Bitter Barley Tea

Tracing after the shadows in the streets, Ava couldn't help but fall silent for a moment when she thought about the history of Kassidy and couldn't help but wonder what had led him to develop such a temperament. If it was just getting injured at war, although it made sense that he would have a more withdrawn personality, it didn't quite explain all the precautions the man took. It seemed like there might be more to the story that she didn't know about.

After a moment, Ava shook her head and walked back into the training area before closing the front doors. Anyways, no matter what Kassidy's secrets were, they didn't particularly interest her, and even if they did, she had to wait until she was stronger than the man to investigate them. Otherwise, she would just be wasting her effort. Ignoring whether or not it'd piss Kassidy off, and if he would try to stop her if he really did have an enemy that caused his downfall, if Kassidy's strength was enough to get revenge, wouldn't he have already done so by now?

Thinking of random thoughts, Ava walked to the side of the room and pulled up a small mental box, a paper baggy, and two metal thermoses. Placing them on top of the table, Ava couldn't help but let out a childlike smile while revealing the contents like a goody bag. First, opening up the paper bag, she found silverware, two bananas, an apple, and a sweet pastry that had a tart strawberry cream filling that should have been bought from Jarvis, the baker across the street. Rubbing the slightly brown bulge on the apple, Ava couldn't help but feel a little sad. When she had been walking over today, she had subconsciously dodged out of the way to avoid a passerby and, in doing so, had bumped her bag against the wall, which had dented her perfectly green apple.

Placing the fruits and the pastry to the side of the table, Ava decided to eat them last. Pausing for a moment, Ava randomly grabbed a thermos and cracked it open, revealing a still, slightly warm, soft yellow broth that glimmered with a slight sheen of oil on top. At once, Ava realized that it was probably the leftover chicken soup from the night before and couldn't help but slightly lick her lips in anticipation. Stretching a little, Ava tilted her head slightly over the thermos to look down and saw hearty chunks of chicken and celery on the bottom.

Recapping the thermos for the moment, Ava looked towards the metal box and couldn't help but feel a little excited. Over the past few weeks, Sasha had been packing her meals, and Ahri had been helping her sneak in some extra fruits and treats as snacks. Of course, with her attitude, Ava insisted on seeing her training through until the end and would only eat after finishing, which meant that most of the time, the snacks would just end up as an addendum to her meal. Of course, while Ava enjoyed the sweet fruits and tart pastries, she had to admit that in the end, what she always looked forward to the most was the main course.

Opening up the latch on the side of the metal box, Ava opened up the container to reveal a partitioned box, with just over one half of the box containing beautiful long strands of noodles covered in a bright red sauce, while the other half was split into three parts, the first part holding two hearty chunks of bread, the second containing four juicy meatballs, and the last containing a vibrant green collection of peas and shallots. Letting out a happy smile, Ava grabbed the silverware from the paper bag and prepared to dig in before remembering the last thermos.

Curious, Ava picked it up and cracked it open to reveal a canister of barley tea. Somewhat annoyed, Ava eyed the bitter drink with some amount of frustration, but in the end, she didn't reject it and went and grabbed a cup before pouring some out. While there had never been a case that Ava didn't finish the food, Ahri had practically laughed her ass off when she realized that Ava was gulping down the entire canister at the end of her meal like it was a tonic. Between gasps for air, Ahri explained that Barely tea helped with digestion, and she should try to drink it alongside her meal instead of after it.

Thinking for a moment, Ava started with a chunk of bread, which she dipped into the still, slightly warm chicken soup before chewing on it. Compared to the dense, hard black bread that she had to soften up with her saliva in the past, this soft pillowy brown bread was a delight to eat, even without the presence of soup. After finishing off one chunk of bread, Ava thought for a second before picking up her spoon and eating some of the peas between sips of the chicken soup. Before long, Ava had finished off all of the peas and about half of the thermos of soup.

Letting out a breath, Ava took a sip of the Barely tea with a slightly disgruntled expression before starting to work on the pasta. Picking up her fork and her spoon, Ava twirled together big bites of pasta by piercing the fork into the tender noodles before spinning it on the surface of her spoon before enjoying in large, voracious bites.

Licking her lips clean of the red sauce, Ava then picked up a meatball and split it into two before enjoying half of it on its own, and splitting the remaining half into the pasta and breaking it into the pasta.

Between sips of Barley tea, Ava quickly polished off the pasta and the meatballs in such a fashion. Letting out a slight burp of contentment, Ava then grabbed a banana before peeling it and slowly enjoying it. Looking at the remaining banana, Ava decided to leave it for later in the day and reluctantly put it back into the paper bag.

Looking at her now partially empty mental canister, Ava thought for a moment before pouring the remaining chicken soup into the partition where the pasta had been, revealing large chunks of chicken alongside vegetables that had boiled until they were soft. Checking the thermos to confirm there was nothing left, Ava quickly polished off the remaining soup, using her remaining chunk of bread to sop up the remaining drops of soup. Finishing everything in the metal box, Ava couldn't help but feel slightly sad, but quickly snapped out of it and snapped the metal box shut while also recapping the empty thermos.

Picking up the pastry, Ava first took a large sip of Barely tea before recapping the thermos and enjoying the tart pastry. She had learned the hard way a couple of days back that if she tried drinking the tea after eating a sweet, it would taste twice as bitter.

Polishing off the majority of her meal, leaving behind only one apple and a banana, Ava let out a content sigh before resolutely getting up and doing some stretches and practical exercises.