leicesters | IC INBOX: KENOS

[With little warning, approximately a week after Certain Events occurred…

A communion message, short and simple... but much heavier, perhaps, in implication.]

I will report to the General in Springstar tomorrow.

[There's a little thrill of -- happiness, and excitement, perhaps -- that he doesn't bother to mask when he responds.]

Then I'll make sure to stick around. Where do you want to meet?

[There’s a not insignificant part of her that still thought he might demure or have come to his senses… so is that relief she feels, or anxiety?]

I do not know how long the meeting will go. I would not keep you from your meal or schedule.

Perhaps your residence is most fitting.

Works for me, but what are you doing for a meal? You don't want to eat together?

[He's not going to starve just waiting an hour or two extra for her to come over, so it's fine.]

[he wants to eat with her????]

... You cook?

I usually buy from the street stalls.

Yeah, I cook. Experimenting with ingredients is pretty fun, you know.

[that sounds more alarming than appealing???]

Or we can just eat out somewhere. Your call.

[Fun...

But also, she's not ready to eat together in public... What if he does something embarrassing???]

... Then I will dine with you at your residence.

...

I require a lot of food.

Then why don't we have a feast? I've been holding out since forever, what with the Blight and all, but now the worst of it has passed, it can't hurt to be indulgent.

Just tell me the kind of things you like and I'll add it to the list.

[now it's a feast?!]

There is no need for a list. I eat anything.

Anyone can eat anything, but there has to be some things you like more than others, right?

[Even here on Kenos with the freedom to eat what she wanted, had she really just been eating out of necessity rather than learning to eat for enjoyment, too...? He wonders.]

Well, never mind. Leave it to me. But if you get bored in your meeting and think up a dish you really want to have, let me know.

[... He might be mostly right. She had primarily been eating to fuel her body, not for pleasure. But if she had to name... something... (now, she's not going to interrupt her meeting with such thoughts???)]

... Meat is good.

And "bread".

[Which she says like it isn't a real food, but apparently it's very real and very nice and filling.]

[Bread is very much real and very good, so there's no argument from him there.]

Alright! Leave it all to me, and I'll start getting everything ready. See you later.

[The meeting itself does not go so terribly long, but seeing as it was delayed by other demands on the general's attention, it is proper evening hours by the time Hayame makes it to Claude's residence. Not that... it looked like evening should, in the land of two suns. It's far too bright out. (What if someone sees her????)

Looking left, then right, and seeing no hint of a nosy neighbor... She hesitates. Days may have passed, but there is still tension in her from a certain network post. Perhaps they will simply fight again. Maybe she'd just hallucinated that day in Alenroux. Probably, he is very close to coming to his senses, and the more of her he sees the sooner that will come.

But after lingering for just a bit too long...

Hayame knocks on the door.]

[Fortunately for Hayame, Claude doesn't have nosy neighbours. He's friendly enough to those living nearby in Heliopolis, and of course being a Shardbearer invites a certain curiosity on its own, but that's long since worn off, and Claude is casual enough with those he meets for them not to treat him too differently to any other Meri in the city. It's how he prefers it, and -- he imagines -- means Hayame won't be particularly noteworthy either.

When he opens the door, there's the smell of cooked meat filling the air, and he beams at Hayame.]

Hey! I'm glad you made it. [He steps along the hallway to give her room to enter the apartment, tactful enough to realise she won't want to linger at the door.] How was the meeting?

[... Oh. It smells good.]

Thank you for your hospitality.

[It might sound somewhat formal and a little stiff, but she is, in general, unaccustomed still to the simple act of visiting another's home. Let alone... being allowed in a home. She thinks that's the proper line.

Stepping in and trying not to notice how smile-y he looks, Hayame pauses in his entranceway to pull a hoofpick and brush from her waist pouch and begin cleaning her hooves. She's not trying to track in dirt.]

It went well enough. My reports were overdue.

[Thanks to that lost Oracle.]

[He pauses to watch what she's doing, wondering at first if she has a stone or something stuck in her hooves... but no, she's just being considerate and cleaning out the dirt. It's endearing enough on his own that he can already feel warmth swelling in his chest, a warmth that has been lodged there all afternoon (or since Alenroux, if he's honest with himself) and refuses to budge. Not that he wants it to.

He's getting distracted already, though, so he stops smiling stupidly at her long enough to respond.]

Right... There must've been a lot to discuss. We can talk shop some other time, though.

[Between that and the ambassador talks, surely the two of them could use a break from all these serious conversations, vital though they are. He turns to head to the kitchen area.]

The food's pretty much good to go, so I'll finish bringing it all out. Do you like wine? Beer? Something else?

[Perhaps that is actually why she answered so vaguely. If she discusses her work, then there will be talk of work in general. She will have to chastise him for speaking for her in that foolish talk over ambassadors. She will have to think about that debate in general.

And she would rather not. (Did that mean it wouldn't happen? No, but she is trying.)]

I am surprised you know how to prepare your own food.

[He's a king. He had been a prince, and then played noble in a different land. Even if he had spoken of being an outcast, of some hardships he had experienced... she had assumed he was still catered to for his rank.

... She doesn't exactly have a preference on drinks, but.]

I will have what you have.

Gotcha. [He grabs a couple of glasses and a bottle of wine, talking as he uncorks it and pours one for them both.] The Officer's Academy had a rule where every student, no matter their social standing, had to pitch in on kitchen duty. Then during the war, when my old classmates and I came back together, we just kept the idea going as a little tradition, and I picked up a few things.

[So even when Claude was Duke Riegan and busy with war councils and going backwards and forwards to roundtables at Derdriu, he'd still find time to squeeze in cooking duty. He wasn't above any page or maidservant in that way, and he found he liked it.]

I'm grateful for it, really. Would be pretty embarassing if I got here and didn't know how to fend for myself, right?

[With her hooves cleaned out and brushed, Hayame finally follows Claude into the kitchen... where she hovers somewhat awkwardly in the doorframe. His story is believable enough, she assumes he wouldn't bother lying about that sort of... cooking origin story, now of all times, but.]

Your world is very different from mine.

[People all doing menial tasks and chores regardless of their rank and social class? It would never happen in the culture she'd been raised in. Honestly, she's not sure she's going to believe it until she actually has the food in her mouth.

Her lips purse a bit, though, thinking.]

Even if you were spoiled, I assume you'd get by. There are countless places to get food from here.

[And they practically just gave them money for being shard-bearers. There were so many restaurants that you could probably even visit a different one every day without repeats...]

Yeah, but remember Horos? That would have been tough all by myself, with no life skills.

[As Claude grabs plates and cutlery, it becomes obvious how busy he'd been all afternoon. Across the kitchen counter are plates and plates of various foods... a lot of food. He'd taken Hayame's request to heart, and there are a good selection of dishes portioned enough that they can both sample as much or as little as they want. Grilled meat with fruit, game meat Claude had hunted himself, cooked and skewered, meat pie (he had cheated and gone to a bakery to get that), freshly baked bread (also from the bakery), various sauteed vegetables, and -- a favourite side dish of his from Almyra -- a large bowl of rice with pomegranate seeds and herbs.

There's a table pushed against one wall, and while slightly cramped, there's room for them both to eat. He'd removed a chair, realising Hayame wouldn't be able to use it, leaving some cushions for her instead.]

So... Here's the feast! Help yourself to whatever you want.

[He goes to set the glasses of wine, along with the bottle, on the table.]

[Hayame truly does not want to remember Horos, actually. He says it lightly, but... She has tried her best to forget that place. A place where she had felt even more isolated and hated than she did here, fighting desperately for recognition within her own forced allies as well as against the seemingly insurmountable power of the Regent.

- So she does him the favor of not responding to that at all.

Her shock at seeing the food spread is sincere enough as a distraction. He'd said he could cook, but this is... far more than she expected to see on his table??? She just stands there for a minute, hesitating to approach or take her "seat", suddenly uncomfortable with being confronted over how much effort seems to have been put into something.]

- you really made all this?

[Into her.]

Not all of it. Some of it was bought, but I'll let you speculate on which is which.

[Now all they need is romantic candlelight, music, and... Yeah, no, he didn't plan that far ahead for cliches, when he threw this all together so quickly. He's still smiling to hide that he's feeling nervous, hoping she doesn't dislike it.]

You said you eat a lot, right? So I got together as much as I could.

[As if it were something to be embarrassed over, particularly when compared to the human sensibilities (and capabilities) that she was raised on, Hayame mutters somewhat under her breath,]

I have two stomachs...

[So it's definitely not weird or uncouth that she eats a lot! (Not that... he implied it was, but just in case he was thinking it... !)

Circling her spot a little, she finally finds the perfect angle to plot her equine rump down onto the cushions he's provided, settling into the more canine-like sit she had to adopt to get comfortable at human tables. From there, she begins by reaching for her plate and... hesitating. He is the host-]

- Where do you suggest I start?

[His best dish? Was there an order to his land's feasts?]

[He's mystified at the admission she has two stomachs, but he guesses it makes sense; does she have two sets of everything else in her two torsos, as well? Though that thought is soon forgotten, as once she moves to sit, he breathes an inward sigh of relief, when part of him still expected her to turn up her nose and leave. So Claude brings the last few dishes to the table, along with a bread knife, and takes his seat opposite.]

Hmm... Maybe the skewers? If you want to sample a little of everything first, getting the bite-sized meat is easier.

[Fódlan has strict etiquette about meals (not that he ever adhered to it, much to a certain noble's outrage), but Almyran feasts are just a free-for-all, shown in how he starts piling his own plate with food. He's struck by an afterthought a second later, and lifts his wine glass in a toast.]

Oh, and-- cheers! [It's not a feast without one, right?]

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