Derek was more than excited about being approved to live in the Co-op. After spending time with one of his roommates, Richard, being close to Gina and so forth, Derek felt like things were going to be more than okay. Life in New York was slowly building into something that seemed "normal". Well, as normal as a gender bent Disney Princess can get.

It was around 6:45 in the afternoon when Derek finally came back to his apartment with three paper bags worth of food in his hands. He decided that he would stay in and cook dinner instead of take out or delivery. Derek planned on making rosemary leg of lamb with garlic mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. For some reason, he forgot that he could've just grabbed some vegetables from the Mansion instead of buying them. Next time, he'll know better.


Once instead, Derek knew that climbing up the four flights of stairs was going to be rough, but he could do it. With a huff, Derek started the ascension to the third floor. Everything was going well until his foot sipped on the edge of one of the steps, causing an onion to pop out of his bag and down the stairs. Cursing, Derek closed his eyes and tried to get himself together.

Maybe it was working with a Texan, but Jude had picked up a serious appreciation for TexMex. That was what Jude told himself to excuse his selection of an Ultra HD frozen burrito from the bodega after work. What made it Ultra HD? Could burritos really be HD? Tonight, Jude would find out. He payed, winked at the pretty attendant, and made his leisurely way home to the co-op. The coop. The not-Mansion.

Grease smeared and frustrated, Jude still didn't have the knack for assembling the various weapons after their field strip, but he was getting there. It'd been his slowness that kept him late since there were more than a few things to attend after that recent NATO whatever. He was lucky to work with such an accommodating group of murder hobos.

Spinning his burrito over his palm, Jude entered the not-Mansion after a dude who was juggling far more than he was clearly able to handle. That wasn't Jude's problem until an onion came bumping down the stairs. No one deserved a death by onion. The frenchman stooped to collect the allium.

"You need help." There were no ifs ands or buts about it. "Give me a bag and I can get you where you're going." Jude looked for a place to stash his burrito, but given that he was dressed down today his best option was his back pocket and oh that was cold.

"I'm Jude." He explained as he helped juggle paper bags. "I go up to the fourth. Are you new?" He hadn't seen him, but that hardly meant anything. He lived on a floor with 3 girls and he saw their powers more often than he saw them.

Derek was just about to pick himself up and go fetch the onion himself when someone else walked up the first flight of stairs. Great, now he was in someone's way. Derek cursed himself again as he struggled to stand.

"You don't have to--." Derek stopped. If Jude was anything like himself, he was going to help him no matter what he said. Finally getting to his feet, Derek handed Jude the lightest of the bags.

"I'm Derek. It's nice to meet you." Derek gave him a smile as he turned and continued walking up the stairs. "Yeah, I'm new. I'm in room 303. Thank you for helpin' me." He looked over his shoulder at Jude.

He finally made it to the third floor where he opened the door and walked into the kitchenette. With a heavy sigh, he sat the two bags down on the counter top. "Thank you again, Jude. It really means a lot."

No. Jude didn't have to.

"Of course I don't have to. This is just a mark of my excellent moral fiber." He teased. Being a reject X was hard to shake, and this was totally not at all because the other man had been blocking the way.

"Yeah. Likewise. I haven't met too many people on other floors yet. You?"

He hefted the bag given to him, resigned that he was going to have to climb the stairs anyway. Jude's burden was far lighter than Derek's which made the frenchman curious. It was just a little harmless snooping, right?

"What are you cooking?" His bag appeared to be mostly veggies. Jude could only imagine what was in Derek's paper bags.

Derek chuckled at the joke. "Well I'm glad one of my apartment mates has a sense of humor," Not saying that the others didn't. Both Richard and Gina seemed to have one as well. Maybe he should've said "another one" instead of just "one". Eh, lesson learned.

"Just two. Gina, who's also on the fourth floor, I met while at the Mansion and Richard when I first checked the place out." Derek started to take his groceries out and put them away. He got a glimpse of Jude looking through his bag, but said nothing. It wasn't like he had something to hide other than water-based jell and two boxes of Fruit S'plosions.

When asked what he was making , Derek smiled. "I'm making leg of lamb with garlic mashed potatoes and mixed vegatables. I wanted to try making Beef Wellington, but figured this would cause less mistakes."

"Yeah. Most people are pretty chill here. I guess you have to be since you know going in you'll see people more than usual." Or maybe he should have said 'since they knew they'd see the same people over and over again.' He could have chosen a single apartment somewhere and just gone to work and then disappeared every day. But what kind of life would that be?

Jude hadn't met Richard, but with the community meal times, he figured he would eventually. The copycat hustled up the stairs so Derek wouldn't get tipped off to how much of a slouch he was. He shouldn't have bothered, though. There were Fruit S'plosions in his bag.

"You gonna make a leg of lamb with--" He plucked a box of U So Jelly out of the bag. "Oh. Blue raspberry. Nice." Jude waggled the box at Mr. 303, teasingly.

"A Wellington's not that bad. I've only ever done mushrooms outside not pate. I'm not made of money." Yet. Someday, though...

Derek smirked at Jude. He seemed like a nice enough to hang with. "Yeah, I love blue raspberry whether it's a slushie or...gummy bears." He wasn't going to talk about how he ordered a five pound gummy bear from Contain91 online. It was supposed to be in by the end of the week.

"Me either," Derek paused, "I've never had a Wellington before. I'm hoping that one day I'll get to try it. I've been watching a lot of Hordon Game lately and he's kind of inspiring me in a way."

He started to get everything he needed ready while pulling up the recipe for the meal on his phone. "The rosemary should be here right about," there was a tap at the window, "here!" Derek walked over to the window and opened it. A pigeon cocked her head to the side as it handed a few stems of rosemary. "Thank you." The pigeon seemed to say you're welcome before flying out the window.

As if nothing happened, Derek walked back to the kitchen and rinsed off the freshly picked herbs.

"Somehow talking leg of lamb and gummy bears in two consecutive breaths seems wrong." He joked as they made it through to the correct floor and kitchen area. Jude glanced around, but besides a slightly different decoration scheme, it was pretty much the same as what was one more flight up.

Jude nodded along. He might not have seen that show directly, but he did have an interest. It occurred to him that now that he had his own place, he probably could watch whatever he wanted. The idea was weirdly novel.

The mis en place started happening after Jude had set his burden down and backed away to watch it happen. The bird thing was... interesting... mutant bird familiar friend... thing? Eeee. Hopefully he wasn't a pigeonmancer. Jude wasn't sure what a pigeonmancer was, but... he thought it deserved a cringe or two.

"Is that sanitary?" Pigeons were winged rats, right?

"I've never had lamb before." Ever. And his tone made that clear. "Mind if I pitch in a few bucks and help out?" If that meant dishes, he was resigned to that fate, but he hoped he might get to actually cook.

Jude sheepishly pulled his slightly defrosted butt-rito from his back pocket. "If you don't take pity on me, this is what I'm doing to my intestines." Wasn't it sad? Wasn't Jude sad? He tried to make sad, hopeful eyes like that of a kitty cat.

It was silly to see the snacky food set to the side in the context of the more posh ingredients.

((This post has been narrated! Thank you forever and always, Cal!))

Derek laughed a bit. "True. It's like, uh, talking about heartworms and eating angel hair pasta at the same time." He shivered at the thought of it. Derek probably wouldn't be eating pasta anytime soon. "Ugh, anyway."

"That's why I make sure to wash his beak and claws and do the same with the rosemary after he goes and gets it for me." Derek explained with a smile. After he was sure that the herb was clean, he grabbed a napkin and set it on top to keep it clean.

When Jude offered to help cook in exchange for pay, Derek shook his head. "No, you're not goin' to pay me and yes, we can cook together. It'll be fun." Derek smiled at Jude. He watched as he pulled out the "butt-rito" from his back pocket. With a chuckle, he shook his head. "You're not goin' to eat that and you can wipe that cute, Puss in Boots look on your face," Derek pulled out the sack of potatoes and moved out of the way, "you can help with wash and peelin' the potatoes."

After delegating a task for Jude, he looked around for a large pot and placed it into the sink and start to fill it with water. "So, tell me about yourself. Are you a mutant too?"

He washed.
The beak.

No. Better. He washed the beak and the claws. Jude snorted into his hand, but tried to turn it into a cough to be sorta a little more dignified. Pigeonmancers were effing weird, man.

> "...yes, we can cook together. It'll be fun."

Well that was easy. Jude did a little celebratory fist grip. "Yesss."

He even got his first assignment: potatoes. The frenchman pushed up his sleeves (which were already short sleeves and the motion was totally unnecessary) and got to work with washing first.

"Lamb doesn't grow on trees. If I was you I'd take the couple bucks." But, really, it was his loss. Jude shrugged. For the low, low price of one burrito and some time, he was getting to try some lamb. Deal.

> "So, tell me about yourself. Are you a mutant too?"

He choked on nothing while washing.

"Dude. You can't just ask that." Jude spared Derek an assessing look. He'd explicitly avoided that exact question and he was working with inside information! Surely this kid didn't also have pigeon-dar or something. "Not everybody here might be one. Some people are incognito. Not everybody can be a pigeonmancer, y'know."

Derek looked over at Jude. He didn't know that he weren't supposed to ask if people were mutants or not. Plus, being in the Honeycomb Co-Op, Derek thought that it would be okay. Apparently it was wrong. He was going to apologize until Jude called him a "piegonmancer". Was that some sort of joke?

"Well, I didn't know. Sorry," Derek carried the pot of water from the sink once it was at least three fourths full to the stove. He placed it on the right back eye and turned the heat up. Derek then grabbed the salt from one of the cabinets and the stick of butter from fridge. After opening the salt, he poured a bit into his hand and then into the pot. Derek sat that aside and grabbed a knife so that he could cut off at least a half a tablespoon of butter, "and I'm not a piegonmancer.

Once that was taken care of, Derek put everything back and walked back to the place he was at and took out his phone to read the instructions. "I think we can pan sear it first, then put it in the oven for it to bake."

That had come out harsher than he meant to. Jude sighed and stopped the tap in order to switch to the knife for... "Am I peeling or just cutting? Oh wait. I think you said peeling." Jude started to do that, annoyed that he'd just word vomited a question that he could have figured out the answer to.

"I'm sorry. I think everyone in here's a mutant. At least, the one's that I've met have all been, so maybe you're right. Maybe it's a safe place." He grumped. Jude's power either made people very happy or really mad at him. Bad people tried to nab him off the street. Good people tried to use him to make themselves look better.

"For now, I'm mostly trying to stay under the radar," Jude admitted. He'd even gone as far as getting a job that required absolutely no special powers at all. "Maybe that's dumb since I was an X-man trainee for a long while. The police already have me on file." Voluntarily. Ughhhh. Jude hung his head for a moment of silence and regret. How dumb had he been?

Jude had a small pile of peeled potatoes already. His knife work was surprisingly smooth despite not having practiced a lot lately. He was also proud that he'd yet to stab himself. All in all, he felt like he was owning his role as the potato peeler.

"If you're not a pigeonmancer," Jude mulled that over, "then... animal empathy." He guessed. "Or talking to them? You've got something interesting up your sleeve to have a bird retrieving things for you and letting you wash it."

Derek looked over at Jude and gave him a small smile. "Yeah and to make sure that the potatoes are cooked through, you can cut 'em up anyway you see fit." Derek sniffed and turned back to the two legs of lamb he had. He was going to freeze one of them and save it for later, but since Jude was here, he might as well cook both.

Then again it was a large amount of meat. He decided that he would put the other leg in the freezer for later. "Nah, don't apologize. You're right, I shouldn't assume that someone's a mutant." He shrugged his shoulders. Derek would make a note of that for the next time he met one of his apartment mates.

Unwrapping the leg from it's brown paper covering, Derek went over to the sink and rinsed the meat off under cold water. After he did that for a bit, he went for a cutting board from the drawer to his left and rinsed that off to. Derek awkwardly stood there with both hands full; he should've thought this out more.

Anywho, Derek placed the cutting board on the countertop and the piece of meat on top of it. He grabbed a paper towel and dried both sides of the meat. After it used, Derek went to grab the olive oil, salt and pepper. "Oh? You were an X-Men trainee?" That was interesting. "I stayed at the Mansion for about week before moving here to the Co-op," He smiled over at Jude, "but yeah, I think that it staying low is a good idea. I did the total opposite."

He slowly poured the olive oil over the meat on both sides, then he sprinkled, salt and pepper. To top it off, he placed the rosemary herb on top and underneath the leg of lamb. Derek was happy about his new accomplishment until he remembered that he forgot the garlic. "Dang, it. I need to get garlic." Derek looked over his shoulder at Jude. "Can you preheat the oven to 350 degrees, please?"

"Well, I can communicate and influence the behavior of animals." Derek answered, "it comes in handy a lot."

Jude made way for the actual, literal leg of an animal as Derek needed to wash it under the tap.

"Whoah. My house was full of vegetarians so, that's a big— wow. You can see the bone and stuff." That made him sound uncultured, he realized, but he'd really never seen meat-meat. Like it was just a leg. Being a leg.

He was a trainee alright. "Emphasis on was." Jude went back to chopping with a renewed vigor. Stupid Sam and his stupid drinking problem and stupid hand-holding emotions of stupid stupidity. Jude's irritation made for excellent chopping motivation.

Thankfully Derek was in a bit of his own world massaging his meat. Even just thinking that made Jude snicker to himself because, although he'd grown up a bit on the outside, apparently he had not on the inside.

> "Can you preheat the oven to 350 degrees, please?"

"On it." It was fun moving around in the kitchen with another person. Derek was the maestro of this meal and Jude was just fine playing sous chef and second fiddle so long as he got to eat and didn't have to touch it while it was raw. The copycat rinsed the starch from his fingers and went to fiddle with the oven until it looked right.

"These potatoes go into the water, right?" He noticed there was a big boiling pot all ready to go since he was over by the range. "I'm fast running out of cutting board space." He eyed the leg dubiously, but it was, still, just a leg. Eventually that would magically transform into meat.

Derek chuckled a bit, "yeah, it's a pretty big piece of meat. When I ordered two legs of lamb, I thought it would be just the shin not the thigh parts." Derek would need to be less absentminded in the near future if he wanted to have money in his savings account.

Was? Did something happen at the Mansion that made him change his mind? Derek looked over at Jude and watched as he chopped the potatoes a little fiercely than before. He was going to ask what happened, but decided to mind his business. "...Ah," He nodded his head, "I'm...sorry...?"

Hearing Jude snicker, he was wondered what humored him."What?" Derek asked with raised eyebrows.

"Thank you, Jude." Derek said gently, looking over his shoulder to watch his "sous chef" preform the task. He made sure not to allow his eyes to linger and turned back around. A smile formed across his face as he now stared down at the seasoned meat in front of him. At least it had a while to soak in it's own juices and flavors before being put in the oven.

"Oh, yeah. Just plop 'em in the boiling water. Then we can work on the vegetables," Derek looked over his shoulder at Jude, "what kind do you like? I got string beans, mushrooms, corn, and ah, I think cabbage."