fandomtownies | Turtle & Canary; Monday [01/24].

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Turtle & Canary; Monday [01/24].

After getting a little frustrated that her favorite space spa didn't seem to have any openings for the next few weeks and trying to figure out a good way to work around that, Summer took a break to work on her actual job, i.e. all her usual Monday administrating, inventory, and ordering bullshit. And as she did, Apu came up to her and let her know that he thought she wa doing a great job, that he was glad to have her around to take of all these things.

Which was just...unexpected and touching and so nice, and she gushed out her thanks and returned the compliment, especially since she knew he dealt with an awful lot of shit around here, and then he moved on and told the turtle that he had a great, hard-looking shell, and told the canary that her plummage was looking particularly yellow today, and then he informed the Squishy Machine that it's flavor choices were so ecclectic today and then she overheard him telling the panda that his cheese selection were the finest he'd ever seen, and that was when Summer started to get suspicious.

Google was definitely her friend around that guy, and now the sales sign he'd put in the window made a lot more sense.

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This was something of a first … twice in two weeks that he actually went out shopping for his apartment but it turned out that Goose actually had ~~oh so conveniently handwavily~~ invited Ignis over for dinner on Wednesday and well he was actually rather nervous about the whole thing and he had realised his apartment was not suitable for having someone over so he was now back at the store to try and correct that.

Only he didn’t have the faintest idea of what he needed for an apartment, even though making sure he had a kitchen table was probably a good idea for a start.

Still he tried not to feel too overwhelmed by everything … the dinner, shopping … all of it, as he entered … this was all so out of his comfort zone that he didn’t know where to even begin.

Like some giant-ass kid totally lost on his own. Summer shook her head a little when she noticed Goose coming in, and decided to wait a moment to finish up what she was doing before coming over, just in the offchance that he managed to stumble into something all on his own. But eventually she did drift over with a lift of her hand in a wave.

"Morning, Goose. How's it going?"

“Morning Summer,” Goose nodded, looking around and trying to see if there something might stand out to him.

“Er …it’s good, I…I’m looking for apartment things …decor and stuff,” he eventually stammered, trying not to feel so lost.

“It’s …er …I’m having someone over,” he added, as if this might explain why he was suddenly a nervous wreck about the state of his apartment.

And here Summer thought you'd have had her in pretty firm at at decor, Goose, but then you had to go and add that last part, and her interest skyrocketed.

"Oooooooo~oooh!" she gushed, eyes going wide with eager excitement, hands pressed together as if thanking the very gods of meddling-in-other-people's-busines in her hopes that her day just got way more interesting. "What kind of someone? What kind of over?? Wait!"

She held up her hands, although the only person she was probably really stopping here was herself. "Don't tell me yet. Let's see if I can figure it out. Start with what you think you're going to need the most."

Goose blinked a lot as he tried to follow all of Summer’s conversation.

“Uh …a kitchen table,” he finally answered, since he knew that was definitely the one thing he needed, “but uh I’m not sure what else …it’s …uh… I’ve only got a couple of plants by way of decor,” that he’d managed to keep alive these last few months, “so ..it needs…work,”

A bit of an understatement there Goose.

Summer's eyes narrowed at Goose a little, supsicious of the idea that he could actually manage to have houseplants that could survive. But she might just have to take his word for it, especially since...

"What?" she asked. "Have you just, like, not had a table since you ate the last one, or something?"

Well they were succulents so there was very minimal effort involved in keeping them alive still it was Goose we were talking about…

“I meant to follow it up with Jon but it just hasn’t happened yet,” Goose admitted a bit sheepishly, “I’ve just been using my kitchen bench instead,”

"Well," said Summer, "at least you have a bench..."

For her to use as an actual benchmark.

"Soooooo," she ventured a guess, "you're having someone over for dinner?"

Goose nodded, “I’m …I’m cooking him dinner,”

That was just what Summer wanted to hear right? Nothing about that sentence was any cause for alarm surely?

He could feel himself start to go red at that revelation. It was just dinner, why was he freaking out about this?

"Ooof," said Summer, before she could help herself, "what did this guy ever do to you?"

What?

It was an honest question! And she was joking, anyway!

....mostly.

Goose still wasn’t good at reading things like humour and sarcasm so didn’t realise Summer didn’t actually want to know the full details.

“Um…er…” oh he was definitely going redder, “he taught me how to cook?” he offered, “most people …er …”

How did he even begin to explain? That Ignis was really the first person to really look past being him being a Supertrooper? That he could do more than be a soldier?

Except that was going into complicated background details so Goose was just going to awkwardly stare at Summer and turn bright red.

Well, geez, Goose, now Summer was going to have to feel bad about it because that was...

...well, it was a reaction, that was for sure.

"A joke, Goose," Summer assured him, "that was just a joke. Because, well, you know, you're not exactly known for your..."

Realizing she was probably only going to wind up digging that hole for herself deep, Summer stopped and shook her head, waved her hands a little as if to clear the air. "Never mind. It doesn't matter. That's actually really nice of you, to cook for him, if he's the one who--"

--wait, was he talking about...?

Summer blinked.

Oh, well, now, this just managed to get even more interesting.

"Right," she said, latching onto a new focus. "Table. You need a table, and, I'm going to be honest, Goose, most of what we have here are, like, chintzy fold-out ones and the most basic shit, this might actually call for a trip out to the Isle of IKEA. Either that, or we find you a really nice tablecloth and maybe he won't notice."

“Oh,” Goose blinked a bit and nodded,rubbing the back of his neck as he did.

“I figured something temporary was probably better, I think Jon has ordered a table so I thought if there was at least something…well…” he said a bit sheepishly.

For the briefest most fleeting of seconds, Summer almost considered just letting Goose borrow her apartment for this, but then she remembered, no, she liked her kitchen. Not only that, she needed her kitchen to be functional.

"Temporary's good," she decided, almost resolutely, with a nod. "Temporary works, we can find other ways to make it look a little nicer, maybe, and it's still a step up from a bench, right?"

That was probably a good thing if Summer liked her kitchen the way it was …Goose did have a habit about wrecking other people’s kitchens … Captain Foxx could attest to that.

“That …that would be good …I er …don’t really know anything about apartment decorating …” well Summer would most definitely have figured that one out already Goose.

“I …or anything like this really,” he admitted.

The dinner, having someone over …it was all extremely new.

See, now, Goose, you said things like that, and it was like...flipping a switch in Summer's brain, and she bit her lip, which was doing a very poor job of holding back the scheming (some might say devious) grin that was forming.

"Weeelllllll," she said, slowly, almost sing-song, "you are in luck, because, let me tell you, Goose, I have watched, like, so much HGTV, I am practically a design expert, so now I have to ask you a very important question:"

She took in a deep breath.

"Do you trust me?"

Oh, no, Summer, don't ask that! No one should have to answer that!

Goose was so not the person to ask that question for and he blinked a bit as he listened to her and finally nodded.

“Yes,” he said, “I trust you Summer,”

He saw no reason not to …he had no idea what he was getting in for.

The beatific nod Summer gave him in response made it clear that at least she thought he'd absolutely gave the only correct response to that question.

"Okay," she said, holding up her hands, "good. Because that means you are just going to leave the decor to me," her hands fell to her chest as if there could be any question as to who she was talking about, "which works out well for you," gesturing now toward Goose, "so that all you have to worry about is the cooking itself. I never even got around to remodeling BDG's apartment, so this sort of thing has been marinating in me for years, I am so ready for this, so when I get out of work here, I'm going to swing by your place so I can get a good lay of the land, hopefully get some good inspo, and then, by...."

She paused.

"....when is this dinner happening, again?" she asked, realizing that she wasn't sure if she got that particular and debateably very important deet quite yet.

“Uh …oh that …actually be …um…thank you,” Goose managed to stammer. This was also something he wasn’t used to.

“The dinner’s happening Wednesday, …um …Wednesday evening,” Goose told her, realising for the first time that that coincided with Summer and her Jello shots.

Hopefully she wouldn’t mind if he missed one Wednesday?

It would actually be a little pathetic if someone didn't sometimes occasionally miss a Wednesday here and there, really, wouldn't it? Summer definitely didn't care, as long as they eventually did pop back in again eventually.

"Wednesday," said Summer, pulling up her little crowded mental calander. "Okay, wow, so, like, not a lot of time, but that's...that's fine! I can definitely manage it. I can some planning done tonight, get everything I'll need tomorrow, and the jello for Wednesday night needs to set for a few hours anyway, and you're just upstairs, so I can pop up, get everything all set up, and be out of your hair with plenty of time leftover before your little dinner date shows up. It'll be perfect, I work better under pressure anyway."

“It was kind of last minute,” Goose revealed, a little shyly …which was not something he was used to feeling. “Um …I …I wasn’t expecting…well…”

That he would say yes or that Goose would actually offer the invite in the first place.

Supertroopers weren’t taught how to deal with things like emotions and having attachments, which played into the whole not showing any weakness part of their conditioning.

“But …this …thank you,” he said again, “I …any help you can give, well it will better than where I started,”

"Well," Summer pointed out, "where you started was a bench and some plants, so...."

It could only go up from there.

"You're definitely doing any of the heavy lifting if it calls for it, though," she decided. "For suuuuuure. Okay, though, next important question, but...what are you planning on making?"

“I guess that’s true,” he nodded with a sheepish grin, “but I can do any heavy lifting that won’t be a problem,” he told her.

He paused when she asked what he was making, “well I was thinking a casserole of some kind?” he hadn’t thought much further beyond that, “I think that’s one dish I can make without …you know ..er setting it on fire,” since part of this dinner…date was to show Ignis that he had somewhat improved with his cooking after all and setting it on fire, well he was trying to avoid that.

"Not on fire is good!" Summer said encouragingly. She thought of mentioning that there were some dishes where the fire was kind of the point, but, yeah, no, she was not letting that idea come even close to Goose's brain if she could help it.

Especially not now that it could be her hard work that would be going up in flames!

She nodded a little with her thoughts. "And that's a good choice, too, I think. Not too fussy or, like, overly ambitious, but with more potential to impress than, like, grilled cheese sandwiches or something..."

Ignis was pretty fancy, though. Summer started to wonder if she should try and think of something to suggest to spice it up a bit more, or if it was just better not to complicate things too much. It was Goose they were talking about here...

Fandom was so not ready for Goose finding out about those recipes…

“I know one casserole recipe that I’ve made a couple of times, Doc sent it over last semester but I was thinking maybe trying something new…trying a different casserole recipe,” he considered … …he also realised he did care what Ignis thought and maybe he did want to impress him …and …okay honestly he probably had a really low bar when it came to him so that anything that wasn’t set on fire was probably already an accomplishment.

He still wanted to try though and at least attempt to make an effort.

"It is good to branch out and try different things," Summer allowed as she mulled over what these possible casseroles could actually be.

And this was a woman who blended the most digusting casserole recipes she could find with jello and alcohol on a regular basis, so her ability to imagine a vast array of casseroole potential was vast.

Was it...was it bad that she now desperately wanted Goose to be making something that involved, at the very least, Spam and some sort of very questionable canned creamed soup?

Was it also bad that she was definitely thinking she needed to plant some sort of recording device when she did the decorating, because this all had to be witnessed? Maybe she should livestream it...

Goose was totally going to end up regretting getting Summer involved in this wasn’t he?

“and I was thinking maybe a desert option as well? That’s what you normally have at a dinner right?” he considered, unaware of any of Summer’s narrative right now, “only …I didn’t really make much desert last semester in class, except well I tried to make caramel and that didn’t go so well, so probably nothing involving caramel...”

Regret getting Summer involved? Whaaat? HDU.

"Oh, chocolate is so much better, anyway," Summer assured him with the utmost confidence So much more romantic. "But, yeah, you've definitely got to do a dessert! Oh! And you'll need a good wine!"

Did wine really go with casseroles?

Summer then took two seconds to remember that her mom existed, which meant that, yes, actually, very much so.

“Chocolate sounds good,” Goose nodded, “I’ve only ever attempted to make chocolate chip cookies before though… “ that resulted in him and Niko blowing up his Captain’s oven so probably not a good example there.

There was so much involved in all of this that he hadn’t even begun to consider things like wine.

“Oh wine, yes … “ Goose remembered that there was in fact alcohol that didn’t come in the form of jello shots, “I … don’t know anything about wine,” he admitted, which by now probably wouldn’t come as a surprise to Summer.

"Well, you're going to want to make a good wine pairing," said Summer, who had no, like, data to back this up except having, you know, met the guy at least once, but Ignis? Definitely a wine snob. "But, thankfully," she grinned as she brandished her phone from her pocket, "that's where the bartender with google comes in! So we'll have to get into the deets of your dish, to know which direction to go. What is the casserole you're planning on making?"

“Er …I was thinking maybe something with beef in it?” Goose considered, “I’ve made a chicken casserole before, so I thought that maybe something with beef might work?”

He hoped ... or else he was going to have to think of something else, "I did find this beef casserole recipe that I thought I could attempt?" he brought up the recipe on his wrist communicator so that he could show Summer what he was planning.

Edited 2022-01-25 00:07 (UTC)

Summer leaned in to check out the recipe enough to see that it involved things in tins and almost wanted to reach up and pat the poor guy on his giant broad shoulder.

"Beef usually is a red wine, I think," said Summer, turning to her phone to verify. "Yes. A cabernet sauvignon," and, why, yes, that was a very particular British-ish accent flavor she was going to give that one, "or possibly a malbec. So we'll have to pick out one of those."

Goose really was starting small when it came to cooking wasn’t he? Honestly if he got through this dinner without setting anything on fire or causing it to explode he would really be doing well.

He considered the options, “maybe the Cab…Caber...Cabernet …Sa…Sauvignon?” he stumbled awkwardly, there was nothing fancy in his pronunciation at all but well … maybe Ignis would like the wine?

He hoped. He would also have to work on the pronunciation before Wednesday.

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Turtle & Canary; Monday [01/24].

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