ORIGINAL SLASH FIC: The Panic Pure, by Harper Kingsley

[feygan]

So there's this whole thing where Summaries have made me their bitch. For serious, yo, I cannot write a good summary to save my life.

Originally posted by harperkingsley at ORIGINAL SLASH FIC: The Panic Pure, by Harper Kingsley

Title: The Panic Pure
Author: Harper Kingsley
Genre: mm suspense contemporary romance
Characters: Marshal/Danny, Arthur/Sophia, Joanna
Rating: Mature (just to be safe.)
Passion Level: On the sweet end of the spectrum. Hurt/comfort, cuddles, and freakishlyly romantic character.
A/N: This story contains mentions of graphic violence, child abuse, and rape/non-con. People die on screen, but it's pretty glossed. Most everything is the feels and conversation.

Summary: "Danny is locked up tight in his own world until he meets Marshal for the first time."

One of the employees of Worth Enterprises has gone missing. Marshal and his partner Joanna come into contact with Danny -- Daniel Worth, President & CEO -- in the course of their investigation. Marshal holds onto Danny's contact information. He later begins a relationship with Danny, which includes the exchange of food and ceramic goods.

EXCERPT from Chapter Six:

He knew it was kind of stupid, but he'd waited until Joanna left to use the bathroom before calling Danny. It wasn't like he was afraid of being teased, it was just that he didn't want to give her any ammunition.

"Worth," Danny answered.

"Ooh, you answer your phone like people on TV do," Marshal teased.

"Marshal," Danny sounded suitably pleased. "I didn't think you were going to call."

"How could I not?" Marshal asked. "You made me the best lunch I've had in a really long time. Thank you, it was delicious."

He could almost hear the blush in Danny's voice. "Since you tried to serve me a lunch I felt that I owed you something. I'm glad you liked it."

"I more than liked it. I might have to have you cook for me again," Marshal said. "I didn't know you could cook."

"I can't, not really," Danny said. "Olivia pretty much talks me through all the steps, otherwise I'd probably have burned the kitchen down years ago. Still, it's something I like to do. I just kind of tie in various regional recipes to my... my city projects."

Marshal leaned back in his chair. "So because you're building Tokyo, you made Japanese food?"

"Exactly. It was while I was building Paris that I found out I really don't like flan and that the only French food I really like is French fries." Danny laughed. "I'm not a big egg eater, and that's what's in a lot of French cuisine. That and wine."

"But you like Japanese food?" Marshal asked.

"For the most part," Danny said. "There are some things I could really do without, but I do like eating sushi and I've been having a lot of fun making it and other Japanese food. I even learned how to make my own tofu," he laughed. "It's actually pretty easy, though I had no idea what to do with the okara at the end."

"Okara? What's that?" Marshal asked curiously.

"It's the leftover stuff when you make tofu. There's all kinds of recipes and stuff out there for it, but I wasn't exactly enthused about the idea of eating a bunch of crumbly yuck. That's why, next time, I'll just use soy milk to make tofu instead of messing around with the dried beans and everything."

"Just use soy milk? How do you do that?" Marshal was genuinely curious. He liked tofu, but he'd somehow gotten the impression that it was one of those impossible to make foods. The kind that he mentally placed in the 'Permanent Mystery' drawer of his mental archive.

"I was surprised, but tofu is really easy to make. Once you've got soy milk, you just basically heat it up and mix in a coagulant and it kind of makes itself from there. The hardest part of making tofu is cooking the dry beans to make the milk, then having to figure out what to do with the okara afterward." Danny sighed. "Olivia said I had to eat it because I was the one that made it. It looks like crumbly white scrambled eggs or something and I hate to admit it, but I didn't even try it."

"What?"

Danny laughed. "Don't tell Olivia, but I snuck it into the garbage can when she wasn't looking. I feel bad because she went to all the trouble of making it into unohana to kind of keep with the whole Japanese food theme, but I couldn't even make myself try it. Every time the fork got close to my mouth, I would mentally picture maggots and that was the end of me."

"You're very strange," Marshal said.

"You don't even know the half of it," Danny said. "It's like how I really love clams, but if I look at them when I'm eating them, I gross myself out and just can't do it." There was a short pause where Marshal could almost hear Danny thinking. "Do you mind that I'm weird?"

"If I minded, do you think I would want to hang out with you?" Marshal asked. "Besides, you're really not as weird as you seem to think you are. I've met some honest to goodness really weird people in my life and you're really not all that high on the list."

"Thank you," Danny said, which made Marshal wonder what he was thanking him for. "Are you coming for dinner tonight?"

"Unless you're de-inviting me, I've got no plans to be anywhere else," Marshal said.

"Good. Um, I..." Danny trailed off, then nearly shouted, "Well, I should let you go so you can get some work done. Um, see you tonight."

"See you," Marshal said, just before there was a click on the other end. He had to wonder what had made Danny act so abrupt. It had been a little odd.

"So, did I just catch you talking to lover-boy?" Joanna asked, coming up from behind him.

He jerked a little in his chair. "Jesus! What is the deal with people sneaking up behind me today?"

"It just goes to show how distracted you are," Joanna said. "And were you talking to your main distraction?"

Marshal sighed, finally giving in. "Maybe."

She grinned. "Ah, that's nice." She went around to her desk. "I expect to receive all kinds of vicarious smoochies."

"There haven't been any smoochies yet," Marshal said.

She frowned disappointedly. "Really? No hot vicarious smoochies for me to mull over in the dead of night?"

"Not a single one," Marshal said just as sadly.

"Well, don't worry," she said brightly, "it's only a matter of time. One minute you're receiving handmade gourmet meals, and the next you'll be receiving handj..."

Marshal waved her to silence. "Uh uh, we're not even going to go there. There's a big leap from vicarious smooches to... well, you know." He looked around to make sure no one else had snuck up on him. The last thing he needed was to be the generator of even more office gossip.

"Still, it's all in the same realm of awesome," Joanna chuckled. "I'm a lonely single woman and I take my thrills wherever I can find them."

"Maybe you should give up the single life and find yourself someone to smooch on," Marshal suggested.

She made an exaggerated sad face. "But all the good men are gay. I'm tired of dating complete and utter losers just because I don't have a penis."

"I guess that's just your cross to bear," he said.

"You're a cruel, cruel man," she said. "My not being a boy has made a misery out of my life since the day I was born. You should have heard my dad going on and on about the father-son baseball team we couldn't join. I think he gave me a complex."

"Which explain so much."

"Hey! I've worked very hard to come across as well adjusted and fairly normal and I really don't need you undermining my... my normalhood."

"Your 'normalhood'?" he raised an eyebrow. "Are we just making up words and throwing them into the conversation now?"

"Says the guy who has a boyfriend." Joanna sighed desolately. "I'm an incredibly lonely woman that only has my cat for company and you want to bring me even lower. There's a very good chance that I might just go home tonight, gorge myself on ice cream and pumpkin pie and gain six hundred pounds."

"Which will really help you find a man," he said, rolling his eyes.

She gasped, pressing her hand to her chest. "You're such a bitch!"

He smirked at her. "I know."

They laughed and went back to work.

/EXCERPT

The Panic Pure: Chapter One at Kimichee.

.Got Soy Milk? Make Tofu.

4 cups soy milk
coagulant: choose one–
1) 1 tsp liquid nigari
2) 1 1/4 tsp granular or powdered nigari
3) 1 tsp Epsom salt
4) 2 Tbsp lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
5) 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
water

1) Measure coagulant into a dry cup. Add 1/2 cup water to coagulant and stir until dissolved. Set aside.

2) Pour soy milk into a pot and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring from time to time so it doesn't burn. Reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes.

3) Remove pot from heat. Add half of the coagulant and stir vigorously in a whirlpool pattern 5-6 times, then bring spoon to a halt upright in the soy milk until it stops swirling/moving. Add the remaining coagulant and stir gently in a figure-eight. When you notice it start coagulating (looks a bit like cottage cheese), cover and let sit for 15 minutes.

4) Line a colander with a clean tightly woven cotton cloth and set it over a bowl that can support it. Ladle soy milk curds into the cloth (the solid bits are curds, the liquid is whey).

5) Fold cloth over soy milk curds to cover, top with a plate, and add about 1 1/2 pounds of weight on top (evenly distribute the weight). Press down firmly until the liquid draining slows to a few drops, about 2 minutes. Let stand 15-20 minutes.

6) Once the tofu has firmed up the desired amount, transfer it to a bowl of cold water. Gently run cold water into the bowl for 15 minutes, not touching the tofu.

7) Serve immediately or store in fresh cold water in the fridge.

This recipe was written for someone with just a colander and some regular kitchen supplies. If you've got a tofu press, the recipe still works and you can use that. The colander method might give you some oddly shaped pieces, but once you cut them up it doesn't really matter.*