[rl] in which teddy and hope have a girls' night in

[primary_concern]

Billy was going to drop Hope off in the kitchen area, and so he'd gone down there to wait for them to show up. He was dressed in his pajamas - a tank top and lounge pants, hoodie slung over his shoulders because the Young Avengers Headquarters had, until very recently been a warehouse, and it hadn't quite warmed up just yet. At least it had a finished kitchen area, a bathroom, and a nice room upstairs that served as a little bachelor suite for Teddy. He had the living room couch in there, against a wall with the TV from the apartment he'd shared with his mother across from it, and his bed from home along another wall. There were video games, his family's whole DVD collection, his computer and his mother's, and enough other amusing stuff to keep him busy.

But what it seriously lacked was people. The warehouse had a way of echoing that didn't sit right with the empty space in Teddy's gut, and sometimes when he heard his voice coming back at him like some kind of mockery, it resonated so deeply with his lingering pain of loss that he couldn't think of anything but the fact that he was an orphan who didn't even belong on Earth.

Having someone come over was a godsend, such a relief, and he knew Billy wouldn't mind if him and Hope snuggled on the couch all night and shared a bed. It was a relief.

So he stood in the kitchen area with his hands in the pockets of his hoodie, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet, and waited.

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[primary-concern.livejournal.com]

He grinned back at her, "Somehow I thought you'd say that. Hmmm, so..."

He crossed the kitchen, beckoning at her to join him, and put on a pot of coffee with automatic, almost mindless movements. It was probably pretty similar to how she was getting with a gun, but...well, a lot less threatening. Pulling open the fridge, he perused the contents - chicken, various vegetables, ground beef, cheese, and a few other things. Smirking a bit, he pulled out the pound of ground beef and knelt to get a pot out of the cupboard, dumping it on the stove.

"I'll cook you one of my specialties then. This is one of those things that seems really fancy but is actually pretty simple. Lasagna. Have you ever heard of it?"

[messiahed]

There is nothing threatening about practicing proper gun safety procedures, Teddy.

Hope followed him to his workplace, though, bending over to lean on the counter on her elbows as he worked. Once he put the beef in the pot she peered over the rim of the pot to see how it cooked, moving it out of his way as he came back to do more.

"Lasagnaaaa," She repeats. "It sounds like something. But I haven't heard of it before I don't think." Unless it was on the cafeteria menu at some point but even if it was it wouldn't compare to whatever Teddy was making her. Especially if it was one of his specialties.

[primary-concern.livejournal.com]

No, no, not at all.

He stirred the meat in the pot and added tomato sauce, still moving with a sort of practiced precision, opening the can and dumping the contents in, then reaching into a high cupboard and withdrawing garlic and oregano, and a few other spices, dashing them in without measuring and putting them away.

"Never heard of lasagna? You're really missing out. It's about the best thing in the world." he said, smiling over at her, "Hey, you want to help me? There's a pot in that cupboard over there, a really big one. Can you put water in it and set it to boil?"

[messiahed]

For awhile Hope watched him work, until he asked her to help him. She had no idea what to do when it came to cooking without a fire, but she was willing to try if it helped Teddy make the dinner. So she went to the cupboard where he'd gotten the other pot from and found the really big one he'd asked her to get out. She filled it with water in the sink before bringing it back to the stove and setting it next to the pot Teddy was working in.

Then she looked a the dials Teddy had used a moment ago to make the stove work. But she wasn't seeing what she was looking for. So she stepped back a bit to bend down low, hands resting on her knees as she looked close at the dials.

"Uh, Teddy. None of these say 'boil'. They just all have numbers on them." Which didn't make any sense to Hope at all. They weren't even temperatures or anything.

[primary-concern.livejournal.com]

He hadn't expected her to REALLY understand how to work the stove - the place she came from seemed pretty primitive, but it didn't bother him. Mostly he wanted to help her feel useful instead of making her just stand around while he cooked.

Still, he couldn't help but let out a soft laugh when she asked how to use the dials, and reached over, pointing it out, "This one's for the burner you put it on, see the little diagram? The numbers are just levels - how much heat you're putting into the coil, from one to ten. To boil the water, just turn it to the highest setting, the most heat. See?" He turned the knob, and smiled at her, "I promise it's not as hard as it seems at first. I was flat-out scared of the stove for probably five years before I learned to tame it."

[messiahed]

"Oh. My. God." She looked genuinely shocked and amazed as the heat came on on the burner. She understood that it cooked the food, but now that she knew a little more how it actually worked she was even more impressed. She was positive there was like a little fire or something but now. Just... dials.

"This thing would have been amazing when I was on the road." She finally managed to wipe the shock off her face, looking a bit more excited and almost bouncing now. "Okay, teach me what else to do. Maybe I'll be able to cook you a meal one day as a favor, huh?" She flashed a grin at him. Because that was a nice idea for her, to be able to make him a meal to thank him for all the things he did for her.

[primary-concern.livejournal.com]

He made a soft laugh, not at her, but in some sort of sympathy for her amazement at the stove - it would probably seem pretty cool where she was coming from, but he just shrugged at her.

"Nah, not this one. It runs off electricity, so it's not exactly portable. There are little camp stoves, but those require fuel too, so a fire would probably be more handy. But uh..."

He stopped talking when she asked him to teach her something else, and mentioned cooking for him. His face softened a great deal, and he looked down at the meat and sauce he was cooking, "That would be really nice. I miss having someone else cook something for me. So um...here. What I did with this pot was to put the meat in, and some tomato sauce - that makes it sort of a thick mixture and I'm heating it up together to cook the taste of the tomato into the meat. If you want, you can stir it so it doesn't burn while I get some of the other things ready?"

[messiahed]

The whole time he explained, Hope genuinely watched him work. She didn't even really listen to any of the teachers on Utopia. But they were all teaching her useless things she already knew. She knew how to survive and how to fight. Nobody had ever stopped to think they should teach her the basics of the modern world. Like how to cook actual meals for yourself. Beyond the edible point, that is.

"I can try?" She shrugged her shoulders as she looked back up at him. She noticed how much more soft he suddenly looked. Like he was really enjoying this time and it made her all the happier. That someone was actually enjoying her presence for once. In a normal way too.

"No promises on not burning but I'll do my best," She smiled as she took over the stirring.