light one candle for all we believe in

[fridgetothefire]

Who: Anya and Magneto
When: Backdated to the 8th
Where: HoA, Magneto's apartment
Summary: a small family holiday
Warnings: They're bad at the family thing. But they're trying.

She has dim memories of oddly unchristian Christmases, the Romani adopting some of the practices of their Ukrainian neighbors without all the solemn Orthodox teachings that went with it. She remembers songs and fruit stew and St. Nicholas's day - three weeks earlier - and someone being dressed up as a goat. She's almost certain she didn't make that up.

She's never been to a Hanukkah before. She lets herself in, knocking softly on the doorframe as she enters, even though she knows he could sense her long before. She sets down her bag and pulls out her own apron, second-hand and a bit stained like any good apron should be, but sturdy and decorated in pink flowers pulling silly places.

"It's good to see you," she begins. She doesn't even know how much she's telling the truth. It's still nerve-wracking to be near him, but he still wants her around at all, and that's - something.

Comments

[magnetic_magpie]

Magneto is puttering around the kitchen, shredding potatoes, dough raising on the counter. There's flour marks on his jeans and a dish towel thrown over his shoulder. The many scars on his torso display, but the towel covers up the heavy bruising on his left shoulder and upper arm at least. There's a button down shirt and a sling laying over a chair - it's just too much work to pull a tee shirt on right now.

There's an ornate silver chanukkiah on a side table, along with other silver, all gleaming, and clean china. When Magneto turns around there's a smear of flour on his forehead. "It's good to see you too."

[fridgetothefire]

She looks but doesn't stare, noticing it all. She goes up to the chanukkiah to examine it more closely, though she doesn't touch.

"I was scared you might come back different," she admits quietly, a way to say I like you and maybe find out what is different at the same time. "People do."

[magnetic_magpie]

"I was..." He sighed. "Some people do. But I remembered being here, that helped. I was gone a while."

That was an understatement and he didn't know how to explain. "What kind of doughnuts do you want?"

[fridgetothefire]

"What are my options?"

She grins, then bites her lip and steps steps close for a minute, giving him a gentle half-hug on the side that doesn't match the sling.

"It wasn't long here. I guess you know that. But I missed you anyway."

She thinks it's a mostly lie. She's also wrong.

[magnetic_magpie]

"Anything? I have a good twenty different jams and jellies, plus custards or whipped cream or...anything." He may or may not have made fifty different fillings last year, plus different sugars and glazes. It was a stressful month.

He hugs back, holding on as tightly for a minute. "A few days I think? I missed you too." This place had been, he thought, a wrapped and faded dream Wanda had made - but he has still missed the children in his dream.

[fridgetothefire]

"Blackberry, then," she says decisively. "To start with. And what should I work on?"

[magnetic_magpie]

"Powdered sugar, sanded sugar, or glaze?" He was going overboard. He knew that. He didn't care.

"There's that brown bowl on the counter? There should be a card in that maroon books for blintzes." Buckwheat, more traditional in Ukraine and Russia, as well as the more standard ones.

[fridgetothefire]

She shoots him a dubiously amused look - are you serious, that much sugar is for Americans kind of look - but doesn't object.

"Glaze, I guess," she answers as she finds the recipe card and starts collecting ingredients for the batter. "Who else is coming?" Because there's going to be a lot of food.

[magnetic_magpie]

It's also for people with insanely high metabolisms, though he doesn't point it out.

"No one, though if someone stops in, I'll feed them. The other housemates likely will, once they smell food. And I have food to send to a friend, because otherwise he wouldn't have dinner this week."

[fridgetothefire]

"...only this week?" she asks it gently and sadly, not really expecting an affirmative answer, but not sure about his phrasing.

[magnetic_magpie]

"I think he lives on take out, mostly." And booze. "But the holidays...it's difficult, at best, to find the traditional foods here on the island. There is this one Kosher bakery but I admit I've been selfish and kept that one to myself. It's a nice place to retreat to."

And he didn't want to share the couple who owned them with Chuck. He enjoyed their fretting care and concern.