InsaneJournal

"I cannot use my claws to chop carrots."
Who: Laura, Cass
What: That last bit of packing before moving!
When: 6/12
Where: Their old condo (now Jem's condo!)
Rating/Warnings: PG-13.
Status: Complete!


Cass was extremely happy, not only that Laura was back safely, but also that she was no longer a man. That had been even stranger than the time her and Vi had swapped bodies. At least that time she had still been a woman, but being a man was extremely different. She’d had to make adjustments to, not only the way she talked or did just about anything normally, but also her fighting technique when they had gone in to rescue Laura. Luckily it hadn’t lasted long and Cass was back to herself again and Laura was back from visiting with one of her other friends and they were attempting to finish up their packing so they could finally move into their new house and let Jem and his friend move into the condo.

The last five days or so had been a kind of emotional roller coaster for Laura. Her friends had come to rescue her, but she'd nearly attacked them. The fact that they'd been men at the time didn't really help her in either direction. She should have been able to smell them, and there was the added confusion of them being male.

It was actually a little humorous, but Laura wasn't in the mood to laugh about anything. She'd been nearly ambushed by Logan on the way back from Eothain's, and now she was just glad to be back in a familiar place with a familiar friend who understood her. And was back to her old self.

Packing helped her mood a little. There was still the potential to put her kidnapping behind her and focus on the new life they were building. At the moment, they were packing up the kitchen, "I should learn to cook after we move. We hardly ever seem to use these pans."

“We could always take a cooking class.” Cass said as she wrapped plates and set them in a box, “That’d be kind of fun.” Cass could make things like macaroni and cheese or other things that had instructions on the box, but actually cooking from scratch in the oven was a different story. While she had been living with her parents, her dad had had her on a very strict diet so cooking was something that Cass had never had to do.

"I think it would be a good alternative to buying take out food all the time. In the dreams, I grew up on bland nutrient paste, and my mothers' cooking was not that much better." Laura said, so flatly that it was hard to know if she was joking or not. She actually liked their cooking, but now that she'd grown up a bit she was beginning to realise her tastes were growing, too.

And she was really looking forward to getting to eat real food again, "I am going to eat an entire pizza and three steaks when I can eat again. We should learn how to cook our own pizza. Steaks are easy as long as you remember to flip them."

“Now that would be fun. I’d love to learn to make pizza.” Cass said as she finished packing the plates and moved on to the bowls, “I could actually eat a whole pizza probably.” All of the gymnastics plus martial arts abilities she’d inherited from the dreams seemed to give her a slightly faster metabolism considering she was doing more each morning when she practiced.

"We work out so often that we could probably afford to eat two entire pizzas, each," Laura agreed. She'd finished packing all the pans into a box, and now she glanced around the kitchen, unsure where to go next, "Did we already get the kitchen tools? I could put them in here with the pans if we have not. We should buy a pizza stone. I think we will need one of those in order to make the pizza correctly. And... I think we will need some better knives, too, if we decide to get serious. I cannot use my claws to chop carrots."

That was a joke, and she managed a smile for Cass when she looked at her.

“No, but your claws would be good for shish kabob,” Cass smirked as she also finished packing the bowls, “I think they’re still in the drawer. I’ve just been working on the plates and bowls right now. I haven’t gotten to any kind of utensils.” She was really happy that the move was going according to schedule and couldn’t wait to be in the new house and decorate and just get to make it their own.

"Hmm. They would, but then I would have to stand still while things were cooking. I'm not sure how I feel about that," Laura agreed, with a bit of a smirk. She knew that in the dreams she'd gotten comfortable with them to the point of using them to cut sandwiches in half and open beers, but using them to cook shish kebab was a mental picture that was very amusing.

And very wrong.

She made her way over to the utensils drawer and started picking up various spatulas, carving forks, and wooden spoons, "Is it strange that I'm looking forward to deciding what drawer in the new house these will go back in?"

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. That’d probably get really boring real quick.” Cass moved her box to the kitchen table and picked up the marker there to right Kitchen on the side before she balled up more newspaper to put around the top of the box, “No, I don’t think that sounds strange at all.” She smiled over at Laura then proceeded to close the box and tape it up. “What else in here needs to be packed?” She asked, turning to scan the kitchen.

"Hmm." Laura scanned the room as well. Most of the cupboards were bare at that point, and she'd just finished emptying the last drawer. She closed the box she'd been filling, and stole away the marker so that she could write 'Kitchen' on hers, as well.

"I... think this room is done." Laura sounded a little sad about that. Almost everything was packed and ready to move to their new life, but that meant there'd be time where there wouldn't be anything to keep her busy. She scrunched her nose up at that, "Is your room finished?"

Cass nodded, “Yeah, pretty much. I just have to finish packing my clothes,” In the year and a half that Cass had lived in the condo, she still had some things she hadn’t been able to unpack so she had at least two boxes in her closet from when she’d first moved in so those were all ready to go, “What about your room?”

There hadn't been much for Laura to pack, and she shook her head, "I came here with what I could fit in saddlebags, and have only bought a few more things since then. Mostly clothing. There were some things of Jubilee's, but those are... now in boxes."

She was worried about Jubilee, truth be told. The Cerberus agents had shown her pictures. They knew where she was, and she might be in immediate danger. It made her hands twitch a bit. It didn't seem right to worry this much about someone who'd left her.

"We could probably go today, if we wanted. It will not take us much time to get the car loaded. Not with our combined strength."

“We probably could.” Cass didn’t know as much about this Cerberus as Laura and the others did, but what she did know worried her as well. However, if she learned anything from the dreams, it was that they couldn’t live in fear and would deal with things as they came along. “It’d be nice to spend the night in our new place.”

"Even if everything wasn't unpacked, we could get our beds settled and sleep there, under a new roof." Laura nodded her head at that idea, and tucked some hair behind her ear.

Randomly, she asked, "It's a house, so we can have pets if we want, at the new place? Can't we?"

“I don’t see why not. I mean, we own the place now.” It wasn’t like they were renting an apartment or anything like that. They could do what they wanted with the house now and that included getting a pet, “What were you thinking?” Cass had never had a pet before, because her father had believed it’d be a distraction from her training.

Laura perched up on the (now somewhat distressingly empty) counter, and pushed her hands together into a fist on her lap, "The day that I came home from Eothain's place... I was not in a good mind set. I'm still not sure that... I am, but I had heard that there was a dog fighting ring nearby. I took a stop to break it up. Logan caught me and helped, which was good. I actually needed the help."

She wrinkled her nose. Admitting that was hard, but it was a good step, "The dogs there had been abused and pushed to fight each other. One of them that we rescued is this... very nice pitbull. It likes me. When it's ready to be in a home again, I was thinking we could adopt him. I named him Gambit."

Cass hated the thought of someone hurting animals, but the fact that Laura had helped to save them and wanted to adopt one made her smile, “I don’t see why not. Maybe once we’re settled, we could go over to whichever shelter he’s at and take a look at him.” If they were going to adopt the dog, Cass wanted to meet him beforehand, but considering how Laura talked about him, she already figured that it’d be very difficult to say no.

"I didn't take him to a shelter. Logan and I agreed that the shelter would most likely euthanize the poor dogs because of what they were made to do. Instead, we brought them all to the outreach center and I will be looking after them there." It gave her something to do with her time, at least, since she'd lost her other job.

She nodded her head, though, understanding why Cass would want to meet him, "I can introduce you to him after we get settled, and you can see what you think. I think he will like you, but it's probably better to make sure we'll all get along before I bring him home with me."

“That makes sense.” Cass said in response to the dogs having been brought to the outreach center, “But yeah, I’d like to go over there once we’re settled in. I think our yard will be good for a dog too. Plenty of room for him to run around and play.” Cass was actually excited at the prospect of getting a dog cause it made the whole house thing feel even more real.

The idea that Cass was on board with this made Laura momentarily forget herself enough to grin. She hopped off the counter and picked up the box of pans she'd packed, "Good! I think it's more of a home when there are pets sharing the space, too, and he can be a good house protector when we cannot be there."

She stacked the other boxes on top of the one she'd already lifted up with her one hand, and motioned towards the door, "Let's get the truck packed! The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can be home."

At home, in their real home, where they could start fresh.