Crossover Chick

I'd be remiss if I didn't post something Victor/Alicey:

14. Cucumbers
Alice dipped the ladle into the pot of soup, lifting out a cupful for inspection. She frowned. “I don’t think we made it quite right,” she reported. “It looks – gloppy.”
“Gloppy?” Victor repeated, examining the uplifted ladle. The soup did seem to be rather thick in places. A bit like a lumpy stew.
“That sounds better than slimy. Which it also looks like.” Alice sighed as she poured the soup back into the pot. “I don’t think we mixed it up enough.”
“Maybe,” Victor said with a little shrug. He looked into the pot of cucumber soup, watching the greenish mixture swirl. Their first meal as a married couple – well, the first one they’d cooked themselves. “My arm just got so tired after that first couple of minutes. . . .”
Alice nodded understandingly. “I know. I think it’s more my fault – I don’t think I cut the cucumbers fine enough.” She sighed. “You think I’d be able to cut something. . . .”
Surprised, Victor looked at his new wife. Was it him, or did Alice look the tiniest bit depressed? “I-is something wrong?” he asked, one hand going to give his tie a twist.
Alice glanced up at him sheepishly. “It’s – I wanted this to be a good meal,” she complained, glaring at the soup. “Instead it’s all lumpy and disgusting. It doesn’t say much about my cooking skills.”
“Our cooking skills,” Victor corrected. “And we’re new at this. I personally have n-never made anything more complicated than a sandwich before today.”
“But it’s different for men. Women are expected to know how to cook.”
“Since when do you care about doing what’s expected of you?”
Alice smirked at him. “Strangely enough, Victor, I am interested in learning how to feed myself.” Her smile faded. “And – I want to cook for you. You’re my husband – I-I want to take care of you.”
Victor felt a warm glow at that. He’d never really felt looked-after back at home. His parents often acted like they just couldn’t be bothered with him. To have someone want to look after him – he was touched. “Well then,” he said, picking up the ladle and taking a fresh cupful, “as your husband, let me say that I don’t care what it looks like – only how it tastes.” With that, he sampled it.
The soup did have a bit of a slimy texture, but the flavor was minty and cool – just what they needed on a hot day like today. He gave Alice a triumphant grin. “It’s fine. We – you did well.”
Alice grinned back. “We did well,” she said, putting her arms around him. “What should we have with it, then?”
“I don’t know about you, but I had plenty at the wedding feast – maybe just some bread and butter. Oh, but I did find some strawberries in the ice box. . . .”

Wow, "Solictor's Ward"-verse! Remember that? Feels like it's been ages since I talked about it. Anyway, this is a moment from their wedding night in their honeymoon cottage in Wonderland. The afternoon post-wedding isn't all about awkward sex talk and the like -- some of it is trying recipes on your own for the first time. I've never seen Alice as having a particularly strong domestic side, except where Victor is concerned. He manages to bring out her "I love him so I want to do nice things for him and protect him" side. That includes cooking for him.
-D: Why cucumber soup?-
Basically, they get married in early July. I figured they'd want something cool and simple.
Anyway, it's just a bit of newlywed fluff. Don't worry, Alice, you'll get it -- it just takes some practice. And it helps that I've always imagined your new husband having a bit of natural talent.
-M: *joking* Just because he shovels it down doesn't make him a master cook.
-TTV: *look*-
*snork* Yeah, but at least he's got a well-refined palate? At any rate, they can both practice over the course of their marriage. Same as with the sexings!
-TTV: You couldn't resist, could you?-
It's fun joking about how awkward you could be on your wedding night. I'm sorry but it's true.


My Valentine's has been okay so far -- my parents were very nice and got me both a dark chocolate pop and a new MP3 player. Unfortunately, I've run into a snag -- while I can get music on the player, now I can't get the music to play one right after the other. It's all on there, subdivided into folders, but the only way to get the songs to play is to go to the menu and go into the folder itself. *shakehead* My older version doesn't have this. I know the music is still arranged in folders on it (I've seen it), but. . .why the hell do they make things HARDER to use in newer editions?!

Well, the chocolate pop was good. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a card to leave for my parents.

EDITS:
#1 -- I forgot to mention that Cucumbers here serves as a sort of prequel to Strawberries.
#2 -- Also, apparently today is the one-year anniversary of the 25 Foods table. I'd forgotten I first posted it on Valentine's Day.
#3 -- My Mom had this exact same problem with her MP3 player of this type -- and apparently I fixed it. I have no memory of how I did this. *lost and confused*
#4 -- Mystery of the day: I woke up this morning because my right arm had gone numb, like it would if I was lying on it wrong.
I was lying on my left side.
I suppose what happened is that I rolled over in my sleep, and then rolled back again, but that's still weird to wake up to.