Second Floor Common Room [Late Morning]

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

After his first class, Ned had come back to the dorms without much in mind as to what to do to pass the time until his class later in the day.

After talking himself into and out of it several times, he'd finally gathered up some things he'd purchased over the weekend and trundled everything down the hall to the common room. It was empty for the time being.

Before he could talk himself out of it once more, he started baking for the first time in years. A pie, of course. A simple apple pie but it felt good to be baking again. It'd been awhile.

[Open CR is open. He'll share, of course.]

Comments

[intraspective]

Ino was a) bored b) sort of hungry, so the smell of someone cooking, because yeah, um, cooking didn't happen on its own... unless it did considering where they were and she was just going to stop thinking about that right now. Yes.

Either way, she poked her head into the common room. "'Morning!" Ino chirped.

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"Morning," Ned said, looking up briefly from the pie to nod at the newcomer. "How are you?"

[intraspective]

"Boooored," Ino said, wandering in and flopping down on a couch. "Nothing to do until tomorrow."

A beat.

"How're you?" Another beat. "And who are you? I don't think we've met. I'm Ino."

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"Ned," he said, waving with one flour covered hand. "And I'm not bad. Good to meet you, Ino. We haven't met. I'm pretty new."

He could do this socialization thing. It wasn't that bad.

Yet.

[intraspective]

Ned? Ooooh!

"Ooooh! You're the one that went with Cal to be obnoxious!" Bright and chirpy glee there, yes.

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, that was me," Ned said, still somewhat proud of himself for that. "And we didn't die. Big accomplishment, I think."

[intraspective]

"Not dying is generally a fairly important accomplishment," she noted.

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"I thought so too," Ned said, adding some filling to the pie he making carefully. "First time I've ever done something like that so I was glad to keep my life."

[intraspective]

Ino considered that thoughtfully.

"I think you need more adventure," she decided after a moment. "One death-defying experience is totally not enough."

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

The only thing better than having your late morning finance report processing interrupted by the smell of pie somewhere was the discovery that the smell was coming from actual pie.

"...Ooh, pie," Turtle observed, intelligently. She eyed the guy she didn't know what was making it. "Do you live on this floor?"

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"Yep," Ned said, looking up from said pie to nod at the new arrival. "213. I'm kinda new though."

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

"And do you plan on doing this," Turtle nodded toward the pie, "often?"

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"When I can," Ned said, nodding. "I'm pretty good at it."

It was his one allowed moment of ego for the day.

"And when I have supplies."

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

"Oh, well, then," a little impish grin broke out on Turtle's face. "You are definitely welcome to the best floor in the place! I'm Turtle Wexler," she announced, holding out a hand. "Room 210. I'm also the co-owner of Turtle & Canary in town, so, if it means you frequently providing the floor with pie, I might even throw in some special deals for you whenever you need to resupply."

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

Ned saw the hand and stared for a moment before holding up both hands and hoping they were flour covered enough to ward off a handshake.

"I w-would," he said, clamping down on the flaring nerves, "but I'd get your hands all stained with flour. But, thank you. I'll remember that. You like apple pie? That's what this one is. It's going in the oven shortly."

[stocksgrrl.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Turtle blinked a little, retracting her hand. "Good point. Although, I wouldn't really say they'd get stained, but flour is a big pain in the butt to wash off. And I love apple pie! It's one of my favorites!"

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

Ned smiled, relieved at getting out of the handshake and that she liked apple pie. Would've been a big downer if she didn't.

"Me too," he said, reaching for the top of the pie. "That and pumpkin. This is the first one I've made since getting here. Thought I'd start easy."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

John was in search of food, and lo, he had found it on the second floor, which was good since there were no more floors to search.

"Hey, what's cooking?"

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"Apple pie," Ned said, nodding at the new arrival. "I hope you're not allergic to it or anything."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"People are allergic to pie?" John was horrified by the thought. "I'm just glad someone's cooking."

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"Could be," Ned said, shrugging. "People are allergic to all kinds of things. Why not pie?"

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Seems kinda sad," John replied. "I mean, being allergic to pie would be like being allergic to coffee. I couldn't imagine. How's your pie coming?"

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"It's cooking," Ned said, smiling a little. "I just put in and it should be done shortly. I don't time it or anything. I just check when the filling's good and warm and the crust is crispy enough to stay together when it's cut."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Seriously?" John was impressed. "You do this a lot then?" Maybe he could learn something here.

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"I used to," Ned said, looking a bit evasive. "And then I stopped but now I can start again."