Fifth Floor Common Room, Sunday evening

[willbethenight]

It had been a long day, at the end of a long weekend, at the end of a long week, and so on. So Bruce was pleased enough to take it easy for a night and head to the common room. But that was just a cover for something he really wanted to test

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[wasthecuteone]

"Okay," Petra announced from the doorway, "apparently the principal was serious when she said the only safe place was with the books?" This place was so confusing. But on the bright side, she existed again.

[wasthecuteone]

"I do okay?" Petra said, biting her lip and shrugging. "I had to fend for myself a lot when my mom was sick, so...don't worry, I can't screw up microwave popcorn and hot chocolate." And look, there was indeed hot chocolate mix and popcorn! She could make this happen!

[willbethenight]

"Okay, good. That's all I ask," Bruce said. "There are some people who try very hard with unfortunately little success."

[wasthecuteone]

"Yeah, I met Karla while we were making Thanksgiving dinner," Petra said, laughing at the memory. "I was trying to find the evaporated milk and she poured some in a pan to start...you know, evaporating it."

[willbethenight]

"The important thing is that they try," Bruce said, shaking his head and letting out a small chuckle at that. "Should I be glad that I wasn't here for Thanksgiving?"

[wasthecuteone]

"She made these...rolls...at least I think they were supposed to be rolls. I don't know. Maybe? The rest of us turned out some pretty good stuff. I made an apple crostata!" She sounded very proud of herself. "It turns out it's just pie without a pie pan. But it sounds fancy."

[willbethenight]

"I have to admit to not being much of a cook, but how does that work? Don't you need the pie pan to hold it together?" Bruce asked.

He was genuinely curious about food preparation. That didn't happen often.

[wasthecuteone]

Since Petra was waiting for popcorn to pop and water to boil, she was free to attempt to explain, complete with descriptive hand gestures, "You sort of fold the pie crust up around the fruit? Not all the way, just partway. And the pie crust sticks to itself and keeps the stuff in. It's pretty cool."

[willbethenight]

"Huh. That's not something I've ever come across in my many years of not really paying attention to desserts," Bruce said. Mainly because you didn't tend to get desserts while bouncing around the world with different tutors. "I'll have to change that sometime."

[wasthecuteone]

"Well, if you had come to Thanksgiving," Petra chastised gently as she stirred the hot water into two mugs with cocoa mix. "But, whatever, bygones. The world didn't end, and I'm back!"

[willbethenight]

"Fandom is better for both of those things," Bruce said. He chose not to explain that technically, it had ended very briefly before memory won out. However exactly that worked. "And I'll make a point to be here for the next meal Student Council puts together. I learned my lesson trying to leave town last time."

[regretiz4suckas]

"Welcome back! You missed the flying puppy dragon!"

[wasthecuteone]

"'Flying puppy dragon?'" Petra repeated a little dubiously. "Is that some kind of...no, it's really not, is it?"

[regretiz4suckas]

"Nope! And aliens on horseback. And a teeny grade-school Empress, poor kid." Kenzi shook her head sadly. "And toadstools. Very weird ones."

[wasthecuteone]

"This sounds like the time I ate some hallucinogenic berries," Petra said. "Are you sure you didn't do that?" Bruce had mentioned toadstools, too, she thought, but that didn't rule out hallucinogens. Maybe the toadstools were the hallucinogens.

[regretiz4suckas]

"You know, it would explain a lot... except for how we're all here and you're back and all," Kenzi conceded. "Plus there was D&D. Shrooms would explain some of that."