Summer Gladwin (sugarymagic) wrote in tiberiusswann, @ 2010-04-05 22:58:00 |
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Entry tags: | nick, summer |
Sunday | April 26th 2008
Who: Summer and Nick
When: Sunday afternoon 1pmish
Where: Pool, then Student Accessible Kitchens
What: Swim lessons, then cooking lessons.
Summer arrived precisely at their arranged meeting time holding a gym bag with regular clothes. She wore flip flops, board shorts, and an oversized JOURNEY tee shirt....over her swim suit. Where was her swimsuit? Good question. It was barely visible, save for pink bow sprouting out the crew neck of the tee. She was practically swimming in the band tee; it had been her brother's.
"Hey!" she said, when she spotted his wings first and the rest of him second. She flapped over to him, her shoes noisy on the side of the indoor swimming pool. Her heart was hammering at the inside of her chest and she could already feel she was flushed.
She set her bag aside and wrung her empty hands together, smiling wide.
---
He had been sitting at the edge of the pool, his feet and calves submerged in the water as he kicked slowly. His wings were no doubt easy to spot because they were more active than usual; flitting and outright snapping every now and then as he contemplated the water. All he wore, in the meanwhile, were his board shorts, but there was a bag sitting on the bench nearby and a pair of sandals underneath that.
Looking back when he heard her voice, his expression split into a bright grin and he jumped to his feet in one lithe move; it was fairly obvious that he was feeling much better. "Hey Summer!" His wide blue eyes were taking in her appearance, and his grin was disrupted by a soft snicker. "Trying to make me work harder, aren't you?"
---
Huh?" she asked, placing her bag beside his gently. In her flip flops her toes -- the nails painted bright blue -- curled and uncurled. "What do you mean?"
---
Once she was standing beside him, he reached forward and plucked at the sleeve of her band shirt pointedly. "You're trying to drown, right? This is just a bunch of cloying fabric to get in the way and make you feel weighed down." Oh, he figured he had a good idea of why she'd worn it, but it was true; loose clothes hampered movement, made swimming that much harder. Which was why the only loose fabric seen on swimsuits was usually those frilly two-inch lycra skirts.
---
She frowned, pulling at the hem of the tee shirt. "Reaaaally?" She knew asking the question wouldn't make him change his mind, but she could damned well try, couldn't she?
---
"Yes, reaaaally. C'mon. Top at least--though the shorts should go too." He took a step back, and gave her a wink before turning to go back to the side of the pool, a wet footprint trail left behind him.
---
She took advantage of his attention being elsewhere before wriggling out of the shorts first, then pulling the tee shirt up and over her head. The bathing suit was much more feminine than the outfit that had layered over it. She kicked her flip flops aside and stood there, feeling extremely awkward. Red crept over her face, ears, chest, neck.... eugh, everywhere, and she couldn't do a thing to hide it except maybe pull her mid-length hair over her shoudlers. She reached up to fluff her bangs just as he turned his attention to her again. "Nnnnngh."
---
She was blushing. His grin turned softer for a moment, and he took a brief moment to decide whether or not he should bring that fact up before he went with being nice and just held his hand out to her. "I like it. C'mere."
Once close, he didn't give her much time to think; just caught her hand and made his way towards the shallow end of the pool, where the steps were located. Steam was curling slowly from the surface of the water. "Yeah, so lucky. Heated pool and everything."
---
The grip of their hands made Summer's heart pound, though not with school-girl glee. She was scared. She hadn't tried to swim in the longest time, and found little use for swimming. Like she had said, she highly doubted she'd marry a rich man who had a yacht he could capsize with her on it, nor did she anticipate falling into any rivers. Humans had legs. Why did they have to flop around in the water like dolphins?
She let out a nervous giggle at his joke about the heated pool and by the time the water had sloshed over her hips, she let out a tiny gasp and her fingers tightened on his before she stalled.
---
He stopped, immediately, when she did; turning around to face her. The smile was still there, but this time it was reassuring, and understanding all at the same time. "S'okay. Want to stop here for a second, get used to the water?" His wings were partially submerged, but continued to move as easily as they did in the air while barely causing a ripple; meanwhile the blue sections that were visible beneath the water were glittering now, thanks to the refraction of multiple rays of light.
---
"No I'm okay," she replied quickly, embarrassed now because he was being so polite. She pushed forward, sucking in a breath as the water reached her stomach, and then the very bottom of her breasts. She leaned to the side and grinned, eyeing his wings before looking up at him. "That's pretty cool." She had been looking at them as they moved forward, mostly as a way to distract herself. She was interested in seeing how they attached to his back; where skin ended and scaly wings began.
---
There was a swell of muscle that wouldn't be found on a wingless individual's back, centered around the base of his wings. Black melded with the cream of skin almost seamlessly, though the base of his wings seemed thicker than a butterfly's might. "Yeah, pretty cool. My sister said it's like an opal or something like that." She'd have to pry to get him to specify which sister; it just wasn't important to him in that moment.
He backed through the water as she moved forward, and while he paused to glance back at his wings he'd continue to urge her on until it was necessary for her to be on tiptoe to stay firmly rooted on the pool floor. There he stopped. "So. Treading water is the first thing you should learn to do; and, if you're dead set on not swimming unless an emergency, the most important thing to learn." He could still touch bottom fairly easily; besides which, he was absolutely comfortable in the water.
---
"I just want my feet to touch the bottom of the pool," she said, freezing up as the wave of her own motion made the water lap up higher. She stilled, until the water lowered itself again, and laughed. "You must think I'm retarded."
---
"Hey, I got you this far. I'll count it as a success for day one if this is all we get to." His free hand was lifted from the water, and he flicked a drop at her nose. "Why would I think that?"
Summer
"Because I'm a grown person afraid of being in six feet of water," she replied, still laughing at herself. She regarded him for a second with an almost serious expression. "Your'e really nice to offer to help me learn. I mean, you don't know me that well."
Nick
"You've got your reasons. I'm just bound and determined to help you see past them." Her solenity was mirrored in his own gaze then, and he caught her other hand to give both a squeeze. "I want to. And besides--I may not know you that well, but I know you well enough to know I like you." His grin was easy; it wasn't a heavily serious statement, just an honest one. "I want to help."
---
Summer didn't take his statement past its face value. He was such a genuine soul she didn't feel the need to probe for deeper meaning. The surface was pretty nice to deal with. In more ways than one.
"Awe, well... I'm going to teach you how to make a great cheeseburger," she replied, stepping forward again. When the water sloshed up against her neck she let in a short gasp, sucking some in, and sputtered, before coughing. "Aaack. Now whaaat."
---
"Whoa--horse before the cart." He moved fluidly in front of her, blocking her from continuing any further. "Gonna show you how to tread water right here where you can touch down if you need to."
Still holding her hands, he loosened his hold and slid his hands along her forearms, the water sluicing underneath his touch in a rush against his palms and her skin. When he reached her elbows he cupped them lightly. "Grab my forearms." Once she did, he used his hold to gently lift her so that her feet were no longer touching the bottom, and she was no longer submerged to the point of sputtering. Then he waited, to let her get used to this.
---
"Okay," she said, doing whatever he told her to because he asked so nicely. She gripped his forearms gently, her fingers kneading at the muscle -- fisherman's muscles? -- there as she felt her toes begin to lift. "Heh. Forgot about the whole.. weightless in water thing," she said quietly, not looking at him or anything else in particular.
---
"Aw. And here I was hoping you'd think it was all me." He pouted, but it was ruined by the grin that lit up his eyes as he looked up at her. She was slightly raised out of the water, after all. "What you're going to do now is kick lightly, keeping your legs mostly straight and just underneath you. If you kick too hard you'll unman me, and then you will have to touch down while I drown." He wanted her to grin. To look at him again, damnit.
---
"When you say 'unman you' do you mean kick you in the giblets?" she asked, with a tiny giggle, doing as he suggested. She moved her legs gracefully; evidence of dance classes in her formative years.
---
"Hell yes that's what I mean." He snorted, then ended up snickering. As she moved he quietly gave suggestions, and once he was sure that she wasn't paying that much attention to anything but what she was doing he slowly lowered her into the water more and more, until it was more her kicking keeping her afloat than him; he was just the "water wings," so to speak.
---
She tensed up when it touched her chin immediately, her face already screwing up like a child's at the thought of water going up her nose.
---
"Okay, I've got the insatiable urge to just... dunk you right now." He was laughing, and quickly lifted her up again to show that's not what he was going to do. "If you think you're sinking too low, you can kick a little harder; that'll get you to lift up out of the water. We're saving the underwater stuff for later, promise." It was just an added assurance.
---
"If you dunk me, I will put your pretty self between two framed panels of glass and make you part of a very specific, creepy collection for some horror movie villain," she said. The threat was so detailed and delivered in such a silly fashion it could hardly be considered a threat at all. She even almost pouted as she said it, kicking her strong legs harder.
---
"With a giant pin stuck through my chest?" He made a comical "murdered" face for a second, but then focused on what they were doing again. She'd find after a minute that his hands were just there for reassurance, and she was keeping herself out of the water all on her own. "So I'm gonna switch my hold right now--you're gonna be swimming by yourself for all of a second, okay?" He didn't give her too much time to freak out; releasing her arms and then settling them on her waist. "You can grab my arms again if you want, but I want you to try stretching 'em out to the side... then you'll start making little figure eights in the water with your hands. Helps you feel balanced in the water."
---
The look on her face wasn't concern over his letting go -- although he might think that -- but more so on the fact that there was nothing between his hands and the flab that was her midsection except for some thin nylon. Eugh... Summer, like most girls, was too hard on herself. Although she was barely "thin" she was no pachyderm; her hips and thighs carried the weight of a healthy, hearty female with a sweet tooth. Now she was panicking, wondering if he found her lovehandles frightening beneath the water's surface.
Despite her little moment of concern, she did as she was told like she had been. "I feel like when I was six, and my training wheels were coming off and mom let go of the handlebars and didn't tell me."
---
"Did you crash then?" He wasn't even thinking about lovehandles; although she didn't even really have any to grab onto. He continued to watch her and then, after a moment or two, he raised his brows as he looked her in the eye. "I'm going to let go, okay?" He didn't add that his hands were only moving an inch or two away at best.
---
"Only six or seven times," she replied nonchalantly, before a smirk crossed her features. It vanished when he said he was going to let go, and she nodded even as her chest seized up. She kicked harder, in an attempt to gain mistaken leverage, and started swiveling her arms like he'd explained.
---
"Relaaaaax... you're okay..." Voice even, he kept his hands right where they were. "You're going to launch yourself right out of the water like that. Okay, change of plan. You're going to go back to just lightly paddling and kicking. And at some point I'll let go--won't warn you, though."
---
She laughed at the vision of propelling herself to the ceiling. "Mean," she muttered, that lip going forward again, but she calmed her movements down just a little. "I'm sorry. Yesterday I was anti-swimming and today I'm in a bathing suit with you in the kiddie side of the pool." She chuckled again, mostly at herself. "Just adjusting."
---
"I'm not mean. If I was mean I would have dunked you." He winked.
"This isn't the kiddie side of the pool. Kids would be drowning left and right if they tried to stand this deep. And I understand--if you're uncomfortable at any point we can stop, no big deal. You know that, right?" He was serious, and gave her sides a squeeze to make sure she was paying attention to that.
---
The sudden grip to her waist made her squirm, which threw off her kicking, which threw off her floating, which then made her arms snatch toward his. Her fingers were on his forearms in a second. "Uhm, yeah," she stammered, giggling nervously. "Sorry."
She closed one eye and continued doing just what she was doing for a few more minutes. Then, when the silence got awkward -- to her -- she frowned. "Did you see the post about Simon? You probably didn't get to know him but he was a nice guy."
---
His grip loosened again, and he chuckled. "Okay. Just making sure."
A similar, slight frown crossed his own features then. "Yeah... I never met him, but it's still a shock... did you know him?"
---
"Sort of. Not really. It's sad... kinda because mostly because it makes me think of my brother. He died in a car accident..."
Paying more attention to the conversation, she was doing well.
---
"Yeah..." He went quiet then, musing over that. His focus hadn't left what they were doing though, and when he deemed that she'd relaxed he slid his hands away from her--just those scant inches, and given how loose his hold had been already she probably would only feel a gentle brush of water whirling past her sides. When she didn't sink to her doom, he pulled them back entirely and cupped his chin with one hand, smirking. "Summer?"
---
"Huh?" she asked, looking up from the water. She'd been watching her own legs kick, as if they depended on it, and now she realized as she saw where his hands were that they weren't on her. "Ah!" she said, with a laugh, and immediately lost her focus. If he knew how she handled her missing powers, he wouldn't be surprised--- the only thing that held her back was her. She staggered backward (which actually displayed an ability to stay afloat) enough so that she could tippy-toe stand on the bottom of the pool, her wet hair clinging to her shoulders. "S-sorry."
She reached up to pull it free, twisting it into a tail and letting it flop back into the water. "My legs are getting tired anyway."
---
"Well, you were swimming." Grinning, he moved through the water after her. "I think if you were distracted you'd have kept right on swimming there. But yeah, if you've never done it before it's going to kick your butt. That's enough for today, too. End on a good note, and all." But he was loathe to get out of the water just yet. "Not as bad as you thought it was going to be, huh? Huuuh?" He was grinning, smugly.
---
"No," she said, despite the fact she was moving for the edge of the pool where the helpful steps were. She blushed again as she got out of the pool, aware that now she was out of the water in clear view and he was not. "Not soooo bad," she admitted, grinning. "You're a good teacher. Were you a lifeguard back home? Before being a vet tech?"
---
"Nah--that was one job market that never had an opening. But I kinda helped Ethan teach Mercedes how to swim." He was oh-so-slowly following her, but didn't get out of the pool just yet. Instead he leaned against the side, arms folded on the cool cement as he looked up at her. "And I remembered a lot from what he taught me. He was the swim coach of the family."
---
"I would think water sprites were born just.. knowing how to," she replied, toweling her body off first before flipping her hair forward as she bent at the waist to dry that last. She tossed the towel aside and reached for her dry tee shirt. It hung on on her like a shapeless dress, falling to her upper thighs, at miniskirt height. Since he wasn't getting out of the pool, she wouldn't go to the locker rooms to get dressed just yet. She sat on the edge of the pool and stuck her feet in, a few feet away from him.
"No wonder you seem so well-rounded. Big families always do that to people."
---
"Babies in general know how. That's why those 'Mommy and Me' classes exist. But Ethan got us all when we were like... two, three? To really teach us. No water-wings or anything to save us from sinking. And! We were in the ocean--mom only wanted us in a pool before that." The shirt, when she pulled it on, got a raised brow. "Cold?" It was the only reason he could think of for her to be wearing it.
---
She shrugged one shoulder self consciously with a crooked grin. "Eh, funny to just be hanging out in a bathing suit if you're not in the water!"
---
"Hey, I planned on cooking like this." He was only half teasing, too. "And you didn't look funny to me." That said, he braced his hands on the cement and then pushed upward, surging out of the water and in a quick move had spun to sit beside her. Droplets of water splattered everywhere, and it pooled around him as it continued to run off his upper body and drip from his board shorts.
"So. Burgers?"
---
Oh, that was interesting, the way he could lift himself so easily right out of the pool. He must have impressive upper body strength to do that. Then he was beside her, water spilling out and touching her thighs from under the tee shirt. She followed a few of those wild droplets down over his triceps, his chest, and .... eyes up! Eyes UP UP UP!
"Huh? Uhm, sure! Yeah, burgers are easy. I gotta change."
---
"Alright. Meet you out here in a few minutes?" Okay, he caught that. And he was grinning to himself as he looked out over the pool's surface, smothering a bit of a reflexive smugness by chuckling lightly. The look-away was brief, before he looked at her curiously. A second later he was standing again, to offer her a hand up.
---
Summer accepted his hand, then quickly gathered her things. When she met him near the pool again she had tied her hair up into a messy wet bun, refreshed her lip gloss, and was dry and smelling faintly of vanilla body spray to cover the scent of chlorine.
On the way to the student kitchens she discussed the first time she had tried making burgers. She had flattened them to the point where they became nothing more than rubbery meat bookmarks that were circular.
In truth she was glad he wasn't going to try to cook in swim trunks. That would have been way too distracting for her. Besides, jumping drops of oil would hurt like heck. Grateful he was in clothing that left more to the imagination, she began taking supplies out of the refridgerators. "Hope you're not afraid of getting your hands dirty..."
---
Technically, he was still in his board shorts. Having shaken his hair out much like Ripley might have done, he'd wandered over to his bag when she went off to change and pulled out another of those shirts of his. This one dark chocolate with white print, which stated "Tact is for people who lack the wit for sarcasm." His mirror sunglasses were perched on his face and he was wearing the shirt, shorts, and his Reef sandals when she returned, his bag slung over one shoulder.
He ended up snickering as she recounted the tale, and in turn told her of the multiple times that he had forgotten that metal and microwaves don't mix. Which was why his mother didn't allow him in the kitchen anymore.
"Nope." He didn't tack on that his job sort of negated that issue; that was a topic that was better saved for when food wasn't present. Sure, he could talk about it without getting squeamish, but he didn't want to test her gag factor. "So what's first?"
---
Summer had changed into jeans and a pink tee shirt with a carton of milk and a chocolate chip cookie holding hands on the front. The milk had a speech bubble that read "I love you!"
"Okay," she said, pointing to things as she spoke. "Grill. Meat. Mustard. Worchestershire sauce. Salt and pepper to taste. Onions. Cheese... well you know that's cheese, duh, sorry. Anyway... okay, this is how I make burgers. Everyone does it different. When you feel like it you can tweak the recipe however you like. This is just what I do, when I feel like cooking. I mostly bake though -- warning!"
She snatched an empty bowl and set it front of him, grinning. Then she grabbed the meat and began to unwrap it so she could dump it into the bowl. Apparently "teaching" him was lost on her. She didn't think to make him do it. It seemed mean, since he was apparently not too familiar.
---
"Freeze. You are the conductor right now, not the orchestra. Or the mouse to the motherboard, or... something." He snaked a hand forward to steal the package of ground beef from her unless she tightened her hold. "I learn by doing. Just... tell me what to do, and I'll do it, eh?"
---
"If that's how you like it," she said, before realizing the words coming out of her mouth. Uhm. Wow? She forced a laugh and sidestepped, probably more surprised than Nick was.
"Unwrap the meat." Wow, it just wasn't getting better, was it? She poked at the inside of her mouth with her tongue and stared at the empty bowl. Otherwise she'd have to look at him.
---
Even he was a bit nonplussed by the sudden double-entendre, and coughed a bit; a bit of a red flush creeping over his cheekbones. But the devil in him couldn't be beaten for long, and he had a tiny smirk on his face along with a devilishly amused glint in his eyes. "Yes ma'am."
---
Oh God, could you please fly a cabinet door open and knock me into a tiny coma? Where's Emma?
"Okay... I like to put a bit of mustard -- like one teaspoon per pound of chopped meat -- and a bit of the sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. Onion you can chop up and put in the meat, or fry in the pan under the meat. Your choice."
She leaned against the counter with her hip, arms crossed over her chest. Her face was still red, and probably staying that way for a few more minutes. She thought about what he'd said -- 'just tell me what to do, and I'll do it, eh?' -- and smirked. The little Canadian 'eh?' was cute.
---
"So... how much meat is this?" The ground beef fell into the bowl with a "plop," and he looked up at her again as he leaned to toss the styrofoam container into the trash. She was blushing again--still?--and he couldn't help the snicker. "How do you like it?"
Now he was doing it. Wow. Clearing his throat, he hunted for the mustard even though he'd already been shown where it was sitting and snatched it off the table before looking for a set of measuring spoons.
---
"I put mustard in the meat, onions in the pan, and mayo on the burger. With ketchup," she replied, not unaware of how that had worked out. She rubbed at her ears because they were burning. "You can eyeball it, if you're feeling adventurous."
---
"Oh, why not." Amusement won out, and he was chuckling as he carefully squirted a bit of mustard into the bowl. "So, this hands getting dirty part--do I squish all of this together?"
--
"Add a dash or two of the sauce, some salt and pepper, then.. yep. But not too much. Over-squishing makes the meat chewy and blech." She shuffled around the back of him, reaching over to turn the flame under skillet on low-medium. "Then you make a patty and slap it on the grill. Easy. Burgers are a man's food. Simple, greasy, quick."
---
He still smelled of chlorine; a slightly more subtle scent outside of the setting of the pool. He glanced over first one shoulder and then the other as she moved around him, watching to see where she ended up before he focused on the meat again. Sauce, salt, pepper... and when he first stuck his hands into the bowl, he made a face. "I am not telling you what this feels like, by the way." Oh, he got over it quickly enough, especially since it didn't smell bad. But that initial squish was just gross.
---
She laughed gaily at his expression. It was so absolutely comical. "Yeah.. save it, vet tech. I don't wanna know. I already feel bad enough I eat as much meat as I do. Though I've been doing better."
She watched his hands work before reaching beneath his arms for the onion. "Okay, so it's easy to just slice the onion and grill the burgers with them. Putting onions in the meat sometimes makes it too strong to taste, and I never add raw onions to the burger because when I add too much stuff to burgers everything falls out after the third bite, and it's disgusting." She laughed and neatly sliced the onion twice before picking up the raw rings and dropping them on the skillet.
Yes, she had washed her hands. "I should show you how to make homemade fries. Those are the best."
---
"One recipe at a time, please." He chuckled that, relaxing now. "And eating meat isn't bad. I'm all for eating meat. It's the treatment of the animals before they become food that can get questionable."
"Alright, makes sense... So you cook the burger patties on top of the onions? That works?" Sue him, he was a bit naive about cooking.
---
Summer smiled gently, taking her resting space against the counter again. "Er, yeah. Cooking is great because it's not quiiiiiite an exact science. You need to follow instructions for the most part but a lot of it is 'eh, let's try this!' My mom would chop up tiny pieces of onions and put them in the meat, I've seen people just put onions on the burger later.... no matter. So yeah. This works too."
She leaned back a little when he made the patty and put it on the grill. "Try to make them as round and even as possible, because they'll shrink when you cook them, and if you don't flatten them out as much as you can, they become tiny little balls of meat."
She turned the sink on for him and checked the temperature in a maternal way, waiting until it was warm enough to wash hands with. Then she snatched up the soap dispenser and held it up and out, waiting for his hands.
"And now, wash your hands. Raw meat equals bacteria equals gross."
Yes, Summer was Suzy Homemaker. Adorable, smart, AND she could cook.
---
Inevitably, his first hamburger looked like a two year-old had made it, and he had to redo it--snickering softly to himself. "Wow, that looks special..." But after the first try it was easier to form the patties between his palms, and soon the meat was sizzling away on the grill.
"Yes'm." He saluted, not actually touching his hand to his forehead, and gave her a wink. His hands were waggled in her direction "threateningly" for about half a second and then he was washing his hands thoroughly. Damn, she's cute. He kept thinking that more and more often, and wasn't resistant to the thought.
---
She snickered at his "dirty hands" and pumped soap into his palms, then set it down and waited until he was done before handing him a towel. "Okay... so now you eventually learn how long it takes, but you gotta cook it on both sides and ... how do you eat your burgers?"
---
"They tend to moo?" Hard to take him seriously in moments like this, especially with that grin that was gracing his features. His eyes were alight, and as he dried his hands on the towel he leaned a hip against the counter. "Medium rare. More towards rare. Which probably means less time on each side." Intuitive, he could be. But it rarely happened when he was cooking by himself.
---
"Yes! Aaaand.." she leaned over and lowered the heat. "Low heat. Cooks slower. Otherwise you have a black surface and it's raw inside. And the smoke alarm goes off." She let the pan be as she began readying buns. "We're gonna taste them."
---
"Aha. So that's where I'd be if I were cooking alone. Good to know." When she announced that, he cringed. "Oh god," he chuckled, the laughter tinging his words. "Please tell me you were double-checking me all the time so I don't accidentally poison you..."
---
"Nope!" she said cheerfully, fixing the plates until they lined up perfectly. "So this shall be... the ULTIMATE TEST," she added, in a scary game show voice, and then threw in a dramatic laugh and rubbed her hands together.
---
There was a brief pause as he blinked at her, and then Nick laughed. There was snickering at a joke, and then there was downright laughter because of one. And that's what happened as he leaned against the counter again, elbow braced against it as he covered his mouth to try and smother some of the volume.
It took him a second to get hold of himself, and he was giggling almost as he straightened again. "Oh man, that was adorable." Ack. Yeah, the word was out there, and while he didn't outwardly react to it he did look over at her with a grin, to see her reaction.
---
Her reaction? She blushed, still grinning from the delivery of her own joke, and looked away with a soft, shy exhalation through her nose. "Thanks... uhm... what do you like on your burger? I like mayo..." YOU SAID THAT ALREADY.
She shuffled sideways to get condiments from the fridge, still smiling.
---
"Mayo, lettuce, tomato, onion, ketchup, mustard, pickles, cheddar cheese... blue if we're fancy." He was a male, and one who still looked to be in his teens; he could likely eat five of the burgers he'd just listed off without even twitching.
Clearing his throat once more, he shrugged a bit as he spoke and watched her move. Good job, man. You're better than that...
---
Summer began decorating their burgers like a pro, her hands moving in easy practiced motions like she'd done it a thousand times. Her entire learning process was formulas: magic ones, practical ones, recipe ones.... she remembered almost everything.
"Check the middle," she said, while laying down the lettuce. "Too pink? Pinkish?"
---
How am I supposed to check without cutting the thing in half? Or biting it? He kept that bit of stupidity to himself; casting a quick look around, he finally grabbed a knife and carefully slid it through the center of one of the patties, leaning it to the side so he could peer at the meat. "Looks good to me." Despite wariness over the meal being deadly, he was rather proud that he hadn't set any fires.
---
The burgers actually weren't so bad. She had explained that putting the cheese on came after the second flip, for her, and when the cheese was mostly melted she had him transfer the patties to the prearranged buns.
After the second bite, she smiled, cheeks bulging, and let out a happy "Mmm!" After swallowing, she wiped her mouth with a napkin. "Not bad! See! Easy!"
---
Brat that he was, he watched her take a bite first. When she didn't gag, he took a bite of his own; though to be fair it was nearly half of the burger. He did not skimp on his bites. Some experimental chewing followed, before he relaxed and lost some of his caution. By the time he swallowed, he was smiling. "S'good." He announced that after she spoke, and grinned faintly. "Needs more ketchup, though."
The hamburger was set on the plate again, the top of it flipped and easily placed on the plate beside it. He blindly reached for the ketchup then, which was his downfall; set right by the edge of the counter, the back of his hand found it before his fingers did and it went skittering over the side.
---
Summer gasped, watching the glass bottle fall, then muttered something quietly and shook her right hand, as if it had been doused with water. Suddenly the ketchup bottle disappeared mid-fall, with a sizzling pop! of displaced air, and it appeared in her firm grip of her right hand.
She blinked, then smiled, almost smugly.
---
"... Holy shit." He gaped. First at the ketchup bottle, then at her. "What did-- you-- holy shit."
Nice. Very eloquent, you idiot--she's a WITCH.
---
She shrugged one shoulder, but her giggle was far less nonchalant. "Uh... one of my powers. It was kinda fritzy when I first got here, but it's getting better. I can also do this..." she set the ketchup on the counter, then did a smooth, flowy gesture. It slid six inches toward him.
---
"Niiiiiiiice." He was grinning widely now, and swept up the bottle--in a firm grip this time. "I wish I could do stuff like that."
---
She shrugged again, this time more shyly, and turned back to the counter. "Still better at the glamor stuff," she said, which is what she had said to him during an earlier conversation, "did a disappearing act a lot in high school."
---
"Whyzat?" The sentence blended into one word, just before he took another bite of his burger. He was looking at her questioningly though, waiting for her answer.
---
"It's a glamor spell. I don't physically disappear, but I can glamor myself to look.... inconsequential. Like someone you wouldn't bother noticing, so you simply don't." She took a bite of the burger and shrugged, chewing slowly.
---
A brow quirked, and he swallowed before speaking again. "Yeah... but why? Why do that?" He didn't understand the wanting to hide part, not from her perspective. From his own... he'd wanted to hide at one point in his life, but he was over it.
Mostly.
---
Eugh... do I want to go into this? She licked some ketchup off the corner of her mouth and shrugged again, her eyes everywhere but his. "Uhhh.." If you want to know him, he should know you.
"I was super awkward in high school. Like.. I have some social anxiety -- not sooo soo bad, I mean, some others are way worse!" She thought of Jacob and her stomach flinched. "But you know it was worse, and now it's better, but I just had low self esteem and people thought I was weird. I was chubby. Maybe that's why. Whatever." She put the burger down, not so hungry anymore. "I thought I was stranger than I was, I'm sure."
---
"I think I get it. I can't really say I do, though, 'cause I was pretty outgoing in high school. Until... well, yeah." His wings snapped abruptly, almost as a non-verbal finish to that trailed off sentence. "I don't think you're weird, by the way." It was said almost conspiratorially. Meanwhile, he was finishing his burger. "And that's true for a lot of stuff in high school. A lot of tension and self-doubt."
---
She nodded and tucked her hair behind her pierced ear; she wore three earrings in each lobe. "...Yeeeah. Well, now I stick to just fun glamor. Like.. if I was evil, I could glamor this place to look like it's cleaned up, and we could leave. For a while. Extended spells are generally not worth the energy."
---
"Yeah, no. That's just rude." He chuckled, and shook his head. The burger was gone. Which meant it was time to clean... and he was a pro at that. Dishes were gathered in an efficient sweep and deposited in the sink, before he started the water and leaned to grab the dish soap. "You mean like the hair color thing though, right?"
---
He does dishes!
"Yep. You remember that? Heh." She moved to help, by putting the mustard and other condiments away in the community fridge.
---
Of course he did dishes. It was on the chore wheel at home... back when they'd needed such a thing, anyway. "Yep. Sleep didn't totally fog up my brain... but that reminds me that I need to ask Emma if I said anything stupid to her, cause I did forget that." He barely remembered the sleep demon's arrival, let alone what they'd talked about.
As he spoke his hands worked, scrubbing and creating suds.
---
She chuckled softly, watching him work. She'd put away everything; now she felt useless. "Glad you're sleeping better..."
---
"Dry, missy." He held out a dripping plate to her when she went still, sensing that moment of "what do I do now?" Focusing on the mixing bowl, he was smiling but shrugged at the same time. "Better, definitely. Not perfect, but I'm not complaining. I still have to figure out how to pay her back, although she told me not to bother." Which didn't sit well with him, not really. Unless he paid it forward, but... even then it didn't.
---
"She can have my swim lessons!" she chirped playfully, snatching up a towel and drying the offered dish. One, two swipes, and she picked up the next quickly.
---
"Yeah, and they'll spend three weeks filtering the sand... dust... whatever it is out of the water so people can use it again." He huffed, and then flicked a soap bubble at her. "Come on, was it that bad?"
---
She ducked, smiling, then shook her head, goofily, hair flying.
---
"See, Ethan would have had you swimming laps on the first lesson. He's just amazing like that." While the statement was sarcastic, his tone was not. Nick hero-worshipped his brother; still did, even.
"But good. I'm glad it wasn't terrifying. I would have had to get the water wings out of my bag." It was only a tease, and he gave her a wink to indicate that.
---
"I still wanna get floaties with the little duck heads on them," she replied, talking around her wide happy grin. She dried the last dish and set it back where it belonged, then wiped her clammy palms on the front of her jeans.
"So.... yay! Burgers!"
---
"I'll see what I can do." Snickering, he wiped down the inside of the sink, and put away the cleaning supplies before turning to face her.
"This was really cool. Thanks, Summer." He was grinning, but the sentiment was sincere. If he'd known her a little bit better, been around her a little bit longer, he might have dragged her over for a hug to go along with it.
---
She rubbed at her arm, ears pink. "So.. uhm... what do you wanna try to make..next time? I mean, you wanna try to make more stuff?" Or was this totally awful.
---
"Hm. You said you're into baking. How about you show me how to make those amazing mint brownies you brought me?" He grinned. "I'm a sucker for mint, by the way. Favorite flavor ever."
---
"Oh, but then I'll have no leverage the next time I need a favor," she teased, walking toward the exit with her hands shoved deep in her pockets. Her bag slid off her shoulder and she caught it with a grimace, adjusting it and grinning again.
----
He had his own bag already, the strap slung over his shoulder and the duffel banging against his hip for a bit before he came up even with her and evened out his stride. "Well, that's true. But at the same time there's an entire world of mint recipes out there that you can work with. While I'll have one. I'd call it unfair advantage, really."
"Or you could just show me plain old brownies. Those are awesome, too." He tacked that on after a moment, shrugging genially.
---
"How about mint-white-chocolate-biscottis?" she asked, with a wicked grin. "Or do you not drink coffee?"
---
"Haven't been, but sounds good now. Never understood the cookies that are as hard as a brick, though." That wicked grin got a huff out of him, but he was still smirking. "But hey--mint. I'm all yours, master chef."
---
"You dip them in the coffee, silly."
---
"Huh. Still don't make sense. But like I said--they've got mint. I'm all for it." He was not a coffee afficianado, nor was Bay de Verde a city of coffee-lovers. Sure, men got up at five A.M. to get going for work, and drank their coffee. But it was black. Folgers.
"So what are you up to now? Gonna go wash all the chlorine off?" Yes, he could smell it. Although it was all over him, too.
---
"Yeeeeah... it makes my skin itch! I feel like I have to go slather an entire bottle of lotion all over me. I think it's drying, right? Chemicals?"
She had tied her wet hair up into a messy bun, and was now undoing it and redoing it all over again. Her wet bangs looked funny; she had bobby pinned them to the side.
---
"Yeah, it's drying. Won't feel so bad once you shower, though. I'm used to it, sort of. Chlorine isn't that different than saline." He almost missed the ocean in that moment. Not that he didn't miss it before, but in the bone-deep, "I need to be there" sense. He shook it off quickly, though. Besides, he had other images in his head now. Slathered lotion, for example.
"I'm not sure what I'll be doing. Probably shower and then mess around with my camera."
---
"What do you wanna take pictures of?" She asked, perking up a little.
---
"Hadn't decided yet. I was thinking of stalking the student commons, get some shots of people, but I don't know. You have any suggestions?" He looked over with brows raised, curious.
---
Summer shrugged, looking shy again. "I kinda only really hang with Astrid... everyone else I just see in class, or haven't really talked to much.. or, you know, knew Jacob. My ex."
---
"Astrid. Who I've yet to meet outside of a party in her honor. Hm." He pondered that for a second, and then veered slightly so he could bump shoulders with her. "You should hang out with more people. You're funny, fun, sweet. I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to."
---
She laughed and swiped up at her hair, pushing wet loose ends behind her ears. "Shut up!"
---
"Have I once lied to you in the time that we've known each other?" He was snickering. "Honest."
---
"You could have. How would I know! Do sprites have a big tell? Would your wings twitch?" she asked, still laughing.
---
"Well if I did have one--which I don't think I do--telling you would ruin any attempts at lying in the future--which I don't plan to do." She was so vibrant, especially when she laughed. He couldn't help but laugh along with her. "But no, I haven't lied to you once."
---
"You come across as a very genuine, down-to-earth person," she said, her cheeks beginning to hurt from all the smiling. "Very outgoing, open, friends-with-all-sorts guy."
---
"Yep! That's me. And you are an intuitive, friends-for-life, genuine and kind person. Or you come across that way... I didn't see anything to say otherwise in your room or anything, either." He chuckled. "The kind of person that everyone should have in their life."
---
She flushed again. "Wow, thanks, that's really a great compliment... I try to be kind. Most people say I'm too nice."
---
"I doubt that." He shook his head. "No, I bet you're kind to everyone until they hit the limit. And then you're still kind, but in a completely detached manner." Which was bizarre and strange and hurt in its own way.
"Maybe that's being kind to a fault, but I don't think so. Because you're heart's not in it in the end."
---
Her smile dissipate by degrees, and she bit her lip, some of the light draining. "That was.. a little creepy, but very astute. Yeah. I guess. I mean... I like to think that when people do mean things, the reason behind it isn't because they're just......bad. That maybe they were just never taught better...."
She looked where she was going so she didn't bump into oncoming students. Now that they were headed back toward the dorms, the crowd was thickening. "..But yeah I mean.. sometimes you need to stop wondering how to fix the situation and just... move on."
---
"... Ah man, now you're upset. Don't be upset." Good going, genius. He was frowning and hurry-stepped to get ahead of her; then he spun, walking backwards in front of her. The crowd wasn't going to appreciate it, but they'd live. "I bet you kick ass when you're mad at someone, anyway. You do that whole 'whoosh' thing with your hand and knock them over." The 'whoosh' was more a sound effect, as he mimicked her earlier gesture that sent the ketchup bottle skidding towards him. And while he doubted that she ever had done it, he was hoping to get her to smile again.
---
She did smile, looking away from him. She had stopped walking -- he hadn't given her much choice -- and was crossing her arms over her chest. "Yeah... not really. More like hide in a corner."
---
"Bull." He crept closer, and leaned, comically, until he could get in her line of view again. "But I won't push on it. C'mon--I'm sorry. This is a shitty way to end the day. Pretend I didn't say anything?" He was grasping for things to get her to stop thinking now.
"I'm going to go get my camera and take pictures of you again at this rate."
---
"What? No! Psh!" she laughed and reached forward to playfully shove him. "I'm fine! Stop that! I'm totally fine."
---
Even if it didn't come anywhere close to knocking him over, he windmilled a little and yelped. "Ack!"
"Note to self; threatening to use the camera is a handy tool... even if it brings out her dangerous side." Grinning playfully, he got out of her way again so they could continue walking back to the dorms.
---
"So... when are you free next?" she asked, forcefully nonchalantly.
---
"Hmmmmm." He pondered that thoughtfully. "Well I think my schedule's pretty packed with school until Saturday again. Damned school, and all..." He shook his fist in mock aggravation. "Unless we're talking evenings, and then it's after like... five or six. You feel like teaching me anything in the evening?" He put his hand over his heart. "I swear not to splatter any kind of batter on you."
---
Summer's smile had returned. "Evenings are okay," she said quietly, floating closer to the girls' dorm entrance. "Let me know! IM me or something. You're online a lot.."
---
He slowed as she floated, letting her slowly surpass him. "Will-do. And not as much as I was before, thankfully." His grin was rueful.
---
"Haha, well.. good! I'll talk to you soon. Later, Nick." With a wave, after he said goodbye, she turned and skittered toward her room.
---
"Later, Summer!" He waved in turn, and watched her skitter off before he turned and headed back to his own side of the dorms, to his room.