[Sterek] Cupboard Love (boyxboy) (complete)

Chapter 9

Somehow Stiles makes it home, finishes a little piece of code for Monday's class and is starting to drift off in front of the tv when it finally occurs to him that an actual fireman charity calendar featuring Derek Hale could conceivably exist.

And then he's definitely awake, at least for a little while.

***

Since Stiles had learned to master google with the best of them (Danny for research, Lydia for dirt) he's 99% sure by Tuesday that Derek has never posed for a fireman's calendar, which is a real tragedy. On the other hand, he now knows a lot more about the Wildcat Canyon State Park Volunteer Fire Patrol, which could probably use a better name and some kind of cool acronym if it's going to get better press coverage.

The Fire Patrol is half park rangers and half citizen volunteers who literally patrol the park in order to prevent accidental fires, set strategically placed fires to prevent natural fires from spreading too far, and occasionally to put out fires from improperly treated camping sites or dropped cigarettes. There's a whole page on the park website about the causes of good and bad forest fires, with a small note tucked in thanking the Hale Foundation for funding the volunteer fire patrol program.

"He is like an actual volcano fire curry god, Lydia, except the exact opposite of that."

Lydia rolls her eyes at him. "Yeah, that's great, Stiles, but what I asked was if you could pick me up from the airport and drive me back home next week."

"Sorry, right - I can do that. We can drive up from Oakland." Making a note in his calendar he asks, "What time does your flight land, again?"

"A little before 7. I'm expecting a big sign, Stiles - I haven't seen you in three months."

He can't help but laugh at that. She definitely hasn't changed. "We skype all the time!"

"That's different," Lydia pouts. "When you're not in my clutches I can't manipulate you as easily."

"Yeah, not creepy at all," Stiles replies. "I clearly need new friends. Better friends."

Lydia looks distinctly unimpressed. "Please, you'd be lost without me. I have to go - remember, be in arrivals by seven!"

"Bring me a present from Boston! Bye!"

It's with balancing Lydia, packing, the two papers and the one assignment he has to hand in before the 21st in mind that Stiles plans Derek's food for the week. It has to be something Stiles can make fairly quickly and in large batches, because seriously his profs are trying to kill him with pre-finals course work.

Chicken and dumplings is easy enough to make and the process gives Stiles a few breaks while things cook where he can get some writing done. He arranges a whole chicken, cut carrots and celery into a large stock pot and covers everything with water to simmer nicely. He lowers the heat and covers the pot for an hour - just enough time to fill in the last few hundred words of his Discrete Mathematics and Probability Theory course paper on existence arguments and proof the first half.

When the timer goes, Stiles turns off the heat and pulls the chicken out with two pairs of tongs and some fumbling. The meat is fair to falling off the bones, tender and juicy and steaming when he sets it aside to cool. He lets it rest for a few minutes while he strains the stock and puts the vegetables in a bowl for later. If Derek is going to be out fighting forest fires like Smokey the Bear or whatever, Stiles is going to make sure he eats right.

He sets to work shredding the chicken, pulling out the bones and peeling off the skin. Maybe he'll use them to make chicken soup and freeze it before he goes home for the long weekend. No sense wasting good food.

He cleans up and puts most of it in the fridge to make room for dumplings. Stiles' student apartment comes complete with a student kitchen: a sink, a fridge, a microwave, the smallest oven he's ever seen and just barely enough counter and cupboard space to contain the kind of garbage food most college kids live on. It's definitely not enough for Stiles, but even the fairly spacious kitchen at his dad's place isn't really enough for him. One day Stiles will make some kind of amazing app for the app store and fund his dream kitchen with the proceeds, but right now he just has to make do.

Making the dough for dumplings is easy, and since it has to settle and stiffen up anyway, that gives him twenty odd minutes to finish proofing the first paper and send it to print.

Getting the broth back out, Stiles brings it up until it's just barely boiling and drops the dough in, one dumpling-sized lump at a time, letting them cook for a few minutes until they've soaked in some of the flavour of the stock and have puffed up. Then Stiles lowers the heat and drops the chicken, carrots and celery back in to stew. Since he can leave it alone for another twenty minutes until it really thickens, he cleans up his lab a bit to hand in on Tuesday.

Two milk-heavy dishes in one week might be a lot, but the late November air is really starting to tense up into a dry, sharp cold and it's what Stiles would want to eat if he were going to be out patrolling a forest all day. With that in mind he washes out the large pot and sets it up again on the stove to warm up some olive oil while he chops tender white and green leeks and quickly minces some garlic to toss in with them. Stiles throws in chopped potatoes and celery, throwing some salt on top to bring it along, raising the heat and stirring carefully so they all get combined together with the oil and garlic. Then he adds a generous amount of leftover vegetable broth from the chicken and dumplings and leaves it alone for twenty minutes of one on one time with Assassin's Creed, because seriously, he needs a break.

When he comes back to the kitchen, the potato chunks are soft and they easily separate when he presses the edge of the spoon into them, and the entire kitchen is warm and smells gently of soup. Stiles lowers the temperature just a bit so everything remains at a steady, slow simmer and scrapes in the tomato paste before carefully stirring in milk so it doesn't splash.

The colour of the entire dish turns a smooth, golden butter yellow before he breaks pieces of flaking smoked salmon one by one into the pot. Then he pours in the heavy cream and tears fresh dill over top, stirring it for just a few minutes more so the salmon and cream can really seep into the potatoes and leeks and celery. It's thick and smooth and chock full of smokey, delicate salmon because Stiles has always been of the opinion that more is more when it comes to chowder. Hopefully Derek agrees.