Shopping Stress pt 2 - Pie [Halimeda]

Berwald's smile found its way back onto his face. "Y' would? Hn, th'nk y'." He punched in the code for the number pad and pushed open the door, pausing to hold it open for Hali. Actually, no, his new friend. Berwald was chuffed about that. Hali was nice and Berwald liked it when she smiled at him and did things like patting his arm. People didn't often do that to him, it was great. He paused at the stairs and looked at the lift. Maybe this once he should use it. He pushed the button and turned to Hali. "Y' want t' stop at y'r house, I assume? 'll be at my pl'ce. Floor 8. Th' door'll be open," He offered.

Berwald slipped into the lift and waited for Hali to step on with him before hitting the '3' and the '8' buttons, causing them both to light up a nice red colour. The door slid shut and the lift started to rattle upwards. It wasn't particularly fast, Berwald reckoned he could have run the length of the stairs and gotten all the way to the 8th floor before the lift reached the 7th. He shuffled his feet awkwardly. "I'll try t' work out wh't equipm'nt we need..." If he remembered that cooking show correctly, didn't he need some sort of... Bunch of stones? To make the crust keep it's shape? Or had he just made that up on the spot? If not, what would he use as a replacement? He frowned and cleaned his glasses.

"If y'r sure..." He watched Hali bubble happily (She looked quite bubbly in Berwald's eyes anyway), and nodded. "The door'll be op'n." Floor 3 was not very far away, so Hali was not in the elevator for long. Once she was off, it started to rise up again and Berwald watched the indicator above the door telling him he was getting closer to his own floor. It reached the top and the doors opened with the little 'Ping' sound that Berwald found strangely satisfying. He gathered his things and hurried over to his apartment, opened it, and went inside, leaving the door wide open and inviting. He put all of the things he bought in their correct places and set the tin of cherries on the counter, waiting to be used. Glancing at his wrist-watch, he took a seat in the kitchen and stared at the open doorway, waiting for Halimeda to appear.

There was a nice, loud 'ding' from the elevator and Berwald's eyes flicked towards sound, even if he couldn't quite see the elevator from where his room was. He watched Hali approach with the items she said to be collecting and paused for a moment to greet her with a friendly (At least, he thought it was friendly) grunt. Standing, he ushered her inside with a flick of the wrist before shutting the door behind her. He pointed at the spot next to his own shoes and said, "Y' can take off y'r shoes 'n' put them ov'r there." Next, he reached over to the hooks which mainly held coats, and took down two aprons. They were from his mother, so they were baby blue ("To match your eyes, dear!") and frilly ("It's all the rage with us mothers, you know!"), much to Berwald's displeasure. Still, he wasn't one to complain, and offered one of them to Hali so that she wouldn't get her clothes dirty.

Berwald squeezed into his apron, feeling slightly awkward, and followed Halimeda into the kitchen to watch her put down the things she brought in there. He glanced over them momentarily before focussing his gaze back on her. "Hn?" Truth be told, he didn't know much in the desert department. "I..." What was the last thing he baked? Berwald couldn't remember. He scratched his head and squinted at the ceiling, trying to think, but it wasn't coming to him. "D'n't know," He eventually confessed, furrowing his brows. "I m'stly cook usin' th' pans... I roast meat sometimes if th't's anythin' like 't," He offered, but he didn't think it counted. "'S th't a problem?" He hoped not. The whole reason Halimeda was here was to help him bake this pie.

Berwald watched curiously as Halimeda made the crust. It looked easy enough... Maybe. He nodded along to everything she did, from turning on the oven to putting one pie tin over the other. While it made sense when Halimeda explained it, that part baffled Berwald. He wouldn't have thought to do that, he would've just trusted that the crust wasn't about to fall in on itself... Which was probably why he wasn't the one doing the cooking. Once the pie crust was in the oven, Berwald confirmed quietly that he had understood what Halimeda had done with an "I see," and another nod. He then reached over to the tin of cherries and the tin opener, holding them up. "I take 't we need th's now?" Whether they needed it yet or not, Berwald thought he'd be helpful and open it for when they did need it. He hooked the opener on the rim of the tin and wound it around the circumference, cutting through the metal effectively.

Once it was almost nearly open, Berwald pulled back the lid like a flap. A cherry slopped over the side by accident because the dent made it difficult to hold the contents upright. Berwald shot out his other hand, muttering "Oops..." as he did so. The cherry hit his palm, and the moment it did, there was a loud popping noise and a green shoot, very much alive and well, burst out of the center of the, very much preserved, cherry. Berwald let out a very uncharacteristic cry and dropped it onto the table. By the time it hit the wood, the shoot had leaves springing up, and a dark ripe cherry, fresh and unpicked, dangling from it. "I... Uh..." If Berwald was honest, he wasn't entirely sure what happened.

(( ;; I hope this was worth the wait ))