with the ‘day’ and ‘night’ cycles. The downside to this was that she had also programmed the training deck to lock during the night cycle, forcing Keith to go to bed.So, the lot of them stumbled into the dining room after a long, hard day. The smell of gorgeously cooked Italian hit them and enticed the lot of them over to the table. Lance gasped.“Hunk! You remembered!” The Latino boy sprinted over to his friend and wrapped him in a massive hug. Hunk chuckled and hugged Lance back.
“Of course I did!” Hunk said. “How could I ever forget my best buddy’s favourite food!”That night, they ate the best Italian food Keith had ever tasted, and the chatter flowed almost as easily as the faux-wine Coran had dug out. Well, the ‘wine’ was not wine in that it was a weird aqua colour, but it certainly was alcoholic.That was the night Lance confessed to Keith. He was half-drunk, leaning on Keith as the two stumbled down the hall to their bedrooms.
“I… I really luv ya,” Lance slurred, before babbling on in Spanish for a minute, and then gazing into Keith’s eyes for two. Keith eventually helped Lance into his room and left him there; heading to bed wondering if this would all be a dream when he awoke.Keith awoke unnaturally late the next morning, and when he swooshed open his door, he was met by a blushing Lance holding a bouquet of beautiful alien flowers.“I… er… I confessed last night… but I didn’t do it right Keith. I like you - I really do, and I was hoping… would you maybe… go out with me?” Keith smiled. It wasn’t a dream. It was real. Oh, so very, incredibly, real.
“Yes, I would love to,” Keith replied, taking the bouquet with one hand, and using his other hand to pull Lance in to steal a chaste kiss.Lance was left a blushing mess, and Keith was left with a boyfriend.Keith didn’t think much of the food after that. After all, the Italian that the group had had the night before was somewhat overshadowed by the confession the following morning. So, it slipped his mind that Hunk had made a meal that was so important to Lance.At least, it did until it happened again.This time, Keith found Hunk standing over a pot, gently stirring it.“What’re you up to?” asked Keith.
“Making soup for dinner,” Hunk replied easily. He continued to stir, then paused to pick up a bowl of pre-chopped ingredients and add them. Keith let the conversation drop there - he was going to find Lance to see if the Latino boy would train with him.Lance did train with Keith - because Lance was a good boyfriend and loved to spend time indulging in Keith’s hobbies - and then the pair spent some time where Lance knitted, and Keith read, resting his head in his boyfriend’s lap even as yarn hung across his forehead and the needles clicked in his ears. And then it was dinner, and once again Hunk managed to surprise them all.“Is that?” Pidge began.
“It is,” grinned Hunk.
“But it’s scientifically…”
“I found workarounds. It should taste about the same.”
“Minestrone soup! I… you… thank you, thank you, thank you!” cheered Pidge, launching herself at the large Samoan.Hunk swung Pidge around twice, the pair laughing. Then the group sat to eat - the Alteans staring down at the soup apprehensively. Coran picked up his spoon and tentatively tried it.“Princess! You must try this - it is excellent!”Everyone dug in, and the great pot slowly emptied down to nothing. Keith waddled away feeling very stuffed, having gorged on the incredible-tasting soup alongside everyone else without stopping to think about whether he was full or not.As he prepared to head off to bed, Lance by his side, the alarm went off.Keith dove straight into the battle, food forgotten in the heat of the fray. Red ducked and weaved and leapt through the wreckage of their enemies, firing out deadly shots and maintaining perfect accuracy. Behind him, Lance followed in his steps, almost as if they were performing a deathly intricate dance with their lions.It did not take too long to dispatch the Galra fleet, leaving the unusable wreckage to float through space while Coran sent out the scrap droids to hunt the remains for anything of value. After that, Keith – high on adrenaline – fought the training bot for a good hour before Lance could coax him to bed.Keith flopped down into the blankets, Lance curled up into his side, and slowly cooled down after the long day. His mind flicked through the various events of the day, before stuttering to a stop at dinner. His stomach grumbled quietly; the memory of that delicious soup still fresh.“Didn’t Hunk make… garlic knots not long ago?” he mused aloud. Lance made a soft grumbling sound and swatted at the air, trying to shut Keith up and send him to sleep. Keith let his eyes droop closed, resolving to remember that little titbit another time. But when the morning came, so did another squadron of fighters, and Keith’s late-night resolution was lost in the heat of battle.Another month passed, and then it was around when Shiro’s birthday was. Being born on the 29th of February, Shiro technically didn’t have a birthday this year – back in the Garrison, Keith had teased him about being the youngest instructor ever at age six. Still, they did acknowledge Shiro’s birthday with a small celebration and a cake baked by Hunk.As the Paladins went their own way afterwards however, Keith noticed with some surprise that Hunk was heading back to the kitchen. Curious, he decided to follow.Hunk had a large cookbook open and was running a finger along the page; humming and nodding while tasting a couple spices he’d pulled down from the many cupboards the castle’s kitchen had.
“A bit of this purple one could do it… but it would need a pinch of salt too keep it from being too sweet… and then the ckshillia fruit from that last planet would be a good substitute for carrot… but I need to fry it first to get the right flavour. Then, a little of the Hritambor meat and—”Keith stepped into the kitchen and slid up beside Hunk.“What’re you doing?” he asked innocently enough. Hunk jumped, and almost rounded on Keith with the wooden spoon.
“Don’t do that man! Seriously, that scared me. Did you need anything?”
“I was just curious. What’re you making?”Hunk scratched at his neck and chuckled.
“I’m attempting to make nabemono – but we just don’t have the right kind of sauce, so I’m improvising.”
“Nabe…mono?” Something in the back of Keith’s mind began to awaken, the familiar word sparking a wave of realisation. “That’s… Nabe is one of Shiro’s favourites! And garlic knots are Lance’s, and minestrone— no way!”Hunk chuckled softly.“Yes, I make people’s comfort food on special occasions. I made garlic knots on the anniversary of when we left earth – because it reminds Lance of his mother and his family and helps him with homesickness. And the minestrone was for when the Kerboros mission went missing, because that always affects Pidge so much. This is for Shiro’s birthday, and…” Hunk went a little red. “And I was planning on making burgers for next Wednesday.”Next Wednesday was the anniversary of when Keith discovered his Galra heritage. And he’d always missed the fast-food burgers from earth.“Can I… help?” asked Keith. Hunk blinked, then broke out the biggest, warmest smile Keith had ever seen.
“Of course you can!” grinned Hunk, grabbing an apron off of its hook and tossing it to Keith. “You can chop up some vegetables while I figure out the rest of these spices. You’re good with a knife, right?” Hunk laughed at his own joke, pulling out several different vegetables and placing them on the counter with a knife and chopping board. There were these weird white root vegetables, something that vaguely resembled an onion in every way bar the huge red flower that bloomed in the hollow centre, several mushrooms (which seemed to be a universal thing) and a couple of other oddities.Keith happily got to cutting up the various vegetables while Hunk finished up figuring out his preferred spices and got started on frying up the ckshillia fruit.“I’ve never had nabe with carrot in it,” Keith said.
“It’s something I saw in a recipe, and I can use the pieces of the ckshillia fruit I don’t use for a carrot cake tomorrow. Coran will love that!”Keith found himself really enjoying helping Hunk cook. In the kitchen, the Samoan was a force of nature, always moving and planning and tasting and smiling. He sort of reminded Keith of that one blond pirate cook from that ancient show he saw maybe two episodes of in the garrison. A passionate cook with a taste for spices. A force of nature with an exceptional talent. Keith actually hummed along to several of the tunes Hunk sang while stirring together the Nabe, and he even laughed at one of Hunk’s jokes. It was… fun.The nabe that night tasted extra special – both because of its importance to Shiro, but also because Keith had helped to cook it.In many ways, the food was just as comforting to make as it was to eat.