Fifth Floor Common Room, Monday Evening

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

Right, showing Jaina how to cook. It couldn't be too hard, John reasoned. He was not a good cook by any stretch, but he was capable of boiling water and setting timers and following directions. The whole endeavor was more about showing her what cooking entailed in comparison to making a sandwich or microwaving popcorn rather than some sort of five course meal.

And he was prepared. He'd purchased ingredients, he'd gotten out pans. There would be spaghetti for dinner, and enough for everyone.

"Okay, so first, you know what a stove is, right?" John teased, rubbing his hands together. At least he hoped he was teasing.

[ooc: John's there mainly for one, but open CR is open.]

Comments

[solo_sword]

Jaina fixed him with a look. "I think I've seen them on TV," she deadpanned.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"That makes the second step much easier," John grinned, clicking the burner to high and setting a pan full of water on top. "This is how we boil water." At some point, he was probably going to end up hit.

[solo_sword]

She folded her arms and said, "You know, I did help make tea last night. I have some basis." Yeah, so not the same thing.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Seriously?" John was stunned. "Was it drinkable?"

[solo_sword]

"Yes!" she said, and that time she did try thwapping him in the shoulder.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

He laughed and raised his shoulder to make sure she didn't hit anything important like his face. "Hey, I had to check. So, apparently now we add some salt to the water to make it boil faster and make the pasta taste better." Yes, he had printed out directions.

[solo_sword]

"How is this difficult?" she had to wonder. So far it seemed pretty easy.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"It's not," John explained. He pointed to jars of sauce. "You wanna heat up the sauce on your own?"

[solo_sword]

"Let me guess, dump the sauce in a pot and stick it over the fire?" she said, grabbing a jar.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Such a quick learner," John said proudly, leaning his back against the counter to supervise.

[solo_sword]

Jaina followed her own instructions, looking triumphant when she put the pot on the stove, even if she didn't pay much attention to the temperature she turned it to. "She learns."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"And how," John said, tapping his fingertips on the counter top. "Now we're at the boring part where we wait for things to boil."

[solo_sword]

"Anything you don't want to talk about that will need a timely interruption when it does?" she smiled, because she'd learned that last night too.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

Raising an eyebrow John wondered what she was talking about. "Was there something you wanted to talk about?"

[solo_sword]

"Not really," she said, shaking her head. "Something Karal said. You say whatever you should say but don't want to now because then it's ready and you have a nice subject change right there."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Ah, that actually makes sense," John said. "Next time you're prepping to tell me something, you should just bring a kettle of water to boil."

[solo_sword]

"That might be a little conspicuous," she pointed out.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like a pretty good out though," John replied, moving to poke at the not boiling water with a spoon.

[solo_sword]

She watched him, noting, "You know, it's possible things work differently here, but I don't think that helps."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"It doesn't," John agreed. "But it gives me something to do."

[solo_sword]

"Talking's not good enough? Or are you just fidgety today?" she asked.

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

He was fidgety with reason, but he set the spoon down when she said it. "Nope, talking's good. How's Karal doing?"

[solo_sword]

Meanwhile here was Jaina, calm as can be. "He's good. Altra was asleep the whole time I was visiting and he didn't seem to have any problems."

[missed-the-gate.livejournal.com]

"Good, he deserves to be problem-free for a while," John said.

[solo_sword]

"He does," she said. "So that was my night. How've you been?" Because it had been so long.