GANACHE Alhaitham x Lubanna
—Nahida dragged Lubanna to join a Valentine's event where she needed to make some red wine chocolate truffles to ‘give to someone she cares about’.
She knew this was just Nahida’s way of forcing her into celebrating Alhaitham's birthday and Valentine's. Still, she went along with it. And it was the worst mistake she made this month.
; grad student au ; mentions of alcohol , a bit suggestive towards the end ; trickster nahida lol ; #hanna
***
Neither Alhaitham nor Lubanna really celebrated holidays or birthdays. They just thought it was a mere formality and their energy should be directed to something more important, like Lubanna’s current research under Professor Nahida, a famed professor in her major.
And Lubanna thought Nahida would agree when she ran into both Alhaitham and her yesterday, where she mentioned her boyfriend’s birthday was on the 11th, handwaving any celebration. He too agreed that it was unnecessary, so why would Nahida think differently?
“I mean… is this really important? Necessary?” Lubanna looked down at the recipe book in her hand, skimming past the pages about vegetable cakes and cookies with a grim expression.
“Absolutely!” Nahida laughed. “It’s just truffles, so it shouldn’t take away much from your research!”
The professor stood in front of her, clasping her hands. According to her, she’s currently running a ‘fun Valentine's event’ where she gave students under her a recipe book she recommended and assigned each a recipe they must recreate, and in her words:
“Give it to someone you care about! After all, Valentine's is all about expressing your love!”
It wasn’t like Lubanna hated Valentine's or anything, she’s just not bothered to celebrate it, so she enjoyed seeing events like what Nahida held. But not when she’s forced to join one.
Nahida said she wasn’t just asking Lubanna, and Wanderer, a bachelor’s student and her… adopted child or something similar, also walked by the library this morning looking puzzled over a book just like the one she received, so at least she wasn’t lying about that.
“Right,” she drawled. She didn’t know about her and Wanderer, but she knew Nahida was just trying to make her celebrate Valentine's Day and Alhaitham’s birthday. How cunning.
“I’m not that versed at baking, though…”
Lubanna wasn’t lying. She has been living mostly alone after getting out of the orphanage, but she has always made simple or practical foods, nothing like intricate cakes or certainly like a red wine chocolate truffle.
“Truffles should be easy enough as long as you understand the basics of cooking!” She smiled with her eyes closed again, not saying anything else.
There’s no room for rejection, then.
“Fine, Professor Nahida,” she sighed before smiling. “I’ll play along.”
Nahida chuckled. “I believe in you, Lubanna! And don’t forget to tell me the results!”
Results, huh? Lubanna chuckled, shaking her head as Nahida walked away. When the professor was out of her sight, she finally returned to the library and went to the table she was sitting in with Alhaitham.
As per usual, they were discussing a book they read, this time, a recently translated second part of a book collection about visions. In the afternoons they don’t have classes, they often just hang out in the discussion section of the campus library and talk quietly. Far quieter than times before this so the librarian won’t have to threaten to kick them out again.
Alhaitham looked up from his book, pulled down his headphones, and glanced at her. “What was that about?”
“Nothing much.” She slipped the book inside her bag. Nahida didn’t say it needed to be a surprise, but she would try to get an edge over him in whatever she could, even if it was just about a Valentine and birthday gift.
She then realized he now had his books, aside from the one in his hand, all tucked back inside his bag.
“You’re going somewhere?”
“I’ll go with Kaveh and the others for a while.”
“An outing, hm?” She chuckled. “To the bar?”
“Too early for that.” He picked up his bag and draped it on his shoulder. “Cyno wants to try this new card game at the arcade.”
“I see,” she said. She watched as he stood up from his chair, propping his headphones back up again, leaned down, and gave Lubanna a peck on her left cheek, with which she returned happily.
Most would say that Alhaitham wasn’t someone who likes PDAs, and they would be right, as they don’t even think this is one. This was just a compromise, something they do to make them look more like a couple to others since most didn’t believe him when he said he had a girlfriend.
“Drop by at 8.” She tapped his shoulder as he stood back up. “I have something to give to you.”
He looked down at her with a confused look, but he just nodded before walking away, leaving Lubanna with bated breath.
Okay, she should be able to do it. She still has seven hours to buy the ingredients and cook or bake them. Whatever. She hasn’t even looked through the recipe yet, but she was sure it would be smooth sailing, as it was, after all, just a truffle.
And she was half right. Buying and collecting the ingredients was easy and only took two hours of shopping and driving around, but there were still rough patches.
She put her hands on the counter, looking over the ingredients and glancing back at the recipe book to see if she left something out.
“Don’t use chocolate chips…” She read over the notes in the recipe book. “That’s sorted.”
It went on for a few minutes, with her preparing each ingredient and making sure it was all portioned out. Finally, she carefully pulled a bottle of wine from her bag before putting it on the counter. It was a nice one, imported and aged for around 15 years. It was… expensive to say the least, but Lubanna thought she’d keep the rest for their anniversary. She then looked around in her now empty bag, searching for something.
“Where’s the…” She groaned in frustration as she realized she left the corkscrew back at the store. “Damn it.”
Lubanna glared at the wine bottle before hitting her head on the counter, lightly. She couldn’t go back to the store and get home in time to finish the chocolate, so she… had to improvise.
Pulling out a scissor from its drawer, she loomed over the wine, her hazel iris boring into it as she wielded the scissor on her right hand, holding its grip hard enough to make it creak.
“Don’t struggle. You’ll only make this take longer.”
***
At 8 PM, Lubanna had finished tempering, creating the chocolate mold, freezing the ganache, and sealing the ganache within the chocolate. All that was left was to wait for it to fully set, clean the kitchen, change clothes—
But her front doorbell already rang.
Cursing under her breath, Lubanna walked to the door and opened it with an awkward chuckle. Her usual braids were unmade, and her hair was messy from the bun she put them in. She still wore the white blouse from this morning with its sleeve rolled to her elbows, but over it, she wore a white apron that was more than lightly stained by red—reeking of wine.
Alhaitham who was standing in front of her with his usual turtleneck and coat, crossed his arms. “Let me guess, you’re not finished yet with the thing you’re going to give me?”
“Just another ten minutes.” She opened the door for him and let him inside. “There was some… miscalculation.”
“Really unlike you.”
“I was rushed.” She ignored his sarcasm, closed the door behind him, and walked together to her cozy living room. It was smaller than Alhaitham and Kaveh's open space apartment, but it felt perfectly at home to her. “Just relax for a while. Check out this philosophy book I just got yesterday.” She pulled out a book from the bookshelves behind the couch and put it on the table in front of it, smiling.
He sat down, looking up at her with a cold stare, his usual. “It better be good, then.”
“I assure you, it will.” She grinned back before walking away to the kitchen.
After around ten minutes of trying her best to get the truffles out of their molds and setting them up as close as she could to the examples, Lubanna called off her apron, fixed her hair, and walked into the living room, putting the beautifully decorated and plated red wine chocolate truffles on the table.
Alhaitham looked at them for a second. “Chocolates?”
“Truffles,” she said, “and it’s not that sweet.”
“Is it safe to eat?”
“Ha-ha. Of course. Here, I’ll eat one first.” Lubanna grabbed one and put it in front of his face, booping it onto his nose. “So you won’t think these are poisoned.” She put it in her mouth and gestured ‘see?’ to him before shrugging and finally biting into the ganache, breaking the chocolate mold.
Alhaitham looked up at his girlfriend with a sigh, then popped one in his mouth, chewing silently before raising an eyebrow. “Are you trying to get me tipsy?”
“No, I—”
Lubanna blinked, standing agape as she finally realized the chocolate that melted in her mouth tasted almost purely wine.
Crap. Nahida knew Lubanna didn’t know much about baking. Did she give her the recipe with the most alcohol content? What kind of faulty recipe was that?!
She choked on the chocolate before clearing her throat, glaring at him. Is he in on any of this? She wouldn’t be surprised if he was.
“Ugh, I bet you knew this, didn’t you?” She clicked her tongue. The wine she used for the recipe was nice, but this amount… This amount was too much. She should’ve cross-checked the recipe before making it…
His expression was unreadable like always. He crossed his legs, closing the book in his hand. “If you wanna get me tipsy then you should’ve just bought me a bottle straight, not try to trick me like this.”
“Like hell,” she huffed, “I’d never stoop that low.”
“So you won’t stoop that low but you’ll stoop low enough to slip this inside my book?” Between his index and middle finger, he held a golden-gilded card with a message she was sure she didn’t write.
She scrambled to sit beside him on the couch and pulled the card out of his hand to read it.
‘Your present is me.’
…this must’ve also been her work.
“You know I wouldn’t write something like this.” She waved the card, pouting, unimpressed. “Printed, gilded, and with this amount of perfume?”
He closed his eyes. “The possibility alone is amusing enough.”
She slammed the card on the table, glaring at him. “You’ve been in cahoots with Nahida since the beginning, aren’t you?”
Alhaitham shrugged, putting his book down and turning to face her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Liar.”
“No, I really don’t,” he said, inching towards and slowly towering over. “I only connected the dots when I came in.”
Lubanna’s eyes widened for a second before she huffed, grabbing another piece of truffle and pressing it against his lips. “So I guess you win again this time,” she said, “don’t get cocky, though. I only let you have this because it’s for your birthday.”
He flashed her the briefest smile before biting halfway into the chocolate, letting the ganache run down her fingers. “And valentine.”
She rolled her eyes, chuckling. “And valentine. Sure. Happy both of those.” Pulling her hand back, licked the remaining ganache on her fingers.
“The truffles are already filled with wine, but let’s just drink from the bottle,” he said, “I assume you have it?”
Changes of plan, then.
“Of course.” She stood up and started walking towards the kitchen again, before stopping midway. “Oh, also, if you’re staying the night, don’t forget to text Kaveh.”
He shrugged, phone on hand. “Already did.”
“That was fast.”
“Can’t waste a good bottle of wine,” he hummed before eating another truffle and throwing her a glance, “not like this.”
Lubanna sighed, shaking her head as she chuckled. Guess there’ll be no time for her to clean up the kitchen, then. This is going to be a long night…
***
The next day, Lubanna rushed to find Nahida, who was casually standing in the hallway, talking with a student. But as soon as she realized Lubanna was coming, she dismissed the student and turned to face the angry woman.
“Professor, yesterday’s recipe–!”
“Good morning, Lubanna!” She smiled and clasped her hand. “It went well, right?”
She blushed slightly. “Huh? How do you–”
“Doesn’t matter!” Nahida said. She then winked at her before walking away. “You’re welcome. Keep the book.”
“P-professor?! PROFESSOR NAHIDAAA!”