Chapter 48: A Family Dinner Pt.2

As the lights embeded into the design of the domain's entrance changed from blue to red, Ryuzu picked up Carman and started moving back towards the city of Fontaine. They had been in the laboratory for quite some time, as they had entered in the afternoon and now the edge of the sun was kissing the horizon, painting the sky in hues of yellows, oranges, and purples as the stars and moon started to make themselves known in the sky.

The grassy fields danced as cool night breezes passed through their blades.

Ryuzu started picking up speed after making sure nobody would see them. She might not be the strongest in this world, but her ability to move at superhuman speeds would still easily stand out and draw more attention than they could afford at the moment.

As they left Chenyu Vale, Ryuzu headed towards a tall hill that was close enough to an Aquabus line that one could jump from the hill to the concrete sidewalk of the line.

Picking up more speed, Ryuzu jumped, leaving small indentations where she compressed the ground and landed on the sidewalk of the aquabus line.

Ryuzu's heels clicked rapidly against the concrete as she ran towards the city, the sunset behind them. As they neared the walls of the city, Ryuzu gradually slowed down to a normal person's running pace.

As the entered the station, the found nobody there. It seems that it was closed for the day.

Looking around to make sure there was nobody to see them, Ryuzu and Carman carefully climbed around the wall and into the city.

As they walked the streets of Fontaine, the last rays of sunlight made the glass and brass details of the buildings reflect a golden hue. Most of the stores were closing, but sounds of people could still be heard from bars and other "night life" establishments.

Thankfully there wasn't a red light district, at least not on the top half of Fontaine. If there was, he would likely have stumbled across something on the streets he would have spent all his system points to purchase eye bleach for. For someone with the mental age of an adult, he was rather inexperienced when it came to certain adult activities.

Carman and Ryuzu entered the apartment building and started to descend to the bottom floor where their apartment was.

While walking down the stairs Carman pondered out loud what he was thinking.

"I wonder what Livre is making for dinner. Probably something with onions, he seems to be fond of that flavor, since keeps taking us to that restaurant, you know the one with fresh onion soup." Said Carman.

"Indeed, I have also counted that of the 14 times he has taken us to eat out, 12 of those times he requested onions be added to an item that did not originally have them." Recounted Ryuzu.

Carman wasn't adverse to the taste of onions, but he also was tired of the smell, as Livre often took his time enjoying the smell and flavor of the French onion soup he would buy.

There was also a time Livre had packed a bowl of the soup for lunch only to accidentally spill it in the workshop. Thankfully it was in the workroom and not in the customer area, but working in a room with the smell of onions for a week, especially as the smell started to degrade would turn most people off of an ingredient.

As they got closer to the door, Carman could smell the scent of cooking seasoned beef, cheese, and... Eggs? He couldn't quite place the last one.

Unlocking the door, Carman and Ryuzu took off their shoes and walked into the apartment.

Following the scent, Carman, followed by Ryuzu walked into the kitchen, finding Livre humming while holding a pot and ladling something into three bowls. Moving the pot and ladle to the sink, he put on oven mits and pulled out a pan of steaming baguette slices as the smell of garlic filled the room. His humming came to a stop after he put the baguette slices into a platter and turned around and saw them in the doorway.

"Hmm, hmm, hummm 🎶.... Gear Grinding Gardemeks! You two are too quiet." Said Livre as he jumped, dropping the pan and clutching his chest. "Welcome home you two, please go clean up, I'll get dinner on the table."

"Sorry.." said Carman, he wasn't trying to be sneaky, but solid carpeted floors didn't really make much noise when a child was walking, and Ryuzu when she wasn't wearing shoes or talking was practically the closest thing to absolute silence one could find if one didn't have super hearing.

Carman and Ryuzu walked to the bathroom and cleaned their hands before walking to the dining area.

Livre was already there and had set up the table and taken a seat on one of the chairs.

Sitting down, Carman looked at the dish, Livre had made, it had odd shaped noodles and seems to have a cheese sauce with ground beef mixed into it. On toplivre had placed two green leaves as garnish, seemed to be basil leaves.

'i know that Fontaine is based off of France, but why does Livre's food make me think of that Italian place near my work in my past life?' Thought Carman

"I saw how much you enjoyed that pasta with cheese sauce, so I tried to recreate it, of course I took some liberties, such as adding some beef." Said Livre.

Carman nodded and took a bite. It was good, he didn't recognize what type of cheese it was, it tasted like something between Cheddar and Gouda.

"There isn't any Macaroni in this, so what do you call this dish?" Asked Carman.

"I was thinking of something a long the lines of "Boeuf et Fromage sur Engrenages" what do you think? Too basic?" Said Livre.

"No, no it's accurate. Better it be boring than misleading." Said Carman.

Livre laughed, "True, true, I was thinking something a long the lines of Beef and Cheese rounds, but that didn't feel right. So I used the shape of the noodles, as well as the noble dialect to give it a more fancy name. Glad it fit."

Carman, Livre and Ryuzu ate in peace. Carman and Livre, unaware that the other was also doing so, were pondering their connection. And how it would play out in the future. But that conversation shouldn't be done while one's mouth was full of food. They both decided independently to bring it up after dinner was over.

-To be continued