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Steph slept surprisingly well, despite an unpleasant end to a pleasant day, and by the time Mel wakes her for her shift on watch she's feeling absolutely rested and bright, even though it isn't quite dawn.

The others are sleeping now, Hana and Loo and Sokka and Mel all squished together for warmth. Steph's own family would never have slept like that.

It's kind of nice.

The rest of the house is secure still, and once Steph has satisfied herself that nothing is lurking in the gardens to eat them and double-checked the car's still there, helped herself (with only a tiny spark of guilt) to a new pair of jeans that almost fit and an oversized coat for the cold from the upstairs bedrooms, and made use of the bathroom, the sun's well over the horizon.

Outside, it's eerily quiet; Steph circles the house again, eyes sharp, and once she's satisfied with that she goes back to the kitchen.

Eggs keep surprisingly well, unopened and at room temperature, she discovers by dint of careful cracking and sniffing. Cheese, not so much, but there's a sealed can of powdered Parmesan and that's still okay too. And it's hard to go wrong with pepper and salt and rosemary.

Shortly, eggs are sizzling on the stove, and the smell of hot food spreads quickly through the house.

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"Food?" mumbles the sleepy boy the bleary eyes and the hair in his face, hanging onto the door frame as he peers into the kitchen. "Breakfast?"

This is his Excited Face. Or it will be, when he wakes up.

"Only if you're hot," Steph says promptly, and eyes him up and down. "...well, I guess I can take pity on you."

She's been up for hours! Guess who's bright and perky?

"Mmph," Sokka informs her in a grunt, wandering over to peer over her shoulder and smile at food, hot food, delicious food, eggs. "I don't have time to dazzle you with my muscles when there's food. When do we get some?"

"Depends how nicely you ask," Steph informs him, grinning at his eagerness and lifting her spatula to threaten a nose-whack. "And how many pretty titles you give me."

"Oh Mighty Chef, Bringer of Eggs to Hot Yet Sleepy Engineers." Sokka catches that spatula and tries to pick some egg-pieces off of it.

"That's really pathetic." Steph tugs the spatula back, grinning. "Get me a couple of plates and I'll take pity on you anyway. I think they're done."

Sokka grins and turns to search for plates, perkier by the minute. "I live off of others' pity, didn't you notice?" he asks, handing her three before peeking out toward the living room to check on Mel and the babies.

"Must've skipped my mind," Steph says, grinning. "They awake yet? Mel was on watch the first half of the night, she might want a sleep in."

Oh, wait, she wasn't admitting they were taking watch and not waking Sokka for it, was she? Oops.

Quick, distraction -- eggs! Have eggs!

And while eggs are good, they are not complete distractions. Sokka is glancing back at her with a frown.

He doesn't follow through on the chastising, if only because he would have done the same thing if either Steph or Mel had been as exhausted as he was.

"I won't wake her," he says, peering around to pay special attention to the twins. "I'm just making sure Hana and Loo aren't about to wake her up first. There's extra food for all of them, too, yeah?"

Steph grins at him, relieved, and stuffs a fork into his hand with his plate. "Course. There's more eggs, too, so even if you eat the lot I'll just make them fresh when they do wake up."

"I like that 'eat the lot idea'." Sokka grins at her and takes his plate and cutlery, leaning back against the counter to start digging in.

Ignore that sigh - eggs, like meat, haven't been this close to Sokka in years.

It's a sigh that makes Steph grin, rather pleased with herself for bothering to cook.

"How'd you sleep?"

Yes, she is going to keep checking up on him every morning until he snaps and yells at her that he doesn't need to get drunk to sleep any more.

(She's looking forward to that.)

Which is a shame since it doesn't appear to be happening yet, not with the casual shrug and equally casual, "Okay," that he replies with. Sokka's eyes are a little narrowed when he returns the question, though, watch shifts obviously on his mind. "What about you?"

"Pretty good, surprisingly." It's the dog that's more on her mind than the shifts; broken sleep isn't new, she and Robin never stopped patrolling nightly in Eden (although, admittedly, she might have had Tim not insisted).

"Didn't even get woken by you snoring like a chainsaw." Smirk.

Sokka just grins brightly back at her between bites of egg. "I'd be insulted except... I'm not! You're just jealous you don't."

Snoring, obviously, is only for cool people.

"It's kind of a comforting sound, you know," Steph remarks, and anything she might have meant (Tim slept absolutely silently; she never knew where he was or if he was even alive, or if he was going to be awake and staring creepily at her when she looked over towards his bed across the roof - it drove her nuts) -- is gone when she adds "Reminds me that there's people out there even more annoying than myself."

Grinning, she reaches for the frying pan to dump the rest of the eggs onto his plate.

That he'd just cleaned his plate and had been eyeing the frying pan is the only thing that saves her from getting smacked, Sokka smirking at her instead. "You can't make me feel bad about it," he informs her haughtily, and there's only a moment's pause before he adds, "Mel snores almost as bad as I do anyway."

He'd never felt especially self-conscious about snoring and spending nights with a girlfriend that used to tease him lovingly for it only made him that much more comfortable.

Steph grins at him. "It's cute," she informs him, offering the salt and pepper. "In that eardrum-destroying way."

She's so bright and perky about it it can't possibly be bothering her either.

"I don't snore, I think, but I used to talk in my sleep when I was a kid. I don't know if I still do or not, I haven't slept close enough to anyone to find out for a while."

Beat.

"I hope I don't talk in my sleep."

Who knows what she'd say?

Sokka's blinking at her, perhaps thinking the same thing.

Or perhaps, far more likely, wondering what she means by "haven't slept close enough to anyone to find out for a while" when she and Robin have been sharing a roof for nine months.

"...I hope you do," he says after a moment, going back to his eggs. "It'd probably be great blackmail."

Like Tim ever slept at the same time as her -- he preferred staring creepily at her from a distance.

(Steph's not bitter. But only because he's in another world now and she doesn't have to worry.)

"Blackmail me and I'll never cook for you again," she informs him, going back to the stove to put more eggs in the pan with a grin. "Now, what's more important to you, your stomach or my humiliation?"

"I'll find a way to take care of both of them, just watch," Sokka warns her, grinning wickedly as he cleans his plate again.

"Just for that, you're on washing-up duty," Steph tells him, grinning.

Beat.

"Not that I was planning for any of us to wash up." People who leave their pets behind don't deserve courtesy. "Wanna come raid the kid's room with me instead? There's toys, and the girls might like some of them, especially if we're gonna be driving for hours."

He nods and moves to stand beside her, dumping his dishes into the sink. "Someone's probably going to have to sit back there with Mel to help entertain them - whoever's not driving. Actually, I think Mel wanted a turn, too, so all three of us are on baby duty."

"Oh no, how tragic, whatever will we do?" Steph grins at him. She loves playing with the babies. "It's the second door on the left at the top of the stairs, I'll be up in a sec -- soon as I put this aside for them. And not for you, walking stomach."

"Hey, I had my two helpings," Sokka protests, patting the stomach in question with a satisfied grin. "I'll go snooping around, then. See you up there."