Standing on a stool just to be able to work on the counters and stove-top never made Abby happy. But she was short, still growing, and currently below average height. She would have to deal with a stool to be able to work in the kitchen. The thirteen year old was hopeful for a few more inches before she stopped growing. It would be nice.

The Mansion kitchen was... well a bit of a mess. But it was Saturday morning, early enough most students would still be sleeping. And adults who came by had coffee, bacon, eggs, oatmeal, and toast sitting on hotplates. Abby knew she would be taking over the kitchen and had planned for it. She couldn't really be yelled at if she had made food for people before starting her baking. At least, she hoped not.

There were fresh apples, cored and sliced sitting in a bowl away from the heat of the stove. Some dough for makes a crust nearby too. Her phone was sitting next to the stove with the recipe opened. Abbigail had finally figured out how useful her gifted phone could be. All sorts of recipes were available to her through the internet. She didn't even have to print them out anymore. At least, not until she knew if she liked the recipe.

The saucepan on the stove had two different types of sugar, butter, salt, cinnamon, and water heating inside it. She had to wait for it to boil before taking it off the heat, according to her recipe. Her oven was already preheating so that wasn't worrisome. Once the glaze was done, she would move on to setting the crust, apple slices, and crust top together. The inviting smell of her glaze was making her hungry, and so was having those apple slices sitting there, but she would wait until putting the pie in the oven before snacking on something. The scent should at least bring people into the kitchen to find food.

Generally Leon's 'gifts' brought him nothing but grief, such had been the story of this life since he sprouted poison spikes and a face even a mother would hate. Still, he had to admit that in this case he was glad he could smell a lot better then before, as he could smell breakfast all the way from his room. Despite his hesitations about getting close to people, he never passed up a meal when he could, enough years of having to scrap by on what he could grab left him more then willing to take advantage of the mansions hospitality when it came to food. He woke up early before any of the other students could fill the hall, drawn by the scent of bacon and eggs cooked to perfection. They could be burnt for all he cared, the point was it was warm and in quantity. He made his way down to the kitchen quickly to beat any morning rush.

He could smell something else, something sweet, and he recognized the smell of pastry. If there was a pie there it would be heaven, he hadn't had anything like that in ages. He opened the door slowly, hearing someone else moving about, he wanted to make sure he didn't run into anyone, even if he was slightly excited by the prospect of food, his sense of caution was always tugging at his mind.

He peered in through the gap, and saw the girl over at the counter cooking, from this angle she looked normal, and he hoped he wouldn't scare her. Looked like it was a bit early for pie, but he could see the bacon and eggs off to one side. He double checked his bandages to make sure no quills had broken through, then slowly opened the door all the way, hunching over to get clearance and he padded in.

Putting the apples into the pie crust wasn't hard per say. It was just that she was trying to make it as pretty as she could. The little blonde knew the baking process would change things but she was a little bored waiting on the syrup to boil. She was currently trying to make a flower like shape out of apple slices. It was amusing and even if she couldn't really make a flower it gave her ideas.

The shuffle of feet on the floor caught Abby's attention and she looked over her shoulder to spot the person making their way to breakfast. A new person too! She didn't recognize the red hair (fur?) the new person had.

"Morning!" she chirped. "I've got bacon and eggs and oatmeal and toast over there. There's coffee and juice and milk in the fridge. Glasses are," she hopped down and opened the correct cabinet, "here. If you need anything, just ask, okay?"

Leon was caught a bit off guard about how easily the girl took his appearance, but then he reminded himself, mutant house. Yeah, these guys were used to weird stuff, this was just a regular day to them. "... Thanks," he said, not really used to such a 'cheery' reception. He really couldn't remember anyone being all that happy to see him before coming here, it was a bit surreal. He just hoped she wasn't the touchy feely kind, last thing he needed was for someone to try giving him a hug or something and getting poisoned.

He moved over to the plates and began loading it with toast, bacon, and eggs, taking a good portion, before taking a handful of bacon and chomping down on it, his teeth shredding the meat instantly. Oh god, that was good. He had lived on scraps for so long this was decadent in comparison. His manners were somewhat lacking, but at the moment he didn't really care.

Abby beamed at the new possible resident. The sound of popping bubbles made her turn back to her syrup. It was boiling! Setting the heat to low, she double checked her apple slices. Not as pretty as she really wanted but still. Now she had to put the top on the crust. This was the part she was new to. Usually she just did a full top crust. This time she was doing a lattice!

Glancing over her shoulder, she watched the new person eat. Manners could be better, but he wasn't any worse than the hordes of students when there was a limited amount of something people wanted. Turning back to her work, she started to lay the stripes of crust over the apples.

"I'm surprised someone's up this early. Did you sleep well or was it something else?" Huh, that may not have been the best question. She didn't know this person and asking questions like that might be considered rude. "You can ignore if you want. I'm hyper and I've been up awhile now," she added to be on the safe side.

Leon looked up, a mouth full of toast and eggs, chewed a bit and swallowed, licking remnants from his fingers before speaking. Generally he wasn't the talkative type, but right now, with a belly full of nice warm food, he was in a better mood. "Smelt the cooking, wanted some before rush hour started." he stated, before stuffing another piece of toast with eggs and bacon into his mouth. To be honest he was more then happy to take the lion's share of what was there if he could, if not for potential pie. "When will the pie be ready?" he asked through a full mouth. 

As he looked the girl over he started to notice some of the more subtle characteristics she seemed to have. He thought he saw sharp teeth, and some.. discoloration? On the skin of her legs. He didn't exactly know how many different mutation variations there were here, but it was slightly interesting to see someone with some form of physical mutation, even if it were not as drastic as his. 

>>"Smelt the cooking, wanted some before rush hour started."

Picking up the simmering syrup, Abby began to pour the liquid over the lattice crust. "I understand that. A lot of the time it's best to either wake up early or make your own food," she giggled. She had been rather careful about what time she woke up when she first got to the school. When she finally learned how to cook it wasn't so bad. Now she was more likely to cook for others than just herself.

Checking that the oven was preheated, the blonde got her pie in the oven. Making note of the time, she turned to sit with her new friend. Tilting her head at his question she thought back to the recipe as she sat down across from him. "It'll be done baking after about an hour. Fifteen minutes at the higher temperature then thirty to forty-five at three-fifty. So yeah, about an hour. I'm Abby by the way. What's your name?"

"Leon," said he, wondering if it would be worth the risk sticking around for pie. After all the rest of the mansion would eventually wake up and this place would be crawling with people. Fear won out over his desired for freshly baked pastry, and he decided he would just have to hope some was left over afterwards. Well, he would stick around until he heard someone coming, maybe he would luck out and nobody would show up, though he highly doubted it, his luck was generally at the low end of probability.

He watched Abbey as he finished off his food. He wasn't much of a talker, he kept to himself out of necessity, less people got hurt that way. It left him with a atrophied social skills. He used to be social before his mutation kicked in, but now it had been a few years since he had had a real conversation with anyone. He frankly didn't know what he could really talk about that wasn't horribly depressing to think about.