Jason gives a snicker to Vasquez' words as his other arm- once he has rid his hand of crumbs- slips across her collarbone, hand coming to rest on her opposite shoulder. He gives her a little squeeze and presses a kiss against the side of her head. "So what else do we have here?" he asks as he peers over her shoulder at the food on the stove, giving her a playful jostle as he does. Being in the presence of a kitchen full of food is
#RedrockAgency – October 13, 2020
Vasquez ' eyes blink open as Jason brings her out of her thoughts, and she immediately resumes stirring the mix in the pan with a quiet curse, since it's already started sticking to the bottom. "Potatoes in there." she says with a nod towards the big pot. "Roast lamb in the oven. Actual lamb. The ham in the fridge is real too. From this place across the Dactyls that specializes in Earth livestock." she adds, reaching out to tap a
bunched up lump of plastic wrap with the label still on it. It reads 'Jackson Family Farm' and features artwork of an old-fashioned wooden homestead. "Wasn't cheap, they must make bank during the holidays." she comments while aggressively trying to unstick the slightly burnt contents of the pan.
Jason studies the indicated label for a moment. "That sounds-..." he doesn't even manage to finish before the rumble of his belly finishes the thought for him, causing another snicker to slip out, "...incredible." For a moment, he just remains as he is, arms wrapped around Vasquez from behind. Taking comfort in just how... normal the moment is. Something they haven't had nearly enough of. After a few moments he lets out a
wistful sigh. "Ya know, as much as I love Aite, I do miss the food back home." he admits. Tragically enough, even during their time back on Earth they didn't get much of a chance to enjoy the food. Between Vasquez' recovery and Jason picking up extra shifts just to pay the mounting hospital bills, they mostly got by on quick, easy meals and fast food.
Vasquez snickers quietly. "Well... don't expect too much." she mumbles while leaning over to look at the datapad again, eyebrows furrowing. "Water...?" she mutters to herself, shrugging Jason off and nudging him with her elbow to make him give her some room as she grabs a bowl and fills it with water from the sink. "Haven't exactly done a lot of cooking since-..." she trails off when the contents of the pan starts to burn while
she's busy elsewhere. "Fuck!" She hurries back to the stove to stir but the damage is done, shuffling around the congealed lumps of sugary mixture doing nothing to restore it to liquid status. Her grip tightens around the spatula - and then she hurls it to the side violently. It bounces into the wall and the faucet before landing in the sink with a clatter. She stares at the pan as the ruined contents continue to burn,
Jason steps aside when Vasquez shrugs him off and takes a position off to the side of the stove, out of her way. Elbow leaned against the counter, he watches as she struggles with juggling tasks, wincing at her outburst. Her violent treatment of the spatula causes him to flinch, each subsequent clank of the tool getting another flinch out of him. "Uhh-... Guessing that's... that's bad, huh...?" he hazards at pointing out the
Vasquez lets out an unamused snort. "Of course it's fucking bad!" she snaps before taking the pan and moving over to the sink, where she grabs the spatula and starts to scrape the ruined contents out, good mood evaporated.
Jason furrows his brow as Vasquez snaps at him and briefly opens his mouth to respond. Deciding better, he merely lets a breath out through his nose. For a few moments, he simply watches her as she scrapes at the pan's ruined contents, frown etched into his features. But it quickly slips away. It's Christmas! No bad moods allowed! If she wants to mope, he's gonna make her work for it. He unbuttons the cuffs of his shirt and neatly
begins to roll them up, careful not to snag them on anything. It's a struggle he still hasn't quite overcome. Not entirely. "Nah, nah, nah, nah." he says with numerous shakes of his head. "Fuck that. This is fine." he assures. "We just-..." he scans across the kitchen and gives a small roll of his shoulders, as if sizing up an enemy, "Start over." With Vasquez over by the sink, he steps up to the stove, chewing on the
inside of his cheek as he looks over the contents atop it as if examining the control panel of some alien starship. After everything they've been through, how hard can Christmas dinner be? He checks in on the potatoes, deciding that's something he can manage. "I'm not exactly qualified for-... uhh-.... well, a whole lot, actually." he snickers nervously, shooting a glance her way once he has confirmed the potatoes haven't
bursted into flames. Nice. "But I am damn good at taking orders. So-..." he nods to himself, "...this is your kitchen, Security Chef Vasquez." He looks particularly pleased with himself for that one, lopsided smirk crossing his face. "What do you need me to do?"
Vasquez starts to run water over the pan as she struggles with a particularly stubborn bit of burnt sugar, scowl firmly in place. When Jason speaks up she turns it his way, her eyes giving away other emotions simmering underneath the frustration, but her expression quickly softens as she watches him step up to the stove, an odd frown taking over. As he continues she lets out a snort, rolling her eyes as she turns her attention
back to the pan, but she can't quite hide the way the corner of her mouth quirks upward. She draws in a breath and after a moment she nods to herself, glancing his way again. "Check the consistency of the potatoes. And get some more eggs from the fridge." she instructs. Crisis averted?
Jason offers Vasquez a sharp nod as she issues her orders. "You got it." he says, reaching out for a fork to poke at the potatoes with. As he turns towards the fridge to collect the eggs, he mutters a soft, "Shit..." as something seems to occur to him and he only gets a couple of steps before doing a half-jog u-turn back in the other direction. "Speaking of potatoes, Lucy sent some potato salad home with me. Should probably fridge
Vasquez soon finishes cleaning off the pan - and when done it seems like some of the tension has left her. She brings it back to the stove after wiping it off, blinking as Jason goes to fetch the potato salad. "Al... right. Yeah, get it in the fridge." she says, glancing after him briefly before turning to the datapad she left on the counter and scrolling up the recipe with a sigh. Back to the start...
Jason scoops the container out of the bag and heads back towards the fridge. "Read this news article this morning. It's been on my mind all day." he says absently as he works on fitting the porcelain container into the fridge. The removal of the egg carton helps to make room for the potato salad, so it's a much shorter game of Tetris this time and, soon enough, he's delivering the eggs to Vasquez.
Vasquez starts to pour sugar and a honey-adjacent liquid - some artificial substitute judging by the label - into a bowl. "Yeah...?" she asks distractedly, focused on cross-referencing measurements with the instructions on the pad, a focused frown on her face.
Jason takes a position beside Vasquez at the stove, setting the carton of eggs down and opening it. He glances across the stove, clearly having no idea what he should be doing. So he just slowly takes a few eggs out and begins setting them aside where they won't get in the way, but within arms reach for Vasquez. "Yeah." he says, "From back home. Somebody reported what sounded like a struggle in the apartment next door to them so
the cops come out and-..." he gives a shake of his head, realizing the details don't particularly matter all that much, "...anyway, turned out the lady was luring salarians into her home and using a fucking melon baller to scoop out their brains." He pauses, brows raising in disgust as he looks to Vasquez. "Just a-... whole tupperware container of little... salarian... brain balls in her fridge. She was selling 'em. Guess
there's weirdos out there that buy that shit up on the extranet." he shrugs, "They think it makes them smarter or something."
Vasquez pauses with her hands on the edges of the bowl, looking over at Jason with a blank expression. Her eyebrows furrow slightly, and she opens her mouth to say something, before closing it again and shaking her head. She instead starts to stir the contents of the bowl together. "Crack three of those and get rid of the yolks." she instructs, electing not to acknowledge the story.
Jason merely nods a few times, her dismissal of his story lost on him. She must be just as flabbergasted by it all as he is! He shifts his attention to his task, brows furrowed in concentration as he continues to speak. "Yeah, it's-... uhh-... wild stuff. Just-... awful..." he mutters as he collects a bowl to break the eggs into, seemingly assuming the sheer heinousness of it all has pushed her to silence. He lets that simmer for
a few moments as he works. "But also-..." he continues, finally getting to the meat of just why that story has stuck with him all day. Thankfully, cracking eggs is within his skillset. "...who in the fuck has a melon baller?!" he asks. "Did she already have it on standby? Did she buy it just to scoop brains?" he lists off, voicing the hard-hitting questions that entered his mind this morning. You know, after solving the
mystery of 'What in the fuck is a melon baller.' Something that is now cemented into his extranet search history. "If you go into a store and buy a melon baller, that should just set off red lights, right? They flag your account and send the authorities to your house right then and there."
Vasquez retrieves the spatula, using it to keep the fresh mix moving in the pan while listening to Jason ramble. She briefly considers commenting, before once again deciding against it, instead leaning down to check on the roast again. After satisfied that it is (probably) progressing as it should she returns to stirring the contents of the pan. "Jason? Honey? Egg whites." she says, gesturing for him to scoot the bowl over,
Jason frowns into the bowl of egg whites as Vasquez continues to ignore his incredibly interesting story. He, begrudgingly, slides the bowl over with a sidelong glance. "Just saying that if you need a specialized tool to scoop a fucking melon, then you're probably a psychopath!" he says with a brief raise of his arms after only a few seconds of silence, seemingly needing to get that out. Sensing an incoming browbeating, he
Vasquez lets out a quiet, exasperated noise, but her mood seems to be recovering. She glances around the kitchen for something that Jason can help with, eyes settling on the cheese and charcuterie. "Get those sliced and put it on a tray with the crackers?" she says, gesturing with the spatula.
Jason looks between Vasquez and the indicated cutting board. Reaching for a knife from the block, he gives it a little flourish in his hand, giving the blade a small spin against his palm before clutching it by the handle. Really putting those military skills on display. He offers Vasquez a small, cocky wink, as if she should be impressed. "Think I can manage that." he says before strutting on over to the cutting board.
Vasquez shakes her head to herself, but a small smile still crosses her lips as she starts to pour the sugar mix into the egg white, before being overtaken by the same focused frown as before, determination to get it right this time setting in.
It takes a couple of hours to finish up the Christmas dinner preparations, and by the time they're done, 4PM (the time given to the guests) is fast approaching. The dishes have been cleaned up, the candles have been lit, and the food has all been laid out on the kitchen counter. Boiled potatoes, roast lamb with vegetables (covered in foil to keep the heat), accompanying gravy, Lucy's potato salad, the Christmas sweet bread, still covered
by a cloth, and a tray of ham, sausage, pâté, cheeses and crackers. The rice pudding, meant for dessert, is still in the fridge. On one end of the counter stands the various drink options - beer, Thessian wine, various sodas and eggnog, with various glasses ready. A small pot of mulled wine is heating on the stove. Vasquez' second attempt at the recipe on her pad was a narrow success - it still got burnt a bit, but she managed to follow it
to completion this time, adding the almonds she had already roasted and letting it solidify. The result, as it turned out, was turrón - almond nougat, and the pieces now sit in a tin on the counter. Far from perfect, but with Jason's backup Vasquez managed to take any setbacks in relative stride - cursing aside.
Vasquez steps back after adding cutlery next to the stack of plates on the crowded counter, crossing her arms and surveying the collection of food with a critical eye. There's a nervous energy to her that has only grown as the afternoon has passed and the arrival of the others has gotten closer.
Jason has done his part to help as much as he can, mostly fulfilling the role of designated stirrer. At times he was probably just in the way but, eh, it's the thought that counts, right? He finishes lighting the last candle on the table and returns to the kitchenette, letting out a tired sigh as he takes a position beside Vasquez, unintentionally miming her stance with his arms across his chest. "Is that everything...?" he asks.
He, of course, is far less concerned by what's on offer. They could've just ordered a pizza from the Respite and it would've made no real difference to him. Friends and family. That's what matters. That being said, it does smell pretty good. A fact that causes his stomach to remind him once again just how hungry he is.
Vasquez nods a couple of times. "Yeah... yeah, that's it." she confirms as she studies the various items. Her frown deepens and she sucks in her lips. "...should've had more dishes." she mutters. "Don't even know if most of it turned out any good. I'm not a fucking chef." She shakes her head to herself and steps up to lift the lid off the potatoes, looking down at them with a skeptical grimace as if she's hoping that a stern look
Jason raises an eyebrow, watching Vasquez as she gives the food a look he's far too familiar with. Yep, those potatoes know they really fucked up. He steps up behind her, lopsided grin returning as his hands fall to her sides. "Linda... the food's fine." he assures. A bit of taste testing- solely for the purpose of ensuring everything was going well, of course- has convinced him that it is, in fact, edible at the very least. And
Ilyna and Halisi aren't coming expecting a five star gourmet meal. "Better than fine." he corrects, casting a long glance along the counter of food, "I'd say we did damn good." he nods, proud of his stirring prowess.
Vasquez ' shoulders tense with Jason's assurances, and for a moment it seems like she's going to snap at him, but then they slump and she lets out a sigh, nodding to herself a couple of times before slipping away from him, heading around the counter into the rec room proper. She seems almost embarrassed by her own nerves, trying and failing to not let them show as her gaze sweeps the room.
Jason remains behind when Vasquez steps away. He turns to face her, leaning back against the counter, careful not to put his hands in a tray of food. He remains silent at first, merely watching her as she fusses over making sure everything is just right. "I could always just, you know-..." he shrugs, "...call them and cancel." The smile in his tone probably gives away the fact that he's just teasing her.
Vasquez rounds the couch, continuing her restless patrol across the room. A couple of decorations get adjusted on the way. Jason's words cause her to shoot him a glare. "Funny." she says without the slightest hint of amusement, heading over to one of the windows and looking out at the street outside the chainlink fence.
Jason seems amused at least, snickering softly to himself. He glances off to his side at the sweet bread and lifts the cloth. He collects a thin sliver of bread that had fallen back onto the board when he cut his earlier slice and recovers the bread. He pops the bite of bread into his mouth and steps away from the counter, meandering aimlessly back into the other side of the rec room. "You worry too much." he points out as he
Vasquez ' frown just deepens with Jason's words, and she remains by the window, watching the snow that's started to fall outside. She rests one hand on the windowsill, offering no response.
Jason's smile slips away when he's met with silence. Drawing in a breath, he joins Vasquez at the window and leans up against the wall beside it, blue eyes turning from her to the snow outside. For the moment he remains silent, watching the weather outside as it begins to blanket the ground with more white.
Vasquez gaze darts over to Jason when he leans against the wall, before hastily moving away to the electric candles in the window, awkwardness shining through as she shifts a bit. She doesn't seem very eager to break the silence.
Jason continues watching out the window. The snowfall and the sea of white that clings to the town makes the room feel warmer somehow. Cozier. Something that's only helped by all of the candles and Christmas decorations. He shifts against the wall, arms folding across his chest. "So..." he eventually says, gaze remaining on the world outside for a moment longer before turning back to Vasquez, "...you wanna tell me what's got you
Vasquez glances Jason's way again, sucking on her scarred cheek as she hesitates. She lets out a frustrated noise and looks back out the window, the volume of snowflakes only increasing with the darkening sky. "I'm... not good at this. You know that." she says, not really specifying what 'this' is. She folds her arms across her chest, drawing in a breath and letting out an uncomfortable sigh. "I just... want today to be good.
I-..." she briefly looks Jason's way and that embarrassment returns in full force, making her frown as she looks away. "I need to know that I can do it." she mumbles with a shrug.
Jason listens in silence, looking like he's about to chime in a couple of times. It's not until her final statement that some confusion colors his face. "...Bake bread?"
Vasquez lets out a reluctant snort of laughter, raising a questioning eyebrow as she looks Jason's way again, caught between amusement and exasperation - not an uncommon combination in Jason's company. "You know what I mean..." she says with another shrug, clearly hoping she won't have to explain herself further. She turns a little to face Jason, unfolding her arms to gesture across the room. "All of this? Everything-..." her
Jason gives a stilted, "What?!" as she snorts, her own laughter helping to coax his smile back out. As she continues, his smile softens, very quickly catching on to what she's getting at. Her final statement causes his gaze to lower, eyes briefly turning towards her belly. He gives a couple of small nods before shifting his attention back to the window. He's been to some of the most dangerous parts of the galaxy. Raided slaver
ships. Came face to face with literal monsters. Fought tooth and nail to escape a Collector ship the size of a city. Yet the thought of fatherhood still puts a knot in his stomach. He barely had a father himself, yet he's supposed to figure out what it means to be a dad. So, yeah, he's no stranger to those concerns. He just does a better job of hiding it. Besides... "It's coming whether we're ready or not, Linda." he says
softly as he looks back to her, propping his smirk back up. "But-... we're in this together." he continues, reaching out to place a hand against her side, gently coaxing her closer. "Always. So, one way or another, we'll figure it out." He somehow manages to sound more confident than he is.
Vasquez ' discomfort over admitting the source of her investment in the celebrations has her tense, but she slowly relents, shuffling closer to Jason and leaning a little against him. "I know..." she says, frustrated with herself over the way her voice trembles a little. She swallows hard and nods against Jason. "I know."
Jason's arms come around Vasquez, hands resting loosely at her lower back. "And we do make one hell of a team." he continues, "I mean, we managed to figure all this out, right?" he asks, gesturing over towards the kitchenette with a tilt of his head. "You burn the-... the-... Turron? You burn the turron and I'm gonna be right there to crack some eggs for you." His smile widens briefly before realizing that's probably not a
Vasquez runs an arm along Jason's back, resting her head against his chest as she looks out the window and listens. His first comment draws out a small smile, which turns into a grimace with the last, muffling a sudden snort of laughter against him. "You're an idiot." she sighs, lifting her head to plant a kiss on Jason's lips, free hand reaching up to run over his cheek.
Jason furrows his brow at Vasquez' scathing insult, though he's unable to hide the smile that's reinforced by her laughter. "Oh yeah?" he asks as he returns the kiss, lingering against her lips for a moment. When he pulls back that stupid grin is still plastered across his face. "I was smart enough to trick you into marrying me, wasn't I?" he asks smugly.
Vasquez lets out a quiet scoff, a grin of her own taking shape. She nods a couple of times and glances off to the side. "Guess you did." she concedes, shifting a bit, bringing both of her hands up to Jason's neck and studying him for a moment. "And we do make a pretty good team." she admits, as if she's had time to think it over now, and then her one of her hands slip down to the front of his shirt to pull him in for another
Jason brings his hands together at the small of Vasquez' back. Her admission is met with a hum of affirmation as he leans in, pressing his grin against her lips. The kiss is short and soft and, when it ends, he remains close, eyes scanning across her face. He very quickly follows it up with a few more short pecks, his lips lingering against hers. "Uh huh..." he agrees, suddenly sounding a bit distracted.
Vasquez snickers quietly, her growing grin felt as much as it's seen as she lingers close. Her arm hooks around Jason's neck as she leans in for a deeper kiss.
An exaggerated throat-clearing sounds from the open door to the corridor. Cynthia is leaned against the doorframe, wearing an old Alliance hoodie and her leather jacket over a white t-shirt with a print of what appears to be a drunk Rudolph. A Christmas hat and some worn jeans complete the look, and one hand holds a plastic bag full of presents. "Should I just... come back later, or...?" she asks with a questioning look and a thumb thrust
Vasquez pulls away rather suddenly, scowling when she spots Cynthia. "You're early." she says, straightening her posture after her hands leave Jason.
Jason's eyes drift closed as he presses back into the kiss, hands drifting further south until Vasquez suddenly pulls away. He instinctively leans after her, eyes remaining closed for a second longer until he registers Cynthia's voice and he lets a breath out through his nose, snickering softly to himself. "Hey." he offers through a dumb 'caught red handed' grin, trying not to sound too dejected. He runs a hand along his chest
to wipe the wrinkles from his shirt. "Uhh-... Merry Christmas." he says, his words almost sounding more like a question than a statement.
Cynthia just laughs at Vasquez' death-glare, pushing off from doorframe and heading into the room. "Merry Christmas!" she agrees with far more certainty, gesturing theatrically with her arms. "And if you're gonna get it on in a public room, at least lock the door." she suggests, with a look of exaggerated sympathy - and then, false indignity. "Show some professionalism, guys! This is a workplace!"
Vasquez crosses her arms, her mouth a thin, unamused line as Cynthia approaches, but the latter seems unfazed.