sirenspull_logs | opened up a book for culinary survival

Entry tags:

ahiru,
replica riku

opened up a book for culinary survival

Who: Joe and Ahiru!
When: RIGHT HERE. RIGHT NOW. No but seriously it was earlier this afternoon.
Where: The Apartment That Never Was.
Summary: Joe promised to teach Ahiru how to make spaghetti for her birthday! Confessions happen.
Warnings: Diabetes.

After leaving a note saying she'd be out for a few hours but back before sirens, she heads out of the mansion towards Joe's apartment. She'd decided hours before departing that today would be the day she told him. Though the idea makes her nervous, she's certain she trusts him enough to know he wouldn't overreact.

As she approaches his door, she takes a deep breath before knocking, making sure she looks presentable.

"Joe, it's me!"

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Presentable? What's that?

Joe opens the door while he's still in printed pajama bottoms (Gingerbread men, "BITE ME"... a Christmas present from Xion) and a tank top.

He's not expected at work till just before siren, so it seemed the perfect day to not throw on real clothes till just before he took Ahiru back home, then swung back by Merlotte's for a long night shift.

Drowsily, he opens the door and gives a sleepy wave. Nothing like an afternoon to laze around in your bottom bunk and mess around with organizing playlists.

"Hey. You ready how to learn to do spaghetti?"

She blinks in surprise at his appearance, and then laughs lightly. It feels a little silly, that she worried about how she looked when he didn't seem bothered in the least to answer the door in sleepwear. She has to wonder about the meaning behind those pants, though.

"Yeah! Thank you for offering." She nods with a smile at his question.

...they're just masochistic gingerbread men, Ahiru. You're better off not knowing how amusingly rude they are.

"It's no problem!"

Joe doesn't seem too sheepish about waving her inside like this, since Xion and Namine hang around the apartment for pajama days all the time. It's a warm main room, the living area and kitchen joined.

He takes out a box of pasta, and a pot, and a box of salt, and a colander, which he sets beside the sink.

"Did you end up having a good birthday dinner?"

She moves into the apartment, taking off her coat as she enters. She looks into the kitchen before she walks in, leaning against the counter as Joe gathers all the necessary ingredients and objects.

"Yeah, it was really nice! Dad made cake afterwards and everything."

That stops him in surprise, setting the pasta spoon down on the counter.

"Dad?" He blinks. "I had no idea your Dad was here!"

"Huh? Oh, no, that isn't what I meant! Well, it is, but..."

She pauses, tilting her head and tapping against it lightly with a finger.

"He's not from my world, and he's not even someone I'm related to by blood. It's just... Have you ever had someone you care about so much you consider them family?"

"Riku-" Joe nods, watching her with a sideways glance. "I call him my brother, because it's easier than explaining the truth, because being a replica's complicated for people."

That wasn't something he said outright often, but... it was true, it was simpler just to pretend Riku was his identical twin, who acted a whole lot older.

"I call Xion my sister, too. Because we were made the same way- from the same project. I didn't meet here, until she came here. But I care about them both."

"A replica? And a project? What do you mean?" She says, looking towards him curiously. It didn't sound very normal; in fact, project made it seem a little worrying. But after a short pause, she smiles and continues on.

"I'm glad you have people you care about that much."

"I was... pretty much a science experiment." Joe sighs, rolling his eyes a little, because this is exactly what he meant by 'complicated'. Still, Ahiru was a friend he could trust with knowing how it went between him and the Real Thing, right? She wouldn't think any less of him for being a fake. "Using copied memories, they created me to be an impostor of Riku."

"I was made just a few days before I showed up here, in the port. So I've been here now much longer than I ever existed, 'back home'."

"Here." He hands her the pasta pot. "Fill it up to right about there with water from the sink. We need lots of water, so that all the spaghetti can cook, even if some of it steams out from boiling."

After a longer pause, leaning on the counter, he adds quietly-

"...I'm glad too."

She takes the pot and does as he instructs, taking in what he had just said. Memories that weren't really his, and being created to pretend to be somebody else... It's something she can definitely relate with, and suddenly, she's sure that he'll take the confession she's planning to give well. Keeping her eyes on the pot as it slowly fills with water, she pauses for a moment.

"I don't think you're an impostor or anything like that."

"Well... I'm a lot different now." He shrugs, one shouldered, watching the back of her short-haircut as she stands over the sink. Joe still thinks that it's sort of a shame she cut it, remembering the night she wore it long and surprisingly fluffy at that dance.

"I know the truth about myself. I've got my own name, and my own life."

"Yeah! No matter how you started out, you're definitely your own person now." A lot like her in a way. She pauses, hesitant - is now really the best time to mention it, when he's talking about himself? But if not now, when?

After a few more seconds of pondering, she realizes the pot is still filling up with water. She nearly drops it in surprise before turning the faucet off. Laughing a little nervously, she sets it on the counter with a grin.

"Okay, what next?"

"We put the pot up on the stove-"

Without prompting, he gently elbows her aside and picks up the two handled pot, setting it onto one of the bigger front burners.

"Then we can put the heat on high, so that it gets to boiling- Here, shake a little bit of salt in. It's important to put salt in the water too- but not too much."

She takes the salt shaker in hand, sprinkling (probably a little too much of) the substance into the water. She watches with interest; though boiling water might seem mundane to most, she'd never had access to stoves like this back home.

"Now what? Do we just wait?"

"Uh huh. Until it's all bubbling, we don't have to do anything. Make sure you don't put the pasta in till it's like that."

He likes being a little bit instructional, even if it's cooking- being able to be just a little bit bossy without feeling mean, just feeling competant at something is a nice way to be.

"I guess if we weren't using sauce right from the jar, we could start make sauce now, but I don't really know what I'd do for that." Joe shrugs, wrinkling his nose a little.

"I don't know how to make sauce, either. It seems like it would be sort of hard! But I thought spaghetti was hard to make in the first place, too, so I could be wrong."

She leans against the counter, wondering how to lead into the information she wants to convey.

"I've seen Riku do it from scratch before."

But he's never bothered to try, because really, it seems like too much effort and too long a shopping list. And usually when Riku cooked over here, it was because he was cooking for a bunch of people.

"You use a tomato can, and...other stuff. Garlic. Onions. Peppers from the market. Meat? Whatever you want."

"That all sounds good! Maybe I'll ask someone to show me how to do it sometime. I don't eat meat, though."

She pauses. Now would be as good a time as any to bring it up, as an explanation for the aforementioned vegetarianism. And if she didn't say it now, would she have the nerve to mention it before she left? It'd seemed much easier for him to talk about being a replica. Though she tries not to make it noticeable, she sighs, looking intently towards the counter.

"Actually, about that... I've sort of been meaning to tell you something."

"Huh?"

She didn't eat meat...

Oh. Oh no. Was Ahiru becoming one of those pushy girls like the one that accosted him in the meat section of the supermarket, with pamphlets about how SERO pumped cows full of chemicals and made chickens grow too heavy to walk?

Joe glanced her way warily. He didn't want to think about stuff like that, when he ate burgers with Maya, or had hot wings at the club.

"I, um..."

Despite the fact that Fakir had helped her accept herself for who she was, there's always the lurking fear in the back of her mind that others wouldn't see it that way. No matter how much she trusts Joe, it makes her longer than she'd like to, wondering exactly to phrase the next words out of her mouth. The seconds drag on before, finally:

"...Joe, I'm a duck."

He waits. Oh gosh. What if it's something really awkward. What if it's even worse than going vegetarian? What if she's about to confess something, like... she like-likes him?

And then Ahiru tells him she's a duck.

He blinks at her a moment. Cracks a smile, which breaks into a full on grin, shaking his head.

"You're a what?"

Before he starts to smile, she's preparing herself for the worst, staring down as she waits for him to say something. By the time she hears him begin to laugh, she looks towards him, shocked by his reaction. Did he not believe her?

Regardless, her own mouth begins to twitch as she can feel the stress pass away. She can't deny she's relieved that he isn't admonishing her, though she knew deep inside of her he wouldn't. When she speaks up, it's with a small laugh of her own.

"A duck! I'm not kidding!"

"How are you a duck?" When she starts laughing too, the giggles just start getting infectious. "You don't look like a duck!"

He's trying to imagine Ahiru looking even remotely like Donald. Or talking like-

Okay no. No, that's impossible to imagine without 'quack'ing up.

"You don't sound like a duck either!"

Though she continues to laugh, she wonders vaguely if she should be more nervous about him thinking it was a joke. As soon as she considers the situation, though - making spaghetti with one of her best friends as she tries to convince him she's a bird - she presses a hand to her mouth, trying to keep as quiet as she can despite the laughter.

"Someone's going to hear!"

"So?" He chokes, grinning bright-eyed and ear to ear. A duck. Really? Just who did she think she was kidding "So what if anybody hears?"

"What's the big deal- even if you are a duck- only I don't see how you're any kind of duck!"

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