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The wind was cool, a pleasant contrast from the sun's heat.
After the incident in Area Zero, Arven hadn't had much to do. Mabostiff was finally safe and sound, he was on top of all his classes, he'd already found his treasure in the form of his friends, and... Well. Even after finding out his mother had died, nothing changed. She never bothered to see him anyways.
So when Juliana asked if he wanted to accompany her on a picnic, he had no reason to decline. They'd found a nice spot at Casseroya Lake and had set up, releasing their pokemon from their pokeballs. A simple game of fetch had been occupying Arven and Mabostiff and Mustard, Juliana's Skeledirge, for a while. Though eventually, the pokemon became tired, resting at Arven's feet instead.
His stomach grumbled. When was the last time he ate? Mabostiff was probably hungry too. He'd make them both a sandwich, his speciality. Rummaging in his bag for ingredients – he still had some peanut butter, thank the heavens, Mabostiff refused to eat a sandwich without it – he made conversation with Juliana.
"Do you want me to make you a sandwich too?" He offered. Arven knew that though she was able to make one herself, his ones reigned supreme. Juliana shook her head.
"I'm not a fan of peanut butter." She scrunched up her face in disgust. "It gets stuck to the roof of my mouth all the time!" Looking inside the jar of peanut butter, Arven was thankful she declined. There was a lot less left in there than he'd expected (Arven made a mental note to buy more once he got back to Mezagosa), maybe not even enough for two sandwiches. Mabostiff and him would have to share the sandwich, probably.
Or...he could ask Juliana to make him one if she had enough ingredients to do so.
Arven had never asked anyone for anything like that before. From a child, he relied on him and him only to put food on the table for him. How‐ How would you ask? A "Hey, I don't have enough to make two sandwiches, could you make me one please?"? Was that too polite? Was that the way to say it? Should you ask for it differently?
Arven decided to just share with Mabostiff. He would rather do that than go through the embarrassment of messing something as simple as asking for something up.
"I'll make one too, for me and Mustard." Juliana announced, searching through her massive bag. By the time she managed to get out some whipped cream and strawberries Arven had already finished making his sandwich. He tore it in half, tossing it to Mabostiff who happily scarfed it down.
Whipped cream and strawberries were a nice combo for a sandwich. They were very popular in the Johto region. Arven sticked to sandwiches more typical for Paldea, like ham and cheese, but it wouldn't hurt to branch out–
Juliana also brought out prosciutto from her bag. And ketchup. And pepper. And olive oil. And onion. And avocado.
Arven sat there in horrified silence as Juliana mixed the whipped cream, ketchup, olive oil and pepper into a hellish slurry as she spread it onto the bread. He wanted to stop her. He needed to stop her, knowing what would inevitably come next. And yet, he was stuck in place by shock.
The placement of the fillings could be called artistic, if they weren't a combination straight from hell. Prosciutto didn't go with strawberries, that simply didn't work. The ingredients were a mishmash in the worst way possible. If there were sandwich gods, Juliana had just spat in their faces with...with that. She couldn't really want to eat that, could she? And what about Mustard? It wouldn't want that too, surely?
Arven was instantly proved wrong when the sandwich – no, it couldn't be called that, that thing wouldn't even qualify as food – was cut in half. Juliana took a bite out of her half as the gave the other to Mustard. Mustard gobbled it down so fast Arven was sure it couldn't taste the thing in the first place, thick tail thumping on the ground happily.
"Hm? Arven, are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost!" Arven nodded. He hadn't seen a ghost. What he saw was far, far worse in his opinion.
"I-I'm fine!" Well. At least he'd found something else to do with his free time now. Juliana was getting food-making lessons from him, whether she liked it or not.