robron week - day 6 - au in which Robert is a chef and Aaron is a mechanic (and occasional food reviewer)
ficlet written by @aarobron
Either Aaron is early, or Robert is late.
Regardless, Robert still hasn’t finished the pasta, so Aaron is watching him. It’s a delicate process, but it’s got nothing on the soft look on the younger man’s face. Robert glances at him under his lashes, watches the small smile spread a little wider, and feels his heart thud twice as fast.
“So,” Aaron says, startling through the silence. He keeps his head resting on his fist, keeps his eyes gentle around the edges. “This is the whole process, yeah?”
“Yeah, this is exactly what we do in the pub,” Robert confirms. The pub, his and Victoria’s joint business adventure, has always been the most important thing to him. That’s increased tenfold now, because it’s where he met Aaron. “You just don’t see it because I spend sixteen hours a day in that tiny kitchen.”
He adds a grin to show Aaron that he doesn’t mind – and he really doesn’t, because if it weren’t for that pub, for this food, he wouldn’t have met the younger man. They wouldn’t be on this date, and Robert wouldn’t already be thinking of ways to give Aaron a goodnight kiss, purely because he didn’t do it on the first one.
(Not that Robert doesn’t really consider it a date. It was purely coincidental – Robert taking his car to a garage, and pretty much falling in love with the gorgeous mechanic on first sight.
That turned into a coffee to say thanks, then another refill, and then a shared cake for good measure.
But it wasn’t a date.)
“I like seeing the process,” Aaron says, teeth worrying the skin of his lower lip. For some reason, Robert wants to reach over and smooth it free, so he trains his eyes on his hands and makes sure he’s not going to do something stupid. “I mean, everyone loves the dish, but…”
“Seeing it made adds to the magic of it, I know,” Robert says with a smirk. He’s proud of this dish – of course he’s going to use it to his advantage. But something clicks in his mind suddenly, all the Instagram posts and the Wordpress blog links. “You’re the reviewer.”
Aaron laughs, flushing a little pink from the awed look on Robert’s face, but he doesn’t back down. “You caught me,” He admits. He leans back on his chair just as the older man finishes with the pasta machine, and doesn’t take his eyes off him when he carries the food over to the cooker. “The pub’s got a decent menu. The chef isn’t too bad, either.”
That, Robert supposes, is probably the best thing that’s ever happened to him. A combination of being good with a cooker and being not that bad on the eyes, and he found Aaron.
Aaron, who’s soft and warm and endlessly kind. Aaron, who’s hard on the outside and a bit gobby.
Aaron, who looks like Robert’s future, who’s sitting in his kitchen like he belongs there, who laughs at his jokes and scoffs when he’s being smug.
Yeah. Robert’s definitely going to give him a goodnight kiss.
