fandomhigh | Library, Sunday 03/25

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Library, Sunday 03/25

Raven had raided the cooking section of the library shortly after arriving, selecting a couple vegetarian cookbooks to study until Jono arrived. With the exception of deadly cookies, she'd never made anything more complicated than a salad, so she wanted to get a feel for what cooking would entail. It didn't seem too complicated -- lots of measuring and stirring.

Deciding what she was going to do after graduation, however, that was an entirely different matter.

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"That was very thoughtful of you, thank you," Raven said, picking up another course calender to look over. "I know I must seem foolish for being so nervous, but aside from Azarath and Fandom, I have only spent a handful of days in other worlds." And most of them had been fraught with dangers. His, for instance. Sookie's Louisiana. Kaeleer. She didn't have a good track record for peaceful places she could get by on her own.

She glanced sideways at him, almost shyly. "It would mean a great deal to me if you would come visit," she said. She'd long hoped to spend a good chunk of the year between her graduation and Karla's with him, but that had been before everything had changed. Visits would mean the world to her.

"Well, then visits, you'll have," he promised, and those words were accompanied by a little smile. It wasn't much, but it was sincere.

That was sort of a big deal, these days.

"And... phone calls. You can call me any time you need to, you know."

Which was also a bit of a big deal, at least for him.

"Or just any time you want somebody to talk to."

"I know," Raven said.

She set the papers down and shifted a little in her seat so she was facing him. "I just always worry about being a pest," she said, cheeks pinking just a touch.

So help him, she was still adorable when she blushed.

"Better a pest than a stranger, don't you think?"

"Now that I most definitely do not ever wish to be," she said, smiling as she ducked her head.

When she lifted her gaze a moment later, her eyes had turned more serious. "There is something I wish to say to you," she said softly. The thought of strangers had called it to her mind. "I want to apologize."

"... To apologize?"

That seemed sort of... unexpected, mostly. Jono blinked, looking at her with a bit of uncertainty about him, clear in his features.

He was apparently not terribly used to being apologized to.

She reached for his hand, slowly, to give him the choice of letting her take it. "I have been trying so hard to be what I thought others wanted me to be, or what I thought I needed to be, that I forgot to be myself," she said. "And I am so sorry for that. That is what I meant the other night when I spoke of trying to sort things out, and being more settled now."

Jono watched her hand inch forward, and was well aware that he had the option, in that moment, to pull his hand away. And briefly, he even considered doing so.

He let his hand remain where it was. He let her take it.

"That's hardly something you need to be apologizing to me, of all people, about luv..."

When it came to losing track of just being oneself, Jonothon seemed to be doing it like a champ.

"Yes, I do," Raven said, squeezing his hand. "I have been awkward and confusing and unfair, I think. And I hope that you will be able to forgive me for that."

She gave him a soft smile. "But that is all behind me now, I hope."

"Well, then..." Jonothon was watching their hands now, hers so small and pale against his own. "Of course I forgive you. Everybody... Everybody loses themselves a little at one point or another, I think."

Some of them were even lucky enough to get themselves back again, after.

"But there is always a way back, especially when there are friends around you to help you find the way," Raven said softly, sending a soft, warm pulse of comfort to him.

"It makes me especially glad to spend time with you today. I have missed it."

It was that always that tripped Jonothon up, even while he closed his eyes and breathed in the comfort that she was sending him. Idealistically, he wanted to believe it. He wanted to latch on to that statement and take it as a given.

Realistically, he simply nodded, resigned to silently disagree, because real life just didn't work that way. Not without fail. Not always.

"I've missed it, too," he said, instead. "I can only get so much company out of Joni, really."

Teasing, see? He was teasing. That was probably a good sign, maybe. For certain. Ish.

Raven was too idealistic for her own good sometimes. But she wouldn't be Raven if she wasn't, despite the trouble it got her into sometimes.

She could sense his disbelief, but she wasn't going to push it. "I have missed Joni as well," she said instead. She glanced down to her bag under the desk. "I have a present for her, if we go to your apartment to watch a movie and not the theater. Do you know what is playing so that we might decide what we are going to do?"

"I haven't a clue," Jono admitted, looking a little sheepish as he said so. "I got so wrapped up in striking the sets yesterday, and then finding the course calendars, I just... figured that perhaps we could find something back at the apartment, after all."

Spoiler: Almost all of his movies were horror films. But there looked to be a few good things on the television tonight, and he never really minded having to wait through commercial breaks.

"I did not think to check before now either," Raven said. "But something at your apartment would be fine. Perhaps next time I will think to put some DVDs in my bag just in case."

One day, Jono. One day, there would be Xanadu. Resistance was futile.

It was because you secretly wanted Jono to suffer more than he already was, wasn't it, Raven?

"That might be good," Jonothon agreed. "I did remember to get groceries last night, at least. So there will be food for dinner." He glanced at the cookbooks sitting nearby. "Or did you have something in mind in particular, luv?"

You always hurt the ones you love? Either that, or she was secret evil and knew that would be the final straw to break him.

"Surely you do not wish to put my skills to the test so soon," Raven said with a laugh. "I have only been looking these over for ideas to try, and to get a feel for what kind of skills are necessary. It does not seem too complicated, but I have learned that with cooking it seems to be more easy to adjust the ingredients to one's taste, though with baking measurements must be more precise."

Or cookies of death were created.

Those terrifying, terrifying cookies...

"Well, if there was anything that did happen to catch your eye, I suppose I could have a go at it. I'm a bit rusty, I'll admit, but I do still remember the basics." He nodded at the cookbook she'd been looking at when he came in. "Was there anything that caught your eye, luv? We can pick up anything I didn't get yesterday on our way to my place after your shift."

[And now, I sleep. Night!]

Raven pulled the book closer and opened it to a recipe she'd been studying as Jono came in. "This seems simple enough," she said, tapping the page. "Though I have been attempting to figure out what julienned means."

[...a reasonable bedtime? WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH SHANNON? ;) Night!]

"Sliced into thin strips," Jonothon offered, along with a wry smile. "And pasta generally is a good starting point, really. It's difficult to ruin a sauce, particularly if you have somebody there to help who knows... more or less how not to ruin a sauce."

Yes. Yes, that.

[MIDNIGHT IS NOT THAT REASONABLE. Also I am bad at this. But good night this time, for real!]

"I think I can manage boiling water without difficulty, yes," Raven said with an answering smile. "And there are not many ingredients, and the instructions seemed easy enough to follow, so I thought it might be a good place to start. And it is quick to make. And I like garlic."

Which had little to do with the allegedly property of keeping vampires away, though that was a nice bonus.

[It's reasonable for me! NOW GO TO BED. *tucks you in*]

"I'm pretty sure I'm fond of garlic as well," Jono decided.

Pretty sure was good, right? Jono was slightly more dubious about the 'keeping vampires away' aspect of it, but that's only because he had a family history that insisted that vampires would come to say hello no matter how terrible your breath was.

"But yes, it does sound like the perfect recipe for us to begin with. Ease me back into cooking, ease you into it in the first place... It sounds like it'll be spaghetti tonight, then."

She might have to add extra then. Mmm, garlic.

"Do you have all the ingredients, or will we have to stop for them?" Raven asked. "We should get bread, too, to enjoy with it."

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Library, Sunday 03/25

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Re: Talk to Raven [Library 03/25]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 03/25]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 03/25]

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Re: Talk to Raven [Library 03/25]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 03/25]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 03/25]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 03/25]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 03/25]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 03/25]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 03/25]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 03/25]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 03/25]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 03/25]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 03/25]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 03/25]

Re: Talk to Raven [Library 03/25]