Jensen Leth (jensenleth) wrote in frekis, @ 2013-03-27 10:27:00 |
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Entry tags: | cole, jensen |
Who: Cole Maitland and Jensen Leth.
When: March 21st. Late afternoon. (Backdated!)
Where: The kitchen.
What: Cole finds Jensen the vegetarian having a stare down with a hamburger. Jensen meets another Beta. Pizza sauce is made. Talk of being werewolves.
Rating: Low.
Vegetarian. He was a vegetarian. Jensen was finding that he had to remind himself of that more and more with every day that passed. In his brain he knew exactly why he was a vegetarian. All the bad things that were done to animals in order to make (delicious delicious) meat. All of the chemicals and whatnot that were in the food. The increasing number of news reports about contaminated meat, or meat that was actually horse meat, and other disturbing things. And yet. And yet he was sitting at the table in the kitchen, with a hamburger in front of him. Looking at it like he was engaged in some sort of staring contest and may the best wolf or burger win. His brain didn’t want to eat it, but the rest of him sure did. Jensen didn’t even know whose burger it was - if it belonged to anyone at all. It had been sitting there, on a plate on the table, as if cruelly abandoned. Or as if to taunt him. Jensen had brought his (gigantic) salad over to the table, settling in to eat, but he found his eyes drawn to that hamburger. So focused on it he was that he didn’t even hear someone else entering the kitchen. Cole wandered absentmindedly into the kitchen, fingers scratching at the stubble on his neck and biting back a yawn. At the moment, he felt that he was maybe the only wolf who was not completely engulfed in some form of grief, and his capacity to operate on a daily basis was not difficult at all. That included eating regularly, working, and hanging out as frequently as he always did. And at the moment, it was time for his fifth afternoon snack. His response of a raised eyebrow was less towards the new scent and new presence -- Ten had told them new wolves were coming-- just on what the new wolf was doing. Moving to the fridge to find his own meal, seriously considering pizza at this point, he looked over at the new wolf, expression reading somewhere in between a smirk and a smile. “I’m Cole, one of the Beta wolves. You can eat that, you know. No one’s going to tazer you over it- or bite.” A smirk now came in full, pulling out a frozen pizza crust and all the toppings that he intended to put on it- bacon, sausage, pepperoni, cheese...maybe some vegetables would go on later. Jensen started at the voice, and his long fall of white-blonde hair swished as he turned to face the source. He blinked in surprise at seeing a man standing there in front of the fridge, but then the scent finally caught up to him. Which he should have noticed moments earlier, along with the sound of footsteps. Damned distracting hamburger. “I’m not going to eat it,” he said, lifting his chin a little as if he defiance to meat eaters everywhere. He sounded much more certain about that than he felt, and curled his fingers more tightly around the fork he was holding onto, using it to viciously spear some salad leaves. “I’m Jensen,” he added as an afterthought, because the man - Cole - had just introduced himself. He wasn’t sure if there was some particular way he was supposed to behave around betas (and wasn’t sure if he would want to, even if there was), so he settled for saying, “Hi,” and trying not to look too suspicious. Jensen’s appearance in itself brought some form of amusement to Cole. It was only when Jensen spoke that Cole had affirmed that the scent he gathered was indeed male. Now that he was declaring defiance to eat the hamburger, which was also something Cole didn’t quite get, he couldn’t help but smirk fully. “Okay, don’t eat it.” If it had been Storm or Lucy, he would have snatched that burger and gulped it down before Jensen would have counted to three. Instead, Jensen could get the hint that Cole clearly did not understand what he had against the burger in front of him. Reaching in the pantry to find spices, fresh garlic and basil, diced tomatoes and tomato paste, he moved over to one of the stoves to begin a pot of pasta sauce, he placed the ingredients in the pot with water, making a thick sauce. As the ingredients simmered in the pot, he leaned back against the counter to look over at Jensen. “Nice to meet you, Jensen. Have you had a chance to meet some of the other wolves here?” He probably was not the best first wolf to meet, at least, in his head. Being teased, subtly, about your dietary battles with hamburgers was not the first impression he wanted to give of the pack- he simply couldn’t help himself. “I wasn’t planning on it,” Jensen replied, and he frowned at the hamburger. “It was just sitting there.” He poked his fork through a slice of carrot and brought it to his lips, crunching into it with more force than was necessary before he added, “I’m a vegetarian.” Which did a lot to explain why he didn’t want to eat the burger. And why he was staring at it too. Jensen was a vegetarian. The wolf that was newly settled inside of him did not really agree with that particular life choice. Stirring his fork through his salad, he thought of the people he had met so far - not too many. “Well, Tennyson,” he said, because that was probably obvious since the Alpha was the one who had brought them there. “And the, uh, people who came here with me.” He still felt weird saying ‘werewolves’. The word felt funny on his tongue. “Otherwise, just Lucy. And now you.” He knew there were many more people in the house. Tennyson had said as much, and Jensen could hear them off and on - voices carrying, footsteps, the sound of life and movement. And he could smell them, but still couldn’t untangle all the different scents from each other in order to count them. There was one thing he could smell though, and it was whatever Cole had in that pot. “What are you making?” he asked, trying to sound subtle. Cole couldn’t stop his initial sigh of relief when he had heard that Jensen had met Lucy before him. Well, that was good. Lucy was probably the best person to meet when it came to introducing the pack, since her enthusiasm was always infectious. He found himself a bit disappointed that she hadn’t reported to him on what the new pack members were like, but he assumed that she was busy, what, with buying Keith a new wardrobe and all. A vegetarian? Well, that was uncomfortable. Did he plan on keeping that dietary regime as a wolf? Cole hesitated for a moment, wondering if it was really his place to make mention of the fact that it would be near impossible for Jensen, particularly since as a wolf, you could only really hunt meat. Berries and bark didn’t quite have any appeal. “Listen,” Cole began, turning away completely from his cooking and facing the poor, newborn wolf on. He hated to have to do this, but Cole was almost always the one responsible for bringing on bad news, anyway. And he didn’t want a new wolf to collapse because they didn’t understand how essential protein and calorie intake now was. “I’m sure there’s a valid reason for you not eating meat, be it ethical or otherwise,” he frowned, folding his arms over his chest as he continued, “But you really have to make sure you get enough protein and calories. Your body is constantly burning through whatever you eat, and you’ll find that high-calorie but low-nutrient food isn’t going to hold you up for too long.” He knew his first month as a werewolf was spent eating nothing but chips and candy, until Duncan forced him to wise up. “I know it’s all a bit new, your appetite,” he bit a remark concerning how a thin guy like Jensen probably didn’t need that many calories, “But you risk becoming malnourished or collapsing if you don’t keep up.” That was all he would say on that- what Jensen did was his own agency- but he wanted to make sure Jensen had received an explicit warning on what the potential consequences were. Turning his attention back to the pot when asked what he was making, he stirred the pot with a wooden spoon before bringing a small spoonful over to Jensen, holding out the spoon for the blonde to take. “Pizza sauce. It would be good on pasta too, if you would like me to make some for you.” Cole wasn’t going to impose anything, but he also knew that the salad that Jensen had currently fixed himself would not satiate his hunger for more than half an hour. Jensen listened to this all with a little frown on his face. He couldn’t say that he was shocked to hear this revelation, but that didn’t mean that he liked it. He pushed his salad around in the bowl and then speared another few pieces. “I’ve noticed,” he said about his appetite being new and surprising. “I want to eat all the freaking time.” Which was not his normal way of doing things. Generally he ate the usual three times a day, maybe with a snack here or there, but usually that was for enjoyment or taste more than to satiate a hunger. And he was used to going with far less food, missed meals, no snacks, whatever he could get his hands on and not be so hungry. “This sucks,” he said decidedly, although that seemed all he was going to say on the manner. Jensen wasn’t much of a complainer. A bit dramatic at times, yes, but he was accustomed to dealing with crappy situations and knew that complaining didn’t really get you anywhere. Another few bites of salad and he was looking at Cole again - and Cole’s pot of pizza sauce. Pizza sauce. “You make your own pizza sauce?” he asked, sounding both curious and a little puzzled by this. “Doesn’t it come in a can?” He paused and thought about pizza sauce, which generally lead to pizza, and pizza was clearly awesome. “Are you making pizza?” Cole watched the younger wolf’s expression hold a frown once he had finished speaking, and he couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. This was the bad part of being Beta- it was that he was ultimately responsible for the pack’s well being, even those who he didn’t really know, and inserting himself into this all-knowing, position of wisdom when he, in many ways, still felt unqualified to provide answers. “Well, we have a full fridge all the time, so please don’t hesitate. We all expect you and the new wolves to eat more than normal and we’re prepared for that.” He didn’t want any of the new wolves to think that their own need to eat would jeopardize the overall home’s ability to take care of the pack. Looking at his sauce again for a moment, he looked at Jensen with a raised eyebrow, not quite noticing the novelty of his cooking before he nodded. “It does come in a can but it’s not very good. I like to make the dough too, but we don’t have the right flour for it.” In the year of solitude, he had a lot of time to cook for himself and teach himself some cooking skills. It turned out that Cole didn’t mind cooking, not if it meant that the food tasted so much better. And in the case of pizza, making the sauce from scratch had a significant difference. “Did you want me to make some more for you to make a pizza as well?” “Yeah. Tennyson wasn’t even mad about the room service bill,” Jensen commented. Still a little amazed by that fact. Because while he hadn’t looked at the bill he was pretty sure that between the four of them, it had been pretty damned high. There had been a lot of food going in and out of those two rooms. “The right flour?” he echoed, because wasn’t flour flour? He thought so, but then, baking wasn’t something he did much of at all. He cooked now and again, usually easy things, and out of necessity, but he wasn’t a big fan of messing around in the kitchen, if he could help it. The question - the offer - was weighed a bit. Jensen didn’t generally like having other people do things for him. His past experience had taught him that when someone did something nice for you, it was never without a reason. People weren’t nice without reasons, except maybe family. That was different. Grey eyes narrowed slightly, as if he could figure Cole out from sight alone. “Why?” he asked, which probably wasn't the question Cole was expecting. “What do you want?” Cole couldn’t help the small smirk that pulled at his lips when Jensen seemed surprised that Tennyson wasn’t angry, and Cole shook his head. “He knew what he was taking on when he brought you all in. Room service bills are part of the deal.” He wasn’t going to say that Jensen and the others were far from the first pups that Ten had taken on, because he could see how that could be understood as offensive. But it was true- Ten had done it a number of times and he knew what to expect from newborns. He nodded. “I don’t know what it’s called, but its a thinner flour. It’s smoother when you bake it.” Cole shrugged. He couldn’t tell you how to make a souffle or any kind of pastry. He just knew that there were certain foods he liked; pizza, chicken, steak, potatoes, fish, and now he was simply finding out the best ways to cook them himself. Anything that required more than the basic seasoning and throwing-in-a-pot, however, forget it. The question caused Cole’s eyebrow to shoot up in confusion, not sure what kind of question that was. “I...just have to throw in more diced tomatoes and spices. It’s not exactly out of my way to do.” He said matter-of-factly, trying to wrap his head around why this new wolf thought that something like making pizza sauce was so arduous. He didn’t want anything, so he had no answer for that question. The fact that it was easy to do was the only reason he had volunteered to do it. Jensen continued to look mostly blank when Cole mentioned flour, because the thought of multiple kinds of flours was like a whole new world. He’d have to check that out next time he was in a grocery store, just to see. “Still,” he said, because even easy things people didn’t tend to do out of the goodness of their heart and all that. So experience had taught him. His experiences were all quite skewed in one direction - the bad one -since his parents had died, and it would take time for him to open up and realize the possibility that some people were just nice, some people were helpful, and some groups - like this one - worked together for the good of each other, like a family that wasn’t blood. Right now that idea was alien to him. “Well. Okay,” he said finally, after clearly mulling it over. And then he quickly added, “But I don’t owe you anything.” Because he wanted to make that clear as clear could be. Didn’t want pizza sauce to come back and bite him in the ass. Cole didn’t know that fact either until last year, when he had tried to make pizza dough with self-raising flour...turned out he still needed yeast. He would also safely assume that Jensen was much younger than him, and he therefore didn’t consider it criminal that Jensen couldn’t separate between different kinds of flour. He simply shrugged when Jensen questioned his intentions, clearly not that useful in providing some kind of rationale for Jensen to believe him. What could Jensen provide him, anyway? The answer was not much. Once he had gotten the okay, he went to the pastry to gather more of the necessary ingredients, placing them in the pot and stirring them to let the sauce thicken, reducing the heat on the stove. Had it been anyone else, Cole would have made a grocery list of things that he now expected thanks to his hard, hard effort at pizza sauce. Instead, he nodded. “I know. I don’t want anything. Plus, you’re going to have to make your own pizza.” "Good," Jensen said with a firm nod of his head that sent his hair dancing. It relieved him some to have that out in the open and spoken. Not that Cole couldn't change his mind, take it back, but most people who would do that sort of thing didn't even bother pretending in the first place. He was probably okay, he figured. And Tennyson had said most of the people here were decent people. Not that he was entirely sure he believed that either. He took another bite of salad, which wasn't nearly as satisfying as salads once were but he figured he should eat it if only because vegetables still had to be important for wolves, right? And then he looked back at Cole and said, "Thank you," because while he was guarded and untrusting, he wasn't actually rude. Most of the time. At least until he determined that someone deserved rudeness, and then the claws would come out. He pushed a mushroom slice through the salad dressing, leaving a smear of raspberry vinaigrette across the edge of the bowl. "Have you been here a long time?" he asked Cole after a pause, meaning more part of the pack than the actual physical location. This new wolf was an odd one, and while Cole had no problem with him, he could only hope that not all the new wolves were at the same level of paranoia. Otherwise, that was a lot of comforting that he would have to do, and Cole, although Ten had told him that was doing fine, was not so inclined to believe it. It was likely just better for everyone if he kept quiet most of the time. "You're welcome," he gave a short nod, though his clear confusion illustrated that he didn't think he was doing anything spectacular. At the question, Cole tried to take a mental tally of how long he had been here before he nodded. "Maybe five, six years?" He wasn't sure anymore, he would have to ask Duncan- since he was his maker and all. On that note, he had to catch up with Duncan soon. "That's a long time," Jensen said thoughtfully. At least, it sounded like a long time from his vantage point of only having been a werewolf for five or six weeks. That was long enough, he thought, and he couldn't imagine being like this for years. Except that he would be, because it was a pretty permanent thing with no going back. So he was possibly going to end up being a werewolf for five or six decades more. Yikes. "Do you like it?" he asked, because he was curious about that. Tennyson seemed perfectly content with what he was, and Lucy seemed like a happy person, although he hadn't asked her her thoughts on going furry. "Does it get easier?" Because right now he felt like he was crawling out of his skin. Like something was alive and prowling inside of him. He kept reacting too quickly, shutting doors too hard, tripping over things when he moved quicker than he had intended. It was all very weird. To say the least. Cole nodded in agreement-- it was indeed a long time, but it wasn’t time that he would trade for anything else in the world. His time as a wolf had been the only time in which he felt most stable and secure with his family, setting aside the first few months of adjusting to his new physical and mental state. He felt a bit bad, because he was sure that Jensen didn’t think of five or six years as a good thing, but he could only hope that through being with the Freki, it would provide Jensen with the same appreciation for being a wolf. “I do, and it does.” He offered a sympathetic smile, knowing exactly where Jensen’s mind was, suffering with understanding himself. “I chose to be a wolf, however, so I will say that I was well-prepared for the changes that came. I knew it would be hard and kept that in perspective in my first few months. But I’m really happy here. Freki is a good family to have. And being a wolf is pretty amazing, when you think about it.” A small smirk settled back on his face, he found a ladle for the pot of sauce, beginning to distribute some on the empty pizza crust. “Not a fan of it yet?” “You chose to be a wolf?” Jensen didn’t mean to echo exactly what Cole said, but he was surprised to hear it. He’d never considered that someone might choose this life, and a thoughtful and slightly puzzled look shifted over his face. “Why... how? You knew that... they existed?” He was going to have to learn to let ‘werewolf’ slide off his tongue one of these days. “I’m not... well, it’s weird,” he said truthfully. “It was pretty bad at the start. Until Tennyson came.” That he had hated. From the time Christian had attacked him until Tennyson had put an end to that and whisked him and Lauren and Cori and Teage away. “Now, I don’t know. I feel strange. I keep tripping over things and it’s never quiet and everything smells.” And he was scared about the full moon because the last one, his first full moon, hadn’t been pleasant. “But it’s not like I can change it.” It wasn’t the first time that Cole was questioned about his choice of being a werewolf. Many of the newer wolves who were unfamiliar and still uncomfortable with their dual nature could rarely wrap their heads around the concept of someone deliberately choosing to be a wolf over leading a normal, human life. Because it was far from the first time he had heard it, Cole was the furthest from offended, and simply nodded with a small smile. “Yeah. I was working with Duncan, the other Beta here, and we became really good friends. It took me about a year to make the decision and I had met Ten before agreeing to it. He had a lot to say about it.” With that, the Beta could not suppress a low chuckle, shaking his head. It seemed like long, long ago, his first encounter with Ten, and those days were filled with anxiety and concern that the Alpha was not a man he agreed with. Moving to the fridge to pull out a few additional toppings for his pizza masterpiece, Cole began to decorate his pizza with edibles and hummed occasionally to illustrate to Jensen that he was indeed listening. “It’s going to be really overwhelming at first. You just have to remember that soon you’ll discover the things that make being a wolf really great, like the improvement in strength, better tuned into your senses, and stronger health overall.” And, for him, being a wolf in itself was an advantage, but he knew it was highly likely that turning into an animal wasn’t exactly considered a plus for the majority of newborns. “The sooner you become acceptant of the fact that you are, indeed, a wolf, then you can work through more difficult aspects, like getting comfortable with shifting. Remember that we’re all here to help, too. The more you ask for guidance, the less isolated or confusing it will be, most likely.” “Oh,” Jensen said in a thoughtful manner. He hadn’t thought that anyone would choose to be a werewolf, but that was in large part because he hadn’t known such a thing even existed before he had been attacked and Changed. It made him wonder what he would have thought of the notion of werewolves had he learned about them while he was human. “The strength is weird!” he exclaimed, his forkful of salad fixing hovering in front of his mouth. “I keep slamming doors by accident and breaking things without meaning to.” To say he didn’t know his own strength was an understatement. “And I keep tripping over things.” When he moved faster than he realized, or with more agility and dexterity than he was accustomed to, and misjudged distances between himself and objects and furniture. “I do like that my eyes are a lot better,” he conceded. “I thought I was going to end up needing glasses for reading.” And glasses were expensive. He took the bite finally, and chewed slowly. Swallowing before he spoke again. “It’s strange and hard to believe but... I know I’m not like I was anymore. And that I won’t ever be again.” Jensen was adaptable, his life had required it, and that probably helped him adjust to this. Pushing a lone lettuce leaf around his bowl, he mopped up the residual salad dressing. “This is only my second full moon.” So he was nervous. It had been painful the first time, and frightening and he’d been worried that he might get stuck like that forever. |