Why was Elijah sorry? This was not what he expected would happen. "Oh—uh, don't be sorry. Not your fault I get bored quickly. It's seriously not your fault—and you shouldn't feel bad about it," Anthony stuttered. He was so unsure of what he's supposed to say in this kind of situation, but he tried his best. He didn't want Elijah to feel bad because of him. "If you want. But it's something, yeah. More than something." And now he feels guilty over making Elijah feel bad.

Elijah looked at him before going into the kitchen, his head tilted as he heard him stutter. He smiled and shook his head. "It isn't your fault either. Don't begin to blame yourself, it is just something that happened. I just feel bad that I am so .. isolated in having company, that I have no preparations for having you here and giving you something to occupy you. I am sure sitting in a person's home that you can't feel at home with it can be very dull. I will say though.. You're still surprising me. I see a lot of myself in you." He turned to disappear into the kitchen and begin making some stew.

Anthony was caught off-guard by that. Though it took him a moment to even consider doing so, Anthony opened his mouth to respond, only to see Elijah turning and disappearing into the kitchen again. Anthony covered his face with his hand as he blushed in diffidence, now at least somewhat alone with his thoughts, for better or for worse. Elijah was a nice guy and all, and of course Anthony appreciated that, and maybe that was the reason he found himself not knowing what to do. He was so very unused to actual warmth and kindness. Ugh. Go away, thoughts!

Elijah was putting the pot to boil when he called out to the other man, "Do you like fish stew?" He assumed he had to , at least a little. It was a good and filling meal after all, but had the man said he didn't, Elijah would have scurried to find something else to feed him. He had his gloves off and set aside as he chopped up some vegetables to put in.

Though his thoughts did not go away, they were briefly interrupted by Elijah calling out from the kitchen. "Uh, sure," Anthony said. Truthfully, he didn't care about  what Elijah would be feeding him—it was the fact that he was actually doing it out of the goodness of his own heart that mattered to him. And now he's feeling actual emotions again. A very bad and unfamiliar feeling.

He was satisfied with that and focused on just making it the best he could. As Elijah was busy, Diane decided to curl up against Anthony so that she could enjoy the warmth between him and the fire.

Anthony flinched in surprise when Diane curled up against him, as he certainly hadn't been expecting, but relaxed a bit after a little. Stroking her head absently, he got caught up in his own thoughts again. He's not used to people being nice to him, and the last time he himself was nice to another person he was basically reverse-disowned for some shit. So, at this point, he's not sure whether he's expecting Elijah to do that as well or if he's expecting him to be an actually genuinely good guy. Hmm. Can Elijah stop being nice so that Anthony can go back to his previous unbothered and cold state, please and thank you.

It wasn't Anthony's day as soon Elijah came over and handed him a cup of wine. "I picked something up while I was out today. I thought maybe you'd like something other than tea." He smiled weakly as he wanted to treat the man well. "I don't know what you like though."

At least Anthony can blame his blushing on the fire or...something. But he took the cup with a brief smile. "Oh—thank you," he said. "no, this is good! I like this." Perhaps he spoke a bit too early considering he hadn't even drank from the cup yet, but if he didn't like it, he'd at least pretend to like it. Not that there was a high chance that he would dislike it, anyways.

He didn't need to drink it for Elijah to be pleased that he complimented it anyway. "I'm glad." He wanted to watch him drink it to see, but it was just a popular red wine that was in his budget. Besides, he realized it would seem really weird to just stare. He hurried back to stir the pot.