The kitchen looked different when the sun was still shining. It was a strange thing to notice but Drew had spent so much time in this room at night that it was the first thing that stuck out to him. Drew chuckled a little as he waltzed in and took a look at the various fruits on offer for snacks. While he was fond of the mansion as a whole this was the room he thought of as home most often. Drew snagged an apple out of the fruit bowl and leaned against the counter as he ate it.

He'd spent most of the morning on paperwork. For not being the guy in charge of the place Sam sure dealt with a lot of paperwork. Which of course meant that so did Drew. Once he got done with the stack sitting on the desk maybe he'd go train a little. Working on his swordplay would be a good away to wind down. Of course his thoughts weren't the only company he had. After all summer was over and those that had been able to go home had returned for the start of classes. Students drifted in and out of the kitchen and Drew nodded to them as they passed.

A sudden bout of nostalgia gripped him as Drew remembered the nervous wreck he'd been when he first arrived here with Kealey as his guide. The kitchen had been his nightly haven at the time. He spent much less time here these days.

"I wonder if they miss the muffins and what not?" he muttered around a bite of apple.

Over all these days he was content, if a little bored, with his life. Part of it was denial and Drew was well aware of that. It served its purpose. The last few bites of the apple disappeared and Drew moved to toss the core in the garbage.

Drew moved to throw away the apple core, and Kealey sloughed her way into the kitchen.

For once, the Library simply wasn't cutting it for the blond, and she needed a distraction. Most of the time, being at The Mansion was a welcome distraction from every day work and life in general. It was good to remember that she was part of something bigger than herself that didn't involve fabric and pins.

That was the problem though.

There was something huge involving fabric and pins that the board wanted to see the next week, and the ideas simply weren't flowing like they should have been. The blond had brought her sketch book to work with her in hopes that the library would inspire something for the last piece she needed to make...the signature piece in an upcoming ad. It was hard designing for a business campaign. After staring at a blank page for several hours, Kealey decided that maybe lunch would be inspiring and headed for the kitchen.

There was a surprise there for her.

"Drew!" she exclaimed, mind instantly trying to calculate how long it had been since she'd seen him, and how much longer it had been since they'd had a good talk.

"I shouldn't be surprised to find you here."

He glanced up as he heard someone entering the kitchen. It was an easy assumption to make that it was another student. Therefore when it turned out to be a blonde that he hadn't seen a long time Drew grinned widely.

"Well look who it is! I was just thinking about you. It's good to see ya Kealey."

He stretched and moseyed back to the counter. Leaning on it, Drew chuckled a bit.

"You shouldn't but I'll forgive you for it anyway. How has my favorite blonde lady been? It's been ages."

It was good to see the empath again. They'd been through a lot when they first met and had drifted apart as time went by. Other people and things demanded their attention. And whatever else had happened, Drew would always be grateful to her for convincing him to give this place a try. While he could have gotten on by himself in the city it wasn't something that he really wanted to do. Though sometimes he did end up thinking about it.

Standing there with Kealey gave Drew an idea. He hadn't baked anything in a while and it had been even longer since he'd baked for Kealey.

"Tell ya what. You talk while I bake you something. Got a craving for anything in particular?"

Drew put on a grin that was equal parts mischievous and happy as he waited for the answer.

How had she been?

Drew's offer was simply too good to resist, and Kealey slipped onto one of the stools that had made its way into the kitchen over the years. It was further evidence that the kitchen was the real heart of the Mansion. Settled, Kealey shrugged her shoulders.

"Anything sweet." she said, changing her mind about the stool and heading for the fridge. "And I'll make a sandwich in the interim."

As to how she'd been, Kealey shrugged her shoulders, "I'm alright. Busy. People always said that things calmed down after the wedding, but it's just gotten more and more crazy for us." she said, pulling condiments and lunch meat out and setting them on the counter.

"What about you? It's hard to believe it's been this long. Please tell me you've been incredibly busy too, otherwise I'm going to feel even worse."

Drew rummaged in the cabinets as Kealey spoke. Brownies were fairly simple and nearly universally liked. A pan of those wouldn't go amiss. He hummed lightly in response to her desire for a sandwich. If she hadn't had lunch yet then this would be a good chance for her to do so. Once he had a small station with his dry ingredients set up Drew joined her near the fridge to grab the milk and eggs he needed. So while he was rummaging there he didn't really see her shrug but it was sort of evident in her voice. What caught him was the marriage bit. Raking his mind, Drew remembered hearing about it. Drew smiled slightly and continued with his baking tasks.

"Congratulations on the wedding by the way, since I haven't seen you since long before that. Though not on the chaos. Chaos is no fun."

Exhilarating maybe but not fun. At least not to him anyway. Then again when things got chaotic for him there was often a good bit of danger involved. It probably was not the same sort of chaos for Kealey. At her appeal to hear he'd been busy too Drew had to shake his head before he answered. He was perfectly ok. Really.

"Busy is a good word to describe it. Went on...well I guess you could say walkabout not long back. Spent some time in Europe and Australia. Mostly I've been handling paperwork for Sam since I got back. It's enough to make a guy wish he had fire powers instead of super promise powers. Those filing cabinets could use a good char grilling."

By this point Drew was mixing together ingredients for the batter. He put most of his focus on that since he wanted the brownies to turn out well.

"And heaven forbid Sam do his own paperwork." Kealey said with a fond grin in the general direction of their fearless leader.

As for the wedding, Kealey beamed.

"It was lovely, and nobody can say it was unexpected." she said with a candid grin. "One day we might even go on a honeymoon. Things have been too busy for that. Shin with his police work, and then I signed a contract with a big company uptown. I'm doing all the designs for their ad campaigns. It's grueling...and their board of directors is ruthless."

Looking at her sketchpad as she spread mayo on her bread, Kealey sighed.

"I'm muse dead though. I need to finish the signature look, and soon...but I keep drawing blanks."

The blond shook her head. Drew was cooking and concentrating, and the emotions associated with those two things were honestly comforting, and something to focus on besides the normal bustle of the Mansion. Maybe brownies were just what she needed.

Drew shared Kealey's grin about Sam. Sam was a good guy but you couldn't say he didn't know how to delegate. If the guy had to do his own paperwork Drew figured they'd be finding frozen piles of paper in his office. Kealey seemed pretty happy to talk about the wedding and Drew was glad for her. Shame they hadn't managed to have a honeymoon yet though.

"Well at least things are going well for you two. Glad to hear you've got some design work."

He was paying just enough attention to Kealey's words to offer honest enough replies to them. He frowned at her mention of having trouble designing the big look for this campaign she was working on. While he poured the brownie batter into a buttered baking dish he wielded the chocolatey mixing spoon in her direction.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out. Heck, maybe these brownies will help out."

Desserts may not solve every problem but Drew did firmly believe that they help. He popped the dish of soon to be brownies in the oven and turned it on. Following that he leaned up against the counter, holding out the batter covered spoon to Kealey.

"Wanna taste or should I just clean up?"