Aftereffects

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Oh god, Nerys was still upset.

"I just need a sewing kit, I can do it!" He said, not wanting to upset her further by making her have to make him a new pair of costume pants.

He felt waves of panic as she grabbed his right arm and dragged him along, wanting to shout for help but afraid that if he did, Nerys would kill him where he stood.

Once he was dragged into Nerys's bedroom, he stood, nervously. He wanted to apologize again, but he wasn't sure how to go about doing it. Clearly just saying it wasn't gonna do the trick....

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<sub>Daniela moved to the kitchen with Loki, looking around the pantries. They had some salt, various preserved jams a little section where ice was kept so they could preserve things that would grow mold in an instant. They needed to restock on ice again though, sadly, but oh well, it kept things cold. She then looked at Loki when she mentioned eggs.

"Oh yes! And we got a fresh bag of flour by the way. Hopefully nothing like last time happened." Ceph and Loki might have been around when that happened. Selena accidentally left the flour bag open and bugs got it. It took ages to clean up the kitchen when flour spilled everywhere. "Let's get the ingredients, then!"

Nerys herself had dragged him to her room and she finally got a tape measure out. Yep, she was going to seriously measure Cepheid's waistline, hip, and leg length. And this was on the inside of the leg too Rper knows this cause she was measured for dresses for ballet performances. She'd jot down the measurements on paper.

Ceph might noticed she still had her half finished dress on the mannequin, but she seemed to be more interesting in Cepheid's pants. Literally.</sub>

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Loki shivered at the memory in disgust as she remembered the bugs in the flour.
"Yes, that was pretty... grim." she frowned as she went and washed her hands, before looking in the cupboard to find the cooking utensils. She clattered around, finding a frying pan and various other bits and peices before putting them on the counter.

Loki went and helped Daniela with the ingredients. She took eggs and a bottle of milk out of the ice box and set them on the table.

They'd take some food in to Nerys and Cepheid when the had finished cooking, but making the food was the first challenge at hand.

"How did we do this again? Was it flour, eggs, milk.." Loki said as she stared down the ingredients like they were about to run off at any second.

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If Ceph hadn't just walked in on Nerys, he would have likely been much less flustered than he was now as the woman attempted to measure him. "Can't you just get the measurements from the old pair?" He pleaded weakly, though he wasn't really trying to fight her off as she worked, though he was now a bright shade of red again. God he was hopeless.

Once he was released from her clutches, he shifted his arm gingerly in the sling, unable to really look at the woman directly.

He glanced over and saw the dress she had been working on when he trounced in. It then occurred to him that in the scurry to deal with his own arm, he never thought to ask if Nerys was unhurt.

"Nerys?" He asked, nervously. "Last night, were you hurt?"

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<sub>"No..." Nerys would protest that. No way was she going to do that! Besides, she could make a way better pair than he was wearing anyway, even if she was making him awkward. She'd move everything to the side to see if she could plan out exactly how much fabric she needed to take care of everything. She'd look up and stare at him blankly when he asked if she was hurt.

Oh. Oh right. Last night. And her dress looked ruined. She looked at it and then back to him. She had bruises on her wrists which may or may not be seen, because she usually wears long sleeves.

"No I'm fine." She looked back at her work. So Ceph had to have some of this fabric he uses... somewhere.

Meanwhile Daniela had lit the stove, grabbing the pans from Loki's grasp as she made a face over the thought of those damn insects. Loki was right, it was nasty and a mess, so right now she'd have to use up as much milk as they could without spoiling it... She'd count with her fingers.

"I think you mix up the flour, the eggs, and some milk in a pan before you cook it on the stove. Do we have any kind of fruit? I don't know if we have too many." Daniela would crack some eggs and put it in the wooden bowl.</sub>

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At the mention of fruit, Loki dove in to the pantry again to go take a look.
"Think we got a few apples left. We could toast 'em up a bit maybe?" Loki called out. She re-emerged with small sack of apples and a half empty fruit bowl.

Loki picked up a small bunch of grapes that looked like they were half ready to turn in to raisins.
"Huh..." she grunted, putting them down again in the bowl. "We got ourselves a rather sorry looking selection though."

Loki took out the apples and gave one a quick polish. "At least these look okay." she shrugged, showing Daniela not noticing the massive worm eaten hole in it. "You recon those two are doing okay? Nerys was pretty upset."

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Ceph knew it'd be better if she just measured out a completely new pair, but still. After what had just happened, having her that....'close', was uncomfortable. He watched as she cleared off her desk and began determining the fabric amount, though she looked at him when he asked about her well being.

He had noticed that her dress was a serious mess, and he couldn't help but worry about what happened to the woman that had been wearing it. He found it unlikely that she would have gotten out completely unhurt if her dress was in that state by the time everything was done.

He looked her over with concerned eyes as she claimed she was unhurt. Risking it, he took a few steps forward, stopping just behind her left shoulder. He was about to speak when he noticed something on her wrists.

Eye widening in surprise, he moved without thinking and took her hand in his, inspecting the bruise. "How did this happen?" He asked quietly.

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<sub>Nerys was busy at work, making sure that her seamstress work wasn't so rusty at this point. For now? She would just pull out the threads and use the pants Cepheid was wearing to see what threads he needed and what else. She'd have to ask if he has the same fabric though. It looked pretty unique. She'd get everything together, that is until Cepheid got closer.

Nerys jumped visibly when he took her hand and she was about to yell at him, but stopped. Oh right, those bruises. But they were nothing! She went silent as he asked what happened and she tried to pull her hand away. She needed those to sew!

"That guard was just dragging me around before Andy shot him. I swear it's nothing serious so please don't worry about me."

Daniela, unconcerned with the issues of what was going on, would mix the ingredients and make a face at the lack of fruit that they had. Okay so... next time they should get more instead of leaving with so much. Alfya had a good stock so maybe they could head over there.

"Let's just toast the apples." She paused, almost thinking Loki was talking about if the apples were okay, but then she mentioned 'those two.'

"Leaving them alone should let them make up what's going on." She was serious at first, before she let out a giggle. "Besides they make a cute couple~."</sub>

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Loki agreed to sticking with the apples, as she put the old fruit to one side, and began slicing up the fruit in to thin segments.

"I suppose so." Loki responded to Daniela as she said it was best to leave them to make up for it. She chuckled as the mention of them being a potential couple came in to play.
"You think so?" Loki asked. "I mean, I don't really know them well enough, but maybe." Loki shrugged.

"I'm still getting over the fact that there are two Andromedas." she smirked jokingly.

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He gave her an apologetic expression as he gave her a start, and then focused on the brusing. Oh god, it looked painful.

As Nerys tried to pull her hand free, he held on a little more securely, keeping his grasp gentle but firm as she explained.

Once he leanred why, he released his grip and looked at her almost sadly. "I'm sorry, Nerys. It's my fault. I didn't protect you as much as I should have." He said.

Don't worry? "I know they're just bruises, but...I want to worry." He wasn't sure how else to put it. "I screwed up back there. I...guess I think worrying would somehow make up for me not coming through for you." He used his good hand and gently rubbed his aching shoulder.

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<sub>Nerys didn't want to admit, those bruises did indeed hurt! Those stupid guards trying to tie her up, grabbing her by the wrist... it was annoying to her and maybe she shouldn't have struggled so much but... well, it was Nerys. Go figure. She just stared up at him when he apologized.

"...Huh?" She gave him a stupid look. Seriously she thought Cepheid worried way too much for his own good, but her eyes traveled to his shoulder, which was put up in a makeshift sling and her eyes softened. Poor thing...

"It's not your fault. Like you said yesterday... it was just bad timing and circumstances. Plus I should blame myself for you getting shot. I thought the bullet would have ricochet off something else and not into your shoulder..." Nerys forgot about what she was supposed to be doing for the moment.

Oh, Daniela, of course she would be gossiping about it. She went to pour the batter over the pan, a little at a time and taking some utensils to help with flipping them. She'd giggle again when Loki spoke up.

"I'm sure. They like each other too much to fight over it." She nodded when Loki mentioned that. "I don't think they'd be happy being called two Andromeda or two Cepheids. Even if they are identical twins. I never knew it myself!"</sub>

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Loki brought over the sliced up fruit, and set it down on the side ready for cooking up. "I hadn't really noticed until you mentioned it." She said in response.

As for Andromeda and Cepheid, it was true. They were two entirely different people all together. Loki had noticed. Maybe that's why Cepheid creeped her out a little. He acted way too different to his identical brother than she was used to. Admittedly, she hadn't really met identical twins before.

"Well. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?" Loki smiled to Daniela as she then grabbed another pan and helped her fry up the batter. "We'll take them in some breakfast, and maybe we'll see how they're getting on."

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Lucky for Nerys, Ceph didn't really notice the stupid look that she made, though her expression of confusion was noticed. "I should have acted sooner, done more..." It was quite obvious that he felt personally responsible for the whole incident. While Nerys acted out of line, in the end it was his job to make sure she wasn't hurt. Yay chivalry!

She blamed himself for getting shot? To be completely honest with himself, never once had his thoughts drifted to his shoulder. Sure, it hurt, but in all his thinking of how he could have done more, never once had he added his bullet wound to the equation. He glanced to his wound, his thoughts likely very apparent. "It's not your fault. It was just an unlucky shot. Had our places been switched, I would have done the same. There was no way to control where the bullet went."

He paused, and then sighed, stepping forward and carefully pulling Nerys into a one armed hug. "Just...never do anything like that again. I don't think my heart can take being that scared again."

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<sub>Nerys looked at Cepheid when he spoke up, right into his green eyes. She'd look into them for a good long few moments when he b;amed himself for everything. No, he couldn't do that! Now he was getting depressed. She paused in her work, to turn and face him.

"You're trying to pin the blame on yourself. Don't do that." She murmured. Of course she let out a small gasp of surprise when he pulled her into a hug and she looked up at him, her one visible eye wide with a bit of surprise.

"Cepheid, I...."

Meanwhile, the smell of delicious foodstuffs was afering through the whole ship as Daniela and Loki did their 'Daniela and Loki Cooking Hour" show. Daniela would pull out a secret compartment and give a nice little container of cinnamon and some sugar to Loki (spices were expensive and Dani took great effort to hide them).

"Can't really say. Cepheid has the longer hair though." She giggled, pouring in and making crepe-like articles of foodstuff. "Indeed we will~."</sub>

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"Hey Daniela, you ever heard of the cinnamon challenge?"

Loki took the container, and gently seasoned the pancakes and applied the apple slices as Daniela cooked them up. They had a decent working rythm going on. Loki could get used to helping in the kitchen. It seemed easy enough, and if not slightly therapeutic.

"Do you think we've made enough?" Loki pondered, as she stepped back to look at their finished work. She tilted her head to the side as her stomache growled out loud. She pursed her lips, and sidled off to one side, before pulling out a steel platter to use as a tray.