The Oracle and the Skinwalker (closed for LassardLost)

Maddie listened passively to Lucas' explanation. Came looking for a job was a standard enough refrain. When he mentioned it being a non-profit, though, she perked up with a smile. Add considerate and generous to the list of his virtues, it seemed.

She got the impression, with his comment about being a glorified secretary, that he was being humble. People didn't move to a new city to be a secretary, no matter what company they were working for. i guess I need to add humble to the list too. That list of his virtues was growing longer all the time.

Maddie hummed when he asked her about her plans. She frankly hadn't thought about them in years. She decided to be honest, even if that honesty did make her look a little directionless. "Well, I had plans, when I first started school, to join a pharmaceutical company and work on something worthy. Like curing cancer, maybe. During school, I came to the realization that a lot of employees at that sorts of companies end up working on some version of Viagra or something, which is a pretty far cry from what I was hoping to do." She chuckled a bit self-deprecatingly. It had been a bit naive of her to think that she'd be able to work on cancer drugs and not whatever earned the company the most money. "The nail in that coffin came when I realized that I'm not really comfortable with the idea of testing on animals." There was something about the knowledge that humans were nothing but prey to the monsters out there that had cast animals in a new light for her. She'd been vegetarian almost since she'd started having her dreams. "The only other really common career option for chemists is at oil companies. I'm not super keen on the idea of living in the middle of nowhere on a tar sand though, no matter how good the pay is." She sighed and shrugged. "I guess this is a pretty long winded way of saying that I don't really know."

They ordered their drinks and, as promised, Maddie paid. While they were waiting for the order to finish being prepared, she turned to Lucas with a smile. "Okay, my turn. What does a guy like you do for fun? I mean, other than teaching girls how to throw knives," she teased gently.

Lucas smiled gently as Maddie revealed her idealized goals. He could appreciate them. In fact he appreciated them deeply. It didn't matter that she had realized quickly - and probably accurately - that ending up in a pharmaceutical company was often a lot less glorious than the initial intent may have been. It was the fact that she wanted to do something good with her life. For others. A twinge of nostalgia for that pure idea struck Lucas. Since he had been able to see the horrible underside of humanity - and had to get involved in it relatively often (even if it was to stop something horrible from happening) - and since he had started regretting and hating the fact that he had this so-called gift, a part of him longed for that pure sense of purpose. Maddie apparently had that potential in her. And, though perhaps it was a simple and maybe even common quality, there was something about it as it manifested in Maddie that endeared Lucas to her. He made a mental note to remind Maddie that there were plenty of non-chemistry futures for her to potentially engage in, despite a chemistry major.

Then Maddie asked a question that Lucas wasn't prepared for, though he should have been.

What does a guy like you do for fun?

Instead of fumbling after having been caught off guard, Lucas bought time.

He chuckled, "Hmmm... A guy like me, let's see. I guess I need to know what kind of guy "a guy like me", is." Lucas broke into an imitation Schwartzenneger accent, which was, well, pretty decent. "I like to lift weights and werk OWT." He made a fake motion as if lifting weights. Thankfully Maddie graced him with a laugh, from which he was able to spring board into a more decent answer.

"So, when I'm not doing cheesy Arnold Schwatzenneger impressions, I - um- well, when I was in college my social life kind of took care of itself. Here, I literally just arrived at my apartment ten minutes before getting to Ken's, so I haven't established my fun in San Francisco properly, but... uh..." Images of flying over the city flashed through Licas' mind. "Guitar. I play guitar. And, uh, I do parkour." Both were true. And safe answers.

Lucas started to feel he was sounding somewhat anti-social. But hopefully his easy going back and forth with Maddie would show her that he knew how to handle a conversation and then some.

Lucas has already captured Maddie's interest at the mention of guitar, but parkour completely sidetracked her. "What? You do parkour? That's so cool!" She paused, abruptly aware of how overly enthusiastic her response had been, and cleared her throat. A blush rose on her cheeks and she laughed softly at herself, searching for something to say. "I mean, um..." Nothing that would appropriately excuse her outburst came to her, so instead she blushed harder and turned her gaze away to stare at the counter as the drinks were brought over. "I guess I'm a bit excitable..."

Lucas laughed heartily at Maddie's whole response, and had to fight back so hard from just blurting out something like, "You're so cute!" Before Maddie could really internalize how much he had gotten a laugh out of her embarrassment, he reassured her. "I guess we're even then right?" he continued to chuckle. Then took a deep breath to stop himself and said a bit more seriously, "Remember my response when you walked out of the locker room? Who's more excitable? You didn't even need to say anything to get me excited."

As soon as the phrase "get me excited" exited Lucas' mouth, he closed his eyes in realization and smacked his forehead with his hand. "Great, Lucas. That's great." He faux-wiped his hand down his face and plopped it on his lap. "You have to forgive me, sometimes I don't think. It's not my forté." Lucas grinned. He was genuinely, legitimately, having a great time with this girl.

Maddie blinked at Lucas. The accidental joke had actually completely gone over her head. It wasn't that she was too 'innocent' to get it - she'd just still been too caught in her own embarrassment to recognize any meaning beyond the most obvious. Once he pressed his hand to his forehead, though, her eyes went wide and she started laughing. "I - wow. I can't believe I didn't get that..."

She sighed, grinning. Lucas, it seemed, was incredibly easy to get along with. Just to add that to all of the other virtues on her list. They fell into another silence, this time making Maddie feel a bit self-conscious. She ran her fingers through her hair, wishing suddenly that she'd actually taken the time to do something with it, rather than leave it wet and splayed across her back. Lucas had somehow managed to walk out of the change room looking amazing, whereas she still looked like someone on her way home from the gym.

Eager to break the silence and her self-conscious train of thought, Maddie blurted, "So parkour." She paused, taking a moment to gather her thoughts again. "How do you even get started with something like that?"

After they had both gathered themselves, and Maddie had asked him about parkour, Lucas had the clear mindedness to be alerted by the question. It after all cut to the core of his secret. Though he frequently reminded himself that his ability was so far-fetched, so unbelievable, that it was completely outside the range of any person's thinking framework. He could literally tell somebody that he practiced parkour in order to climb up to heights from which he could jump and turn into an eagle, and it would be construed as a joke. But he never did that. It struck too close to home for him.

"Well," he started, not sure exactly which reason would come out this time, "as a kid I like to climb stuff. Jungle gyms, trees, anything. I remember one day when I was about 11, I saw a video of somebody doing parkour and I just thought to myself that it was most incredible thing I've ever seen. So I started reading about it, watching videos online, and, well, pursued it. Probably the thing that helped was at my parents, though concerned, actually encouraged me. Because they saw it as a better alternative to sitting around at home playing video games. Which it is, by the way." Now, Lucas felt, he had spent way too much time talking about himself again. He shrugged his shoulders as if it wasn't a big deal, in a half attempt to shrug the topic away.

"Okay, my turn. Feel free to not answer this of course. You had mentioned that you had taken some time off from school. What made you do that?" Lucas paused, then continued. "I wanted to ask you this before, but I know that sometimes when people take time off from school it's for really personal reasons. In case you don't want to answer that's totally fine, but if you want to, just know that I'm really good at keeping secrets." Lucas was being serious; there wasn't a laughing bone in his body when he sent this to Maddie, and it was evident in his body language and facial expression as he leaned forward resting his elbows on his legs, holding his coffee cup in both his hands.

Maddie sighed at the question. She'd never really shared it with anyone she didn't have to (like her parents and the professors at both her old school and at Stanford). But then, Lucas bore such an earnest, honest expression when he told her that she didn't have to tell him, and that he was good at keeping secrets.

Well, as long as she kept the weird stuff about prophetic dreams and killing monsters out of it, it wasn't really that interesting a story. Or even much of an embarrassing one.

She smiled gratefully at him. "Thanks for being so understanding, but I don't really mind. I developed some pretty terrible insomnia a few years ago. I couldn't sleep at all during the night, and I was a zombie during the day. I passed out in one of my chemistry labs, which I'm sure you can appreciate how dangerous that is, so my professor told me I needed to get myself sorted out before I tried to continue my studies. So, that's basically it. I took a few years off, went to a hundred and one doctors, and got some sleeping pills." That last bit wasn't strictly true. Maddie wasn't taking any pills anymore - the problem hadn't been insomnia, really. It had been a deep-seated terror at the idea of sleeping and witnessing more death in her dreams. She still had the dreams, of course, but she didn't fear them quite as much anymore. Being able to take action to prevent them went a long way to helping her cope with them.

Lucas listened with great interest. It was the first time he had heard of a sudden bout of insomnia - at least not without some precipitating event in the person's life But he figured if Maddie had wanted to tell him about that, she would have, and prying deeper at this point probably wasn't a good idea. In fact Licas had had his own trouble sleeping at some point, when he had realized his new ability/curse/whatever. And he certainly didn't want to reveal anything to do with that, so he kept quiet.

"Ah well, I appreciate your sharing with me." He took a sip of his coffee. "I recognize that I'm essentially a stranger, so you didn't have to share it. And besides, I can kind of relate. I was much younger, but I too suffered from some insomnia at one point - doesn't sound as severe as yours, but I know the zombie feeling. Not cool at all."

Lucas sat for a split moment and took Maddie in. She really was beautiful. And she had a sweet and light hearted personality. Considering that a few hours ago he had cursed the people who had put a net up around the Golden Gate Bridge to prevent suicide attempts, and constrasting that with how he felt now with Maddie, she had obviously had a positive effect on him to say the least. Though he still wasn't sure whether he would ever be able to have a long term relationship with anyone, something inside him at this point wanted to find out if it was even possible with Maddie. But the question would be awkward. Perhaps he could enshroud it in humor? That was the only way he knew how to handle awkward anyway.

"So, considering that I've really enjoyed talking with you despite both of us having said some awkward things, I can only come to one conclusion from that." Lucas began to smirk. "Awkward moments are the reason for our enjoyable conversation." The logic was blatantly faulty. But it'd all be clear as to what end soon enough. "So here's another for us: are you seeing anybody right now?" Lucas quickly kept talking so as to move the conversation back into a place of humor, now that the bomb had been dropped. "I only ask because I'm not, and I have a strict policy that I am only friends with people who aren't involved in complicated long term relationships. Otherwise they'll just talk my ear off about all their relationship problems and such." It was an extremely thinly veiled comment, and quite apparently full of bullshit. But Lucas had a playful glint in his eyes. He had a sense that Maddie would know exactly what he was doing.

Maddie was caught between feeling awkward and amused. She stared down into her coffee cup, her lips quirking up at the corners. She knew exactly where this was going. Normally, she'd be trying to figure out the easiest way to simply refuse to answer the question, but there was something about the way he'd put it that made that difficult. She lifted her gaze without lifting her head, so that she was looking up at him from beneath her lashes.

"No, I'm not seeing anybody. I don't know anybody here, and I'm not a long-distance relationship sort of person. Not that I had a relationship with anyone back home or anything." She sighed and shook her head. "Most of the people I spent time with at home thought I was crazy because... well, what else are you going to assume when the school won't give you any information about the sudden disappearance of a classmate? That or my mom had managed to scare off everyone else with her concerns of my being a drug addict." Her eyes went wide for a moment. She hadn't meant to say that. "I mean, not that I am," she assured him quickly. "I kept sneaking out at night because I was bored and she just sort of assumed I was going to meet a dealer or something."

Lucas went from a slight giddiness to hear Maddie wasn't with anyone, to relief that she had moved the topic past that right away, to a return into a curious mindset as Maddie spilled more information about her past. This period of time in her life was very significant. And she had brought the conversation back to it again.

Lucas cleared his throat subtly. "When you can't sleep, and everyone else around you can, you figure you might as well make use of your time. But then you realize that so much of your being useful is related to other people. And they're not around. So you get bored. I get it." Lucas did understand. But still it seemed like a big deal, her leaving school suddenly. Too big to ignore. "But, what did you think was the reason for your sudden insomnia? What happened? It sounds like this had a huge effect on your life." As the words came out Lucas slowly realized how personal they were, and immediately added. "I'm sorry - you totally do not need to answer that."

Maddie bit her lip, looking down into her coffee cup again. She didn't want to lie to him, but what was she supposed to say?

I see monsters in my dreams.

I dream about murders (and worse) that actually occur later.

Those things that go bump in the night are real, and they're prey on humanity. I've seen them. I've killed them.

Yeah right. Lucas would either run the other way or try to have her submitted to a mental hospital. And she wouldn't blame him for it. She sounded utterly insane.

So instead, she shrugged noncommittally. "I don't know. Maybe stress. I had a pretty valuable academic scholarship, maybe I was afraid of losing it. Maybe I drank too much coffee." She was being evasive, and they both knew it. She glanced up at him, knowing her face bore the request she didn't want to have to voice: Please don't ask me any more about this. They needed a change of subject. Maddie seized on the first one that came to mind. "So, um, how long have you been playing guitar?"

Lucas got the message loud and clear, even kicked himself on the insides for pressing the issue any further. There was obviously something there and Maddie obviously didn't want to discuss it.

She asked about the guitar.

"Well, basically since college. It's a pretty standard story actually. I was a Dave Matthews Band fan at the time, so I started trying to play his songs. I didn't have a background in music so I basically learned from tabs. Eventually, I had learned almost all his songs plus other bands' and I actually began to understand the chords and notes for myself. Never started a band or anything, but I'll play from time to time when I'm bored or just want to let off steam."

Lucas thought about what he had said and concluded that it was the most common, boring rendition of "wow you play the guitar" he had ever told. Unfortunately it was true, which worked out well enough for him - he didn't feel like tooting his own horn.

"What about you? Any instruments? Interesting hobbies? Fears? Hopes?" He smiled, happy that the conversation had moved away from what had made Maddie feel uncomfortable just a moment ago.

Maddie smiled, pleased at the change in the conversation's direction. "Hm. Hobbies... Oh, I love baking. Given how much I bake and how rich I usually make things, I suppose it's a miracle I'm not huge." She laughed. "I've been on a cheesecake kick recently." She paused, thinking about it. "I was going to ask you if you knew about anything like a farmer's market around here, but I guess you've been here for even less time than I have!"

It was nice to talk about such mundane, comfortable things. Her life had taken such a weird turn, it was occasionally hard to remember that normal life still went on.

Lucas nodded, "Yep, that's right. Tossed my bag into the apartment and came right here. But speaking of farmer's market, are you one of those organic people? You know, goes to whole foods, buys a strawberry for five dollars?" The two of them started chuckling as Lucas continued. "I mean, I actually believe that most food that's processed or machine made is probably crappy for you even if scientifically it hasn't been shown yet. If I don't know what it is I try not to eat it at least. With the exception of jolly ranchers. I don't care what those are made of, I'll eat those until I'm on my death bed." Lucas took a drink from his coffee.

"But - and you're going to regret bringing this topic up with me - I have this... theory. That basically ever since a modern approach to food was instituted, because the intention behind the food was just to create the maximal amount of food at the lowest price for the largest number of people, that there are both tangible and intangible harms to that kind of food as a result. Contrasted to food that's cooked by someone who loves you, with a recipe made of good fresh ingredients - I feel like there must be a difference between food created for profit and food created by something nobler that would affect our bodies and souls."

After all that Lucas felt, inadequate. As if who was he to even have such a long winded opinion on anything, and make such a grand statement. So he added, "I guess I'm one of those people who believes in intangibles... quite a bit actually." And smiled sheepishly. He hadn't been a believer in any kind of non-physical forces until... Well, until he had turned into an eagle. After that, his whole philosophical foundation of how he understood the world, changed.

Maddie smiled at Lucas while he explained his point of view. She considered it carefully while she came up with her response.

"Well... I think I agree. There's a real difference between something home-made and something bought in a store. You can even tell in a restaurant whether the chef loves his job or if it's just a paycheck. I couldn't really ask society to go back on the idea of feeding as many people as possible - I mean, hopefully someday we'll finally did ourselves of hunger. But I'll always take a home-cooked meal over something out of a box." She paused, then blushed. She'd nearly continued that thought into inviting him over for dinner. Not that she wouldn't enjoy it, but she's just met Lucas, and this wasn't supposed to be a date. Inviting him to her place for dinner was practically asking him on a second date, which would definitely make this a first one.

She laughed at herself. "Anyway, I just like farmer's markets because the produce is as good or better than the grocery store stuff, and it's usually cheaper."

Maddie's practical and simple response embarrassed Lucas; who was he to hold such strong views on anything? Maddie's thoughts on the subject matter were more... normal.

Normal. The word reminded Lucas of why despite his enjoying his time with Maddie, this could never really go any where. Eventually anyone he truly ended up liking, or developing strong feelings for, would find out. And when they did, they would think him a freak.

Lucas suddenly felt a bit melancholy. He sighed, smiling at Maddie as if he was sorry for something he had just done or was about to do. He was enjoying himself too much. Things needed to stay superficial, and this wasn't going to stay that way if their first few hours of interaction was any indication.

"Well um," Lucas mumbled looking at the time on his phone, "I think I should get going. I... I gotta get some things read for work tomorrow." Lucas stood, extending his hand, and smiled his most dashing smile. "It was really nice to talk with you."

Too bad I'll be quitting Ken's and finding a new joint to practice,he thought to himself as Maddie herself stood as well.

Maddie smiled, blushing slightly. She'd mistaken his melancholy for sadness at having to leave already. She certainly didn't mind the idea of him wanting to spend more time with her... even if they couldn't more any more than friends.

She stood up. "Ah. Yeah, speaking of reading, I should probably figure out where to buy my textbooks and things..." She took his hand and shook it. "Yeah, I'm glad we met. And I'm really glad you're my sparring partner. Some guys can get kind of... weird about sparring with me." She laughed, looking a bit embarrassed. "Sorry, I guess that's sort of an odd thing to say..."

They walked together back out onto the sidewalk. "Anyway, I guess I'll see you next class?" She was getting ready to say goodbye, turning slightly in the direction of her apartment, only to find Lucas turning in the same direction. She laughed brightly, embarrassingly pleased by the idea of being able to spend a little more time together, even if it was just for a few minutes of walking in the same direction. "Well. I guess it's not quite goodbye yet then, hm?"

Lucas found himself just as embarrassingly pleased that they were both walking in the same direction. It wasn't his choice, after all, to spend more time walking with Maddie, it was just... the way it was. It was grander than his own choice.

"I guess so!" He had responded, smiling, and then looking away when realizing that he probably seemed too eager.

The two of them walked for a while, talking about this and that - the conversation flowing naturally. And at every turn they both laughed nervously as they continued to take the same path. Finally they found themselves standing before their building.

"Are you serious?" Lucas chuckled, smiling at Maddie. "We live in the same building?"

You're screwed. There's no way you'll be able to resist hanging out with her now. And you know where that might lead.

But again, Lucas had no choice. And so, he happily held the door open for Maddie as they walked in.

It turned out, as luck would have it, that in addition to Lucas and Maddie living in the same building, they lived on the same floor. In the same hallway. In the apartments directly opposite from each other.

The two stood with their backs towards their respective doors. Lucas had a smirk on his face as he looked at beautiful Maddie.

"I gotta say," it's going to be really hard to not want to sleep with you , "this is pretty cool. I guess this means we can spar with each other any time we like. Who needs Kens?"

Maddie smiled, and Lucas did as well. Though he had originally intended not to go back to Kens, it made little difference now that it turned out they lived across the hall from each other.

The awkwardness of the moment was starting to build, so Lucas added, "Well, I should get going. You were really ni- it was really nice, I mean, to hang out." It had already slipped, so Lucas decided to roll with it, changing the meaning. "Well, I guess it's true - you were really nice to not wipe Ken's mats with my face during our spar."

Well, I guess it's true - you were really nice to not wipe Ken's mats with my face during our spar.

Maddie scoffed, grinning. "Oh please. I think we both know that if anyone was going to be beating the other, it would be you beating me." She leaned back against her door, unable to wipe the grin off her face. She was absurdly happy at the particular turn of events that had led to the discovery that Lucas was her neighbour.

"We should hang out some time," she blurted suddenly. Her eyes went wide and she blushed brightly, realizing how stupid that sounded. "I mean, um, not in the context of martial arts. Because, you know, it would be a waste of an opportunity... because we live so close and stuff..." she babbled, trying to explain. She laughed at herself, biting her lip. "Of course, I wouldn't blame you if you said no, given how crazy I must sound right now. I guess my mouth just kind of runs away with me sometimes."

Everything about Maddie's behavior with Lucas indicated to him that she really enjoyed his company. And everything within Lucas told him the feeling was mutual. There was always a voice in the back of his mind that told him that if he got to know someone well enough, if they actually ended up loving him, they might accept him for who he was, and what he was capable of doing. Perhaps like someone who had a hideous growth develop later on in life, their loved one might still stick around.

Why he would think that this was possible with Maddie he wasn't sure, but he was feeling really light inside, especially at the idea of living across the hall from her.

"No. No, trust me - you don't sound crazy." Lucas smiled without inhibition. "I would totally love that." Sure, it sounded a little too much like he was responding to a request to go out on a date - but that didn't have to be the case. Couldn't he just love wanting to hang out with an incredibly attractive, fun, nice, kick-ass martial arts chick who was intelligent to boot? Of course.

"In fact," Lucas added without thinking too much, "I haven't had a chance to explore the Bay Area too much - maybe we should go hiking one day when we're both free?"

Lucas' heart jumped into his throat. It wasn't a date. They were just friends. But why the fuck did he really care? Clearly, Maddie was something Lucas was going to have a hard time keeping things casual with. She may not be "just another chick" to have around his arm and maintain his image. But for now, they were casual and fun, and he was happy to keep it going that way.

Maddie grinned a little too widely at the suggestion of hiking. "Sure!" It wasn't a date. Just two friends - aquaintances, still, really - going for a walk together to learn about a new place. They were probably both going to go exploring eventually anyway, and it was just more pleasant to do so together than apart.

Yep. Definitely not a date. That she had to try so hard to convince herself it wasn't definitely lent credence to that idea. Not.

She turned around and stuck the key in her door. "Mkay. Well, I'm basically free this entire week. It's orientation week at school, but it would be weird to go hang out with all the freshman so... Yeah. I don't have anything at all on my schedule until classes start next week." She smiled brightly. "You can just come knock on my door whenever you want." She paused, realizing what that sounded like, and grinned sheepishly, blushing. "I mean, to go for our hike."

She was about to go inside to start making herself dinner. She half wanted to invite him in, but she needed an excuse... She pushed her door open and was about to reluctantly say her goodbye when something occurred to her. She paused in the doorway, looking at him with her head tilted slightly, as if curious. "Ummm. You said you just dropped your bag and went right to Ken's so.... Does, does that mean you don't have anything to eat? Because I was just going to make myself some dinner and I could make something for two if you want, so you don't have to get crappy take-out if you don't want to..." She trailed off, her blush returning, and smiled hopefully at him.

Lucas couldn't help but smile at Maddie's correcting herself about knocking on her door for anything, but mercifully he kept it under control so that it was just a minor smirk, and he looked off to the side subtly. But then when Maddie invited him in for dinner it caught him off guard.

"Take out?" Lucas was so not expecting a dinner invitation that he had trouble stringing together what she had said. "Oh uh... no - yeah I wouldn't want take out - I mean," Lucas' awareness that he was sounding more and more like an idiot was steadily growing. Come on man, get it together, you're just having dinner with a friend, stop freaking out.

"Yeah, sure. That'd be really nice actually. I can cook a little myself too so, we could do it together? Cook?" Lucas had butterflies in his stomach - something he hadn't experienced in a while. He needed to take a breather to compose himself a bit before going in for the cooking session and dinner that he had just agreed to, so he quickly added, searching his pockets for his keys, "You know, let me just put my stuff down inside and - shit, I..." You left your keys on the kitchen counter because you monkeyed in and out of the apartment through the window when you got here, moron.

"Ah, looks like I forgot my keys inside..." Which wasn't really a problem, because Lucas would climb the wall and fire-escape to get back up to onto and through the window to his apartment. On the inside, Lucas found himself imagining how he had gotten in the first time, reminding himself that it was pretty easy - on the outside however it appeared as if Lucas was stuck in thought as to what he was going to do.

Maddie frowned slightly as Lucas realized he was locked out of his apartment. Then she shrugged and pushed her door open wide. "Well, come on in. You can call the landlord while I get everything set up for dinner. Hopefully he'll be able to come let you in soon."

Maddie's apartment was neat, though that could be attributed in large part to the fact that she had only been living there a little more than 24 hours. It was small, as bachelor apartments tend to be. The kitchen space was extremely limited, with only as much space as required to fit a fridge, a dishwasher, a sink and a stove all immediately next to each other. Maddie had extended the space artificially using a few tables and a pair of bookshelves that were acting as a make-shift pantry.

"I don't have much fresh food yet," she said apologetically, rifling through one of the cupboards, looking for a saucepan. "I went shopping yesterday, but I could only bring home what I could carry." She sounded a bit distracted, thinking less about what she was saying and more about what they should make with the limited ingredients she had. She stopped looking through her cupboards abruptly and turned around to face Lucas. "Um. Is vegetarian okay? I hope you don't mind. I don't really eat any meat, so I didn't buy any." She blushed. "I wasn't exactly expecting to have company."

"Vegetarian? Absolutely. I've kind of lost my appetite for meat lately." Lucas let it out casually but realized right away that he had said so in response to his memories of his last foray as a god damned eagle. He had come across a group of sickos out in the woods, doing some sort of paganistic ritual involving a young girl and dinner. They were barbaric, but they didn't know how to fight if their life depended on it. Lucas had made short order of all of them, and then spent the rest of the night puking at the memory of the girl's body.

It wouldn't matter for the purposes of their conversation, he thought, there were plenty of vegetarians these days, and Lucas could just be one of them.

"What with all the stuff they do to animals and whatnot. I mean - I'm not a hardcore vegetarian, just - more on a kick these days."

Christ. Talk enough do you? Lucas felt a bit embarrassed as he felt himself blabber on to such a simple question - and that too one that came from his host who was busily preparing a meal for the both of them.

"Anyway. Hey instead of standing around waiting to be served is there anything I can do to help?"

Maddie smiled in relief when Lucas told her he didn't eat much meat either. She was certain that his reasons were very different than hers (though, in reality, they weren't so different at all), but the end result was the same.

She paused when he asked her if there was anything he could do to help. "Ummm." She put her hands on her hips, looking down at what she's managed to find in her cupboards and fridge. Most of the food she's managed to buy so far were her staple items, and there was only limited fresh produce. She had canned tomatoes, onions, a few staple spices, garlic, some cheese...

"I guess we could make spaghetti," she suggested, holding up a package of noodles.
"It's about the only decent thing I can think of with what I have..." She smiled apologetically. It turned a bit mischievous after a moment, though, and she held out an onion. "I hope you don't mind me giving you the tasks I hate most," she teased, "starting with onion cutting." She laughed, getting out a curtain board. "I can't even get through half of one without crying!"