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 Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 4:01 pm
Her kitchen wasn’t what one would call big. Actually, it was a decent size for her age and her income, but there definitely wasn’t room in there for all the people in her house right now. So, in conclusion, she’d banished all of them to sit at her little dining room table while she consulted this recipe. “I don’t think I’m much for cooking,” she said to herself; the motions she was making weren’t familiar, they were a little difficult even. She had spent the morning triple-checking that she had all the right ingredients. Then she panicked, and checked again. At three, she’d chopped up fruit, mixed it, and refrigerated it. At four, she cut tortillas into shape, covered them with butter and cinnamon sugar, and laid them out on the tray.
She decided that, even if the guests weren’t due to arrive until four thirty, she should probably get everything settled. This was her first time hosting… anything… since her rebirth as Vanya Morgenstern. It helped that she’d sort of stacked the deck with Finn (who she felt positive towards for reasons she still couldn’t quite figure out) and Paul, who she knew from her… extracurricular activities. Paul had asked to bring a friend, and Vanya wasn’t going to say no. Everyone knew how standoffish Spinel was, and if he felt comfortable bringing his girlfriend with him…
Goodness. Vanya adjusted her bun and checked on dinner. Vegetarian, all of it, because--she’d been told that Paul’s girlfriend was vegetarian and also because she’d looked up what kosher was and how to keep it. (It seemed important at the time.) The whole ‘kosher meat’ had seemed so… intimidating. And she couldn’t serve dairy and meat in the same meal anyway, right? “Finn,” she said, leaning out of the kitchen. “Could you get the door? I think Paul and his girlfriend are here.”
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Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 4:02 pm
Finn wasn’t exactly sure when or why Vanya had gotten the urge to host a dinner party, but he lived here now and was obliging her by attending. While he had his own friends, he assumed that the young teacher ran in an entirely different social circle and there would be no harm in meeting some of it. Besides, the apartment had smelled incredible all day. (There had been… a moment of weirdness earlier when she’d asked him if he kept kosher. Finn, as far as he recalled, had never once discussed religion with her, but he admitted he used to and had lapsed while living in Alaska. Vanya said she was sure he’d mentioned it at some point and just didn’t remember.)
He opened the door, and the first person who came into view was a tall man with black hair - “Paul, I assume?” Finn asked, and then he noticed the woman standing beside him. Tallulah Cowden still looked a little bit frailer than he was used to her looking, but she was unmistakable. How long had she been back in town? And Paul’s girlfriend? “Hey, Tallulah,” he said.
“Hey, Finn,” Tallulah said back. She was, likewise, surprised to see him. Although she’d known he was back in town, their social circles in civilian life didn’t exactly cross all that frequently. She’d been a year behind him at Meadowview and involved in entirely different clubs, after all. “You’re um… You’re Vanya’s roommate?” Not that she had ever met Vanya, but Paul wanted to take her to meet a friend of his and that was a Girlfriend-y thing to do and so she was fully invested.
“For the next month or two,” said Finn, waving them in. “I’m just subletting. I’m going to go back to Fairbanks for the spring semester.”
“We went to Meadowview together,” said Tallulah, for Paul’s benefit. “Paul, this is Finn Derouen. Finn, this is Paul Wyndham.”
“Nice to meet you,” said Finn, eying Paul up and down. He looked smart and aristocratic and he and Tallulah probably deserved each other. “I’m going to go see if Vanya needs any help.”
He left them in the living room and poked his head into the kitchen. “Hey, they’re here,” he said.
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Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 4:02 pm
“You know each other,” Paul asked, once Finn had cleared out to the kitchen. That was something he hadn’t suspected; he’d just wanted company because he had no idea why Vanya would have specifically asked him of everyone she knew in the Negaverse. He had no doubt she’d asked someone else. Or he hoped she had, because otherwise… awkward. He’d dated Vera for so long, and now Tallulah, and… to be honest, Vanya wasn’t really his type. Which was why he’d wanted to bring his girlfriend along. “Meadowview, then,” he said. He’d done a year at Sovereign Heights--it’d make sense that he’d never seen either of them before now, really.
Vanya peered out of the kitchen and waved them towards the small table at the back of what he’d guess was the living room. So he dipped his head and kissed Tallulah lightly on the mouth before leading them to two of the dining room seats. “Do you want something to drink,” Vanya asked, and then in a lower voice, she said, “Finn, could you get the pitcher out of the fridge?”
“Thanks for letting me know,” she said to Finn, once he got back from the dining room. She was scooping cinnamon chips off the aluminum foil-covered tray, dropping them carefully into a bowl that matched the bowl of fruit salsa at her left hand. “I really appreciate it. Okay, so, take these in and then you can sit down, I’m almost done with everything else.” Vanya handed over the bowls and then turned back to her skillet.
Paul smiled at Finn when he came back out. “So, Fairbanks. What are you studying there?”
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Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 4:03 pm
“Yeah, we run into each other now and then and gossip about old classmates,” shrugged Tallulah, debating quickly what she could and couldn’t safely share about how she and Finn were acquainted. “We’ve got some friends in common. I took his boyfriend to prom senior year of high school, which I guess sounds like an episode of a sitcom but probably isn’t that interesting a story.” It wasn’t a story. She and Andrea had been attacked by a youma and never even made it to the dance.
Spontaneous kissing was definitely a perk of dating. Tallulah sat down at the table to Paul’s right. “How do you and Vanya know each other?” she asked, watching Finn head towards the kitchen. She wasn’t exactly sure how Finn knew Vanya, but it probably had something to do with his worrying tendency to trust people he met on Craigslist sight unseen.
Finn came back with the pitcher, and started pouring glasses of sangria for all the place settings. “Wildlife management and conservation,” he answered, wiping the bottom of the pitcher with a paper towel before setting it down. “I’m planning to be a park ranger, and there’s not really any better place in the country to study for that.”
He looked over his shoulder to check if Vanya was coming. “Do you need any help?” he called.
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Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 4:03 pm
“We went to high school together in Montreal,” he said, tentatively trying what looked like fruit salsa. He’d never thought of Vanya as a cook, but that wasn’t bad. “Try that,” he said to Tallulah, “it’s actually pretty good.” It was the story they’d come up with, anyway, because certainly the question would come up. Vanya was about the right age, and she didn’t quite have the usual American accent--too much hesitation before saying anything declarative, and suchlike. “She placed highly enough on some standardized test to be in my English class senior year. And how do you know Vanya?” With everyone’s credentials and relationships settled, he figured, they could talk about something more… interesting. Hopefully.
Vanya said, “No, I’m almost done,” which was true, and she proved it a minute later by shutting off the burner and bringing out the pita fixings for the main course. The internet had mentioned creamy garlic sauce, so she’d made some, and chopped lettuce and tomato, so she’d gotten that too. “Okay,” she said, once she had everything on the table. “That’s--that’s vegan falafel. Garlic cream sauce, hummus--which I bought at the store so you don’t have to worry about me messing it up--and that is fruit salsa. You’ll have to let me know which you like better so I can practice it more for the cooking contest.”
Paul snorted, realized that was rude, and said, “I apologize. This all looks great, Vanya--are you going to sit down?”
“In a minute,” she said, because seriously Paul’s girlfriend was making her feel anxious. “I’m going to make sure the pan doesn’t get messed up. Be right back!” And she disappeared back into the kitchen.
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Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 4:03 pm
Tallulah tried the salsa and nodded in agreement. “Delicious,” she said, watching Vanya bring in the rest of the food. “It all looks delicious,” she told the older girl, and started to put together a plate. As far as knowing Vanya went, she glanced towards Finn, who she was pretty sure the question was directed at in the first place. Paul already knew that she’d never met Vanya before.
“I found Vanya on Craigslist’s housing section,” said Finn, spooning hummus onto his plate. Tallulah smirked - there was one suspicion she’d been right on. “I needed a place to sublet for a few months, and she was advertising a spare room. We’re pretty fast friends.” Which cleared up how he and Vanya knew each other, but still didn’t explain where Tallulah had picked up the tall, dark, and mysterious Canadian hunk. He pointed back and forth between Paul and Tallulah. “So, uh, how’d you two meet? And when?”
Tallulah shrugged. She’d really rather fill Finn in on all the details later, rather than risk making her Lyme disease story sound even shakier than it already was. “Um, maybe three weeks ago?” she guessed. “I’d been swimming and over-exerted myself, almost passed out in the athletic lobby at DCU. It was embarrassing. Anyway, Paul’s doing a sports medicine internship and he made sure I was okay.”
Sometimes, Finn forgot that not everyone met their significant other by being rescued from extraterrestrial monsters by them. He nodded. “That was nice of you,” he said, and refrained from any dumb jokes about knights in shining armor, because Tallulah would probably have his head for them later. He could practically hear her - Be more subtle, you dumbass! Maybe minus the salty language. He wasn’t sure that Tallulah really cursed all that much.
Tallulah watched Vanya retreat to the kitchen. “I know the salsa was meant as an appetizer,” she said, “But should we wait for her to come back before we eat everything else?” It only seemed like the polite thing to do.
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Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 4:03 pm
Vanya came back and settled into her chair. “Um… Don’t worry about that,” she said. Not like it mattered, since she was there now. If she started doing this regularly, though… She sighed through her nose and made up her own plate, carefully spreading cream sauce around the inside of her pita before lining it with tomatoes. “I’m glad you could come,” she told Paul and Tallulah, even though it was half untrue, because Tallulah set Vanya’s teeth on edge for reasons she couldn’t quite explain. She took a sip of her sangria, trying hard to look casual.
“Now that we all know who’s who,” said Paul cheerfully, “how long are you in town for? A couple months, you said?”
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Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 4:04 pm
If Finn noticed anything off about Vanya’s behavior, he chalked it up to nerves over hosting and wanting to be liked. He tried to shoot her a reassuring smile - though he wasn’t sure if she saw - and turned his attention to Paul’s question. “Yeah, that’s about right,” he said. “The spring semester starts at the end of January and I’m hoping to be back by then. I’ve just got a semester left to finish up and graduate.” He’d been really fortunate that his professors understood my best friend is dead and I need to go home and gave him the option of finishing the semester electronically.
“I won’t bore you with the details of why I’m back for the time being,” he added, putting his pita together. Tallulah shot him a look that, if anyone else saw it, would have probably been indecipherable. Finn took it to mean you’ll tell me later. “It’s very long and very sad and very convoluted,” he declared, and busied himself eating so he could not be asked any further questions.
“It was really nice of you to invite us,” said Tallulah, smiling warmly at Vanya. She wanted to make a good impression with Paul’s friends - it seemed important if their relationship was going to have any sort of staying power that she put her best foot forward with his pre-existing social circle. “Everything’s really good.” The sangria was sort of strong, she thought, taking another sip of it. Maybe that wasn’t a bad thing, though - grease the wheels.
“So you’re from Montreal?” she asked Vanya, trying to keep the conversation going. “What brings you to Destiny City? It’s not exactly somewhere people are lining up to move to…” Which was a pretty big understatement.
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Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 4:04 pm
Paul nodded. “Well, I wish you the best of luck. This place has a tendency to suck people in and keep them here…” Which sounded kind of foreboding, so he laughed to play it off. “I hope whatever brought you back to our little hellhole sends you back to Fairbanks soon.” Seriously. He’d already turned down offers from other medical schools to stay in DC because he knew the Negaverse wouldn’t take kindly to him leaving. He was almost envious of Finn’s freedom to move about the country.
He didn’t miss Vanya’s wide-eyed look at him, and he almost felt bad for her. “I… I needed specialist treatment for a medical problem,” she said to Tallulah. “Then I got a job here, working as an English teacher at Crystal. So I’ve stayed.” She reached over and patted the back of Finn’s hand, and Paul wondered what was going on there. Had he mis-judged Vanya’s intent in inviting him over?... Or, well, there were rumors about Avalon’s interest in Thyone and General-King Howlite. Weird rumors.
“That’s how I knew she was in the area,” he told Tallulah. “Medical appointments.”
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Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 4:04 pm
“I can only hope,” replied Finn, who was outwardly clinging to any promise of leaving town again for as long as he could, even though he was starting to have his sincere doubts. Tallulah gave him an odd look, though it might just have been in response to Vanya showing him physical affection; she seemed confused, but Finn was sure that Vanya was just trying to reassure him, since he’d told her he was in town because of the death of a close friend. He’d call Tallulah later and catch up for real, instead of the abridged version he needed to play into by around civilians. Finn offered Vanya a smile - he’d heard this story before.
Tallulah nodded, and opted not to pry into Vanya’s medical history any further. As someone who’d recently been ill herself, she figured the older girl would appreciate having her privacy respected. Instead, she asked, “So do you like teaching at Crystal?” She tried not to focus too much on Vanya’s hand on Finn’s - perhaps it was just sympathetic? But then, it seemed sort of overly familiar. She was definitely going to have to talk to him later.
Finn reached for another piece of pita, breaking Vanya’s touch on his arm. “Anyway, if I wind up stuck here, my credits should transfer back to DCU okay, but it’s sort of the principle of the thing,” he explained. “I want my degree to be from UAF, not DCU.”
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Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 4:04 pm
She smiled half-heartedly and let Finn move away. She sort of wished the topic of conversation would stray back to Paul or Tallulah, considering Tallulah was the only one she didn’t know, but--well, she couldn’t control the flow of conversation. Vanya took a bite of her falafel; it was a little dry, she thought, but she could fix that. Maybe. She didn’t know how she’d do it. “It’s alright,” she said, “I, uh… I never saw myself teaching. But it’s okay. Finn’s sister is a pain in my butt, though.”
An intervention was necessary, though, so she wouldn’t have to explain anything else; she gave Paul a hopeless look and he spoke up again, his tone cheerful and loud enough to carry over anything else anyone wanted to say. “UAF’s a good school, as far as I’ve ever heard. So--anyway--aren’t we supposed to be deciding which of these we like best? Because that fruit salsa thing was great.”
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Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 4:04 pm
“I’ll tell her to knock it off,” Finn laughed, not that anything he said would conceivably have any impact on his sister at all. Then, at Paul’s insistence, he gave more consideration to the food and decided to go for seconds on the fruit salsa, since it was just that good. “I’ve gotta agree with Paul,” he said. “I think that this and the chips probably turned out the best. Though everything is really good.” It wouldn’t do to make Vanya feel like any of her recipes had flopped, since they emphatically hadn’t.
“I’ve got to third that,” said Tallulah, smiling as she dabbed her mouth with a napkin. “Thanks so much for having me over.”
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