Baking Innovations [Denmark]

[captainkyosai]

Iain sighed and picked up his belongings. School’s finally over and oh god – he has to make sure that he stays out of Arthur’s way today. That crazy English bloke – he swore he heard screaming this morning since their dorms are rather… close… He probably had tried to make Yorkshire pudding or whatever the hell that crap was. He knows that he was going to look for him – if nothing was going to eat it, give it to the guy who ate it while he was sick. He knows that he’s going to be a target for shitty cuisine – he just knows it.

The redhead quickly made his way – wandering around the corridors… that is, until he went to a rather empty part of it. … Hm? Not exactly familiar to his memories – as in… he probably saw this area of the building on the school map – but really, seeing it from a picture and then the real deal? Completely different. "Weel, it looks loch ah did a wrang turn." Well, no need to panic, he can just retrace his steps – easy as that!

Though… since this was a part of the school he wasn’t really look/wandered though yet… it wouldn’t hurt but to explore it a bit, no? Besides, maybe his brother wouldn’t find him here.

So, the redhead continued the direction he was walking – peering over into the rooms though the doors and looking at the doorplates that usually has the room numbers and the usage of the room. Art, Music, Literacy – it looks like he was in the club/extra curricular district of the main building. Then, he passed a room… but then stopped. He wasn’t sure why – but there was this way too familiar feeling. He looked back and glared at the door, asking himself, “Why ah Ah stoppin’ noo?” Certainly, there are more places to explore! However, he felt compelled to, and so he did.

He turned around and walked back to the door, placed a hand on it and pulled down the handle, and pushed the door open. There wasn’t a doorplate for some reason – and he only knew the room number from this, judging by the order of how the other plates went. However, when the Scotsman went in – he knew exactly what it was.

A damned Home-Ec. classroom.

The ginger could feel an unintentional grin spread upon his face as he walked in and closed the door. Ah, the irony – escaping his brother’s cooking by going into a Home-Ec. classroom. That blonde would never find him here of all places.

Oh, an idea.

He dropped his items at the counter and looked around. Looks like it’s not abandoned or anything – clearly it’s been used and nicely cleaned – there was water dropping from the faucet after all. … They won’t mind if they let him borrow this classroom. After all, it seems like Arthur has been getting a bit too confident in his cooking – time to show him who was the one who really knows how to cook.

Since his brother’s ‘specialty’ is scones – Iain counter it with his own baking! It might not be a holiday season… but certainly it can be used as for celebration! Shortbread – Scottish shortbread to be exact… actually, they are called biscuits and they can also be referred as cookies… Anyways, that is the only thing he had ever cook that has gotten compliments, positive compliments. Yet, it’s been such a long time since he made it – not to mention, he needs to add some flair to it. Sure, he’ll probably stick to the most basic ingredients since he bought the damned ingredients… but this was the school's – it was considered free, or something of the sort.

… Oh yes, he mustn’t forget about the tips that were given to him by a friend of his. Make sure he’ll have to measure, look at the ingredients before he mixes it with anything, and always preheat the oven when baking. Yes, yes, he does not need to repeat like a broken record.

Green eyes glanced over to the clock – about fifty minutes after the school day as ended. It takes about an hour to get three dozens of bite sized shortbreads done – and it’ll probably still take an hour to make two dozens… He could spend the whole day here if he was really into it…

He’ll make a baker’s dozen with one type of shortbread that he has no idea what to make it with and he’ll make another with the traditional shortbread. That will outdo his damned brother. Of course, he’ll probably figure something out about that batch that’s not the traditional shortbread… probably.

So, what’s the first step? Get cleaned and wash hands – check. Second step: get half a cup of butter, a fourth of brown sugar and a cup and two tablespoons of all-purpose flour. … They have all the stuff he needs – check. Preheat the oven to 165 degrees Celsius – good… right? Yeah, he’s probably doing this right. Next… cream the butter and brown sugar… Cream? What does that mean? Of course, Iain knows because he grew up making this stuff. Next, mix in the flour – easy enough – a bit of a mess, but not much to be worried about…

After good mixing the dough was created – edible when baked to say at least. Let’s just start to knead the thing and stab it with a fork to get it to bake.

Anyway, the ginger kneaded the dough, rolled it out, and cut it into strips. Then he made holes within the strips by poking it with the silverware known as a fork – simple enough. Once that was finished – he made at least a baker’s dozen of strips of dough with holes in them, and now it’s time to put them in the oven. Placing them on cookie sheets, he opened the oven and carefully placed the uncooked shortbread into the hot kiln. Now, while that cooks for about 20-25 minutes, what is he going to do with the other batch that he’s going to make?

[MATHIAS ANDERSEN]

Mathias was walking, but for once in his life he was walking with a purpose. Class had ended about an hour ago, and after staying to get a somewhat "forced" after school lesson based on his poor performance in his math class, Mathias was excited to go to the home economics room so that he would be able to bake a cake for one of his friends. 

He couldn't control his excitement. He had gotten his mother to send him some of his special pans from home, and he had been walking around the school with the pans in his arms. He didn't care that people looked at him strangely for it. (Not that he ever really cared about any strange looks he had gotten before, anyway.) He had made sure that the Home Ec teacher hadn't minded him using the oversized oven in the classroom as opposed to the toaster ovens situated in the dorms.

And now, now he was as excited as he had ever been to get a chance to cook something delicious for his friends. It had been so long it seemed, since he had gotten a chance to bake something to his full ability. he wondered idly if he should make some of his favorite æbleskiver instead of cake. Æbleskiver with strawberries... 

He hopped into the air excitedly, before skipping towards the room, only to find himself stepping on the untied shoelace of his right shoe and tumbling to the ground directly in front of the home Ec room, sending a flurry of strange pots and pans flying into the air before catching himself with the palms of his hands.

He realized that he had landed by the door of the classroom, and as he began to pull himself upwards, the smell of something sweet wafting from the cracks filled his nostrils. It took him a moment, but he was soon able to figure out that whoever was inside of the room was making shortbread. Delicious, delicious short bread. 

He smiled as he gathered up all of his belongings, ignoring the fact that his kitchen was being used, before he slid the door open and peeked his head inside, spotting a familiar red-headed Scotsman, working over some dough. His grin widened and he shut the door behind him, and he 
moved swiftly over to the table, spreading his pots over the top.

"Iain..! Hey, why are you here?" He paced over the other and crossed his arms over his chest, "I didn't know you cooked- er... Baked!" Mathias continued to grin towards the other, sort of hoping that he wouldn't remember the incident they had the other night involving a certain box full of pictures that the Dane had yet to get a chance to see yet, but he wasn't  going to press it.

Maybe Iain was just a private person... No... Of course he was a private person! He didn't want anyone to find out about his so-called "weaker" sides. Not really that they were weaker of course, but that they just embarrassed him. Mathias knew a lot of people like that, oddly enough. In fact, he was almost surrounded by shy, somewhat bashful people. 

But it didn't matter either way, because he was excited to see his friend! He didn't expect to see his friend in the home economics room! It was such a pleasant surprise! Maybe if Iain finished his cooking, then he would be willing to help Mathias make some cakes!

"So you don't mind me helping you make your shortbread do you?" Mathias placed his hands on the table and flashed Iain a sincere grin, hoping that the Scotsman didn't decide to blow up at him.

((ouo Here you go Scottie. The post you've been waiting years for. uwu Sorry about that. Hahaha. ;w; And let Den love Scottie.))

[captainkyosai]

… Iain is definitely not shy… he just… puts up a manlier mask to keep the soft, sort of… embarrassing side away from people. However, this is just the narrator speaking.

The ginger was busy. He was busy thinking about what the hell is he going to incorporate into his next batch of shortbread. Sure, he did bake some scones before… Though, some would have mistaken it for the American pancake instead… slightly better than having it mistaken for some dry, equally disgusting, American biscuit that is not a cookie at all. Whatever he made that is not shortbread… … It’s less than edible… It might be as bad as his brother’s cooking if not worse. Maybe the fact that whatever the Kirklands would cook or bake would be inedible.

However, that would not make sense. His shortbreads are perfectly edible! Melt in the mouth, very much like how all professional shortbreads are supposed to be like! So… would it… say something like he has at least some cooking skills- wait. Not that he doesn’t have any cooking skills, it’s just that he’s definitely better than Arthur and that Scottish food is superior compared to English food. He already has those skills. ( Despite the fact that Scottish food might be worse than English. )

The Scotsman kept on looking at the group of ingredients that he would have to work with. Sorry to burst some bubbles, but he was looking at some flour and sugar. All of the dough he had made is in the oven at the moment… Speaking at the oven… Iain caught a distinctive whiff of what he knew perfectly. His shortbread, they should just about be ready at this moment! Having such amazing inductive logic, from baking shortbread so much and ‘observing’, he noticed a pattern about the certain smell of baking shortbread and how many minutes where left. Amazing, he probably doesn’t even need a timer when baking shortbread. Everything else? How about he shouldn’t even be working on anything else?

Just has he was about to head over towards his oven to get ready for the final minutes of baking, he heard crashing of… metal right outside the… door? Sorry, that ended up like a question, but he wasn’t exactly sure on why he’s hearing pots and pans crashing outside when he’s in the Home Ec. room. The most logical thing is that someone’s outside with pots and pans… but why would they have pots and pans in the first place? Did they steal it from the Home Ec. room?

His gaze from the door was not broken… at all. Then, the door slowly opened to reveal the dead of the person.

Iain immediately scowled and let out a groan of dread to whatever is coming for him. Maybe if he pretended that he didn’t notice the Danish guy, he’ll be fine and Mathias might leave the place and him alone.

… Well, shit. Sometimes, he’s a bit envious of Matthew… because that guy can always blend into the background somehow, someway.

The ginger looked up to see the pans that the blonde had brought with him, and watched him spread it across the table. Most if not all of the pans are not the usual pans; is he planning on making something special? Judging by the… shape, Mathias is probably going to make something similar to those American Pancake Puffs. How in the world does he know? His partner is an American that can make the most unnatural cakes, that is why.

Iain glared at Mathias when he had greeted him, asking for his reason here. Honestly, it is a tad bit obvious. He’s in the Home Ec. Room with flour and sugar in front of him while there’s something baking in the oven. He is the only person here in the beginning. Oh on, he was just definitely passing by when he noticed that there was a batch of shortbread unattended to with no one but him in a half a mile radius. His hands had flour on them because he wanted to pretend to be a ghost. Soft brown sugar was out because he wanted to make a sand castle. The Scotsman simply rolled his eyes, at the Danish’s comment about the surprise and his inward sarcasm.

Though, enough time has wasted, those shortbreads are ready and he does not want to risk burning them since he’s going to shove it in Arthur’s face about who’s the better baker/chef. Moving over towards the oven, the ginger slipped on some oven mitts and opened the thing, unleashing the aroma of… well, baked goods. Hm, slightly browned, but it’s still perfect. After all, a bit of browning gives it more flavour. Pulling the tray out of the oven, the ginger placed it on the counter, letting the baker’s dozen of shortbread cool down.

He then heard about Mathias’s offer. Don’t mind about lending a hand? … Well, he is stuck thinking on how to kick it up a notch with the second soon to be made batch. Then, there’s the fact that there is a chance that Mathias can actually bake unlike his brother who’s all bark but no bite when it comes to baking or even cooking in general… So…

“Do whitever ye want to do.” As in an indirect, ‘I need ideas on how to make the second batch and you can supply the ideas as I make it.’

[MATHIAS ANDERSEN]

When Mathias walked into the Home Economics Room, he could tell that the Iain wasn’t all that excited to see him. He didn’t know who on earth wouldn’t be excited to see him, of course, because after all, he was a pretty cool person. But that was okay! If Iain wasn’t excited to see him now, then Mathias would make him excited! Or at least, he would die trying… well… not die, but put forth a valiant effort at the very least. Not that Iain was the type to even show his excitement, at least from what Mathias has observed of him.

The Dane stood over his special pans, a hopeful smile etched into his face. Iain didn’t really seem to want to be answering his usual stream of questions, either. But that was okay with him! If Iain was making his cookies for a special someone or even if they were just for himself, anytime was a nice time to bake! If Mathias could spend all day in a kitchen simply making food and special creations, he would in a heartbeat. Especially if it meant that he didn’t have to spend the few classroom instruction classes he had all pent-up in a stuffy room at a desk.

Mathias has begun to pace around waiting for answer, and when he finally heard the other speak up, he leaned back onto his heels excitedly, clapping his hands. He was happy to finally get a chance to prove himself! Or at the very least, prove his baking skills! That, and the Scotsman was giving him creative freedom!

“Alright! Let’s see what I can do!” Mathias cracked his knuckles and paced over to already-made batch, ideas instantly filling his head. He had always had a great love for chocolate, and he also loved shortbread. He had put them together before, of course, and had even bought them from the store together.

He glanced at Iain, wondering if he would like it too. But Mathias didn’t bother to even ask as he began to scour the cabinets for some chocolate. There had to be some around here somewhere. He opened one drawer after the other, before moving onto the cabinets, getting somewhat discouraged. That was… until he came across the last cabinet, and saw something even better. Not only was there milk chocolate, but there was also some white chocolate. Mathias grinned to himself, pulling the chocolate out and flashing it towards the other senior.

“Do you like chocolate? We could dip the shortbread in the milk chocolate first, then use the white chocolate to make designs! How does that sound?” Of course in his excitement, Mathias didn’t even give Iain a chance to say anything before he was pulling out the pots to melt the chocolate. He made sure to grab butter as well, and after washing his hands, he soon began work on the making the chocolate for the cookies.

While he was waiting for the chocolate to melt in his double boiler, his mind began to wonder. He wondered if he could add pecans to the other ones… or he could add strawberries to them… Mathias started to tap his foot as he thought of the possibilities. Maybe he could even make a different kind of glaze for them… something just to make them pretty, even.

Nah… Something told him Iain would’ve probably preferred a new taste, although he wasn’t exactly sure. Putting chocolate on them was probably his best bet right now, because of course, everyone liked chocolate, right? Sure! Well… Mathias did know a few people that claimed to not like chocolate… not that he really believed them, but that was what they claimed, at least.

“Do you want to melt the white chocolate, Ian?” Mathias asked excitedly, not even worried if he knew how to do it or not, this was going to be so much fun, anyway!

[captainkyosai]

I WANT TO WATCH IT BURN

Yes indeed! Iain was not a man to show excitement. He would show other things, such as… amusement with some facetious expression or a raise of a brow. Other few well-known emotions are pride and aversion. Sorry, but sometimes, a man has to do some things to keep up his reputation or ego. At other times… man, he does have a strong aversion to crappy food he was forced to swallow down – no allusion to any sibling or extended family members of his… of course. At least give the Dane some credit for thinking on trying to get this guy excited.

The ginger looked up to see Mathias bouncing on his heels with energy and excitement. … This guy is stupidly energetic, but it’s not like he’s complaining that much about it. He was definitely happy from that this guy could tell. His face is practically screaming, “YAY, I’M SO HAPPY!” All caps included by the way.

He moved over to the side just as the blonde cracked his knuckles, giving him some room to look at the finished batch. It would be pretty interesting to see what this guy has in mind though. Come straight from his classes into the Home Ec room with a lot of pans – specialized pans? If he judged everyone’s cooking abilities to his brother, he can immediately come up that, hey, this guy might be annoying… but maybe he can be a good baker. Never judge a book by its cover sometimes – Iain learned that the hard way a while back.

He observed Mathias with some space between them. He was just thinking about what this guy would do… After all, observing and noticing things is what he does best, right? Yes, beside from heeding the calls of the dead and summoning them from… their slumber on Earth. Who else can do what he can do? Not a lot of people. Besides who the hell really does believe in ghosts that are not in that American television show, “Ghost Adventures”? It’s a television show, for all you know, it could be rigged. He can’t say anything because he never observed those people with his eyes.

He gave a toothy smirk when he knew that the guy had glanced back at him. By now, the man was leaning against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest. Of course, don’t bother to ask the guy whom you’re cooking for if he’s fine with whatever the hell you’re doing. His green eyes only watched him search through the drawers and the cabinets. The Dane… seems somewhat disappointed during his search. Not sure how the Scotsman deduced that, but hey it’s like a gut feeling that’s not considered, “woman’s intuition”.

By that bloke’s body language at the very last cabinet, it looked like he had hit the jackpot. The only thing that left that cabinet was chocolate… milk chocolate and white chocolate. Sure, Iain had this idea of white chocolate and cranberry shortbread – bit overused, but still good – for his next batch, but it seems like this guy is content on working on the batch that was supposed to be traditional.

The man didn’t even answer the blonde’s question about liking chocolate or not. Besides, it’s not like he was given a chance to answer that question. He continued on what he was doing, until another question was thrown at him.

“Do you want to melt the white chocolate, Ian?”

He raised a brow and thought about it, ignoring the very slight mispronunciation of his name. Yes, it sounds like “Iain”, but there’s a light difference. Anyway… he might not be the best baker in the world, but at least he’s not stupid, being stupid is impossible for him a way with his logical mind. Heating chocolate in a pot with direct fire would be terrible – ruin the chocolate even. The best would be what his friend told him a long, a very long time ago.

Might as well… just standing and watching a guy melt chocolate isn’t as exciting as some people think it is.

He stood up a bit straighter and took the white chocolate from Mathias’s workstation. Heading over to another part of the Home Ec room with a stovetop and a counter. Seems logical to him that the smaller the pieces are, the easier for it to melt, so unwrapping the white chocolate and taking a knife, the redhead had started on chopping that bar of chocolate into smaller, even pieces. He does not work with chocolate a lot, it is an amenity for baking at times – extra – nice, but not exactly needed. Soon enough, the looked quite decent chopped up…

Now, next thing, he would need two pots for a double boiler you know. That was really easy though… However, here comes the hard part… Should be melt or temper the chocolate? It would look a lot more interesting with tempered chocolate from what he remembered reading about it… but these are shortbread, what can you do with tempered chocolate? Might as well just do it melted… but the thing is, Mathias had unintentionally left him with a harder job. Yes, it is harder to melt white chocolate than the normal milk chocolate.

However, he can’t complain now. Filling that first pan – a saucepan with just enough water, the ginger proceeded to heat that water up before be can really start some real melting…

Ever noticed that he really didn’t say anything?

WORD COUNT: 907
TAGS: Mathias
NOTES: There's a bigger font - just for you.

By Captain of BTN and OTE

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[MATHIAS ANDERSEN]

If there was one thing that made Mathias uneasy, it was silence. Heck, even at home, if there wasn’t a TV running or even the radio, Mathias made it a point to go outside and listen to the birds or the animals. It was probably stupid of him, or even silly, but he got lonely more easily than most people, and silence did reflect a degree of loneliness that he did not appreciate. But since there was another person in the room, he didn’t need to be lonely! That person just needed to play their part!

But instead of speaking up, Mathias quietly milled around the room, mixing the chocolate to keep it from sticking. He began to hum once the room got too quiet for him, and once the chocolate was evenly melted, he paced up behind IAIN and stood over his shoulders, carefully observing before his short attention span left him bored once again. What did Iain like to do? Besides making weird shortbread things, Mathias had no idea what the man liked.

Maybe now was the time to ask! Even though the other didn’t seem to want to talk to him, maybe he would be more willing if he knew that Mathias had more in common with him! They were in the same grade after all! The only thing that kept them from having a lot of classes together was the fact that Mathias was a hero, and Iain was a sidekick. However, being a hero didn’t stop Mathias from making lots of sidekick friends! In fact, he had lots and lots of them! He enjoyed being around sidekicks because, for the most part, they were often really smart and said a lot of strange things.

But being who he was, Mathias found the strange things interesting! And he never told anyone, but usually when people spoke about something he didn’t know about, he would go home and spend a few moments researching it, just so he would know something about the next time they spoke. Usually it wasn’t much of an effort on his part, but it was somewhat, and that was what counted, right? It was much better than looking silly all the time, wasn’t it?

Mathias nodded to himself and went back to preparing his chocolate, and once he was finished, he pulled out a ladle and carried the pot of melted chocolate to the shortbread, and began to pour it on, making a few fanciful “twirls” into them, so that it looked aesthetically pleasing. In his head, he was wondering how he would be able to get the Scotman’s attention, or to at least get him to say something.

“So do you cook in here often?” Was the only thing that Mathias managed to get out to the other. Wasn’t much of a conversation starter, but it was something, right? Yeah! It was something! He was determined that he could just go from there, if the other came up with a reply, but instead he found himself beginning to ramble about himself again, “I come here quite a bit. But mostly because I love baking.”

He was getting a bit bored with his chocolate design, so he began to put smiles on some of the few pieces that were leftover.

“Where did you learn this recipe anyway? I learned most of my recipes from my mom! She is pretty good cook, but now that I’m better than her, I don’t have much to learn… Well, I mean from her, I don’t have much to learn, but I’m helping her too. We cook a lot when we are home together… I don’t have any siblings so my mom and I are pretty close… Don’t you have a whole bunch of siblings Iain?”

Mathias glanced up from his chocolate mess and towards the red-head.

“Are you guys close?”

[captainkyosai]

I WANT TO WATCH IT BURN

The ginger proceeded to simply ignore the other guy. However, even after time passed, there was humming. Either Mathias is just in his stupid always-happy mood and just wanted to hum or if the silence is uncomfortable. Since this is related to Mathias, Iain wasn’t even sure which one to go for… maybe the former though. It would make more sense, but why in the world is he discussing to himself about how the guy currently feels at the moment? Not like he cares or anything.

He folded the melting white chocolate over itself and continued on mixing. Curse the white chocolate having too much butter and fats that melt at totally different temperatures. Cocoa butter melts at a higher temperature while the butterfats melt at a lower one – you see? Middle isn’t going to work at all. Then there’s the need to worry about the accursed milk proteins that clump when overheated. He should have done something else to save more time. Wasn’t there someone about boiling milk or crème and then pouring it into a bowl of white chocolate?

Indeed, he wasn’t paying much attention as the Danish spoke. Fragments like ‘cook’, ‘here’, and all of the sudden words and bits created a pretty crappy puzzle that Iain was forced to work with. Think of it like a jigsaw puzzle where you got only about three-fourths of the edges and just a handful of the middle pieces. Not a lot to even work with, you can only somewhat guess what the finished product would be. So, based on words like ‘she’, ‘learn’, ‘mom’, etc. Though some parts he tuned in, questions, half-sentences. Iain could guess that this blonde was talking about his mother and cooking or baking all of the sudden.

Well, makes sense if the topic was about baking/cooking, but when and why did the back-story conversation started? Though, the last two sentences caught the ginger’s attention even more than all of the words from whatever he said before.

“Don’t you have a whole bunch of siblings, Iain?”

“Are you guys close?”

Close? Is he and his siblings close? Well, it’s definitely a lot more nosy cousins rather than ‘siblings’. Arthur is his younger brother; Peter is the adopted kid. Though it’s somewhat more ironic that he can relate to a cousin of his better than with the two he’s supposed to live with when not in school and whatnot. Though, one thing’s for sure, there’s a lot of extended family members. Whenever they had a giant family reunion, you can expect utter chaos. There are a lot of members in the family that don’t get along quite well, look at Iain and Arthur for example. They bicker, fight, items tend up being thrown around, brother has ghosts haunting in his dreams now, suddenly one of the chair’s legs broke the moment Iain sat on it, Arthur get’s outwitted by his brother’s logic the moment he falls into a trap of complicated problems and thinking then Iain laughs at how simple minded and how much of an ‘idiot’ little brother is. The cycle never ends, talking to their ‘friends’ (i.e. Nessie and Flying Mint Bunny whatever the hell that bloke calls it) causes another spark of fights.

You have to feel pity for the adopted child to be dragged into such a family.

Iain couldn’t help but laugh at the question.

“Close? We raither nae live in th’ sam buildin’ wi’ each other or th’ sam coontry.” The ginger then frowned as he messed up with the melting of white chocolate… What was he told again? Something about vegetable oil or something like that. Best to go with his gut, so the redhead didn’t give a look at Mathias as he left his post for some vegetable oil.

“There’s mair coosins than siblings – Ah’ve only got two… ‘at Ah know of.” Of course, father roaming the world – so many possibilities of having half-siblings. Though, what is there to wonder about his words? Do the siblings really want to live that far away from each other or is that just a an assumption made by the always observing Iain?

“Thocht of coorse aam always tay busy makin’ money fur th’ family…” He quietly muttered to himself. It can be heard, of course, especially in an empty room like this, but then again, deciphering his darn accent.

WORD COUNT: 720
TAGS: Mathias
NOTES: There's a bigger font - just for you.

By Captain of BTN and OTE

[newclass=.scrollthing ::-webkit-scrollbar] width: 4px; background-color: #B3886D;[/newclass][newclass=.scrollthing ::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb]background-color: #FFCBAB;[/newclass]

[MATHIAS ANDERSEN]

“Close? We raither nae live in th’ sam buildin’ wi’ each other or th’ sam coontry.”

Mathias had been focusing on drizzling the chocolate over the cookies when he heard the other’s voice. Well that was just unfortunate, wasn’t it? Mathias was the guy who didn’t have any siblings at all (at least he didn’t know about any of them if he did.) and he really, really wanted siblings! But it scared him when he heard stories about brothers and sisters that didn’t get along. What if he did have siblings and they all hated him!?

He could barely even handle the thought. He knew he would try to be the best brother that he could, but what if they still didn’t like him or even worse yet, found him to be annoying!? Like some of the other students in the school seemed to think. He wouldn’t really mean to be annoying! It wasn’t like he could help it! Even if he was annoying, a sibling would love him no matter what, right? Right?

Somehow he couldn’t help but think that the answer was more complicated than a simple yes or no. Which really just seemed sad to him. He set the ladle down when he was done and started to put things away that he no longer needed, his once energetic mood having gone down significantly from his own simplistic thoughts.

“But…” He almost felt intrusive asking the other about his personal life, but in a way, the Dane was dying to know, “Why? I- I mean if you are brothers, shouldn’t you do your very best to get along?” Oh man, he felt silly just even asking it. Like an eight year old kid who didn’t know anything about anything outside of his personal bubble. He really just didn’t know what it was like in the slightest to have a sibling, and he was so curious to know. He had never been any good at being by himself.

“There’s mair coosins than siblings – Ah’ve only got two… ‘at Ah know of.”

Now cousins, Mathias had a few. His cousins weren’t really all that fond of him though. But there was a reason why they weren’t. You see, growing up, Mathias was known to be a bit of a bully. Okay, maybe not a bit, but a huge bully. He didn’t really have a lot of friends, and looking back on it, he was pretty insecure too, so in the long run of things, he took it out on those he was supposed to befriend. The result of this ended up being grudges. His cousins didn’t want to be anywhere near him, and half the time they wouldn’t even give him the light of day.

Even if he had changed from who he used to be. There was no doubt in his mind that they were making up for his old ways. He almost wished they would just move on, but not everyone could like him he supposed.

“Thocht of coorse aam always tay busy makin’ money fur th’ family…”

A small laugh escaped his throat at that. What did he even mean by that? Making money? Mathias was acutely aware that the Scotsman was actually quite intelligent, but if he spent most of his time at school during the year, how on earth did he find the time to make money? Unless he really was working that hard over the summer. Mathias himself just sat at home most of the summer, wishing he was back in school. Oh and he usually filled the house from head to toe with sweets that two people alone couldn’t eat. Yup.

“Making money..?” He really just couldn’t hold himself back from asking anymore. Iain was going to hate him by the end of the day he just knew it, "Is it because of your super awesome flaming red hair?"

[captainkyosai]

I WANT TO WATCH IT BURN

In truth, Iain was only humoring the Dane – not that this was a joke, but to make a small… ‘conversation’. Appreciation for not looking into the box of personal belongings – even if he did took it. There was no real harm to him if he told the other man this much.

However, he stopped looking for that vegetable oil; he didn’t turn around to look at the blonde in the classroom and stayed silent. He was answering this guy’s questions and only more questions come up. His eyes narrowed down just a fraction. It was true, Iain was being nice for once, not completely ignoring Mathias, but there was that very fine line to how generous the ginger can be.

“But…”

“Why? …”

These were asked between his single sentence answers… True, isn’t it the idea that even if brothers don’t let along, it is because that they are family that they should still deep down love each other? It was complicated – what’s more, his parents are family by marriage and yet they don’t get along. It’s always divided into two sides. A handful of the members would side with their mother, and the rest side with the father. Few just simply stay out of it for they did not wanted to be in the mess.

Yet, even there were some members of the family that he did enjoy their company… once in a while. It isn’t really discussed by anyone, but it was obvious on who’s siding with who, over every decision making or random petty argument.

Iain had to admit, even if he was more logical than most, he too picked sides because he had his own opinions, not because of the fact that one side made more sense or it offered an advantage. Thinking back on it now, he almost scoffed at how childish he was – and how childish he still is.

Before, the mood was somewhat pleasant – the presence of the Dane prevented the ginger’s mind from wandering to subjects he would rather not think about. He was more occupied with the shortbreads and the constant chatter of Mathias. Now… with this conversation, it just did the exact opposite. His mind had already begun to touch and pry into those topics that he did not want to see himself. ..

Oh… The other heard his little mutter. Making money… yes, he did. With the constant arguing, Iain took it upon himself to take care of his own needs. He’ll work after school, during breaks, during weekends. Homework was relatively easy for him – no surprise there, so it gave the boy something to do. He was average if not worse at sports – no matter how much he enjoys playing and watching it and joining a club such as drama or music never passed his mind. He honestly had too much to deal with at home – he didn’t want more things to think about.

“Making money…?” Iain expected the other to question it, and with a somewhat grim look on his face. “Is it because of your super awesome flaming red hair?”

Now that was not he had expected. As spontaneous as Mathias can be (forcing Iain to dress up in a pirate costume even), he couldn’t be this spontaneous. Yet these questions – they serve no purpose in learning anything about Iain or gain more insight on the actual topic of family members and the like. So why ask that his hair was the reason?

It was true, people with red hair are stereotyped to have no souls – thank South Park for that – yet perhaps some ‘dislike’ for gingers would be the fact that Gingers… they are normally Irish or Scottish – and you do know how many times they had tried to invade the English. It could have rooted from there, but it’s simply too vague of a topic to actually discuss in detail. Yet… Iain would doubt that he would have to work because of the fact that his hair is red.

It took Iain a while to actually answer. Part of it was debating if he should answer, and the other part was to do with whatever he made. Sure, he liked experimenting with food, but now he just found it wasteful. So what about having terrible scones shoved into his face? The thought about him being as childish as ever really just made Iain want end it.

It and a whole lot of other things.

“Doobt it.” He finally answered after what felt almost like an eternity in his mind. He turned around and gave a little shrug – alluding to the fact that he really didn’t know the reason why. By now, he was just acting it, it was almost like, he was showing a slightly more formal front, not the ‘I’m currently grumpy and frowning, but in truth I’m willing to socialize’ sort of front. It was more… different, like he prevented himself from getting deeper into the subject.

He already gave up on the white chocolate he was supposed to melt. “Dae whatever ye want wi’ th’ shortbread.” He was telling the Dane that he’s bored now and didn’t want to take the first completed batch and that he was going to leave now since he doesn’t want to talk about it anymore. He clicked his tongue just a bit, just creating the slightest of a scowl with his lips as he took his belongings.

Either he was running away or he was getting annoyed – both were plausible ideas.

WORD COUNT: 914
TAGS: Mathias
NOTES: There's a bigger font - just for you.

By Captain of BTN and OTE

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[MATHIAS ANDERSEN]

The room seemed to fall completely silent once Mathias had questioned Iain’s life. To be honest, Mathias was used to it. He knew how he could be. His mom knew how he was, all of his friends knew. He couldn’t help it, but when he didn’t understand something, he would ask about it. And he didn’t understand why Iain acted out the way he did. What was he so mad about?

“Doobt it.”

Mathias let out an uneasy laugh as an awkward presence made itself known around the room. Was he really this dumb? No… he had always told himself over and over again that he wasn’t dumb. He made a perfectly good cooking time into something awkward and upsetting. He felt his shoulders sag for a moment, and was about to start up the conversation again, when Iain felt the need to start talking again.

“Dae whatever ye want wi’ th’ shortbread.”

…What did that mean?

“…Wha-?” The Dane voiced his worries aloud only to see the Scotsman turning around, as if to leave. Mathias bit his lip and bounced after him, wanting to reach forward to grab his arm and stop him, but he found himself somewhat hesitant to do so. He ended up placing his hand on Iain’s shoulder instead, “Hey uh, buddy, I’m sorry if I made it awkward, but if you don’t want to hang out with me anymore, you should probably take some of these sweets back to your room, I don’t think I can eat them all by myself…”

“I—I mean I could share them with my roommates… Peter and Antonio really like sweets but I don’t want them to fill themselves up in five minutes with cookies… Or Kiviuq for that matter.” There really was a lot of cookies sitting around the room. The Dane wasn’t really sure what Iain was thinking when he made so damn many of them, but that was beside the point.

Mathias decided not to wait for an answer as he ran back into the school kitchen, and gathered up the already made cookies. He quickly dumped them into a bag, and sealed it shut with ease. There was still another pan’s worth of them, but he figured he could just finish decorating and making those himself, and maybe he could take them back to the dorm and they’d be able to pass them ar—

Mathias’ shoulders sunk when he saw that the white chocolate was bubbling, alone and forgotten about. What if it had gotten burnt and all stuck to the edges or something!? He stomped his feet in frustration. You weren’t supposed to just waste chocolate!! Even if it was white chocolate which Mathias considered to be of lesser quality anyway.
Ohhhh he was just making himself mad now.

He plucked up the pot and casually turned the burner off. Iain had better get to explaining himself!!