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The appointment had taken no time at all, and Tourmaline had been able to head by the local farmer's market and hit Vicky's Semi-annual sale before the sun even threatened to go down. That way, by the time she had shoved her way into the house carrying the day's booty, she was only about half frozen. In the winter, that achievement was considered a success to the Skullmonkey.

Dumping the grocery bags on the counter and heading upstairs, Tourma shrugged off her jackets and thermal shirts until she wore only her leather riding pants and an undershirt. The discarded clothes were tossed on her bed along with the rest of her bags before she made her way across the house to Ken's room.

It took her a large chunk of her self control in order to keep herself from cackling, much less smiling while walking there. After a deep breath, Tourmaline knocked on the door while pushing it open, poking her head in to survey the situation before finally speaking. "So, did you pick up the tampons for me?"

Having been raised in a rather unconventional manner and being a part of a seemingly never ending family, Tourmaline had no problem living with boys. Granted, males never really asked you to do embarrassing things like buy tampons or Midol.

Tourmaline looked slightly amazed at the confirmation, and, eager to persist the awkward situation, she went to retrieve the box from the bathroom. Moments later, the teen strolled back into his room and leaned against the door frame comfortably while she inspected the box.

"These aren't the ones I usually buy."

The statement came out as if Ken had just informed her that he had run over 3 squirrels and the neighborhood cat, though it was initially meant to be a simple observation. Clearly, Ken had no enlightenment on the extreme differences between cardboard and plastic applicators. Nor did he know that this was her idea of a joke.

She set the box down on the nearest flat surface and peered at him with a neutral face for a moment before her eyebrow raised and the corner of her lip twitched upwards, but only slightly. He was going to hate her.

"Well, I assume you noticed the massive variety while at the store..." Tourma kept her voice as un-insulting as possible as she took the liberty to walk into his room and cleared off a section of the bed, which creaked disapprovingly as she sat down and got comfortable.

"See, the thing is that when a girl is on her period, some days she bleeds a LOT more than others, which would require a super or super PLUS... And then others it's rather chill, but still bleeding enough to need one of the regular or light ones. Then there are some that are scented for obvious reasons, but the most important tampon feature is the applicator."

There was a pause as she offered him a stern look for emphasis before continuing, "Always, ALWAYS buy one with an applicator, because really... Who wants to shove a long wad of cotton up a bloody ho-ha with their finger? Gross." Tourma made a series of descriptive hand gestures followed by a disgusted face, as if that had been the only gross part of her explanation.

"Personally, I like plastic applicators," she added as an afterthought.

When she was finished, she simply propped herself back on her elbows and watched the rest of his reaction. The corners of her lips quivered as they fought off a smile, but her eyes practically glowed with victory.

To say that she got some joy out of his response was an understatement, because she was about to bust her side open in silent laughter. His utter defeat, however, caused her to clear her throat in order to kill her impulse to continue to laugh.

Enough torture for leaving the seat up and dribbling a bit.

"Anyways," she trucked on as if the topic of conversation had been normal, "I was going to cook dinner and then watch a movie if you wanted to drag yourself away from the..." Her face scrunched up in thought as she tried to remember the term Sanura had used, lighting up slightly once she remembered. "Interwebs ...and, you know interact with tangible people. Though if you don't want to, I'd understand."

As she said this, she shrugged and her eyes wandered over to his computer screen, as if curious to see what actually kept him glued to it for such long periods of time.

A tilt of her head and a raised eyebrow accompanied the noise associated with the odd stack of blocks on the screen. Apparently, he had been losing. Just as well, because she hated eating dinner alone. It reminded her of her parents and siblings, and then she felt a pang of guilt for staying behind in combination with a deep longing for their company.

"Awesome then," she exclaimed a little too enthusiastically as she pushed herself back on her feet, causing the bed to groan again. "Let me take off these pants and I'll meet you downstairs in the kitchen. Can you start washing the veggies on the counter?"

Her tail swished lazily behind her as her right hand went to her button, lingering there as she peered at him and waited for a response.

"Stir fry," she replied with a grin, following him out and heading the opposite way towards her room across the house. The moment he couldn't really see too well, she began to unbutton and remove her pants. Since she kept the house a little toastier than usual in the winter, her pants were quickly becoming bothersome and uncomfortable.

Five minutes later, she appeared in the kitchen in a pair of low riding, cut-off sweatpants that while they appeared clean, looked as if they had seen better days. Out of habit, she pulled on the apron from the hook next to the pantry, tying it around her waist while she surveyed the progress in the kitchen.

Absently, she grabbed a baby carrot from its bag and popped it into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully. "So I'm thinking of attempting to start a vegetable garden, or rather... Reviving my mom's old one. What veggies don't you like?"

Bending over to search in a cabinet, she dug around a bit before pulling out a cast iron wok and a couple of bowls.

She offered him a bowl for the peppers as she began to halve the baby carrots and toss them into a separate bowl. Unlike the twins, she loved to cook things aside from pasta and sauce. Then again, Tourma had found that the more time and effort she put into a dish of food, the more likely she would be to want to eat it, and enjoy it.

"Yeah, radishes are a bit out there. Best on salads with balsamic, if you ask me, and not much else." She remarked while finishing up the carrots and moving onto the mushrooms. At the mention of Ray being out, the Skullmonkey glanced up from her chopping. "How's the car running, by the way?"

Recently enough, she had noticed a spot of something that wasn't oil or water underneath where the twins' car usually situated itself. For all she knew, it could have been anything from coolant to windshield washing liquid. Hopefully it was just the latter, or something equally as non-destructive.

"That's disgusting," she commented while chuckling softly, "But that's good. I'll check it out sometime soon anyways, it's leaking something."

Catching a glimpse of the falling sun out the window, she sighed wistfully. "I can't wait till it's springtime and I can actually go outside without looking like that kid from A Christmas Story." Tourma held her arms out and mimed walking like someone wearing 30 layers of clothing might before returning to chopping.

"That and being able to ride my sexy beast around out at night." She closed her eyes and smiled, imagining herself finally getting to cruise around town on her bike. Shaking her head, the teen made a sort of coughing noise and opened her eyes, appearing sheepish. "Sorry, I tend to think tangentially and ramble at the same time, but back to what I had been saying... Have you ever ridden on a motorcycle?"