4th floor common room, Monday evening (after Martial Arts Club)

[redintraining]

Sky was being stealthy as he slunk to the common room in his incognito disguise after Martial Arts club- well, as stealthy as a 6-foot-tall, goateed man in a red work shirt, jeans and a cowboy hat could be. Time to partake in a very secret, insanely-guilty pleasure of his, which he'd wanted to do last week, but it hadn't been a good time

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[itsjustlanguage]

Hoshi made her way to the common room, Porthos tagging along at her feet. "Are you watching? Because there's a Galaxy Quest: Protector marathon on tonight."

[redintraining]

"Ah!" Sky was startled, and he grabbed into the air for the remote when it went flying out of his hands. "Uhm, no, no, of course not." He cleared his throat. "I, ah, was just going to turn Galaxy Quest on. I was just distracted is all."

[itsjustlanguage]

"No hurry. The first three episodes tonight are kind of lousy. I only want to see the last one because the captain and cute engineer take their shirts off," said Hoshi, opening the fridge and poking around for anything to eat.

[redintraining]

Sky snickered to cover his embarrassment, though he was not in a hurry to change the channel. He was getting very happy images of Troy waltzing across the ballroom floor for some reason... "That's as good a reason as any, then." At the mention of men with their shirts off, the image of Troy ballroom dancing was quickly replaced by one of him shaking his hips on stage, dressed in one of those might-as-well-be-shirtless shirts the male dancers sometimes wore...

A dreamy expression crossed Sky's face.

[itsjustlanguage]

Hoshi didn't see the look on Sky's face because she was busy filling a saucepan with water. "Hungry?" she asked.

[redintraining]

Sky snapped out of his reviere, getting up and walking over to Hoshi, as a commercial was on anyway.

"If you're willing to share whatever you're making, sure," he said with a friendly smile.

[itsjustlanguage]

"Ever had soba noodles?" asked Hoshi, as she brought the water to a boil.

[redintraining]

Sky shook his head.

"No, never heard of them."

[itsjustlanguage]

"It's one of my favorites. My grandmother taught me how to make them," said Hoshi, glancing at the television. "This looks... interesting. Why are they dancing?"

[redintraining]

"If you don't mind, can I watch you make them?" Sky asked. "I've never learned to cook anything before- I'm used to getting food from synthesizers or having someone else prepare it for me." He, too, looked at the TV and laughed nervously. He might as well confess. "It's a ballroom dancing competition. I, ah, used to watch this with my mother when I was a little boy..."

[itsjustlanguage]

"Sure!" said Hoshi. She pulled out some dough that she handwavily made earlier and started kneading the dough. "We have food replicators at home, but they're not very good. A lot of times you can taste stuff that comes from the protein resequencers and tell that it's not real. I brought one back with me after winter break, but cooking is easier than trying to program it for solid food."

[redintraining]

"Yeah, being able to make food in an instant is great, but nothing beats the real thing a lot of the time," Sky agreed. "It's why I keep buying Grape Squishies and pizza instead of making them- something's just not the same. Maybe it's the whole recycled-matter thing..." Or maybe it's because I never share it with anyone, he added silently. "I'd also like to be able to cook because it's the fastest way to attract some company around here."

[itsjustlanguage]

"I agree. I've been able to get tea out of the replicator, but I prefer making it the old-fashioned way," said Hoshi. She started to roll out the dough.

Porthos, meanwhile, took advantage of Hoshi's distraction and jumped up on the couch.

[redintraining]

Sky went over to Porthos, holding out a hand for the dog to sniff, while keeping an eye on what Hoshi was doing.

"I've never seen noodles made like that before," he said curiously. "Does it take a long time to do it that way?"

[itsjustlanguage]

Porthos sniffed Sky's hand, then wagged his tail and lowered his head slightly so he could be petted.

"It takes a while. Sometimes you get hungry while waiting," said Hoshi with a smile. "It's a good thing I had the dough ready." The dough was rolled flat at this point, and Hoshi was able to start cutting it into thin noodles.

[redintraining]

"Alright, if you insist," Sky said to Porthos, then began scratching the top of his head lightly, moving underneath his chin. Sky missed a certain big blue dog far more than he cared to admit, but seeing a happy normal dog took some of the edge off. He then turned his head slightly to keep watching Hoshi cook.