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 Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 1:18 am
She was at his door hours early, bag in hand, eyes bright and motions giddy with anticipation for their trip.
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 1:19 am
aisle be home for
Pushing their little cart through the town's grocery store, America suggested, "Marshmallows, we're definitely gonna make s'mores...there's a fireplace right?" Mostly though, she wanted to take every opportunity this weekend to watch him cook. She wanted to watch his hands work with surety, and listen to the lectures that sounded snooty but boiled down to, look, I really, really love this thing.
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 1:20 am
snow place like home for
There wasn't actually any snow, but that didn't keep her from whispering huskily as she leaned forward, hand on his thigh, "Do you wanna..."
A song suddenly started playing on her phone, "...build a snowman?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 1:22 am
aisle be home for
"Of course there's a ******** fireplace, what do you take me for? Why are these marshmallows different colors if they all just taste like cornstarch?" he added, scrutinizing a bag skeptically before tossing it into the cart anyway.
The selection of the chocolate took much longer, with Taym immediately and violently nixing plain old Hershey's bars and nearly embarking on one of those lectures right there in the store before simply deciding on a variety. "To go with the ********' rainbow marshmallows," he said loftily.
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 1:22 am
snow place like home
He gave her a flat, withering look, a long pause, until--
"Does it have to be a snowman?" he shot back, exactly on time.
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 1:26 am
tender and mild
And he did cook for her, his usual pared-down simple things, off-the-beaten-track combinations, and he lectured her on flavor profiles and pairings as he fed her a freshly-candied hazelnut (a little theatrical; something fun to watch and fun to help with; something that seemed impressive and wasn't), still warm in the middle, with a crumbling slice of blue-veined cheese.
"I had them with fontina when I was a teenager," he told her, licking caramel and crumbs off his thumb as he turned to something else simmering away, "and I never forgot it. Can't remember anything else about that meal, but I guess that was plenty."
He paused, absently twirling a spatula around his fingers (very carefully not ******** with it as far as the food went, true to his own advice). The lectures abated, the snooty restaurant ranting suspended. "Do you like it?" he asked.
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 1:29 am
aisle be home for
You know what goes great with rainbow marshmallows, Taym?
"Oh! Peeps!" Spotting the other sort of rainbow marshmallows, America tossed in packages of deformed snowmen and trees. Eyeing the treats in satisfaction, she sidled up closer to him with a speculative look and hands that playfully tugged at his scarf, "So what else we need?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 1:38 am
snow place like home
Mischief brightening into surprised delight, she planted a festively red lipstick print high on his cheek, right above the beard. "Sometimes I wish you were tiny, just to put you in my pocket and carry you with me everywhere, Obadiah Thompson."
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 1:42 am
tender and mild
She'd watched the process with rapt enthusiasm, eyes wide when the syrup began to drip toward the floor. Actual applause followed when not only did it simply stop right in the air, but turned into a neat little spike of a candy.
Instead of simply eating it in one bite in that way she had, the girl tilted her head to the side and began experimentally touching her tongue to the candy. "Ith's thooooo coooool!"
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 1:53 am
have a beary merryThere was indeed a bearskin rug and she went straight to it, dropping her bag to the side, leaving Taym with the groceries, and flopping right down into the thick fur with a pleased sound. Rolling onto her back, America glanced at the ceiling and then the rest of the cabin. "Taym, come here. There's something I need you to see," she stated firmly with a dramatically stern, serious look.
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 2:43 am
aisle be home for christmas
They needed a lot of things: ridiculously expensive cheese meticulously selected, a couple of bottles of wine (he was remarkably unselective about his wine; whatever snobbery he had apparently failed to extend as far as alcohol) and an offhand observation that they should go to an actual liquor store later; sugar and hazelnuts and a long enigmatic list of ingredients acquired half-haphazardly and half with solemn purpose. He was in no hurry, setting a leisurely pace as he leaned his forearms against the cart and wavered between lazy bickering and hidden grins.
He'd been intentionally avoiding the question of entrees, but it was inevitable. He wound an arm around her waist in casual affection, as reassuring as he could ever manage to be, and pressed his lips to her temple as he turned a package of bacon over in his free hand.
"Could just pick up a couple of portobellos," he observed quietly. "Or some fish. Lobster, maybe." He left the question gently up to her.
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 2:46 am
snow place like home
"I figured that was the idea," he said, in the particular tone of cranky that meant he wasn't cranky at all, "with that belated ********' growth spurt."
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 2:48 am
tender and mild
"Don't play with your food," he admonished. "When mom taught me how to make these one of the twins thought it would be funny to use it as a hair stick. Or a hatpin, I'm not sure what the idea was. Anyway, it had to be cut out. Learn from her mistakes." And then, softening: "I want to know what you think of it."
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 2:50 am
a beary merry christmas
He deposited the groceries on the little island that was almost the entirety of the cabin's counterspace--the place was decidedly on the snug side, because while Taym wanted to blow money he was not actually made of it--and paused to stow the most perishable things away before finally manifesting, stripping off his scarf as he did so and giving her a skeptical look.
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2014 3:02 am
aisle be home for christmas
She stilled and went quiet at the question. Eyes dropping, she finally answered with unhappy honesty, "I don't know if I can, Taym, n' I don't want anything you make me to go to waste." There was still shame in it, the sort that settled in a bit more firmly the longer things went on. It's been months and still, still. The thought of him making her food in that beautiful way he had and her running off to the bathroom or as far as she could get was a ******** nightmare.
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