Kitchen, 33 Apocalypse Ave., Saturday Morning

[bitten_notshy]

Jack woke up on the couch in the living room, and was immediately struck by a crick in his neck that was shortly followed by overwhelming gratitude that he wasn't fourteen any more. Not that he'd even been such a bad sort of 14-year-old, but he associated the age with a kind of powerlessness he was glad to have outgrown.

And, also, it was nice to not be half-convinced the television was some sort of witchcraft. So there was that.

He sent a quick text to Emma to let her know there was no need to start chasing Sebastien down, then went into the kitchen. He rarely cooked much, but he was hungry, there was a box of blueberry muffin mix that had been in the cabinets for months and being back to himself seemed like as good a reason to celebrate by making it as any. Especially as it was too early to drink.

If it occurred to him some muffins might make a decent 'sorry I was a bit insufferable' present for a housemate who seemed to have been an exceptionally sulky teen himself ... well, that factored into it too.

[OOC: Open for weekend SP.]

Comments

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan came downstairs shortly after, equal parts cranky and exhausted. (That last one might have had something to do with re-gelling his hair this morning.) "The island needs to warn us from here on in."

Ugh.

[bitten_notshy]

"Or let us opt out entirely," Jack suggested as he stirred wet ingredients into dry. "But no, that'd be too easy for all of us. How are you feeling?"

He felt embarrassed, tired, and grateful he hadn't done anything criminal or irreversible.

[not_a_whiner]

"Like I'm glad the week's over and I probably owe my TA something," Kaidan said.

He took a deep breath and pushed onwards into the kitchen. "What are you making?"

[bitten_notshy]

"Blueberry muffins," Jack answered, gesturing quickly to the box. "I felt like doing something, so --" Muffins.

He smiled, a bit. "I need to talk to Eric about what I missed at the club. Given he was shouting in norse, I think he'll understand."

[not_a_whiner]

"Yeah, me, too," Kaidan said.

He leaned against the kitchen table. "That was... a pretty awkward week."

[bitten_notshy]

"I'm glad you grew out of whatever you were going through," Jack said, not unkindly. "Though given I took it upon myself to insult your hair, I may not have the right to say anything."

[not_a_whiner]

"We were kids," Kaidan pointed out. "And, well, I don't know about you, but I was a pretty messed up one to boot."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack stopped stirring, looked at Kaidan with more interest. "I was -- trying hard not to be a kid," he said, which was the best he could put it. "What was going on with you?"

He wasn't going to say anything if Kaidan hadn't, but it had seemed like his moodiness went deeper than standard teen angst.

[not_a_whiner]

"I'd just gotten out of Brain Camp," Kaidan said, after a short silence as he overthought exactly what he was going to say. And thought about it again. And again. "After a couple years of intense training in an isolated environment, they just... kicked us out and closed down the program. What also didn't help was that this girl I liked-- Rahna-- decided she didn't want anything to do with me."

[bitten_notshy]

"No wonder you were at a low ebb," Jack summarized thoughtfully. "None of that sounds easy.Can I ask why they shut the camp down?"

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan sighed.

"They hired mercenaries to teach. Humanity didn't know anything about biotics back then, so... they got turians instead. Problem was, most of these mercs were veterans-- of the war against humanity a few years earlier."

He rubbed at his amp port.

"They were embittered and angry. So they pushed too hard. And in the end... one of the students pushed back. One of the turians was killed. It turned into something of an interspecies incident."

[bitten_notshy]

"I can understand why," Jack nodded grimly. "But it's too bad everyone got kicked out rather than try to fix the program and go on."

[not_a_whiner]

"Honestly? I think we're better off without that program in the world," Kaidan said frankly. "The way they ran things-- you either came out a superman or a wreck."

[bitten_notshy]

"Maybe," Jack said, glancing over, managing not to comment that Kaidan seemed to have been a wreck. "What do they do to train Biotics now? Do you think they at least learned something from it?"

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan had had the dubious distinction of being the superman who killed his teacher and then went off the rails. So a little bit of both...

"The Ascension Project, at Grissom Academy," Kaidan said. "From what I hear, it's miles better than what we had. Mostly human-run, and a large portion of the staff is civilian, not military. It helps. Especially since they make 'fitting into normal human society' a part of the curriculum."

[bitten_notshy]

"I suppose that's the silver lining," Jack said, going over to the cabinet to find muffin cup liners. "Even if it would be better if they'd gotten to it without a tragedy first, but..."

But they hadn't known what they hadn't known, his shrug seemed to suggest.

[not_a_whiner]

"Yeah, it would have been a lot better," Kaidan said. "One shelf down, by the way. But... it was what it was."

[bitten_notshy]

"Most things are," Jack said philosophically, and found the muffin liners exactly where Kaidan had said they were. "Thanks. Do you bake more than I realize?"

[not_a_whiner]

"No," Kaidan said. "I just, uh, blew through here and reorganized it. Helps me think."

Shush.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack said almost nothing, though his eyebrows danced up. But it wasn't horrible as a coping strategy, and the organization made for a decided improvement on his own habit of putting everything on the nearest low shelf with space.

"Thanks," he offered, and started spooning batter into cups before something struck him. "I missed the moon. Well, it was there, I just didn't care about it."

That was the first time he could say that in a full year.

[not_a_whiner]

This time it was Kaidan's eyebrows' turn to make a brief gesture. "You feel like that's going to come back and bite you in the ass?" he asked.

Sure, be pragmatic.

[bitten_notshy]

"Probably," Jack mumbled. "I'll lock my bedroom door next couple nights just in case."

[not_a_whiner]

"I just mean... do you feel any different," Kaidan said, after a short pause. "'Cause if something goes wrong-- well, I can handle it. Don't worry about that."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack centered himself, tried to focus. "So far I feel okay," he said. "But it's only been a few hours, so it might get worse."

[not_a_whiner]

"Well, let's not go looking for trouble," Kaidan said, pulling upright. "Sorry. I don't mean to detract from your making it through a full moon without a transformation."

[bitten_notshy]

"It's all right, I was wondering exactly what you asked," Jack laughed. "I like looking for trouble. Better to be prepared for something that doesn't happen than not be prepared for something that does, right?"

"But," he added, "if I could do the same thing again on purpose, that would be fantastic."

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan's mouth tugged up briefly on one side. "I can imagine," he said. "The transformation-- that's got to be rough."

Master of understatement, our Commander Alenko.

[bitten_notshy]

"Imagine getting turned inside out and being set on fire, and you about have it," Jack said succinctly. "You learn to block it."

[not_a_whiner]

Both of Kaidan's eyebrows flew up. "I'm having a hard time picturing that," he admitted. "The blocking, I mean. To go through all that..."

[bitten_notshy]

"They say women do it after every birth, or else no one would have more than one baby," Jack said, and he needed to believe what he was saying as much as he needed Kaidan to believe it. "I'm imagine it's the same idea. The body wants to protect itself. Anyhow, it doesn't linger, and once it's over I'm not there to think about whether it hurt or not."

[not_a_whiner]

"Small favors," Kaidan said, watching Jack's face for another moment or so.

Then he pulled up a chair for himself and sat down in it. Thought about asking Jack how it had happened, but he wasn't sure he really wanted to pry.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack tossed a smile. "Silver linings, clouds, all of that," he said, and put the muffins into the oven. "In any case -- I'm sure the students were laughing themselves sick at us all week."

[not_a_whiner]

"I might've told a few of them to get out," Kaidan said wryly. "Damn, I really didn't need them seeing all of that."