dovelike | (no subject)

That takes Eirene completely by surprise. "Uh, no? I think the fruit is supposed to go in the draw labeled 'crisper', but everything else should be fair game. Don't worry about it, I'll put everything away in a minute."

After some consideration, she sets mushrooms and an onion next to the pork, and then starts loading everything else into the fridge in a neat, albeit slightly haphazard, way.

Clark wants to be helpful - that's what he's here for, after all, so he passes her items to be put away where she wants them. At least it makes him feel like he's doing something useful.

When they're finished, and all the packages are away, he turns the little elephant figure over in his hands. "So, what's next?"

"I try and figure out how to cook this without using magic so you don't freak out?"

She's ... not actually kidding, either, by the sheepish expression on her face.

Clark looks over at her. "I can teach you, if you want."

Stare.

"You know how to cook?"

"Uh, yeah?" Clark thought that was a given. "I mean, I'm no gourmet, but I can fend for myself. Mom made sure I could."

It wasn't, though it probably should have been. Eirene blinks after a few moments, and grins up at him. "That's very groovy, Clark. Yeah. I'd like that. This meal, anyway."

She extracted the elephant from his fingers shortly afterwards and carries it over to the fireplace in the living room, to a place of importance on the mantle.

He follows, eyeing the mantle. "I'm not going to come back next time and find a real one in the backyard, am I?"

There's a brief hesitation before Eirene shakes her head, that might suggest she was, in fact, wondering if it was possible to host a fully grown African elephant in a goddess's back yard. In Greece.

"No. I'll just get my fix the next time I'm in Africa." You know. Where the genocide and the bullets are.

Don't think Clark didn't notice that hesitation.

"Well, at least I know what to get you for your birthday." Something elephant related, he means.

Beat.

"Do you even have a birthday?"

And a second hesitation, this one more embarassed than shifty.

"I .. don't actually know how old I am, Clark." Small smile.

"Birthdays aren't much of a consideration?"

He offers a sympathetic smile. "That makes two of us."

"You forgot somewhere around the year ten thousand, too?" She's teasing, Clark. Hip nudge. "Besides, you don't need an excuse to give a present to someone."

As has already been proven. Or will be, with a ninja!kiss. "Come on. Show me how not to burn pork."

"No, I've just never known when my birthday actually is. Makes it hard to keep track." The ninja!kiss is returned, however.

"You mentioned a barbecue?"

"Awe. Do you get presents yearly, or completely ignore it," Like she does. Gods get offerings, not birthday presents.

"Yeah, it's outside. That little kiosk you saw has a barbeque and table set up. It came with the property. Very manly setup, I might add."

Grin.

"My parents picked a day when they adopted me, so they always acknowledged it, but it was never a big deal."

Clark nods. "Okay, well, we can do the meat out there and throw together some rice and vegetables in the kitchen. It's really easy."

"Well, if you ever want a present, just let me know." Eirene ninja!hugs him as well, before moving back into the kitchen and rifling around for the pots and pans and -- that's the oddest looking wine opener she's ever seen -- and anything she can think of that they might need.

Which actually isn't much. "Ok, now what?" She'll listen carefully to his instructions and then bungle it up the first two times anyway.

He'll never do that. You just don't ask for presents. But he knows she means well, so he smiles again and follows her into the kitchen.

"Well, if you want to chop up some veggies while I get the meat started, that would be a big help. Onions, mushrooms, maybe some zucchini." Clark will grab the pork, then, and start toward the back door.

"Aye, aye, boss." Eirene salutes him jauntily with a large knive, and sets about mangling the first few things she attempts cutting, but by the time Clark returns from doing manly stuff outside involving meat and fire, the veggies will be cut up into mostly recognizable piles.

And Eirene will have all fingers intact.

This qualifies as a success! So far. The vegetable piles are given a nod of approval.

"Now we just need to put some water on for the rice and get the veggies going. So we'll need a medium sauce pan and frying pan."

Cue five or six seconds of panic, before she judges exactly what constitutes 'medium' sizes of pans, and pulls them down from the odd hanging thing that her mother apparently brought over as well.

"Okay! Now what?"

"Fill the sauce pan up about," he squints at it for a moment, "halfway with water and then set it on the stove to boil. The frying pan, put it at a medium heat with a bit of oil in to start."

Done and done. Eirene also follows the next set of instructions very carefully, which includes putting on the rice on to boil, and then the veggies about ten minutes after that. Messing up in front of Clark is not something she wants to do often.

Still, half an hour later, she's setting the counter with her very own dinner plates and ladling rice and veggies onto them while Clark rescues the meat.

It's almost domestic.

Clark coming back into the kitchen bearing meat, with Eirene preparing the plates? Yeah. Domestic is a word for it. Not that that crosses his mind, of course. It's just food.

The now cooked pork is set on a hotplate on the counter, and Clark almost beams at how well she seems to be doing. "See, I said it was easy. This looks great."

Clark isn't the only one beaming. Eirene just helped prepare her first meal -- and she didn't screw it up! Clearly, this calls for a celebration. Which includes another quick kiss before she grabs glasses as well and fills them with--

wait for it

-- milk.

"Good instruction."