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A bell rang as Kara and Ruthye entered the seventies styled restaurant; complete with a skating rank. The scene made the teen gasp in awe as she took it all in.
Back when they were on the ship, Kara told her about many things on earth. The themed bars, the art expressions called graffiti covering the alleyways of Metropolis, the electronic that has many smart gadgets in one tiny box called a phone, and many other things.
She had also told her about sodas; the thing that she had promised she would get the girl.
When Ruthye got curious about the taste, Kara told her that she would know when she tastes it.
And now they're here.
"There are things you can get here with the sodas, like a burger." She walked up to the miss at the counter. Already pulling her wallet out of her pocket of her trench coat. "Which one do you want?"
The teenager looked up, seeing boards full of names of food that the woman had vaguely explained to her.
"Which one do you recommend, Kara?"
"Well..." She started remembering the first time she was at this place. She was with Clark, her cousin, who recommend her soda with ice-cream. "I'm going to get soda with ice-cream in it. You want one too?"
"Yes, I'll have one too."
"Do you want something else with it?"
"Uhmm, a burger, please?"
Kara turned to the cashier standing there, boredom written all over their face.
Ruthye looked for a place to sit, and she found one. It was near the rink. There weren't many people in that corner, and the ones that were, were standing there to find a way to get on or off the platform.
The seats were striped with red and white. It reminded her of the bars of her homeplanet. The place had some similarities in design with the bar where she had met Kara at.
On the wall near their seats was full of strange scribbles, but upon closer inspection, she saw that it were names saying that they were there. The glasses she got from Kara that translated the language of earth to her own came in handy.
Attached to the wall with a chain was a pen that had a paper stuck to it saying that anyone who ate here at this restaurant could sign.
So, the girl decided to return to her seat. Thinking what she could write on the wall after they were done eating.
"Ruthye Marye Knoll of the Danastia clan or... RMKD?" She muttered, nipping at her bottom lip in concentration.
"Wanna see mine?" It was Kara, sliding the plates of food they ordered and pulling out the milkshakes from the pockets of her jacket when her hands finally were free. "I think the glasses can translate Kryptonian too."
She nodded and ate one of the fries to be able to write her name on the wall. Rubbing off the salt on her hands with her jacket she turned to where Kara was waiting on her, trying to figure out where she had written her name.
As Ruthye approached, the woman pointed at what she long searched.
"I wrote my name in Kryptonian, and with many struggles Clark had written mine in American."
Above the name, Kara, where symbols she couldn't read, until the glasses focused on it and translated it.
Kara Zor-El.
"The glasses work." She said as she adjusted them and looked at what was written next to it. "Kara Zor-El and Kal-el of house El."
A few beats of silence passed between the two before the girl spoke again.
"Who's Kal-El?"
"A nerd." She laughed at her own comeback. "You know how I told you about my cousin, Clark Joseph Kent? He was named 'Kal-El'."
"How did you find him then?"
"I'll tell you when we're eating."
Ruthye nodded, and glanced at Kara walking back to their table before looking at the wall again.
The high-tech glasses she had gotten also had a feature that could help writing in a specific language, but she wanted to do something else.
She took the glasses off and took the pen to write her own name in her own language. She adjusted her grip to it and started writing.
「Ruthye Marye Knoll | of the Danastia clan was here」
She smiled with satisfaction. A piece of this day will now never be forgotten. She put the glasses back on and walked back to her seat. Shifting a bit to find the most comfortable spot.
A glass with bubbles, a straw and sprinkles on top got pushed to be nearer to her.
"Soda with ice-cream on the top." Kara said, already sipping on hers. Occasionally blowing at the ice-cream with her cold breath to stop it from melting too much.
"Thank you." The excitement thumped under her her skin as she took her first sip.
It was sweet, and very cold. It somehow was biting back at her, but in a pleasant way. She wasn't sure how that was possible, yet that didn't stop her from drinking more.
Some parts had a different taste, which confused her taste buds. The ice-cream part of the drink was delicious and made it ten times better.
When she finished it a hum of satisfaction, she got curious about the other dishes that were available on earth.
But, she remembered what her friend had promised her. She told her that she would tell the story of how she and her cousin met.
"Kara, would you mind telling me about how you and your cousin met?"
"Well, it's a long story... So, I'll just summarize it." She leaned back, taking a bite of one of her burgers before she started speaking. "I was sent to earth to care for him, but I got stuck for... I think fourteen years, or more. When I got there, he was speaking something and I was speaking Kryptonian, so I didn't understand."
Another bite out of her burger before she started telling more about the story.
"Eventually, I got to that ice castle and he showed me the recordings of his parents and I pointed at him of like 'Kal-El?' And then he said something, and gave me a suit with an this logo."
Kara pointed at her suit. The logo was a bit faded, but Ruthye still thought it was cool.
"Yeah, and then everything else happened. End of story."
Kara pushed her fries to give to Ruthye after noticing the difference of the amounts she had gotten for the both of them.
She started eating the fries, but this time, she was mindful about properly tasting it instead of hurriedly shoving on in her mouth. The taste of it was a bit plain, yet it was the plain taste that made the salt and spices stand out.
That dish made her want to test out other ones.
So, she unwrapped her burger and took a bite.
The taste reminded her of something her mother used to make. The burger couldn't compare, but it was the closest thing she had tasted since the death of her dear family. A few tears ran down her face as she ate more, not minding the taste of the salt of her tears.
She eventually finished, and as she looked up at Kara, she saw two wrappers being folded into airplanes. A bit shocked how she already had eaten two burgers when Ruthye considered herself one of the fastest eaters she knew.
"Ruthye, do you want more?"
She nodded, the taste of the food was too good to give up on the offer. Especially because of the comfort they were bringing her.
"They are multiple. Do you want the one with cheese, the double burger, or the one with pickles and mayo?"
"If I may ask, is the double burger this one but with two burger stacked upon eachother?"
"Yes, you can also add sauces to it, but they only have mayo and chili at the moment."
She thought about which one she should take. She wanted something that was closer to her mother's food, so she gambled on it.
"Can one of the burgers have mayo and the other chili, please?"
"One double burger with mayo and chili coming right up." She exited the booth and went back to where they ordered their food.
The bubbly feeling that she got from the burgers made her excited about the sauces. Truth be told, she hadn't had any standards for their food, because the food that Kara had in her space ship was... unappealing in her eyes. But here, she had definitely changed her mind.
The waiting didn't take long since her friend soon came back with their food.
She had sodas with ice-cream, fries and two double burgers with her.
It made a smile appear on her face as she dried her tears.
"Chili and mayo, here." Two packets of had something written on them, turned to two packets with chili and mayonnaise written once her glasses focused.
"Thank you."