londoncallingrpg | Be Mine - Valentine's Day 2017

Neither had Sunny meant to attack him. She had been aiming for teasing while trying not to be so goddamn sensitive, though perhaps that was not the wisest choice. He wasn't incapable or anything, but didn't banter in the way she did. "But that's not what I wanted," Sunny answered, her eyes down. Less on her task, though, than chastened. "I wanted..."

She shrugged. "When a Nigerian girl likes a guy very, very much," she said, using the cadences of The Talk whether or not he was familiar with the allusion just because she needed the humor, "she cooks for him. Except I thought it'd be nice to do it together."

Faizel nodded a little, picking up the spoon once again. "Cooking isn't really my thing," he confessed. "I do enjoy being with you though, and if this is what you want for Valentine's, then... We shall cook, and I will do my best not to set myself or anything else ablaze."

Sunny shrugged. "Maybe we should cheat after all."

"What if we do a bit of both? A little cooking, a little magic- and while it cooks we could- We could watch a film?" Faizel suggested, since that was a date sort of thing- Or, well, he thought it was. He honestly wasn't sure.

Sunny hadn't realized that she'd been getting tense, but her shoulders relaxed then as she dared hope now that this wasn't heading for disaster after all. Compromise she could work with, and she nodded. She ventured a shy look out of the corner of her eye. "If you like," she said. Then her lips quirked a little and she added, "Any genre you have in mind?"

"I imagine if I suggest a documentary about bird migration that might be the wrong answer this evening," Faizel replied, pausing a beat, then glancing about. "Speaking of birds, I'm a bit shocked we don't have a certain plump budgie lurking."

"Documentaries are not out of the question, but you're gonna have to do some smooth talking to convince me I want to learn about bird migration," Sunny laughed.

She looked up towards the spot where Philip's little bird gym was, unoccupied. She didn't have a cage for him, he didn't like cages.

"I told Philip I had a date and Winter has more space."

"I can't imagine wanting to be anywhere near Winter Wisp on Valentine's. I imagine he's eaten his own weight in chocolate and rolled around in as much pink glitter as he could find..." Faizel said, looking mildly concerned, then shaking his head to dismiss the image his mind had conjured up.

"Now, now." Sunny's face took on that overly-solemn expression again, but her eyes were bright with laughter. "I imagine many holidays are like that, just the glitter color changes."

"It's a wonder he's not rounder than Philip- Also where does all the glitter even come from? I used to find piles of it in my flat after tutoring him. Not pixie dust, that I could have understood, just glitter. I never worked out if it was some sort of pixie prank or if Winter is just secretly filled with shiny bits," Faizel admitted, frowning thoughtfully as he finished peeling the ginger.

"Philip is perfect," she pouted, too exaggerated for her to actually be hurt. She took up a knife and went about chopping up the garlic. "Winter is made of magic and atop that probably has a crazy high metabolism. And as for the glitter... do you really want to know?"

She stopped just for a moment to gesture at the ginger, "That needs to be minced," before she resumed chopping, rocking the knife back and forth over the cloves, pushing the pile together when it spread too far, and then repeating until she had the result she wanted. Whether or not it was the most efficient way to go about things, she was clearly enjoying the process.

"Right, and... I definitely know how to do that," the wizard said, staring at the ginger and prodding it with the spoon.

Sunny giggled and stopped to push a knife towards him and kiss him on the shoulder. "I give you permission to cheat if you want. Do you know what I mean, though?" Cooking and potions were not really so different--sometimes she'd found that they were almost exactly the same thing when you were literally putting magic into your cooking--but she did have to wonder. The words chop, slice, dice, and mince were not synonymous, though they were closely related. She knew her brothers had always thought she and her mother were speaking nonsense when Mama was teaching her how to do things in the kitchen.

Edited 2017-02-23 21:35 (UTC)

"Yes, I'm aware of the term," Faizel replied, retrieving his wand and looking much more confident and comfortable with it in his grasp.

Sunny nodded, scooping the garlic into a piece of tupperware that was being repurposed as a small bowl for the moment. "I thought so," she said. "The ginger can go in there, too. And..." she smirked at him as she went for one of the yams and started cutting it into smaller and smaller pieces. "If you're going to cheat, you get to slice the onion." Or she could do it the long way, and they'd both be crying.

She figured she'd prefer it this way after all, if it meant that he wouldn't look so lost.

"Seems fair," Faizel agreed, smiling and nodding as he set to work.

That smile made her expression soften down to something rather sweeter and shyer, and she bit her lip and turned her attention back to her task before she did something really stupid, like blush.

"I don't think I ever asked you why you're a vegetarian. My teacher Anatov counts himself as a conscientious objector, which I guess you have to when you take up a title like Defender of Frogs and All Things Natural."

"Well- In part, it's because I just don't enjoy the idea of feasting on other creatures," Faizel admitted, not even needing to look at what he was doing as he flicked his wand an set to work, "Mostly though, it just doesn't agree with me. My mother and her family have always been what people would call vegetarians, but I've always suspected it's a biological thing, on some level. That her kind- My kind, I suppose- Just aren't built to be carnivorous.

Sunny tipped her head, like she'd never really considered that possibility before, moving from one yam to a second. "Huh. There's meatless dishes and ways to substitute things, but it's not really something that crosses anybody's mind in Nigeria. I encounter it more in the diaspora. Like religion. Not that the concepts compare. The idea that people could just be without one is alien at home, but you meet a Naija person here and atheism suddenly seems like a viable option."

Edited 2017-02-25 02:47 (UTC)

"Mmm, I must admit, I never found it terribly common among wizards I knew. My father didn't eat much in general- He was always working on something or other, and only stopped to finally eat when his body demanded it. However I've seen him eat mean when that was on offer, or easiest to consume before returning to his work. At school I knew only two other vegetarians, and both were born in the mortal realm."

"Ah ha," Sunny said like something had just fallen into place.

Though the mystery of how in hell Faizel's parents had actually come around to bringing him into existence only deepened. Quite literally, what the fuck had been the motivation?

"Food is a big deal in my culture. Mama started teaching me as soon as I was considered old enough to hold a knife without hurting myself. We spent a lot of time together that way. Not my brothers. I don't know if they know how to boil water. But me... by the time I was ten, we all knew a call from Mama that she'd be home late meant I was making dinner or no one would eat that night. Anyway, every time we went to see family, the kitchen was where we'd spend a good chunk of time together. Usually but not always the women, in Nigeria. But if we were stateside, Aunt Chinwe always had her boys in there, too, because she was determined that James and Gozie would not grow up to be backward-thinking cavemen like she affectionately accuses my brothers of being."

Edited 2017-02-25 07:38 (UTC)

"That seems unfair, the women doing all the cooking. I don't think my mother ever cooked unless it was some sort of group effort. Usually we all fended for ourselves," Faizel admitted.

"The gender nonsense was--and is--not something I'm wild about," Sunny admitted with a bit of annoyance. Her tone softened when she added, "But, yeah, cooking was a big part of how I bonded with my family. So I... I like doing this."

"It's been a very interesting and enlightening experience so far," Faizel said as the onion bits floated neatly into a nearby bowl, always pragmatic no matter what the situation.

"I'm glad of that," she said. Her eyes flicked to him shyly. "You are... very good to put up with my nonsense." Sunny didn't really mean it that way, but her tendency to use humor when she was unsure in any way was manifesting as self-deprecation. But he was good to do this to make her happy... and she feared that perhaps she'd bullied him into it.

She took the garlic and ginger with her to the stove where she started heating up oil in a large pot. "Would you slice the okra, please?"

Edited 2017-02-26 03:28 (UTC)

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