Frides for Lunch

Frides walked into the room with his shoulders tense and hunched. "Who are you?'

"Frides." Nero chided. "If you want the full backstory, you can't walk out on the show at the beginning. Let me catch you up. Her name is Bliperilla, I know weird name, and she used to have the best job in the world but traded it in to be a housekeeper."

Bliperilla's jaw dropped. "That is not the jest of my story." Nero stared coolly over to Urs and she rolled her eyes. "Sure, that's basically all you need to know. Except without the sarcasm."

"I've checked all the rooms. It's just her." Frides Ignored Nero but focused on Bliperilla. "What are you doing here?"

"What's the problem?" Elle put her book down. "I've been sitting here listening to Nero annoy her and she seems harmless. She was doing a surprisingly good job not punching him in his smug face."

"I resent that." Nero retorted childishly pouting his lips.

"The problem is, there was no mention of a housekeeper in the letter that included the map, our masks, and everything. Nothing at all said anything about a housekeeper. Why would we need a housekeeper?" Frides pointed at Bliperilla.

"So your problem is that the same people that created that damned letter in New Oania left something out?" Elle shot a disdainful look at Nero.

"Don't blame me. I don't know how we solved it. I swear if I knew something I would tell you." Nero cried. "I promise to let you solve the next one."

"That better be the last one!" Elle got up and pointed the book at Nero. "If we get another riddle, I'm going to solve the crap out of it."

"That's the spirit!" Nero waved his cookie in the air flippantly.

Frides looked from Elle to Nero and reluctantly decided to release his glow and walk toward the bar.

Bliperilla smirked sympathetically and leaned her elbow against the bar and placed her chin in her palm. "What can I get you? I make a good ragu carbonara. I caught some rabbit the other day."

Frides contorted his face in an expression of disbelief. "You know how to make a carbonara?"

"Yup." Bliperilla challenged.

Frides held his gaze. "Let's see then."

"Sure." She lit some wood logs in the oven and pulled out the rabbit and skinned them and sliced a few fillets from the rabbit, removing the bones. She brought water to a boil and squeezed an orange over it and added salt. She added some pre-made pasta to the boiling water and placed the fillets in the oven after seasoning it. She cracked two eggs and seasoned them, finishing it with some zest from the orange and a lemon. She drained the pasta water and let it rest saving some of the water. She then added the pasta back to the pot with some oil and whisked the egg mixture and added it with a few splashes of the reserved pasta water.

A Distracted Elle was lifted from her seat involuntarily by the aroma. She took a seat in between Nero and Frides. Bliperilla pulled the rabbit out of the oven and chopped it up while stirring the linguine. She split the baked rabbit fillets onto five plates, only splitting the linguine onto four plates, and added zest, then garnished them with herbs. On the fifth plate she placed a handful of plump black cherries.

She placed the four plates in front of Nero, Frides, Elle, and Ouran and placed the fifth plate in front of Urs. She ran the ladle in front of them stopping them from digging in immediately. "Wash your hands first."

They all raced to the hallway. Ouran followed behind Nero to the left. Elle followed behind Frides to the right. "The bathing room is over here."

Urs was getting ready to dig in when Bliperilla pulled the plate away from her. "You need to wash up the most." Urs hopped off the stool and followed them. "She's really well trained or maybe she understood me." She shrugged.

Bliperilla could hear them bumping into each other in the bathroom, bickering over the bar of soap. She could hear Urs wings flapping as Nero forced the soap on the dried cherry juices clumped on her snout.

"You can't make a Domaku eat soap!" Frides reproached Neros handling of Urs.

"It was an accident! The cherry juices were all on her mouth." Nero maintained.

Elle was the first to make it back. "Next time you wait outside, until I'm done." She pulled soap suds from the curls in her hair.

"Sorry." Ouran said regretfully. "The soap slipped out of my hands. I tried to catch it."

"Next time you wait outside. You and him and her." She pointed to Nero and Urs.

Frides sat down and pulled his plate up and grabbed a fork. After his first bite he looked up at Bliperilla skeptically. "Who are you?"

She smiled smugly, stepped back leaning against the sink to clean the dishes. "Bliperilla. Don't get used to it."

"What does that mean?" He said starting to boil up again.

Elle poked him in his side with her elbow. "It wasn't a threat."

"It means I'm only going to be here for three more days. Then I will be sent to another home as a Retainer." Bliperilla's tone was melancholy despite the forced purgatory she found herself in.

"Oh, good for you! Do you know where you're going? I got lucky. I'm still so close to home." Nero said jubilated.

"Umm…" Bliperilla paused pursing her lips. "I don't know. It doesn't matter."

"Why? Shouldn't you get a choice where you go or who you spend your life with? You should join us!"

"Nero!" Elle elbowed him.

"HAHAHAH!" Bliperilla leant against the bar and laughed.