29 Chimera Court, Friday evening

[what_the_shock]

Miguel might be drinking with Sparkle later, but for now he was indulging in his other method of coping - cooking and eating food that wasn't rotting.

Empanadas seemed like a good idea.


[Open to roomies or anyone dropping by!]

Comments

[shiroi_tiger]

Nathan wasn't generally prone to snooping. He liked having his space and leaving his roomates to theirs. But it so happened that his own mealtime was coinciding with Miguel's, tonight. He was hungry, and fully intended to keep as well out of Miguel's way as possible while preparing his own food.

Of course, two steps in the kitchen, he had to stop and kind of tilt his head a little.

"... That smells amazing."

[what_the_shock]

Miguel grinned over at him. "There's plenty. I never really got in the habit of cooking for one." He checked the clock. "Should be just a couple minutes."

He finished chopping the avocados and olives into the salad and tossed it a bit. "Want to join me?"

[shiroi_tiger]

Nathan had the grace to look at least slightly sheepish as he bowed his head and nodded.

"I wouldn't mind at all," he confessed. "I'll return the favor at some point, if you have any interest in Japanese."

[what_the_shock]

"Sure," Miguel said. He grinned at Nathan's look. "I really did make enough for everyone. I cook for my whole team between missions, too. It's a hobby."

He set the salad down and grabbed a couple bowls and forks.

"What kind of Japanese do you cook?"

[shiroi_tiger]

"Rice dishes, mostly," Nathan confessed. "My onigiri isn't a complete disaster."

Mostly, it was what Taka would let him watch her prepare, or even more rarely let him help with. He'd picked up a few things over the past few years. She'd acknowledged that he wasn't Japanese, he'd acknowledged that she was in charge of the meals, they met in the middle on occasion and he learned how to prepare a dish or two.

[what_the_shock]

"Onigiri?" Miguel asked. "That's...sushi?"

It wasn't.

[shiroi_tiger]

"Ah, no," Nathan replied, smiling wryly. "Sushi uses rice, yes, but you're thinking of nigiri. Onigiri are rice balls, usually with some manner of filling."

[what_the_shock]

"Oh, okay. I think I've had those, just never paid attention to the name."

Miguel sat and started in on the salad. "You lived in Japan for a while, then?"

[shiroi_tiger]

"A few years, yes," Nathan replied, making his way to the table to take a seat. "I was sent there as part of the American military, to train soldiers, there. It didn't go exactly according to plan. I'm not sure I would change much about it all the same."

Maybe the part where most of his friends had died. That part hadn't been great.

[what_the_shock]

"Yeah, I can relate to that." Miguel grimaced. "Sometimes stupid crap happens, but..." He shrugged. "Sounds so shocking cliché to say you wouldn't be who you are without it, but yeah."

He shook his head. "Didn't know the US trained Japanese. When was this?" He'd kind of gathered Nathan was from earlier than he was, but that still covered a lot of time.

[shiroi_tiger]

"Late eighteen-hundreds," Nathan supplied. "It's my understanding that in most realities, it wasn't the Americans who did the training at all. The French had a heavier presence than we ever did."

He gave a tight, slightly wry smile.

"I guess I just lucked out."

He wasn't complaining.

[what_the_shock]

"Huh. Odd little difference." Still, in an infinite number of worlds, there had to be a few of them out there somewhere.

"So how'd you go from training soldiers to cooking rice?"

[shiroi_tiger]

Nathan, for all his faults, at least wasn't too proud to admit to his failures. He tilted his head a little, then stood and made his way to the counter to plug in the kettle. This conversation needed tea.

"We were ordered to go into battle prematurely," he explained. "Our men were slaughtered in the woods. I was taken prisoner."

[what_the_shock]

"...shock. Sorry."

[shiroi_tiger]

Nathan gave his shoulders a shrug. Not dismissively. Just...

"It was a long time ago," he noted. "And I'd seen worse back home in America."

He'd done worse back home in America.

"They kept my friend Tony and I through the winter. They wanted to learn about us. Maybe they wanted me to learn about them. I don't regret doing so."

[what_the_shock]

"Yeah, I've never known anyplace with soldiers that wasn't pretty nasty, US included," Miguel said. "But it sounds like they weren't bad people there, at least."

[shiroi_tiger]

"They were simply trying to preserve their way of life in a world that was steadily running out of room for them to exist in it," Nathan agreed. "They treated me well. Once I stopped behaving like an idiot, at least."

He'd been beaten to the ground and had eaten mud a few times due to his own stubbornness and ignorance.

[what_the_shock]

"Yeah?" Miguel grinned. "How long did that take?"

[shiroi_tiger]

"Most of a winter," Nathan admitted, smiling fondly. He finished plugging in the kettle and got the things he needed down for tea. "I was trapped there anyway, but there was something of a language barrier, to start with."

Plus he was a stubborn man.

[what_the_shock]

"Yeah, I guess that'd make it harder."

The timer went off and Miguel got up to pull the empanadas out of the oven.

"Spicy beef and cheese," he explained as he pulled them off the sheet to cool.