(Untitled)

[epitomeofvanity]

WHO: Miyazawa Yukino [epitomeofvanity] + Don Draper [change_just_is]
WHEN: Friday, February 20th, 1953
WHERE: Schwarzalbenheim; Apt. 2
FILTER: Closed.
WHAT: Cooking Lesson time!
STATUS: [COMPLETED]

Comments

[epitomeofvanity]

Yukino pulls a piece of string out of her apron pocket and smooths back her hair and puts it into a high pony-tail. It had gotten a lot longer than she was used to in the past year. It hadn't really touched her shoulders before, but now it fell a little past her collarbone. It was about time she spent some time to cut it properly, before even a pony tail would tickle the back of her neck. She gave a soft sigh at the thought even as she turned her head to Don with a ready smile.

Reaching for the device, she felt his hand, and there was a bit of coloring on her cheeks only because she knew he did it on purpose. She gave his hand a smack, not hard, but definitely admonishing. "Now you stop that," she chided, lips pursed, flush still evident even as she avoided his eyes. He was probably smiling pretty wide, and looking would only make her blush more. She rinsed the cans and the opener.

"You need to rinse both of these, just in case something fell on it, like dust. If you open it with that on it, it'll get in the food. It probably won't amount to anything, but it's better if you don't get sick and have to go to the hospital."

[change_just_is]

He nods along with her studiously, taking note of this. It's probably good to remember these things, since he certainly doesn't want to get sick. He'd heard that there'd been a bad water incident before he'd arrived, and that's not something he wants to experience. Watching her put her hair up into a ponytail, he smiles a little. It's a gesture he always admires in women and finds attractive--but she probably won't notice that smile, since it's not his normal flirtatious one. Instead, his smile is almost more wistful. It reminds him of his wife, and some of the other women he's been with. Maybe that motion of putting their hair up is a universal gesture, but it always makes him smile.

"Stop what?" he asks teasingly, extending his hand to reach for the can now that she's rinsed it off, "I'm not doing anything."

[epitomeofvanity]

She risks a glance at him, to give a knowing look that he couldn't mistake for anything else but 'I've got my eye on you mister' B|. She catches the tail end of his smile, but not knowing it was more other than his normal teasing, she sees nothing particularly significant about it. She sets the now cleaned can opener on the can so he can get it without slipping in another touch. She's got his number, all right, but it would be difficult to avoid contact all day. Once they started cooking, Yukino assumed he would forget about his flirting and try not to burn the food. She hoped.

"Now, you have your pan." She hefted it and let him hold it. "A nice heavy pan that holds heat really well. I'd really want a wok, but I'd have to get it custom made." She thinks about Ed for a second, and the business he has with Lina, and notes it for later. "And now you have your oil," she lifted the tin. "For the frying part."

[change_just_is]

He takes the pan and lifts it, feeling it. His hand does brush against hers again but this time it's so quick that she might think it's a mistake and not get angry with him. "I'd certainly know what to do with this better than I'd know what to do with a wok," he points out, laughing. He's starting to get how this stir fry thing works. It really just feels like frying something so far, and he's not sure how it's different, but he's sure she'll explain it.

[epitomeofvanity]

Yukino forgives him for the other brush. She has a hard time thinking it's an accident, but he doesn't beam at her or even seem to acknowledge it. Touching was a hard thing to avoid when you were handing things back and forth sometimes. Sometimes. She let herself relax a little. No need to be paranoid. "Well, it's just a normal frying pan from the west."

Yukino went into the fridge and pulled out a bit of meat. It was two portions, one for her and one for him. Out of the bag he had brought she pulled out a few more cans of vegetables and seasonings. Salt, pepper. She had been running low, so now was as good a time as any to get more. "The first thing we cook is going to be the meat, since that will take longer to cook."

She bites her lip a bit, then heads to the sink with it. Whatever she'd been thinking of was gone in a second. "Here. You watch me wash this one, and you can do the next one." And she began, moving with sure hands, but a little slower than she would on her own and giving instruction, especially in regards to washing. "With raw meat, you shouldn't touch anything else until it's prepared fully. Then you wash your hands again."

[[*jumps into bed*]]

[change_just_is]

He watches her wash the meat, and nods along, taking note of what she says. Again, he doesn't want to get sick, so this is something he's paying close attention to. Still, he can't resist teasing her. "So if I were to touch the raw meat and then touch you, you'd be very very angry, right?" This is accompanied with a wink. Clearly he'd never dream of doing such a thing, but teasing her about it is fair game. He wiggles his fingers at her threateningly, pretending to have raw meat on them already.

As he waits for her to finish washing the meat and for him to get a chance to wash the next piece, he continues to watch her, smiling at her. He likes that she's taking the time to do this with him. Maybe she had some feelings for him after all--even if she was confused about them, and thought she just wanted to be friends with him.

[epitomeofvanity]

"That would definitely deserve another punch!" she said to him, squirming away from his fingers under the pretend threat. She didn't mind his playfulness, as long as he was paying attention. Don had been watching her closely, and if how often he nodded was any indication, he had taken enough mental notes to be able to do it himself. Maybe not quickly, but diligently and carefully enough he wouldn't get salmonella. Yukino isn't sure if salmonella had been around back in this time, but there were plenty of other things to make you sick and no real medicine to help you. Fortunately, she was a robust girl, and careful to boot, so she had avoided any voluntary trips to the hospital.

Not so much confused about her feelings for him as she was about his feelings for her, Yukino finished washing and placed it on the cutting board. "Okay, your turn," she smiles, and slides to the side so he can step up. She hasn't washed her hands yet, since she still has to touch it to cut it. They still hang over the sink, her forearms against the edge as she leans against the counter to watch him and give pointers. Rinsing off the meat isn't hard, but she had left him the piece with more crevices. She wanted him to get practice before he decided to go home and do it and possibly miss something. She'd feel guilty if he got sick off of anything except eggs and potatoes since he didn't seem like the domestic type.

[change_just_is]

He takes the piece of meat and rinses it under the running water, making sure to get his fingers into all the crevices to get any possible germs out. There's certainly enough knowledge in his time to know about getting sick from unclean meat, even if they might not have identified salmonella, specifically. As he continues to wash the piece of meat, he looks at her and smiles. "Never thought I'd be taking a cooking lesson," he says, laughing. The truth was, anything about cooking he wanted to learn back home, he had to learn himself. His wife assumed that he didn't want to know anything about cooking, and when he was honest with himself, she wasn't exactly a great cook, either. Still, he couldn't complain, since she kept him and the kids fed.

[epitomeofvanity]

Yukino's still watching as his fingers dig into the cuts in the meat. She kind of wonders if someone took a hacksaw to this particular piece, as it looked more ragged than most of the pieces she received. It's only a passing thought as she looks up from his hands to his face as he speaks. She vaguely thinks that he has a nice smile, when he isn't being suggestive, and lets her own lips curl a bit in response. "You never know what you'll learn here in Veles. Maybe you'll even learn how to fight zombies."

There's barely a pause from her last statement before she's giving him more directions. "Okay, so now you can put it on the cutting board. We're going to cut it into strips so that we can fry them faster." She took the knife into her hand and shuffled past Don to her own piece. With her finger, she slid it along the surface of it, pointing. "This is the grain of the meat, and we're going to cut against that." She demonstrated a few times, the knife moving smoothly and slowly from the end towards the center. "The pieces should be as close in size as possible, so they all finish cooking at the same time."

[[New thread please \o]]