House Nine Dinner Party~

[snowwhitesoul]

Who: Kurosaki Ichigo (savior_n_black  ), Kuchiki Rukia (snowwhitesoul ) and any House Nine peeps!
What: Dinner Party/Meet n' Greet
Where: House Nine!
When: Evening of Jan. 11th
Warnings: Mobile Swearword Zone by Ichigo and maybe some friendly face-kicks.

Comments

[solarpurpura]

Eden is very used to eating in a large group. The Morrison family table is always full of parents and siblings and soon enough to be full of children and one day their children too. Taught by her mother and sisters how to cook, all of Eden's recipes account for the large group. They eat nothing like what Rukia cooks, however. No curry or gyoza or udon. The interesting smells lure her along after the grumpy boy has made the announcement.

She peers around the corner curiously, wondering what tonkatsu are and if she should really be here.

[snowwhitesoul]

Oh, Rukia recognizes you.

Coming back from the first stack of plates being put on the table, the little shinigami stops when she sees the woman from her first night here leaning into the doorway cautiously, peeking into the kitchen where Ichigo better have put the odango down and started flipping the tonkatsu so that the other side of the breaded pork could brown. Standing still for a moment, Rukia waits for the woman to move into the kitchen so she can say hello. But seeing the girl not budge, Rukia clears her throat.

"Eden-san?"

[solarpurpura]

She turns to look at the other girl. She blinks slowly, tilting her head. She doesn't understand the suffix, but she supposes she recognizes her own name irregardless. It takes her a moment, but she eventually steps into the light of the kitchen.

"Hello, Rukia."

Her attention turns back to the food, wondering what all these strange things are. They don't look anything like mother's cooking, or even like the pizza Kelly sometimes feeds her when she goes down to the city to see him.

[snowwhitesoul]

She walks into the kitchen and gathers up another armload of dishes. She expect that maybe their first meeting the night before was so awkward because of everyone being dumped into a mutual dream. But she watches the woman stare into the kitchen, unmoving and seemingly lost in her own thoughts. There's a stretch of time where Rukia waits for Eden to do something and she...doesn't.

Eventually, she awkwardly clears her throat.

"Do you need any help?"

[solarpurpura]

This question confuses her. She does not know why she would need any help, but she sees Rukia with the second set of dishes and holds out her hands instead.

"Do you?"

She is aware of the awkwardness that Rukia is experiencing, but is largely immune to its effects herself, she was well insulated from such sensations.

[snowwhitesoul]

Rukia shuffles the plates in her hand for a better grip, then shakes her head.

"Oh, I am fine. But if you could get the napkins...?"

She points with her head towards the counter where a stack of white napkins were folded and ready to be taken to the table. A dark haired girl besides Rukia was seeing to the silverware, which left the napkins and glasses left to be taken care of. A grumpy, orange haired boy is currently ferrying the completed plates from kitchen to the table.

[solarpurpura]

Eden looks where she points, sees the napkins and gathers them up obediently. It's much easier for her to have something to do than try to foster conversation at the moment. She joins the stream of housemates setting the table.

She is still fascinated by the food really, pausing to eye the ready plates with curiosity. It smells good, although she's not entirely convinced that all of it is edible.

[snowwhitesoul]

Rukia watches her gather up the linens without a word and walk out, with barely a blink of response. Following her with two hand fulls of glasses, Rukia observes her staring at some of the food already set along the runner that bisected the table. Working her way down the row of seats, Rukia flicks her gaze from Eden, to the dishes and back again.

"I can tell you the names of the dishes, if they're unfamiliar."

[solarpurpura]

She glances over her shoulder briefly. She is honestly very prone to making up her own answers to things, but since Rukia has offered, she decides she may as well ask. They are Rukia's dishes, after all.

"They are all strange to me."

She recognizes basic tenets of each, noodle and rice, vegetable and meat, but beyond that she is left to guess as to how they were cooked, how they were seasoned.

[snowwhitesoul]

Moving down the table as she went along her glass-planting way Rukia pointed to dishes and named them.

"Gyoza", to the fried dumplings laid on a tiered platter. "Curry" was a deep, covered dish that steamed out from around the lid. "Tonkatsu" was identified as breaded, fried pork cutlets, which sat beside a ceramic bowl full of what she called "udon". Of course there was fried rice and sticky rice and steamed vegetables as well. Then she explained that the sweet dumplings skewered in the frigde were called "odango".

"Anything else you're curious about?"

[solarpurpura]

She follows after Rukia diligently, observing each of the dishes in turn. When they reach the end, she points to the gyoza.

"What is inside?"

She thinks she is most interested in the curry, truthfully, the smell that had emanated when the lid had been pulled open was very enticing. All the foods, really, are much more aromatic than what she is used to.

[snowwhitesoul]

"Spicy pork, some onions and leek."

Hands free again, Rukia takes the chance, since she's there, to stir the curry and udon. All that's left are just little details like the rest of the silverware and the hanshi (chopsticks) for the last few settings and to bring out the drinks. There should be a large pot of water heating on the stove for tea, now that she thinks on it.

"Just a few more things to finish up and we should be ready to eat." She seems satisfied the way things are coming together, that and her stomach is empty and insistently reminding her that she hasn't eaten in a long while.

[solarpurpura]

Eden considers this, hand hovering over the plate of dumplings, but she doesn't take one at that moment. Instead she goes back to where she left the napkins at the end of the table and adds them alongside the plates Rukia has put down.

"That sounds nice..."

She means that, despite how noncommittal and absent-minded she sounds. Enough time spent around her will prove that this is merely Eden's default tone of voice for interaction.

[snowwhitesoul]

"You can try one if you like."

Just a matter of fact statement as Rukia moves around the table to go start bringing in the pitchers of juice and water from the kitchen.

[solarpurpura]

Eden continues to hesitate, but after a moment she picks up one of the dumplings lightly with her nimble, spindly fingers. It's a bit hot and she blows on it softly before nibbling on it. When she breaks the dumpling skin, steam billows off the pork. Eden gives it another little blow before eating the rest. The starchy dumpling has left her fingers a little sticky, she licks her fingers clean idly, watching as Rukia and her other helpers finish the table set up.

"Very nice, Rukia."