Fifth Floor Common Room, Thursday evening

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

Bruce had kept himself busy working all week. But with prom tomorrow, he was giving himself a couple days off. Probably more if there was some kind of weirdness after Prom. That always seemed to happen. Bruce was being hopeful with his personal schedule, but hope only went so far.

So tonight, Bruce was in the common room. No TV, though. Just him and a book, and some cookies that he baked because apparently when he stopped doing work he had plenty of free time for things like baking cookies. And apparently Bruce was no good at not doing anything, unless it involved not doing anything in a broody way. Which, of course, he couldn't do if he was going to be properly social tomorrow.

Therefore, nearly spontaneous cookies, based on an Alfred Pennyworth recipe Bruce had memorized years ago. And he was making some more while he continued to read. Just for you, Fandom.

[OOC: I'm past deadline hell for the moment, so I post a CR.]

Comments

[wrongkindofsith]

Cara was both bored and hungry so she followed her nose to the common room. She eyed Bruce and his cookies. "Gremlin bite?"

It never hurt to check.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"No," Bruce said. "I'd probably be baking in a much flashier way if that was the case."

[wrongkindofsith]

"Just checking," Cara said. "I didn't know you baked at all." Probably because she avoided subjects related to domesticity whenever possible.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"I don't usually, but I had some free time and know a recipe," Bruce said. "I figured I'd see if I could pull it off."

As far as he was concerned, he had.

[wrongkindofsith]

That did not fill Cara with confidence, but still, she was hungry and they didn't smell burnt. So she reached for one.

"Well, they can hardly be worse than some things I've eaten." By which she meant her own attempts at cooking.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"I learned from a true master chef and baker," Bruce said. "If anyone has a chance of making decent cookies with little practice, it's me."

[wrongkindofsith]

That little comment earnt Bruce a semi-fond eye-roll as Cara actually bit into the cookie.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"And if it turned out horrible, I can just blame the lack of practice," Bruce said.

Of course he waited until after she tried it to suggest that there was a chance they might not be good.

[wrongkindofsith]

If they'd been bad, Bruce would have quite quickly discovered there was more than one way to weaponise cooking.

"Not bad." It might have been more accurate to say they were quite good, but Cara felt his ego was already healthy enough.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"From you, that's a high compliment," Bruce said.

Haha, nice try. Ego raised.

[wrongkindofsith]

She would just have to try harder to crush his ego next time.

"I only praise things that deserve it," and had issues with openly expressing enjoyment outside of what was 'acceptable' for a Mord'Sith to display.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"In that case, thank you for what praise you did give," Bruce said.

[wrongkindofsith]

"They're better than mine would be at least," she admitted. Bruce would be wise to take her word for it.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"You know, I never would have pegged you as the baking type," Bruce said. "You wouldn't try to destroy the stove if your cookies didn't turn out well, would you?"

[wrongkindofsith]

Unless someone along the line was possessed by a sudden fit of insanity, she would be trying to bake cookies in the first place. "I'm not."

Notice how she didn't answer his question.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"I'll just pretend that's a no," Bruce said.

[wrongkindofsith]

"You're assuming the oven wouldn't catch alight of its own accord." When Cara had a lack of faith in herself about something, she really had a lack of faith.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"You usually have to at least turn it on first," Bruce said.

[wrongkindofsith]

"I do know that much about cooking." Just not how to make anything that exceeded the level of barely edible at best

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"It always helps to know where somebody's baseline knowledge of something lies," Bruce said. "Now I know in this case."

[wrongkindofsith]

Not for the first time, Cara was tempted to throw something at him, but since the only thing close to hand were the cookies, he was temporarily safe. "Where did you learn to cook anyway?"

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"My guardian. Slash butler," Bruce said. "Mostly just by watching him, but I have a few of his recipes memorized."

[wrongkindofsith]

"You learnt just by watching?" Cara repeated, sceptical. Not that she'd tried and failed at just that while travelling with Richard, Kahlan and Zedd or anything.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"Mostly. I mean, he told me what he was doing when he was doing it," Bruce said. "But I haven't tried baking too often."

[wrongkindofsith]

That would probably be where Cara's brilliant plan had gone awry. "You should do it more often," she suggested. That the results would have to be eaten by someone was purely incidental, really. "I imagine you'd get better at it."

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

"Did you bake those?" Dany asked curiously, sniffing the air as she wandered out to the common room with her dragons padding after.

Sorry. Bruce just didn't seem the cookie-baking type.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"Yes, I did. Don't worry, they're edible. I even tried a couple myself," Bruce said.

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

"I wasn't concerned so much as surprised," she replied, helping herself to a cookie and breaking one up for the dragons. It was probably fine for them. "I've never met a man who enjoyed cooking before."

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"Oh, there are a few here who do," Bruce said. "I'm not really one of them. This was more to see if I could. And because I had some free time."

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

"They aren't bad," she offered. "Do you often experiment with whether you've talents or not? I feel that if I should do the same I'd surely set the castle aflame."

She'd make it out fine, in any case.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"Well, my butler taught me the recipe, so I wasn't trying blindly or anything," Bruce said. "Also, I was prepared. I know where the fire extinguisher is and everything."

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

"Fire...extinguisher?" Dany repeated curiously. "A device to put out fires? Well, that might have been nice to know about." Considering she wandered around with fire-breathing lizards, yes.

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"If you see any bright red canisters with nozzles on them, that's a fire extinguisher," Bruce said. "They're kept in all of the kitchens at the very least." Or at least they had better be, by code.

"Let me guess. You've never had to sit through a fire safety seminar of any sort where you come from."

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

"'Fire safety' means 'get out of the burning building, and don't touch a flame,' to me, so...no, I never did," Dany replied. "And here I thought I was beginning to adapt."

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"Don't worry too much. There's always going to be a lot more to learn," Bruce said. "Fandom is pretty close to my world and I'm still learning new things all the time."

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

"I at least thought I was almost caught up with the time," she said, sighing. "I purchased a cellular phone, which seems to love to misconstrue my messages of text more than anything. And I now understand what to wear to the dance tomorrow, and how the television works, and I'm not frightened of cars. But then there are things like...fire extinguishers."

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"Sprinkler systems, too," Bruce said, pointing toward the sprinkler heads that had to be in the ceiling per code so I'm not just making this up. "So in case there's a fire you can't extinguish on your own, water will spray everywhere to help matters."

"What I'm getting at is that you'll probably never be fully caught up. But I'd see it as an opportunity to be able to discover more."

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

"I do, for the most part," Dany replied, a little less disappointed. "And I take comfort in the idea that most of you wouldn't know how to survive well in my world at first, either."

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"Magical world, right?" Bruce guessed. Because of dragons. "It would take me time to adjust. I've had a few experiences with it in my world, but nothing that would prepare me too much."

[unburnt-queen.livejournal.com]

"Very little magic, compared to some," Dany replied with a nod. "Mostly I'd be worried as to whether you can ride a horse, and how you'd fare without electricity or clean drinking water."

[willbethenight.livejournal.com]

"If that's the worst I'd have to deal with, I might do fairly well there," Bruce said. "I've tried my hand at living off the land for a time. I don't know how well I'd do in the long term, but I should be able to survive the short term."