| Current mood: |  amused |
What's cooking?
Sirius leaned over farther, letting the aroma and steam from the cauldron waft upwards, filtering into his hypersensitive nose. "Hmmm.. Just a pinch more..." he muttered to himself, then went to the cool storage pantry, and selected a jar. He returned to the bubbling cauldron and added a two pinches of the freshly chopped fragrant bulb, then set the jar down on the counter as he picked up the ladle and stirred his creation again. "That's the trick," he smiled, then reached for a grinding mill nearby, and added three turns of that to the bubbling potion he was making. Once that was done, he stirred it again, and lifted a glass of wine to his lips. He took a long sip, then poured the remains into the cauldron. It mixed in with a soft hissing as the alchohol evaporated from the heat of the mixture.
It was rare that Severus slept late. Today he had- for him, and risen even later. It took him a few moments to remember where- and when- he was, but when he did, he felt little need to hurry getting up. Instead he lay for a few moments, thinking, and not broadcasting anything, wondering if he could feign sleep telepathically or not. Keeping the static to a minimum, he slowly slid his feet out, and went to get dressed.
Dark eyes, a little unfocussed, still showed his recent waking- but didn't betray anything of the night before whatsoever. He slipped down the stairs and through hallways, listening at every door, and peeking around the one he thought he'd heard something behind. Pleased with his assumption, he smirked, and rumbled a greeting, wondering whether his approach had been detected or not, but not caring all that much. "What are you up to now, then?"
Sirius had smelled him before he had heard him, something that often annoyed his partner when he was trying to be stealthy. Whether he was freshly bathed or scented with their combined rut aromas like he was now. It was impossible to fully sneak up on Sirius unless he was unconcious. He smiled as he continued to stir his creation, then slowly turned and with a lift of a wand levitated a hot cup of tea over to Severus. "Lunch." he said simply. "Old family recipe for a variant of Irish stew..." he said with a small bit of wistful pride in his voice. He was the last of his line, so unless Severus and he found a way to continue the blood line, it would die with him. "I let you lie-in, I figured you would need it after last night...." he said with a cheeky grin, then went and prepared a cup of tea for himself.
The cup was plucked from the air, and Severus smoothed his robes beneath him as he sat, brushing a few real or imagined specks from the chaise, before he took a sip, placing it back in the saucer with a faint jangling noise, trying to hide his irritation. "Lie-in? If you were lying in half the day would have gone already... as it is, it is still early enough to be called morning," he said, with a roll of eyes. He crossed his feet at the ankles, stretching his long legs slightly, feeling comfortably easy. "When will it be ready? Or, perhaps I should say, when will you have finished?"
Sirius ignored the personal dig from Snape. Relaxing was an art, and he was it's Master as was Severus to Potions. He had earned it at this point in his life, and was not affected by the snarks of Severus and their friends alike. "In an hour or so at the earliest. The longer it cooks, the more tender the meat becomes." he said, then after taking a sip of his tea, raised a dark eyebrow at Severus. "How does the Master favor his meat for luncheon today?"
The tall man arched his back, before taking a second sip of tea. Half-closing his eyes, he grumbled, "Would you believe rare?" he asked, watching Sirius' hands and face intently for any sign of movement- wary. he balanced the teacup on the curled side of the chaise, only letting his eyes slide as he looked about for a book. "I figure I might as well repay the favour and hound your industry today."
Sirius snorted in amusement and returned to stirring the stew as the meat continued to boil in the seasoned broth. Satisfied he had added enough pepper, for now, he placed the iron lid on the top, with a small "clank" then lowered the fire to a slow simmering level. "Hound?" he asked with a smirk. "How clever of you Sev. Really, I think you missed your calling as a Comedian. I know I found you quite amusing when we were at Hogwarts," he said with a deep chuckle, then walked over to a crockery jar and pulled out a biscotti to dip into his tea. "What plans have you for today?" he asked, looking up after a bite from under his long bangs.
"You found everything amusing, including History of Magic, so that really doesn't say much." There was no venom in it, and he realised by the time he was finished that had to stifle an almost-yawn. He must have been more tired than he had thought. "Today... I was going to do more research for my paper... but other than that my schedule is empty. Oh. Aside from eating that," he said, nodding his head towards the covered, and lightly hissing cauldron.
Sirius nodded at Severus' assessment of his Academic attentions, smiling softly, and making those barely perceptible laugh lines at the corner of his pale eyes that more visible. He then nodded at the subtle compliment towards his cooking skills, which over the past few years had increased exponentially as he had much free time to devote to his hobby now that life had slowed down considerably. "It will be done around noon I am thinking, I have dough rising in the oven for some bread." he said lazily. Indeed, it seemed he had been up for some time already. Unusual for the sleep loving Animagus. "I will be adding herbs to that and baking it soon. I would say when you smell bread, you can come sup." he said quietly, and returned to his tea.
There was no book lying around here, leaving Severus with no real distraction. His research notes were all in the study, which was a walk away, and then they were all filed tidily. One area he hadn't let any amount of straggliness creep into. And if they were going to eat at noon, then sorting it all out to put it all away again seemed a bit redundant. "I suppose you are busy and I am intruding then?"
Sirius smiled and walked over to where Severus was sitting, and leaned down for a long, slow kiss before sitting down at the small table with him. "Good morning." he grinned, then leaned back in his chair, and with a wand wave, refilled both cups. "Intruding? Of course not." he snorted as he added cream and sugar, manually. In all dealings with food, he preferred non-magical methods. Everything he made was by hand. "It's your house Severus, how could you be intruding?" he said rhetorically, his expression thoughful. He then sniffed and continued, "I don't have any plans, but may go to the village so I don't distract you from your work." he said looking out the large Garden window where his cooking herbs grew at the weather outside, assessing it.
The library bores you so much?" he asked, nodding a thanks for the tea, which he let sit a moment. He could sit there for days on end- when it was voluntary, and not forced, he usually worked more than if he was made to. There were no deadlines on his current pet project, he hadn't even told any of the journals he was writing it, only a few acquaintances from college whose assistance or opinions he had consulted. With deliberately slow movements, he brought up his legs and brought them to rest across the Gryffindor's, pinning him, but there was no real weight behind them to stop them being moved.
Sirius smiled at Severus as he drank from his tea again, then summoned over the jar of Biscotti. "I prefer the outdoors, being indoors too much still.... bothers me." he said with a note of sadness. "I am still not over that, I don't suppose I ever shall be." he said as he selected another of the cookies and dipped it into his tea, then took a bite. He rubbed his knee against Severus' and after swallowing his bite continued. "Walk with me to the village, let me get some supplies, then I sall come and nap at your feet while you work." he said with a mischievous smile. "That way we both get outside, then you have the rest of the day to work."
"Some day..." Severus trailed, dark eyes looking pained. His hand sought out the other's when he was finished feeding himself, rubbing knuckles against the back of his hand, absently. "Walk? How primative," he sighed, dramatically. "I would have thought at the very least you would fly... But if you insist, I suppose you do need the dreaded 'W' word." Which was about all the protest he felt up to giving, the warmth in the room just the right temperature to make him relax, just below the level he started to get uncomfortable. Which was why he was usually surrounded by cold- it kept him awake and concentrated.
Sirius felt Severus' hand stroking his, and he captured the hand in his, giving it a firm squeeze. "Yes, the Dogboy needs his Walkies..." he chuckled. "But fly.... I suppose I could get the bike out of the garage and suit the both of us up and go for a fly..." he said as he brought a hand up to his chin to rub it as he thought. His eyes were fairly sparkling at the thought of that, then he shrugged it off, and looked back into Severus' dark eyes. "No, I think the walk will do me better, it will burn off the excess energy, then I can sit with you all afternoon without getting underfoot." he smiled.
"Brooms not good enough now," he mumbled, just trying to be awkward. Not that he had to try. It came naturally to Snape- like breathing. A knee-jerk reaction he couldn't always control if he wanted to. Which had, more than once, caused a good deal of problems. he tilted his head this way and that a second as he mimicked and caricatured further prissy arguments, not making an intelligble sound though. He stopped, with a sigh, and quirked one brow as he held his partner's eye. "That's assuming I don't like you getting underfoot, sometimes," he challenged, smirking.
Sirius returned the snarking with a lift of an eyebrow and a smile. "You like me underfoot, under you, under the gazebo out back and under the shower, to name a few places." he replied. "You old lech..." he chuckled, then looked up as he heard the screech of a large bird of prey approaching. "Sounds like your eagle owl, Daedalus is here with the post." he smiled as he sipped at his tea again, then wiggled away from his entrapment by Severus to open the nook window, and to then check on his rising bread. The large bird swooped in almost immediatly.
Two large wings had to be drawn in tight for the owl to enter- but it was accustomed to the spectacular aerobics required when coming and going from Snape Manor, and with one last flap of the impressive wingspan, Daedalus had crossed the distance and was sitting on the backboard of the seat, shaking his head and settling down. Severus looked about to retort, but instead moved to retrieve the post, thanking the bird almost off-handedly, as he opened the letter with a finger under the seal. He let out a long-suffering sigh, and got up, walking over to Sirius, waving the letter as proof of the world' newest idiocy. "You have to see this..." Daedalus, seeing that he was no longer required, or even noticed, preened his promaries before setting off with a leap and over-noisy flap.
Sirius watched the delivery of the post with a mild amusement, and managed to toss the end of his biscotti into the air for Daedalus as he passed by as a treat. "What, have you been made Headmaster at Hogwarts or something?" he laughed, then took the note and read it over slowly. When he reached the unintentional punch line Severus was refferring to, he snorted, then laughed aloud. "I told you..." he chuckled, then set about gathering up the cups and saucers, setting them in the small sink for the elves, then wandered over to the counter to start chopping herbs for the bread. He was still laughing.
"I have a good mind to burn this," Snape said, very real anger in his voice now. "Burn it, send them a Howler, and go straight to Dumbledore and tell him exactly what I think..." The paper was crumpled noisily in his hand, shoulders tense and shaking. "The bloody stupid cowardly bastards. I'm going to show them you know..." His eyes were casting about for something to break- and in this kitchen it probably wasn't too good an idea to start smashing things. Infruriated, and frustrated, he sat back down again to stop his pacing, balling his hands to fists.
Sirius felt his gut tighten at the sudden mood change in Severus. He wasn't afraid of him, but he was susceptible to the emotional waves he put out. Empathy was one of his gifts/curses. He calmly continued with his selection of herbs, adding a few magickal ones that might calm the savage Potion's Master when eaten later. He knew he would stew on this for hours, at the least. "Well, does this change our plans for the day, or not?" he asked as he washed, then dried and chopped on a block of wood, using a particularly large knife.
"I don't see why, I'm not letting them spoil my day," the Potions Master spat, even though it was a blatant lie. "It will only take a few minutes to draft a letter to them, and I shall be seeing Albus tomorrow anyway..." His mind had already shifted through this and was on the third draft for the letter. It was with great difficulty that he drew his mind away from the sheer vitriol he was going to spout later, and back to there here and now. He looked up evenly at Sirius. "It doesn't change a thing."
Sirius nodded as he continued to work. "Fine. As you say, so shall it be done..." he teased. "Why don't you go do that letter now, while the "mood" is still with you, and by the time you are done with that, supper will be ready and we cant eat before going to the village." he said without turning around.
"I can write anytime," Snape complained, even as he got up. Much ink was going to be spilt over this matter, he knew, and his mood was going to get worse until he had a good rant and rave on the subject. Not that he would admit he was in the slightest bit wrong in this matter. Hands on his knees he pulled himself erect. "I suppose I should leave you. Too many cooks and all that," he said, sulkily, slinking out. Call me, he added, silently, when his back was turned.
Sirius nodded, and smiled to himself as he finished with the herbs, and dumped them into a bowl to be mixed with the dough for the baking phase. I shall my dear one.. Don't get yourself TOO worked up over this. Oh. Too late. was his reply as he seet about preparing to finish the midday meal.
A half-hearted grumble, and Snape warned Sirius about a plethora of things that could go wrong cooking- for little reason other than to think about them, and after advising him to avoid even the most far-fetched or ridiculous of problems, he set to giving someone their just deserts.
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