This Means War (Invite Only)
"Son of a..."
That was the third time Pak's Pikachu had used his annoying superball power on Kem's Ice Climbers this game. He eyed his wii-mote skeptically before turning to her.
"I hate when you do that."
It had started as a quiet evening. Aishe had suggested they ask Pak over and as it turned out their friend wasn't particularly busy either. She'd apparently gotten a kitten recently, and she'd brought it with her. Surprisingly, Zoe seemed to have a motherly streak and she was sitting in the corner playing patiently with Mongkut now.
Aishe, for her part, was curled up on the couch with a book. She played wii with Kem often but not when Pak was over. The two of them tended to get a little competitive.
"I can't believe you're still reading that," he said, noting the book she held.
"I started it, I might as well get through it." She waved the book, a thick affair that had gotten rave reviews and movie deals. "Honestly it's the biggest piece of vampire crap I've ever read. Clearly they've mistaken a spontaneously combusting vampire for something sparkly and pretty."
She rolled her eyes. "Well, if nothing else it's more deflection of the real truth."
She ignored the painful sound of someone's character dying and giggled a little at the cat and kitten playing chase with each others' tails.
"What's the death toll so far?"
Pak answered quite logically, but with a huge cat that ate the canary grin, more than a little pleased with herself. Kem could be a sneaky son of a bitch when it came to this game, but Pak had a few tricks up her sleeve that kept the matches interesting and competitive.
Letting Kem set up the next match Pak turned to watch Mongkut. Yes, she was being a mother hen, but she worried about the little guy. It had taken next to no time for her to grow attached to him, even if his name had raised a few eyebrows.
"Pick some one else. I hate Ice Climbers. I never know which one to hit."Â?
She rolled her eyes at Aishe and the book.
"Yeah that's what Hannibal thought about the Alps too. Seriously throw the books in the sun, if we are lucky they will burn up. Although, I'm fairly sure I am sparkly and pretty, just not in direct sunlight."Â?
Pak was pretty sure she was winning, so she was in a good mood. Absently she mentally picked up a random cat toy and drug it in front of both Zoe and her kitten until they started to stalk it and then tossed it across the room so they could chase it.
"I think I'm up by two games."Â?
"Yes, you're up by two games. Aha. One." Pikachu's death scream was ridiculously cute. But dead was dead, mostly.
The cats took off after the toy and Kem spared a moment before the next round to be amused at the practical application of telekinesis. All too soon he and Pak were at it again, the sounds of tiny children and anime critters engaged in battle to the death filling the living room.
She did consider Pak's suggestion. "Maybe when I'm finished I'll see how well they incinerate," she agreed. "I at least have to get through this one. I'll admit though... reading the spoilers on wikipedia is looking better and better with every chapter."
This was domestic for them... cats chasing a toy that moved seemingly of its own free will; death screams emanating from the speaker system, and a vampire novel that threatened to make her spontaneously combust, herself. She wondered if that would be more or less painful than reading another... ugh, seven chapters of this drivel. She was leaning toward more.
Pak muttered before taking off in a long strain of profanity thoroughly irritated that Kem would beat her.
"Poor little Pikachu. What did he ever do to you?"Â?
This was home, family, it was all warm and fuzzy. To say Pak enjoyed this kind of down time was an understatement. However, relaxed or not didn't stop her from going after Kem with a vengeance. She could, and would, get him back.
"You are welcome to borrow my lighter when you're ready."Â?
Pak volunteered without ever taking her eyes off the screen or hands off the controls.
"Normally I'm against burning books but for those..."Â?
She didn't know why, but she'd made a double batch. After they had cooled, she cut them up and piled one batch, and a few from the other batch on a plate. Next thing she knew she'd grabbed a fresh quart of milk out of the fridge and was across the street.
With a perfunctory knock on the door, Reign let herself in Kem and Aishe's house. Kem had given her a key, just in case after all. Wow, this was the in spot today wasn't it. She didn't say anything though, just set the brownies and milk on the coffee table and left. Although, she was very careful not to get in the way of what looked like a ferocious battle on the screen.
The battle noises stopped abruptly. Even the cats ceased playing, staring at the human with wide eyes as she came and went. There was absolute silence in the room until about thirty seconds after the door closed.
Several glances were exchanged.
"Huh," Kem said.
He probably should have invited Reign to join them tonight but it hadn't really occurred to him that she might want to hang out this late. She wasn't their kind after all. It was sort of a late night for her.
Putting his wii-mote aside he crossed to the table and peered down. It was, indeed, milk and brownies. He scratched his head.
"I didn't know she baked."
He cautiously picked the top brownie off a pile that was bigger than the three of them could possibly devour and bit gingerly into it. Eating wasn't always his thing. It was good though. Moist and chewy. Very chocolaty.
He turned to Pak and Aishe. "Uh... brownie?"
"Well that was refreshing."
Kiamhaat seemed at a loss. "Clearly she's taking care of you," Aishe offered. Kind of an upgrade from his previous disasters, she thought privately. She definitely approved.
"You should make her something in return," she suggested.
Kem had broken Reign.
That was her first thought. But since both he and Aishe had tried the brownies and they seemed good, she helped herself as well.
"Damned through to bring milk too."Â?
Without leaving her spot Pak retrieved three glasses from the kitchen and poured out some milk for each of them.
"Can I have a familiar too?"Â?
Hey if it was going to get her random chocolate Pak might be able to get used to this idea.
Aishe's suggesting brought some ungracious snickers from Pak, who had to shoo Mongkut away from the brownie. His little whiskers twitched and tickled, but chocolate was not good for him.
"Reign baking is a minor miracle. I don't think we should push our luck..."Â?
"No, you may not," he said absently to Pak. "You'll just break it. Try the kitten first and we'll discuss it if it goes well."
Aishe's suggestion was met with a mumble.
"You know I don't cook."
Yes, it was embarrassing.
"How can you have that ridiculously well-equipped state-of-the-art kitchen and not cook?"
Kiamhaat's kitchen was beautiful. It was mostly kept that way because he didn't use it for anything except coffee, alcohol, and the occasional 'I'll eat what you're having.' The appliances were almost never used and top of the line. The frying pans, apparently, had only ever been used as weapons, and the only item that really ever got used was the professional quality coffee brewer and espresso/cappuccino machine on the counter. What's more, the kitchen stayed fully stocked with supplies, mostly of the non-perishable variety.
Aishe picked up another brownie and dipped it in milk until it was about to fall apart before stuffing half of it into her mouth to prevent an accident. Hey, they were at home. She was in her PJs. They had no plans to go anywhere and for all she knew Pak was going to crash on the couch. This was no time for formalities.
"You should give it a shot," she said when her mouth was no longer too full for her to be understood.
Pak protested. Although she had actually thought something along the same lines when Mara had brought the kitten over.
At Aishe's words, Pak cast a glance at Kem's kitchen. It was better than hers, and that was saying something, the appointments in Liefde weren't second-class. Giggling at Aishe's antics, with no warning Pak suddenly finished off the Ice Climbers and shook her head at Kem.
"Don't feel bad. You can take her a pot of coffee. She'd like that."Â?
That was a gauntlet if one had ever been thrown.
He hadn't even been holding onto his controller. But then, he already knew Pak didn't like to play fair. If she did, she wouldn't have been the one to try hitting him in the back of the head with a frying pan. On more than one occasion!
"Maybe I'll bring some over early tomorrow. I have a warming plate in there somewhere."
Coffee wasn't a bad idea. But Aishe's suggestion made sense too. So he shrugged and went through the living room into his study where his computer was idling and hit up Google for some recipes.
Everything looked simple enough, and he did have most of the supplies he'd need. He didn't have any eggs. Or any butter. But there was a convenience store not too far away and it wouldn't take but five minutes to pick those things up.
"I'll be right back," he said as he grabbed his keys.
"You know, I think they're good for each other," she said without a hint of jealousy. Aishe had been the one to suggest this, after all, and she did think they would both benefit from the bond. This hadn't been what she'd expected, but little surprises could be fun.
"Hit me with your best... except not too hard. I'm not good at this game."
Pak was busy hammering Aishe's Marth with Mario when Kiamhaat returned ten minutes later with a grocery bag. He headed straight into the kitchen without a word and proceeded to make a lot of noise.
"I almost think I should worry," she said under her voice, "except this is too funny."
Pak said with out -any- trace of remorse. He knew it was coming.
She'd just been about to point out that Kem couldn't exactly go across the street in the morning without singing, not to mention from her experience Reign was not a morning person. She was genuinely puzzled when Kem disappeared but spent some time playing with the cats and chatting at Aishe.
"They sure seem to be. I'm glad Reign is holding her own. I mean brownies aside she doesn't seem too different."Â?
Aishe claimed the other controller and they occupied each other while waiting for Kem to return. When he did it was only to vanish into the kitchen. This was not the Kem she knew. It distracted Pak enough that she left herself wide open for anything Aishe wanted to do.
Pak nodded in silent agreement.
"Shall we go watch? See what he's up to?"Â?
Aishe shook her head at Pak's suggestion. "Oh, no," she said emphatically. "It'll be much more fun if we try to guess what he's making. Reign obviously has brownies, so I'm betting he's doing something else." She grinned at Pak. "Besides, if we go stare at him he'll just get nervous and burn something, and then we'll have to smell it all night."
She could heard various drawers opening and closing and utensils being removed. The sounds were unfamiliar to Aishe, but in spite of Kiamhaat's protestations she knew he had tried cooking once or twice when the mood had struck him and if she remembered correctly from both experience and what he'd said, the results hadn't been horrible.
"He can follow a recipe," she said hopefully.
It was like being in the Twilight Zone Pak decided.
She scooped up Mongkut as he'd been pawing at her leg and he promptly went to sleep. Something Pak was starting to enjoy. There was something very relaxing and reassuring about a warm ball of fluff asleep in her lap. He'd wake up soon enough and go back to playing with Zoe, this was just a time out.
Pak made and 'ew' face and shook her head.
"OK no encouraging him to burn things."Â?
Kem was more than a little clever, but Pak had doubts about his recipie following skills. Still she took a whiff and tried to identify some of the scents along with some of the sounds.
"What -do- you think he's making? It... I think he's trying to bake. Chocolate chip cookies maybe?"Â?
"I can hear you, you know," he said from around the corner. "And yes, chocolate chip cookies. It looked like a pretty easy recipe."
Not from a box, not from a can, and not from a frozen tub of pre-made dough. He'd never actually attempted to bake cookies before but, he thought, nibbling at a bit of cookie dough, they tasted about right so far.
"I haven't even put them in the oven yet. It's totally impossible for me to have burned anything at this point."
As he said that he opened the oven and, not thinking at all, grabbed the wire rack to pull it out. He yelped and snatched his hand back, shaking it for a few seconds and peering at the angry red welt that immediately started healing itself.
Opening a drawer he took out a pot holder and then slid the rack out, placing the cookie sheet on it, and closing the oven door. He set the timer for fifteen minutes, pulled the cloth mitten off his now-healed hand, and began to clean up his little mess.
She flashed a grin at Pak and then raised her eyebrows as she heard the yell from the kitchen and felt the corresponding shock.
"Everything all right in there?"
She shrugged at Pak. Aishe wasn't about to wander into what was apparently the start of some sort of trial. What kind, she wasn't sure. Self-mutilation? No telling.
Pak just snorted.
"Martha Stewart is -not- Egyptian. I'm sure its possible for you to burn them before you bake them. But save me one or two... they go good with milk."Â?
She winced a bit at the yelp and wondered what happened. Reign wasn't a vampire and wouldn't appreciate blood in her cookies. It head very little nutritional value for humans. That and the chocolate probably diluted it.
Feeling that Aishe might have a bitter idea what was going on Pak looked to her.
"What is he doing? And has he ever made cookies before? This is abnormal."Â?
The game was forgotten. This was infinitely more interesting.