"Cocksucking piece of shit!" The risotto burned again and Crystal just about had it with this stupid fancy recipe. Another batch of mushy-on-the-top, crispy-on-the-bottom rice went into the trash - the third one.
The Mystagogue had been going at this for hours now, his mood worsening with each attempt. He wasn't even hungry anymore, but he wanted to make that dish out of principle and he was going to fucking enjoy eating his homemade dinner.


Conveniently, he could take out some of the frustration by scrubbing the pot clean furiously, preparing it for attempt number four in a torrent of dishwater and rice. "I can't believe I'm spending my day like this." Muttering under his breath while at least making good progress on the cleaning end - in this case, practice did seem to make perfect.
Why was he trying to create something edible instead of just ordering some delivery? Well, mostly because he tried this 'seeing things through' thing - if he could do the small things by applying some elbow grease and focus maybe it'll rub off onto bigger issues.


Yeah okay - maybe he also opened his stupid mouth and talked about learning how to cook. Maybe this certain lawyer had ears and 'looked forward to judging' Crystal's cooking.
And yeah, maybe he actually considered inviting said lawyer over again.




"All right. Round four."
The Warlock diced an onion, while heating up some oil. Once it sizzled, he added the onion and some time later the rice, making sure to stir diligently. Once everything looked a bit glassy he poured a generous amount of white wine into the pot and took a quick gulp himself. So far so good.
Then came the stupid part: stirring and stirring while adding some broth to the rice now and then. After the second failed attempt he just said 'fuck it' and prepared a big pot of instant broth - a wise decision, as it turned out.


This part of the process lent itself to do some thinking, which probably was part of the reason he burned the risotto three times already. "Of course, if I were a proper Magus I'd just hack my brain to be a master chef or do the fucking thinking on the side." His voice was dripping with sarcasm, but what really drove him up the wall was that he was right. But frankly, ripping power straight from the Watchtowers to do some cooking was probably the definition of Hubris.


This attempt started to look promising. Then again, so had attempt number two. So had the dates with Matthew. Yeah, fortunately he didn't lack some boring Sleeper-problems to balance his baggage out.
Ugh. Maybe he needed to rip the band-aid off, straight up admit that he was a mess and really not up for serious commitment. The Mastigos knew that he was really good when it came to telling people what they wanted to hear - hell, it took him less than two hours to go home with the lawyer the first time they met. He could probably dump Matthew gently.
Plus, usually he kept it 'one and done' with his men, why was this one different? Sure, he was Crystal's type, but non-supermodel gay men were a dime a dozen. Was it the ease at which they could verbally spar? The humble confidence he was oozing?


More importantly: why the fuck was he so afraid of committing? He wasn't moving in those toxic gay communities anymore, the ones where they called you a 'wannabe straight' when going steady. He didn't have to prove anything to anyone.
That may be true, but this way he didn't have anything to lose.

This is some serious gourmet shit


Wait a minute, what's happening? The risotto wasn't even really sticking to the pot this time! One more ladle of broth and the rice would be soft while still having some bite to it. "Who's your daddy, huh?!" Crystal yelled out in triumph - this was basically a done deal now. All he had to do was to add a generous amount of butter and parmesan and some spices and he was done.

The dinner tasted like sweet, sweet victory - and even disregarding his personal stakes in the matter it was actually really delicious. "Looks like I'll have to get a second opinion on that." Yeah sure. Succeeding once might just have been good luck, so doing it a second time was just the prudent thing to do. Besides, he just wanted to keep his promise and maybe get some pointers when it came to taste. Maybe from a lawyer with a Faible for good food.

No biggie.