(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

[change_just_is]

Don is heading into Schwarzalbenheim, looking forward to his cooking lesson with Yukino. He knows that she was probably confused after the end of their last date, and he's wondering what this date will bring. At the very least, he hopes that it will teach him how to cook something more than eggs and potatoes. They're good, but variety would be nice.

He starts to head up the stairs quickly, but stops as he sees Yukino heading down them. Grinning, he waves and slows down a little, walking up to her as he says hello. "You ready to teach me how to cook?" he asks, raising an eyebrow. It could turn out to be pure disaster, but at the very least, he'll have fun making her blush again. It wasn't so much that he'd forgotten how cute she was in the time between their Valentine's Day date and now, but seeing her again reminded him exactly why he'd been willing to take a punch to the stomach and still want to kiss her again.

[epitomeofvanity]

If Don didn't fluster her too much, he would learn a lot about how to cook other things. A lot of the same techniques he used for eggs and potatoes could be used for other foods, after all. She wasn't going to get too indepth today, but just one or two other dishes would help him a lot, so she thinks

[change_just_is]

"Of course I brought the things," he says, waiting for her to open the door so he can set them down in the kitchen. "I wouldn't want you to be mad at me, after all. I remember what happens when you are." This statement is accompanied with a wink, so that she knows he doesn't hold the events of the end of their date against her--too much, at least. And he is ready to learn. Even though he wants to get more out of this than just a cooking lesson, he genuinely wants to learn something about feeding himself.

Standing slightly behind her, he looks her up and down and takes note of what she's wearing, and then grins. "You look wonderful today, as always," he says.

[epitomeofvanity]

Leading him to the kitchen, the brunette gives a small laugh. "I wouldn't punch you for forgetting. We just would have had to go shopping, and that would have cut into our cooking time before curfew." She shuffles the things he bought into their proper place, the wink having done it's job to let her know he was kidding. She wasn't under any delusions that he'd enjoyed the gut punch, but at least it was still fresh in his mind if he tried to do something else like that

[change_just_is]

"Learn how to fight zombies?" he asks, laughing. He's heard there are zombies around, and although he'd never believed in them before, he'd started believing in strange things almost as soon as he'd arrived in Veles. It wasn't as though zombies were stranger than anything else--people with odd abilities, the fact that he'd traveled back in time and ended up in Russia. He didn't think he'd be very good at fighting them, though. Not least because he knew (or had at least heard) that if you got bitten by one of them, you'd end up the undead yourself. Not a pleasant prospect.

He watches her intently as she cuts the meat--this is a part he thinks he can do pretty well, but he's not going to pass up the chance to flirt with her a little. "Maybe you can guide my hand a little, just to make sure I'm doing it right," he suggests.

[epitomeofvanity]

"Of course," she answers. She's smiling, but there is a hint of seriousness in the set of her mouth and a shine in her eyes. "When they manage to breach the walls, there are hundreds shambling around. You have to blockade yourself in somewhere, and if you wait too late, you'll have to fight your way to safety." Yukino's knife slowed and stopped after a few more demonstrative cuts. "I've been lucky, since I've always been inside or close to home when the alarm goes out."

Her gaze gets a bit distant, like she's remembering, then she blinks and it's like a wave of cold water snapped her out of it. She straightens up, having been unconsciously slouching, and turns her head to look at him. Her eyebrows furrowed a bit, and her lips help a small, slightly incredulous smile. "How am I supposed to do that? I can't reach around you-" and she trails off, then turns a bit pink, but then pushes forward. "-and it would just be awkward. I don't want to show you how to hand it wrong."

[change_just_is]

"Do you know anyone who's been hurt in a zombie attack?" he asks, as though he's weighing the likelihood of him getting bitten by one. He figures he'd just blockade himself inside at the first sign of danger, but it would be good to know just how dangerous these things really were. Hundreds of them didn't sound like something he wanted to deal with, at least not without being armed. This was one time that his military training might come in handy--not that anyone could get ahold of a gun around here, he figured.

"I'd just want to make sure that I do it correctly," he says, winking at her. "I doubt that it would be too awkward. I promise I won't do anything inappropriate."

[epitomeofvanity]

Yukino slips to his right side and holds out the knife for him to take. She's contemplating the question, but not so deeply. She doesn't really want to think about all the people she knew who went missing in the past year. "Some disappeared during the fighting... I'm not... positive it was because of the zombies or the gate doing what it wanted to do. We didn't get bodies."

Shaking her head, she waited for him to take the knife and said more strongly, "You can finish this piece and do the next one. Then we'll set up the pan on the fire so it can heat up while we prepare the rest of the vegetables."

[change_just_is]

He notices her looking, and realizes he may not have wiped the sad expression off of his face quickly enough. She probably caught it, and is probably wondering what it's for. Still, he keeps forcing that smile, and says, "Something wrong?" Maybe if he can put it off on her, and assume there's something wrong on her side of things, he'll be able to distract her. Don really should be smarter about this by now, and know that Yukino can pick up on things, but he's still hoping that he's good at hiding things from other people. Years of practice have made him good at it--or so he thinks.

[epitomeofvanity]

Yukino knows what it is to hide things. She spent years of her life hiding who she really was. She had been lied to by someone she loved for over a year before she realized something was wrong. That expression was very brief, but she knew it. It made her chest hurt remembering it. Her other hand was coming slowly to a stop in its stirring. With her free hand she touched his arm, and in her eyes she tried to convey that she knew. Not what it was, or even if it was as serious as she hoped it wasn't, but that he hadn't been able to hide it from her. That was as far as she went. It wasn't her place to try and pry it out of him. She hadn't been the cause of it, this time.

Retracting her hand, Yukino turned back to the pot and saw the lard was melted. She put down the spoon and slid the cutting board closer. Her voice is soft and thoughtful as she continues. "You can tell by flicking a bit of water into the pan. The drops will dance around for a second before they turn into steam."

[change_just_is]

The touch on his arm does let him know that she knows, and he feels slightly relieved. It's not something she'll try to pry out of him, like so many people had. Maybe it was enough to know that someone else might feel the same things, although he'd never want anyone to have experienced what he had. So much of his life was spent trying to make sure his children didn't go through the same things he had--but now he was here, and couldn't be with them. If he thought about it too much, it drove him insane, so he turned to her with a smile, a real one this time.

"Should I see if it's ready?" he asks. That part sounds kind of fun, and he realizes he's getting hungry. No wonder, since he hadn't eaten very much for a long time. Selling those rations coupons was helping for money, but it certainly wasn't helping for food, and what food he did eat in the cafeteria was pretty terrible. He hadn't lost much weight yet, but it was only a matter of time.

[epitomeofvanity]

When Don smiles, she smiles back. It doesn't feel forced, and whatever it was wasn't in the forefront of his mind anymore. She was sure it was still lurking in the background, and if he wanted to talk about it, he knew she was there for that. When it came to emotional poker games, she had a bit of experience when it came to folding or calling bluffs.

"Yes. Please try," and she took a step away so he could get closer. She doesn't think it would be ready quite yet. They still had to cut and drain the vegetables. They would have had more time if she hadn't been so... intently staring at him.

If there was anything she learned from the past minute it was two things: Don had a secret and... his face wasn't too bad to look at.

[change_just_is]

"I think I'm getting the general idea," he says, "Back home it's not really something we'd have unless you went to a specialty restaurant." He'd been to Japanese restaurants a couple of times, but since he wasn't the most adventurous of eaters, he'd mostly enjoyed the alcohol, so he'd never tried stir fry before, at least not that he could remember.

He laughs. "So, what are you going to teach me how to make the next time we do this?" He knows he's making assumptions--the first assumption being that they will do this again. He'd certainly like to, and it seems like she's enjoying herself, but he's not sure that she'll want to be in this close proximity to him again, given his teasing.

[epitomeofvanity]

"A special restaurant?" Well, Yukino had this kind of food more frequently that that, but considering she was from Japan... that and she lived in a more modern era, where you could just go to the city and eat just about any kind of food you wanted via fast food or a restaurant.

Don's presumption didn't faze her or even make her think twice. It had been fun, or was fun, and she didn't mind doing it again. The playful atmosphere was nice, compared to how droll it usually was. Standing in the kitchen teaching him, being teased by him, was a lot better way to pass the time than sitting up in her room reading a book she had already read before. "I'm not sure. Since we don't have many types of food to use... I'll have to think about it." Yukino waved towards the can of vegetables left. "The last steps now."

[change_just_is]

He picks up the last can of vegetables and puts the vegetables into the pan, then continues to stir. "Next time I can teach you how to cook something," he says, laughing. He knows she probably knows how to cook anything he's capable of, but it's worth an offer. After all, if he's the teacher, he might be able to flirt with her even more than he'd already been able to.

"I got a job," he mentions casually, still stirring the meat and vegetables and trying to resist just eating the food then and there. With the money that would come from the job, he could buy more food, and then they could have their cooking lessons more often. Or he could take her on another date.

[epitomeofvanity]

Yukino can't say that potatoes are one of the standard vegetables that they cook at home. While she could use the same techniques she used on everything else on a potato, if he did something special, she'd love to try it. She gives a little laugh. "That sounds like fun. We could give that a try." She watches him stirring the vegetables, gauging the color to see if it's done. A little while longer, but she didn't want it to get too brown.

At his mentioning of a job, she looks up at him, a smile automatically coming to her face. "I'm glad for you." And she was. He could get more things he needed. More clothes and better food, definitely. She didn't give any thought to him paying for more dates or anything like that, since she didn't exactly consider this a date. She was helping out a friend. "Where are you working now?" she asks, eyes sparkling with curiosity. If she was lucky, it was some place close to her, so she could drop in.

[change_just_is]

Don takes a big bite of his food, now that she's taken a bite. He didn't want to appear rude by diving right into it, but now that she's started eating, he feels free too. "This is great!" he exclaims, sounding genuinely pleased. He's half surprised that he was able to make something taste so good--with Yukino's assistance, of course. After she sets down the salt shaker, he picks it up and adds some salt to his meal, then picks up the pepper shaker and adds some of that, too.

"Well, we could go to the brothel," he says, winking. He'd been there a few times already, of course, but it wasn't something he was going to bring up in polite conversation with someone he was trying to flirt with. She'd either be jealous, or just find it to be inappropriate. However, that didn't mean he was beyond joking around about going there with her some other time.

[epitomeofvanity]

His delight at the meal only makes her smile around her fork. "You should be able to do it yourself. I wrote down the instructions on a little piece of paper for you." She continues to eat, pleased herself with how it turned out. It wasn't as good as it would be at home, but she's really starting to forget the complexity of flavors. Simple filling meals made her just as happy as a treat of cake did at home. It made her appreciate what she used to have

[change_just_is]

"I will definitely do it myself," he says. His roommates will certainly be jealous. Maybe he'll just let them think he's really good at cooking and that he didn't need lessons, although that could backfire when they ask him what else he can cook. Perhaps they'd be suitably impressed by his fried eggs, but he somehow didn't think so. He already ate pretty simply at home, so he wasn't missing anything, in this meal. It had everything he'd need, and he was finding that even though he didn't eat many vegetables at home, he enjoyed the ones he was eating with this meal.

He laughs. "There are some things I'd rather not have to buy," he says, raising an eyebrow suggestively. Sure, he's been there, and he's chatted with some of the women, but he's being honest in that he'd rather not hire a prostitute if he didn't have to. Especially if he could get those same benefits from someone he also could have a good conversation with, like he had been having with Yukino since they'd met. He takes another bite of his food, chewing happily.

[epitomeofvanity]

Yukino can only smile more at his determination to do it himself. As long as she kept it simple, she doesn't think that he'll have any problem once he gets home. If he did do something too wrong, she'd say to call her over, but it's almost laughable how she still forgets some of the modern inventions aren't around.

And cue a blush as she quickly mutters, "I don't either...!" Then shovels a few forkfuls into her mouth so that she doesn't have to continue on that line of conversation. She certainly wouldn't pay for something like that! Yukino is sure that she's perfectly fine without that in Veles. There were plenty of other things that she could.... occupy her time and thoughts with.