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ax_main2017-12-22 08:51 pm
ax_diamondlil) wrote in ax_main2017-12-22 08:51 pm
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Nick and Lil - December 22
Lil and Nick get together to exchange Christmas gifts and makes tacos before Nicks heads home for Christmas
Nick was leaving tomorrow and there was no way Lil was going to miss giving him his present before Christmas. She'd only finished weaving in the ends last night, and Dana had given her approval when Lil tried it on for size. Now it was tucked into the bottom of a gift bag and she was knocking on Nick's door, almost bouncing with eagerness to see his reaction.
In the midst of packing a bag to take home, Nick grinned as he opened the door. "Hey," he said, having heard her particularly unique stride pattern, so he knew who it was. "Merry Christmas!" he said, happily.
"Merry Christmas!" Lil leaned over and gave him a tight hug. She wished he were sticking around for Christmas too, but if she had family as close as he did, she'd be out of here asap. She straightened up and held the bag out. "I couldn't let you leave without saying goodbye and bringing you your present."
"I wasn't going to leave without saying goodbye," Nick said, grinning. "I was gonna stop by later tonight, but you beat me to it. I was getting packed. And thank you!" he said, taking the bag from her happily. "Oh, I don't wanna forget yours," he said, turning and going to his desk, where he opened a drawer, pulling out a festive little gift bag that had her gift in it. He offered it to her. "This is for you!" he said, happily. "I was gonna wait until after I came back, but since you're giving this to me now..." Well, it only seemed appropriate.
Lil took it eagerly. "We're not waiting, right? We're opening these right now?"
"Why wait?" Nick replied, grinning. He was excited, he had to admit.
"Exactly. Same time though, okay?" Lil reached into her bag. "Three, two, one... " She pulled out a small box, but glanced up at Nick before opening it.
"Yeah," Nick said, opening the bag up and taking out the hat. "Oh, so cute!" Nick said, happily, immediately going to put it on.
Lil grinned. She'd taken her time choosing a pattern, but when she found one that looked like the top dome of her favourite droid, she knew that was it. "You're definitely more of a Luke kind of guy, but R2 D2 is sort of perfect for a hat, right?" She opened the box. Inside was a chain and pendant with the Rebel Alliance symbol on it. "Okay, we were definitely on the same page when we were thinking up presents!"
"We totally were," Nick chuckled, putting the R2-D2 hat on, and grinning at her. "It's so cozy!" he said, feeling the knit around his head. "Thank you!"
"I wasn't sure you needed one with the fur and all, but hell, when it gets cold, it gets cold, right?" She took the necklace out of the box and held it up to admire it. Maybe it was a piece of movie merchandise, but it was also a brilliant symbol for their friendship, and Lil loved it. She unhooked the clasp and put it it around her neck. "This is the first time anyone's given me jewelry."
"Really?" Nick asked, tilting his head. "I mean, Nolan hasn't given you any, yet?" he asked, wondering why.
The necklace fit perfectly, and Lil wished Nick had held off on that question for a bit so she could admire it more. "He did. He got me yarn, but... " Fuck, how to say this? Lil wished Nick were just a bit more plugged in to school gossip so that she didn't have to. "We broke up. Still friends, sort of, but definitely not dating."
"I'm... I'm sorry," Nick said, feeling like he'd really put his foot in it. He wouldn't pry about any further details. "I'm here for you, if you need to talk about it," he said. "I, uh... I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it. Maybe we'll talk but, eh, it's Christmas right? Don't need to let that screw this up for us." Lil reached out and adjusted the hat a bit, maybe as an excuse to offer Nick a reassuring touch. "I think we should have some fun before you take off."
"Sure!" Nick said, happily. "What do you wanna do?" he asked.
"Cook something." That had been something they'd talked about for awhile but never followed through with. Christmas was the perfect excuse to make something ridiculous and wonderful, wasn't it?
"Oh yeah!" He said, blinking at her. What a brilliant idea! "We totally should!" He offered her his arm. "Let's go cook!"
Lil took his arm and lead the way out of his room. "Okay, but what are we making? Your mom sent you any videos that for stuff that you want to try?"
"Well, in terms of what we can make quickly," he said, thinking. "There's... hrm..." He was thinking about what he had in the freezer in the kitchen, too. "We could make tacos! Taco night!"
"Sold! Mom used to make those every once in awhile but from the kits, the boxed ones you get." Lil made a face. "I hope we're gonna do better than that."
"Yeah! Mom says it's super easy, and I kinda cheated and got the spices pre-packaged," he said. "But still, we can heat up tortillas and all that fun stuff," he said, happily.
Lil laughed and tugged him along a little faster. "Look, spices in my house were like, salt and pepper, so whatever you got is better then that."
"Fair enough," he chuckled, keeping up with her despite their differences in stride. When they arrived at the kitchen, he started to look at his phone for his notes. "Mkay, so we'll need a frying pan... I thawed the beef so it should be in the fridge. Should also be an onion, two jalapenos, and there should be a can of diced tomatoes, too. We'll need a knife to dice up the veggies," he said, looking over his notes. "The spice packet, obviously, and also uh, the tortillas. Though those we can just heat up toward the end. And some vegetable oil." Was that everything? He was looking over his notes. He was pretty sure that was everything.
Lil pulled herself away and started gathering things as Nick read them out. "You can leave cutting the onion and jalapenos to me if you want. I have the perfect superpower for cutting onions!"
"Sounds good to me," Nick said, setting his phone next to the stove and starting to get other things out. "They need to be diced, by the way," he said. "Oh, I'll get the lettuce ready, while you're doing that." That just needed to be shredded, and he figured he could do that while she was chopping.
"Diced?" Lil bit her bottom lip, trying to remember what that meant. "That's like, when you make it small, right? Chop it one way, then the other?" Yeah, considering her knife skills were pretty much restricted to chopping chunks of onions and veggies to dump in her mom's occasional pot of stew, this was going to take awhile.
"Uh... yeah," Nick said, taking a moment to think about it. "Yep! That's right. Don't be like, too concerned about making them all the same size, though."
Lil laughed. "Trust me, I'm not even gonna try." She grabbed an onion, cut off the ends (A total no-no one if you wanted to avoid tears one cooking show had said, but Lil had never been affected anyway), chopped it in half, and then peeled it. "You know who we need in here? Laura. She could carve this stuff up in seconds."
"I haven't met her," Nick said, shrugging. "What's she do? Cut... stuff?" he asked, tilting his head, as he started to get the lettuce prepped.
"Pretty much. She's got these blades that pop out of her hands and feet, and she's wicked fast. Plus she heals like Teddy does." Lil gave Nick a sheepish smile. "Don't tell people 'cause I don't think they'd get it, but we've been hanging out in the Danger Room together. She's teaching me to fight, and... we're sort of not all that careful about it."
"Well, I mean, she can't cut you, so it makes sense to me," Nick said, blinking. "I mean, she can't, right? Nothing can hurt you." Physically, at least.
"Nothing so far, but I mean, it goes the same for her. She doesn't want me holding back so every once in awhile I get a hit in and, ugh." That was Lil's least favourite part of the whole thing. Sure, Laura was up and fighting again in minutes, but that didn't make up for hurting her in the first place.
"I mean, you're learning to fight for a reason, I'm guessing," Nick said, thinking about it. "I mean, I hope you never have to fight anyone," he added. "I just. I dunno."
She'd somehow managed to get through one half of the onion and pushed the diced bits to the side of the cutting board to start on the other half. "Me too, except for fun stuff with Laura or something, but... fucking JP. You ever not like someone, but can't get them out of your head 'cause they were sort of right about something? Like, he said people saw us as weapons." She glanced up at Nick, with his fur and claws and sharp teeth, and realized he'd probably get that part. "Anyhow, maybe it's not a bad thing to learn to fight in case some of them decide to come after us."
He hadn't met anyone who could probably be called 'JP' either, but still. "No, I haven't, but..." Nick shrugged. "I know I can count on you to watch my back. And if you can fight, well, if you want to, that's... y'know, your call. Because you can choose what to fight for." Nick didn't know if he'd ever be willing to fight for anything. He didn't like the idea of fighting at all...
"Yeah, I guess that's the next step beyond just protecting people." The knife slipped on the onion across Lil's fingers. She sighed and tried again.
"I mean, protecting people is good," Nick said, nodding. He set to shredding the lettuce, but he realized he was getting fur on what he was starting with. Crap. He chucked that bunch into the trash and got himself a knife to start cutting it up instead.
Lil noticed Nick's problem with the lettuce and frowned. Gloves might work, but the latex ones under the sink would tear as soon as his claws hit them. Knit ones wouldn't be much better. Maybe cotton ones or something from a hardware store? She'd poke around and find something for him because there was no sense in doing this if it was just going to be frustrating for him. "Maybe it's enough, at least for now."
"Yeah," Nick said, distractedly, cutting up the lettuce and glad he could at least mostly keep his hands off it. Jeez, who knew cooking with furry hands would be so hard? "Once the veggies are diced up I can start them in the frying pan," he said.
Lil nodded and started on the pepper. "Do we need butter or oil or something in the pan?"
"Some vegetable oil, yeah," Nick said, looking for it and finding it where Lil had helpfully put it. He put a small amount of oil on the waiting frying pan. "Should've worn my chef's hat, instead," he chuckled.
"Naw, you gotta cook at least one thing to earn it first. Besides, you look a lot cuter in the droid hat." She grinned as she finished up the pepper.
"Fair," Nick said, grinning. "Okay, these go in the pan," he said, putting the pan near her so she could more easily scoop the veggies into it.
Lil dumped everything that she had cut into the pan. "You know what you should do? Start some YouTube show like Tam. I mean, it seems like everyone's going public anyway, so you could be Nick the Chef. Then you wouldn't have to worry about people being afraid of you when they saw you, just about how many autographs you'd have to sign." She wasn't serious, mostly.
"Yeah, I'd rather not go public, honestly," Nick said, putting the pan on the stove and starting the heat. "I'm so used to, y'know, being hidden away, I guess." He shrugged. He knew she wasn't serious, but still. "It's good that people are going public, though. I think, at least," he said, figuring she might have a different opinion. "So, we let these ... I think it's called sweat, or something? Anyway, they take more time to cook than the beef, but we'll put the beef in here with it so that it absorbs the flavor, I think, is the point," he said.
"I'm still not sure about the public thing, but then I get into a rut and it takes a friggin' semi to drag me out. Playin' it safe and keeping your head down sounds right to me. So does the flavor thing." Then she giggled, which was a pretty rare event, but Nick was to blame. "The sweating thing doesn't though. Who names this stuff?"
"Probably the French," Nick said, honestly. "So much stuff in French in cooking, sometimes," he said. "And then it gets translated," he said. "And that makes it awkward, I guess."
Lil wrinkled her nose. "Yeah, when there's something weird, it's probably some French dude to blame." She stabbed at the veggies with her knife. "This isn't so hard. I mean, we haven't tasted it yet, but it's not a ton of work."
"Mom said cooking is like, eighty-percent making sure things don't burn, ten percent making sure things cook properly, five percent knowing what you're doing and five percent having everything you need on hand," Nick said, nodding. "She's been really supportive with it. When I go home, she said I can help her cook some side dishes for Christmas dinner."
"So... you're gonna bring me some of the leftovers of the stuff you make, right?" She grinned and poked his side. Shameless really. She was going to have to make due with with the school dinner which wasn't bad, but it was no homecooked meal from Nick's mom.
"Of course," he said, grinning at her. "Okay, think these have... uh... sweated... enough," he said, not sure of the term, still. "Time for the beef!" He opened the package of the ground beef and dumped it into the frying pan, enjoying the satisfying sizzle it made. He started to break it up the clump with the spatula he was using. "And now we keep stirring this around until it browns all the way through. That's when we can add the seasoning."
"Best part. We're almost done after that, aren't we? Because I'm starting to get really friggin' hungry."
"Yeah, after the seasoning you just, uh, give it a minute or two, I guess. Oh! You can heat up the tortillas," Nick said. "Just like, uh..." He checked his phone. "Put 'em on a plate, sprinkle a bit of water on them. And then like, forty-five seconds in the microwave or so?" he said. "It's not exact-exact," he admitted, sheepishly.
"That's okay. Sort of-sort of is probably good enough, eh?" Lil prepared the tortilla as directed and stood back to watch the plate spin in the microwave. "I'm a pro with microwaves by the way."
"Same here," he said, grinning over his shoulder at her. The meat was sizzling in a very satisfying way in the frying pan as he stirred it. "I love onions. I'm glad they're not bad for me. I mean, at least, I haven't eaten onions in quantities that have made me sick like chocolate can," he said, offhandedly.
"Man, chocolate makes you sick? That's the worst. I don't think I could live without it." the microwaved dinged and Lil pulled the plate out and st it on the counter. "Now, we just need the meat?"
"Only if I eat like, a lot of it," Nick said, shrugging. "And yeah! Uh, yeah. Since we have the lettuce ready," Nick said, double checking around them. "Oh, I think there's shredded cheese in the fridge, too."
"I'll get it!" When everything was out and ready, Lil passed Nick an empty plate. "Okay, if this is any good, we're doing this first thing when you get back. Not tacos, but something else."
Nick had gotten the seasoned meat all ready to go, and he started plating up his tacos. "Deal," Nick said, grinning. "Maybe something with bacon. Or lamb," he said.
Lil's eyes widened. "Oh no! I'm not eating babies! Bacon sounds perfect, thankyouverymuch." Although she had to admit to herself that if the lamb tasted good, she'd probably bend a little. "By the way, when you getting back?"
"Oh, but..." Nick blinked. "I-I mean, it's mutton, really," Nick said, sheepishly. "It's not like, baby sheep," he said. "I-I guess I just call it lamb all the time by mistake. Or maybe it was lamb and he was wrong? He wasn't sure. "I'm coming back on the 29th," he added. "Mom and Dad want me to be back in time for the New Year's party."
"Damn straight you've got to be back for that. I got a new dress and everything. A dress! I was going to get these awesome yellow boots to go with it but Tam gave me the look so... " Lil shrugged, took a bite out of her taco and moved to the table. "So yeah, you're going," she said around a mouthful. "You, me and maybe Laura... Oh god, this is really good."
"Aww, I bet you'd look cute in yellow boots," Nick said, kind of upset they weren't going to make an appearance. "But I wouldn't miss it for anything," he said, smiling. He took a bite of his as he got to the table, and he nodded in agreement. "Oh wow," he said, after swallowing. "That really is good. Just like mom makes."
"See? I couldn't say that 'cause we had the boxed stuff. This is much better than Mom makes." She smiled. Making the time for this had been a good idea. There'd been way too much drama over the last month or two and a little time with a friend was so much better. New Years resolution - more time like this and no drama, even if she had to board herself up in her room.
"Well, if I end up bringing you enough leftovers over the years, you'll be able to compare to my mom, at least," he said, smiling at her. This was nice. He was glad she'd tracked him down. He'd been so wrapped up in packing and stuff...
"Oh! Fuck, I mean, sorry." Lil 's hand went to the pocket of her cardigan and she pulled out an envelope and then slide it across the table to Nick. "I almost forgot. That's a Christmas card for your parents. I know I haven't met them, but they seem really awesome. And you and I should take a selfy, right? So they can see who it is you're converting to the Jedi religion?"
"Aww, that's so sweet," Nick said, picking up the envelope and smiling at it. "And we totally should," he said, grinning. "After dinner. So that I don't have any like, molten cheese threads on my face."
Lil laughed. "I think that would just make the picture better."
Nick was leaving tomorrow and there was no way Lil was going to miss giving him his present before Christmas. She'd only finished weaving in the ends last night, and Dana had given her approval when Lil tried it on for size. Now it was tucked into the bottom of a gift bag and she was knocking on Nick's door, almost bouncing with eagerness to see his reaction.
In the midst of packing a bag to take home, Nick grinned as he opened the door. "Hey," he said, having heard her particularly unique stride pattern, so he knew who it was. "Merry Christmas!" he said, happily.
"Merry Christmas!" Lil leaned over and gave him a tight hug. She wished he were sticking around for Christmas too, but if she had family as close as he did, she'd be out of here asap. She straightened up and held the bag out. "I couldn't let you leave without saying goodbye and bringing you your present."
"I wasn't going to leave without saying goodbye," Nick said, grinning. "I was gonna stop by later tonight, but you beat me to it. I was getting packed. And thank you!" he said, taking the bag from her happily. "Oh, I don't wanna forget yours," he said, turning and going to his desk, where he opened a drawer, pulling out a festive little gift bag that had her gift in it. He offered it to her. "This is for you!" he said, happily. "I was gonna wait until after I came back, but since you're giving this to me now..." Well, it only seemed appropriate.
Lil took it eagerly. "We're not waiting, right? We're opening these right now?"
"Why wait?" Nick replied, grinning. He was excited, he had to admit.
"Exactly. Same time though, okay?" Lil reached into her bag. "Three, two, one... " She pulled out a small box, but glanced up at Nick before opening it.
"Yeah," Nick said, opening the bag up and taking out the hat. "Oh, so cute!" Nick said, happily, immediately going to put it on.
Lil grinned. She'd taken her time choosing a pattern, but when she found one that looked like the top dome of her favourite droid, she knew that was it. "You're definitely more of a Luke kind of guy, but R2 D2 is sort of perfect for a hat, right?" She opened the box. Inside was a chain and pendant with the Rebel Alliance symbol on it. "Okay, we were definitely on the same page when we were thinking up presents!"
"We totally were," Nick chuckled, putting the R2-D2 hat on, and grinning at her. "It's so cozy!" he said, feeling the knit around his head. "Thank you!"
"I wasn't sure you needed one with the fur and all, but hell, when it gets cold, it gets cold, right?" She took the necklace out of the box and held it up to admire it. Maybe it was a piece of movie merchandise, but it was also a brilliant symbol for their friendship, and Lil loved it. She unhooked the clasp and put it it around her neck. "This is the first time anyone's given me jewelry."
"Really?" Nick asked, tilting his head. "I mean, Nolan hasn't given you any, yet?" he asked, wondering why.
The necklace fit perfectly, and Lil wished Nick had held off on that question for a bit so she could admire it more. "He did. He got me yarn, but... " Fuck, how to say this? Lil wished Nick were just a bit more plugged in to school gossip so that she didn't have to. "We broke up. Still friends, sort of, but definitely not dating."
"I'm... I'm sorry," Nick said, feeling like he'd really put his foot in it. He wouldn't pry about any further details. "I'm here for you, if you need to talk about it," he said. "I, uh... I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it. Maybe we'll talk but, eh, it's Christmas right? Don't need to let that screw this up for us." Lil reached out and adjusted the hat a bit, maybe as an excuse to offer Nick a reassuring touch. "I think we should have some fun before you take off."
"Sure!" Nick said, happily. "What do you wanna do?" he asked.
"Cook something." That had been something they'd talked about for awhile but never followed through with. Christmas was the perfect excuse to make something ridiculous and wonderful, wasn't it?
"Oh yeah!" He said, blinking at her. What a brilliant idea! "We totally should!" He offered her his arm. "Let's go cook!"
Lil took his arm and lead the way out of his room. "Okay, but what are we making? Your mom sent you any videos that for stuff that you want to try?"
"Well, in terms of what we can make quickly," he said, thinking. "There's... hrm..." He was thinking about what he had in the freezer in the kitchen, too. "We could make tacos! Taco night!"
"Sold! Mom used to make those every once in awhile but from the kits, the boxed ones you get." Lil made a face. "I hope we're gonna do better than that."
"Yeah! Mom says it's super easy, and I kinda cheated and got the spices pre-packaged," he said. "But still, we can heat up tortillas and all that fun stuff," he said, happily.
Lil laughed and tugged him along a little faster. "Look, spices in my house were like, salt and pepper, so whatever you got is better then that."
"Fair enough," he chuckled, keeping up with her despite their differences in stride. When they arrived at the kitchen, he started to look at his phone for his notes. "Mkay, so we'll need a frying pan... I thawed the beef so it should be in the fridge. Should also be an onion, two jalapenos, and there should be a can of diced tomatoes, too. We'll need a knife to dice up the veggies," he said, looking over his notes. "The spice packet, obviously, and also uh, the tortillas. Though those we can just heat up toward the end. And some vegetable oil." Was that everything? He was looking over his notes. He was pretty sure that was everything.
Lil pulled herself away and started gathering things as Nick read them out. "You can leave cutting the onion and jalapenos to me if you want. I have the perfect superpower for cutting onions!"
"Sounds good to me," Nick said, setting his phone next to the stove and starting to get other things out. "They need to be diced, by the way," he said. "Oh, I'll get the lettuce ready, while you're doing that." That just needed to be shredded, and he figured he could do that while she was chopping.
"Diced?" Lil bit her bottom lip, trying to remember what that meant. "That's like, when you make it small, right? Chop it one way, then the other?" Yeah, considering her knife skills were pretty much restricted to chopping chunks of onions and veggies to dump in her mom's occasional pot of stew, this was going to take awhile.
"Uh... yeah," Nick said, taking a moment to think about it. "Yep! That's right. Don't be like, too concerned about making them all the same size, though."
Lil laughed. "Trust me, I'm not even gonna try." She grabbed an onion, cut off the ends (A total no-no one if you wanted to avoid tears one cooking show had said, but Lil had never been affected anyway), chopped it in half, and then peeled it. "You know who we need in here? Laura. She could carve this stuff up in seconds."
"I haven't met her," Nick said, shrugging. "What's she do? Cut... stuff?" he asked, tilting his head, as he started to get the lettuce prepped.
"Pretty much. She's got these blades that pop out of her hands and feet, and she's wicked fast. Plus she heals like Teddy does." Lil gave Nick a sheepish smile. "Don't tell people 'cause I don't think they'd get it, but we've been hanging out in the Danger Room together. She's teaching me to fight, and... we're sort of not all that careful about it."
"Well, I mean, she can't cut you, so it makes sense to me," Nick said, blinking. "I mean, she can't, right? Nothing can hurt you." Physically, at least.
"Nothing so far, but I mean, it goes the same for her. She doesn't want me holding back so every once in awhile I get a hit in and, ugh." That was Lil's least favourite part of the whole thing. Sure, Laura was up and fighting again in minutes, but that didn't make up for hurting her in the first place.
"I mean, you're learning to fight for a reason, I'm guessing," Nick said, thinking about it. "I mean, I hope you never have to fight anyone," he added. "I just. I dunno."
She'd somehow managed to get through one half of the onion and pushed the diced bits to the side of the cutting board to start on the other half. "Me too, except for fun stuff with Laura or something, but... fucking JP. You ever not like someone, but can't get them out of your head 'cause they were sort of right about something? Like, he said people saw us as weapons." She glanced up at Nick, with his fur and claws and sharp teeth, and realized he'd probably get that part. "Anyhow, maybe it's not a bad thing to learn to fight in case some of them decide to come after us."
He hadn't met anyone who could probably be called 'JP' either, but still. "No, I haven't, but..." Nick shrugged. "I know I can count on you to watch my back. And if you can fight, well, if you want to, that's... y'know, your call. Because you can choose what to fight for." Nick didn't know if he'd ever be willing to fight for anything. He didn't like the idea of fighting at all...
"Yeah, I guess that's the next step beyond just protecting people." The knife slipped on the onion across Lil's fingers. She sighed and tried again.
"I mean, protecting people is good," Nick said, nodding. He set to shredding the lettuce, but he realized he was getting fur on what he was starting with. Crap. He chucked that bunch into the trash and got himself a knife to start cutting it up instead.
Lil noticed Nick's problem with the lettuce and frowned. Gloves might work, but the latex ones under the sink would tear as soon as his claws hit them. Knit ones wouldn't be much better. Maybe cotton ones or something from a hardware store? She'd poke around and find something for him because there was no sense in doing this if it was just going to be frustrating for him. "Maybe it's enough, at least for now."
"Yeah," Nick said, distractedly, cutting up the lettuce and glad he could at least mostly keep his hands off it. Jeez, who knew cooking with furry hands would be so hard? "Once the veggies are diced up I can start them in the frying pan," he said.
Lil nodded and started on the pepper. "Do we need butter or oil or something in the pan?"
"Some vegetable oil, yeah," Nick said, looking for it and finding it where Lil had helpfully put it. He put a small amount of oil on the waiting frying pan. "Should've worn my chef's hat, instead," he chuckled.
"Naw, you gotta cook at least one thing to earn it first. Besides, you look a lot cuter in the droid hat." She grinned as she finished up the pepper.
"Fair," Nick said, grinning. "Okay, these go in the pan," he said, putting the pan near her so she could more easily scoop the veggies into it.
Lil dumped everything that she had cut into the pan. "You know what you should do? Start some YouTube show like Tam. I mean, it seems like everyone's going public anyway, so you could be Nick the Chef. Then you wouldn't have to worry about people being afraid of you when they saw you, just about how many autographs you'd have to sign." She wasn't serious, mostly.
"Yeah, I'd rather not go public, honestly," Nick said, putting the pan on the stove and starting the heat. "I'm so used to, y'know, being hidden away, I guess." He shrugged. He knew she wasn't serious, but still. "It's good that people are going public, though. I think, at least," he said, figuring she might have a different opinion. "So, we let these ... I think it's called sweat, or something? Anyway, they take more time to cook than the beef, but we'll put the beef in here with it so that it absorbs the flavor, I think, is the point," he said.
"I'm still not sure about the public thing, but then I get into a rut and it takes a friggin' semi to drag me out. Playin' it safe and keeping your head down sounds right to me. So does the flavor thing." Then she giggled, which was a pretty rare event, but Nick was to blame. "The sweating thing doesn't though. Who names this stuff?"
"Probably the French," Nick said, honestly. "So much stuff in French in cooking, sometimes," he said. "And then it gets translated," he said. "And that makes it awkward, I guess."
Lil wrinkled her nose. "Yeah, when there's something weird, it's probably some French dude to blame." She stabbed at the veggies with her knife. "This isn't so hard. I mean, we haven't tasted it yet, but it's not a ton of work."
"Mom said cooking is like, eighty-percent making sure things don't burn, ten percent making sure things cook properly, five percent knowing what you're doing and five percent having everything you need on hand," Nick said, nodding. "She's been really supportive with it. When I go home, she said I can help her cook some side dishes for Christmas dinner."
"So... you're gonna bring me some of the leftovers of the stuff you make, right?" She grinned and poked his side. Shameless really. She was going to have to make due with with the school dinner which wasn't bad, but it was no homecooked meal from Nick's mom.
"Of course," he said, grinning at her. "Okay, think these have... uh... sweated... enough," he said, not sure of the term, still. "Time for the beef!" He opened the package of the ground beef and dumped it into the frying pan, enjoying the satisfying sizzle it made. He started to break it up the clump with the spatula he was using. "And now we keep stirring this around until it browns all the way through. That's when we can add the seasoning."
"Best part. We're almost done after that, aren't we? Because I'm starting to get really friggin' hungry."
"Yeah, after the seasoning you just, uh, give it a minute or two, I guess. Oh! You can heat up the tortillas," Nick said. "Just like, uh..." He checked his phone. "Put 'em on a plate, sprinkle a bit of water on them. And then like, forty-five seconds in the microwave or so?" he said. "It's not exact-exact," he admitted, sheepishly.
"That's okay. Sort of-sort of is probably good enough, eh?" Lil prepared the tortilla as directed and stood back to watch the plate spin in the microwave. "I'm a pro with microwaves by the way."
"Same here," he said, grinning over his shoulder at her. The meat was sizzling in a very satisfying way in the frying pan as he stirred it. "I love onions. I'm glad they're not bad for me. I mean, at least, I haven't eaten onions in quantities that have made me sick like chocolate can," he said, offhandedly.
"Man, chocolate makes you sick? That's the worst. I don't think I could live without it." the microwaved dinged and Lil pulled the plate out and st it on the counter. "Now, we just need the meat?"
"Only if I eat like, a lot of it," Nick said, shrugging. "And yeah! Uh, yeah. Since we have the lettuce ready," Nick said, double checking around them. "Oh, I think there's shredded cheese in the fridge, too."
"I'll get it!" When everything was out and ready, Lil passed Nick an empty plate. "Okay, if this is any good, we're doing this first thing when you get back. Not tacos, but something else."
Nick had gotten the seasoned meat all ready to go, and he started plating up his tacos. "Deal," Nick said, grinning. "Maybe something with bacon. Or lamb," he said.
Lil's eyes widened. "Oh no! I'm not eating babies! Bacon sounds perfect, thankyouverymuch." Although she had to admit to herself that if the lamb tasted good, she'd probably bend a little. "By the way, when you getting back?"
"Oh, but..." Nick blinked. "I-I mean, it's mutton, really," Nick said, sheepishly. "It's not like, baby sheep," he said. "I-I guess I just call it lamb all the time by mistake. Or maybe it was lamb and he was wrong? He wasn't sure. "I'm coming back on the 29th," he added. "Mom and Dad want me to be back in time for the New Year's party."
"Damn straight you've got to be back for that. I got a new dress and everything. A dress! I was going to get these awesome yellow boots to go with it but Tam gave me the look so... " Lil shrugged, took a bite out of her taco and moved to the table. "So yeah, you're going," she said around a mouthful. "You, me and maybe Laura... Oh god, this is really good."
"Aww, I bet you'd look cute in yellow boots," Nick said, kind of upset they weren't going to make an appearance. "But I wouldn't miss it for anything," he said, smiling. He took a bite of his as he got to the table, and he nodded in agreement. "Oh wow," he said, after swallowing. "That really is good. Just like mom makes."
"See? I couldn't say that 'cause we had the boxed stuff. This is much better than Mom makes." She smiled. Making the time for this had been a good idea. There'd been way too much drama over the last month or two and a little time with a friend was so much better. New Years resolution - more time like this and no drama, even if she had to board herself up in her room.
"Well, if I end up bringing you enough leftovers over the years, you'll be able to compare to my mom, at least," he said, smiling at her. This was nice. He was glad she'd tracked him down. He'd been so wrapped up in packing and stuff...
"Oh! Fuck, I mean, sorry." Lil 's hand went to the pocket of her cardigan and she pulled out an envelope and then slide it across the table to Nick. "I almost forgot. That's a Christmas card for your parents. I know I haven't met them, but they seem really awesome. And you and I should take a selfy, right? So they can see who it is you're converting to the Jedi religion?"
"Aww, that's so sweet," Nick said, picking up the envelope and smiling at it. "And we totally should," he said, grinning. "After dinner. So that I don't have any like, molten cheese threads on my face."
Lil laughed. "I think that would just make the picture better."