Closed Surprise yourself

[Elio Zephyr]

Rowan could do it. Ava could do it. Why wouldn't he be able to? The prefect was stood in the middle of the kitchen during the late afternoon, pouring over a large book full of recipes. Cooking had never been something he'd even bothered to do or try, but with the same options appearing in the Great Hall he had to do something to spice up their meals choices when they were already so limited. He was pretty sure he'd found a couple of things he wanted to try, and he had the space in the kitchen after asking the elves nicely. Elio was glad he didn't have to bribe any of them to let him try something out. The Gryffindor began first by raiding the cupboards for the ingredients. There was no point in him getting his hopes up if the school didn't actually stock what he needed. He would forgo the peanuts though that appeared listed on the page; he didn't need a trip to the hospital wing. Once everything was out and on the counter in front of him, which had already taken much longer than anticipated, he figured he may as well just do what he could and hoped for the best. Worse comes to worst, they'd just have to have a few more crackers.​

 

[Chrysander Kaster]

After his mini freak out, or whatever it had been, in History of magic, and the weird talk he hadn't been able to get out of with his Uncle, Chrys was feeling strange. He'd never quite felt so disconnected from his emotions as he had lately and it was like they were trying to tell him something, but he didn't know what that something was. He'd met up with his Dad over the weekend and that had been an interesting conversation. Hearing his Dad laugh at him had, surprisingly, upset Chrys just a little more than he maybe let on and whilst he knew his Dad believed in him and was proud of him, knowing that he'd initially thought it was a joke had stung. But he'd not been the only one in the firing line that day, Jemmy and Flynn had both been cross examined so it had mostly ended up pretty good, with a few bumps and hiccups along the road of course. The kitchens were a little familiar to him, exploits aside, as he'd often ventured down for a snack when he had missed lunch or breakfast. He rarely missed dinner though. He was a little surprised to see Elio though, wondering why he would be here when he'd made such a big song and dance about leaving Rowan at Halloween. Not that it hadn't worked out for him, but still. Chrys headed over, never missing an opportunity for a chat with a friend, or more, and noticed the varied array of food stuffs sitting around him. "What the-" what was he doing? Curious, Chrys walked up behind him and reached around to grab the lime to look at. "Are you sure you wanna use this lime? It's pretty big... not much juice."​

 

[Elio Zephyr]

Elio wasn't quite sure if it was better to be making both dishes at once, or to do one and then the other. He supposed both at the same time because he didn't want one to get cold, although there was probably a spell to heat it up again. Then again wasn't there spells for food too? Why go to all the effort of cooking if you could just magic it up. He looked at the first steps of the instructions, discovering that he needed to slice his tofu. Picking up the large block, he wasn't really sure where to begin. He needed a knife, he knew that much, but as the Gryffindor managed to slip it out of its wrapper, it just sort of sat there. This was not going to be a pretty job. Elio wasn't the greatest at making things neat if his room was anything to go by, and asides from laying out photos he didn't do a whole lot that meant he needed attention to detail, and so it was slow progress as the prefect began slicing the spongey stuff into equal parts. He'd not tried tofu before he'd met Rowan but really he was growing pretty used to it. He chuckled as he read on in the instructions, trying to find a tray that was going to be big enough and preparing it, before throwing the tofu in. Man, this was basically a potions lesson. He was too busy chuckling at himself, in somewhat of a better mood that day than he had been in a while, to notice that someone was behind him. Seeing them pop up from around him scared the life out of the boy, and he had to hold himself back of his reactions when he realised it was Chrys. His eyes flashed up to the ceiling for a few seconds at the Hufflepuff's comment, before eventually he peered over to join him. "If you're going to criticise the firmness of my limes then you can clear off," he had his eyebrows raised, although the small smile on his face hopefully told Chrys that he was joking. He didn't mind an audience, but he did intend to get this done as best as he possibly could. ​

 

[Chrysander Kaster]

Chrys raised and eyebrow at Elio as he moved away and pushed himself back and up onto the counter Elio was standing next to. Peering over at what he was doing he noticed the tofu and immediately had a pretty good indication of what Elio was doing. No-one that wasn't off meat ate tofu, it was gross and whilst Chrys liked veggies as much as the next guy, he drew the line at meat substitutes. He drew one knee up to his chest and rested his head as he looked at Elio with a grin, tossing the lime into the air and catching it again. "The firmness of your limes? Never a question, it's the size of the limes I'm more concerned with," he said, raising an eyebrow at him. "Why, do people normally question the firmness of your limes, should I be worried?" He asked, leaning over slightly to peek at the book and chuckling slightly at some of the instructions. They could have been right out of a potion recipe really, though he supposed in all fairness there wasn't much difference between a potion and a meal, not with all the prep he'd seen Ofira do over the years and her food was amazing, so she was obviously doing something right, not that Chrys could cook. Well, he could boil stuff, but that was about as far as this Kaster cared to go. He figured he'd marry a chef one day or something if he decided he needed home cooked meals all the time.​

 

[Elio Zephyr]

Elio was eyeing Chrys suspiciously as he moved to sit up on the counter. He didn't really care, although if anything it meant that the Hufflepuff did plan on sticking around at least for a little while, although whether he'd actually be any help in the kitchen was debatable. He didn't know Chrys well enough to know if he had cooking experience but given he was watching and judging him made him think it could have been a theme for how this was about to go down. "Give me that," he said finally with a smirk on his face, moving to take the lime back off him during one of the throws. Heck knew what Chrys would do if he was ever given a lemon. He knew the next thing to do was toss some potatoes, but he didn't need his ingredients walking off. Elio was glad he wasn't the only one who found amusement in the pages too, although he wondered whether Rowan would have called them both immature. "What are you doing down here anyway?" he asked, pouring out a number of the spuds into a pan and hoping he could do this while preparing the sauce, which was where the lime came in anyway. He'd not seen Chrys for a few days since Halloween, and given they only had one class together these days he wasn't even like he saw much of him then, either. ​

 

[Chrysander Kaster]

Chrys pouted when the lime was so harshly removed from his care, but made no move to do anything about it, content to sit and watch Elio. He'd had a strange couple of weeks, well, a strange last few months if he was being totally honest, from Elsie, to Onyx, to Sapphire, to his siblings, to his Dad, it was like things kept happening so he wasn't getting too content with himself and his place in the world. Not that Chrys believed in any of that superstitious crap, but still. These things did tend to show up for a reason around people and he was starting to worry that it could only mean back things. Though, given he was no seer he wasn't sure how he was supposed to read into any dumb signs or whatever. He shrugged as Elio spoke, not yet sure how to articulate actual words properly. Being silly and flirty was easy, since it was the thing he could be whatever mood he was in, it didn't matter. So even in his weird and confused state, he was comfortable enough to joke around with Elio without worrying about being caught out because he slipped up, but he also knew he didn't lie, and being asked outright about things didn't really help a situation. "I missed lunch," he said, watching as Elio poured the potatoes into the pan. He wasn't sure what was being made, but just the fact something was being made was enough to get his stomach all excited. "I missed breakfast too, actually, so I needed to come and find a snack, ran into you. Win, win." he grinned, lightly, though the effort wasn't really in it. Being reminded that he hadn't eaten lunch nor breakfast just made him think about why and then it made him think about that fact that he'd missed two meals he normally didn't and that he was hungry.​

 

[Elio Zephyr]

Elio had to stop a chuckle when Chrys pouted at not having something to fiddle with while he watched. He was like a child sometimes he could have sworn. He glanced around the other ingredients on the table, before picking up some garlic, "Here, I'll need two of those in a second," he said, putting it beside the Hufflepuff to peel in case he did want something to do. Elio watched him a little suspiciously when he told him he'd missed breakfast and lunch, although his small smile on reappeared when Chrys mentioned finding him. To be fair, Elio was a snack. There were a lot of things Elio chose not to ask Chrys because it wasn't his business. Things that he just didn't need to know, some that he didn't want to know, and a few topics that passed between them that he had no doubt they were both aware of, but feeling as though neither of them would have appreciated being reminded, he'd not brought up. Draining off the noodles (and promptly losing half his handful down the plug hole) and did his best to get as many as he could back onto the counter, where he'd laid out some paper towels for the pasta to sit on while they drained. "You want some of this when it's done?" he asked, knowing he could always make a little more if he needed to, "Fair warning, it's probably going to taste like sh!te." he shrugged, not bothering to hide that he had very little skills in this department if that wasn't already obvious. Elio could pick up that Chrys wasn't quite as obnoxious as he usually was, although talking to guys about what was going on with them was far from his strong point. He couldn't help be reminded though that Chrys had been the one to find him in tears a few weeks ago, so there was no way Elio wasn't going to at least show him he was there for him too. "Hey I already have to make sure one person is eating, don't make me make that two.." he mused lightly. unsure also of whether Chrys was in a similar boat to Rowan when it came to her appetite sometimes, or whether he was off the road completely with his assumptions. ​