Author's Chapter Notes:
this update was not supposed to be so late, but I had a super busy week and then when I tried to update...I couldn't get the internet to work...so, so sorry for the update...but I have been writing: currently I have 3 sequels started and 4 new stories going plus this one...so I havent' quit writing :)
Chapter 12: Cooking

She slowly made her way down to the attic staircase, planning to give him as much time as possible alone, and made her way to hall bathroom. As she made her way into the bathroom, Buffy caught her reflection in the mirror, and God, did she look scared.

“Calm down, Buffy, it’s not like you really care what he thinks. He’s just Sam’s teacher and none of that’s going to be affected by him not liking your paintings. It’ll be oka-“ ‘Are you insane,’ a voice in her head, silenced her, ‘Of course you care what he thinks, he’s more of a friend than you’ve had in the last 5 years, he’s a lot more than “just Sam’s teacher” and you’re crazy if you actually believe otherwise.’

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Buffy went to the sink and began washing her hands thoroughly with her lavender scented hand soap. When she was still washing her hands nearly two minutes later, she rationalized it by saying she wanted to make extra sure she got her hands clean and smelling good since she was going to be “cooking,” but really she was just buying time.

Back in the attic, William was still looking at the paintings, he hadn’t expected them to be this good. Good sure, but not this good. It boggled his mind that she could take such beautiful photographs and then do these paintings as well. It was amazing.

As he got to the last of the paintings he realized that it had been nearly ten minutest and Buffy still wasn’t back from “washing her hands”. Decidedly worried about her, he carefully sat the all of the paintings back up against the wall and made his way down the attic stairs. When he was in the second floor hallway, he listened to see if he could hear which direction she’d gone. After just a few seconds he heard the water running in, what he assumed to be, the bathroom just to his right.

“Buffy?” he asked, knocking on the door.

“Just a minute,” she said, turning off the faucet. Drying off her hands, she turned, and with a deep, calming breath, opened the door, “Hi,” she said as she placed the towel back on the bar.

“Hi yourself,” William said with a slight grin, “I was starting to get worried about you, though I’d come see how your hands were faring.”

“My hands?” Buffy asked confusedly.

“Well, you were washing them for ten minutes, Buffy, was thinking maybe they’d washed away by now.”

“Oh, that,” Buffy said, a blush creeping up her cheeks, “I…well,” she practically whispered, looking at her feet, “I wanted to make sure I got all the paint thinner off. So, um,” she continued in an even more shy and uncertain tone, “What’d you think of the paintings?”

“I-“ William started, only to be cut off by Buffy who looked up, but still never met his eyes.

“You know, we should really get down to the kitchen, get started on that cooking lesson. There’s not all that much time left.”

“Buffy, wait, we’ll have enough time for cooking, if nothing else, we can give Sam a few minutes of extra recess, not like she’ll mind.”

“I just don’t want to hear it okay!” She snapped; she just couldn’t pretend not to care anymore.

“Don’t want to hear what?” William asked in a concerned tone.

“I don’t want to hear you tell me how ‘nice’ or ‘interesting’ my paintings are, okay?” Buffy said in an exasperated tone, trying not to look upset, “For whatever reason, you’re kind of my friend now,” she continued nervously, not noticing William’s smile, “and I haven’t had a ‘real’ friend in a long time, one that didn’t give a damn about Angel’s money or status….and if you have to stand here and come up with something nice to say about my paintings, when you don’t like them, I don’t think we’ll really ever be able to completely get past that, or, more accurately, I won’t,” she concluded. Seeming to regain a bit of her confidence, Buffy gestured to the door, “So, let’s just go teach Buffy how not to blow up the kitchen.”

William chuckled a little at her comment, but still didn’t let her pass, instead, standing in the doorway and blocking her exit, “Not yet,” he said once he’d finally gotten her to stop trying to leave the small room. “Look at me,” he said when she kept her eyes on her feet. Waiting until she did look at him, he continued, “Now don’t even try to tell me that I’m just saying this to be nice, I don’t do that. And certainly not after your little rant,” Buffy blushed a bit at the memory, “If I had thought they were bad, I would have just said, probably through the door, “Those are some great paintings Buffy, I’m going down to the kitchen now, meet me when you’re done.’ Something like that’s what I would have said. I wouldn’t say this: Buffy, those are honestly some of the best paintings I’ve ever seen. It’s hard, at least I think, when doing abstract paintings to put enough feeling into them that other people will feel something when they look them, but you’ve done it. I’m glad you let me look at them chronologically because it was interesting to see how your style’s changed and to see how you were feeling at different points in time. And I know, being a teacher I should be able to explain it better, but I can’t. Alls I know is that I love them. They make me feel something,” he finished, shyly.

Now he was the one unable to meet her gaze, looking around the bathroom as he waited for her to say something. This was obviously another room not decorated by Buffy. William had noticed that all of her jewelry, save her wedding ring, was silver while all of the accents in the bathroom—including the faucet and towel racks—were gold. Buffy obviously hadn’t had a say in decorating the house.

Which was sad, actually considering her artistic abilities.

“Really?” Buffy asked quietly, breaking William from is observations.

“You’re an immensely talented artist, Buffy. Thought a pretty head like yours would have figured it out by now.”

With a beaming grin, Buffy blushed and looked away from William, “So….should we get to that cooking lesson now?”

”Sure,” William said, deciding to let her whether or not she believed him, slide.

For now.

*(*(*(*I*)*)*)*

“So what is it we’re cooking?” Buffy asked as they finally made their way into the kitchen a good fifteen minutes or more after they were originally supposed to start their lesson.

“It’s still a bit of a surprise. Why don’t you go let Sam know she’s going to have a few extra minutes of recess while I get everything ready?” William avoided answering her question.

“You sure that’s okay? We could always put off the lesson ‘til next week,” Buffy said, her nervousness showing.

“No, we’ll still do it today, just tell Sam she gets a few more minutes of recess and I’ll come get her when it’s time for school. And Buffy,” he said as she was about to leave the kitchen, “There’s no need to be worried you’re going to do great.”

“Shows what you know,” she scoffed before heading out to tell Sam the news.

*(*(*(*I*)*)*)*

While Buffy told Sam of the plan, William set to work getting all of the necessary ingredients out, including the few that he’d brought with him that morning.

“William,” Buffy said as she leaned against the kitchen doorway, “I know you think this is a good idea, but you know, maybe you’re overestimating me.” When he just looked at her and shook his head in the negative, she decided to try a different route, “What if I do burn down the kitchen, will you believe me then?” Even Buffy herself wasn’t sure just how much she was joking with that statement.

“Buffy, I promise you, you aren’t going to burn down the kitchen.” When she didn’t seem to believe him, he added, “I pinky swear.”

Through her laughing, Buffy managed to ask, “What?” before she continued laughing.

Pretending to be put out by her laughing at him, William grumbled, “It works for Sam.”

“Because she’s six!” Buffy explained with a grin.

“No,” William said, “It works because you know she means it….and I mean it. You. Are. Not. Going. To. Burn. Down. The. Kitchen.” he carefully enunciated every word, before adding “I pinky swear.”

Thinking he was possibly insane, Buffy nevertheless decided to go along with it. “Fine,” she said walking towards him, “We’ll pinky swear.” They locked pinky fingers, “But you’re so fired if I burn down the house.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” William drawled, “Now get over here and learn how to cook.”

*(*(*(*I*)*)*)*

“Okay, so I put this in there?” Buffy asked.

“Yeah, just like this, William showed her, how to dump the ground beef into the large pot. “Then put the tomato paste and the tomato sauce in as well.”

“How do I know how much?”

“That’s the beauty of this recipe, most of the canned things, the amount you’re supposed to use, is also the amount that’s in each can. Or a multiple of it.”

“Oh, so I don’t have to measure it all out.”

“No measuring required, just open the can and dump it in.”

“Cool,” Buffy said as she did just that.

“Okay, now for the stuff we do have to measure.” Not missing the disgusted face Buffy made, William just continued, “We’ll just work down the list of ingredients. See, we’ve already done those,” he indicated the first few ingredients, “So now we’ll work on these.”

“I’m watching,” Buffy said, hoping he’d do it for her.

“Uh uh uh,” You’re not getting out of it that easily, William said, “You’re going to do it and I’m going to watch. You’ll do fine, Buffy,” he assured her when she turned a nice pale shade at the idea of doing it on her own, “We pinky swore remember.”

“Okay,” Buffy said, “I can do this.” Carefully, she took the measuring spoons and put the proper amounts of salt, pepper, cayenne, Worcestershire sauce, and soy sauce to the pot. “Hey, I can do it!” she said excitedly when she’d finished.

Aided by Buffy’s new found sense of assuredness they made quick work of adding the rest of the ingredients. “Now, everything’s been added, we’re going to turn the burner on between high and medium,” he showed her where to turn the dial and waited until Buffy had done as he demonstrated, “Then stir it for about two minutes, just to make sure everything gets mixed together well. Then take the spoon out and wait until it boils. Once it boils,” he explained, “Turn the heat all the way down to between medium and low and cover it. Let it simmer like that for a few about an hour. Then just turn it off and let it sit for about two hours or more. But don’t take the lid off,” he warned.

“You’re just going to leave me?! I can’t do this on my own!” Buffy exclaimed, worried once again.

“Buffy, listen to me: you can do this, when it starts to bubble a lot, then turn down the heat, cover it with this lid,” he pointed to the lid they’d found earlier, “see what time it is and leave it like that for an hour. When an hour’s passed, just turn the burner off and leave it again for two hours. About half an hour or twenty minutes before it’s done, then just turn on the noodles. By the time those are boiling, Sam and I will be done with school and I’ll come back and help you with it, okay?” he asked carefully.

“Okay, I guess,” Buffy admitted, “But why did we have to put the salt in with the water for the noodles, I still don’t get that.”

“It stops the water from going over the side of the pot when it’s boiling.”

“Oh, well that’s a good thing….okay, you go get Sam and you guys start school. I’ll be fine,” she told him, though she wasn’t sure she believed it.

“And if you really do have a problem, you just come get me,” William told her.

“I know, but I should be fine. Now go!” Buffy ushered him out of the kitchen before turning her attention back to the pot of sauce.

*(*(*(*I*)*)*)*
TBC…..


A/N: William’s “pretty little head” line is from Nikki—thanks sweetheart.


I've not done this for awhile...bad, bad me. Thank you to Panta_Rei, Mariana, Cordykitten, Blondiebear, Bint, Caitie, Allison, Brat, Dannii, Fibble, Smitten, Nikilicious, 1880girl, DK, carri, mari, lynn, aribelle, spuffette, shippy, buffyandspikeforever, Charlene, Elanor, SoulNyte for reviewing this story.....and thank you oodles to those of you who are reviewing every chatper or nearly every chapter.





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