Chapter 8: Learning
"One more time, Anna. This time focus more. You have to want to keep it still while lifting it." His voice was really starting to grate on her nerves as she stared at the pencil in front of her with distaste.
"Why? It's a pencil," she bit off. She wanted to be done for today, but he seemed convinced that they weren't finished until she lifted a pencil to his standards.
"Because eventually, you may need to lift a person." She rolled her eyes. Such a stupid thought. Lifting a person. "Take it as a hypothetical then. Sensitive equipment if people seems so odd to you." She was hot, she wanted a shower, she wanted food, and most of all, she wanted Kaidan to just shut the hell up. Who the hell said he got to control her free will? She had signed up for lessons, not a personal beat-down.
"No. Fuck you. I'll do whatever the hell I want! I can leave the orchard whenever the hell I want. It's my instincts; you add control and it's no longer instinct, it's just a running mental commentary on your every whim and thought. I want to be able to think without watching myself!" Once the words were out of her mouth, they sounded a little harsher than she intended, but she wasn't in the mood to care. She was flaring involuntarily, and it tinted everything blue.
"You do that, and you'll get someone killed!" Kaidan took a step towards her, shaking with anger. She hadn't seen him angry, but it felt good, knowing she could provoke a reaction out of him. She finally found a button. A small voice that sounded suspiciously like her mother told her not to goad him, but she quickly discarded that opinion. This would be fun.
"Oh, really? Mr. Control knows what happens when you don't control yourself. Well, Mr. Know-it-all, why don't you tell the class?" She looked around, knowing that he was teaching to a class of one. She mock bowed at the waist, sneering at him. His school had been shut down. Surely the teachers had sucked or something.
"I killed a man because of my lack of control!" There was distance between them, but it felt like he was all but in her face now, flaring his own anger in the form of blue wisps. And for once, she was taken aback. The anger seemed to present a different man, one who was willing to harness this anger. She couldn't think of anything to say, so she simply stood there with her mouth open, leaving only their panting breath to fill the void of sound. "BAaT was shut down because Vyrnus died. He died because I snapped his neck." Well, I don't know if that rules out bad teachers, she wondered and finally relaxed, genuinely curious about what had happened to make Kaidan snap like that.
"What happened?" He relaxed a little after she did, though his tension went from an animal waiting to pounce to a coiled spring inside of him. It was obvious that this lack of control still bothered him, and she took a step closer to him.
"Rahna was one of the girls I knew at BAaT. She was a gentle person and tried to just stay out of Vyrnus's rage. She just wanted a drink of water without a bloody nose. She reached for a glass instead of lifting it. Vyrnus broke her arm for that. I stood up to do something. I was just reacting; I wasn't thinking. He initiated a fight, and before I knew it, he had a knife in my face. I acted without thought and snapped his neck. He died not too long after that." His face had a haunted look, and she moved closer, sealing the distance between them. She reached up, took his chin in her hand, and turned it so he was looking her in the eye. "They could have saved him if they acted sooner, but they didn't. I lost control, and it cost a Turian his life."
"You defended yourself. From everything you've said about Vyrnus, nothing short of putting him in the med-bay for a while would have stopped him. Now at least he can't go for retribution. I'm not saying that what you did was ok. Yes, control should be exercised, but you did a noble thing. You defended someone you care about. You defended yourself." She put a finger to his lips, wanting to finish her thought. "But I see the point you're making. Thank you for telling me." She stepped back again, realizing how close they were to each other. She couldn't read the look on his face either, but he took a step back as well.
"Then will you try again?" His voice was gentler, more of a request than a demand. After a moment, she nodded and turned her attention back to the pencil, paying closer attention to her thoughts. They spent another hour practicing, and by the end, Anna had noticed a distinct improvement in her lifting capabilities.
Two hours later, Annalisa was glad to be done with her classes for the day. She'd taken a long shower and checked her omni-tool, responding to a few messages from friends, asking how her lessons had gone. By the time she had finished, her stomach was growling at her, so she walked downstairs towards the kitchen, eager to eat dinner.
"Ready to start, Anna?" Molly asked politely as she reached the kitchen. Anna quirked her head to the side in confusion, wet hair falling to one side of her head.
"To start what?" She asked in return. Kaidan chose that moment to come up behind her.
"Cooking lessons," he answered.
"I thought we were done with teaching for the day." Anna glanced from one to the other, trying to figure out why she would need to cook, and how he had learned to cook. Kaidan grinned in response.
"Why stop just because we're home?" She sighed in exasperation as he walked up to the fridge and began pulling out different ingredients. "Besides, what's one of the things biotics are best known for?"
"Glowing blue?" She answered cheekily, flaring as she answered. Kaidan laughed.
"Besides that and reading minds, we're best known for our appetites. The amp burns a lot of calories, so you need to eat a lot to regain what you've lost. So a young biotic needs to know how to cook. You risk going hungry otherwise." Anna approached the kitchen warily. Sometimes her parents had cooked on starships, but she had never paid attention. "Don't worry, we'll start out easy. We'll do pasta tonight." He pulled her further into the room with his biotics, and she had to wonder at his control. "And no it won't bite you. Start with getting that pot," he pointed, "and filling it with water." She did as she was told. "Now set it on the stove, and set the proper burner to high." It took her a moment to figure out which was which, but she did so.
"Now get that pan and put it on this burner." She did so, and Kaidan handed her a package of butter. "Now we're going to heat up some meat. It's already cooked, so we don't have to worry about food poisoning." She shot him a dirty look, and he laughed. "So how much butter do you think you want to reheat some meat?" She cut some butter in the pan. "How much meat are you going to cook?" She looked at the package and cut an imaginary quarter out. "That much for the four of us? We'll have to cook up seconds. Here, think of each bowl." He grabbed a bowl out of a drawer. "Think of how much meat you would want to mix with pasta. Now think about how many of us there are and how many bowls we'll eat. Yes I'm asking you to do math."
"About ten bowls," she answered hesitantly.
"That sounds about right. Now about how much meat would you put in one bowl?" She looked back at the package before indicating her answer, cutting a small area. "I'd say about that much too. Let's you taste the meat without eating just meat. So multiply that area times ten." Her answer looked to be closer to a third of the package.
"About a third of the meat," she replied, more confident.
"Yeah. So then how much butter would you put with that?" She looked back at the butter and cut more off, not answering him verbally. "Good, and put about this much garlic in," he peeled off part of a garlic and threw it into the pan. "Let that heat up real quick." He used the time to rearrange a few items and cut the meat out. "Now we make sure the melted butter has had a chance to get all over the pan." He put his hand over hers, grabbing the pan and moving it around strangely. "Watch the butter move, and that will show you how to move your hand." She tried and then saw the logic to his movements. "See, you finished that on your own." Sure enough, his hand had let her be.
"So now we put the meat on here." He put the meat on the pan, and it sizzled as he grabbed a spatula and cut into the meat, moving and pushing it in intervals. "And now we check on the water." By now the water had small bubbles floating lazily to the surface. "We can probably give that another minute; what we want are lots of small bubbles quickly bubbling up, a simple boil. If you get big bubbles, they can pop and get boiling water on you, which isn't fun. If that happens, just turn the heat down, and the water will calm." She made a mental note of that. "Let's turn our attention back to the meat." He shook the pan and attacked the meat again. "See the color change from earlier, the browning? That's what we want from our meat." He set the pan down and handed her the spatula. "Now I want you to take the pan, bring it over to this plate, and pour the meat onto the plate. Don't worry, Mom and I will be here the whole time. Mom won't let the plate go flying, and I'm here to watch the pan."
"If this goes badly, I told you so," Anna warned.
"And if this goes well, I told you so," he answered. She then picked up the pan and turned easy enough. "Good. Now turn it enough that you can scoop the meat onto the plate with the spatula." After getting some of the meat out, fishing with the spatula became harder. "Turn it more. It's alright." But this time, she turned the pan too much, and some of the meat spilled out. Molly herded it back onto the plate. "It's alright. Use your spatula to flatten the meat mountain." He was right, the meat was a small pile that wouldn't allow her to put more on the plate, so she started moving and squishing the meat. "Okay, now go back to putting the last of it on there." She did as he said, and her face was flushing from more than the heat. She had to be such a bad student. "That's great. Now bring the pan over here and put it in the sink." She all but clunked the pan into the sink, and he clapped her on the back. "Great job. You're doing really well." A hiss then resounded through the kitchen, and Annalisa jumped. They looked in the direction of the noise, and Anna saw the water almost jump out of the pan and onto the hot oventop.
"The water!" She shouted and quickly went over to the stove, turning the heat down. Sure enough, the water receded.
"See, you're getting a handle on things. I told you that you'd do well. Now grab the pasta and gently pour it into the water pot." She did as he said, and they left the pasta to boil. "Now wash this spinach with water." She again carried out his instructions and placed it in a large bowl. "Let's see how the pasta is." He went over and fished two pieces out. "Come here, try one of these. If it's crunchy, let the pasta continue to cook for another minute and try another piece. If you can bite it and it tastes ready to eat, then you know to take it off." She bit into the piece and it seemed alright to her. "It tastes ready, so let's turn off the heat. Now, we're going to carry this over to the other side of the sink, where the colander is. I want you to pour the pot into the colander slowly while Mom pours cold water over it. You can do this, and I'm right here just in case." She grabbed the pot without his help and slowly walked to the sink, careful not to spill any water. But as she turned the pot, a large clump of pasta fell into the colander, and a large splash started. Before she could react, and before the water could hit her, she felt the hum of biotics, and Kaidan pulled up a barrier that encompassed both of them, keeping her dry and unharmed. Kaidan then wrapped his hand around hers, steadying the flow of hot water. "It's alright. It happens. I've seen bigger mistakes on the first try, and no one was hurt. You had the right reaction. By righting the pot again, you stopped more from slopping out and hurting yourself further. It'll come with practice."
"You two go set the table now. I'll mix everything together," Molly said, shooing them from the sink, which Anna gratefully fled from the kitchen with silverware.
"This, I can handle," she stated confidently as she started to set the table. Kaidan chuckled as he brought the glasses.
"I don't see why you think you can't cook. You can. After a few more lessons, the only things you'll need are practice and recipes. And trust me when I say that I've known several people who were far worse at cooking than you." She gave him a wary glance.
"Alright, name one." Kaidan grew pensive at the demand before he spoke.
"Rahna was a terrible cook. Burned most of what she cooked, and the rest of it never tasted right. Most of the time, others would either have to hold her hand the entire time she cooked, or just cook for her." Anna could tell from how Kaidan spoke that he thought highly of this Rahna, enough to defend her against Vyrnus, so she doubted that he would exaggerate. But instead of responding, she instead thought about what he said. She wasn't that bad, and she had picked it up quick enough. Perhaps there was hope for her cooking skills. "Make you feel better?" He asked quietly.
"It puts things in perspective. At least I'm not that bad, and practice should help me get better," she answered, thinking back to her lessons over the past few weeks. She had improved a lot and could keep getting better if she stuck to it.
The table had gotten suspiciously quiet, and Molly snuck a glance behind her. Anna was quietly looking out the window, and Kaidan seemed lost in his own thoughts as well, though she could guess at what they were. Out of their sight, Molly Alenko smiled. Kaidan had been so heartbroken over Rahna and haunted over Vyrnus that he seemed to almost never venture out. He had tried to keep the facts away from her and Cedric, but they had received an official notice from Conatix, brought by more men in suits, stating what had happened. They also said they wouldn't press charges against Kaidan if everyone kept quiet about anything their son might say about his time at Gagarin Station. They had been wary of the agreement, but it was the only way to see their son arrive on Earth. They had been desperate and signed it, only to wonder months later if the trial would have been so bad. But perhaps teaching a friend was what he needed to understand that these things weren't his fault. In fact, those were the first negative words she'd heard about Rahna. She'd been an angel in Kaidan's eyes, but now she hoped her son would see her as human. Maybe then, he would see that he was worth a second chance.