Work Text:
Luke sucks in a nervous breath when he approaches Rosa’s door. He has a tight grip on the wine bottle as his nerves start to go haywire. He is about to cook dinner with the girl of his dreams. He had agreed so quickly when she suggested that the two share a meal together to be able to catch up after he returned from his week-long mission. He lifts his hand and it hovers over the door. After a second of hesitation, he finally brings himself to knock on the door.
The door finally opens, greeted with a bright and welcoming smile from Rosa. “Luke!” His name leaving her lips is like music to his ears. “Welcome back!”
Luke finds himself smiling so widely. He could get used to being greeted like this, hoping that this could happen more often. He steps into her apartment, slipping out of his shoes and offers the bottle of wine to Rosa. “Here you go~ To compliment the spaghetti we are going to eat tonight.”
She takes the bottle from him and analyzes it. “Ohh, this is going to go perfect with the spaghetti. Thank you~” She steps through her apartment and sets the bottle of wine on the table. Luke follows her and he takes a sniff of the air. “It smells delicious in here!” He muses.
“Oh, thank you! Dinner is nearly ready. I looked up a recipe for tonight. You know I’m not that great at cooking, but I’m definitely trying. Especially after Mr. Wing told me I need to fall out of the habit of ordering take out almost every night…” She confesses with a nervous chuckle, worried that her cooking wouldn’t be tasty.
Luke walks up to the stove and lifts the lid of one pot to look at what she’s got going on. “Well, I can tell you that I think the sauce looks good.”
Rosa steps up beside him and nods her head. “It wasn’t too hard. So I’m hoping that I at least seasoned it well enough that it’ll taste good and not just tomatoes.”
She lifts up the lid of the pot for the noodles and takes a glance at it. She grabs the tongs and stirs the noodles around. She lifts up noodles and wiggles them around above the boiling water, splashing a bit of pasta water around the stove. Several of the noodles splash back into the pot, leaving her with one left hanging for dear life between the tongs.
“What are you doing?!” Luke asks Rosa with a laugh.
Rosa looks up at him, noodle dangling in mid-air as her other hand lingers over the steaming pot, frozen in her spot. “Uh, I am going to test out the noodle to make sure it’s done cooking,” she responds to him, a small smile on her lips.
“How? By eating one?”
She shakes her head as she turns her head back to look at the pot. Rosa dips the tongs into the pot and grabs a noodle. She carefully lifts it out of the pot and reaches with her other hand for the noodle.
“Rosa, you’re going to burn yourself!” Luke is about to reach out to stop her, but she deflects him by turning her body away from him, stopping him with her back. She pinches the noodle between her fingers and blows on it to try to cool it down.
She glances back at Luke, a glint of mischief in her eyes. She then releases it from the tongs and tosses the limp noodle at the side of her refrigerator. It ends up immediately falling onto the counter. “Ah, shoot. It’s not done yet…” She huffs, her cheeks puffing out a little.
“What the heck was that, Rosa?” Luke questions her in surprise, his eyes glancing between her and the noodle that is left on the countertop.
“I read something that when pasta is done, you can toss it on the fridge or the wall and if it sticks it’s al dente!” Rosa tells him as she focuses back on the pot and stirs the noodles around with the tongs.
“Wh-What? That’s the weirdest thing I have ever heard!” Luke doubles over and bellows a hearty laugh.
Rosa is unbothered by Luke’s laughter beside her as she is determined to get a noodle to stick on the side of her refrigerator. “Just stir the sauce at least!” Rosa directs Luke, worried that the sauce would burn if it's neglected another second. Luke’s laugh starts to quiet down as he steps closer to the stove and removes the lid of the pot beside the noodles. He stirs the sauce as directed.
Rosa picks up another noodle from the boiling water and she sucks in a breath when the noodle burns the skin of her fingers again. She purses her lips before she throws the noodle at the refrigerator again. This time, it sticks. “Ah ha! The noodles are done!”
She sets the tongs on the counter, then turns off the burner for the noodles. “See, Luke? It worked!” Rosa points at the noodle that is still stuck on the surface of the refrigerator. Luke turns off the stove for the sauce, his eyes glancing off at the noodle.
“I’m surprised it actually worked,” Luke chuckles and moves the pot off the stove to place on the table on top of the potholder.
“Lemme strain the noodles for you.” He bumps hips with Rosa to push her away, to keep her from throwing any more noodles around the kitchen. Rosa laughs and goes around the kitchen to retrieve plates and utensils to set the table.
Luke and Rosa walk around the kitchen, avoiding each other fluidly to keep from any sort of collision. Rosa gets the table set and Luke gets the noodles transferred into a bowl, meeting each other at the table. The two of them look up at each other and share warm smiles. “Shall we eat?” Luke asks her.
“Yes, let’s eat. I’m hungry.” Rosa sits down at the table, Luke following suit.
“Wait, the wine!” Rosa gets back up, grabbing the bottle by the neck. She scurries around the kitchen to find her wine bottle opener.
“Fancy, you have one of those electric ones..” Luke peers up at her as she steps back to the table, the whirring sound filling the apartment. The cork comes up with a quiet pop and she nods her head. “I broke one too many manual openers before I resorted to just buying this.”
Luke shakes his head then offers his wine glass to her. She takes and carefully pours the crimson liquid into the glass. She hands it back to him before she pours her own glass. Settling back into her seat. They both get food onto the plates and then start to eat and chat about their week.