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Mau was in the kitchen, just idly cooking. His cooking partner today was a pink pichu that currently was trying to peel a potato with his teeth. Mau chuckled as Que toppled over, sparking wildly as he gnawed on the spud. There was no real reason Mau was cooking so much tonight. Though now that he'd made more than one person could eat, he pondered seeing if Nyx was hungry. He paused a moment, hearing a jolteon outside the door. He cast his narrow eyes towards the door. When it opened, Mau stood upright. It didn't seem like the boy had noticed him.

"PI!" Que suddenly rolled off the counter, dropping the potato before trying to climb up Mau's pants to get back to the counter. Well, the Pichu's cry probably would have gotten the boy's attention, so the tall agent stood up, looking at the boy with a neutral expression.

"Good evening." He greeted mildly, glancing between the boy and the jolteon.

Mau canted his head slightly as he looked over the boy as he began his explanation of why he was here. "No reason not to be here." He shrugged. "That is, if you want food, but not the stuff from the cafeteria." His eyes were drawn to the jolteon and he smiled softly. This jolteon seemed so much more confidant then his own, Ire. "I'm not going to send you off, if that's what you're worried about." He returned his eyes to what he was doing; rolling ground beef mix into large green leaves. "This? Stuffed grape leaves." He folded the ends of the leaves over and set it aside with a small pile of others. "Would you like to try some?" He offered. The kid was pretty gangly looking. Probably a new recruit off the street or something.

While his trainer was working on the food, Que slipped away from Mau again and poked his nose closer to the jolteon. He knew a jolteon! She chased the noisy pokemon around and was nice to snuggle. "Chuu?" He wondered if this pokemon could be snuggled too. So Que carefully came closer, crawling on his belly towards Lindsay.

There was a look Mau remembered. He'd been younger than this kid when he was living off the land, as it were. While he had been on a pokemon journey, sure, he never had money. "Wouldn't have offered it if i wasn't sure." He said mildly, then snorted in amusement, which quickly grew to deep laughter. "This is just the kitchen, kid. I only came here to make something for dinner. And where's the fun in dining alone?" The plate of rolled grape leaves had, what Mau thought was, an adequate number, he began to clean up.

"Trainees don't make much." He stated, remembering when he was demoted and came to Kodo. "At least, other then up in the cafe, food comes with living here." With most of the dishes he'd dirtied at least set in the sink to soak, he washed his hands again before fetching the boy a plate. When asked if he was a cook, and the boy's hasty insistence that he'd pay, Mau shifted his weight and looked directly at the boy. "Who said this was charity? No, you're going to have to work to repay me for this." Part of him was teasing. The boy's pride was pretty funny to him. "You have to work hard, get promoted, before I feel you've worked off your debt. After all, everything's for Team Rocket. Can't have a half starved whelp dragging us down." He gestured for the kid to come closer.

"Actually, I work in the labs. Got a might bit domesticated before joining Team Rocket, and I like cooking. So nights when I'm not pulling extra hours in the lab," Or taking Nyx out for dinner "I tend to cook something for myself. Otherwise I'll hit up the cafe. I work with enough mysterious meat parts in the lab that I don't need to have them for dinner." with that, he set a the plate down for the boy.

Cue froze and looked up at the jolteon. "Chu? Pichu chuu." He said, explaining that he wasn't sure if it was ok to greet her, not wanting to offend her or anything. But now that she didn't seem like she'd eat him, Que crawled closer and settled himself between her front paws, curling up contently. "Chu." And like that, Que deemed her his new friend.

At the boy's question, Mau shrugged. "I don't question why it's here. I just use it. And glad that I can. Just have to be sure not to leave food around for more than a few hours, or else someone's likely to take it." Of course, this was a criminal organization. If it wasn't for Team Rocket, it was for yourself, and he held no one at fault for taking unmarked food. When the boy seemed settled, Mau dished up some of the food for him, and slid the plate in front of the boy. "No matter the rank, you don't make much. If you wanted money, then you shouldn't have joined team rocket. Earn more doing that honest living stuff."

The boy's total lack of missing the tease amused Mau even more. He simply smiled though, as if it was a secret why this kid being promoted would help him personally. Of course, it wouldn't help him, and he could honestly care less, unless the boy was assigned to the labs. "Ya got a lot to learn kid. There's no such thing as 'man's work' or 'women's work' in the real world. Everyone does what they can, what they have to." And Mau had to cook according to his ex wife. But who really needed to know that?

"Mau." he said after the kid gave his name. "Just call me Mau. Dig in." He glanced over to the two pokemon, who were getting along it seemed, so he turned his attention back to the boy, Shadow as he introduced himself. "Finger food." He added, picking up one of the rolls and taking a bite. It had been worth it to try and find grape leaves in Kodo. It took some doing, but oh, how worth it this was.

Que looked up a t the Jolteon when she addressed him again. "Chuu? Pi pi chu pichu." Que had learned his place rather quickly with bigger, stronger pokemon he had. and he liked the Jolteon his trainer trained. She was nice, and he liked Jolteons because of that, so wasn't that enough of a reason to be polite to this jolteon? "Pi! Pi pi chu pi." The tall human, his trainer, had been nice, and taught him how to act. He didn't want any of his pokemon to wander off and get hurt by anything, or any other pokemon, so he was taught how to behave, and when to back away.

"Trouble? I'm not really worried about that. If I was going to get in trouble, I'm sure using the kitchen would be the lowest offense on the list." After all, there were so many fun things one could do in the labs to get into more trouble. ...If he were looking to do so. Which Mau currently was not. "It's good you're not doing it for money. Even though what we do is for profit, it's not really our own..." He trailed off watching the kid start to devour the food. "... you're going to choke if you aren't careful." So he had been right. The kid was pretty bad off.

"Look, I'm sure at some point we will be on a mission together. And if that happens, you had better be in better shape then you are now, so that if we're in a tight spot, you don't get us killed. It's really as simple as that. Since every thing is for team rocket, giving you food, is helping the team. You owe me no personal debt." Maybe he was being too nice. But the last thing Mau needed was someone thinking they needed to pay Mau special favor to repay him for something. Last time someone tried to do something nice for him, she had been attacked by an escaped lab experiment. No, he didn't need that again. That was a mess.

He watched as the kid jumped when his jolteon jumped up on him after offering it food. "Jumpy?" He said mildly. He had been thinking on correcting the kid. It wasn't 'agent Mau' because that just seemed too formal. But maybe he should actually throw his weight around a little. "You had your pokemon long? She looks to be in pretty good shape."

When Lindsay jumped away to her master, Que only stared a moment. He didn't get to answer her question! Maybe she didn't really care what the answer was. Que got up and hopped over to Mau, climbing up the tall man's pants and arm so he could rest on Mau's shoulder, little paws waving towards the food. He wanted some too! Mau looked at the Pichu out of the corner of his eye before tearing one of the wraps and handing the mouse a small piece. Que grabbed the food and rolled off Mau's shoulder, spilling much of the contents of the wrap before eating what was left in his hands, then working on cleaning up the counter of the spilled food bits.

Mau simply offered a smile as this boy, Shadow was it, slowed down eating. "You don't need to be so embarrassed." He tried assuring the kid. It wasn't like he was the first person to have hit hard times before joining Team Rocket. "Eat slower, and you won't make yourself sick." He watched Que cleaning up the spilled food while Shadow continued to speak. "I never said you didn't look like much. Looks can be deceiving and I'm sure it's more true in Team Rocket than anywhere else." He thought about the few other members he knew. After all, they had an adorable mad scientist, a stern-faced psychopath who seemed to be haunted by an invisible eevee, and a gear head who seemed far too nice to actually be a rocket.

But the next bit of information offered caught Mau slightly off guard. So the kid had been living on the streets, and got scared of pokemon then. "I take it you probably hate ghost types above all else." He said casually. "As long as you can control your fear to where it doesn't interfere with your duties or our operations..." He shrugged. "Well, a loyal partner like her will help you greatly. You'll form a bond, and eventually, you may take on other pokemon."

He was about to pet Que when Shadow inquired about the pichu. "Why do I have one? Because Raichu don't hatch from eggs." He said with a completely serious face. "A fellow rocket gave me one of her Pikachu's eggs, and when he grows, he'll be a valued member of my team. But for now, I'll continue to work with listening and obedience. Que here is actually a fairly recent addition to my crew. Pretty soon though, we will start training." He supposed that he still retained some whims from when he was a trainer, preferring to raise his pokemon carefully by hand.

Que cocked his head when Lindsay returned. In his moment of food-glee he had forgotten about her. Chu? He could understand coming when called. It's what any good pokemon would do. ... Neither Nuu or Uta were good pokemon though. Mau was always yelling at them. Pichuu? Pi chu chuu. Que thought it was normal to be close with one's trainer, and since he'd been good and patient and helpful, wasn't it only fair that he got fed? Mau hadn't said no. AND! And he helped make it! Suddenly Que was confused. Why should he have waited?

He nodded when the other agreed that slowing down was a good idea, and let that strain of conversation drop. "You know, ghosts aren't so bad... when trained. Keep that in mind. Maybe I'll introduce you to my drifblim." She may not have been the best behaved pokemon, but she was still better than many ghosts. "Keep working at it, and you'll succeed. I'm sure. You've already made progress. Your Jolteon, my Pichu."

He folded his arms, listening to what 'Shadow' said on eggs and raising one's own pokemon. "Well, if you start raising an egg, then get promoted when you have a baby pokemon, would you give it to a lower rank to raise? Or would you raise it? I'd rather raise a pokemon myself so I understand what it can and cannot do, and it will preform better knowing it would trust me. After all, my safety depends on my pokemon." His mind flickered to a very disobedient and somewhat troublesome growlithe. Sure he was a special case, but...

As Shadow began to take care of the dishes, Mau hid a smile. He took charge, didn't need to be told. "You'll do just fine here, I'm sure." He said, picking up his own palate. He took the last two rolled leaves off the plate and set them near Que and Lindsay. "Enjoy." He said softly to the pokemon as they seemed to be in their own conversation. Sometimes Mau wondered what pokemon said when they spoke. Maybe he'd experiment on that later. He deposited the plate in the sink before rolling up his sleeves, washing up, and looking for a clean towel to dry the dishes when Shadow finished washing. "Next time you'll have to stop by sooner, and you can learn to make something like that yourself."

"Pichu pi." The little pokemon wavered his ears a little. He knew that his human was special. Everyone trained differently with Mau. "Chu chu? Pichu cha? Piii..." Was Lindsay's trainer nice? Did she meet mean trainers? Que hoped not.

When Mau deposited the last tidbits to them on the floor, Que perked up, grabbed them and rolled them over to Lindsay. "Chu!" There was one for each of them! Wasn't that great?