It's a rare treat to wake up early as one Park Chaeyoung. The chances of her waking before midday was usually the same as winning the lottery.
Sunlight has yet to crack through the curtains, with her arm lifting up to uncover her eyes. She tries to sit up, but there's a very warm presence snuggled up beside her. She can feel a nose tucked in the crook of her neck, arms possessively clutching her waist.
Chaeyoung tilts her head and lets her cheek fall into soft curls. She hums as she runs fingers through Lisa's hair. Lisa's eyes close for a few moments as Lisa tries to press their bodies closer together. It's peaceful, contentment settling in her bones. Chaeyoung doesn't want to leave.
She knows that Lisa had a rough day yesterday, when she felt the bed dip at 3AM. Lisa had all but thrown herself to bed after peeling away her uniform and changing. There were no injuries but she was wrung out of energy. Chaeyoung remembers Lisa whimpering, remembers her hand under Lisa's shirt, up and down her spine in comforting motions.
Chaeyoung never opened her eyes last night, when Lisa kisses her and says "Keep sleeping." she knows Lisa doesn't want her to fret, not when it's so early in the morning. So Chaeyoung slept.
It's still the early morning when Chaeyoung wakes. She extricates herself from Lisa's grasp with care, movements practiced from before. Lisa whines from the loss, so Chaeyoung replaces her person with a pillow, cool to the touch.
"Need to use the bathroom, baby. Just keep sleeping," Chaeyoung whispers, dropping a kiss on Lisa's forehead before padding out of the room. The door closes with a soft 'click'.
Rather than the bathroom, Chaeyoung heads to the kitchen. There's a faint idea itching in the back of her head. She isn't sure if it's something science-y or dumb or something Lisa would like just yet. Though, knowing them, it would probably fall under all of the above.
She sniffs before rubbing her nose, then heading to the fridge to prep for the morning. Soon, the counter has the prerequisites for a full breakfast: eggs, sausages, bread, milk, a container of shredded potatoes, and a bag of oatmeal.
There were days where they settled for a breakfast burrito or muffin to munch on before classes, so Chaeyoung treasures these opportunities for an actual, home-cooked breakfast close to her heart.
She sets the chopping board a bit of a way's away from the stove and removes some sausages from their container. She peels two cloves of garlic, smashes and finely minces them. As strange as it sounds, the pungent smell of raw garlic fills Chaeyoung with feelings of home. She doesn't always get to prepare mirepoix, what with their busy lives and the convenience of ordering in. It's what it represents, she supposes.
She sets a non-stick on the burner, a bowl on the side, then lets a knob of butter skid across the pan in low heat. The heady scent of melting butter fills the kitchen. When it melts, she cracks four eggs and takes a spatula to the pan. As the eggs set up, she stirs them around, breaking up large curds before they solidify too much. Chaeyoung is an absolute fiend for soft scrambled eggs, takes the pan off the heat to season them with salt and pepper. She gives it one last cursory stir before pouring them in the awaiting bowl.
Scrambled eggs, done. She wipes off the last of the eggs with a paper towel before drizzling the pan with a bit of oil. The oil sizzles from the residual heat, so she takes the time to score lines into the sausages and set another plate to the side of the stove. She turns up the heat to medium, oil bubbling up before she lets the sausages on the pan. The wonderful scent of fat, garlic, and assorted spices in the pork starts to perfume the air.
The sausages brown on both sides in a few minutes and Chaeyoung pushes them into their waiting plate. The rendered fat stays on the pan, as she pulls the container of potatoes closer to her. She puts another chunk of butter to melt, using the back of her knife to tip the minced garlic in as well.
Chaeyoung does tense up for a few moments. Something tells her that Lisa nearly woke from the smells from the sausage. Chaeyoung turns the heat to low as she shakes the pan, jaw tight. She spreads the shredded potatoes in a thin layer, wrist resting on the counter as she waits for the hash to brown.
It's a few tense seconds, then a screw loosens. If she had to imagine: a Lisa moments from rousing out of sleep, sniffing out the smell not unlike a dog before dipping back into the bed.
Chaeyoung relaxes again as she mixes the sausage fat, butter, and garlic. When the milk solids start to separate from the butter, she spreads a layer of potatoes in the pan and turns up the heat to medium. The starch smothers a bit of the scent, but the sizzle is still loud as the heat draws out the water and into the oil. Almost there, she thinks, like a kid sneaking around with her hand in the cookie jar.
It's going to take a few moments for the hash to brown, so Chaeyoung takes a bowl with milk to the microwave — sue her, she doesn't want to do more dishes than she already will — and bread into the toaster. She doesn't want to start up the coffee machine just yet. If the sausages didn't wake Lisa, the smell of coffee guarantees it.
Chaeyoung returns to the stove to flip the hash, gives it a minute, then turns off the burner. The residual heat from the pan and burner will cook off the rest without leaving it a charred mess on the bottom. That's when she turns on the coffee machine, as the microwave dings and the first pair of bread slices pop from the toaster.
She pops in two more slices of bread into the toaster, and stirs two heaping tablespoons of sugar into the milk. The coffee machine starts to dispense the sweet nectar of life, so she reaches under to get two mugs as well: a pipe and a princess mug.
Chaeyoumg is spooning hashbrowns into a plate when she feels something (someone) plaster on her back like a koala. "Mmmrghgh," the koala says, burying her face between Chaeyoung's shoulder blades.
"Good morning to you too, princess," she huffs, as Lisa basically climbs up her back and wraps her legs around Chaeyoung's midsection. "Comfy?"
"Mhmm," Lisa hums. Chaeyoung's grateful for her workouts consisting of moving around metal in the workshop, or she wouldn't be able to do this so often. She sets the plate of hashbrowns and toast on the island, then stirs in the oatmeal to the bowl of sugary milk. She'll never understand why Lisa likes her oatmeal runny, but hey, she's just the one making it.
With most of breakfast squared away, Chaeyoung positions Lisa over a chair and motions her to sit on it. "C'mon, honey, I just need to finish one thing then I'll be with you." It takes a moment for Lisa to loosen her grasp on Chaeyoung, which she replaces with the oatmeal on one hand, a spoon on the other.
How her girlfriend could be the very hot cop by night and flip to be a human disaster by day, Chaeyoung will never know. She fills the pipe mug almost to the brim with coffee, and the princess mug three-fourths of the way. Then she adds a teaspoon of sugar on her coffee, and two tablespoons of sugar on the other. Finally, she adds milk until Lisa's coffee is caramel-like in color.
"Here you go, baby," Chaeyoung places the mug next to Lisa's hand, using her own mug to warm her palms. Lisa's done with the oatmeal, already wolfing down the eggs and toast. Chaeyoung spears a sausage on her fork to eat and watches her girlfriend.
"You're the best and I love you," rushes out of Lisa's mouth, then washing down the food with coffee. Already, the food and warmth of the kitchen is bringing her out of sleep.
"You love me because I can cook," Chaeyoung replies with a wry smile, crunching down on a hashbrown. "So you don't have to burn down the kitchen trying to make dinner and ordering takeout anyway."
"Uh, wrong," Lisa rolls her eyes. "Clearly I keep you around because you can give me piggyback rides even after I've eaten all your wonderful food."
"Oh! So I'm the trophy girlfriend, then?"
Lisa flicks her nose. "To be a trophy girlfriend, you'd have to be a trophy," she giggles before continuing the quote. "You're more of a... commemorative plaque."
Chaeyoung clutches her chest in fake-indignation, lays the aussie accent on thick. "Why Ms. Manoban, I am insulted!" she sniffs. "Wait until my mother hears about this!"
Lisa can't handle much of the ridiculousness anymore and breaks out in peals of laughter. "Okay, Chipmunk!"
Chaeyoung smiles at the sight, her sun burst of a girlfriend a bright centerpiece livening up the room. She sets down her fork and looks on. There's a few moments where the only sounds are of Lisa's laughter, and the real world filtering in from the window, that sound seemingly far away.
Lisa actually has to wipe away a tear from the laughter, from the overflow of joy in her person. "What're you looking at?" she asks, struck by the sheer adoration on her girlfriend's faces.
"My lovely, idiotic girlfriend," Chaeyoung replies, relishing the light pink dusting the apples of Lisa's cheeks. "I love you."
It's such a simple sentence, but Lisa's heart kind of stops. The kind of moment where the world just pauses, because she needs to take a moment. That's what their love is. Simple. The easiest thing damn thing in the world to do. Against all challenges, against all odds. What else is a woman to do but reply in kind?
"I love you too," Lisa replies, kissing Chaeyoung on the nose.
**
Ctto ;)