"Your key battery was dead. You know you've gotta replace it, right?" Xeno felt his face go hot from embarrassment; he couldn't believe that something as stupid as an uncharged battery caused his car troubles. Haiden seemed to notice his shame and so he quickly added "Don't worry, plenty of people don't."
"Thank you so much for doing this," Xeno blurted out, clearly ashamed. Honestly, how could he not have known?
"No problem, at least you didn't have to pay a ton of money for this, right?"
"Right." Xeno replied. He felt bad that he had dragged Haiden out to his house for basically nothing, but even so, the words that came out of his mouth next surprised him.
"Would you wanna come inside? We could hang out?" Internally, he winced. Do people in their twenties even "hang out?" or was that more of a thing for teenagers? Had they aged out of the "hanging out" bracket?
Haiden smiled back at him and replied, "Sure, I don't have anything else planned for today." He hesitated for a second, and then exclaimed, "Oh, wait, I have something for you!"
Haiden reached into his bag before producing a small crocheted alien and placing it into Xeno's hands. It had a good weight to it, almost comforting to him in a way he couldn't quite articulate.
"Woah, thank you!" he exclaimed, looking at the thing. It was a stereotypical teal alien with a big head and large black eyes. It was a little bigger than his hand, but he could easily hold it.
"I had some extra yarn, and I remembered you were interested when I told you about it, so I made one for you!" said Haiden. "Only, I didn't think you'd want a dinosaur, so I looked up a pattern for something a little more.. spacey?"
"I love it." He replied honestly. "Do you wanna come inside?"
As they crossed the threshold, Xeno silently prayed that his flat was in an acceptable state. Luckily, it was at least passable. As he toured him around his house, he struggled to think of something they could do. Whenever he was with Jess or Dr. Aruda, they usually dictated the activity, and he just followed along.
When they walked into his bedroom, Haiden noted the electric guitar and amp that Xeno had. "Do you play?" He asked.
"Only really.. out there songs from when I was younger." He admitted, having to fight back the urge to tell Haiden how "underground" some of them were, a habit that had unfortunately persisted since his youth.
"You can absolutely say no when I ask, but would you mind playing something? I love hearing people play music." Xeno was taken aback; no one had ever really asked to hear him play before, and he was more than happy to oblige. He moved the guitar and amp into his living room, where he plugged them in. Xeno was sitting on his couch, while Haiden rested on anarmchair. He got the chords up on his phone and played some songs from his favourites that he thought he would like.
When he eventually looked up from the fretboard again, Haiden was staring intently, clearly having enjoyed the last few minutes of his playing.
"That was great!" He grinned.
"Do you want anything to eat?" He ventured. It's common courtesy to offer people food when they come to your house, and besides, he was pretty hungry himself.
"We could make something?" Haiden suggested. "Do you have baking ingredients?"
"Sure.. I'd love to." He replied, though he hadn't baked anything in years. Not since before his falling out with his father. He took note that he hadn't eaten anything either since the cafe, which had already been.. two hours ago? He realised how fast time had gone as he checked his watch.
Xeno's kitchen wasn't anything special. It had a chessboard tile on the ground and was long and slim in floorplan. However, there was no room for either of them to sit. Xeno picked out a recipe on his phone while Haiden got out the bowls and the ingredients. It was relatively easy for him to find them, given that, living alone, he didn't really have the need for many. As Xeno carefully weighed out the flour, Haiden looked at him and told him, "I have a confession to make."
"And what's that?" He asked.
There was a brief pause before Haiden said, "I'm a terrible baker. I was hoping that you'd be able to do everything because of your work in your dad's bakery that you mentioned earlier."
He chuckled. "That's really clever, actually. Yeah, I'd say I'm a decent baker." He omitted that he was practically having flashbacks to his life back in the bakery.
"Well then, by all means, show me the way, maestro." Haiden replied. He was surprised; he had thought that his friend's meticulous personality would have lent itself well to baking. Nevertheless, he delegated all the stirring to Haiden.
The recipe wasn't difficult, but they kept getting side tracked talking about their detective plan, which then also branched off into general department gossip. There, he could run rings around Haiden, who had apparently absorbed all of his drama from general osmosis, as well as overhearing bits and pieces. It paid to be friends with the biggest gossip in the museum, Xeno thought.
It was nice to have a friend to bake with. He had forgotten how pleasant it was to make biscuits, especially in good company. Eventually, they were ready for the oven, which Haiden had been careful to preheat to the temperature that the recipe required, exact to a degree. As they waited, Xeno asked him which bands he listened to so that he could learn to play them on the guitar. He was pretty good at reading guitar sheet music, and he offered to play if Haiden would sing. At first, he was embarrassed. Apparently, he had taken voice lessons when he was younger, but ended up having to quit because he didn't like singing in front of people. Finally, he agreed to sing, and they began selecting a song.
They ended up landing on a song called "Post" by "The Cage". The name seemed metal to Xeno, but the music they made was sweeter, and catchier, bordering on pop music. As he played the chords, Haiden sang the lyrics. Quietly at first, then getting alittle louder. He had a nice voice, he thought to himself. They were so engrossed that they almost didn't hear the oven timer beeping.
When they finally heard it, the biscuits were a couple of minutes overdone, and a couple on the edge were a little too brown around the edges. Haiden tried one of them and said, through a mouthful of crumbs, "Dude, these are some of the nicest biscuits I've ever had."
"They can't be that good; I was just following a recipe, honestly." He replied.
"That bakery experience really shows." Haiden reached for another, having somehow already finished the first.
