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Erin > Fiction > That's Amore
"No, no, no, no, Lance. The oregano! See? The jar that says OREGANO in big letters on the side?"
Lance blinked. "Isn't that what I..." He glanced down at the jar in his hand. Garlic powder. Oops. He put it back on the spice rack, a sheepish grin forming on his face, and picked up the other small jar that Joey was indicating to him. "Sorry."
"S'aight, man. Just pay attention. Remember. If you want to learn how to make the best fucking pizza on the planet, you pay attention to the man trying to teach ya. Capisce?"
"Uh.. Sure." Not exactly as if the lesson was his idea. Joey invited him over for pizza. Now.. Joey made damn good pizza, so of course he was going to accept. However... he wasn't planning on having his friend decide to 'teach the youth the subtle secrets of the art'. His words. As if it were some weird martial art, and Lance were seventy years Joey's junior, instead of three. But, for some reason, he decided to go along with the plan. And that is why the two of them were standing in Joey's kitchen, wearing large aprons and chef hats. He had the sneaking suspicion that Joe'd just picked up the hats the day before.
"Okay. So we have all of the ingredients out?"
Lance looked around. "Um.. I guess so. But you're the expert."
"Oh, right." Joey looked at the rather overflowing counter. "Yep. We got 'em all. Or at least all the ones I want out right now." He took three steps towards his fridge and pulled out a big bowl. "Predone pizza dough. I'll teach you how to do this stuff at some later date, grasshoppa."
"Okay, sure, oh great pizza master," Lance managed with a wry chuckle.
"Okay. Anyway. Getting the dough prepped." Joey reached into a big tupperware container of flour he had and started spreading it directly on his countertop. He then proceeded to extract a large lump of dough from the bowl and plop it right down on top of the flour. "The crust, my apprentice, is the foundation of a good pizza. If your crust sucks, there is no hope for the whole. Therefore it is critical that it gets done right."
"All right, all right. So, please, enlighten me."
Joey grinned and nodded in satisfaction. "Okay. Dough. There's two ways to make a pizza crust start to look like a pizza crust. One's... well, you know.. hand tossing. However.. I know how coordinated you are. Therefore, we are not going to be doing that one."
Rolling his eyes, Lance replied, "Hah. Funny, man, really."
A grin sprouted on Joey's face. "Of course it is. So, basically, what we'll be doing instead is just spreading by hand until it stretches out enough to get on the pizza pan. So you start by kneading the lump of dough." His grin grew. "This is my favorite part, because all you have to do is pretend that your hands are on a nice big pair of..." He stopped suddenly and glanced over at Lance. "Er, well, I do... You can just.. y'know.. whatever."
Lance arched an eyebrow. "I get the picture."
"Good. Go for it. I'll watch."
Lance stepped over to the counter and proceeded to start kneading and spreading the dough into a circular shape. Joey watched over his shoulder for a while before nodding in approval. "Very good, my student. You keep doing that, and I'll go chop up the veggies, got it?"
"Sure. I'll be fine."
Joey nodded and walked over to another counter, turning his back to Lance, starting to chop up some green peppers. Lance looked over his shoulder and pondered. He'd always wanted to try hand-tossing a pizza crust. It looked so cool on TV and movies and stuff. And just once wouldn't hurt.. It's not like Joey would see...
He picked up the lump of dough and tossed it experimentally a few inches up in the air. It was pretty cool. A little higher... All right. But how was he supposed to get it to flatten? Oh, right, there was supposed to be some spin in the wrist. He tried tossing it a little higher, and this time spun it a bit...
"LANCE!!!!" Joey whirled to face him, a mass of pizza dough draped casually over his head. Oops.
Lance winced. "Sorry, man, I was just trying to--" He stopped abruptly when a small piece of dough plastered him in the forehead. He blinked, stunned. Joey grinned and chucked a few more pieces at him.
Within seconds, there was dough flying wildly from both sides of the room.
Under a barrage of doughballs, Lance reached over and grabbed a handful of the flour sitting on the counter, which he subsequently chucked in Joey's general direction.
"Oh, that's it, Bass!" Almost before he knew it, he'd been tackled, and the two of them were frantically wrestling on the flour-and-dough covered kitchen floor.
Unfortunately, perhaps, for Lance, in a straight up wrestling match, Joey most definitely had the advantage, and it really wasn't very long before his friend had him definitively pinned to the floor, straddling his thighs on his knees. They were both laughing almost hysterically, and more or less covered in flour and now-ruined pizza dough. Joey looked down at him, eyes gleaming in amusement. Lance looked back up, a wide smile on his face. His smile, however, quickly changed to an expression of stunned startlement when Joey leaned over and deposited a soft kiss right on his lips.
It took him a second before he could really react at all. "Uh.. Joey?"
"Yeah?"
"You are aware that I'm the gay one, right?"
Joey was still smiling. "Yeah, actually.."
"So... what was that about?"
His friend's expression turned marginally more serious. "I just... You were glowing, man. And all of a sudden, I just got the feeling that it was the right thing to do." He paused. "I mean... you're not.. mad, or anything, are you?"
Lance blinked. "Mad? God, no, Joe.." In fact... damn, that was pretty hot. "Just.. surprised, is all."
"Oh, good." Another pause. "Mind if I do it again?"
Lance barely had time to even start to shake his head before Joey's lips once more captured his own. Only this time, the kiss wasn't even anything approaching soft. It was a kiss filled with breathless intensity. It was almost electric. Joey pulled away after a seeming eternity that was also way too short. Lance stared up at him, sucking in breath, and saw that Joey was looking back.
"Wow."
Joey grinned again. "Yeah. Wow. Why didn't you tell me you were that good to kiss, man?"
"Because I thought that you were quite secure in your straightness, thank you very much."
"Yeah, well... so did I. Goes to show that I'm not as all-knowing as I thought. Because... damn, you're enough to change anyone's mind."
Lance laughed. "Nice to know."
Joey kissed him again, softly again and more lingering. "You know what, man?"
"What?"
"I could really get used to this."
Lance smiled and flicked a fleck of pizza dough off of Joey's face. "Yeah. So could I."