Pie In The Sky - Riley tags Josh/Cobalt

Saturday meant friends and friends meant, among other things, food. Obviously he didn't eat lunch with Riley and Cobalt nearly enough during the week, so they'd made plans for the weekend, as well. Ben couldn't make it (his decline had been oddly strained) and, well, Josh may have simply not bothered to invite Danny. It wasn't that he didn't like the other man (he was extremely nice) but having discovered that the doppelganger Sean had mentioned was his new friend had been....weird. And awkward. Extremely awkward. So he was studiously avoiding Cobalt's childhood friend until he could figure out exactly how he ought to react to this new-found knowledge.

So he had trekked downtown, fully prepared to banter with Riley and Cobalt, only for something truly unexpected to occur.

Riley didn't show up.

And didn't show up.

And didn't show up.

And as he had told them he was coming and hadn't called to say otherwise and wasn't answering his phone, this had caused his two friends to worry enough that they'd purposefully driven to his apartment, hoping he hadn't had a heart attack or fallen and injured himself.

Josh climbed the steps with mounting trepidation, inhaling deeply before pressing the doorbell.

He nearly jumped into Cobalt when the door flew open, revealing the looming figure that was their gentle friend. "Riley!" He placed one hand over his heart, which was hammering faster than was necessary. "Good grief, man, you scared us! You didn't show up for lunch and you didn't answer your phone and....did you say baking?" Josh paused in his reproach to sniff curiously.

He had never baked a day in his life, but hunger mixed with the divine smells emanating from Riley's kitchen somehow made this seem inconsequential. "We'll help!" He offered, turning just enough so that he could easily nudge Cobalt in the shoulder. "Right?"

Josh's actions made Riley's smile freeze a little before she started to laugh lightly at the whiplash of emotions in his older friend. When even Cobalt stumbled in with a look.

"Help? With baking? Sure!" Riley grinned widely as he ushered them into the kitchen. "I'll need you to help me cut stuff. It will speed up the process!" Riley assured Cobalt. He looked around to see what Cobalt and Josh could do. The dough just needed to be placed into the pie dish and the apples needed dicing.

"Can you two can help me with the pie so I can make some sandwiches maybe? You guys didn't have lunch yet, right?" The landscaper asked as he took out the loaf of store bought bread [the bread maker was on a fritz and Riley didn't want to chance on making it worst] from the bread canister and proceeded to take other stuff out for the sandwiches.

"What are you guys in for? Turkey? Beef cutlets?"

“O…kay.” Cobalt stepped into the house, stuffing his hands in his pockets a little uneasily. He always felt a little odd when he visited people’s houses uninvited. Which was silly: Riley was a good friend, and it wasn’t as though Riley had never come to his house uninvited. But that was probably not his fault. “We can cut stuff.” He let Josh ask the majority of the questions, and decided to save his dignity and not try to see over Riley’s shoulder. Because that would be pretty useless.

“Uhh…” Cobalt raised an affectionate eyebrow at Riley’s sandwich questions, “Food? I dunno, man, I’m good with whatever, I’m just hungry.” Cobalt didn’t have a very discerning palate. Things fell into two categories: Edible and Not Edible. And if things were Edible, then great. He would eat it.

“Yeah, what was up with that?” Cobalt said, joining in the teasing, “I don’t have to worry about enough over here with this one?” He elbowed Josh not too gently before walking to stand more in the kitchen.

Josh accepted the knife from Riley, turning it over in his hands. "Eighths and then three. No core." He echoed doubtfully. That sounded awfully complicated, particularly the part about removing the core; it wasn't as if apples had a seed or a pit, easily found and tossed away. No, this was a core. How was he supposed to cut the apple without cutting into the core as well?

"Oh, no, losing your memory already." He sighed, shaking his head at Riley as the other man fixed lunch. "I'm just glad everything is okay."

He shuffled over to the counter, eying the peeled apples warily. How was he supposed to know which direction on an apple was horizontal? He prodded an apple with the tip of his knife, leaving a tiny gouge mark. "Hmmm." He mused, pulling the apple out of the bowl and plopping it onto the counter without so much as washing his hands first. "Into eighths." That couldn't be that hard, could it? He traced a thin line with his knife from top to bottom, afraid to put too much weight behind it, but this didn't result in anything remotely useful. "Hmmm." He repeated, bearing down more, using the knife to saw the apple in half.

"This.is.really.hard." He panted, respect for bakers and chefs welling up inside him. Who would want to do this every day? He would rather do paperwork.

The guys, Josh in particular, seemed to be having a hard time cutting up the apples and Riley had to admit, he was having a hard time not laughing at them. Which made him instantly guilty.

"Um," he let out a little chuckle as he set the sandwiches aside and grabbed a knife and an apple, setting it on the countertop and slicing it in half. "So once you're done with half, you cut the half into two more halves like this." Riley showed Josh and cut the rest of the apples until he had eight pieces. "To remove the pits, you just slide the knife from one end to another and then just cut it in three." He demonstrated it before looking up to Josh with a smile.

"Okay, now who's up for some lunch?"

Cobalt snickered, shying away exaggeratedly from Josh’s blade. “Okay, okay!” He laughed, “I just wanted to make sure, since you’re so delicate and all. Don’t hurt yourself.” He had to admit, ribbing Josh was always a little fun. The older man just took it so seriously.

“Wait, wait, wait…” Cobalt stammered when Riley ambled over to give him directions, “Slow down, I wanna do it.” With the stubborn air of a small child given a difficult task, he followed Riley’s lead, frowning slightly as he did so. “What is this, geometry?” He asked with a laugh, “Why does it have to be chopped like this?”

“Oh yeah, I want lunch.” He peered over to see what Riley was making, “Hey, Riles, sorry that we’re kind of invading your house and eating your food.” He gave his taller friend a sheepish smile.