Unexpected encounters

"My name is Dulio Gesualdo, and yours?"

`I don't feel like having a small talk but it would be rude not to answer.`

"I am Luke."

Dulio opens his mouth to say something but the waitress comes to take his order. The blond takes the menu with both hands and narrows his eyes a lot.

"Hmm." Dulio looks at the menu with great intensity. "Hmmm."

`Too much intensity, she is only taking your order, chill.` Luka observes him out of the corner of his eyes. For some reason the blonde looks somewhat familiar, he feels he's heard that name before but he can't remember where. It's like having something on the tip of your tongue, no matter how hard you focus on it, you can't remember what.

`Well, if I can't remember it then it is not important.` Luka shrugs.

"I can come back in a bit if you want." The waitress tells him kindly.

"Hmm." Dulio keeps looking at the menu as if it had the answers to all the questions in the universe but it refuses to give them to him. "Yeah, I have no idea what to order."

The waitress almost stumbles and falls, Luka shakes his head a little.

`What an interesting guy.`

"I know!" The blond smiles as if he just had a great idea. "I'll order what he ordered." Dulio points towards Luka.

A metaphorical light bulb lights up over Luka's head.

`Oh dear. An opportunity for some entertainment!`

"Mademoiselle, he wants escargot and cuisses de grenouilles." Luka intervenes with a friendly smile, inside he is grinning like the devil.

The waitress sees the mischievous glint in the boy's eyes and smirks at him before nodding.

"What a great choice!" she says excitedly. "The snails and frogs are very fresh! They just brought them to us just an hour ago!"

Dulio pales and his face takes on a greenish glow.

"Snails? Frog?" He asks nervously. "No! I- is for the children. I- I must do it." He tells himself.

Luka can't hold his laugh anymore and neither can the waitress. The pinkhead almost fell out of his chair laughing, the blond teen has the face of someone who is being interrogated by his teacher and about to vomit: pale, somewhat sweaty and with a greenish tint. The panic in those green eyes is hilarious.

"Eh?" Dulio looks at them confused.

"Escargot and cuisses de grenouilles, perfect!" The waitress winks at Luka and leaves for the kitchen.

"W-wait!"

Luka continues laughing at the blonde's panic and after wiping away a tear, he smiles mischievously at him.

"Wait- was that a joke, right? That's why you laughed!" Dulio looks at him hopefully.

"No no." Luka assures him with a more serious expression. "Those dishes are classics of French cuisine, you can see that by looking at the menu. There are few who dare to try authentic French cuisine! I admire you for it, monsieur."

"Hehehe" Dulio starts laughing nervously and looks in the direction the waitress left. "Snails and frogs." He mutters and swallows hard.

Luka laughs again and after seeing him suffer for a while he begins to feel sorry for him.

`Should I tell him that I ordered a cassoulet? Or should I let him suffer until the waitress brings me the food and he sees for himself? Hmmm, although it would be a lot of fun if she actually brought him a escargot and cuisses de grenouilles. Oh, his face. Just imagining it- Should I listen to the devil on my shoulder, or to the devil dressed as an angel.`

In the end the pinkhead decides not to say anything and watches the blonde suffer in silence, his murmurs of encouragement are most entertaining.

"I- I have to! I promised the children- but, no buts! Frogs- Give me strength God!"

`I'm curious, what children is he talking about?`

After a while the waitress comes out of the kitchen with a tray in hand.

"Here you go, petit monsieur." The waitress arrives with his cassoulet and places the plate on the table. "Let me know when you want me to bring your dessert."

"Okay, merci mademoiselle."

"Huh? That's not frogs and snails!" Dulio approaches Luka's table and practically sticks his face into the pinkhead's plate, sniffing the food like a dog. "It smells delicious!"

Luka pushes the blond's head away from his food and narrows his eyes.

"If your hair ends up in my food..." He doesn't finish the threat, Dulio understands the gesture and moves away laughing nervously.

"Sorry, it smells delicious! What is it?" Dulio's eyes sparkle with curiosity and he looks at him expectantly with his head tilted slightly to the side.

`A puppy, a giant puppy.`

"It's a cassoulet, it's a traditional dish from the south of France. Basically it's a stew made with white beans and meat, there are a lot of varieties of this dish and each one has a different flavor. This restaurant, for example, used chicken meat. Personally, I like the cassoulet with pork ribs better." Luka explains, when he looks at Dulio he sees that he took out a notebook and is taking notes.

`Seriously? What an odd guy.`

"You know a lot about French food!"

"Well, I am French after all." Luke shrugged. "Now, could you please keep your nose away from my food so I can eat in peace."

Dulio, who got a lot closer to Luka's food again, moved away smiling shyly and scratching the back of his head with embarrassment.

`Are you kidding me? Is this karma for messing with him earlier? `Dulio kept his distance but kept looking at the pinkhead's food like a dog looks at a bone, and with every bite Luka took the blonde practically whimpering like a kicked puppy. `Is this guy fucking with me?! Let me eat in peace!`

Luka thanked the heavens when the waitress returned with the blonde's food and he was finally able to eat in peace.

"Excuse me, could you bring my dessert?"

"Of course!"

The waitress picks up Luka's plate and goes to the kitchen, in a few minutes she returns with a plate with two chocolate crepes.

"Bon appétit, petit monsieur."

"Merci!"

`Crepes with chocolate, this is heaven!`

"That looks delicious..."

`Not this guy again! Come on! Crepes are not that rare, surely he has eaten them before! Just let me eat my desert in peace.`

Luka decides to ignore him and focus on enjoying his dessert, something quite difficult with Dulio asking him a thousand questions.

`The waitress should have brought him escargot and cuisses de grenouilles, maybe that would have kept him quiet.`

"Bye!" As soon as he finishes his meal he jumps out of his chair and practically runs out of the restaurant. `Good thing I paid when she brought me the tea, or I would have had to put up with that guy asking me a thousand questions about French cuisine longer. Yeah, I am french and I know a few things about it but I am not a walking wikipedia!`

***

`I could practice that new spell or maybe I should keep killing zombies?` After leaving the restaurant he went to the train station to see which trains will leave Stuttgart the next day, he plans to leave the city on one of them.

`Nah, better today I save my strength. I don't think I'm going to sleep much on the train.`

Luka walks through the streets of the city towards an abandoned building he saw a few days ago, that is where he intends to spend the night.

As he walks he feels a strange sensation, a heaviness in his stomach.

`Is it cause of the sweets I ate earlier?` He remembers the bag full of jelly beans and the two bags of chips that he ate for dinner. `Maybe I shouldn't have washed that down with a liter of soda.`

"Your wish will come true! Feel free to contact us! No matter what you want, be it wealth, fame or a date with a beautiful lady!" A woman dressed in a rather short dress that doesn't leave much to the imagination is handing out pamphlets, she turns to him and smiles brightly at him as she hands him a pamphlet.

Out of courtesy he took it and after looking at the woman again he left.

`A cult of sorts? She is very attractive, good choice of recruiter.` He thought as he looked at the pamphlet.

It was a weird-looking thing with a magic-circle and a sentence - "Your wish will be granted!" - written.

`I am not into cults,` Luka throws the pamphlet into a trash can. `And I am low on cash anyways, cults only want people to flow cash into their pockets while babbling about some weird shit.`

The pinkhead turns the corner and sees the abandoned building, an old toy factory according to the half-torn sign with several parts missing. After looking for the surveillance cameras, he discovers that they are broken and lets out a relieved sigh.

`Good, now let's jump the fence.`

Luka walks across the empty parking lot and enters the factory through a side door, which he freezes the handle before kicking it. He places the door in its place after entering into the building and uses his magic to freeze the edges so it won't move.

Inside the factory he sees a large room with several conveyor belts that used to carry some kind of product, on the sides there are large windows through which light enters, illuminating the room.

Luka explores the place a bit and only discovers some rats which he quickly drives away.

`The workers' changing rooms, or perhaps the supervisor's office. Both are good places to spend the night, closed rooms that I can lock with a bit of ice.`

The boy's reflections are interrupted by a loud noise, he turns his head and sees the door through which he entered hit one of the walls of the factory.

Looking towards the entrance he sees a woman with one leg still raised.

`That strength...`

The woman's eyes fix on him and she smiles maliciously.

"I finally found you, little rat, and what a suitable place you chose." She laughs like a supervillain from a cheap movie and Luka finally recognizes her.

`The woman from before!` The same woman he tried to pickpocket but caught him in the act. `And she is no regular human, darn it, I knew I will run out of luck soon.`

The woman has silky black hair that cascades down to her knees, purple eyes that shine with malice and cruelty, and a most unpleasant smile.

Objectively she is beautiful but her expression full of malice and cruelty taint whatever beauty she possesses.

"Trying to steal from me..." She clicked her tongue and entered the factory, the sound of her heels hitting the floor echoing through the abandoned building with an ominous echo. "Didn't your parents teach you that it's not okay to steal?"

`My parents taught me that it is okay to neglect and abandon your children, that is the only thing I "learned" from them- This is no time for that Artois! Dangerous woman approaching!`

"You were a bad boy, a very bad boy and I must punish you."

`That sounds cringe as fuck, weird-lady-who-follows-kids-to-abandoned-factories.`

Her smile widens and her clothes disappear in a flash of light and are replaced by others. She is now dressed in black leather: a very tight corset that seems about to break due to the size of her breasts, very small panties, fishnet leggings and heels with a point that could well be a needle. On her back she has two wings black as night, and some feathers float in the air around her.

"Domitratix." Luka says without thinking.

"What did you call me?!" The woman -fallen angel- looks even more pissed off and Luka's eyes widen.

"Did I speak out loud?" He doesn't need confirmation, the sinister expression of the fallen angel is answer enough. "Well, I am fuck, and not the pleasant way."

That would perfectly define his current situation.

***

NOTE: There are advanced chapter in my p@ tre on if you are interested.

p a t r e o n. com /EdenofKovir

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Luka is quite sassy, he knows how that can and will get him into trouble but sometimes his mouth is faster than his brain.