Cilantro or Coriander

/w
     Jeremy, though Michael loved him dearly, could be a bit eccentric. He rarely let Michael make food, playing into the stereotype of British food being bad. One day, though, Jeremy had let Michael make breakfast. The scouser, naturally, made a traditional English breakfast: fried eggs with sausage, bacon, mushrooms, baked beans, and tomatoes, all sided with bread and a drink of black tea. Though Michael had severed and drank the tea with nothing added, Jeremy hadn't even bothered trying it before dumping an "Ungodly amount of sugar," according to Michael.
     Jeremy, naturally, got revenge the day after, also using breakfast as his weapon of choice. He made chocolate chip pancakes with syrup and whipped cream, sided with bacon and coffee - but the coffee had some sort of vanilla creamer on top of however many spoonfuls of sugar Jeremy had deemed necessary. Michael complained that his teeth were going to rot from the sweetness.
     "Then you'll be like every other Brit: bad teeth! You've lived in America for how long, hun?" Jeremy questioned. "You should be used to the food.
     "Jeremy, my family still was British. We didn't make this for breakfast, and if we went out, we just never got anything sweet. I mostly went to Rooster's, the diner, if I went out, and that was usually for lunch. And the pizzeria was pizza."
     "You're missing out, man."
     "I'm really not, love."
     "Was that a British love or a "you're my partner and I love you" love?" Jeremy asked, partially joking.
     "Why can't it be both?" Michael said with a smile.
     But, a few weeks later, Jeremy had once again let Michael into the kitchen.
     "You need to learn how to cook from someone worthy to teach you," Jeremy had reasoned with a smile.
     "Mhm, okay then, darling."
     "Shh, watch. This is called "seasoning". More specifically, it's black pepper. You put it on your food and it gives it something called "flavor."
     "I know what seasoning and flavor are, you git," Michael retorted.
     "Do you?" Jeremy teased, though he did stop taunting his boyfriend as he continued to cook. "Hey, can you get the cilantro?" Jeremy said after a few minutes.
"The... The what?" Michael asked, genuine confusion in his voice as he raised an eyebrow.
"The cilantro, duh. It should be in the fridge. Probably in the drawer with the salad shit," Jeremy elaborated to no avail.
"What is, erm, cilantro?" Michael asked again more specifically. Though, on cilantro, his accent was lost, being changed into a clumsy American accent with a little bit of British spice added in. It was almost transatlantic in a way, but he spoke too unnaturally with it, and it wasn't exaggeratedly fancy enough to be a true transatlantic accent. He didn't know the word, and only knew it in an American accent. He didn't know how he'd pronounce it, so he had no choice. His face turned red in anticipation of Jeremy's antics.
Jeremy paused for a second. "Ha, you said it in an American accent! That's so weird! You need to do that more," Jeremy laughed for a moment, but then went back to what they were talking about. "You know, the herb," Jeremy said, not pronouncing the h. "Don't tell me you're so British that you don't know what herbs are."
"I know what herbs are," Michael argued, emphasizing the fact that he pronounced the h. "There isn't a herb called... cilantro," Michael said in an American accent again.
"Oh my god, I'll get it," Jeremy said with a sharp exhale. When he pulled it out, he waived it at Michael. "Cilantro!"
"Wait, coriander?" Michael shouted.
"What? No, this is cilantro!" Jeremy laughed. Michael smiled.
"That's coriander. You are just wrong."
"Dude. Man. My love. I swear this is cilantro."
"Jeremy, dear, it's not. Coriander, not cilantro."
"How do you want me to prove it to you? It's cilantro! Do we need to go to the library and find it? We don't have a dictionary."
"Fine, if that's what you want," Michael huffed. They finished their dinner peacefully, holding hands when they didn't need both, but there was a competitive nature with them. As soon as they finished their meal, they cleaned up and got ready to leave. It was about 6:30 p.m. by the time they left, but the sun was still in the sky, giving an almost artistic effect to Hurricane, Utah.
It was only about a nine minute walk. When they got to the library, there was about twenty minutes to closing, only having a few minutes more than twenty until 7:00 p.m. They were glad they were just there for a quick thing. As soon as they walked in, Michael guided the two to where he'd known the dictionaries were, most due to trying to study in high school - though he may or may not have studied only so he didn't get lectured by his father for not studying. Immediately, he pulled out a Mariam-Webster dictionary and flipped to C.
"I'll look for cilantro first," Michael said fully in an American accent. It was better than when he had said cilantro, but it still was just off. Michael was yet to be questioned on his accent by anyone in Hurricane, though, so he decided to stick with it until someone even looked at him funny.
"Oh my god, it's so weird when you do that," Jeremy laughed.
"Would you rather me be Southern?" Michael asked in a thick Texan accent. Jeremy didn't know how he knew how to do a Texan accent, but he was too busy laughing to really think about it.
"We need to play around with accents one day. You should try to imitate different ones," Jeremy suggested, still laughing. Honestly, he laughed harder at the idea of Michael trying to do a New Yorker accent, but slipping up and making some weird British-New York hybrid accent.
"Maybe. But you'd be doing it, too, la. I'd like to see you do a true scouse accent." Michael also started laughing hard at the thought. Michael could only do one because that was where he'd grown up for seven-some years. Sometimes he'd slip into one randomly.
"We'll talk about that later. For now, we're on a mission," Jeremy said, trying to look serious and stone-cold. He miserably failed, but the man tried.
Without verbally responding, Michael flipped a few pages until he found the words that started with ci. It didn't take long for him to find cilantro.
"Leaves of..." Michael mumbled through the short definition before exclaiming, "Ha! I was right! Right here, the definition says, quote, "Leaves of coriander used as flavoring or garnish." Michael said.
"What does that even mean? Nothing!"
"No, it means I'm more correct," Michael said, smiling smugly. Michael had slipped back into his normal British accent a while ago, but didn't really bother to correct it. There was hardly anyone there with about twelve minutes until the library closed. Then, he flipped to where the word coriander would be and mumbled through the two definitions given there. "Yeah, 'ere it says "An Old World annual herb (Coriandrum sativum) of the carrot family with aromatic fruits," and, "The ripened, dried fruit of coriander used as flavoring." Therefore, I'm more correct. Cilantro is just the leaves."
Jeremy rolled his eyes. "Well, whatever. It's probably just an American thing against a British thing." Michael blinked and stared at him for a moment.
"Well why didn't you just say that before we walked all the way to the library?" Michael whisper-shouted, though his smile and slight laugh gave away his amusement.
"You went along with it!" Jeremy said, also smiling."
"Whatever," Michael scoffed. "I'm still more correct." Jeremy didn't respond. Instead, he looked around to make sure nobody could see, then kissed Michael. Michael kissed back, then they started to head back home. The sun had started to set more by the time they got home.
As soon as they got inside, they took off their shoes and walked to the couch, kissing each other lovingly. They ended up watching movies all night with a little bit of beer, and they were happy.
As they were starting to fall asleep, both being just a little more than tipsy, Jeremy spoke softly.
"Hey, Mike?" Jeremy whispered in the dark of their apartment's living room. He was laying on Michael's chest, Michael's hand stroking his head and his hair. He got a soft hum in response. "I love you."
"I love you too, Jeremy. It's still called coriander, though."