>>"You use this only for food? Can you make things fluffy without these swifts? How does you make it stop?"

Jorge nodded as he turned the mixer around for her to inspect it. He could almost see that she wanted to take it into her hands to look at it more closely but he wanted her to feel comfortable with the device first. So, for the time being, he would keep a hold of it and just let her see. She was an inquisitive young child and immediately hit him with a torrent of questions. Most would think it almost unnerving that she didn’t know so many things but, to him, she was no different than any other child who had yet to stept into a kitchen.

”Yes. You only use this for food. It was all it was made for,” he explained. ”And yes, you can make things fluffy without these. You can use a spoon…” he showed her a bit wooden spoon. Then he picked up a metal whisk. ”Or you can use a whisk. But what you use depends on what you are making fluffy. This, as you can see, is very thick.” He turned the bowl to show her. ”So we use the mixer to make the job easier.” He then turned the mixer over, showing her the various buttons. He tapped one, which turned it on a low setting, then tapped another which turned it off.

After his explanation, he wanted to ensure that Kalos wouldn’t get too freaked out from the loud nature of the device. It could be a lot for people who didn’t like loud noises and Kalos, unfortunately, hadn’t really dealt with technology like this so he didn’t want her to get too scared. So he checked in with her to make sure that she was ready to proceed.

>>"Yes, hero."

Hero...that was going to take some getting used to. It didn’t seem as if he would be able to cease the behavior anyway so he would just allow the moniker for now. Maybe she would grow out of it? Oh well, there were probably worse things she could call him. He would have hated it if she thought he was not better than the other demi-god Atlanteans that she had to deal with her whole life.

Seeing the good job she did, Jorge offered the Atlantean a high-five, momentarily forgetting that it was a gesture she was problem unfamiliar with. However, she was a good sport about it and, after a moment of thought, raised her hand to tap his. Adorable but she seemed unsure about the action, still, she willing to play along. Sweet of her, of course.

As Jorge started to mix the ingredients, he kept his eye on Kalos, just to see how she was handling it. She seemed a little on edge but he tried to give her a comforting smile with every pass of the hand mixer. Once all the ingredients were properly mixed, he finally turned off the mixer and set it aside. With the mixer momentarily off, he grabbed a spoon to scoop out the remains that clung to the mixers and plopped it back in with the rest.

>>"High-five?"

He looked up and smiled. He nodded his head as he reached over and gave her another gentle tap with the palm of his hand. ”High-five.” With that he turned back and poured a little vanilla into the mixture and mixed the concoction again until it was time to add the sugar and cocoa powder. Here he measured out what he would need into two separate measuring cups and slid them over to Kalos. ”Here. This is sugar...and this is cocoa powder. I’m going to keep mixing this and, one at a time, you slowly pour each one into the bowl while I mix. Okay?”

Jorge would wait until he got confirmation from her. When he did, he was slowly begin the process of mixing all this together. This cake was going to be a good…

Kalos didn't want to touch it. Hero Jorge seemed to sense this and held the mixer out for her to see and she never had to do a thing except keep her hands well away. She knew what it did so that wasn't an issue.

And every word he spoke was pure magic. Spoon? Ah yes. She knew spoons. But a whisk... "Is this dangerous?" It was a fluffymaker and the strings of metal on it wobbled when hero Jorge held it out, but as far as Kalos could tell nothing moved by itself like the mixter. It seemed like a safer thing to hold so after it was put down she tentatively reached out. He didn't say no so she held the whix with both hands. Even if what they were mixing was too thick for it, it was a new thing and she touched it from top to bottom in order to see how it moved and didn't move.

That also made enduring the mixer far easier. She had a weapon to use against the mangler. Uh. Mixer. But she shouldn't have worried. Hero Jorge prevailed in typical hero fashion. She let her white knuckled grip on the whix go in order to show him she had no more weapons.

> ”High-five.”

His smile made her try a smile of her own. This high-five thing was a good show.

A little fragrant brown liquid went in. Spirits, maybe? After that was mixed, hero Jorge scooped out a cup of brown and a cup of white, she was starting to recognize the sugar now. It sparkled like sand when she looked close.

"Sugar." She tapped it. "Coke powder." This brown was a new thing, it was very fine and smelled like the bad chocolate.

"You need... my help?" He did not have enough hands, she realized, to mix and to pour. Kalos did not like the mixter, but her hero was asking her for help.

She should do it. But what if the mixter got her? Kalos spent a long moment assessing hero Jorge.

He was a hero. He would save her if the mixer was bad.

"I can do it." And she would do it good. Kalos picked up the sugar first, she knew she liked that one. Once the mixter was mixing she tried to approach. It was still very loud. But he needed her help!

After much internal warring, Kalos compromised. She tried to put only the sugar close. That meant it all went in almost all at once. And then she had to do the whole thing again with the powdered coke.

Kalos still seemed to be pretty unsure about the mixer that Jorge held, but he couldn’t blame her. Living the life she did, something like this probably looked threatening to her. It didn’t help that it sounded like a goddamn banshee stuck inside of a garbage disposal either. But the detective could give her all the time she needed to get used to this things and tried to explain them as best he could.

Kalos listened but he could see that she was still wary of the device. It was best it stayed in his hand for the time being. But, now was the time to start mixing everything together. Since Kalos wouldn’t be handling the mixer, he instead decided to give her a different job, to be the pourer of the dry ingredients. That was nice and safe, plus she would get the hold some sugar for a bit. Clearly sugar was something that she particularly enjoyed so maybe helping with that would put her at ease.

>>"Sugar. Coke powder."

He smirked a bit. He didn’t want to correct her, but if she wanted to learn, it was best that he do what he could. So, he smiled encouragingly and tried to educate. ”Pretty close. But this is pronounced Co-Co powder. Coke powder...is something different.”

He would not even get into that matter. Nope.

Turning back to the task at hand, Jorge instructed Kalos as to which powders she would be pouring into the mixture. He made sure to measure them out himself so that she could just plop the entire contents in without having to worrying about measuring it herself. She seemed a little unsure, still, but that was clearly because of the loud mixer he held.

>>"You need... my help? I can do it."

Jorge didn’t push the young Atlantean. If he didn’t want to do this, then he couldn’t make her. Instead he waited for her to make up her own mind and, behold, she agreed. He had to admire her bravery. With a nod, he gently pushed the bowl over to her to handle. Once he saw she had a firm grip on it, he would begin.

”Okay, so just very slowly pour this out into the bowl while I mix. If you pour too fast, could kick up some sugar dust so be careful.” He set the beaters of the mixer into the bowl, looked up to make sure that Kalos was ready, and then pushed the button. The mixer hummed to life on the lowest setting and gently Jorge kicked it up higher as he moved it around the bowl. Cocoa powder, sugar, and cream cheese and butter all began to mix together into a sweet smelling concoction. Jorge glanced up again at Kalos. ”How you doing? You okay?”

She poured it too fast, clearly, since it kicked up dust. Kalos coughed and fanned her face. "It makes the air taste sweet." That was not a complaint. Just an observation. A delicious, delicious observation.

The cocoa powder was next. Kalos took her correction without complaint. He was kind and she wanted to learn to be correct enough to be understood. So long as he wasn't making fun of her there was no reason to be upset about it. She reached out and did her best to go slower. Slower lasted until the mixter came around close to her hand and she closed her eyes because she could just imagine it getting her fingers and that would be SO BAD so Kalos dumped the last of it and hero Jorge took over from there.

Saved again. Kalos put her hand over her thumping heart and was surprised to forget that she was wearing the apron.

> ”How you doing? You okay?”

It was difficult to hear him over the mixter, so it would be near impossible to hear her quiet voice. Kalos decided to nod. Nodding was good. He could see a nod and know she was okay.

Kalos was surprised to see how the bowl of thick (Goo? Fluff? Hey! The fluffy-making mixter made it fluffy!) had changed in color. After the cocoa powder went in it changed from a very light yellow to deep, chocolatey brown. Kalos edged as close as she dared for a good sniff.

It smelled... Could it be? Yes!

"Chocolate! Sweet chocolate! You made fluffy chocolate!"

Jorge winced when that cloud of sugar flew up into the air. Kalos had said that it made the air smell sweet. Thankfully she didn’t knock too much of it into the air as the second Jorge saw it, he lowered the setting on the mixer to not spread the cloud too far. Kalos composed herself, grinning at him as the sugar was mixed in. Now, however, she had to use the cocoa powder, which was something that she seemed just a little ambivalent of. Jorge didn’t question it and instead readied himself to mix the cocoa into the sugar mixture.

It started off fine. Kalos was doing well to pour the cocoa in but when he inadvertently got the mixer too close to her fingers, Kalos seemed to panic and just dump the whole lot into the bowl. Thankfully it wasn’t that critical of a mistake and he just gave her an encouraging smile. He inquired if she were okay, continued to mix the substance together, and when she nodded that she was fine, he breathed a small sigh of relief.

Jorge worked with the cocoa powder into the frosting, mixing it well until it was nice, soft, and fluffy. Giving it one last sweep of the mixture, Jorge tipped the mixer onto its bottom so that the beaters were pointed up, chocolate glistening from the ends. Reaching over, he unplugged the device from the wall, silencing it until it needed to be used again, grabbed a rubber spatula, and started to scrape the chocolate off the beaters and flicked the remains back into the bowl.

Curiosity seemed to overtake the Atlantean as she climbed closer, leaning her head down to peer into the bowl. Her eyes alit with satisfaction as she turned her sparkling blue eyes back onto him.

>>"Chocolate! Sweet chocolate! You made fluffy chocolate!"

He chuckled. ”Yes. That’s how you make sweet chocolate.” Taking the rubber spatula in his hand, he scooped a tiny glob onto the end of it and handed it over to Kalos. ”Feel free to taste it. Not too much, though. We have to smear this over the cake when it is done.” Kalos may as well sample the fruits of her labor.

She was learning to make cake and to make chocolate? Her eyes could not be wider. Her heart could not be more full. After a long look at the hero, she took control of the spatula and dipped her finger into the dripping fluffy chocolate at its end. She had seen him make sure there was chocolate on the utensil before sharing it and for that her heart grew soft for her hero Jorge.

"It is soooo sweet. The best chocolate I have ever had in my life." Really, she couldn't come up with enough compliments for the joyful way it made her mouth and heart feel.

"What is smear?" Would they make that next? Kalos carefully put the spatula down because hero Jorge had said not to eat too much and if this was a test, she aimed to please. She would not eat too much. She would show what willpower she had even after just one taste. Even if her tongue wanted more. Her finger seemed to be stained from where she touched the frosting. That was fine by Kalos. She considered it a mark of learning to bake and cherished the smell of chocolate she now got to carry with her.

"How long does the baking take?"

Kalos had worked hard to get her cake set up and she showed real bravery in working with technology that she had no knowledge of in the past. That being said, she deserved a reward for her actions and, thus, he offered her a glob of the frosting she assisted in making for her to sample. Kalos seemed to have a real sweet tooth, especially for chocolate, so he hoped that one made from scratch would be a welcome treat for her.

It, apparently, was.

>>"It is soooo sweet. The best chocolate I have ever had in my life."

He chuckled. ”You’re very kind. I’m glad that you enjoy it. But you helped too so good for you.” He smiled warmly as he continued to turn the frosting over in the bowl. It was good but it needed to chill for a little so that it could be placed on the cake with perfection. So, grabbing some plastic wrap, he placed the protective film across the top of the bowl and set it aside while he explained to Kalos would it would be used for.

>>"What is smear?"

He tilted his head. Honestly he hadn’t been expecting that conversation. It was just another reminder of the different world that Kalos had come from. So he would do his best to explain. ”Well, smear is when he cover something with something else and smooth it out. So what we’re going to do is ‘cover’ the cake that we make, with the frosting. So you get cake and frosting with every bite.”

There, hopefully that explained the process to her. With that out of the way, Jorge grabbed a timer so that he could keep track of the time that the cakes would need to finish. This was going to be the hardest part of it, the waiting. But, thankfully Jorge was patient enough to wait. And, this this done, Kalos could relax, have a snack, or wait out the baking with him. He was good either way.

>>"How long does the baking take?"

Jorge finished setting the timer. ”Oh about half-an-hour…” he stopped himself when he glanced at her. Did she have that concept of time yet? He simplified by holding up the small timer that had the time ticking away on it. ”Then this box starts making loud beeps, that means the cake is done. It’s going to count down half-an-hour for us.” He smiled. That will probably seem like an eternity to a kid who wants cake. ”It will take a bit, but it will be worth it. Um, in the meantime you can take a break and relax while I clean up. Unless you want to help?”

So this was frosting, which also called icing and was never cold. The never cold icing got smeared on top of cakes because good cake and good icing in every bite was their ultimate goal. The calculations were running in overdrive behind Kalos' eyes. Cake was complex. She hadn't even noticed when hero Jorge had pulled out a little square to be having numbers on it.

He must have noticed how the intelligence in Kalos' eyes ground to a screeching halt when he talked about time. He took a better tack the second go. The box would beep.

"We had water clocks. I know there is a thing called sundial, but with the Mad King in charge of our days and our nights when we were under water, he did not do a most careful job to follow a day for the long or short of it. Clepsydra has water flowing and a drip and a floating arrow that rises to show the moments flowing..." Ah. But her hero probably wanted to get on with the cleaning.

Kalos wasn't quite sure what to do with herself. If she didn't clean, hero Jorge would be cleaning. He'd done it before and that hadn't gotten her in trouble. She'd just hoped that she wouldn't have to wash another dish ever again. (She tended to drop or scratch them and get in trouble.)

"Can... I dry?" That had worked last time...

Jorge had to be careful around Kalos and remember that she didn’t come from the same world that he did. Like a child, there were certain things that he would have to take special care in explaining, because she may not understand the concepts right away. The look in her eyes told him that she had no idea how to measure half-an-hour, so he went with a different tactic. The timer he pulled up should be a good enough measure of time for her because it would beep to show that the cake was ready. Time, of course, would be taught to her, but better for it to be from someone who actually knew how to teach kids.

Kalos seemed to take to this explanation far easier than the trying to explain minutes and hours.

>>"We had water clocks. I know there is a thing called sundial, but with the Mad King in charge of our days and our nights when we were under water, he did not do a most careful job to follow a day for the long or short of it. Clepsydra has water flowing and a drip and a floating arrow that rises to show the moments flowing..."

Jorge didn’t know much about what she was speaking of, however, it certainly did seem as if the same basic concept was there. So she did have some idea as to the passage of time, which was good! At least he wouldn’t have to be reinventing the wheel. Besides, waiting for the box to beep was probably far easier for the young Atlantean rather than trying to show her the hands of a clock. And, in the meantime, they could busy themselves with cleaning up.

He tried to dismiss her, to tell her that she could go and relax, but the young mutant clearly did not want to leave his side yet. That was why he offered her a job, if she wanted it. She could help him clean. She seemed a little unsure of whether or not she wanted to, but in the end, relented as she meekly asked for a different aspect of the work.

>>"Can... I dry?"

He nodded, a sweet smile on his lips. ”Of course you can.” Grabbing a pair of dish towels from a nearby rack, Jorge moved over to the sink, bringing Kalos and her chair closer so that she was within reach. Once they were both settled, he turned on the water to a decent temperature and started to soak the bowls, spoons, and utensils, making them nice and sudsy. As he did so, he glanced to Kalos, smirking as he handed her a small bowl that he had just washed out. ”Thank you for your help today, Kalos. I appreciated it.”

Kalos climbed down and her hero Jorge moved her chair for her. She wasn't sure what to do with herself so she just followed on his heels in case he needed or wanted help. Which he didn't. He was far stronger than Kalos. And far, far more courteous.

A gorgon could get used to this kind of treatment.

She climbed back up to her chair and found a pile of dry cloths ready and waiting for her. Right. Drying wasn't so bad.

> ”Thank you for your help today, Kalos. I appreciated it.”

She wasn't sure how to respond at first. His words embarassed her to the point where she considered throwing a towel at him and running. But she did not want to risk the cake which was already sending the most wonderful smells through the kitchen.

"It is your help that I am grateful. I would never learn the way of cake or smear or the 'lectricity or the box that beeps or..." There were just so many things she'd learned it was impossible to name them all. It felt like a lifedebt's worth of information.

"Sir hero Jorge. Thank you for allowing me to learn and grow under your eye. I should be washing and drying for my thanks. Please allow me make my thanks?" She didn't want to wash another dish, but she did want hero Jorge to know how much his tutelage meant for her. For that, she would wash and dry all the dishes.

Really Jorge didn’t think anything of the words that he had said. He had offered her a thanks because he actually was grateful for her help, but also because she actually allowed him to learn just a little more about her. She really was a sweet girl who happened to grow up in terrible surroundings, a circumstance that, unfortunately, the man had seen far too many times with his job. There were always those mutant kids, locked away or tortured by their parents, but to come from an entire society like that was...well...surprising.

So he offered her his thanks. She was being brave when trying to learn about the new aspects of this world and the least he could do was show his appreciation. However, it seemed that his statement had caused a pause in the young Atlantean. She looked down, almost confused by his words, but when she finally looked up, he have to give her an encouraging grin.

>>"It is your help that I am grateful. I would never learn the way of cake or smear or the 'lectricity or the box that beeps or..."

The detective sighed, stopping his dish washing briefly so that the young mutant had his full attention. She really did seem grateful, so much so that she seemingly didn’t know where to stop her sentence. Every bit of her thanks came out and Jorge just watched her, warmth in his eyes for this Atlantean who was so, so far away from everything that she had every known.

>>"Sir hero Jorge. Thank you for allowing me to learn and grow under your eye. I should be washing and drying for my thanks. Please allow me make my thanks?"

She didn’t like washing, she stated as much, but under the pretense of wanting to show her gratitude, she was willing to do it. That really was sweet of her but the detective didn’t want Kalos to do something uncomfortable out of need to show thanks. While in some cases that was okay, he did want to help Kalos out of that mindset. He feared rejecting the offer outright because, really, that would probably be taken as an insult. Hrm...head-scratcher…

”You’ve already given me your ‘thanks’, Kalos,” he said gently. ”Just by working alongside. So how about this…” he glanced at the dishes. ”I’ll wash the plates and bowls,” Things she was probably afraid of scratching. ”And you can wash the utensils.” They were small and metal or wood, things that she couldn’t really scratch. ”But only do as much as you want. Deal?” He offered his large hand to her tiny one to shake on it.

Heroes really did have the best ideas. Jorge would wash the big things and she should do the small ones. Because he was big and she was small. Also the small ones could be tricky ones. Adults hated the tricky ones.

"I accept your terms." Kalos tapped her hero Jorge's hand in a gentle high five and then got to drying those first few washed dishes. She gripped them tight and was very careful not only to get them entirely clean, but also to never ever touch them directly. She always kept a towel between her and the dish. This was how she had been taught and now it it was actually important to her to succeed. Not because she was afraid like before, but because she really, really wanted to.

Once the dishes had been washed, Kalos tapped hero Jorge's elbow very lightly. He needed to move so she could push her chair in place. Which he did for her. She may never get used to demigods or heroes doing things for her. With a SMILE. Kalos climbed back up and dug in with gusto. She had watched her hero washing and perhaps got too much soap, but she did her best to imitate how the dish washing was done here. There was scrubbing and there were bubbles. It all got rinsed down the sink and then she handed him some shiny, clean silvers and wooden spoons and a rubbery flat spade to dry.

"Is there any dry towel left?" Kalos started plucking off her coral finger caps. They would take time to dry and taking them off would speed that up considerably, even if she did have to show her real blue fingers.

Jorge did appreciate the young girl, but he needed to do what he could to step away from some of those old habits, especially where she felt like she needed to go above and beyond to repay people for certain, everyday things. The last thing that Jorge wanted was for the young Atlantean to be taken advantage of. As cruel as it was to think, the world was full of people who would user her because she didn’t know any better. It was okay to show your appreciate appropriately, but she needed to learn how much was right. First lesson would be the compromise.

She clearly was not a fan of doing the dishes, but what kid was? Still, he didn’t want to outright reject her offer on the grounds that he didn’t want to offend her show of appreciation, so a compromise was struck. He would handle the dishes that he knew she didn’t care for and she would hand the little things that would be far easier to clean off and couldn’t be scratched.

>>"I accept your terms."

With a grin, Jorge turned back to the sink and continued to wash the larger dishes. As they were cleaned off, he would hand them off to Kalos so that she could dry them between towels. Really she was doing an excellent job of it, especially since this was a task that she didn’t care for. Before long, they managed to finish off the larger things before it was her turn to take a spin at the sink. A tiny tap on his arm brought his attention to her, where he stepped aside and assisted in bring the chair over. Once she climbed on and started washing the smaller things, she handed them off, where Jorge dried them and returned them to their place within the drawers.

It was a good day and already the kitchen was smelling of the cakes that the two of them had crafted together. Warm chocolate filled the air and Jorge had to admit that even he was getting hungry for a slice. Of course it would have to wait until things cooled, but he was aware of that; Kalos, on the other hand, would hopefully be able to learn the lesson well.

>>"Is there any dry towel left?"

Turning back to her, he nodded as he plucked up a spare hand towel. He handed it off to her with his compliments as he turned to start putting the rest of the dishes away. ”Here you go. Alright, good job with the dishes! Now we just have to put it all away and we can check on our cakes.”