Lie Ren (bringstheflour) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-02-08 00:28:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, caroline forbes, lie ren |
Who: Ren and Caroline
What: Caroline's sick so Ren brings over some soup
When: February 2nd
Where: Tyler's apartment
Rating/Warning: Low/none
Status: Complete
Finally Caroline was starting to feel better. She was still at Tyler’s. Not ready to risk going home and being around her mom, just in case whatever she had was contagious. Even with what she heard about it being from water, Caroline wasn’t about to take any chances. Not when her mom’s immune system was already compromised. Tyler had insisted she stay with him instead of getting a hotel. While part of Caroline felt bad, like she was putting him out, she had to admit it was nice being there with him. Having someone to take care of her instead of doing everything for herself when she literally felt like death warmed over.
But today was better. While her fever was still there it had gone down, and she wasn’t running to the bathroom every hour. So she agreed to let Ren stop by with some soup. When she heard the knock on the door she got up to answer it, without getting dizzy. Progress. It even brought a smile to the blonde’s face. “Hi,” she greeted Ren still not looking 100%, in sweats with her hair in a messy ponytail. “Come on in,” she added holding the door open to let him enter. Hopefully Tyler didn’t mind that she was having guests at his apartment.
Ren still wasn’t entirely sure what was going on. This last week had been one thing after another, and Ren hadn’t known how he could have possibly helped, other than helping pull people from the rubble after the earthquakes had shaken the county and helping anyone who had fallen prey to those creepy baby angels.
He might not have been able to help a lot of people, but he knew how to help Caroline. He’d spent most of the morning making the soup for her, a chicken noodle soup with a generous helping of ginger to help clear away the last of her illness. He carried it now in a cooler to help keep it warm during the bus ride over here.
“I’m glad to see that you’re on your feet,” he said, stepping into her friend’s spacious, loft-style apartment.
“Trust me, I’m glad to be on my feet.” Caroline had had some serious trouble staying upright for awhile there. It was kind of scary, not that she would ever admit it. “Hopefully I can finally make it to your class,” she added leading Ren to the kitchen table. While he took a seat she went to the kitchen grabbing two bowls out of one of Tyler’s cupboards. Ren might want some soup too. “Thanks for this,” she said bringing the bowls to the table. “You really didn’t have to.”
“Just don’t push yourself,” Ren said. He wanted her in his class, of course, but he wanted her to be at full strength before she came. He knew that even once an illness passed, it could sometimes leave people weakened.
“I’m happy to. It’s good to feel useful,” Ren said, opening the cooler and pulling out the soup. He laddled some of the still warm soup into each of the bowls.
“I won’t. Promise.” There was no way Caroline was going to do anything to compromise her health and risk getting sick again. She needed time with her mom. Well, except for her new job. But hopefully if she was still sick and had to miss a few days they would understand.
Caroline handed Ren a spoon and kept the other for herself, sitting down at the table. Once he dished out the soup she dug in. Caroline finally had her appetite back. And it would be nice to have some soup that hadn’t caught on fire. Only once she took a bite she coughed. It was a little bit on the spicy side. “How much ginger did you put in this?” Caroline asked getting up to get a bottle of water.
“I thought it would be helpful,” Ren said, not off put by Caroline's reaction. While people seemed fine with his regular cooking, that was a reaction that people seemed to have when it came to his health food. “Ginger has many natural properties when it comes to combating colds and flus. It can reduce nausea, it expands the lungs and loosens phlegm, helps absorb the body absorb the other nutrients in the soup, and can help boost your immune system, and is a natural painkiller, among its many other benefits.” Ren took a sip of his own bowl of soup and swallowed thoughtfully. If anything, it probably could have used more ginger.
“Well when you put it like that….” Caroline half teased. She wasn’t particularly sure how she felt about talking about phlegm when she was trying to eat. It was enough to make her nauseous all over again. Still with all the health benefits Ren just listed it sounded like Caroline was going to have to suck it up, literally. Especially if she wanted to be recovered in a few days. “How’s you learn so much about ginger?” Hopefully he hadn’t gone out of his way to google best soup recipes for the flu just for her.
“I enjoy cooking,” he answered her, which was at least part of the answer. He’d done a lot of reading on how to eat healthy for relatively cheap when he was a child and he and Nora had been on the street. They didn’t have insurance and they couldn’t afford hospital bills, so learning how to prevent illness before it affected them had been one of the more important lessons he’d learned. He had read quite a lot of the matter as a child. “It’s an acquired taste, but it is quite good once you get used to it,” he said, spooning more soup into his mouth. At least, he thought so. Nora never had acquired the states for it.
“I’m not sure I can get used to it,” Caroline commented but she still took another bite. Whatever it took to get better. She choked down the ginger soup with another sip of water. “What else do you like to cook?”
Ren smiled a little at Caroline’s comment, but chose not to respond. At least she was trying, which was more than Nora did half the time. He could cook almost anything, but, well… “A lot of pancakes,” he answered. They were cheap to make, delicious, and filling. Now that Nora had a better paying job, they didn’t need to rely on pancakes so much, but they’d become something of a tradition between them. “My roommate is very fond of them.”
“Pancakes and soup,” Caroline replied. “That’s quite the combination.” She took another sip of her water, cause damn that was a lot of ginger. “Do you put ginger in your pancake batter too? Or is that just a soup thing?”
“I don’t make them together,” Ren said, his lip quirking a little bit. “It’s just a chicken, noodle, and ginger soup thing.” Well, except when other recipes called for ginger, but he wasn’t going to get into all of them. “I don’t use that much ginger in most of my cooking, but as this was to help you recover from your illness, I thought it would be prudent.”
Ren stood up when the light in the large living room window changed, and he walked to the window so he could gaze out of it. It had seemed like so long since he’d seen the sun that it was almost dazzling at first. For a moment, he thought that he saw snow, but as his eyes adjusted to the light of the sun, he realized that it wasn’t snow falling gently from the sky, but feathers, pure white. It really was quite beautiful.
“That’s what I thought. Ginger pancakes sound pretty gross.” No offense to anyone that liked them if that was even a thing. She had no idea. “But I’m sure your pancakes are delicious.” Especially if they were ginger free.
Caroline noticed the light change as well, following Ren to the window. The sun was back! And it was snowing? Odd. “Is that, snow?” she asked even though the answer was obvious. What else would it be?
“I will have to make them for you sometime,” Ren said. Though, now that he was thinking about it, gingerbread pancakes might not actually be so bad. He would have to try to make them at some point; if nothing else he was sure that Nora would enjoy them.
Ren looked at Caroline when she mentioned snow, a question on his face. Then, he looked back outside. No, it definitely looked like feathers, and not like snow at all. It seemed strange that she would see snow whereas he could see the feathers falling softly to the ground. “Whatever it is, it seems like a good sign,” he said after a moment. “Perhaps it means that all of this is over.”
“I hope so,” Caroline agreed. But even as the words were out of her mouth she had a feeling that it was definitely over. Even she was starting to feel better. Like a lot better than she had just a few hours ago. But then, that could just be the ginger.