cutting_edgex23 | (no subject)

Both cats bolt to chase a quickly fading string of bright white electricity Elle fires in the direction of the living room. As she's in a knee-length white skirt, she's not too fond of the idea of anything trying to claw their way up her today.

She also quickly closes the door behind X.

"Maybe you should get them something," she says, a little offhand.

At least, maybe a distraction that has less potential to burn X's apartment down.

"I do not want to give them whiskey."

X heads toward the fridge anyway, setting down the grocery bags before opening the fridge and pouring a small saucer-ful of milk.

"I think this will be effective."

Unless it makes the kittens sick again.

Only time will tell.

"Like a -"

Elle makes a sort of throwing motion with her hand, as she watches the cats dart back to the kitchen.

"- thing."

Beat. She thinks about it for another moment, and then amends, "Like a ball."

"There are toys in the cupboard," X says, after a moment of silence.

"They like the feathers."

Mr. Simmons brought them up.

"And the plastic rings from the milk."

The plastic rings thing sounds like it would mean less involvement from Elle. She decides to try that sometime.

(Of course, they might end up distracting her more...)

Her attention turns to sorting through the groceries.

"How long does this take?"

X hesitates, moving to one side of the counter and opening a small wooden box.

It has notecards in it. With recipes on them.

"I do not think it will take longer than thirty minutes. Unless there are problems."

Considering this is Elle and X -- they may, indeed, be okay.

"It doesn't sound that complicated."

Even if the peeling part is not something Elle's looking forward to.

The mashing part? Maybe a little more.

"I do not think it is supposed to be."

There are reasons Inez nominated X for making the potatoes.

It is a safer prospect than cooking the turkey, for one.

"You can get the knives? For peeling."

X will keep herself busy washing the potatoes and filling a pot with water.

"Yeah."

She manages to not sound... unenthusiastic, at least. The knives she chooses, and sets out on the kitchen table, are probably sharper than necessary, but Elle has little other way to gauge precision.

One of the cats, now finished with its meal, nearly trips her as she steps away from the table again. Elle decides to get one of those milk rings now.

X does not give the cat a dirty look.

She just heads back to the table, picking up a knife and a potato, and gets to work.

She is both quick and precise. It is a skill.

There's a loud clamor of skittering across the kitchen floor when Elle throws the milk ring down to the cats. Loud as they are, it still works to occupy them, and she returns to the table.

She's not as quick as X is about peeling. Elle knows how to use knives, but mostly to be either quick or precise. Not both.

It takes her a moment to decide she can talk while peeling.

"I haven't done this in a while."

There are many responses X could make here, and if she were a more spontaneous kind of person, she might even speak.

As it is, she waits a few long moments, thinking.

Then --

"Cooking? Or playing with the cats."

"The whole -"

She'd done it when she was six. She remembers it happening, and they still made the right kind of food in Hartsdale, even if she couldn't -

"- dinner thing."

"Oh."

Beat.

"Susannah likes them. Rose's mother."

Just in case the connection is non-obvious outside of X's head.

"I had not been to any before. When I was not working."

"My mom used to do it."

Elle waits until she's finished cutting off a particularly long strip of peel. "Then I -"

Maybe it's not the right thing to say. But Elle doesn't have another way to describe it.

"I wasn't good at it."

X tilts her head slightly, looking up from the potatoes.

Her hands don't slow down at all.

"I do not know if I am good at it."

Beat.

"I think practice helps."

She only sounds a little hesitant.

"If people want to."

Elle shrugs one shoulder.

"That's why I'm here."

This is a total lie. And not one Elle puts any effort into.

X just looks at Elle for a few long moments.

But she does not say anything.

And eventually --

"Okay."

Even if Elle put effort into it, X might not have believed her.

Elle looks up when X doesn't say anything.

It's another long moment before she answers -

"It's - good for practice."

Even knowing what X does, Elle's not sure if she needs to tell her that it was a lie.

X finishes up peeling her portion of potatoes, then goes on to quartering them.

For efficiency in cooking.

(Or because the recipe says to.)

"I think so," is what she says in response to Elle.

It makes sense from where she is sitting, anyway.

The kittens, however, do not seem to care.

The occasional fallen potato peel is a better toy than they were expecting.

Elle still has a couple left to finish off.

Still, she asks, her voice offhand, "Do you like it?"

"It is different when I am not working."

Beat.

"And it is easier when I know people."

She is not sure if that is what Elle meant. Not quite.

After a pause as Elle finishes her second to last potato, she answers, "You don't have to do it a lot."

Elle had liked the idea, maybe just because it was a holiday, and other people did it.

But she's sure she wouldn't want to do it too often.

"No."

Beat.

"It is different with my former teammates."

This pause is longer, and X looks a little more fully at Elle.

"Then there is pizza."

Beat.

"Today?"

One time, there was sushi on Thanksgiving. As if there was any dinner going on at the Company, Elle wasn't part of it, she wasn't sure what that was about.

But pizza was... well, usually for missions.