Saturday Night, Kitchen

[x-polarisstar.livejournal.com]

In the kitchen, Shiro and Lorna discuss the shooting and why this crisis is different. They also christen a new club into existence. Lorna makes pumpkin muffins.



After returning from the horror that was the blood drive, the first thing Shiro did was find his sister. After explaining what he could to her and making sure that she and the other little ones were in good hands, he made his way down to the kitchen for some high in sugar and low in nutritional value. An hours-long college entrance exam followed by a massive PR event turned near-homicide was not putting Shiro in the best of places, and damn did he need comfort food.

Lorna put the milk back in the refrigerator and closed the door. Lorna reacted fairly predictably under stress and had come down to the kitchen. Behind her, a wide array of food was already prepared. She would keep cooking until everything was okay. Her own type of talisman against misfortune. She rested her head against the cool black door and took several deeps breaths to ward off a sudden swell of tears.

Shiro entered the kitchen silently, and upon seeing all the food out, concluded that Lorna must be afoot. He took another couple of steps in and saw her. "Lorna," he said in greeting softly, trying not to startle her. "Are you . . . well, I guess asking if you are well is the stupidest thing I could ask now."

“Hey, Shiro,” she said without turning though she did lift her head. “I’m fine. I wasn’t there after all.” She moved back to her current project. “How are you holding up? Hungry?” A short hand movement offered him any of the finished dishes.

"That doesn't matter," Shiro said, shrugging, as he made his way to the fridge to make something for himself. "There's something about one of us getting shot that's - that's . . . I can't think of the right word. It's different, I guess, from everything we've encountered thus far."

“Hmm.” Lorna thought of Jean who chose her death. And of Marie who had been targeted before she’d ever come to the mansion. It was less different than Shiro imagined. Lorna ladled her batter into muffin tins. “Alison is taking this really hard.”

"Is she?" He withdrew a carton of milk and a bottle of chocolate syrup, and went to the cupboard get a glass. "I'd assume that this is striking everyone. Is it that Doug wa - is one of her pupils? Or something else?"

Lorna sighed and shook her head, “Feels responsible because she was there. Of course,” she curved her lips in what may have been a smile if it had any warmth in it, “I feel responsible because I wasn’t there.” She shrugged and slid the muffins into the oven and set the timer.

"So would it be a waste of our time to tell you that the culpability rests on the sniper's shoulders?" Shiro asked, grinning wryly as he stirred his chocolate milk into existence. "Or would that be terribly hypocritical of me to not assign blame to at least someone at this school?"

“I’m perfectly willing to blame the shooter. I just can’t help thinking that if I’d been there…well, try getting a bullet past a magnekinetic. Much easier than throwing a body in front of it.” Lorna picked up one of the sandwiches she’d made and nibbled on it absently.

Shiro took a drink from his cup and sat on one of the stools. "But would you have been able to respond in time? Bullets travel quickly, so you would have had to move instantaneously to stop the bullet before it hit anyone."

She shook her head. “No, actually I wouldn’t have to be faster than a speeding bullet. Just the EM fields would and they very much can. There is a huge difference between bullet speed and instantaneous. Sandwich?” She nudged the plate at him.

Shiro accepted the offer, more to avoid insulting Lorna than because he was hungry. Not like he could turn down anything Lorna made, even a sandwich. "If I gave in and agreed that you are partially responsible for Doug's near-death experience, would you feel any better? Or should I continue being your boyfriend's best friend and tell you that it's a foolish way to think?"

Lorna made a face at him. “No. Go right ahead and tell me I’m foolish. There is never a need to encourage a Catholic to feel guilty.” She propped her chin in her palm. “I’ll be adding bullet stopping to my training schedule anyway. Just in case I’m not fast enough now.”

"I won't deny that that's a useful skill to have." Shiro took a bite of the sandwich, and washed it down with another swig of chocolate milk. "This whole thing is just so unsettling. We've experienced so much before, but this doesn't compare, at least for me. Maybe because I don't have my powers so I couldn't help Mr. Wagner or Mr. al Rashid find the shooter. With Limbo, Mr. Wisdom's friends, and Asgard, at least I could do something. This . . . I don't know. It's just different."

“Makes it easier to understand why they’re scared of us. When you’re helpless yourself, I mean.” She was silent for a moment then said thoughtfully, “It’s kind of like last year. Sitting at home, surrounded by media and angry neighbours. I felt just this helpless then too.”

"Firearms are so . . . mundane, ne? Of all the ways to die, of all the ways people here have almost died, being shot is insulting. We've fought against demons and gods and have come out more or less unscathed, but a little pellet of lead could take us down. And that was probably a very morbid thought, even for me."

“I think under the circumstances it’s not that morbid, just a decent observation. We’re aren’t immortal, any of us.” Lorna’s breath hitched and she reminded herself fiercely that Doug was going to be fine.

Shiro's not the most observant of people, but he did notice the change in Lorna's demeanor. "No, we're not," he said calmly, "But we're also a stubborn group of people, too much so to die. How many people have been at death's door over the course of the past year and lived to tell the tale? Doug will just be another one. And we'll ride his ass for being a moron." The slang sounded foreign coming from Shiro, like he didn't understand what it meant, but he'd heard Alex use terms like that often enough to know its proper context.

Hearing the slang made her smile just a bit. “Including the two of us? Far too many. And we’ve had a lot of repeat offenders in that department too. Think Doug was jealous?” Black humor, but sometimes that’s what was called for.

Shiro chuckled at that. "Maybe. I hope he got what he so desperately wanted, if that's the case. Is this another student group we need to start? Self-Destructors Anonymous?"

“Just the kind of elite club this school does so well. Goes right along with the Nearly Killed Girlfriend club that Jono is so fond of.” That came out a great deal more upset than she’d intended. Some things were harder to joke about than others, apparently. “Who needs Chess Club anyway?”

Shiro silenced his inner Defend Your Roommate/Best Friend's Honor mechanism that wanted to retort, and just shook his head instead. "Chess Club is for those without lives. The rest of us have much more interesting ways to spend our time."

Lorna saw him check the impulse and wanted to explain that it wasn’t an attack or anything. That she was more scared of it than anything and she didn’t blame Alex at all. “Interesting, yeah that’s one way to put it,” she said instead. “We’re all about the interesting.”

"I have a way with words," Shiro explained, shrugging. "I'm going to check on Leyu-chan and the others. Alex is upstairs in case you would like to speak with him." He took his dishes to the sink, rinsed them off, and put them in the dishwasher. "Thanks for the snack."

She waved off his thanks and stood, “I’m going to take some of this down to the doctors once the muffins are done. Can you tell him I’ll see him in a little bit?”

"Of course." He inclined his head politely and left the kitchen to quickly see how the children were doing before going upstairs to see his roommate. He still felt off, but verbalizing his thoughts put him in a slightly better mood. But he still was not looking forward to the uproar when Doug woke up.

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[x-madelyn.livejournal.com]

Madelyn would like to ask that Self-Destructors Anonymous try and co-ordinate their crises with the medlab staff, to prevent the madlab staff self destructing as well. *grins*