Coming Back. To the Bar. (Open)

[Om Kennedy Yajna]

Coming back to the inn wasn't hard. Toby'd left with nothing but the clothes on his back and his wallet and that's what he came back in with. Most of his demolition gear he left on-site and what he didn't was easily bought. Same deal with any daily stuff. Traveling with next to nothing was a routine he was used to and something he'd learned on his first trip to India way back. The few personals he had he'd left here at the inn and he was glad to come back to them. Especially the hookah.

Time had passed but he looked pretty much the same. Scrubby hippy. Dreads were longer, down to his ears. With the ratty sweater and cargo pants he wasn't dressed warm enough for the cold but that was because he didn't feel it. Not with the infamous metal he was absorbing right now. Even extreme temperatures wouldn't feel like much. It was kind of dangerous. Walking around so solid you can't feel most things. If he didn't have all that focus and discipline from all the meditating he'd probably be a royal prick by now.

First thing he did was stop by the front desk. They had a drop box right? If they didn't Tobias slid the envelope somewhere he figured would be safe until the person manning the desk came back. Inside the envelope was cash. He'd ball-parked what his room up to this point had cost him. If it wasn't perfect he figured it didn't matter. Wasn't like he was checking out.

Second thing he did was stop by the bar. Sitting down here reminded him the bar tab was part of his bill. Yeah……probably not enough in the envelope now that he thought about it. Especially since he was about to add a few rounds to it. Oh well. It's the thought that counts.

For now he had nothing better to do than fold his arms on the counter and wait to see if he'd get some service. If he had to serve himself it'd be a bad day for this bar. It'd get cleaned out like a teenager girl on prom night.

[Madeline Cauthon]

Maddie, had been decided it was five o'clock some where, and well felt like drinking. She was wearing blue jeans, and a tank top. And wore her hair in a tight braid in the back.

She made her way to the bar, and saw a guy standing at the bar. Well at least some else had the right idea. She walked behind the bar, and smiled at the guy. "Hello, what can I get you?"

[Om Kennedy Yajna]

"About a six pack, sister. One at a time." Wasn't that late in the day and there was no reason to so he wasn't asking for the hard stuff. To party or to sweat out some bullish-t were the two reasons he turned to quicker liquor. He noticed she didn't come in from the kitchen so when she headed his way he had to ask. "You actually work here or are you just feeling like playing hostess?"

He glanced at the closed kitchen door. Seemed quiet in there. Looking back at the girl he gave her a smirk. "Because if you feel like strapping an apron on you can slave over a hot stove for me too." Just because late Uncle John and Uncle Robert were both famous for fighting for civil rights didn't mean this Kennedy wasn't allowed to drop some chauvinism when the time called for it.

[Madeline Cauthon]

" Not a problem, can or bottle?"

Maddie thinking it sounded like a good idea, got her a bottle of for herself.
She took a good hard swig, and looked at the customer with a raised eyebrow, and a smirk. Maddie was no man's maid.

She sat her bottle down on the bar and leaned forward on the bar, so she knew he heard her. "Yes I do work here, and I could get you something to eat. But uh, around here, little boys have to say please first."

[Om Kennedy Yajna]

"Bottle. Stout if ya got it." Since she was asking specifics might as well add another on there.

She didn't have to worry about Toby's hearing. He could hear as well as 20/20 eyes can see. But if she was leaning forward to get a whiff of him she was lucky. He'd showered yesterday and hadn't gone down to the gym yet. So he didn't stink. He did smell like cologne and an unmistakable odor that he was a smoker of something other than cigarettes.

When she leaned in he didn't move. Tobias had a mutation that could make touching others or others touching him an issue. But ever since he'd left the inn a couple weeks ago he was absorbing a certain indestructible metal from the States that was impossible to come by unless you were one mutant in particular or were as important as a Kennedy. He'd fixed it on the under side of one of the fingerless black gloves he was wearing. The thin disc was always touching his palm. This made his entire body behave like said indestructible metal. Touching Tobias was like touching a boulder. Only stronger. So long as he was absorbing something already he couldn't absorb anything else from objects or people. No need to lean back in that case.

"It's a good thing I'm not a little boy then huh sister? In any sense of the word." If she knew Boston that's where his accent was from. The sloppy low-class accent. Ironic since he was born into the opposite of low class. But he -was- a sloppy hippy. "I'll have two burgers and fries." He'd keep it simple for her. His way of being nice.

[Gawain]

[Mun note-this takes place directly after the conclusion of the family thread at the Crystal Falls. Thanks.]


The door of the bar swung open, rather forcefully, but not really hard enough to cause any property damage, admitting Gawain. He glanced around, dismissing most everything else in the room, his eyes falling on Madeline. With the air of a father who has caught his daughter doing something rather naughty, he pointed to her, then the floor in front of him. "Madeline Alexandria Cauthon, you get your ass over here this instant!" Yes, he had heard where she said she had been going the previous night, and he was somewhat less than pleased.

One would hope she had a really good explanation for herself.....

[Madeline Cauthon]

Maddie was about to tell Mr. Cocky what he could do with his burger and fries when the door of bar flew open. She didn't have time to look up when she heard something she hadn't heard since she was seven. Her father using her full name in that tone the one thing, that told her she was in trouble.

Madeline stood up, all the color drained from her face. Completely forgetting that she had a customer she walked from around the bar over where to where her father had pointed. That short walk felt like a lifetime, and Madeline flashed back to when she was seven. To the time Gawain had spanked her for sneaking out to the battle arena in the Society to watch him fight.That memory still sent cold chills down her spine. When she got to where her father had pointed, her head was bowed down. "Yes Sir Dad, is there something wrong?"

[Gawain]

"You know better than to ask stupid questions, young lady. Come with me. We are going to have a talk. Starting, by the way, with what the hell possessed you to think that mountain, that area, was a good place for...for....ANYthing!" He glared down at her, obviously relieved that she had come back alive, and with her skin intact, but also intending to do some damage to said skin in a few moments. "Come on. You do not want to keep me waiting tonight. March."

[Om Kennedy Yajna]

That sure as hell was a first. Never in his twenty-six years had he been in the middle of getting waited on by someone who got yanked off their shift by a Daddy Sits With a Shotgun On the Porch. What was the food services industry coming to.

He was not butting into any family sh-t. The most recent two rounds of his own family bullcrap were enough to cure him of that impulse. Not only did Dex run off again with his tail in between his legs, but when cousin Patrick (the last of -the- Kennedys in office) announced he wasn't running for reelection a couple weeks back the family sat Tobias down to have a talk. A 'maybe you should go back to Princeton finish your degree and get your name on a Massachusetts ballot' talk.

They even had a campaign consultant there telling him how his "scruffy" image would be a hit with female voters ages 18 - 65. There was something extra special about hearing that women ready to go on Social Security would find him sexy. When the consultant had the balls to say 'we can sweep your pesky mutant issue under the rug' that been the nail in the coffin. Tobias shot his mouth off until that idiot wised up and left. Statement of the obvious, maybe, but things had not ended well that day.

Family problems were the problems of said family, period. He didn't even know the girl who'd just gotten reamed by her pops. Even less reason to say anything.

Besides. He wasn't a helpless rich boy. He knew how to get himself a beer and make himself a burger. After the girl vacated her post to go see what angry Dad wanted Toby went back there to hunt down a bottle of stout. Finding one that was cold he twisted the cap off (didn't really need a bottle opener when he'd absorbed the strongest metal known to exist) and put two more on the counter.

[De'Ryanna Aybara]

Drinks were out at the bar so there was no reason for Madeline to go back to the kitchen in order to get Tobias a drink. However, if she had started on his burger order she would have run across her half sister. After everything that had happened the past few days she was hungry and therefore she was sitting at the island counter eating a hastily made sandwich. She had been there when Tobias sat down and when Madeline arrived there, yet she didn't attempt to announce her presence as all she wanted to do was eat. However, when she heard the food order she thought that she would help - she enjoyed it when Armandeus would cook the food and she could stay out in the front to entertain the customers, the chef and waitress working together helped operations to flow smoothly.

So she had gotten up and fetched the ingredients needed to make a hamburger, the smell of the raw meat probably doing a good job of masking her scent from her father - who she sensed had just entered the area. Her hair was already back in a single braid and she put an apron around her skirt after she washed her hands - she wouldn't get her attire dirty anyway but it was a matter of presence. Anyway, the meat of the burger she was making was not simply ground beef made into a patty, that wasn't her style. Instead the meat was put into a bowl and mixed with an egg, cracker crumbs, basil, finely diced onions, a special something that helped to give the meat a bit of a kick.

Things outside in the bar area were heating up. She heard her fathers tone and sensed a change in the general feel of the area. Internally she smirked to herself as she pounded out a patty in her hand and placed it on the stove's broiler. Then things in the front got quiet as she heard people leaving.

The kitchen was not sound proof so in the quiet it was quite possible to hear the sounds of cooking and the smell it produced.

[Om Kennedy Yajna]

It was his plan to go back into the kitchen after he finished his first beer. He'd been in there before. Had to wash dishes that one time in trade for the cook's effort on his huge omelet. He wasn't even halfway through his beer though before the smell hit his nose. Sure smelled like a burger to him.

He kicked the brown bottle back to polish off what was left and left the empty on the back counter. He'd clean up after himself on his way out if the waitress didn't come back down to finish her shift. The thought that the girl might be getting a "time-out" in some corner somewhere made him smirk. He picked up his other two beers and headed to the kitchen door.

A beer in each hand he pressed his left foot against the door to swing it open. He was wearing his work boots. He smirked when he saw who it was back there at the stove. Sue him for being glad it wasn't the dude cooking his chow again, he wasn't in the mood to do more dishes.

"You even strapped on a little apron for me." He grinned at her. Leaning to the side to keep the door open so he could shift the bottles in his hands. One tucked under his arm he twisted the cap to the other open. "But I ordered -two- burgers, sweetheart. I'm a big strong man."

He was instigating. He knew it. At least he didn't tell her she'd look a helluva lot better if she were wearing nothing else under that apron.

[De'Ryanna Aybara]

She knew that eventually his nose would bring him back to the kitchen - either that or his stomach, one of the two. De'Ryanna had just turned over the burger and was patting another in her hands when the door was pushed open and she tipped her chin up at him. A beer for each hand. Perhaps he was going to drink them both at the same time or one was backup so he could keep the liquid flowing without too much of a pause.

"You're not a stranger to the kitchen." She commented as she rounded out the burger in her hands before setting it on the broiler next to the other one. "Perhaps you should make your own burger." That was in no ways an invitation for him to move her out of the way and get his hands in her mix. Burger mix.

Now that her hands were free she picked up the bowl and tipped it in his direction, there was still meat in it, probably enough for two more pattys. "Put down your cans and make yourself useful," she said as she put her fingers back into the bowl to knead the mix. It was good to mix it back up after some was taken out in her opinion. "If you fetch the bread and condiments from the fridge you'll eat that much sooner. Other wise take a seat. You can sit in here if you're wanting to avoid Madeline if she returns."

Ryanna would have preferred him to stay in the kitchen and sit at the island where she had been. It was the company that she liked, as well as the fact that she was cooking for him and it made her smile as she looked back to her task.

[Om Kennedy Yajna]

Call him old-fashioned but a woman he liked making his meal was damn sexy. "Sounds to me like you should make me three." That's what she got for telling him to make his own. He didn't play the entitled card often but he knew it was in his deck. He was just sassing her more than anything. It was about to get worse.

"Useful, huh?" Where she was working was between him in the doorway and the fridge. He stopped at the island first putting the two bottles down somewhere out of her way. Then he went around back of her to get to the fridge. Funny thing - when he was behind her for some reason her ass got smacked and her braid got pulled. Strange coincidence right?

He said nothing about it. Just headed over to the fridge. Looking the contents over to find what he was looking for. "I sure hope you're going to butter my buns, Ryanna. I'm a high class guy. I'm used to my buns getting buttered." With that low-class Boston drawl he had his tease sounded just plain crass.

He knew she liked it.

"Madeline?" Scoffed as he came back with a bag of buns, some ketchup and some pickles. "I'm putting my chips on 'if'. Never seen a grown woman get sent to her room like that and listen. If I were her I would've laughed right in his face." Besides he was in no rush to go back out to the bar. The buns he needed were all in here.

All the buns.

[De'Ryanna Aybara]

The damn braid-puller.

Not only that but he got her with his heavy hand while she was in front of a hot stove. Guess that's why he smacked her first. It had caused her to lurch forward a bit -with a stifled yelp - and the pulling on her hair put her right back in place. He was cheating, poking around with her while her hands were busy and he was harder than a rock.

Tobias was right, she did like it and De'Ryanna had to bite down on her bottom lip and give a hard press to the meat in the bowl to retain. That he wanted to touch her, even in a teasing way, set off internal sparks. Pulling her hands out she put another patty on the broiler and took off the first one she made and set it on a plate. It was ready for the fixings. Whiping off her hands she crossed over the kitchen to get the buns. "Oh I'll butter your buns alright." But there was a look in her eyes and an undertone in her voice that said she wasn't talking about the bread.

Ryanna stood near Tobias and tipped her head up to look more directly in his eyes. A bit of a lean in as one hand reached around him with the intent to slip into his back pocket - he did have them right - while her other went to take up the buns. He did feel hard under her hand. As he was now it would take more than a light touch to take anything from him. She was already close, but wanted to pull him closer. "Don't cheat. I won't play fair." It would be the only warning.

He remembered what happened last time they got into touching, and she had burgers to make.

[Om Kennedy Yajna]

He was cheating and he knew it before she called him on it. It was the braid. He saw one of those and it was like he was on the playground again during recess. Those things were made for yanking. Or holding onto for leverage. But there was nothing they could do right now that he needed leverage for so yanking had to do.

Out of all the things she'd felt him absorb the one he'd been absorbing since the night she told him about what Ben could do made him feel the least like a human body. Something about the level of solid, the inertia, the lack of any kind of give seemed wrong. Somewhere inside him of course his organs and all that crap were still in there, who could survive without them? But what separated his skin from that innermost layer was impenetrable and indestructible. And probably didn't feel too sexy. If it was sexy there'd be a lot more cases of people getting jiggy with tin men.

When she copped a feel he gave her a little smirk. "Hey now. No butter, no buns. That's policy." He pressed the bag of buns lightly at her. Other hand putting the jars of ketchup and pickles on the table. "Besides. I still have to get the onions and mustard." He liked a lot of crap on his burgers. She should be glad he didn't ask for bacon. Or cheese. Or anything else.

He leaned in closer. "I won't cheat." He already had twice. First when he walked away from her at the indoor garden and now. He'd been the one to point out they shouldn't touch and now he wasn't being fair. So he'd play fair. By heading to the fridge to get the rest of the stuff. Unless she insisted on keeping her hand in his pocket that'd put some space between them.

[De'Ryanna Aybara]

The man had buns of steel (and more), who could blame her for wanting to rub her hand aganist the smooth posterior? She knew that he was hard in more than one area and her fingers were itching to explore. Perhaps Tin-Men wouldn't be seen walking the streets and offering services for sensual pleasure, but Tobias wasn't just a tin-man and she wanted to touch him in many ways.

She didn't know what he could feel - perhaps nothing being what he's made out of currently - and therefore her fingers were unconsciously moving up and down in his back pocket while his smirk was being met with a grin. "I have to hold the buns to spread the butter." She took the bread buns as he talked about what else he needed.

"And bacon," she added to the end of his list. She liked meat and could be a hearty eater. She would put cheese on hers if she was making a burger for herself... there was some meat left (it was enough for four) so perhaps she would make one for herself.

The creeping thoughts of food were quickly quieted when Tobias leaned into her and a soft growl pulled out from within her chest. It was that which made her take that hand out of his back pocket - albeit slowly and she even gave a tug - when he started to move away.

He said he wouldn't cheat and she would believe it, or attempt to. Cheating was varient on cirumstance at times and those things can always change. Tobias moved away and she briefly closed her eyes as she turned back to the stove. Bun bag in hand. The other hand she turned over the other two patties and then opened the bag to butter his buns and lightly cook them.

"Taking up your old room again?" It was spoken more out of a need to say something to busy herself with.

[Madeline Cauthon]

Maddie, and Gawain made there way down the hall towards the front desk. "Stay here Dad, I'm going to make sure everything is as it should be."

Not to be overly concerned, but she wanted everything as it should be. She could also smell hamburgers. Hmmm Armandeus must have come out to fix him something to eat.

As she made her way behind the bar, she could still smell hamburgers, really really good smelling hamburgers. She also thought she hear talking in the kitchen. Maddie gently stuck her head in the kitchen door and saw Ryan and hippie guy. And was Ryan smiling?

Wow, was Maddie's first thought. Her second was, that if Gawain saw them two talking, he'd blow a gasket. And things were already strained between De'Ryanna and Gawain as is.

So Maddie gently took her head back out of the door. She walked back to where Gawain was standing. She took his hand, and started to lead him to the front door. "Okay Dad we can go everything is cool here. Let's go find your son."

Maddie wanted to get him out of there before that dang nose of his started working.

[Om Kennedy Yajna]

When she'd had her hand there he could feel her fingers moving. What he felt didn't get more detailed than that. It felt good because it was her hand so his brain knew it felt good even if the nerve endings where she was touching weren't really functioning enough to agree. "Afraid they're gonna bounce right out of your hand?" The buns. Whichever buns they were talking about. Or all the buns they were talking about.

Standing in front of the open fridge was cold because his brain knew it was cold. Just like it had been with her hand. The actual cold wasn't something he really felt. "Hell if we're adding bacon into it……" This was a whole new ball game. He pulled out onions, mustard, bacon and cheese. No use having a burger with bacon on it when there's no cheese.

"I told you I'd come back here in a few days." Replied as he put all the stuff on the island where there was free space. Where he stood gave him a good view of the door so he saw Madeline stick her head in. She disappeared before he'd said anything. That was fine with him. He was assuming she was just coming back to finish out her shift. She told him she worked here so as far as he knew she was clocked in. He leaned against the counter and watched Ryanna cook. "I left an envelope at the front desk. Might be a little short. I forgot about the bar tab."

Now that he was done making himself useful he could turn back to his beers. He picked up the open one taking a long pull. He was thinking about Madeline's father storming in earlier along with a few other things he'd noticed since he came in. "Is everything alright around here?" The place seemed generally quiet. But that kind of quiet that came right before or right after some huge pop.

[De'Ryanna Aybara]

She went back to get the cheese, once he set it out, so it could be cooked with the burgers as well as the bacon. This burger fixing was turning into no small task, but that's what happened when the person cooking for had a large appetite and the cook had a way about cooking.

"No need to worry of your tab until you leave for good. It gets paid one way or another by the person who signed." There was a reason why signing with the persons name, or making your mark was important and stressed if they were wanting a room. The burgers were finishing and she did not want them to cool while the rest of the needed accessories were cooking so she tied off a small weave of fire around the plate in order to keep it. Three patties were done, the forth was cooking and she started the bacon - not thin see-through slices, but thick. "Your patronage is appreciated." Didn't want him thinking that making well on his tab wasn't.

Her foster sister took care of the monetary cost needed to run this place - much to Ryanna's charing. Even if she didn't have the money Ryanna was more than confident that the money they used from the liquidated seven-foot tall diamond Christmas tree would keep them in the black for a long time.

She looked over her shoulder at him when she heard the can open and her tongue passed over her lips. That was also when she saw the door closing. There was no need for her to see Madeline because she had picked up on her scent, as well as Gawain's who was outside. Since nothing was spoken to her she hadn't felt any need to speak to them. Passing courtesy was usually over rated, at least in this case when it looked like saying 'hello' would be shortly followed by 'good-bye'. "The man who came for Madeline is my birth-father, Gawain. Supposedly he's back from insanity," no love-lost in her words, "and wants to meet with his children." She assumed that he would glean from that statement that she and madeline were related in some way and that she had a lack of care for it all.

"I don't involve myself with much gossip. But this kitchen was redone after it was destroyed a few weeks back by fire."

[Om Kennedy Yajna]

He was going to make a crack asking if the Inn was going to come for his soul if he didn't pay up his tab when he left. But De'ryanna dropped a bomb on him first. That guy was her father? He almost spit up the beer he'd just swallowed. Because he was laughing. He kept laughing too. "That's your…-really-?" He put his bottle down on the counter. He hadn't laughed like this in a while. "It's wrong to laugh." At least he knew his response totally lacked manners.

But let's be fair. His introduction to her pops was him telling a grown woman to march upstairs like she was a six when the girl had been working. Toby was picturing the look on Ryanna's face if Gawain tried to tell -her- that. He leaned over the counter closer to her and grinned. "Do you get time-outs too, Sister?" Leaning over he totally put his face in slapping distance. Probably because he knew he was asking for one. But then again if she slapped him she'd be cheating.

"Seriously though. I shouldn't've laughed. I know what family's like." She'd know that. Anyone could know about Tobias' family. The Kennedys were in the news all the time back in the States. Outside of politics his uncles and cousins had their own brand of insanity over the years - sexual assault charges, driving off the road or some other drunk mess. If De'ryanna wanted to she could have a good laugh over his family anytime. He wouldn't mind.

"These burgers going to be ready anytime soon?" That's right. Insult to injury. But he was hungry and they smelled damn good. Least he didn't pull her braid a second time.

[De'Ryanna Aybara]

Was it possible that the imagination of Tobias was picturing the exact look she was giving him now? It was deserving with the time-out comment. Her eyes dropped to half slits and her lips pursed together in a straigt line. De'Ryanna hadn't mastered the death stare but the one she was giving him was definatly sharp and had a hint of aggression. If she knew that slapping his face wouldn't break the bones in her hand - nevermind the fact that it would heal - would hurt. De'Ryanna did not doubt that Tobias may find this funny as well.

Her expression quickly changed to a type of tight smile and she turned back to the stove and started to remove the items in a steady rhythm. The burgers were placed on the buns with the top piece tilted off - cheese and bacon on the patty in that order - and arranged in a circle on the plate.

"It is a good thing you are made of steal," that was the only thing she knew it for, though she was sure it was more than that. Her words were smooth and she picked up the plate in one hand and turned to place it before him on the island. "Or else this would hurt."

She wasn't cheating. In fact, she never said that she shouldn't cheat, but that he shouldn't. Besides, she wasn't going to touch him. Physically. De'Ryanna already had a hold of the Source so creating a weave the size of her hand of Air mixed with Spirit was easy. This weave would be used to 'slap' him: the Air for force and the Spirit used to target that energy she felt for around him when they were at the indoor greenhouse. It may only feel like a nudge (if that, for she didn't put a full thrust or power behind it - the last thing she wanted to do was alert others that she was Channeling) but she wanted him to know that she wasn't going to simply get away with what he said.

"That's for the time-out comment. Brother."

She thought the add-on to her statement was funny, hence the hint of a chuckle in her voice. She probably should not have done what she had for it only reinforced what was boiling under the surface.

If she were ever sent to her room and he was there she wouldn't mind it at all. "You can laugh all you want. I don't care. He's only a man that I happen to share blood with."

She passed behind Tobias and this time she would cheat as her hand reached to brush the tips of his dreads as she sat down at one of the two island stools. "One of the burgers are mine." Just in case he thought she had made him four.

[Om Kennedy Yajna]

Laws of physics. He was a lot heavier than he normally was but he wasn't immovable. His head jerked when the air-slap hit him. Not much. If she'd hit him full out it would have been more. Like her touch he felt the wind because he brain knew he should feel something. She was right though. It didn't hurt.

The slap made him smile. The comment after it made him grin. Especially her calling him Brother. "Om mani padme hum, Sister." The way he said it sounded like, Thank you ma'am may I have another. The six syllables each purified a different thing. Hung purified aggression. So in a way how he said it made sense.

When she brushed his hair the grin faded. To something more serious. As she sat down he looked over at her. "I miss the sting." He wasn't a masochist. Her slapping him when he was braid-pulling is something he saw as their thing. Tough love like tigers wrestling. The lack of sting was a reminder that everything wasn't square. He knew she of all people would understand.

Tobias didn't sit down but he turned his attention to the food. Couldn't let the mood get too serious. "One? I guess I could manage losing one. What are you going to do to make it up to me?" As if he was being gracious not eating four hamburgers when he'd only asked for three. If she didn't get he was teasing the smirk he gave her might help her out.

He was heavy with the condiments. He liked his burgers to be a wreck. "I get that. Mom and Dad, Sammy thinks they try but." He shrugged. "Some of the stuff they said to the press over the years about the disgrace of having mutants in the family is hard to forgive. Makes a guy think that if they had an option not to share blood with the three of us they wouldn't." Not that he and his father'd been close before the mutations hit the triplets. Functioning relationships didn't run in the family.

"What about you? What's the father-daughter deal?" He took a swig of beer to wet his whistle and got started on his first burger. With how he packed food in it'd be gone in a few bites.

[De'Ryanna Aybara]

De'Ryanna felt that she could understand where he was coming from as far as missing sensations was concerned. In a way. Since Benjamin had put his fire in her heat was something she hardly felt at all. While there were perks to knowing that you could put your hand in fire and not feel the burn (while being more fire proof) it was also disheartening. Nothing was said to that comment as she knew why things were this way and they were enjoying their time in the kitchen. She wanted to ruin it just as much as he did.

Watching him load on the items made her nose wrinkle slightly because it was messy but she eased the thought aside with a bit of a chuckle and started fixing her own. Unlike him she was neat about and used a bit of everything he set out. By the time she was done her burger would be ready to be photographed for an advertisement.

"I'll make it up to you by making you want more." Said with a wink and a smile. She had no doubt that after having one of her burgers another one from elsewhere simply wouldn't be the same. That's the level of confidence she had in her cooking.

"Sounds as though you were unwanted. That can put a rift in the family." Having to hear your family practically call you a disgrace did wonders for mental stability.

He asked her what the deal was with her and her father just as she had taken a bite out of the burger. Now, Ryanna didn't take a small and dainty bite - with everything stacked on the burger was too big for that and she had to hold it in both hands. She also wasn't self-conscious about what he would think of her eating habits and therefore took a big bite that caused her cheeks to puff out. Obviously she couldn't answer him right away so there would be a few moments of 'silence' as she chewed down her food. She even gave him the courtesy of holding up a finger in the way of saying 'one moment' while she finished what was in her mouth.

After a few swallows and clearing her throat she was able to speak. "Never knew him as a child. He was always gone." And now she was thirsty. "I really only met him about a year ago when he showed up here. And then he unleashed the Lycan side of me - for my own good I assume, and left. He was here a while after but I never received any control or instruction or advice on how to handle the new side of me."

Both elbows were propped up on the table in an unlady-like manner. "Now he's back, again, and I'm suppose to fall in line like a good girl." Ryanna huffed and took another bite.

[Om Kennedy Yajna]

"Rift is an understatement." He was already stuffing the last quarter into his mouth with the pad of his thumb. Eat like that and you can't really say anything to a girl about why she's not nibbling all dainty. Besides knowing Ryanna like he did he'd never expect her to peck at food like a bird. He swallowed and swigged the last of his second beer. "Problem with being part of a public family is rifts aren't allowed. Got to throw a rug over them, cover them up." Attempt to at least. The American public gave celebrity families almost as many points for trying as they did for succeeding.

"Huh." All he said before starting on the second burger. He was thinking about how they had backwards situations. Or maybe they weren't backwards at all. He grinned at her a little. "Maybe if he didn't wake you up he'd have to sweep you under a carpet? No humans allowed?" He was half-serious. Trying to keep the mood light. Just because the subject was on the serious side didn't mean they had sob and flip out.

Almost through his second burger he put what was left of it down. Wiping his hands on his pants and giving her a sh-t eating grin. "Well that's no problem. Just tell him you've got someone else to make you fall in line." Toby meant himself. It was obvious by the way he was looking at her. "Or how bout I'll loan you the hookah? Couple puffs on that and he'll chill out."

He grabbed the other beer he'd brought in with him. Twisting off the cap and setting it on the table. He went back to finishing his other burger first. Not before asking her one more question. "How's the handling working for you?" Of her new side.

[De'Ryanna Aybara]

And her burger was gone. It was a good thing that the Inn was well stocked - they did get in supplies almost daily - or else it was possible that the two of them could eat the place dry. She liked to cook and Tobias liked to eat. Perfect. As long as he never got it in his head that she was his personal chef. With the absence of her burger she tapped her fingers on the table and, with her mouth closed, ran her tongue across her teeth to remove any visible burger traces. "Handling it isn't going that well," she said as she placed her plams against the island bar and pushed down to standup. After eating she needed something to drink and having an excuse to get up walk was a good thing as well. The casualness of this meeting and undertone of words was working on her and she foresaw the gym in her future. Or a cold bath. Both.  

Heading over to get a glass her back was to him as she reached. "There's much I don't know and the only way I know to control my hormonal desires is through ..... hard physical excersion." He was left to descern what she meant on his own unless he asked. 

She hoped he wouldn't ask. 

Something cold wasn't a bad idea, which was why she had plucked ice cubes from the freezer and placed them in her cup. A small cube she had put in her mouth and was moving it around with her tounge while turned to look at him. Ryanna took up a casual lean against the fridgerator and crossed her feet at the ankles. Maybe he'd need another beer. 

"The only person who's been teaching me anything about this side is Ben. And I'd rather not accept his teaching." It reminded her of that chain she had around her waist for months and the lessons it taught her. "My father thought to turn me into some ultimate prodigy Alpha female. Both with their own personal agendas."

But Tobias, he said that there was someone else to make her "fall in line" and that was a pleasent thought. "You intend to, Tobias, rub my belly and make me come to heel?" She said it for fun even as one hand absently took a few strokes down the bodice on her stomach before dipping into her cup for more ice. 

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