someone in this room is a-- wait no, wrong movie

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Given the rumored emergency situation at Alex's house, it can only be Ben's charitable duty to go rescue his friend (and his friend's dad) from an eternity of lamb stew. He was all set to be heroic and everything, until he remembered that he can't actually cook-- luckily, he knows somebody who can. So he's wheedled Emerson somehow (better not ask

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Emerson isn't exactly thrilled to be dragged to someone else's house to go cook but. Whatever. He's got enough to feed at least five, by his measure so hopefully that will work and then Ben won't whine at him. He should never have told the blond he cooked.

"You owe me after this, you know." He shifts a paper bag to his other arm and runs a hand through his hair. "And behave yourself. I don't. You know. We don't need somebody's parents thinking we're. Whatever we are."

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Ben is pretty much the brattiest girlfriend boyfriend on the planet, yes.

"Yeah, I owe you, and yeah, I'll behave myself. Though." No, he's totally not eyeshifting, he's just got something in his eye. "I really, really don't think we've gotta worry about Alex's dad."

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And Emerson, so far, has fallen for it every time. The idiot.

As soon as Ben opens his mouth, however, he gets A Look. "Explain. Now. Quickly." Good thing he's holding groceries.

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Well, he said Ben should drag him out of the house more.

"Well, for one thing, both Alex's parents are guys." No, seriously. He ducks his head, a bit nervously. "Which is why I, uh. Might've asked Lawr's advice once. About you."

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And for the sake of world and/or domestic peace, Alex chooses this moment to fling open the door. He looks notably more disheveled than usual, and doesn't seem to notice or care that he's interrupted anything.

"Oh my god guys sorry, there were scarves hiding in wait on my floor and I got totally stuck you should've seen it- ANYWAY hi. Wow, food, come in, come in." He holds the door open and ushers. Ben may remember the house being, uh, slightly neater before than it is now. Guess who does all the cleaning.

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Em shoots Ben a look meaning they will be having Words later. Some serious freaking words.

He nods a greeting to Alex and sort of scoots inside with a grunted hello before he remembers he has better manners than that, even if he's a little irked at Ben. "So I heard I'm borrowing your kitchen...?"

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Words. Yes. Hopefully this will be the last time they're necessary. But anyway!

Ben trails in after Em, not entirely surprised by the increased mess, and offers just a "Hey" to Alex. "Did you defeat the scarves?"

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"Yes please do, we're dying - and I did! I wouldn't go back that way if I were you, it's a war zone." True in more ways than one. He shuts and locks the door after them, then beckons them through the living room, toward the kitchen.

The furnishings would be relatively trendy were they less messy, and the equipment is more expensive-looking than one would expect from a family that can't afford a house bigger than this one, but what might stand out more are the pictures. Your usual collection of important family events - Alex's baby photos, birthdays, family vacations - with a notable second, blond-haired, blue-eyed male who looks nothing like Alex present in almost all of them. But, Alex is shuffling them through too fast to pick up much beyond that. "My dad's almost done with dishes so we'll have something to cook with, hopefully."

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"S'good. I uh. Don't know what you like so I resorted to a chicken recipe. Easy, kind of quick, in so far as that goes." Emerson is pretty noticeably uneasy in the new environment. He adapts for crap.

He's curious to meet this dad, however since Ben mentioned something about Alex having...two of them. He's not really sure what to do with that information and it bothers him. He's not used to the whole...alternative lifestyle. "Mostly I just need. Uh. Couple bowls. Some forks or spoons? and uh. Sharp knife. Not much?" He brought a glass pan to cook in because he's weird like that.

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Ben has never even met Alex's da-- Cam's apparently out of town a lot-- so he's looking around at the pictures as best he can as Alex shuffles them through to the kitchen. "Chicken sounds good," he observes, keeping an eye on Em in case of sudden explosions. "I could cut stuff up, if you need help or something."

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"Chicken sounds deli-cious. Hopefully we have bowls now, and there's like... a small army of knives, seriously." Kitchen knives, he means. Surely. Regardless, he pretty effectively derails himself as soon as they turn the corner into the kitchen and he yells out, "HEY DAD LOOK my friends are here!" :D?

"Baby, I'm two feet away," comes the complaint in response from the dad in question. Lawrence Hill is a good three or four inches shorter than his son, but otherwise very similar-looking, especially given he's only in his thirties and is bumming around in clothes he probably bought when he was their age (actually no, he didn't own anything that didn't scream 'HO' until after Alex was born, but still).

He pulls himself from the sink-full of now-clean dishes to wave hello. "Good to see you again, Ben, and you must be... the one Alex neglected to introduce." He dries his hands on a towel and offers one to Em.

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Social awkwardness is GO! Em will set down the groceries because it's...semi polite? and jam his hands promptly in his pockets, as he tends to when he's unsettled.

Emerson offers a quiet "hello" before he's being presented with a hand for shaking. So he goes with that, shaking firmly with a fairly calloused hand, the other one staying jammed in his pocket.

"Emerson. Larson. Emerson Larson," he responds lamely, looking around. "...So uh. My. Friend Ben asked me to come cook. So." He takes his hand back, post shake, to scratch the back of his head. "If anyone's allergic to anything I should be told now."

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Ben sets his bag of food down next to Em's-- he brought cake!-- and waves hello to Lawr. "Hey, uh. Need me to dry things?" He will make himself useful, try and stop him. "Or anything else I can do to help." Yes, Em, that means you.

"I'm not allergic to any foods I know of," he adds, helpfully.

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"Lawrence Hill, good to meetcha. And not unless you're cooking with cat," Lawrence chips in, which is just the mental image everyone needed, apparently. He thinks of it as an icebreaker! "Drying things would be great, hun, Alex always breaks the dishes." And he wants to make nudge-nudge wink-wink eyes at Ben, apparently.

"I do not!" Alex protests with an epic frown. "I could help with cutting stuff though, I'm awesome with knives." :D? You know you want to give him sharp pointy objects, Em. You know it.

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Inwardly, Emerson is spazzing--OH GOD OH GOD WHY AM I HERE WHAT AM I DOING WHY DID I LET BEN CONVINCE ME TO COME AUGH ASDFGKLJHGFDSALKJVL--outwardly, however, he's just sort of. Stiff.

"...I. Would have to look up how to cook. Uh. Chinese food." Because cat. Get it? Cat? Chinese foo--okay, moving on. More head scratching before he looks, quite dubiously, at Alex.

"...I guess you could chop up some garlic, yeah. There's a bulb in. One of these bags." Somewhere. Em, meanwhile, will hassle with finding the crackers! And possibly shoving the eggs in the fridge.

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Because Em needs to learn to stop spazzing all the time, obviously. Except that Ben can tell he is and is occasionally glancing at him worriedly from over here by the sink-- and stop that, Lawr, you're not helping.

And in the meantime, he will be over here drying dishes and trying not to worry too much about a) his boyfriend or b) Alex being allowed to use knives.