InsaneJournal

Who: Rikku, Ben (Bahamut), and Yuna
What: A nice family dinner! And Rikku has News!
When: A few weeks ago.
Where: Yuna's Apartment.
Ratings/Warnings: PG for the most part. These guys are just cute.
Status: Complete!


Yuna wasn’t really much of a cook, or at least, she rarely got the time to try it on her own. She really wanted to, though, so instead of taking Ben and Rikku out like they’d planned, she’d gotten her hands on a crock pot. Crock pot cooking was supposed to be really easy, and there were plenty of recipes to try that didn’t seem to take that much skill.

She’d decided on a pot roast, since the seasonings for it all came in a bag, and called them up to let them know what time to come over. Eight hours later, she was nervously setting the table in her small kitchen, hoping that her mashed potatoes weren’t too lumpy and that things tasted okay.

After growing up on Air Force bases, Rikku figured she could probably eat shoe leather and enjoy it. So the idea of eating pot roast and mashed potatoes that Yunie had made was awesome and she was looking forward to seeing Ben, too!

She showed up in jeans and her most clean shirt, having forgotten to do the laundry for a while. After ringing the bell, she bounced on her feet a bit, having never learned the trick of sitting down or being calm.

“Since when does family ring the bell?” Ben asked striding up behind Rikku shortly after she arrived. He chuckled, amused that they had managed to show up at almost exactly the same time. “Long time, no see.”

It was a bit of a shock that anyone was ringing her doorbell at all, and Yuna almost jumped in place before she realised that it was probably just Rikku or Ben.

She headed to the door with equal parts nervousness and excitement, then opened it and smiled beamingly at the both of them, "Hello you two... I thought you'd just come in. It's unlocked, actually... since I was expecting you."

Rikku grinned, wrapping her arms around Ben and hugging him hard. “I don’t want to scare her, silly!” Then Yunie was there and Rikku squawked delightedly, glomping her and launching through the open doorway at the same time.

Ben just laughed, knowing Yuna was probably more startled by the bell than she would have been if they’d let themselves in. She’d probably wondered what salesperson was interrupting dinnertime! But then there were squealing girls, and he just stood back to let them have their moment. “I’d almost forgotten how much noise you two could make,” he teased.

When Rikku finally let her go, Yuna could barely breathe for all the shrieking and hugging that'd gone on. She giggle a bit, taking a moment to recover before shooting Ben a teasing look, "Are you jealous? We could glomp onto you and shriek a little more if you want?"

She did come over to at least hug him, and shut the door.

Teasingly, Rikku squeaked and glomped Ben too, even though she had to jump up a little to do so. He was too high up, that wasn’t Rikku’s fault! A loud growling of Rikku’s stomach interrupted her hugging, and she let herself down onto the floor. “What’re you making, Yunie? It smells aweeeeesome.”

Ben could have probably swung both girls to his shoulders, but that would be telling. He just hugged, and lifted them, slightly off their feet in turn, before letting them go and shooing them inside. He could show off just how high up he could get some other time. "It does smell good."

After both of her feet were safely on the floor, Yuna headed back towards the kitchen. She motioned to the crock pot like she was one of those girls on a game show introducing a prize of some kind, "I have made for us... pot roast. I hope it is... good, I don't really understand what I was doing when I made it. But I followed the directions."

Mashed potatoes were easier, at least. She spooned them out of the pot on the stove and into a big glass bowl, then set them on the table, "It should be done now, I've had it in that thing for hours and hours."

Rikku could cobble together a robot with scrap metal she found at the dump, but she couldn’t cook. Ever. It was like the difference between chemistry and architecture, waltzing and doing the tango - she just couldn’t make her fingers do it right. Either she dumped in too much pepper or not enough water; either way she’d end up ordering takeout, so she usually cut to the chase.

Her stomach rumbling again, Rikku beamed. “Whatever it is, it smells awesome. Way to go, Yunie!”

“Need a hand with anything?” Ben offered, wandering into the kitchen after the girls. “Table-setting? Dish-carrying? Drink-pouring?”

"Hmmm, let's see..." Yuna clasped her hands together and looked around her kitchen, then motioned towards the crock pot, "I think, Ben, that it's traditional for the man of the house to get the meat and cut it up, isn't it?"

She was teasing a bit, but she got a plate down for him to put it on and some various meat forks and spoons to grab it with, then pointed towards Rikku, "And Rikku can handle the soda-pouring duties!"

Rikku gave Yuna a little salute. “Ma’am, yes ma’am!” She looked in the fridge, bouncing a little, happy to just be around her favorite cousins.

“It is, but I’m secure enough in my manhood to allow a lady to carve the meat,” Ben quipped, giving the girls a smirk. There was probably a dirty joke in there somewhere, but he wasn’t going to be the one to point it out. “Just don't shake the bottle too much," he teased, "I remember what happens when you girls get excited.”

“The soda fight wasn’t that horrible last time... alright, I know, I had to replace a few of your t-shirts because they were stained orange and green. But... we’re having a nice dinner, and I can promise that me and Rikku will be on our best behaviour,” Yuna declared, with a sheepish smile in Ben’s direction. The fridge mainly had Coke, Sprite, and root beer in fancy bottles, as far as soda products went. She’d learned her lesson about Rikku and Mountain Dew.

Rikku laughed and poured herself a glass of soda, checking with Ben and Yunie to see what they wanted to drink.

Ben still had a fondness for root beer in glass bottles. He grinned as they went about setting the table, and he carved the roast, serving the ladies before he served himself. “I think this calls for a toast, don’t you?”

"All of us together at one table is always cause for a toast," Yuna said, with a warm smile. She'd pointed out the bottle of Sprite for herself, and took a seat after Rikku was done pouring everything.

Beaming, Rikku held aloft her glass of orange soda. “To us finally being together again!” She loved having her family nearby, and Yuna and Ben certainly qualified.

Ben raised his bottle, touching the neck of it lightly against the rim of Rikku’s glass, then Yuna’s. It was good to meet again, and it would be nice to get to know their little cousin, all grown up. “Hear, hear!”

Yuna grinned and clinked her soda cup against everyone else's, "Here's to us! And... here's to hoping that my pot roast doesn't kill us all."

She added that last bit with an amused smile, and set her cup down on the table. The pot roast still did look and smell good at least, so she had hope that she might not have screwed anything up after all.

While adding a scoop of mashed potatoes to her plate, she grinned at Rikku, "So, now, why don't you catch us up on what kind of trouble you've been getting into?"

“I haven’t been getting into any trouble, why do you think I have?” Rikku bit her lower lip, cheeks going pink. “I’m not a troublemaker, that doesn’t sound like a thing I’d ... do. At all.”

Ben watched Rikku’s reaction, and arched a brow at Yuna. Gee, what would make them think such a thing? He chuckled. “I wonder.”

"I can't imagine why we'd think that," Yuna added, with a bit of a wink in Ben's direction. She giggled and took a sip off of her soda, then indicated how pink Rikku's cheeks were getting with a quick point of her finger, "It's just that if you weren't making trouble, I think you would be blushing less."

“I’m not though! Not trouble, not anything ... bad.” Rikku blushed brightly, wishing she wasn’t so easy to read.

Ben was actually pleased that Rikku was terrible at deception. If she’d been any good at it, he would have been truly worried. As it was, it was all just good, lighthearted teasing. “It’s okay,” he said, “We know you’ll only be able to keep a good secret for so long before you’re just bursting like a bottle of shook up Mountain Dew to tell us.”

"Especially if it's something good. Is it something good?" Yuna thought maybe she'd be the one bursting like a shaken up soda soon - not for any bad reason, but the possibility that Rikku had amazing news made her want to jump up and down a bit, and waiting was only going to make it worse.

“I’m just ... kinda seeing someone,” Rikku laughed. “It’s not bad, just - she’s a little older than me, and she’s shy. I didn’t want you guys to scare her with the whole ‘Rikku’s just a kid, you be careful’ speech.”

"How much older?" Ben asked. Because if it was enough of an age gap to warrant The Speech, then he wasn't going to buy the 'she's shy' story. But if it was only a couple years, well, Rikku was over the age of majority. Ben was just curious.

If Rikku was worried about The Speech then Yuna felt as if the situation probably warranted it. She glanced at Ben, slightly worried, then glanced back at Rikku, "If you're seeing her then she must be wonderful. You should bring her over sometime, and I can try not to kill her with my cooking."

“She’s twenty-fiveish. It’s more that she’s nervous about getting into a relationship because the woman she was married to passed sort of recently.” Rikku wasn’t nervous about that, per se, if only because she was trying to distance herself from the emotional things. She was failing fairly miserably, but denial ran deep.

Ben arched a brow. “Then maybe you should take her feelings into consideration and slow down a bit,” he suggested. “That’s not the kind of thing you just bounce back from.” He shrugged. It wasn’t as if he was an expert on relationships, he’d just seen plenty of them fail because people rushed into things and wound up crying in his backseat. “Call me old fashioned, but if it’s the real thing, then it’s worth the wait.”

Not just crying in his back seat either, there was what happened to Lulu, too. Yuna pushed her mashed potatoes around on her plate a bit with her fork, unsure what to add or what to say that didn't sound overwhelmingly sad. She wanted to be supportive, but at the same time, she had a protective, mother-hen like urge too.

"I think you should take it slowly, but... I do want you to be happy, too. That's as important as anything else. I think... just be careful, that's all. For both of you."

“That’s what I was thinking, too.” Rikku nibbled her mashed potatoes, not ever wanting to stop eating because she was a freaking hummingbird. “I figure we’ll just go at whatever pace is comfy for both of us. If one wants to go slower, we’ll go slower.” Rikku didn’t know what pace they were going at, or what they were. “We’re not even seriously dating, we’re just doing that thing where we hang out a lot.”

“Well, like Yuna said, you’re both welcome to hang out with either--or both--of us,” Ben agreed, smiling. For all her impulsiveness, Rikku had a good heart, and she was growing up. They couldn’t mother her forever. “If it doesn’t seem like too much pressure.”

That was true. Yuna nodded her head in Ben's direction, then scooped up some of her pot roast, "You seem to have a good idea about how you want things to go, so that's good. Maybe sometime soon you can tell us her name, too."

She winked at Rikku, then dug into her food.

“Her name is Kitty,” Rikku shrugged, eating her food. “I’ll bring her by soon, promise. I get to meet her kids soon?” Subtly drop the bomb, then fill her face with potatoes, that was how Rikku rolled.

Ben raised his eyebrows at that. Twenty-fiveish, widowed, with children? “Curiouser, and curiouser.”

Yuna nearly choked on the pot roast she'd been chewing on. That was quite a bomb Rikku'd just dropped! She whacked her hand against her chest and took a sip off of her pepsi, then reminded herself to breathe.

"Well... she's... got all kinds of reasons for wanting to take things slow, so I'm glad that you're respecting that." Yuna said, after a few more seconds.

“Me too.” Rikku said with a mouth full of potatoes.

Ben nodded, and turned his attention back to the meal. They’d just have to let Rikku and Kitty sort things out for themselves. “Good job with the pot roast, Yuna, It’s delicious.”