There was only so much that Mabelle could do to keep herself entertained in the evenings that Michel was away, and even when he was there she kept as much to herself and out of his way that she could manage. It was easy the first couple weeks, spending most of the days sleeping or writing out stories for Michel to read when he was home. She wasn't a great writer, although her spelling and penmanship reflected her privileged education, but she used enough drawings to fill in the blanks where the stories became too difficult for her to put into clear words.
But after recovering fully and regaining her energy, Mabelle began growing restless and incapable of sitting around for too long without doing anything. But it was still far too cold outside for her to wander without shoes, and Michel seemed to prefer her keeping inside anyway. Confined to the apartment, Michel's rules hung over Mabelle almost tauntingly. Don't touch anything, and so she hadn't, didn't want to give him any reason to kick her out when she hardly contributed anything by being there. Maybe if she could do something helpful while he was away he'd at least be less opposed to her presence, although it took her a few days to work up the courage to go through with it.
So Mabelle attempted using some of the leftovers they had to cook a proper dinner, a simple stew recipe that she had learned while living with Mobius. Nothing fancy as she had to leave out half the ingredients, but at least affordable and edible. And it went well enough, Mabelle cleaning up the little mess she had made while preparing, and for the first time in awhile she felt accomplished. It was a short-lived feeling, however, when Mabelle tried to retrieve a mug from the top shelf of the cabinet where Michel had taken to putting everything out of her reach, and just when she thought she had it, the mug slipped from her grasp and shattered upon contact with the floor. Shocked and filled with a sense of dread, Mabelle stared at the broken shards, mind scrambling with a quick solution.
Unfortunately, she didn't have a lot of time to even discard of the evidence, hearing Michel outside. "Shit," she muttered to herself, and in a moment of panic threw herself against the front door to try to keep Michel from coming inside.