From Russia With Love

[lilbrownspyder]

Recluse -- Stephanie, now -- frowned at the tablet as she glanced at the two pots she had on the stove. No one here made even the drinks she remembered from Russia. Sbiten seemed fairly easy. The recipe for kvass she found seemed long rather than difficult. She filled two post with water and turned the stove on. It all seemed to go well until she went to toast the bread for the kvass a second time. Smoke filled the kitchen, setting off the smoke alarm. She cursed in Russian, shoving a towel under the spigot.

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[seismic_shockwave]

"... what the MOTHERFUCK is going on in here?" As soon as Kayla smelled the smoke, she dashed into the kitchen, wondering if it was some oft of supervillain. Her usual effort to control her profanity was forgotten in the total horror of smelling smoke coming from the kitchen. Hana was not going to be happy, and neither was she. Instead, she found Recluse- called Stephanie now, she remembered, doing her best to contain the mess created by, well, whatever it was precisely she was making.

"What are you doing? It's after goddamn midnight." Kayla took a deep breath. "Why are you in the kitchen- you're not supposed to be in here." She took a quick look around her. Another deep breath. There didn't appear to be any actual damage. That at least was good.

"You can't come in here and cook whatever. This is a working kitchen that has to follow health codes. And now I have to drop everything-" Everything included a girlfriend who was being more than slightly affectionate, which added a whole new layer of frustration to Kayla's unhappiness. "-and direct you how to clean this properly so Hana and I can use this properly again."

[dark_scion]

Hacking and coughing, with bits of a pillow case wrapped around his lower face was Fred.

"Are we being attacked again? Are they attempting to burn away our senses!?"

[lilbrownspyder]

"Fuck health codes!" Stephanie retorted heatedly. "It's just the damn toast getting smokey."

She grabbed a chair and swatted at where she thought the smoke detector was with the now-wet towel, trying to get it to turn off. "And maybe if you'd actually make real food, I wouldn't have to sneak in and do it myself."

To be fair, she actually did like most of the food here. But it wasn't what she'd eaten most her life. She only ate American style food on missions.
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[seismic_shockwave]

"This is a professional kitchen. Health codes are important. This is a professional kitchen that is responsible for the feeding of well over a hundred people." Kayla wasn't going to budge on this. "And insulting Hana and I's cooking is a really, really bad way to go about this. We work damn hard to cook good food and you should show us some basic respect. You want us to look at, I'm guessing, Russian food from those curses, you lodge a request. We're reasonable people when you're not sneaking in after midnight and using our equipment and setting off the smoke alarm."

Kayla took a careful look at the situation in front of them. It didn't look like any real damage had been done. That at least was good. "Clean and disinfect everything."

[dark_scion]

Fred took one look at the scene developing before him before turning around and walking back to his room. He didn't need this kind of potential entertainment.

[lilbrownspyder]

Stephanie glared at the supposedly older girl. "A kitchen is a kitchen. And I'm not insulting your cooking. It's fine. It's just not real food."

If she could be honest with both herself and Kayla, she wasn't really angry about anything except getting herself caught. But being honest wasn't something she'd ever been taught. Her cheeks grew warm. She hated this. She'd been trained better. She shook her hair out of her face and crossed her arms, trying to look tougher than she felt at the moment. "I didn't think you'd want a request up your ass anyway."

[seismic_shockwave]

"This kitchen is offlimits to people who don't work here, unless under supervision of people who do work here. Also, it's way after curfew." Kayla crossed her arms.

"So I'm guessing an apology and a cleanup's too much to ask, then?" Kayla raised her eyebrow. Stephanie had a chance to reduce the potential consequences, if she was wise enough to take it. "It might feel good right now to be all badass rebel, but you're doing yourself no favors by continuing to be rude. You made mistake, fix it and don't do it again. No need to make it worse."

[lilbrownspyder]

"I'm not a kid. I don't need to keep to a curfew."

But she did climb off the chair and pull the toast out of the toaster. An apology was definitely too much to ask but she'd always intended to clean up after herself. That hadn't changed just because things hadn't gone like she planned. "I'm not throwing out the sbiten."

[seismic_shockwave]

"I don't really care about that. I care about people coming into this kitchen without permission or supervision after hours. You want to sneak around, that's not my business, really. I'm not a teacher or administrator. But this is my workplace." It was a bit more than that to Kayla. Her entire life revolved around the Institute, the X-Men, being part of the staff here. She had a very personal attachment to the kitchen. A lot of her happiest and worst memories were here.

Suddenly a horrible crawling feeling came over her, a rising awful panic. It didn't happen often, but something about the space being intruded on like this triggered something deep inside her. She could hear the knives shattering. She went visibly pale.


Kayla suddenly had to look away, close her eyes. And brace herself against something, because suddenly her legs didn't feel a hundred percent steady.

"You know what ... just let me do it. I know where stuff goes."

[lilbrownspyder]

Stephanie frowned. Kayla suddenly stopped making sense. She hated that. She hated not understanding things. "I thought you wanted me to fix it."

She looked around, trying to figure out what made the older girl so unsteady all of a sudden. Nothing looked like it should do that.

"You can have some of the sbiten if you want."

[seismic_shockwave]

Kayla took a deep breath, trying to get it together as best she could. The sound of shattering and filed-down blades screamed in her head. I want to feel something. It was right where Stephanie was. They broke like glass when she tried to jam them into her hand. Why can't I feel anything?. Kayla didn't know precisely why she was remembering all this now, of all times.

"Yeah, you should." She took a deep breath. Nope, there weren't tears pricking at her eyes. "Make sure you do a good job of cleaning up. You should to that." She took another deep breath and exhaled. Kayla could feel herself start to come down a bit. She'd probably have to have a longer cry later. But for now, she was functional, more or less.

[lilbrownspyder]

Stephanie nodded, still uncertain what caused the sudden changes in Kayla's reactions. As far as she could tell, nothing happened that wasn't at least somewhat normal for the school. She wasn't sure if or how she should ask about it, either.

"Yeah. Sure. But if it's not burnt, I'm not throwing it away."

[seismic_shockwave]

Kayla wasn't terribly inclined to explain it to someone she didn't know well. Stephanie wasn't really a friend of hers, not like Brianna, Rose, Chief or Snow Devil.

"Might as well not waste it, I guess." Kayla took a deep breath. The moment was passing. She walked over to the jar where she kept the cookies that hadn't quite turned out visually and bit into one, a sugar cookie that turned out a little flat, a little chewier than normal- but still, buttery and delicious.

"So while you're here, what were you making?" Kayla could talk food. Food worked.