ataraxionlogs | [Very open!]

[Very open!]

CHARACTERS: Ellis and EVERYONE ELSE
LOCATION: Kitchen
WARNINGS: Everything may be covered in flour...
SUMMARY: It's December and it's time to make cookies for everyone. Problem is, Ellis has no idea how to do it. Be it help or hindrance, some company would be nice!
NOTES: This is going to be messy...

The kitchen is an absolute mess, almost every inch of it covered in flour or egg or oh, god, what is that even? Ellis stands at the counter, concentrating on a battered recipe book. He's also covered in flour and looks slightly baffled by what he's reading in the book.

All in all, it's quite a sight.

Mumbling something to himself, he pulls another egg from the carton and cracks it over the half-finished disaster in a large mixing bowl.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Firo misses having his own kitchen back home, especially when he finds the Tranquility's kitchens looking like they've been attacked by a baking monster. Like right now.

He steps into the room carefully, surveying the damage as he approaches Ellis. "...Need some help there, pal?"

Ellis looks up from the disaster and smiles, nodding at the boy. "Hello there, sir." He looks back at the mess, making a questionable face at it before returning his gaze to Firo. "Honestly, that'd be a yes."

He takes off his hat, hitting it against the edge of the counter to dust it out before replacing it on his head. "You know anything about cookies?"

Sir? That's new. It's much better than 'kid', though, so Firo can't help but smile.

Firo thanks his lucky stars that none of the guys back home can see him as he nods. "It's not like I'm an expert or anything, but I know enough." He moves closer and glances at the bowl. "What exactly are you tryin' to make?"

Ellis pauses. What was he trying to make? "Uhhh, hold on." He leans against the counter, wiping the flour and brown sugar from the open page of the cookbook.

"Looks like 'sugar cookies'." He responds, looking again at Firo. "You know anything about that?"

Before he can stop himself or think of something nicer to say, Firo blurts out, "You screwed up sugar cookies? With a recipe?"

He's not a great cook by any means, but even he knows that's a simple enough thing to do. He shakes his head. "Sorry. I'll help you out, but first we need to clean this place up. Can't leave it lookin' like we've had a bunch of drunks messin' around in here." No offense, man.

Ellis nods, spirits still high despite Firo's rudeness. "Looks like I did." He smiles, grabbing a rag from the sink and starting to wipe the counter. "Sounds like a plan."

Firo smiles back; happiness is contagious sometimes. It helps that baking is hardly a serious thing.

He takes another rag and starts working on the other end of the counter so they can meet in the middle. "I take it you're not too used to cooking?"

Ellis shakes his head, still smiling. "Nah, it's not really my thing. Never did get the hang of it, but... figured I may 's well give it a try."

He scrubs silently at the counter for a moment or two. Then his eyes light up. "There was this one time, though. I was hangin' out with my friend Keith, right? An' it was rainin' so hard, we didn' wanna go out there but we were starvin'. So, we go in the kitchen, an' we figger we could just make somethin', easy peasy. So we find some noodles an' shit, and the thing about noodles, you gotta boil them sons o' bitches. So we got the water all hot an' shit, and Keith went to go put those damn noodles in there. Third degree burns over ninety percent of his body."

His smile is even wider now, thinking back on all those good times they had together. Even if most of them did end in disaster.

Firo keeps wiping down the counter as he looks up to listen to the story. He smiles as he waits for the punchline, and then that smile vanishes when they get there.

"Christ. Was he okay? That's gotta hurt like hell!" On top of his sympathy for this poor Keith, he's a bit disturbed by how cheery Ellis seems. Firo's had bad experiences with people who talk about injuries with a smile.

"Aw, he was fine. Keith's always gettin' into shit like that." He looks up at the horror on the boy's face. "Mighta been exaggeratin' a little bit." More like a lot. Ellis is very prone to embellishing things and exaggerating.

"It wasn't really as bad as I mighta made it sound." He smiles at the kid, feeling sort of guilty for scaring him like that. He's used to hanging around with people like Nick back at home, and Cunningham here on the ship, so making people worry isn't usually an issue. "He barely got hurt, really."

"Oh. That's good to know." He smiles, slightly embarrassed at his reaction. Should he really be that concerned over some guy he's never met?

"You said stuff like that happens a lot? I've got a friend named Keith, too, but he hardly ever gets into trouble. He's usually the one to glare at you when you do." But Keith Gandor is a Mafia boss, so perhaps he's always in trouble.

Ellis laughs light-heartedly. "How's that for a coincidence?" He scrubs at a spot on the counter for a moment before continuing. "What's he like?"

Ellis loves talking about those he's close to. Maybe Firo feels the same? Either way, he loves a good story.

There are few things Firo likes to do more in Ataraxion than talk about the people he's left at home. It makes the homesickness worse, but he'd rather be homesick than risk forgetting a single person.

"Never talks, for starters. Not to his guys, not to his brothers, not to his wife..." He walks over to the sink to wring out the washcloth he's been using on the counter. "Well, never is a bit of a stretch, but it's been years since I've heard him say a word."

Ellis is astonished. He can't imagine not talking for one day, let alone year. There must be something seriously off about this guy.

"Oh, yeah?" He scrubs again at the counter. "Sounds like a shy kinda guy, huh?"

He runs some water over the rag again and sweeps up a few last patches of flour. "I wouldn't say he's shy. He's fine hangin' out with people, just not chatty. And he's definitely no scaredy cat, either."

He shrugs and smiles. "It's just him. He's been like that since we were kids."

"You guys been friends a long time, huh?" He smiles fondly at the younger man, finishing up with the spot he's been cleaning and moving on. "Yeah, it's great to have good friends like that. People you can talk to your whole life an' never get bored."

Ellis has a lot of friends like that, everyone he's ever met basically, and it's nice hearing about someone else's. Everyone needs friends they can really connect with.

He smiles back and nods. "We grew up together. I've known him and his brothers about as long as I can remember." To Firo, they're pretty much his own brothers; they're family still, despite their different allegiances.

"Is that what your Keith is to you?"

Ellis nods, smile growing even bigger than it already was. "Yeah, we've always been real close. My mama always said he was like a second son."

A small chuckle escaped his throat. "She'd even reprimand him when he did somethin' stupid, same as me."

Firo nods, thinking about his own relationship with Keith's dad. He wasn't around too often, but Firo owes him a lot for what he did in those times he was there.

He laughs. "And how often was that?"

He looks over the counter for any missed spots.

He lets out another chuckle. "Pretty often, I'm not gonna lie. An' usually when one of us got the idea to do somethin' stupid, the other one went right along with it. So that's double the naggin'."

It's nice to have conversations like this, especially with someone who feels the same about something.

He laughs. "That's kids for you, isn't it?" Along with his friends, he got into a good bit of trouble as a kid.

He wipes up one last spot on the counter, then adds, "This place looks clean enough to me, if you wanna get started. You said sugar cookies, right?"

Firo doesn't need to know that those shenanigans continued on until the zombie apocalypse put them to an end... less than a year ago. And at age twenty-three, Ellis can't in all good conscience consider himself a kid.

He nods, looking around. "Yeah, I could never figure this kinda stuff out."

It's not that hard, Ellis is just a little slow when it comes to cooking. Among other things.

He nods. "It takes some practice, but it gets easier. Can I see the recipe?" He's no pro himself, but he's not helpless in the kitchen and he's had more time to cook since landing on the ship. It's not like there's an Alveare here for him to eat at.

Since they were reminiscing, he decides to add, smiling, "Lia and Sena can cook a lotta stuff without even lookin' at a recipe, but I'm not that good."

Ellis smiles again at the boy. More reminiscing, he's sure. "Oh, yeah? Those more o' your friends?"

He hands him the recipe book and lets him look it over.

"Yeah. Sena runs my Family's restaurant back home, too." And former speakeasy, as well as the little honey shop that served as its front. She's a pretty busy woman.

Firo scans over the recipe, nodding as he reads each step. He sets the book down on the counter and reaches for the mixing bowl. "It'd be a shame to waste all this... What's in here so far?" It'd probably be a better idea to start over completely, but it's not as if they have unlimited resources.

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