xp_logs | Pietro and Crystal - Dinner and Dancing

Crystal pays Pietro a surprise visit and is aghast to discover Pietro's dinner of choice. OK, so it's not really his dinner of choice, but it's what he's having that night, and she's horrified nonetheless. After Crystal suggests that he can take up Beginning Cooking, Pietro changes the subject and they talk about the Winter Ball and the possibility of Crystal planning future dances.

Dinnertime--or Pietro was hungry, at least; it came to the same thing. There wasn't anything he particularly wanted out of the mansion's stock of leftovers, though, so he supposed he'd have to make do with a can of Joe Campbell's finest mass-produced chicken noodle soup. It almost made him wish he'd ever learned to cook. Almost. Everything still took too long.

Crystal announced her presence outside Pietro's door with a a few light bursts of wind tapping the door. She had been glad to see and hear that people enjoyed the presents they had received from her and Medusa, although some people seemed to think that a Wii should have been given instead. Oh well. Maximus had said a Playstation 3 was the way to go, and she trusted his judgment. And, apparently, the school had ended up with a Wii anyway.

The familiar sound, softer than the rap of knuckles on the wood, brought a smile to Pietro's face and he hastened to open the door. "Crystal," he greeted her cheerfully, "please come in. I'm just fixing myself something to eat, but I'm afraid I wasn't expecting company. How was your trip home?"

"I had a wonderful time," Crystal said with a smile, walking into the suite. "It was great to be home again for an extended period of time." She hoped she wasn't bothering him, she hadn't meant to disturb his dinner, but he didn't seem to be bothered by her unannounced visit.

"I'm glad. I just ended up rattling around here, as usual--oh, but thank you for the wine, that was very thoughtful." The microwave buzzed, and Pietro glanced over with a slight grimace. "Ah. Food." He got up and opened the door, bringing the steaming bowl of soup over to the table. "I could fix you another can, if you like, but I think it would be a rather poor return for the food you've brought me."

Can? He was eating canned food? He was offering her soup from a can? That was his version of food? Soup from a can?! Ew...surely he had better taste than that? That was his dinner? Soup from a can? No doubt it was probably condensed canned soup, too. Ick. What a horrifying concept!

It was a credit to her years of training as to how a proper lady of Attilan should behave and react that no trace of a look of horror took its place on Crystal's face at the thought of microwaved soup from a can. Such a dinner rivaled meatloafapillers, except at least meatloafapillers were made fresh. She'd brought him freshly baked cookies and gourmet food and there was a stocked kitchen downstairs and delivery places all around and he was eating soup from a can! She would have sent him a fruit and cheese basket along with the wine if she had known he was resorting to eating soup from a can. Or maybe a steak.

"Thank you for offering," Crystal responded politely, "but I have already eaten dinner." And it certainly hadn't been involved anything taken directly from a can and heated in a microwave.

"Yes, I rather thought you might have, but it's rude to eat in front of a guest without offering," Pietro replied wryly. He wrinkled his nose at the bowl. "Not my first choice, I assure you. But my budget doesn't stretch to delivery every night, my own culinary skills don't extend much past heating things in the microwave, and Dane and I. .. are best served by avoiding one another, at least for the time being. Put it all together, and some nights I'm forced to make do." He shrugged. "At least it's both hot and nourishing; there were more than a few days while I was on the run when I couldn't even manage that much."

"You should not have to eat as if you were still on the run," Crystal told Pietro. "Medusa and I have had our own troubles with Ms. Dane and both of us avoided her and her domain for quite some time." She sighed slightly, recalling the journal entries, Lorna's visit to Crystal's suite, and a summer of delivery and Power Bars. "To her credit, she did apologize. Still, even with the apology she made her feelings about me quite clear. If you want to improve your culinary skills," she continued seamlessly, keeping a completely innocent look on her face, "you could always look into signing up for Beginning Cooking."

"I think perhaps that would be less than advisable." A bare smile touched the edges of Pietro's mouth. "I've done enough to her by omission that I shudder to think what might happen if I started messing about intentionally." He shook his head, changing the subject. "I did stop by the Winter Ball, just for a moment--everything seemed to be going well."

Beginning Cooking with Lorna probably would have been cruel and unusual punishment for Pietro anyway, but the class hadn't been that bad since Dani had taken charge of it. "I am glad to hear that," Crystal said with a smile. "Yes, everything went quite well. Nothing was set on fire, no one exploded, no aliens tried to take over the world, and people had fun."

"Everyone certainly seemed to be. I'm glad all your hard work paid off." Pietro hesitated for a moment, mulling over his next impulse; he wasn't sure what she'd make of it, but then again, a compliment was a compliment. "I liked your dress. Very elegant, I thought; you looked quite regal."

"Thank you," Crystal said, smiling. "I'm glad you liked it. Medusa chose it for me; she is always able to find just the right outfit for any occasion."

"I'm sure your own taste would have been well up to the occasion, but your sister did choose well." Pietro smiled back, suddenly a trifle more relaxed. "Did you have fun, in between making sure everything went smoothly?"

"For me, the fun was in the planning and seeing everything turn out the way it was supposed was be," Crystal explained. By functioning as hostess, she had been in her element. "I greeted everyone, had a rather interesting conversation, and managed a few dances, but someone had to make sure that everything kept running properly, and that someone was me."

And presumably it had been much less nerve-wracking to organize than covert sabotage; still, Pietro thought he had had quite enough of making things run properly to last him through . . . several lifetimes. It was actually fairly impressive that she'd managed things so well as to enjoy the process. "Who did you dance with?" he asked; a quick and easy way to sidetrack his train of thought, though it was odd to realize that he actually wanted to know.

"I danced on my own, or in a group, and I danced with Blackagar when Forge 'borrowed' the Lady Medusa for a dance," Crystal said, grinning slightly. The look on the prince's face had been absolutely priceless. "Before she knew that Blackagar was going to be coming for the ball, Medusa promised Forge that she would dance with him."

Pietro chuckled. "And of course she couldn't break her word to Forge. . . but what a surprise for the young prince. I wish I'd seen it."

"He certainly didn't expect that one," Crystal laughed. "I don't think Medusa did, either. It was just one dance, it was promised, and Forge did put up the spotlights. They were his idea, too. I need to thank him for that."

"Oh, certainly." Pietro pushed his now-empty bowl aside. "So . . . will you be organizing any more dances, do you think?"

"Here?" Crystal shook her head for a moment, then looked thoughtful. "I did not think that I would want to; even before the night of the Winter Ball, Mr. Sefton suggested that I might want to plan further dances and I told him I would want to wait until after the actual event to decide that. I suppose that if there is to be another dance here anyway, and I am allowed to plan it the way I want to without being told 'that's not how we do things here', then maybe I will do just that."

"You should show them how you do things in Attilan. Cultural exchange goes both ways, ideally." Pietro hesitated again. "If you do organize another, I might be able to be persuaded to put in a more substantial appearance . . ."

"But this is Rome, or so I have heard," Crystal said, a trace of sarcasm in her voice. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Crystal shook her head. "I wanted to try that with this dance, Pietro, but I was told to make it into something 'less refined' and to play music the students would already find familiar. But," she continued thoughtfully, "perhaps they will be more open to the idea if it is proposed as a cultural event for them." The idea of inviting all of the mansion residents to experience an actual royal function in Attilan was a tempting, amusing thought, but hardly a practical one. "If I did plan another dance, it would not be right away. Maybe in the spring, and by then I certainly hope that unwarranted negative reactions to you on the part of other residents here will remain only as distant memories."

"Well, of course it didn't work the first time," Pietro said, waving a hand dismissively. "You're dealing with a group of people who have been stepped on by change so many times that they haze new arrivals with demon attack stories to hide their own traumas and have idiotic superstitions about field trips, of all things. My father will give up all his worldly goods, convert to Catholicism, and take monastic vows before they accept a completely foreign idea without kicking and screaming, and for most of them that's exactly what a high court ball is." He smiled wryly. "But now that you've primed the pump, as it were, with a semi-formal dance that remained blithely uncrashed by alien invaders, you might be able to boost them over the psychological humps and pique their interest in something more like what you're used to."

"Welcome to the Madhouse where weird things happen, people are kidnapped on a regular basis and/or go evil and we consider that a normal day," Crystal said softly, recalling what Marie had told her in response to that. Pietro's description of what the students did was the best one she'd heard. "It is a coping mechanism. They believe that they are making good use of humor... but it is not funny, not amusing at all." She shook her head. "I will have to think about the dance and see what sort of interest it would receive. It will not be worth planning if no one is interested in attending. They might wish for me to act and speak in a manner that is more to their liking, but I would never do the same to them."

"Well, if you decide to go through with it . . . you have at least one person interested. And I do dance." Pietro grinned. "I'm tolerably quick on my feet, after all."

Crystal shot an amused look at Pietro. "Just 'tolerably quick'? Well then, we can at least show them how it's done!"