Chapter 21: This is not Paella

*

As you had just returned to the hotel lobby you almost ran into Boris. The wolf-dog was slightly startled at the sight of you. He couldn't help laughing and clumsily placed a hand behind his head while his ears lowered embarrassingly.

*

"Oh, I'm sorry, little boss, I was in a bit of a hurry."

"You don't have to apologize Boris, I don't want to be indiscreet but, where are you going? "

*

At that moment Alastor entered the hall singing lightly through a few radio noises here and there. Boris saw him immediately and couldn't help but frown scornfully.

You threw a discreet glance over your shoulder while ignoring the tempting smell that made you want to let him know that he was getting hungry.

Alastor gently tapped his jacket to remove what seemed to be a few tiny specks of dust before readjusting his hair.

You quickly understood what he was doing. He was listening.

Boris looked at him with disgust and then gave you a smile.

*

"Well, I'm going to do the 'little errand' you asked me to do when we were talking with Charlie and Vaggie about the hotel, remember?"

You thought for a few seconds and then you put a smile on your face.

"Ah yes, the "Vodka." " You said cheerfully.

Boris couldn't help but laugh slightly as you could hear Alastor tilt his head in confusion.

"Yes, yes, that's it. How many would you need? »

"Mmmmh well I think it should be 5 bottles of excellent quality, I want them to be reliable and to rip the palate off of anyone who dares to drink them."

Boris placed one hand under his chin as he enjoyed the sight of Alastor, who, although he was doing his best not to show it, was completely lost and was doing his best to decode what you were saying.

"Ok 5 bottles of very good quality minimum, I'll see where I can find that for you, but where do you want me to bring it to you. "

*

This time you knew Alastor was listening carefully. So you used your hands to answer.

"Come on, Boris, don't you have any ideas? I thought you knew me better than that~" You pretended to tease, but while you were talking you used your hands to tell through sign language where he had to go.

"Go to the bar 5 minutes from my place "The Liberty" you can't miss it it's completely dilapidated, the owner was killed in the last extermination. It'll be a good rallying point. You can renovate it as you wish, I give it to you, it will be a good protection for them since it's on my area. "

...

"Oh yes, I see what you mean now," replied Boris, moving his hands to answer you subjectively.

"All right, little boss, though, I'll probably be home pretty late, so let Charlie know."

"I'm glad to hear that," you replied. "Don't worry, I'll take care of everything here"

"All right then, see you later " He turned to Alastor who had a suspicious look on his face and gave him a big mischievous smile before leaving the hotel.

*

The deer turned his head towards you and raised an eyebrow.

"Vodka?" he asked suspiciously.

You watched it with amusement.

"It's for me, I needed to stock up on some stuff at home and Charlie was running out of it. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some work to do."

*

Without giving him time to answer you went to a small cupboard where Charlie stored various things that you could use for work. You immediately grabbed a dark green apron and put it on before you pulled your hair into a much more appropriate cut for cooking. Put a little smile on your face while checking that everything was in order and then you returned to your neutral expression when you entered the kitchen.

Nifty was running around putting tons and tons of ingredients on the table, there were so many that it was impossible for you to know what she wanted to cook and you also noticed that the little Cyclops demon looked exhausted.

She was sweating on all sides, the top of her dress was completely soaked in sweat and her hair was a disaster. When she saw you she ran towards you and spoke with lightning speed.

*

"Oh Y/N it's you, you're just in time! I had planned to make beef but couldn't find all the ingredients so I decided to make duck but I had the same problem, oh and I have so much left to do, I have to do the laundry and still- "

You grabbed the insect demon by the shoulders and smiled benevolently at him in an attempt to appease him.

"Calm down Nifty, running around is just gonna kill you a second time. Why don't you take a break? »

"A break? "Nifty asked frightenedly, "Y/N you've already done a lot today! I don't deserve a break and- "

"And I say you deserve it," you responded more severely. "Look at you, you're completely out of breath, a break can't hurt you, don't worry about the meal, I'll take care of it. »

"But-"

"No buts." You took her in your arms and put her on the couch in the living room. "Give yourself a two-hour break, you've earned it," you said nicely. "If you want I can make you a little hot drink? »

"No, no, Y/N, I'll be fine, um... thank you very much. " she says, blushing a little.

"There's no problem. »

*

You went back into the kitchen and thoroughly washed your hands before you started work. You've already put away everything that Nifty had taken out for a better view, and you've cleaned up your work surface.

For your first course, you didn't rack your brain very far, you prepared a large green salad mixed with a few tomatoes that you had washed beforehand. You added gherkins, olives, a few pieces of chopped peppers and a little garlic before preparing the sauce.

As you didn't know each person's taste, you preferred to leave the choice between two different sauces.

The first one was quite strong with its mixture of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, garlic and pepper.

The second, on the other hand, was much milder with olive oil and red fruit vinegar.

*

While you were putting your preparations in the fridge and thinking of an alternative for those who didn't like the salad, a certain deer came into the kitchen whistling a little melody that was unfamiliar to you.

You were about to make a sarcastic remark but you immediately cut yourself when you noticed that Alastor was wearing an Apron instead of his old red mental. He had also tied up his hair and rolled up the sleeves of his red shirt.

You watched him quite dazed. Did he want to help you?

*

"What are you doing here?" you dared to ask in a cold tone as you prepared a plate of cold cuts.

"Such a stupid question my dear! I'm here to help you! I figured you'd be overwhelmed with so much work in the kitchen, and who better than me to give you a little help. " he declared proudly behind a small noise of cheers.

His staging made your eyes roll as his smell awakened your hunger. You sighed and ate some cold cuts to spoil your appetite.

"If it pleases you. " you said emotionlessly, trying to tell him subtly, "get out, I was doing fine without you. " But the deer didn't seem to listen to you as he pulled out a few ingredients.

*

You took the opportunity to study it a little. It was scary how skinny and skeletal he was. You wondered if he was that skinny when he was still alive. Was he someone who had been hungry to be so skinny?

Suddenly marks on his arms would immediately jolt your thoughts away.

Your eyes slowly widened when you saw all those scars on his arms. They were really horrible, was it because of an angel that they were so ugly and visible?

Or were they already there when he came to hell?

Your lips parted to ask the questions that crossed your curious mind, but no sound came out of your throat.

No... it was none of your business and you had other concerns. You continued to eat some cold cuts until your desire to eat your "colleague" dissipated, then you went back to work in icy silence.

After a while you smelled a sweet smell of spice and sneaked a peek at the humming deer as it prepared its dish. To tell the truth, he almost looked like a completely "normal" person. You were terrified of his number of facets, it was really disturbing. You yourself had the ability to take on many different personalities and that was what made you dangerous because you were unpredictable.

For Alastor it was the same thing...

*

You started the deli platter and you innocently said.

"I didn't know you were able to cook."

"Why of course I do Y/N! I love it! "

"Why do you like this activity so much? " you asked "I really doubt you're someone who just invites other people over for dinner, right? "You paused while a mocking smile formed on your lips "Although... if THEY ARE the dinner at the end I think you'd make an effort, am I wrong?"

"You're not wrong, darling. I'm cooking for myself first, I really appreciate the taste of food, especially meat."

"I had noticed," you said rolling your eyes. "And what gave you that taste for cooking? "

*

Alastor suddenly fell silent and seemed to take stock in his head. Maybe he was trying to figure out whether or not he should answer you.

When you were about to give up, he responded enthusiastically.

*

"Well, my mother gave it to me."

*

You blinked in surprise. It was so sudden that you thought he thought you were an idiot.

Were you right to be surprised that this guy had a loving mother?

*

"Your mother?"

"Yes indeed! Her cooking was exquisite, a real explosion of flavour in mouth! "

You blinked again at his lack of restraint in his emotions. For the first time you saw him with an extremely sincere face.

"Even with the little money we had at home, she always managed to concoct dishes worthy of the greatest restaurants in Louisiana. Believe me, her dishes were so delicous, you'd take more and more until your stomach couldn't take it anymore! ha ha ha"

You stopped cooking and took a closer look at the deer. He was always focused on his preparation and not looking at you. However, you noticed a slight tremor on his right hand.

You gently frowned and pursed your lips. You felt a strange pressure in your chest, it was a slight frustration... almost ... like ...

You immediately looked away to calm that feeling.

*

"She... she must really have had a heart of gold" you whispered in a painful voice.

"Oh, yes! I've never known anyone so good, generous and brave in my life."

You bowed your head as you finished your making.

Judging from Alastor's description of his mother, she must have been a really good person. You sadly looked at Alastor again. Why did he become like that? What made him turn into that dread monster if she was so nice?

You had some ideas in your mind but you refrained from asking him questions. Talking about his mother must have been painful for him and you didn't want to get as low as he was and ask him: "Is it because of your mother's death that you've become a self-centered, narcissistic cannibalistic freak?"

No, you were above that. If this woman was in heaven and she loved her son that much, she must have been more than broken-hearted because of him. So just for that, it was enough for you to refrain from that kind of remark.

Instead, you put a sweet smile on your face and said:

"You're really lucky to have had a mother like that Alastor."

Unfortunately you quickly regretted your words when the deer asked you in an almost "candid" tone of voice

"I guess you can say that. What about your mother? How was she?"

If you were holding your dish, you would have immediately dropped it on the floor. The image of your mother burst into your head, like a ghost coming back to haunt you.

"I..."

You were trying to choose your words carefully.

"I didn't really know her... Let's leave it at that, shall we? "

"Sorry if I've reopened a bad wound," replied the deer without looking at you.

*

A little anger erupted in your chest, you were about to answer him with an acidic remark, but when your eyes landed on his face all that rage almost evaporated instantly. His smile was much more discreet, his eyes had lost all aggressiveness and seemed almost sad, while his ears were slightly drooping showing clearly that he was sincere.

"It's nothing," you replied coldly, "You couldn't have known, I didn't tell you about her after all. "With a sigh you put away your preparations, and went towards him. "Without indiscretion what are you cooking?" You asked curiously.

He turned to you with pride, and let you look at what he was preparing. All you could see was this simply beautifully colored rice and the different ingredients. Strangely the whole thing reminded you of...

"Oh cool, you're making paella?"

. . .

...and this is what we call blasphemy...

Saying Alastor's proud face had completly fallen was almost an euphemism.His eyebrows frowned for the first time in a long time, and his smile twisted into a horrible tight smile that could give anyone nightmares! Alive or dead. His eyes looked as if they were about to change to radio dials as a horrible, misfiring radio noise came out of her throat.

*

Yep, you really offended him this time.

*

You took a step backwards, keeping your eye on him. You pursed your lips and stood ready to defend yourself just in case (even though you know the deer wasn't going to attack you, you may have "hurt" him in his ego but not to the point of driving it completely crazy).

"It's not?" you asked rather discomforted.

*

Without answering you the deer pushed you aside and took out a small ramekin and a spoon without saying a word and without changing his expression. You knew immediately that you MUSTN'T leave this kitchen without tasting what he had prepared.

While your mind was desperately trying to find out what he had prepared based on his origins, Alastor handed you the ramekin and said to you in a distorted voice.

*

"Eat."

*

You took the ramekin very slowly without taking your eyes off it and then you looked at the composition of the dish again.

... Ok the mussels were missing, it was already a clue... at least that's what you thought.

With a little hesitation you took a bite.

The very second the food touched your tongue you had to fight with yourself not to drop the ramekin. It was excellent. Your eyes widened at the mixture of all those spices that were lovingly pecking at your tongue. It was really delicious, the texture of the rice and meat was just perfect, all the flavors were blended together perfectly.

You looked at Alastor who seemed to be waiting for a word from you.

The problem was that you still didn't know what it was.

Well, if life had taught you one thing, it was that in this kind of situation it was better to acknowledge your ignorance than to try to find the right answer...

It was at this time that you regretted not having taken advantage of the opportunity for culinary sightseeing when your boss sent you on a mission, unlike your colleagues?

*

"It's really tastful, Alastor. " You said seriously with a slight flushing on your cheeks at the thought of acknowledging that he had talent for cooking. The demon answer you with an almost cold look as if to say "of course it is", you preferred to ignore it and carry on. "The taste is clearly different from a paella even if it looks like it. However, I didn't have the opportunity to go on a culinary tour of the countries my boss sent me to, so I'm really sorry if I confused your dish with a paella because of its apparence, but no offence, but I didn't really see what else it could be."

The deer's eyebrows raised for a moment with surprise. Actually you preferred him like that rather than with furrowed brows.

"You really don't know what Jambalaya is Darling?"

You raised an eyebrow

"I haven't really had time to watch shows about Louisiana food or even taste it, I may have eaten it once, but I really don't remember if I did.

My diet consisted more of fast food... I had other concerns than my food culture... and besides... eating was more like a waste of time for me".

Alastor's eyes widened after you told him.

"Don't you like to eat?"

"It's not that I don't like to eat... I never really got to know the 'pleasure of eating' except for a few small moments in my life, but it was so far away that I forgot what it really was."

*

Alastor looked at you with great astonishment, he was going to add something but Nikolai ran into the room.

"Y/N!!!"

You were slightly startled and looked at the young boy who clung to you like a koala bear. Alastor rolled his eyes and got ready to go back to work.

What a noisy, ill-mannered and unbearable boy he was...

*

"Y/N I'm bored! I helped Nifty with the cleaning a few minutes ago but she asked me to leave her alone for the rest of her activities, and since Boris is not here and Angel has gone to work at the porn studio, I'm all alone! Say I can help you with the kitchen, please, please! "pleaded the little beagle with puppy eyes.

Alastor shot the boy with his eyes while you were thinking about his request.

"I'm sorry young man, but I think Y/N has finished her work in the kitchen."

Nikolai looked at him with a jaded look on his face as if he was judging him by his eyes.

"Thank you very much for your opinion Bambi- I mean Al, but it was to Y/N that I asked, so I think, as the perfect gentleman you are, you could at least be polite and let her answer the question I asked to her."

*

He had a little deathly silence as Alastor looked at the cheeky little beagle with an almost condescending look on his face, yet he preferred not to say anything. After all that brat was right, why would he meddle in your affairs? Yes, after all, you weren't doing anything interesting, you were just cooking and bothering him.

Anyway, yeah, the kid was really good timing.

"You're right, young man. I apologize for this mistake, I'll leave you to your..." He bit his tongue before the word "mom" slipped out of his mouth, and he correct himself. "Friendly little chat" " he said in his happiest tone .

Nikolai raised an eyebrow, suspecting that the deer didn't mean what he was saying. Nevertheless he had got what he wanted, Alastor left you alone so that was enough. He looked at you again, his eyes shining, waiting for an answer. You glanced furtively at the deer that didn't seem to care about you anymore. You sighed and then declared with a smile.

"Go put on an apron and go wash your hands, you're going to help me make dessert ok sweetheart ? " You smiled.

"WONDERFUL!" shouted the child, making Alastor wince. "I'll get one right away!"

*

Once the child was gone you thought about a recipe and then you decided on something light like strawberry or apple pie. You prepared the ingredients when suddenly Alastor spoke to you again.

"I was wondering about that kid... »

You were immediately alerted when he mentioned the child.

"Yes?"

"Do you-"

"I'm back!" Nikolai shouted as he suddenly entered the room with a black apron and rushed to the sink to wash his hands."

*

The deer's smile wavered. Oh how lucky that child was that he didn't have the right to discipline him...

*

"Did I interrupt something? " the Beagle asked you.

"Not at all," replied Alastor. "It wasn't really important."

"Perfect then," replied Nikolai with a big satisfied smile and a honeyed tone bordering on arrogance, "Well, what do you want us to prepare?"

"Well, I'm not sure, so you get to choose, do you want us to make apple pie or strawberry pie?"

*

The child placed a hand under his chin and thought for a few moments before making up his mind, and then he decided.

"Mmmh a good strawberry tart sounds better. »

"Well here we go for strawberry tart, my angel."

You both immediately went to work, started with the dough.

Alastor stopped his preparation as he heard the child laugh, he now had a little flour on his face. As for you, you had finished the dough and had already put it in the oven.

He almost forgot his Jambalaya when he saw you two.

*

This scene seemed familiar to him, as did your smile. It reminded him of something... especially when he saw the stars in the eyes of the little Beagle as he carefully cut the strawberries while you worked on the custard.

He shook his head and finished his jambalaya, a barely audible grunt came out of his throat when that memory popped into his head. His shadow couldn't help but look at him with a little trepidation.

The deer looked at you again in spite of itself. Your relationship with this child who was not yours... why did he feel so concerned about that? It wasn't his problem. Why about seeing you with that arrogant brat disturb him so much? Why did it give him both a sweet and painful feeling that he couldn't even describe?

The deer quietly grumbled and walked out of the room, that feeling and atmosphere was suffocating him too much.

*

The deer didn't want to come and eat, he simply served himself a plate of jambalaya that he had brought to his office. He just wanted to be alone for a little while. To think about how he felt.

Definitely "your friends", were much more annoying than expected. Boris was without bad puns your watchdog and Nikolai... well we can say that he was a devoted child to his mother.

Maybe he should have found out a little more about them before making this deal with you, he could easily attack Boris himself, but his cold-bloodlessness and his little brother made the task much more difficult.

He had been tempted to attack him when he left the hotel but unfortunately it was too risky since Charlie, Vaggie and you yourself knew that he had to do "that little errand" for you, he had to change his mind and wait for another time.

And then, he also had to keep an eye on you, especially since you had made that stupid proposal to Vox. When he thought about it again, it made him tremble with disgust. The thought of that mountain of walking garbage touching you was enough to make him grind his teeth.

Why did you have to be a risk-taker ?

Because of that, he had to rethink his plans for you...

*

He sighed and finished his plate, before going down to the kitchen. He had to talk to Charlie anyway to ask her what she was planning to do for tomorrow, but as soon as he entered the living room he saw you lying on the couch completely asleep and lovingly holding the little Beagle, also asleep, against you.

Charlie Vaggie and Nifty were watching a movie and he assumed you must have fallen asleep.

The deer made the plate disappear from his hands and melted into the shadows so that he could watch you quietly without the others noticing his presence.

*

He studied your completely exhausted body, and this time he could see that your scarf was much looser, and he could see what was left of the wounds you had inflicted on your neck despite the fact that the room wasn't very well lit because of the Cinema atmosphere that Charlie had wanted to put on.

He tilted his head to the side and wondered who did this to you, before continuing to observe you.

Unlike Nikolai, who seemed to sleep like the baby he was, you, on the other hand, didn't look very well. There was a painful expression on your face. Certainly it wasn't the expression that people wore in nightmares, but it showed that you weren't having a very nice dream.

*

"BF/N... "You barely whispered...

*

Alastor tilted his head to the side. Then had to make a superhuman effort to control his radio waves, so great was the anger that ran through him.

That ghost again?

When were you going to finally get rid of that memory? Why would you weaken because of the memory of someone who will never be by your side again? It was so stupid and idiotic. It was stupid and idiotic beyond belief.

He didn't understand you, oh no, he couldn't understand you.

Why did you simply refuse to dismiss these memories out of hand, pretending they didn't exist most of the time? It would certainly make you more bearable.

He had succeeded in this trifling matter, unlike you and many others! Controlling the influence that his memories had on him was a proof of his superiority. You, on the other hand, followed them like a dog would follow its master.

At times, you were truly disappointing...

Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted when he saw Nikolai hugging you and burying his head in your neck in his sleep.

His jaws tightened in the face of this repulsive sight, it was enough for him to look away and discreetly return to his desk.

How could you give so much love to a child who wasn't even yours?

Were you really so desperate to be a mother?

. . .

You were really pathetic to expose your weakness like that... that love you showed for that child was really going to kill you.

That love was your weakness.

*

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