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Nel sat at their newly bought table, surrounded by boxes and boxes of their belongings as Agares cooked their meal over in the kitchen.
They had just bought themselves a nice small house hidden in the forest not too far away from the town and started moving in just today. Little to say, moving innumerable boxes into the house became tiring after a while, and even if their friends were there to help, manual labor is still manual labor, even when you’re a powerful archangel.
The house, though not verry big, was perfect for their small group. Just enough space for everyone. Plus, if they ever feel the need for more space, there’s plenty of land outside for them to build on.
Thinking of their friends, they had gone into town to get cleaning supplies not so long ago. Since the house, having been abandoned for a while before their arrival, was in desperate need of cleaning. In their small time in here, Nel had already found dust in places he never thought possible. Cobwebs also littered every corner, which wasn’t that charming all in all. He understood why the humans thought this place was haunted and stayed away from it, even if with just a little touching up it would be quite a cozy home. Oh well, it was their loss really.
He had been quite surprised when Agares offered to cook for them, since Nel didn’t think he could cook, being a former demon king and having servants to do it for him. Now that he thinks about it, he probably learnt it from his days as a primordial demon, if not, then probably for his wife.
Usually, he’d be the one to cook, but he was curious to see what Agares whipped up for the group. Even more so with the little food and kitchen appliances available at the moment. He doubted the stove was even functioning and the knives were stored away in a box somewhere
He can’t say he really expects anything, to be honest. But it had more than a few minutes and with all the noises that were coming from the kitchen, he was getting a bit nervous. Seriously, what was going on in there?
Little to say, Nel was more than a bit surprised to see Agares come in with two bowls of burnt cereal.
“Sorry, I know I messed up a little but at least I think its edible?” he had an apologetic smile as he set the bowls down on the table.
Well, when Nel said he didn’t expect much, he didn’t actually think it’d be this bad “we aren’t eating that” as he said that Agares’ face fell a little “come on let’s see what else we can do instead. Ill teach you how to cook once the house is ready”
“Hey, I do know how to cook” Agares chipped in as they made their way towards the kitchen.
“You burnt cereal” he said sceptically as he braced himself for whatever mess would await him on the other side of the wall separating them from the kitchen.
“Yea, well I’m not familiar with how human foods work how was I supposed to know when it was going to burn. Ill cook you up something from the demon world one of these days you’ll see”
“First of all, you don’t cook cereal. And ill pass on that offer thanks” surprisingly, the kitchen wasn’t in as much of a dire state than he had previously thought with all the ruckus Agares caused. In fact, it was in better condition than when he had first left it. With dust off of its counters and cobwebs out of the way.
“Yea, well how was I supposed to know that- hey what’s with that look?” Agares said as he entered the kitchen in turn.
“Nothing, I’m just surprised you didn’t destroy everything” he said as he looked trough their current food supply, which mostly consisted of snacks at the moment.
“Hey, its not like I have a tendency to destroy everything I come across why is it so hard to believe.” Agares continued while messing around with the stove settings “this thing’s not working by the way”
“That’s fine we can just make sandwiches then- wait, how did you cook the cereal then?”
“Heh, about that-“ He rocked on his heels nervously while trying to find an explanation that wouldn’t get him into trouble.
“You know what, I don’t want to know” Nel did not have enough energy for this today, he knows he’ll figure it out sooner or later anyways. Still, he makes a mental note to never let Agares into the kitchen again without surveillance. “Do we have any plates clean enough to eat on?”
“Yea, actually. Deca gave me the box they were in before leaving” he said while taking out two of them. “Its also where I got the bowls”
Nel hummed in acknowledgment as he took the ingredients out of the sack that currently served purpose of their pantry.
“So, what are we making?” Agares asked while handing him the plates.
“sandwiches”
“Ugh again? We’ve been eating sandwiches for the past week when will we get variety” he groaned
“Once the kitchen is ready, we should be able to do something else. We’re out of cheese and tomatoes by the way.” Nel said while putting the bread down on the plates.
“So we’re just supposed to eat ham and lettuce? That’s so bland” Agares grabbed the food bag from Nel’s side “let me see what else we can put in there.”
“Nothing in there would make a good match with ham and lettuce” he sighed
“Hey, don’t knock until you try it” Agares pulled out a jar from the bag “look there’s peanut butter. This could make an interesting match”
“It really wont”
“Hey, don’t ruin my fun, you never know I might just create a culinary masterpiece” he said as he grabbed yet another jar from the bag.
“Please don’t add the pickles.” At this point, Nel was truly considering just skipping on lunch, but he knew Agares would still force him into it.
“I’m adding the pickles” he said while opening the jars and fetching a butter knife for the peanut butter.
“Good god this is going to be a monstrosity…” Nel mumbled to himself
“Hey, you do know I can hear you right” Agares pointed his butter knife half coated in peanut butter to him. “Think twice before insulting my genius when I’m the one holding a knife.”
“it’s a butter knife.” He pushed it away from his face. “I doubt it could deal any real damage.”
Agares hummed in consideration. “A knife is still a knife.” Before going back to work
“Ta-da!” Agares pushed a plate of what, if you didn’t already know what the ingredients used for it were, looked like a perfectly normal sandwich towards him. “My masterpiece!”
“I hope you know I’m not eating that” he deadpanned
“Yes, you will.” Agares said pointedly “if it turns out to be absolutely disgusting, I’m not gonna be the only one whose taste buds gets destroyed-”
“So you admit that the chances of it being good is low?”
“-and if it actually turns out to be mind-blowingly good, I’m not gonna be the only one to be in on it” he finished as they made their way towards the dining room.
As they took their seat, neither of them were keen to be the first one to take a bite. All withing reason of course, these sandwiches were of questionable ingredient combos. Though with Agares’ incessant stare, Nel mentally prepared himself.
As he finally took his bite, he found it not to be as bad as he had thought. Of course. It wasn’t exactly good per say, nor would he willfully choose to eat it again, but it was edible at least. Though maybe it was just the fact that they had not had proper meal worth its name in a while that was playing with his taste buds.
“So? How does it taste?” asked Agares, curious.
“It’s… okay?” in all honesty Nel wasn’t sure what to say himself
Agares took this as his sign to start eating as well. For someone who was so confident in his creation before, it sure was funny seeing him not want to take the bait. Though Nel guesses he’s not that exempt from the irony of it all either, as he, who was the most adverse to the idea of having to eat this mess of a sandwich for dinner, was the one who took the shot and tried it first without much complaint.
They fell into silence s they ate before Agares suddenly grinned up at him from his sandwich and said, “Hey, with all the sandwiches we’ve been eating lately, do you think we’re going to summon some sand witches here to take revenge on their fallen brethren?”
Nel sighed as his partner made his joke “Witches aren’t related to sandwiches” he paused “if anything you’d be the one eating your own child right now. Since we made these”
“Yea but the difference is that we made them specially for eating” Agares laughed.
“I guess that’s true”
The dining room fell back into a comfortable silence as the two partners, though one more reluctant than the other, finished eating their dinner while simply enjoying each other’s presence.