xp_logs | Wednesday morning: waffles and bacon and bears, oh my.

x-crowdofone.livejournal.com posting in

Jamie does his level best to come up with enough breakfast for Theo, and meets Dom into the bargain. They get along swimmingly, until Jamie has to go take a final.

Making a giant breakfast was much easier when you could be three different places at once. Jamie had nearly a gallon of oatmeal on the simmer, two big pans of bacon sizzling, and the mansion's entire complement of waffle irons hissing merrily away.

It'd be interesting to see if Miles's new friend "Theo the Bear" could eat the lot himself, or if it would be enough breakfast for all of Nathan's friends. Sort of a scientific experiment, with the added bonus of making anyone who walked into the kitchen pull a doubletake.

"Wow," a dry voice said from the doorway. Domino stood there for a moment, regarding the goings-on with amusement. "Theo will think he's died and gone to heaven," she observed dryly, wandering in and finding a chair. "Jamie, right?" she said, eyeing the kid with a faint smile.

"That's me. And that's the idea." Jamie grinned. "Anybody who makes that kind of impression on Miles is OK in my book." He blinked. "Heeey, you must be Domino. Classic work with that prank on Dr. Ego, there. That was priceless."

Domino gave him her best dazzling smile. "You're too kind. Child's play, though... men like Pym, and I use the term 'men' loosely, practically beg to be led around by the balls."

"I got that impression from the lack of taking no for an answer.," Jamie replied dryly. "Like he got stuck at the mental age of about fourteen, or he's too used to socializing with subatomic particles."

"Poor Moira," Domino mused, without really thinking. "Between Pym and Rory acting like assholes, and Nate trying to drive her into an early grave..."

"We're thinking about a constitutional amendment against getting hurt." He grinned, but raised an eyebrow. "Rory? You mean Dr. Campbell? I thought he was a pretty okay guy, when I was over there."

"Oh, he's a great guy," Domino said with a snort. "He just woke up to the fact that he had a thing for Moira about six years too late." She waggled a finger at him. "Now, don't go spreading that around. I'm being fearfully indiscreet here, but I'm also kind of pissed at him for mixing it up with Nate when he wasn't twenty-four hours out of surgery yet."

"Ouch. Lips are sealed, don't worry. I'm starting to get more and more glad I saved my being an idiot for after the first few dates, though." He grinned. "Since it seems to be unavoidable."

Domino smiled, a little more warmly. "Nate's mentioned you to me, you know."

"Uh-oh. He say how I was a bad influence on him, got him to send the nasty physicist a care package?"

"No, actually." Domino leaned back in the chair, chuckling. "He did mention the care package, but what he said that stuck in my head was something along the lines of how you actually had a sense of humor and a sense of proportion, unlike many of the other students he'd run into here."

Jamie blinked, and nearly let some of the bacon scorch. "Wow. That's . . . nice of him to say." He shrugged as he turned back to save the food. "People should laugh more, I figure. Tendency around here seems like going 'oh woe is me, the darkness of my freakish life, I must spork myself' sometimes, and that's just way too much work."

"They'll figure out pretty quickly that you can't wallow forever," Domino said, with a shrug. "Or they'll be permanently miserable." She reached out, taking the salt and pepper grinders sitting on the table and starting to juggle them idly. "Nate gets that, believe it or not. Of course, he's also into sublimating the bad shit, which has its drawbacks. Personally, I find life far too much fun to dwell on the unpleasant bits."

"Sometimes the unpleasant bits dwell on you. No reason not to have fun where you can get it, though." He indicated the stoves. "As witness the healthy chuckle I've gotten out of no less than three different people who stuck their heads in here before you showed up. You'd think they'd never seen somebody making oatmeal in a giant tureen."

"Oatmeal," Domino said, and her eyes suddenly brightened. "Waffles? You're making waffles?"

"Yep." Jamie popped one of the irons open and forked its cargo onto a plate, presenting it to Domino with a flourish. "Mass quantities of waffles. You can never have too many."

"Can I take you back to Berlin with me?" Domino said, very deliberately using the gushy-girly tone and the doe-eyes, weapons she very rarely unleashed. But good waffles were very hard to come by.

Jamie snickered. "I don't fit into overhead compartments. Syrup, or powdered sugar?"

"Mmm... syrup," Domino decided, beaming at him as he brought over the bottle.

"Ohhhh...." rumbled Theo from the doorway. He was not quite drooling, Domino noted. "I could smell this all the way upstairs."

Jamie grinned. "No mistaking you, is there? Jamie Madrox, Miles's roommate. I have waffles, oatmeal, and bacon, all carefully prepared and hypoallergenic." He indicated a sign taped to one cupboard which read "No chocolate for Theo the Bear!" in slightly lopsided handwriting.

"It would've be rude to turn down the cookies," Theo parried weakly, ducking his head so that he could come in. "Miles was, um, trying to be all hospitable and all." He looked at Jamie and smiled broadly, a smile that showed all his teeth. "A roomie thing, then? The hospitality, I mean. Breakfast smells great."

"Thanks. I like to cook, it kills time and results in food. Don't be afraid to pull up a chair, they're reinforced . . . and yeah, the roomie thing doesn't hurt. Miles tends to get excited about being able to share food with people, is all."

Domino tilted her head, her eyes narrowing slightly. "Something new for him?" she inquired softly, not liking the directions that particular thought took her.

Jamie nodded. "He . . . had a rough time. Alison found him in a cave in Mexico, and that was a step up for him. He's safe now, though."

Theo gave a distressed-sounding rumble, and Domino reached out to pat his arm gently. "Theo and I can both sympathize," she said to Jamie. "His natural parents dropped him in the woods when he was six, and I grew up in the combat pits in Hong Kong."

"Big Kansas farm family, here, so I know there's things I'll never really get about what he's been through." Jamie smiled a little sadly and piled a heaping plate of everything with extra everything for Theo. "But I know what it's like to grow up loved, and I can help give him that. He's a great kid."

"See why he talks about you the way he does," Theo growled softly, taking the plate from Jamie with a smaller, but grateful smile. "Hell of a little kid to have come out of a background like that. Says lots of good things about him."

"That's the amazing part--he can still be this happy little kid after all that." Jamie snagged a spare piece of bacon. "And he's frighteningly good at video games, which is just unfair."

"Mmmph..." Theo said, his mouth full. "Like videogames. Have a playstashion in Berlin."

"On which he likes to play golf," Domino said dryly.

"Golf?" Jamie looked vaguely offended. "Golf? That's no way to treat a perfectly good Playstation. Do the golf balls even blow up?"

"No," Theo said sheepishly. "I just like the backgrounds."

Domino shook her head at him, again. "You're deeply weird," she said, and stole a piece of bacon off his plate. Theo growled at her - jokingly, she knew, but still rather loudly.

Jamie grinned at him. "Congratulations, though. You know how much work it is to be deeply weird around here?"

Domino eyed Jamie thoughtfully. "So an ex-mercenary's going to fit in okay, then?"

Jamie: "Nathan? He does already. He's got zillions of people from the future, and all I've got is an evil twin." Jamie frowned. "Hopefully not for much longer."

"Evil twin?" Theo said, giving Jamie a questioning look.

Domino was frowning. "Sounds like a bad sci-fi novel, but I somehow don't think you're joking..."

"It's my power, sort of." Jamie snapped his fingers, duping, then reabsorbed the dupe. "I lost one a few months ago, and now he's back and kind of . . . psycho. The Professor's looking for him."

Theo stopped chewing his bacon, looking fascinated. "Cool... um, I mean your power. Not the evil twin."

"I can't see Charles giving up until he's solved the problem," Domino said, trying to be reassuring.

"He's not, I'm just . . . twitchy. The power's a lot of fun otherwise, though. I use it to slack off while I do my homework."

"When I think of all the things I could have done with that power," Domino said thoughtfully, then grinned at Jamie. "Then again, maybe it's best I don't. Think about them, I mean. Might give myself all kinds of ideas."

Jamie chuckled. "Sure, you say that now. Spend six months as a Greek chorus, see how you like it then."

"Fifty Doms," Theo said, and actually shuddered. "What a thought. They'd be competing with each other. The world would tremble."

"Cheer up, I can only do fifteen on a good day. The world would probably only shiver. Maybe twitch."

Domino gave Theo an arch look, and then smiled beatifically at Jamie. "Contrary to what my teammates tell you, I am perfectly capable of behaving myself. Except when I want something."

Jamie grinned. "And how often is that?"

"Only one or twice an hour. I'm a woman of simple needs."

"Like waffles," Jamie said, handing her another plateful.

Domino grinned at him wickedly. "I hope you have a girlfriend, Jamie. Otherwise you are most definitely going to waste."

"Have had for almost a year now." There was a definite blitzed tinge to Jamie's smile.

"Lucky girl," Domino said, and meant it.

"You make good breakfast, kid," Theo said firmly.

"Thanks." Jamie eyed his watch and grimaced. "But I've got a final this morning, so I'd better go get ready for it. Nice meeting you guys. Try not to make Nathan-in-the-medlab the only reason you show up, huh? Not that that won't bring you around a lot, at this rate."

"Yeah, we're going to talk to him about that," Theo said with a snort.

"Make him write out 'I will not get so much as a hangnail until at least Christmas' a thousand times," Domino said, and then grinned. "Good luck with your final, Jamie. Thanks for breakfast."

Jamie acknowledged this with a wave and a grin as he left the room.