September 5th

[beyoncepadthai]

It's a year today since Danny turned up in Darrow and subsequently turned Mindy's newfound life in the city upside down.

It's a date that she intends to find some way to celebrate. Or, at least, make a little more positive than a reminder of the moment he left everything he knew behind, maybe forever. 

He'd done the same for her, after all, bringing her New York. Which had been incredibly sweet, of course, until she'd tried to kiss him and then her hair had caught on fire and everything had been absolutely awkward and the worst.

This? This she plans to go a little better. Or hopes. Was hoping until she settled on making him a homecooked meal that is not going well at all. She'd watched at least two tutorials on YouTube for making the perfect pasta, but she's pretty sure she's got the quantities wrong and it's pure mush. 

Mindy can already picture Danny aggressively praying for Jesus or Mary or the Pope's forgiveness the moment he catches sight of her Italian atrocity, if it is even worthy of that title at all. She's had better frozen meals, better hospital cafeteria meals, and she's starting to think that she should have made her famous saag paneer with mac and cheese powder instead.

But Danny's due over any minute and she's got to serve something, she'd zeroed out her fridge last night after an especially exhausting day at work. She's starting to consider faking it with takeout when she remembers that there's garlic bread in the oven – storebought, who can tell the difference? – only as she opens it to a face full of smoke and the blaring of her smoke alarm.

"Oh, hell no."

Comments

[so_catholic]

Danny would be lying if he said the prospect of having his - quote - mind blown tonight hadn't made him work at little harder and a little faster at the gyms today. An anticipatory flash of excitement is felt in the pit of his stomach when he approaches her door, mixed with something else, a faint feeling of peace or at least the potential for it.

The symmetry isn't lost on him. A year ago today Danny had walked up to the same door with Mindy by his side and now, twelve roller coaster months later, she's still right there but in a very different, very real way. Hence the bouquet of a dozen pink roses in his hand, a small token of his thanks. Without her, he doesn't think he'd have survived Darrow this long.

A moment from rapping his knuckles on her door, the beeping begins. His hand automatically drops to the handle and he twists it, hoping today isn't the day she's finally decided to listen to him and start locking her door.

[beyoncepadthai]

The sight Danny stumbles upon is not the one Mindy had envisaged when she'd planned tonight.

Whoever invented smoke alarms clearly assumed everyone was six foot tall or wanted anyone shorter than that dead. Mindy's thrown the window open and is balancing precariously with an umbrella, trying to reach the button to silence the alarm before Kate or Newt or one of her rando neighbors comes by to inspect. Or, worse, the building gets evacuated.

It wouldn't be the first time Mindy's been responsible for such a thing, but tonight she really wants to avoid it. She's considering throwing the singed garlic bread out the open window when Danny enters, greeted by a cacophony of curses. "Son of a bitch, you motherfu... Danny!"

[so_catholic]

"Mindy!"

And the symmetry suddenly comes tumbling down, just like Danny is positive she's about to. Leaving the flowers on the side and the door wide open, he rushes over to keep her upright, shouting over the noise.

"What the hell are you doing?" He lets go with one arm to waft it at the smoke.

[beyoncepadthai]

"I'm trying to be romantic!" Mindy yells, like it's the most obvious thing, and with Danny's support she's able to stop shaking and finally reach the button that silences the alarm with the tip of her umbrella.

"The damn garlic bread!" she explains with a cough, immediately regretting having spoken ill of one of her favorite foods in the whole wide world but persisting anyway. "I think it's defective."

That, or she is.

[so_catholic]

Danny waggles a fingertip in his ear to try to regain his hearing, moving away and peering into the oven to find an unidentifiable charcoaled log.

He balls a fist and presses it to his mouth to prevent a coughing fit. "That used to be garlic bread?"

[beyoncepadthai]

"Yes," Mindy says, almost a little mournful, her eyes still stinging from the smoke. She really, really had wanted to do something special but, of course and in typical Lahiri fashion, it was not meant to be. "I tried to make pasta, too. Don't get your hopes up, it's basically glue."

[so_catholic]

"You tried to make pasta?" Danny echoes in disbelief, trying to picture Mindy - probably covered in flour - kneading the dough and rolling it out and...turning it into glue, apparently. "Was this my surprise?"

His mind doesn't exactly feel blown but his lungs are getting there.

[beyoncepadthai]

"I tried," Mindy confirms. "I really, really tried." In hindsight, she should have probably just bought a packet of the premade stuff and thrown it in a pot of boiling water but, knowing her, she'd have managed to screw that up, too. Takeout was clearly the best option, though Danny would have seen right through her.

Better than this, though, with both of them out of breath and not in a cool, sexy way. "Surprise?"

[so_catholic]

When the spoon barely moves as he tries to give the pasta a stir, Danny confirms pretty quickly that everything Mindy has tried to cook is completely inedible. Not only not fit for human consumption but not fit for consumption by anything.

"Babe, you didn't need to do this."

[beyoncepadthai]

"I wanted to do something," Mindy says, a little frustrated. Not with him so much as herself and her inability to make anything for dinner that doesn't involve poking holes in plastic and shoving in a microwave for six minutes. "I completely flaked out on your birthday and you're always doing nice things for me. Not to mention it's been a year since you turned up and you planned that whole dinner for my anniversary..."

[so_catholic]

"Mindy..." Danny closes the gap and lifts his hands to her shoulders, rubbing them up and down her arms in comfort. "This is incredibly sweet of you. But you know," he fails to suppress a long-suffering sigh, though continues to sound nothing but understanding, "over time I've come to terms with the fact that you're just not one of those women that takes pride in looking after their man."

[beyoncepadthai]

It's a weird way of putting things, maybe borderline insulting and, in spite of the kindness of Danny's tone, Mindy looks a little puzzled and tilts her head to the side. "What is that supposed to mean?" she asks, eyes barely narrowing though she doesn't yet withdraw. "I think you're pretty well looked after."

[so_catholic]

Danny's hands pause almost imperceptibly. "Yeah, 'course, of course," he insists in an over-placating manner, "I just mean, y'know, I don't expect you to cook. I don't have those expectations of you."

[beyoncepadthai]

"Well, maybe I wanted to do something unexpected," Mindy answers, dropping her gaze. Instead, she's pretty sure this is classic her, an apartment filled with smoke and inedible food.

She should be thrilled to hear what Danny's saying, that he's with her in spite of her apparent failure at all aspects of domesticity, but she can't help but feel a little disappointed. She sees he brought her flowers, she made him glue for dinner.

[so_catholic]

Danny can't stop the amusement from flitting across his features but when Mindy's eyes drop from his, he's quick to regain his composure.

He clears his throat, starting carefully, feeling out whether flippancy will be welcome or not.

"And you thought setting something on fire was unexpected...?"

If he was given ten chances to answer the question 'Guess What Mindy Lahiri Has Just Done?', that would always be in his top five.

[beyoncepadthai]

"It was unexpected to me!" Mindy says, although she knows now that was pretty naive. No amount of online tutorials could mitigate the years of experience she has in, well, nonexperience. She sighs. "Can we just forget it and order takeout and never talk about this again?"

[so_catholic]

"This is just a teething problem, okay," Danny reassures her, giving her a quick kiss on the forehead before moving away to fetch the bouquet of roses. "You'll get better with practise. You look beautiful," he offers seamlessly as a distraction, trying to ignore the remnants of guilt that rise up at the view of Mindy in a red dress.

[beyoncepadthai]

Mindy is not so easily distracted. She knows she looks hot, it's the one aspect of tonight she's managed not to screw up — though she's sure there's remnants of the flour catastrophe in her hair.

"Practice?" she echoes with a shake of her head. "Oh, no. This was a one time thing, babe, and it failed."

Not that he needs to be reminded. She makes grabby hands at the flowers, because the gesture really is so sweet, and while candy is the preferred gift, they do lift her mood a little bit. With another gentle sigh, she looks at them. "Thank you."

[so_catholic]

Danny doesn't think this should officially count as a thing at all if he doesn't actually get to taste test anything at the end. Convincing Mindy to cook for him again, however, is a battle for another day.

"You're welcome," he replies softly, looking between the top of the flowers and her face. "I couldn't turn up to have my mind blown empty handed," he adds with a half smile.

[beyoncepadthai]

"Ugh," Mindy sighs again a little, setting the flowers down and slipping her arms around Danny's shoulders to meet around the back of his neck, entwining her fingers. "You just like making me look bad."

[so_catholic]

Even if the meal turned out a disaster, Danny has to admit that there's something appealing about seeing Mindy with bits of flour in her hair. A domesticity that pulls him in as much as it scares the life out of him.

"I think that's impossible in this dress," he counters, bringing his hands to rest on her waist. It's got that retro Jessica Rabbit-esque look about it, and despite the sheer number of dresses to choose from in her closet, it's hands down one of the sexiest Danny's seen her in. "Is there a plan B?"

[beyoncepadthai]

"This is, like, plan E," Mindy confides in Danny, a little less insecure with his hands on her and the way that they're looking at each other.

She'd had such grand plans of how she'd impress him, how she'd make up for occasions uncelebrated along the way and just plain forgotten.

And the sheer fact that he's around, that they have each other in spite of all they've left behind.

The road to burned garlic bread and glue pasta is very much paved with good intentions. "Takeout and makeouts," she says, smiling at him. "All good plans rhyme, Danny."

[so_catholic]

"Of course it is." Danny should have known. Mindy's plans are never simple or straight-forward. At least her new one only has two steps to follow, both of which he is absolutely on board with.

"Takeout and makeouts, I like that," he replies quietly, not even pretending to consider it for a moment. "You might have to show me how that plan goes though. Is it like," he leans in to give her a chaste kiss on the lips, "makeouts like that?"

[beyoncepadthai]

Mindy grins, a little in disbelief that she's managed to get Danny to use the plural of makeout, but certainly not going to question it. "Are you kidding me?" she says, though, expression turning serious again at the practically platonic nature of his kiss. "What the hell was that? That's not how you kiss your girlfriend. Your bear claw guy, maybe."

[so_catholic]

"You kiss your bear claw guy on the lips?" Danny asks with dampened incredulity, feeling like he should be more outraged by that but too caught up in pressing another kiss to Mindy's lips to give the comment proper attention. This kiss is only slightly less chaste than the previous one.

"How'm I doing?" He tilts his head the other way to deliver another. "Better? A grade? B+?"

[beyoncepadthai]

Mindy starts to say that she only does so on occasion and that it's hardly worse than him kissing his butcher, baker, candlestick maker or whatever, but then he's kissing her again and she's smiling against his mouth. She's not sure what happened to make this a reality for them, what she's supposed to have said to make all of the difference, but she's grateful for it. "Somebody's ambitious," she muses. "B minus."

[so_catholic]

"B minus?" Danny echoes dramatically, pulling away just as his lips brush Mindy's for another kiss. "Well, what do you expect, I'm a man workin' on an empty stomach here," he exclaims, touching both hands to his midriff to emphasize the point.

Takeout is exactly what they had ordered the night he'd turned up in Darrow and she'd let him come back to her apartment, so in a way it's fitting. He decides against pointing that out though, lest Mindy start claiming she sabotaged her meal just to be romantic.

"Put the flowers in a vase," he adds with a flash of a smile. "I'll grab the phone."

[beyoncepadthai]

That sounds more like an order than Mindy prefers (unless she's being told to, like, get her ass into the bedroom) but she obliges, pulling a bright pink vase from beneath her sink and filling it up with water.

The flowers really are so pretty, inedible as they may be. She's peeling back their plastic wrapper when it occurs to her that she's not sure she's actually voiced the sentiment she's been feeling all day, or over the past couple of weeks of planning this. "I'm really glad you're here," she calls out, a rare stab at sentimentality. "I mean, I know it's super weird, but it's better with you."

[so_catholic]

"Marking my one year anniversary here by yourself would be kind of weird," Danny agrees, amused, glancing up from the phone in his hand as he dials his preferred pizza place. He knows what she means though. He also knows that without Mindy here too he'd probably be sat in a corner with a bottle of whisky and a zillion packs of cigarettes. "Toppings?"

[beyoncepadthai]

It's not exactly the most romantic nor meaningful response, but it is very Danny and so Mindy can't help but smile and nod, finishing up with the vase. It, at least, she hasn't managed to fuck up tonight. She sets it proudly on her dining table before turning to answer Danny's question. "Just, like, double meat, double cheese, nothing green."

[so_catholic]

"Hi, can I--" Danny slides his eyes to the side, phone pressed to his ear for all of four seconds before a dead tone starts ringing. "Okay... They recognized your number," he explains with a shrug, jabbing at a button and setting the phone down on the counter top. "Usual order's on its way."

Bracing an arm beside the vase, he hooks one foot over the other, hand coming to settle on his hip, managing to look both incongruous and at home in her kitchen. "Run that B minus by me again...?"

[beyoncepadthai]

Other, lesser women might be put off by their takeaway order being memorized – but not Mindy. She's totally flattered, beaming brightly at the fact. She can only hope that they also remember her tendency to take it out on their tip if the food takes longer than she does to realize just how hungry she is.

"A B minus isn't terrible," Mindy reminds him, and she can't help but think of how she'd recounted her sex dream about him. God, that must have been a million years ago. She inches a little closer, much more comfortable in her kitchen now that she's not actually cooking. "It's better than average. It's just, not, like, knocking my socks off. Or stockings, technically."