At Home with Clark and Jim

[stands_for_hope]

[continued from here]

They'd fallen into a routine pretty easily.

Clark had managed to write up something about the church bust without incriminating either of them, which meant that his Perry had been pleased enough with his work for the day and had only yelled at him for five minutes about his failure to show up in the office the whole day. Lois had ribbed him a little, which had been remarked upon as she usually gave the new guy hell if he did anything remotely out of the line, and then she'd ribbed him a lot. He hadn't minded too terribly much since he had visited her afterwards at her apartment and she'd done plenty of kissing to make it better.

With a second person in the apartment, he'd started to fix it up a little, bringing home new linens, keeping the fridge stocked more regularly, and he'd even managed to find a new couch for them through a very kindly older woman and Craigslist.

True to his word, he'd gotten some rudimentary identification for Jim and he walked through the door with a spring in his step, closing the door behind him and plopping it down on the kitchen table with a smile.

Comments

[stands_for_hope]

"Oh honey, don't you worry about it. Clark's more patient than he lets on. He puts up with me, don't you know. You boys enjoy your ball game and I'll see you at Thanksgiving."

Because apparently, that was settled.

"You can hang up, dear. Clark and I finished up talking he passed me over. But you take care, sweetheart. Kisses for both of you."

[kolodnoykovki]

"Thank you, Martha. I look forward to meeting you in person. Have a good night," he said, and, after a goodbye in return, he figured out how to hang up. It took a little confusion, but he did manage, and he offered the phone back to Clark. "She's really nice," he murmured, slightly wistful. "Thank you."

[stands_for_hope]

"She put up with raising me for twenty years," he said with a warm smile as he took the phone.

"And you're welcome. Though you might not thank me once you get caught up in the madness of a Kent-Clark family Thanksgiving."

He slipped the phone into his pocket.

"Now, I think I promised you ice cream?"

[kolodnoykovki]

"You did, but you don't have to. I think I promised two visits to your parents' house." As he said it, he realised he wasn't exactly sure how that had happened, except that he had somehow felt like he belonged somewhere for once. He felt welcomed. He'd never anticipated that.

"And I don't think I'll have a problem at Thanksgiving. I'll have time to adjust by then."

[stands_for_hope]

"Nonsense."

He pulled on his jacket, more for appearances than anything, and headed for the door.

"Back in a few minutes. The store's just down the street."

And he was out the door almost too fast, obviously in a fantastic mood. Good food, his mother obviously liked Jim, and they were going to go for a baseball game this weekend. Life was, honestly, damn good.

[kolodnoykovki]

"All right," he said, watching after Clark with a little wonder. He wasn't sure what god he'd made happy today, but it had to be one of them, or he wouldn't be feeling this good at all.

It was an alien feeling - actually feeling good. But he wasn't going to let it go without a fight. Not anymore.

[stands_for_hope]

Clark returned pretty quickly with a large plastic bag containing more than a few pints of ice cream. After locking the door behind him, he headed for the table, laying out the options.

"We've got chocolate, good old vanilla, strawberry..." he looked over at Jim, "those are the big three. Then there's--"

He had to dig into the bag a little more.

"Sea salt caramel, rum raisin, and some mango sherbert."

Looking accomplished, he flopped into his chair.

[kolodnoykovki]

His brows raised. "Sea salt caramel? Why are they salting caramel?" It seemed he could understand rum raisin - that was sweet. And so were mangos. But he wasn't sure of this salting something sweet idea. Still, he got some spoons and bowls and came back to sit with Clark, peering at the pints curiously.

[stands_for_hope]

Clark gestured at the pints as if to say 'have at'.

"Let's see what you like first and then I'll attack the ones you're not interested in. I'm not too picky when it comes to ice cream."

He tapped the 'sea salt caramel'.

"I picked it up because it's a little out of the ordinary, but I liked it when I tried it. The salt does interesting things to the flavor."

[kolodnoykovki]

For the sake of safety, he reached for the vanilla, passing a bowl and spoon over to Clark. "I ... think I know about saltwater taffy, but I'm not sure if that's similar." But he dished himself out what he thought was a scoop of vanilla. And then, after a moment, he added strawberry to it. Why not?

[stands_for_hope]

"It's a little like that. The salt and the sweet is actually pretty good."

He glanced at Jim's selections.

"But you can't go wrong with strawberry and vanilla."

He pulled over the vanilla himself before scooping out a spoonful of that and the mango sorbet.

[kolodnoykovki]

"I'll try the others, but I think these are... safe," he said, getting himself a small spoonful of each of the others. He was at least polite enough not to double-dip. And he started with the salted caramel, eating it with a look of concentration.

[stands_for_hope]

Clark took to his own bowl happily enough, as he was pretty much content with the two he had at the moment, but he was curious to see what Jim might like.

[kolodnoykovki]

The caramel got a wrinkled nose, though he could see a bit of the interest of the difference between salt and sweet. Next came the rum raisin - and that got more of an interesting note. Almost familiar. "Hm."

[stands_for_hope]

"That was my dad's favorite," he admitted with a little smile.

"Mom can't stand it but she had a recipe she'd make up in the old ice cream maker we had."

[kolodnoykovki]

"I... think I've tasted something like it. Can't really remember. But it tastes familiar." But next came the mango. He raised his eyebrows at the shift in flavour. "Oh."

[stands_for_hope]

He laughed a little.

"I got to try the real thing on a trip down to the Caribbean," he explained, "but the ice cream's my favorite. Out in Hawaii, they wrap it in this rice dough, though, and that's probably my favorite."

[kolodnoykovki]

"Rice dough?" That was interesting. He asked it while taking half a spoonful of the chocolate. He knew what chocolate was supposed to taste like, and the chocolate did live up to it.

[stands_for_hope]

"It's pretty good. I'll have to pick some up from the asian grocery sometime. Not too sweet, and nice and chewy."

He took a spoon or two of the mango mixed with the vanilla.

[kolodnoykovki]

Jim nodded, then asked, after a moment's thought, "What's curry?" After all, that had been mentioned, too, and he wondered if it was a food he'd like.

[stands_for_hope]

Clark was a little surprised by the question, but all the pieces go together when he remembers his mother's comment from the phonecall.

He wasn't trying to listen in, but it's a little too easy for him to have missed it.

"It's a kind of dish that originated in India, using certain spices. I learned how to cook it while I was there for a while and it's become something of a favorite since then. I was actually figuring I'd make some later this week."

[kolodnoykovki]

"What does it taste like?" Spices. He didn't know if he liked them yet. So far, the food had been rather tame, except for Mexican food which had a heat that didn't bother him, really, but did make things a touch more spice than he seemed to be used to.

[stands_for_hope]

He spread his hands.

"It pretty much tastes like curry. There's nothing else quite like it. I like mine pretty hot, but I usually make it mild for Ma when I cook it, so you don't have to worry if you're not a fan of heat."

He also usually made his vegetarian, but that was a different discussion for a different day.

[kolodnoykovki]

He nodded just slightly. "I think if I'm going to try it, I'll try it mild. I'm not sure about heat. I didn't mind the salsa, but it may be something to accustom myself to." The flavour had been good, even if the heat had been something of a surprise.

[stands_for_hope]

"Mild is just as good as hot," Clark said with another scoop of mixed mango-vanilla ice cream.

"If it tells you anything, you can find sweets and even ice creams with 'curry' as one of the flavors. It's more a sort of taste than anything else."