2/12 Instance: Heart Shaped Stew

[Starfish]

Timeline: Valentine's Day


Darren: "Do you think anyone will notice the missing wine?" Darren asked as they made thier way into the empty, night-time kitchen, arms full of ingredients.

Selene: "I think this depends entirely on how expensive the wine was," Selene replies, unloading the ingredients she carried on the kitchen table. Some of the round vegetables rolled over the edge and fell to the floor. "On the other hand, it's unlikely anyone would be foolish enough to leave valuable wine unguarded near a group of college students."

Darren: "I dunno, I did pick the lock on the cupboard in the staff room to get this, it looks kinda expensive," Darren dropped the bottle onto the counter top along with the other items, "my mom always said that the mistake people make when they cook with wine is to buy cheap wine for it."

Darren: He gave Selene a small, almost shy smile, "And I figured we didn't want our first Valentine's Day meal to taste like shit, huh?"

Selene: "Certainly not," Selene replied, giving Darren a smirk in return. "For once I'm willing to reign in my curiosity enough to refrain from experimenting, and cook by the recipe instead." She bent down and hunted the onions and potatoes that had escaped under the table. "Unless the recipe disappoints, of course. Then all bets will be off."

Darren: "I did notice you brought more ingredients then the recipe demands," he grinned, helping her with rounding up the errant vegetables, and then eyeing up the slightly bloody paper bag she'd set down on the counter-top, "do I wanna know where you got those from, by the way?"

Selene: "I thought some reserve ingredients were in order, just in case our first attempt leads to unexpected culinary results," Selene set, getting the vegetables to behave and sit in place. Her eyes followed Darren's gaze. "These," Selene asked, picking up the bloody bag. "Oh, I wouldn't want to lie to you." In her mind, that had answered the question completely.

Darren: "Well at least I can tell that they're from a cow and arn't past date," Darren smirked, "you could tell me a really intersting lie though about how you got them? You could put aliens in it."

Selene: "Why yes, aliens were definitely involved," Selene said, smiling to herself while she carefully unwrapped the cow hearts. "I was fortunate enough to interrupt them as they were busy tipping over and abducting some cows. Apparently they're a delicacy where the aliens come from."

Selene: "Now, in light of interplanetary relations, I didn't object," she continued. "I was able to convince them to part with the hearts in exchange of my silence, however. As long as they'd get to keep the testicles, they didn't mind."

Darren: Darren snorted with laugher, clapping his hands as she finished, "That's the most awesome way to get cow hearts ever," he snickered, moving to wrap an arm around her waist and kissing down the side of her face.

Darren: With his free hand he poked one of the hearts, the muscle jiggled slightly, the tubes wobbling, "Mmmm, tastey."

Selene: Selene smiled and tilted her head to the side, letting Darren kiss down her neck. She picked up one of the hearts and poked it curiously. "Caressed by my boyfriend and getting to toy with bloody intestines," she said. "Valentine's starts quite promising, I'd say."

Darren: "Mmmm, and there's something very poetic about eating hearts on Valentine's Day, in an Edgar Allen Poe kinda way," he gave her a final kiss on the cheek and unwrapped himself from her, "and as part of your present you can do the fun preperation of chopping up the hearts, I'll do the veggies."

Selene: "You spoil me," Selene said with a grin. She tossed the heart into the air and caught it again, which sent a few drops of blood flying. Before she reached for one of the shiny knives, she gave the other hearts a thoughtful look. Then she picked up a second one and awkwardly tried to juggle them. "Certainly different than doing that with lemons..."

Darren: Darren snickered as he watched the body parts fly, "Those alien's don't know what they're missing, huh?" he said as he carried the veggies to the sink to wash them off, "yeah, well with lemons you don't have too-" he pulled up the recipe behind his eyes ...

Darren: "One, Wash the heart and remove any fat and arteries. Slice the heart in half, then slice it into 1/2 inch thick slices." he quoted, "though personally I think the uniform slices are boring, maybe you could cut them into little heart shapes?"

Selene: "Oh, that's an excellent idea," Selene commented and flailed her arms as she tried to keep the bloody organs to slip out of her grip and fall to the ground. "I'm all for adapting this recipe in a creative manner. That's what acclaimed chefs do, isn't it?" She succeeded in herding the hearts into the sink and turned on the faucet.

Darren: "Yep, pretty much," Darren shook of the veggies and eyed up the knives on the rack ... boring, the recipe didn't say how they were meant to be choped.

Darren: He morphed his hands into techno-organic clevers and went all iron chef on the poor, unsuspecting veggies ass with a slightly demented grin on his face.

Selene: Selene held the hearts into the stream of water one by one, giggling as she managed to get it to flow into one of the big arteries and spurt out of the other blood vessels. She eyed Darren while she put the organs on the chopping board. "I don't know whether to feel delighted or jealous," she said, giving him a grin.

Selene: "I guess I'll have to be content with butchering the old fashioned way." Selene pulled a long knife out of the wooden block. After thoughtfully eying it for a moment, she pulled out another one.

Darren: "Awesome! We should totally see if we could use the spares as some kind of evil water balloons," he laughted as his enthusiastic slicing caused a bit of carrot to bounch up and smack him on the nose, "Motherfucker! Well, that's the luck of the genetic draw, huh?"

Darren: "Anyways, I'm sure you can use your animation power to have some fun with this, babe," he added as he finished up, shaking vegetable juice off his hands.

Selene: "Either mind reading is now a part of your powers, too, or you just know me that well by now," Selene replied, looking over her shoulder at Darren with a smile on her lips. She held up her pair of knives and channeled a bit of energy into them. When she let go, they floated in the air, before spinning a few times around their mistress and diving towards their first victim.

Selene: "I wonder if we can create a scary sculpture out of the parts we don't kneed," Selene mused, guiding the knives with her mind as they began to cut the first heart.

Darren: "A sorta Damien Hurst type piece?" Darren frowned, "Guess that could work, maybe Lorna'd give us extra credit for it?" He grabbed a pan from the cupboard and put it on the stove and then picked up the bottle of wine and cracked it open, giving it a sniff, "you know anything about good wine?"

Selene: "Better than that," Selene replied, grinning to herself. "After all, it's not art unless the sculpture does a horrifying little dance." Since the animated knives were doing all the work more or less by themselves, she decided that more entertainment would be necessary. Repeatedly poking the remaining hearts, she animated their dead tissue, as well.

Selene: "I'm afraid my wine knowledge is quite rudimentary," Selene told Darren, turning to look at him while the cow hearts started to bounce, twirls, and dance on their arteries. "I basically classify it by wine I like, and wine I don't like."

Darren: "I don't really drink unless it's socially," Darren took an experimental swig of the wine out of the bottle, then passed it over for Selene to try, grinning at the grusome ballet being performed on the counter top, "Hey, maybe when you graduate you could join the circus of horrors with that act?"

Selene: "As a college graduate, I could expect to run my own circus of horror at least," Selene said, showing Darren a grin as she took the bottle from him. She smelled the wine first, then sipped. "I guess it tastes expensive. Not that it matters, though. I'm sure it'll add a nice flavour to our meal." In the meantime, the knives were hunting down the second heart as it tried to escape.

Darren: A tiny drop of wine was sat on the corner of Selene's mouth and with an evil smirk Darren leant forwards and licked it off, "Yeah, real nice flavour, you done with the heart?"

Selene: Selene nipped at Darren's lip, returning the smirk. "The first one should be done by now," she looked over her shoulder at the chopping board. "Anything else we need to prepare?" She stepped back to the counter and set the blood vessels aside.

Darren: "You just need to roll them in some flour and some salt and pepper, then we can fry them in butter," Darren gave her a quick kiss and went to the fridge to get the butter out.

Selene: "I should be able to handle that," Selene replied and searched the kitchen shelves for the flour. "We could also keep the blood vessels for our medlab, in case we need them for a bypass." She found the salt and pepper, before covering the counter in a layer of flour.

Darren: "Good idea, I'm sure McCoy would love us for it, we should leave them on his desk for him with a note," Darren tossed the butter in the pan and started to heat it up, "you know we're gonna have an hour to kill while we wait for this to cook."

Selene: "You seriously can't be worried that me won't find a way to keep ourselves occupied for an hour," Selene commented, glancing over at Darren with a smirk on her lips. "Besides, the fact that it's a Valentine's dinner we're preparing here pretty much dictates how we're supposed to pass the time." She finished massaging and seasoning the pieces of heart.

Darren: Darren, who was also entertaining ideas along the same vein gave her a raised eyebrow, "Oh good, glad to know we're on the same page here then, bring the pieces of heart over, we need to fry them for thirty seconds before we can get to the fun stuff."

Selene: "More fun than chopping up bloody intestine," Selene asked, scraping together the pieces of meat to toss them into the hot pan. "This Valentine's Day thing could turn out to become my second most favourite holiday." She wrapped her arms around Darren's waist and rested her chin on his shoulder. "After Halloween, of course."

Darren: "Nothing could ever top Halloween, ever," Darren grinned, watching the meat fry, after a few seconds he turned the meat over to fry the other side, "Okay, now we just need to add all the other crap and simmer it for an hour," he leant back against Selene contentedly as he tossed in the veggies and poured in the wine and water.

Selene: Selene held on to Darren as she looked down at the filled pan. "It looks promising so far," she said. Turning her head, she began to nibble his earlobe. "Will we have to keep an eye on things, or will it be safe to sneak off while we wait?"

Darren: Darren pratically purred as he turned the gas low and put the lid over the pan, "Dunno, recipe didn't say ... but there's a big pantry over there with a door," he spun around and picked Selene up, "hmmm?" he kissed her.

Selene: "Ooh, defiling the den of food," Selene replied, holding on to Darren as she brought her legs up around his waist. "Another point in favour of this day." She leaned close to press a kiss to his lips.

Darren: Darren carried Selene to the cupboard, kissing back, "No one can claim I don't know my girl," he smiled, kicking the pantry door shut behind him.