oneshots • vrene

dinner for two • m

"Bae, I'm home!"

"I'm in the kitchen, Tae!" Irene calls out to him, as she hears the front door of their small house slam shut. "How was your day?"

"Work was a dreadful pain in the ass, as always. Can you believe that I got three more invitations to awards banquets or youth concerts or some other crap like that? As if my giving them money isn't enough!"

Irene knows that Taehyung doesn't really view his days at the "office" as work, especially since he usually spends most days in transit, going from location to location, checking out possible organizations that he can donate his billions of dollars to. He loves what he does, and he tends to give special attention to organizations that deal with addiction and abuse as those were both challenges that he faced in his own life.

After Baekhyun died of a drug overdose  (lol i'm sorry i had to.) a few years back, Taehyung wised up and got off his own self-destructive path and became determined that he didn't totally want to fuck up his life beyond repair.

Of course, the fact that Irene's dad was there to nudge him in the right direction helped too.

Irene herself was away in Los Angeles for college, studying criminal justice and not wanting anything to do with Taehyung at that time, after their very explosive breakup during the summer after graduation. She wonders sometimes if maybe her dad understood better than anyone else did.. that there was something special about Taehyung, something that made him the perfect match for her.

Of course, their life isn't purely hearts and flowers, and some days there's more than enough emotional turmoil to make her wonder why the hell she loves the asshole so much.

However, when he fucks up, he usually does what he can to make it up to her – like when he recreated their first date with a sail on what is now his boat – and she has to admit that he usually tolerates her monthly mood swings and rants better than she probably deserves.

Or, at the very least, he stays clear and dances around the broken eggshells as best he can.

"So what are we having for dinner?" he asks, ambling towards the kitchen.

"Oh, no you don't!" Irene cries out in response, quickly setting the mixing bowl and wooden spoon on the countertop and rushing into the hall to shoo him away. "It's a surprise."

"This isn't a surprise like when you tried that Japanese sushi thingy a few weeks back is it?" he questions warily.

"No, but I thought you liked that, honey."

"Of course, I did. I just – I'm not in the mood for fish tonight."

She knows for a fact that he hated it – despite his protest to the contrary. She knows her husband well enough, after all, to know when he's lying to her. He knows how important honesty is to her, and he always gets this guilty/half-worried look in his eyes when he's telling even the most minor of fibs.

Plus, there is always the fact that no amount of smooth-talking or convincing 'yums' can override his initial cringing with the first bite. It didn't matter – not really. She'd gotten the recipe from youtube and had wanted to try it, just to see what it was like.

A few minutes of silence pass between them, as Irene finishes up dinner while Taehyung – most probably – works on the crossword puzzle, just like he does every night before dinner.

"Dinner is served," she announces a moment later, presenting his plate to him with a flourish.

"Great, I'm starv– " He stops short mid-sentence when he sees just what's on his plate. "Pancakes, Joohyun? You are aware that it's well past noon, right?"