Chase had deposited the powder into the two mugs, and had begun pouring milk into the mugs when his pink friend requested powder. He still needed the long-handled spoon for stirring, but he supposed it didn't hurt if Kalos took some of the powder.

"Sure," Chase agreed, sliding the yellow, plastic container towards his friend. He wasn't going to spoon-feed Kalos the chocolate powder, but he wasn't going to stop her from eating it either. Once the milk was poured, the cap was replaced on the carton, and he stirred the powder in-- it turned the milk a nice, deep tan. (He might have put some extra powder in, though Chase would insist it was the "just right amount".) The mugs were deposited in the microwave, and it was set into motion.

"I don't know," Chase mused, "We should ask him, some time."

The water was boiling now, so the boy retrieved the noodles and tipped them into the pot. A yawn escaped him.

"Now we have to wait eight minutes," he announced through a yawn. The microwave pinged. The shifter child retrieved the hot chocolate. Again, the milk was cracked open, cool milk was poured in, and stirred. Now the hot chocolate was an inviting pale color, and the cup was noticeably colder. The cap on the milk was replaced, and Chase slid a cup towards his friend.

"Careful, it's still a little hot," Chase warned. He took a sip of the drink... perfect temperature and perfect chocolate-to-milk ratio. Which is to say, a little too rich for an adult.

Kalos' favorite thing about Chase, besides his face, was the fact that he took Kalos' every question seriously. He did not make her feel stupid or low or new or out of place. He simply took his time to consider and then made his reply. Could the animal shifter turn into a cow? He did not know. Could the animal shifter who maybe could turn into a cow be milked? He only suggested that they ask him. He didn't stop her from doing things adults might not like. He only warned her to not do it when they were paying attention.

The coral girl scooped a bit of chocolate powder out of the carton and into her mouth. It crunched down like fine sand, but it was sweet. Kalos was torn about how to feel about it. In the end the sweetness was not enough. "I think this is better for having milk. It's too dry." She nodded a bit sadly. It would have been a good way to rebel and choose a thing for herself. Unfortunately these adults kept knowing things that were, in fact, better.

Dumb adults. Knowing all kinds of things.

Even Chase knew so many things. "You are like an adult with how many things you know." Did she sound a little sad about that? She did not mean to sound sad. "I don't know how to catch up." She did, however, know how to mix the hot noodles. Holding a hot mug was no big deal to Kalos since her sensitive fingers were not in direct contact. She could feel the heat radiating out from the mug in the most delicious sensation that, after she had taken a sip, helped her feel warm all the way down to her toes.

"Oh." She abandoned her stirring spoon with a sigh. "This chocolate powder is very good with cow milk."

Chase also nodded at the observation. Chocolate powder stuck to your tongue and wasn't very good alone... it was almost too sweet, but sometimes kids needed something that was "too sweet". The water was at a rolling boil now, so Chase dumped the uncooked noodles in. A spoon was retrieved to stir them in, and he checked the time, doing the mental arithmatic to decide how long it'd take.

"People will teach you things!" Chase said eagerly, turning to his friend. His eyes swirled with optimistic, excited teal-blue as he surveyed her, "I can teach you things, and the teachers can teach you things, too! I mean... you already know so much from when you lived in Atlantis! If you know stuff from up here, you'll know twice as much as anyone else."

It was meant to be reassuring. Hopefully it was. Chase took a sip of his hot cocoa too, smiling at the sensation of warmth flooding through him, starting in his chest. It was one drink he'd never get tired of.

"Very good," Chase echoed the sentiment, moving his mug to the counter beside the stove top. From here, he could stir noodles, watch the pot, and drink cocoa without turning his back.

"I don't know about people..." So far, she hadn't had the guts to approach anyone. She mostly just observed. Kalos continued to observe as Chase put the hard noodles into the water. He stole her spoon to stir. That was fine. She had her hands full of drinking chocolate.

> "...you already know so much from when you lived in Atlantis! If you know stuff from up here, you'll know twice as much as anyone else."

That had never ever occurred to her. At first it sounded really, really good. But once she started to think through the things that she knew...

"Some things I know are sad. I like to know what's up here. So far, it's not sad. It's drinking chocolate and bubbling water that makes hard noodles into soft noodles." Okay. So she had a food bias. The food up here was just so much better!

She swung her legs and watched Chase's stirring technique. Everything was going into her memorizing how to do this again so that next time she could do it herself. "What can I do for help?" He seemed to have the stirring well in hand. Kalos was content to watch, but her tummy urged her to make it go faster. "If I make it hotter is it cooking more faster?" She could turn the heat up, it was just the twist of a knob.

There was some sad stuff. The human-shifter felt inclined to correct Kalos-- there was some sad stuff, like his first family, like foster homes. But she also didn't need to know about that sad stuff. Especially if she'd only heard about good stuff so far.

Chase pushed the wooden spoon around the pot, occasionally cutting diagonally across, cutting little figure-8's through the noodles. In another few minutes, they could drain the noodles and they'd be ready for milk, butter, and cheese sauce. Chase shook his head.

"I don't think it would," the boy mumbled. He tried to think of something his friend could do to help. What did Mama have him do, when he was too small to help? Get ingredients and measure them... peel potatoes... cut veggies, once he was old enough to use a knife...

"If you want you could get the stuff for the sauce?" Chase offered, "We need milk and butter."

It was something to do, and would help make the process a little smoother.

"I can show you how to measure so we have the right amount," Chase once again offered.

Making it hotter was not what Chase thought would work. Okay. Kalos tried to think around the problem. "More spoons?" Okay. Maybe she just wanted to help stir. Chase was making some shapes in the water and it looked like it could be fun, as far as stirring a pot was fun. Kalos was looking for a second spoon when Chase suggested something that was actually helpful. Oh. Well. Helpful was probably the better choice. Kalos set her chocolate down because she wanted to be helpful.

"What one is butter?" Kalos pulled out the drawer next to the stove and picked her way carefully to the ground. She knew these things were in the refrigerator. She also knew that it you poked the wrong spot it would spit ice at her. She had learned that lesson and did not have to learn it again.

It took some tugging, but the doors opened and the magical interior of the fridge was already lit. It was like opening the doors to Ouranos' court. So cool and airy and bright. Kalos reached and streeetched on her tippiest of toes in order to scrape her fingers against the milk jug that Chase had only just put back away after making their drinking chocolate. She scraped it forward until she was able to tip it off the shelf and caught it with both arms. She was a problem solver.

The milk was scooted onto the countertop near Chase. The butter was a trickier problem.

The noodles were almost done... which was good. Chase stifled a yawn. Getting back to sleep would be nice. Kalos clambered down to the ground, asking what butter was.

"They don't have butter in Atlantis?" Chase murmured, mostly to himself, before replying more loudly, "It comes in little yellow rectangles, wrapped in paper... the rectangles might be in a box though..."

Kalos managed to get the milk back out... if Chase had been smarter, he would've just left it out, but his sleep-brain wasn't exactly firing at all pistons presently. Finally the clock hit eight minutes, and the boy turned the oven off. A colander was retrieved, and set in the sink. Then, the human shifter shuffled with the pot in-hand, to strain the water out of the noodles. He'd help Kalos find butter, if she couldn't.

"We do." She insisted, but butter was a complicated thing. "The barbarians... and we did not... uhm... there is no square butter in Atlantis." Chase seemed too sleepy to be bothered with talk of culture and cows or the lack thereof. She would try not to burden him. Instead she turned her attention back to the chest of the wind god: Refrigerator.

Kalos had to tug the heavy door open again and searched for what was described. Finding it locked away on a top shelf inside a clear box, she pulled out the bottom drawers in order to climb and fetch this square butter. She jumped when there was beeping, afraid she had been caught doing something bad in Refrigerator, but Chase was very casual in how he made the beeps stop and how he moved around afterward.

She managed to climb back down and only lost one toe for a little bit. She fished it out of the vegetables and put it back on before Chase fussed at her.

"Why is it square?" The butter was slid onto the counter next to the milk. "Everything is so much more exact here." Would lumpy butter have killed anyone?

Wait. Where was their pot? A quick search of the kitchen showed that Kalos had missed a step. She strained onto her toes to see the steaming noodles in the catcher that spanned the width of the sink. He could reach so much better than she could.

"How old are you, Chasefriend?"

"When it's square, it's easier to measure," the boy explained, "So if you use it to make... mac 'n' cheese!... you can put the right amount in there."

It was an easy example, because the mac 'n' cheese was right inf ront of them, "It'd be harder to get the right amount if it was in a tub."

The boy fished into the drawer and pulled out a knife. He could make boxed mac 'n' cheese alright, so he didn't need to read the box to know how much he needed. Though the butter knife had a serrated edge, it was not sharp, so Chase had no qualms handing it to Kalos.

"For mac 'n' cheese, we only need half of a stick of butter," he advised his friend, "So you cut it right along this line-" Chase traced the line on the paper with the tip of his finger, "-Got it?"

The boy trotted back to the sink, shaking the collander lightly to shake water off of the noodles.

>> "How old are you, Chasefriend?"

"Twelve and five months," Chase reported, giving the collander another good shake. This was a lie, he wouldn't be twelve-and-five-months for another week. Yes, Chase was counting. He was ready to be a teenager.

"I'll be thirteen in January," the shifter-child said with a note of pride.

"How old are you, Kalos?"

The noodles were returned to the pot, and the pot to the stove, ready for milk, butter, and cheese powder.

A tub of butter? The young gorgon's jaw hung open for a moment as she imagined people bathing in butter. The people of the land had some incredibly strange ideas.

Chase got into the silver and no one came to chastise them. Kalos felt absolutely devious with a knife in her hand. No one would have let her touch the silverware before. especially not anything that could be used as a weapon. She tried to take her responsibility and the weight of her friend's trust with all the seriousness that it deserved.

"Half a stick." She repeated Chase and was not at all offended when he showed her where half was. Numbers were not her strong suit, but she probably could have counted it. Chase did not know that. Kalos did not know so many things, it was easier to assume she would need help because that was what she had awoken him for.

While she pushed against the cold, hard butter, Chase filled her in on his age. With the additional information of 5 months, Kalos did the mental legwork to count them backwards.

"Oh. So you were born in Thesmophorion at the start of the year." She finished sawing the butter and peeled it away from the other half.

> "I'll be thirteen in January,"

Kalos blinked, irritated and astounded to learn that so many of the things she knew were wrong or different. "You... don't go by the Crean calendar?" She asked carefully because she knew there were many calendars even in her Atlantean world. "12 months to a year?" And 13! Kalos would have guessed him older. He seemed so mature and big and kind... For a moment, she stood with butter in hand and felt lost.

> "How old are you, Kalos?"

"I have ten years starting in the month of Hermaios or maybe Eiman. I do not know who might know the month that you have named it here."

Chase wasn't sure what all the words that Kalos said meant, so he absentmindedly agreed, "Yeah, I think so? Yeah..."

There was not a single smidgen of certainty in his tone. The drained noodles were carefully carried back to the pot on the stove, little droplets of hot water dribbling to the floor here-and-there. Chase poured them back in, then surveyed his friend's progress. The next step was to add the milk, butter, and powder. Then Kalos could eat.

>> "I have ten years starting in the month of Hermaios or maybe Eiman. I do not know who might know the month that you have named it here."

"I... don't know either," the boy confessed, "I've never herd of... either of those?"

To be quite honest, the human-shifter didn't even think those were real months. He gently took the half-stick from Kalos, unwrapped it, and deposited it into the noodles. Thus began the slow process of melting the butter down.

"Ten years old, though," the boy repeated, "I thought you were younger..."

She was still younger than him, and that was the most important thing. Seniority meant a great deal, to a twelve-year-old. But Kalos was so short, he'd imagined that she was nine, or younger.

Butter mostly melted, Chase retrieved the cheese-powder packet, dumped that in, uncorked the milk, and eyeballed a quarter of a cup. He might have added a little too much, but that was okay. He resumed mixing.

"You'll need a bowl, and a spoon," the boy advised his friend, "It's almost ready."