Welcome to Gaia! ::

Funny how sometimes the plans that seemed the simplest were the hardest to pull off. Strange how this made him more skittish than any plans he had as far as fighting senshi or supervising new recruits. Then again, when you were training recruits there wasn’t a risk of burning dinner. Pots clattered as he struggled to keep the things heating in some semblance of order while preparing other things to ‘chase’ them. Chopping the salad had been a mess, much more than he thought vegetables should be strictly allowed to make, never mind trying to shake the dressing and realizing the lid wasn’t quite on.

He checked the time, tasted one of the simmering pots and fetched a spoon and ladled quickly before adding a bit of cheese. Fresh chili, it hadn’t turned out to bad either. He’d wanted to do something fancier like… a good cut of meat but there was always some other day.

He put the bowls on the table and then added small salads and stuffed a tray into the oven to start cooking. If he was lucky the bloody brownies would finish –after- they finished eating and not during.

“Right.” He said and then stared at the door expectant. “Right.”

He swallowed the beginnings of irritation, stuffing them in the normal stew pot of boxed away things that he didn’t think had a purpose in the given moment. A pause so it wouldn’t creep into his voice before he answered with a brief “Kitchen”. It was statement as much as a demand for attendance, immediate attendance at that. He’d put the chili –back- to simmer after 5 minutes, and spent more pacing as the brownies finished cooking and were now cooling as he pushed away from the counter where he’d been leaning at an intersection of cupboards, waiting for something to burn or go awry.

The second he –saw- Ever though was when he was uncertain again, either this would go well or, or maybe Ever would bolt for the door feeling trapped by that awful word “relationship”.

“I made dinner.” He said and retrieved the bowls again. “Theirs…salad, kind of, in the fridge. “Grab a seat, I’ll ladle it out…” he dropped the word ‘again’ though its unspoken presence lingered there at the end.

A pause as he settled a bowl of well-simmered chili at one of the ‘places’ at the table, all the while he watched Ever’s face with an intense study. If it had been to anyone else it might have seemed ‘Rude’, but perhaps by this time for Ever it was ‘just Zac’ who didn’t always seem to remember to blink, or look away. He seldom masked his more studious stares under any pretense of ‘casual observation’.

A small laugh and he shook his head. “You look so…” He paused as though he were toying with the words, struggling to find the perfect one before he plucked it up and spoke it. “Lost.” He said and set another bowl down before retrieving the salads and a few bottles of dressing. “Outstanding, I got all worked up because of the people at the shop too.” He laughed, quietly but sincere as he shook his head. He could have let it slip by without a second glance and he wondered if Ever would –ever- have realized.

“Happy Valentines Day?” He said with a small chuckle “and… happy ‘didn’t burn the chili too actually since I nearly forgot to turn the burner down.” He exhaled in a small sigh only to tense again; shifting between the realizations that it didn’t matter and back into the worry that Ever might head for the door again.

“Or…congratulations on the Rave, though I’m afraid I’m not making dinner for your partner in crime. She can ask my Candy Clerk for that.”

“Yes.” Came the solemn answer and accompanying serious expression. “Serious business chili, dangerous you know. I added…garlic.” He dropped his voice a little at the end, conspiratorial almost and arched an eyebrow like he’d just offered some deep secret to the universe.

“…Actually I think most people are living on chocolate today.” He said with a small scowl at the wall as though the very idea of surviving on chocolate implied that those people attempting it should be dragged out into the street and shot repeatedly with cacao beans. Then again he was still working in the candy store, so many that wasn’t saying much.

“Don’t… panic or anything, pretend it’s the rave. I wouldn’t have thought about it except for WORK honestly.”

He gave a bemused look at the ‘I’m not panicking’ statement but didn’t press. At least he had the wits to know it might make things worse in the long run. He did glance back at the stove and shrug. “It’s been a while, I used to cook for my mother when I had to go home, she lived on TV dinners and honestly that’s why I prefer take out to microwave.” He shrugged. “I can’t do ‘fancy’ really but outside of one … disaster involving an over large turkey I have yet to burn down a kitchen. It’s mostly just following instructions until you get into fancy baking, that’s when I start wanting to kill people.”

He watched Ever poke the chili for a moment. “…It’s not poisoned unless you poke at it too many times, then it’s going to jump out of the bowl and start chewing.” He said with a sort of nervous wry smile that said he was at least a little worried it might not be exactly ‘outstanding’.

“The last week at the candy store has been one big reminder that ‘I should be doing something romantic’, I really didn’t want to bring home chocolate, and I didn’t want to do something like…dinner out. So, I just –made- dinner It’s not really… it doesn’t have to be a big deal, unless the brownies catch fire suddenly” He thought for a moment. “I should do it more often anyhow, I think it was cheaper, unless you count ramen, and we can get a couple meals out of this.”

He looked thoughtfully at Ever though, pondering what the dinners must have been like. “Is it less awkward if I say I raided the discount movie bin? They had collections of 5 and more movies in one box for a few bucks.”

Zac watched his face for a long moment, his eyes sharp and perhaps too focused, the way he sometimes got when you just knew he was sure there was more than he was seeing on the surface of something. The stare that sometimes left people uncomfortable to snarling about it in public places. “I think,” he started and paused. “That you really must have some secret desire to either burn the flat down or make the whole place smell of stale old smoke. Negotiations can happen after dinner in regards to kissing and smoking.” He said with a serious face that didn’t quite match the slight hint of amusement that had crept into his eyes after the scalpel edged stare slowly dulled its edge.

“I still worry too much about what people seem to assign as ‘normal’ I suppose.” He shrugged and then his shoulders relaxed a little, loosing some of the tension he wasn’t quite aware was there until it was gone.

A moment’s thought before he added. “Then again you might have liked some of the ‘novelty normal’ given your collection of atrocious undergarments.”

Zac’s spoon tapped light and thoughtful against the edge of his own bowl, perhaps teasing of Ever’s own action, perhaps no, as he considered the lesson on shopping for cheep boxers. “No, I don’t suppose I can, though, at least you don’t wear the lewd ones, at least not that I’ve ever seen. I guess those don’t go for as cheep anyhow.” He tapped the spoon on the bowl again before taking a spoonful and then nodding his head at the brownies. “…Ice cream in the fridge, they should still be warm enough if you want to add some.” He crinkled his nose slightly though at the thought.

“Unless you’d prefer something else, I’m sure that the brownies can wait.”