Sugar, Spice, and a Preheated Oven (Open)

[Kingston Carmichael]

Home economic was one of Kingston favorite classes. He had always enjoyed being in the kitchen cooking. Any recipes that he fell in love with Kingston would save the recipes. Most of the recipes that Kingston had were from his mother.

Kingston looked down at the recipe. He read through the ingredients and then through the directions. First thing first, preheat the oven. So when everything was ready all they had to do was pop the muffins in the oven and set the timer. Kingston checked the oven to make sure there was nothing inside it. Then he pushed the buttons to preheat the oven.

Now he and his partner had to get the ingredients and prepare them.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy remembered her last endeavour in a class like this. She most definitely remembered her poor, lazy attempt at working with Dominique Chevalier. She recalled being told that as the girl in the pairing, she was supposed to do all the work. And she recalled the both of them in a stand off until they decided to ditch and just buy a cake instead.

Sufficed to say, they never made it back to the class. And so she failed, which surprised no one.

The key to partnered assignments was pure luck, the Australian had decided. Carleigh had been the perfect partner because she cared enough to drag Lucy through her negative attitude and subsequently, she got her to care.

Y'know, until she broke their baby and sort of ruined their chance to get a good mark.

But this guy. He looked different. He didn't look like an uptight French asshole or a hot blonde with a big heart. She wanted to say he was quiet, and so she definitely wanted to say this was an easy win.

"You got this, mate?" She asked him, crossing her arms over her chest. "Cause if so, I'm fucking off."

[Kingston Carmichael]

Kingston looked at his partner. He wasn’t sure how to he was supposed to respond. Some students that he was paired up with helped out. Other students would push Kingston out of the way and they did all the work. Some other students would dump all the work on Kingston. He took a wild guess at that his current partner was the third kind.

Kingston shrugged his shoulders. Yeah, Kingston totally got this. He liked being in the kitchen. It didn’t matter to him if he was cooking with someone or not.

His eyes kept moving back and forth from his partner to floor. He was never good in social situation. Part of the reason was because him being a technopath and he can’t identify emotions. He shifted back and forth on his feet. Kingston had no clue what to do.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

A blank expression was met with a scrutinising stare from the Australian. Lucy spent enough years at Hammel to be surprised by so little, and a mute Asian guy was hardly about to surprise her. But it did jolt her curiosity, as she never understood the point behind the decision - or perhaps inability - to speak.

She raised her eyebrows, sparing a glance to the set of ingredients placed between them. Before them, really.

"Got a knack for words, aye?" She asked, a spark of curiosity in her tone, "Silent type? That a thing you do for everyone or am I just special?"

[Kingston Carmichael]

“I talk.” Kingston paused for a moment. “I’m a technopath.” That simple sentence usually explained Kingston’s awkwardness around other people. Technopaths weren’t exactly social friendly perky people. His partner would understand.

Kingston liked being with other people. He was that friend who just sat on the sidelines. But when it came to situations where it was Kingston and one other person, Kingston becomes uncomfortable and doesn’t know what to do. Hopefully things will get less awkward.

“Um, should we start?” Kingston pointed to the recipe on the counter.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

"He speaks." The ink manipulator retorted, her jaw dropping low and her eyes growing wide. Being a technopath meant nothing to her - it wasn't like it totally deleted a persona, did it?

Should they start? Lucy raised her eyebrows, taking a few moments in the silence to just blink and look at him. She pressed a finger to her jaw, forcing it shut.

In the next, she indicated towards the table with a quick sweep of her hand. "Go for your life, mate. Ain't no one stopping you." Purposefully, she raised a hand towards her jaw again, this time running the length of it with her fingernails. Twisting, she pressed both palms to the surface, hauling herself up and sitting on the edge of the counter. But at least he had enough space to work with.

"Met plenty of rigid bitches who didn't use 'I speak to blenders' as an excuse for social silence, y'know."

[Kingston Carmichael]

Kingston watched her hopped up on the counter. He just looked at her about the blender comment; Kingston didn’t understood what she meant. Looked like Kingston would do all the work. He didn’t mind though. He washed his hands and read over the recipe again. Kingston went and gathered the ingredients.

He followed the directions. While Kingston was baking he did not a single word the girl sitting on the countertop.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Silence. Lucy was met with more silence, but she somehow managed to breathe a laugh anyway. From her spot on the counter, she watched the way he worked like she didn't exist. Total silence. But she still had to wonder why he outed himself as a technopath like it made a difference.

"Are basic statements too difficult? Is it the social interaction, or the words themselves? Can I text it to you?" A small break as her eyes widened a touch, grin broadening, "If I text your phone, do you read the message in your head?"

Genuine curiosity lined the Australian's tone as she thought to volley another set of questions. Until she caught the eye of the teacher waving her off the counter she'd grown so accustomed to. With a sigh she hauled herself down, leaning against it with her hip instead.

"Can you like, adjust oven temperatures with your brain?"

[Kingston Carmichael]

Questions. More questions. She was full of questions. She must not know a lot technopaths. Or she simply didn’t know the stereotype for technopaths.

“I can’t identifying emotions. So being with people is awkward.” Kingston looked to his partner when she hopped off the counter. Was she going to help him? Or she was just avoiding the teacher. Kingston went back to the batter in front of him.

Kingston shook his head at the last question. “I can only ‘enter’ computers. I can’t manipulate technology.” That was the most Kingston had said in a short amount of time. Kingston was getting antsy again with the attention on him. “What’s your power?” Kingston said in a quiet voice hoping that would take the attention off of him.