sugar and spice and everything nice [OPEN]

[tenuefarfalla]

WHO: Cho Takahashi and Rapunzel for the first thread, anyone who might have reason to be in the hostel's kitchen for any others (yes, smelling the awesome noms counts as a reason

Comments

looking for Cho, a Rapunzel is fine too~

[polarisation]

Because Sefton hadn't caught her when he did his weekly rounds on Wednesday, he tried today to find Cho. It wasn't the best of days for him (the full moon was comingcomingcoming he could feel it right under his skin), but if he could catch her soon and not in an hour or two when he was about to leave, then he would be fine. He would just have to be extra careful about how twitchy he was, how much he thought about what he said.

Shouldn't be too hard, right?

"Cho?" he asked, poking his head into the kitchen. He could certainly smell something going on, anyway.

[tenuefarfalla]

"Yes?" Sugar was... well, sugar was amazing, but not really the best thing to have in mass quantities without any other options. Which is why she was focused on the savoury now. In the form of quiche for dinner. Quiche and a lovely green salad and some French onion soup. Just something other than mystery meat and past their prime canned goods everyone at the hostel had been surviving on for far too long, when it was available at all. If she never found another bleeding carcass on the kitchen table it would be too soon.

[polarisation]

Sefton nodded and stepped further inside the kitchen. He let the smell of food wash over him as he firmly placed himself along the wall next to the door, taking a deep breath. "You busy, or can I talk to you for a second?"

[tenuefarfalla]

"Of course." Even if she'd been busy, she'd have stopped. Cho moved the tart pan to a cooling rack and then took off her oven mitts and left them on the counter, wiping her hands on her apron even though they weren't dirty. "What's up?"

[polarisation]

"Well," Sefton started, eyes glancing to Cho's current work. He was seriously hungry under the antsy energy he currently tried to hide. (He couldn't help the shifting he did against the wall, although he tried to make it look casual.) "Well, just figured... Is there anything you wanted? For the kitchen," he clarified. "First time I can order stuff since you've been working here."

It was really the least Sefton could do for her in repayment for taking care of the hostel when he had been indisposed by the EMP. It wasn't much-he didn't know her well enough to say what would have been a better offering, and probably wouldn't have made that big of a venture if he had-yet it was still something he wanted to do. The hostel was extremely important to him, and he had no idea what he would have done had something happened to it in his absence.

[tenuefarfalla]

"I don't know what you usually order." She'd come on board after the options had already been taken away. "But I'm sure it's fine. I can cook whatever you get me."

It should really be down to the residents, shouldn't it? They were the ones eating it. Well, the residents and the other employees. "Do you need lunch?" She should probably get on that. Whatever he ordered, she was just glad that she had the ability to get decent meals on the table again. She didn't enjoy being sub-par.

[polarisation]

"Meant for stuff you like to make," Sefton clarified. He wasn't trying to ask her to make the shopping list or anything like that. He was being a little short with her and himself, and he tried to reign that in. "I'll get my usual order list 'n you can add anything you'd want. How's that?"

He didn't take long to consider the question. If she was offering, he should definitely take her up on it; any little bit he ate before transforming helped, even if it all paled in comparison to the energy and appetite of the wolf. "Sure. Thanks."

[tenuefarfalla]

"Oh." That was a little surprising. She didn't think he actually cared. She got to make food she liked at the shelter for Wataru and Lowell. Was that a hint of some kind? "Sure. I can do that."

She could figure it out later. Right now, he needed food. "Any preference for right now?" She swept her arm back to indicate the counters and also the stove. "Chili, chowder, quiche, pie, meatloaf. I could make you a sandwich or a salad." She wasn't sure why she was listing things, because he knew what was in the kitchen. Maybe some weird nerves. She was rarely sure what the right thing to say to him was, and she got the feeling that it was mutual.

[polarisation]

He wasn't sure if the idea really got to Cho, that it was supposed to be a repayment of some kind, but at least she got the idea. That would be enough for the moment.

Something meaty. It was usually the exact opposite for his culinary preferences, greens and dairy and fish instead, but it shifted wildly for a small window every month. "Meatloaf sounds good," he settled on. His finger began tapping, not too fast, against his pant leg.

[tenuefarfalla]

Cho started building him a plate, cutting off a couple of thick slices of meatloaf. She'd intended it to be used in sandwiches. Kenneth called it comfort food, the meatloaf sandwich, and she figured that everyone could use some comfort right about now. "Mashed potatoes? Peas? Corn? Biscuit?" She spooned some gravy over the meat, and then stood near the stove, hovering while she waited to see if he wanted any sides.

[polarisation]

Sefton considered that, then offered a tenuous smile and shook his head. "No thanks. Just meatloaf, if you don't mind." He couldn't muster the interest in anything else just then (even though he made the mental note to try the rest of her cooking sometime).

[tenuefarfalla]

"Of course not." It was sort of like being a restaurant with a very limited menu. She wasn't his mother, she couldn't tell him to eat his peas or he wouldn't get any dessert. So she set the plate with just meatloaf down on the table, the half that wasn't covered in stacks and stacks of containers of cookies that somehow managed to be perfectly balanced while not being uniform. "Would you like something to drink?" she asked as she got him a fork and a napkin.

[polarisation]

Once he had the fork, Sefton began to eat. He didn't go alarmingly fast or anything, but there was a sort of hunger in the action that would never have been there normally. "Uh-" He grimaced, swallowing. "Water's fine. Thanks."

[tenuefarfalla]

Cho noticed it. She didn't comment on it or rightly know what to make of it, but she noticed it. She set a glass of ice water to the side of his plate using a folded napkin as a coaster.

He looked... odd wasn't quite the right word, and it was probably nothing. She didn't know him well. He was a private person. It wasn't a huge stretch to think he'd be a little awkward.

She had nothing to offer for his overall state of mind, wouldn't have even if she'd known the real cause of his discomfort, but his hunger was something she could take care of. "Do you need anything else?"