Isaac arrived in the dining room, the smell of fresh breakfast in the air.
"Mmm, smells nice Tay," he said.
"Well, thanks, Ike," Natalie responded, "but it's Natalie."
"Oh sorry," Isaac said, joining her in the kitchen. "Ooh, pancakes. Yum."
"Glad you think so."
"Mmm. Anyway, Zac's coming round today -"
"I recall Tay saying something like that yesterday..."
"Anyway, so I'll delete the photos this morning before he gets here."
"Sounds like a plan," Natalie said.
She finished off the pancake, plopped it onto a plate and then started making another one.
"You can take that one, if you'd like."
"Thanks. Love that you now know your way around our kitchen."
Natalie chuckled.
Taylor
Taylor soon stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He noticed Natalie behind the counter, and paused for a moment.
"Morning Nat," he said finally, still comprehending that she was there and forgetting he was only in his singlet and boxers.
"Mmm... breakfast."
Isaac and Natalie
Natalie glanced at Taylor, then bit her bottom lip and looked away, meeting eyes with Isaac on the way.
"Uhh, Tay? You might want to go back to your room and get changed. I know we all know you two are crazy about each other, but I think it's too soon for you guys to see each other in your night clothes," Isaac said.
Natalie gave Isaac a Look.
Taylor
Taylor made a noise reminiscent of a horse snorting as he rubbed his stomach.
"She'll be seeing me in less than this if we ever get around to doing the whole massage thing with my treatments," he pointed out.
"But I digress. I'll be back."
He headed back down the hallway to get changed.
Isaac and Natalie
Isaac chuckled.
"Ike..."
"Yes, Nat?"
"Nevermind."
Isaac grinned and continued eating his pancake.
Taylor
Taylor soon returned and took up the stool beside Isaac's.
"So what have we got? Ooh, pancakes. Nice."
Natalie and Isaac
"Yep, and that was good timing," Natalie replied. "Yours is done."
She deposited a plate in front of him.
"Maple syrup's over there," Isaac pointed.
Taylor
Taylor looked over, and then pulled a face.
"But that would involve me getting up," he almost whined.
Natalie and Isaac
"You're alredy been up and walking around," Isaac pointed out.
Natalie chuckled and slid the maple syrup across the bench to him, and went back to her cooking of her own pancake.
Taylor
Taylor took the syrup, poking his tongue out at Isaac.
"And I don't need to put my joints under any more strain this week than I have to," he declared.
Natalie and Isaac
"Oh dear," Isaac said. "How terrible that you might actually have had to do some manual labour! Egads, what has this world come too?"
"Given that you're the telekinetic around here," Natalie observed, "I think you're the one who could stand to do some manual labour occasionally."
Taylor
"Agreed," Taylor nodded, mouth half full of pancake.
"And at the risk of being hit because I'm sitting beside him, he's also a high level telekinetic. Which means he barely needs to lift a finger to do it. Figuratively, of course."
Isaac and Natalie
"Oooh, a high level telekinetic," Natalie nodded. "How fancy."
"Yes, yes, I know I'm fabulous, thank you," Isaac replied, grinning. "And for your information, I do have a treadmill, so I can keep in shape. So ha."
"Yeah, but how often do you use it?"
"Umm, I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that it mey reveal in criminating evidence," Isaac replied.
Natalie grinned as she finished cooking her pancake. She turned off the stove and liberally covered her pancake in maple syrup.
Taylor
"And yet by saying that..." Taylor trailed off before looking up at Natalie.
"I think it has spider webs on it."
Isaac and Natalie
"Ah ha!" said Natalie, lifting up her fork with a piece of pancake on the end of it, "Sprung!"
"Umm, yes, well..." Isaac looked down at his now empty plate. "Thanks for breakfast Natalie, it was really yummy."
"Thanks," Natalie replied. "And don't think I didn't notice you changing the subject."
Taylor
"In fact, I'm sure it has spider webs on it," Taylor went on, looking across at his brother.
"I had to help carry the damn thing in because you didn't want to tire out your telekinesis too fast."
Isaac and Natalie
"Well, I'd only just got it back. And if Tad didn't find out that I had my power back then I was still able to get away with hitting him over the head occasionally."
Natalie laughed.
Taylor
"Oh excuses, excuses," Taylor waved him off.
"And you hardly ever hit him anyway. Zac gave him more grief than you ever did."
He continued shoving pancakes in his mouth.
Isaac and Natalie
"Yeah, well, that's because he caught me a few times. Okay, sometimes he noticed when I was going to being using my power against him and cut it off before it happened. So, just because you never noticed it, doesn't mean it wasn't happening. So ha," Isaac defended.
"Okay, so now I'm going to change the subject," Natalie said. "So, Ikers, about deleting the photos?"
"When everyone's done with breakfast."
Taylor
"I'm done," Taylor declared, pushing his plate away.
He grabbed the last pancake and fit about half of it in his mouth, holding the other until he could fit it in.
Isaac and Natalie
Isaac raised an eyebrow.
"Well, I'm not," Natalie replied. "I got my breakfast last, y'know."
"Take your time," Isaac said. "I'll just zip over and grab the camera."
"Okay."
Isaac stood and left the room.
Taylor
"Typical," Taylor mumbled, swallowing the last of his breakfast.
"That was great Nat, thanks. I thought I'd be doing it this morning."
Natalie
"T'was my pleasure," Natalie replied. "You guys - okay just you - are always cooking for me. I thought it would be nice to return the favour."
She took another bite of her pancake.
Taylor
"Well if you want to look at it that way, don't let me stop you," Taylor shrugged.
He got up to get some juice from the fridge.
Natalie and Isaac
Natalie smiled and ate some more of her pancake. Isaac returned then, with the camera.
"Well, I'm back. With the sacred camera - which Taylor defiled by sending his fuzzle to do his dirty work and delete the photos on it. Shame, shame, shame," he said.
Taylor
Taylor threw his hand up from behind the refrigerator door in the way a disgruntled artist would, before grabing the juice and closing the door.
He returned to the counter to pour his drink.
"He almost got away with it," he said after a moment.
Isaac and Natalie
Isaac smirked, and opted to not tell anyone that he had already copied the photos to his computer. After what had happened, he wasn't sure if he'd actually delete them off there as well.
"Yeah, well, he didn't. So there," Isaac said.
Natalie decided she was going to stay out of this, and quietly concentrated on finishing her breakfast.
Taylor
Taylor hesitated in pouring his juice, noticing the underlying tone in Isaac's voice.
"You are deleting them, right? All of them?" he frowned a little, not sure what he'd picked up on.
Isaac and Natalie
"All three of the pretty pictures of you guys I took that are still on the camera are being deleted today," Isaac replied smoothly. "You hear that Nat? Three. There should have been six."
Natalie just shook her head and smiled.
Taylor
Taylor rolled his eyes.
"As said, he almost got away with it," Taylor pointed out, returning the juice to the fridge.
"About a minute more and they would have been gone. Aren't I so proud?"
Isaac and Natalie
"Yeah, well, don't think for one minute I would have let you get away with it, even if Dorian had managed to delete them all," Isaac said. "I don't need photographic evidence to tell Zac all about it."
"Ahem, well," Natalie said, cleaning off her plate. "I'm done. So why don't we can all the arguing and delete the photos?"
"Okay," Isaac nodded.
He turned on the camera and started flicking through the photos to the three in question.
Taylor
Taylor gave Isaac a warning glare, before settling down onto the stool beside Natalie to finish off his juice.
"What time's he going to be here, anyway?"
Isaac and Natalie
"A bit after lunch," Isaac replied. "One-ish I guess. Ah ha, found them."
He showed them the photos.
"You sure you don't want to keep one as a suvenier?" he joked.
"Just delete 'em Ike," Natalie said. "We kept up our end of the bargain."
"Okay," Isaac shrugged.
Three delete button presses later, and the photos were gone.
Taylor
"Thankyou," Taylor said sincerely.
He sighed and looked at Natalie.
"And now that that's over with," he bit his lip, trying to think.
"Maybe we hsould start setting up the studio or something before Zac gets here?"
Isaac and Natalie
"We've already got all the stuff in there," Isaac said. "And I've already installed everything on the computer. It can wait unil Zac gets here."
"Besides you're feeling lazy, aren't ya?" Natalie mockingly accused.
"Yes."
Taylor
"And you already know him so well," Taylor teased, getting up to put his glass in the sink.
"But then you don't have to know him for long to know everything about him," he chuckled.
Isaac and Natalie
Natalie grinned and Isaac poked his tongue out at Taylor cheekily.
"Well, lah de dah," he said, sounding mock-offended as he stood up. "I'm going to go to my room, rather than to be insulted."
Natalie shook her head as Isaac left the room.
Taylor
"So..." Taylor struggled to find a topic of conversation for a moment.
"Not that I'm trying to get rid of you, but do you know when Tony's coming?"
Isaac and Natalie
Natalie smiled.
"Two," she replied.
Taylor
Taylor couldn't help but cringe when he realised she'd still be there when Zac arrived.
"Cool," he nodded.
"Anything specific you want to do in that time period?"
Natalie
"Umm, nope," Natalie replied. "Just... whatever."
She shook her head, smiling.
"I'm a real help, aren't I?"
Taylor
"Oh yeah," Taylor teased, rolling his eyes.
He hesitated, trying to think of something.
"You said you knew a little piano, right?"
Natalie
Natalie held her thumb and index finger an inch apart.
"A wittle tiny bit," she confirmed.
Taylor
Taylor ducked out from behind the counter and indicated for her to follow him.
"Come on then," he invited.
"Come and show me what you can do."
Natalie
"Umm, okay," Natalie said tentatively. "If you insist."
She stood and followed Taylor.