[crow]

“Not if you drop them,” said Peach. “Actually, yeah, you know what, that’s a good idea. How about you just stick to clothes?” It wasn’t a bad arrangement. On a cursory check, a lot of those boxes had been winter jackets and old clothes and things like that.

And there wasn’t nearly as much that could go wrong with carrying those, even for Neo. They weren’t eating right now, and there was nothing to spill on them, so short of Neo managing to rip something--- god forbid--- he was probably safe that way.

[crow]

There could still be something heavy in one of the boxes if it wasn’t all clothes, and if it caught Neo off guard… No, no, that wasn’t going to happen. She was going to think positive, and not jinx herself that way. Maybe if she didn't think about it, it just... wouldn't happen.

Despite Peach’s apprehension and misgivings, however, the work did go faster with two people. And after a whole twenty minutes of no accidents from Neo, she even began to believe that things might turn out okay.

[crow]

It was nice to be able to turn her brain off and just work, and by the time Neo began to complain of being tired, it was already nearly time for lunch.

They’d gotten through most of the stuff in the storage room. There was only a small group of boxes left in the far corner, along with an old TV and some assorted smaller pieces of furniture, some of which looked a little bit moth-eaten. Dusting off her hands and looking at the lot of it, Peach said, “Why don’t you go ahead and make lunch? I’ll take care of this last bit.”

[crow]

Neo nodded, probably happy to be freed from his drudgery, and hurried off into the kitchen before she could change her mind. Truth be told, it probably wasn’t the best idea to leave him in the kitchen unsupervised either, but she couldn’t be watching him every minute of the day if she wanted to get anything done. Besides, at least he’d managed to make food for them both before, mostly without incident. As long as he didn’t try to get creative with anything, she felt like he would probably be okay.

[crow]

She returned to her own task. The rest of the boxes didn’t provide much in the way of challenges, though the TV was tough and cumbersome to move. As she set it down in front of the growing pile of refugees from the old room, she looked at it for a moment and wondered why Ferdinand even needed this.

He could probably sell it to a junk shop and get some money for the parts, at least… They had a nice little flat-screen, and even that didn’t see much use, outside the weekends where Ferdinand sometimes hooked his laptop up to it for games.

[crow]

Maybe she would talk to him about it later, after he was done doing whatever he was doing in the kitchen. He was usually in a pretty good mood after one of his project days, so it wasn’t even that bad a gamble. And the worst he could say was no, so there was no real harm in trying.

With that done, she went to see about getting Confetti out of the closet. She could do it after lunch, but it was better to try to entice him out to eat.

[crow]

That way, she’d have an excuse to be kicking him out, rather than doing so directly, which could only better her odds, since she wasn't sure he'd stand for the former. “Hey, you in there?” she said, knocking on the door. “We’re having lunch. You didn’t eat anything yesterday, so you might as well come out and join us.”

The door did open this time. Good. She half thought he might do something like he’d done yesterday, just playing dead in there until… he actually died, maybe.

[crow]

Could they die from starvation, come to think of it? She wasn’t sure. At the same time though, she wasn’t exactly eager to find out if that was the case.

“What do you want,” said Confetti crossly. His hair, she noticed, was perfectly fixed, and he’d changed clothes too--- into one of Neo’s more appropriately colored pastel sweaters, the one with the pop tart cat on the front. It was several sizes too big for him, and it showed. Still, she wasn’t going to comment on it, mostly because that was a conversation she didn’t really want to have.

[crow]

They were going to have to go shopping for him at some point. Maybe if they had time after moving everything, or maybe tomorrow… But they were definitely going to need to buy him things of his own if he was going to be staying with them long-term.

“Lunch is on,” she said. “You can’t tell me you’re not hungry. What, did you get fed at that guy’s house yesterday?”

“Maybe I would have if you hadn’t come and dragged me out like that,” said Confetti.

[crow]

He must really have been pretty hungry though, as he did come out of the room, and when Peach walked towards the kitchen, he followed. “What’s ‘lunch’ anyway?”

“The same as every other meal, though it's not the same as for humans. You dry ingredients, maybe a bit of fat, and then your wet. Do you feel like you want some eggs?” Her own recipe didn’t call for any, but Neo liked one once in a while. And she hadn’t actually been around for Confetti’s creation, such as it was.

[crow]

None of them knew how to bake; that stuff was all Ferdinand’s territory, and so none of them hung around the kitchen either. Ferdinand didn’t like people getting in his way when he was working. He wouldn’t get upset about it the same way he got upset about broken family heirlooms, but it still didn’t do you any favors with him, that was for sure.

She considered warning Confetti about the things that Ferdinand was particular about, but she decided against it, after a moment of thinking.

[crow]

Who knew if it would help sort things out between them, or if it would just give Confetti ammunition with which to push Ferdinand’s buttons? And if they did as she’d hoped, and ended up mostly leaving each other alone, then she probably wouldn’t need to do it anyway.

Neo looked up as she approached, then startled slightly at the sight of Confetti behind her. “Oh, you came out!” he said, sounding just as surprised as Peach had felt when she first saw him open the door.

[crow]

She glanced again at Neo's wide-eyed expression, and corrected herself. Okay, so maybe he was a little more than that. But then, it didn’t take a whole lot to surprise someone like Neo.

“Yeah, what about it?” said Confetti. “I was told there was going to be food.”

“R-Right…” Neo looked around himself uneasily. “W-Well, it’s just that Peach didn’t say to make any for you…”

“I’ll get on it, don’t worry about it,” said Peach. She was already opening some cupboards and getting out what she had used yesterday.

[crow]

Good thing they had plenty of sprinkles left over here, or they might have had to go into the bakery kitchen, which Ferdinand wouldn’t have liked. She’d never gone in on a project day either, so who knew what they would find in there?

“Hey, what gives? You guys said you’d feed me,” said Confetti.

“Oh, hush. You waited a whole day for this, so you can wait a couple minutes longer,” said Peach. “Besides, I made some for you yesterday, and you were the one who didn’t want to eat.”

[crow]

He couldn’t say anything in the face of that, which gave Peach time enough to whip everything together. She handed the resulting bowl of dry batter and butter chunks to Confetti, then poured him a glass of milk.

“Get him an egg, would you?” she said to Neo, who nodded hurriedly and cracked one of the eggs into a bowl. “There. Eat it however you like, and let us know if you need any adjustments. You’re new, and Ferdinand didn’t give us your exact recipe, but this should be okay for now.”