Shiro and Marie

[x-sanfuaiyaa.livejournal.com]

Marie and Shiro make dinner, and Marie discovers why one shouldn't have crackheads for friends.


Marie headed down to the kitchen, struck with the odd desire to cook. Taking a quick inventory of the ingredients available in the kitchen, she decided a simple stir-fry would be quick but fun to make and she began pulling out vegetables and slicing them into strips.

"Can't you, like, karate chop them into bits?" Shiro asked, slowly ambling his way into the kitchen. "That would be quite a sight to see, you know. Iron Chef Rogue!" Chuckling at his own joke, he opened the refrigerator and stuck his head in, looking for something to eat. He was famished.

"Careful what you say to a woman wielding a knife," she said with a smile as she continued chopping. "Oh come on, close that thing, my cookin' won't kill ya." She gestured to a chair with her empty hand. "Ah'll Ah ask is for a little company."

"I tried Southern cooking before. My heart hasn't been the same since." He smirked at her, but acquiesced and closed the fridge. "Need help?"

Marie reacted by maturely sticking her tongue out at Shiro. "Ah'm not even cookin' Southern. Can't do it right here." Pulling out a second knife, she handed it and some bell peppers to him. "Think Ah can trust you with a sharp object?" she kidded with a wink. Opening cabinets, she searched for oil, spices and a wok, setting the objects on the counter as she found them.

"You ask he who plays with swords," Shiro retorted, accepting the knife and peppers. He liked Marie. He didn't know when he came to this decision, but he enjoyed her company and they shared a playful banter that made him smile. He'd cut peppers for her any day.

Beginning to heat up the pan, Marie smiled at Shiro. She enjoyed being around him because he always treated her as though she was just a normal person. No kid gloves, no worried glances…it was a welcome change of pace. Tossing the cut vegetables in, she pulled out some chicken and began slicing it. "So can you handle spicy or do Ah gotta make this tame for ya?"

Shiro shook his head, abandoning the peppers and picking up the wok with his bare hands. "No, the stove takes too long. Let me." He'd done this with popcorn before (much to Tommy's surprise and disgust), but no reason it shouldn't extend to stir-fry. "Let's change my codename to the Human Stove," he said, his utter enjoyment at this absurdity causing his accent to thicken.

"Now that's handy. Ah gotta remember to bring you on any missions that require camping," she said with a smirk. "Or if the power ever goes out…just find you and all is well." She tossed in some spices, then inhaled as the vegetables began to sizzle.

"I'm just full of hidden talents," Shiro said with a smirk as he swirled the wok. "Who knew that a human thermonuclear bomb can also making cooking dinner a hundred times easier? I guess nuclear power really is the future."

"Oh, is that all you’re full of?" Marie said while giggling. She tossed the chicken into the pan and then began clearing off the counters, not wanting to leave a mess.

Shiro glared at her. Good for her that he lacked a plasma stare. (For now.) He knew she was just teasing, but still. He was the one who'd mastered the level five Thwomp scenario. Who was she to judge, huh? Growing angry over that comment, Shiro didn't realize that the vegetables were starting to burn, or that little finger-shaped imprints were melting into the sides of the wok.

Marie blinked in surprise at the sudden change in mood that emanated from him. "Shiro? Ah…Ah was just joking around." She reached out and pulled the wok away from him, the heat searing holes through her gloves. "Where's the guy who was just having fun with me a second ago?"

Shiro grabbed the wok from her and continued cooking. What the hell was that? "Sorry," he muttered, "Long day." Not that he'd ever had much of a rein on his temper to begin with, but this was a bit much (or little, as the case may be). He had no excuse to be acting like this, he told himself. And saying that he's just worried about Clarice is a cop-out.

"It's ok," she said softly. "We've all had a lot of those around here. Can Ah help with anything?" She resumed spicing up the stir-fry, but she was quiet and didn't resume the banter the two had been engaging in.

There was still an edge of concern in Marie's body language, but she didn't want to push Shiro directly. "Just hangin' around the mansion, getting ready for school and for teaching." She didn't want to admit that Cain's post had her a little worried about going off campus and she was glad that several of her classes were online and didn't require actually sitting in a classroom. "What about yourself?"

Shiro, on the other hand, had no qualms about going out in public. In fact, Cain's message read like a dare to him. He was half-tempted to fly all the way to school, instead of flying into the Bronx and then taking the subway down. Hmm, maybe he'd even do that. "Have to pick up my textbooks and new supplies tomorrow. And training." Lots of training.

"Oh? We'll have to do a DR session when Ah'm back up and runnin' on the team then." Marie looked at the stir fry, pleased that it looked good and smelled delicious. She took out plates and silverware, setting them on the table and gesturing the Shiro to bring the wok over so she could serve them both. "Ah need to do some experimentin' and Ah think you may be just the guy to help me out."

Shiro gently placed the wok on the stove, and couldn't help but grimace at the damage he'd done. Lorna was going to kill him. That little voice that always told Shiro that something was a bad idea seemed to be sneering now, though, as if saying "Bring it on." And that made Shiro grin. "Why aren't you back yet?" he asked. "You look healthy and stable enough."

"Well Ah'm healthy as a horse," she said as she served both of them, ignoring the stable portion of Shiro's comment. "Ah'll be back on soon, Ah'm sure. Just needed a bit of a break to sort out my head." Stabbing a piece of broccoli with her fork, she shoved it in her mouth to avoid the need to explain further. Ouch. Hot.

Shiro fished out a pair of chopsticks from utensil drawer to eat the stir-fry, though his stomach and his brain still battled over whether he was hungry or not. "Precogs are a real mindfuck, huh?" he said in the tone that someone might use to tell the time.

Marie shoved another bite of food in her mouth to muffle the string of words that first came to mind. Swallowing, she settled for a bitter "Yeah." Pushing around the stir-fry on her plate, she found her appetite quickly waning away. "So is Clarice excited about starting at Maryland?" she asked in an obvious attempt to change the subject.

Shiro popped a piece of chicken into his mouth and shrugged. "I guess. Haven't talked about it much." Or at all. Beyond brief greetings and silent time spent together reading or drawing and such, they'd traded few words in weeks.

Looking up in mild surprise, Marie cocked her head at Shiro. "Ah just figured y'all would be talking about school now, what with it getting close an' all." She shrugged as she stabbed a piece of chicken on her plate, eyeing it disdainfully. "Then again, it's been a busy coupla months."

"My second year, so nothing new to me," was Shiro's reply. He tore a big piece of chicken with his teeth and pondered while he chewed. "We're not . . . I don't know what's going on anymore," he admitted.

Marie shrugged, thinking to herself that she'd still be pretty excited her second year. She set her fork down and focused on Shiro. "What's goin' on?" She hadn't been aware of any tension between the couple, but she also wasn't up on current mansion gossip.

Clarice and Shiro had both omitted the bit about the ninja's hand from their reports back in May, and though they'd told their leaders, they hadn't told anyone else. It wasn't his place to, Shiro figured. So he shook his head at Marie and stared intently at his half-full plate. "Stuff. We got into a . . . a disagreement a while back and we haven't resolved it yet."

"Ah'm sorry to hear that." She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Marie never knew how to react when people told her about their relationship troubles. She generally ended up wanting to shake them and remind them that at least they got to have relationships. Of course, so had she lately... "Y'all probably just need to talk it out, y' know?"

Shiro snorted contemptuously. "Tried that. Didn't work. Got any other bright ideas?" He picked up a piece of bok choy and promptly disintegrated it. Thinking about Clarice tended to make him want to commit acts of violence against people. More so than usual, at least.

Marie blinked, but she couldn't really blame Shiro for snapping since she had stated the obvious. "'fraid not. You're kinda speaking to the wrong person if you're looking for good relationship advice." She sighed. "Ah'm always hear to listen though, if you just wanna talk things out with someone else."

"Not so much." Now he was definitely not hungry anymore. He needed a little boost to kick him into gear again. After rummaging through one of the cupboards for a Tupperware container, he dumped the rest of his stir-fry in and not so gently put his plate in the dishwasher. "Thanks for the snack."

"Anytime," she replied, her appetite equally spoiled. How had both their moods shifted so rapidly? Something felt off with Shiro, but she chalked it up to the problems between him and Clarice. Peeling off her ruined gloves, she tossed them in the trash and then busied herself cleaning the kitchen.