Hands In The Stars

17. Evening Request

Edwin gave the heavily boiling pot of noodles on the stove a brief glance, while cutting up the last cucumber into perfect half circles. He carefully picked up the cutting board and peeked over at Ethan, who was sitting peacefully by the slim, black table to his left, making a small braid in his gleaming hair. The sight caused Edwin to smile a bit to himself. He instantly removed the lid from the pot and pushed the mountain of chopped up vegetables into the burning hot water, then quickly put the board and knife down onto the black stone counter, slipping the lid back onto the pot once more.

He wiped some sweat away from his forehead and stroke his long hair back, away from his face.
"I have a feeling that this will actually taste good for once, if you compare it to the other times I've cooked, at least." Edwin said, smiling widely and crossing his arms. He leaned back to the counter and looked over at his boyfriend by the table.
"Mhm, yeah I guess we'll see about that." Ethan teased, but he gave Edwin a big smile back. "It doesn't smell too bad yet. No need to hurry though, the pizzeria has open for a few more hours, so we still have a backup plan."
"Hm, yet." Edwin repeated in a mumbled and rolled his eyes. "Let's keep it that way." He added and turned back to the stove as the heat in the room was rising more and more. He could hear Ethan starting to set the table behind him he. Edwin removed the lid from the pot and stirred around the noodle, beef and vegetable mix for a while.

"Alright Ethan, snatch a plate this will have to be done by now. I don't want to wait anymore."
"You know the carrots will probably still be hard, right?" Ethan asked in a gentle voice, grabbing onto two white bowls and holding one out for Edwin.
"I know but if we wait more the noodles will become a part of the broth! And I don't think it's harmful if they're still a little bit hard, they're merely supposed to be warm, not mushy." Edwin gratefully accepted the plate and took a step back to offer Ethan some space. The apartments kitchen wasn't very big, Edwin still wasn't completely used to it.
"Sure thing, if you say so. You're the chef, after all." Ethan giggled as he looked down into the pot. After a while of struggling, he finally managed to get some of the soup down into his bowl. As payment for the food, Ethan leaned in and gave Edwin's cheek a quick kiss as he passed him on his way back to the polished table. He set his bowl down on the right side and sat down, waiting for Edwin to accompany him.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Are you nervous it might poison you?" Edwin asked as he sat down in front of Ethan, just a second before he observed Ethan practically dive into the soup with a cheerful smile across his lips. "So... Ethan?" Edwin suddenly spoke in an unusually silky voice, which caused Ethan to look at his partner with a slightly confused expression. "Uh, I have a question. I suppose it could be called that, at least. It's about work." Edwin continued, slowly, as he stared down at the small noodle in his bowl.
"Yes? Go on?" Ethan placed his elbows up onto the table and leaned his cheek into the palm of his hand. "What kind of work?"
"Well, it's just..." Edwin mumbled with a frown, before pausing for a long while as he struggled with the accurate words to come up with. "Hmm, directly put, it's, well, it's Dai's idea! You know an awful lot about the Takers, and all that, at least I hope you've been listening! You better have! You know, as members we're not really allowed to talk about it to just anyone, obviously. Though, on top of that there is this, uh, well, this rule." He paused and glanced up at Ethan's face before sighing heavily.

"Okay, the thing is we're usually not allowed to get into long term, serious relationships with just anyone, especially not us with higher ranking. It can cause some mayor issues for both of us, you could easily get put in danger and I just can't have that coming, do you comprehend that?"
"Yeah, I do know that Edwin, you don't need to remind me. I've told you a billion times it doesn't matter to me, I merely want to see you, okay? You don't need to worry." Ethan put his hand onto Edwin's and gave it a gentle squeeze, but Edwin quickly pulled his hand away and down under the table.
"I'm not done! We've sort of broken the rules for you, but Dai's not having that anymore, he's super pissed. We need to fix it, really. It's pretty much seen as tradition at this point, that high status Takers are only associated with other Takers when it comes to closer bonds." Edwin continued. He pushed his chair back a bit, and scanned his eyes across Ethan, who stared back at him blankly for a long, uncomfortable moment. Then, Ethan let out a nervous chuckle.