zenderael_rl | [EVENT]

There was a part of Gabe's mind that still screamed that this was a very bad plan. After all, the last gathering they had been to had resulted in a man being thrown through the window and his roommate turning into the Ahura when he wasn't looking. There was a very good chance that something bad was going to happen here, too, and he couldn't shake the feeling, even with his arm being linked with Mal's. Mal was safe. Though, admittedly, he wished Mal had brought the gun in. At least they'd have some sort of protection. Just in case.

The worst part about all of this was that it was far too easy to put on a smile when Mal talked to him. All he had to do was pretend as though nothing was wrong whatsoever and maybe then he'd start to believe it. It hadn't worked the previous times he had tried it, mind, but it might this time!

Maybe.

"Oh, honey, if we're here, we're getting the food." Hanging out was fun and all, but what was the point of a food festival if you didn't eat the food immediately when you got there? Honestly...

Mal grinned wide. "Food it is, then." He gave Gabe's hand a pat with his own before lowering the cane, the end of it giving the floor a light tap as he looked around, surveying the various stalls and their delectables. "Whatta you wanna try first? Soup, veggies, meat, dessert..."

Gabe frowned a little. How exactly were you supposed to make a choice like that when everything looked so interesting? And why was Mal leaving the decision up to him?

"I don't know," he confessed, looking a little sheepish. "The last time I had Greek was in high school, and I can't really remember what any of it tastes like."

Mal turned his eyes on Gabe, wide and shocked. "Seriously? Well then." Rather than letting Gabe choose, Mal lead him past a few stalls, picking up a tray and picking out a few different items, paying for each. He got two loukoumades, two baklava, and two bougatsa, all of them desserts, before turning to lead Gabe towards a table, a grin on his face. "Best way to go is to try one of everything and figure out what you like, but you gotta take it slow."

Oh. Okay. They were just going everywhere and taking two of everything. He could live with that. Better to sample lots of things at a food festival, right? He did pout a little at Mal as they made their way to a table, though. "Sweetie, you didn't have to pay for me. I have money..."

Mal set the plate down and pulled a seat out, motioning for Gabe to sit, then took the seat next to it. "Sure you do, but I got to it first," he said, sticking his tongue out a little.

And he'd do his best to 'get to it first' every chance he got.

"These are loukoumades," he said, indicating the two round things that looked kind of like oversized, sticky donut-holes. "They're like donuts with honey and cinnamon. Baklava's got phyllo dough with nuts an' honey, and the bougatsa's got custard in 'em. So. Try 'em an' tell me what you think."

"So we're starting with dessert?" Gabe asked, laughing a little as he studied his choices. "My grandmother would scold you to death, honey." That had been the one constant whenever his grandmother had come to visit them as a kid. She had a tendency to guilt the children into behaving. In spite of that, Gabe had no qualms whatsoever about picking up a piece of the bougatsa and nibbling on it, careful to keep the custard from exploding out of it. That would have been a waste of delicious filling. "This is really good."

He flashed Gabe a toothy grin. "Good thing yer gran's not here, then, eh?" he said, and picked up one of the loukoumades. Those were his favourites, even if he didn't eat them very often. Mal didn't enjoy sweets all that much, but at a festival? He always started with them, if only to see how good they'd been made.

He'd fill up on meats and gyros and stuff later, probably.

"It's neat how they're made, too. Not that I could make 'em. Never had much success with baking anything other'n cakes." He shrugged, and took a nibble of the loukoumade, holding up a napkin to catch any crumbs.

"Definitely a good thing. She and my grandfather were really traditionalist types, you know?" To be perfectly honest, he hadn't gotten along very well with that side of the family, but Gabe wasn't about to dwell on that, especially now. Instead, Gabe shrugged, continuing to happily nibble on his bougatsa.

"At least you can bake and cook and everything," he pointed out, shaking his head in amusement. "I'm probably one of the few people alive who could actually burn water."

Mal was kind of glad he didn't have any of those types in his immediate family. His dad was the furthest from that possible, but even his aunt had never been that strict.

Finishing a bite, he laughed. "You can't burn water, it just evaporates into steam. You can burn the pot, though, and even I've done that a few times." Not anytime in recent years, of course, but when he'd started learning how to cook... Well, he wasn't going to go into all the disasters he'd had early on.

"Oh, I could do it," he insisted, laughing. There wasn't really a point in arguing that it was just an expression, was there? Probably not. "If I can set a bag of microwave popcorn on fire, I can burn water."

"You've set microwave popcorn on fire?" he asked incredulously. "In the microwave?" Gabe didn't seem the sort to try microwave popcorn on the stove, but he had to be sure.

"No, I put it on the stove." Gabe rolled his eyes. "Of course it was in the microwave, honey." And it wasn't as though he had purposely set the thing on fire. It had just sort of happened.

"Hey," Mal said, "I don't know your cooking habits. You might've. Lotsa college kids do weird shit in the kitchen." He, of course, was totally innocent of that. Now, anyway.

He grinned again. "Just means you gotta let someone cook for you more often," he insisted, before finishing off his loukoumade and picking up a baklava. The things were so sticky. He was glad for the napkins, but even more glad he kept wet-naps on hand, and before taking a bite, pulled a little resealable package of them out and set it on the table.

Thankfully, the flaming popcorn incident had happened in high school, not college, and he had since learned his lesson, but he would just conveniently not mention that to Mal. Instead, he took another bite of his bougatsa and studied Mal curiously. "Is that you offering or just stating fact? Because if it's the former, you might get sick of me after a while, honey. I'm just saying."

Mal laughed. "You don't know how much I enjoy cooking," he countered, grin broad. "I bring Chief meals sometimes just because I can." And Duncan always seemed to appreciate them. "Maybe I'll drop by with a pot of stew or a lasagna or something," he suggested, before nibbling into the baklava. He wanted to save the bougatsa for last, because the custard was the best.

"You would be the best person ever if you did," Gabe asserted, popping what remained of his bougatsa in his mouth and savoring the last mouthful of it before moving on to the loukoumade. The baklava was for last. The way Mal had described it had reminded him of his favorite mooncake filling, and he wanted to save it for last just because of that. "Though you'd have to bring enough for Rhys, too. Sweetie might feel left out if you don't."

Another laugh, hand going to his mouth so he didn't spit little bits of nuts while he did, and he managed to finish that mouthful off before speaking. "I could... Not really used to vegetarian cooking, though." Already he was pondering what sort of things he could bring over that the two could both enjoy, and he tilted his head to Gabe. "You'll hafta tell me if there's any icky green things or whatever you won't eat."

Gabe paused in the action of bringing the loukoumade to his mouth, staring at Mal in surprise for a minute or two before finally managing to ask, "Rhys is a vegetarian?" Well. He felt like an idiot. How did he not know that vital piece of information?

Gabe didn't know? That surprised him, and Mal's brows shot up briefly before he shrugged it off. "Must be more recent, then." He could only assume Gabe would've figured it out otherwise.

"Maybe, but Rhys and I don't really eat together that much." Gabe shrugged. Whenever they did eat together, it was usually sharing sweets or something. "And that isn't exactly the sort of thing that's ever come up in conversation."

"Oh." Mal would've thought they'd done a lot of things together, being roommates and as close as they seemed to be. Then again, Gabe seemed to get worried about the silliest shit, no matter how little he knew someone, so...

Mal shrugged. "I only found out cause I wouldn't let him leave without eating when he passed out on my couch. He is not a drinker, apparently."

"Honey, I could have told you that," he said, shaking his head in amusement. "I don't think I've ever seen him touch the booze whenever it's been brought out." He hadn't wondered about it too much at the time, of course, not being much of a drinker, himself. Besides, certain types of alcohol could burn quite a bit going down. Maybe Rhys hated that, and, really, Gabe couldn't blame him for that. "Though... why were you giving him alcohol, anyway?"

"It was right after we'd seen the video. Of Mister Hutchins." That was not a topic Mal wanted to get into. "It really seemed to affect him an' I just... wanted him to relax a little and not run off to do anything stupid." He shrugged with that, and then grinned. "It worked, though."

Rhys would probably never trust any drinks Mal offered again, but oh well.

The very mention of the Hutchins video made Gabe wince a bit. He had actually watched it several times over, though the first few times had been to reassure himself that he hadn't been imagining things and that really had been a greycloak that had killed him. The last few times had been enough to make it sink in that X-Dav would be looking for Rhys, and if the greycloaks worked for X-Dav, he didn't want to know what might happen if they happened upon each other one day.

"That was sweet," he said after a minute, grinning as he popped the rest of his loukoumade into his mouth. So tasty, these things! "But I don't know that alcohol was the way to go."

[EVENT] - Kharveryos

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