Of Parks and Races

A kindly, slightly chubby old man in a heavy flannel shirt opened up a warm, fluffy biscuit, its layers splitting apart as it let out a small puff of steam. The man brought forward a brush, almost dripping with honeyed butter, and lathered the top and bottom halves with the amber-gold liquid. Reaching his gloved hand to the side, he retrieved a freshly fried chicken breast, golden brown and crispy, placing it gingerly upon the bottom half of the biscuit before crowning it with the top.

’Dang, that looks really good,’ John thought, watching the man begin to wrap up the savory meal with practiced precision.

The baker’s husband - an elderly man with thick rectangular glasses and hair as white as snow - had emerged from the back a few minutes after the pair of Abyssals had put their order in, only to find his wife still picking out and packing up pastries for Ela. While the two women were wrapping up and discussing the baked goods, The Gamer had gone over to pay for breakfast, unfortunately having to let go of the Bookworm Knight’s hand for the first time since the riverside.

John didn’t want to seem clingy, but he did miss that connection.

In lieu of that, he’d gotten quite interested in learning about how this small bakery made their biscuits.

“The trick,” the older, graying man explained with a twinkle in his eye, “is to use very cold, unsalted butter when you are making them. That makes it much easier to fold the layers.”

“Huh, interesting,” John replied, watching the man open up a second biscuit to begin assembling the second breakfast item he’d ordered. “Why unsalted? Does that change how it bakes?”

“Well.” He chuckled. “It’ll bake alright, but you don’t always know how much salt is in it, unless you made it yourself. It’s easier to make sure the biscuits aren’t too salty by using unsalted and adding what you want to the dough yourself.”

The Gamer leaned back, scratching his chin. “Ah, OK, that makes sense. I guess it’d be even more important when you’re gonna serve it with chicken, too, yeah?”

“Now yer gettin’ it.” The man grinned, setting a plastic bag with the savory breakfast foods in it on the counter between himself and John. A moment of silence passed between them while they listened to their fairer counterparts discuss the finer points of raspberry filling. “So, lad, how long have the two of you been together?”

“Uh.” John snapped forward, blinked rapidly, his brain taking a moment to wrap itself around that question. “I guess… half an hour, maybe? Heh. I just asked her to get breakfast this morning.”

“Well, treat her right, and hopefully I’ll get to see you two again.”

“Yeah, that’d be nice.” The Gamer smiled, looking over to Ela. Her golden hair shook as she nodded at something the other woman had said. “I’m gonna do my best.”

The man smiled wistfully, memories of his younger days in his eyes. “Seems like you’ve got a good head on your shoulders.

“Hey, Dana,” he called over, catching his wife’s attention. “Need a hand boxing all that up?”

The other woman turned to reply, smiling. “No no, we’re just finishing up now.

“Now, remember,” the baker continued, turning back to Ela, “if the filled ones aren’t still warm when you eat them, try giving them just five seconds in the microwave. That should fluff them up again.”

“I will have to try that,” Ela responded, carefully taking a plastic bag packed with the three boxes of pastries she’d gotten. “Thank you so much!”

With that, the two women walked over to the register, having finally completed assembling the blonde’s massive order. It took another few minutes to ring up the full list of everything, during which the older man disappeared into the back of the bakery to find something. The register whirred with small mechanical chirps as it finally began to print the finished receipt.

“So,” the baker started, handing over the gigantic slip of paper to the blonde, “are you two hosting a party? This is a lot of food!”

John exchanged a glance with Ela, having not at all considered their response - he should have guessed that an order so large would attract some attention. Her eyes met his, and he could see the question hidden behind them. Imperceptibly, he shrugged, doing his best to remain neutral. The blonde’s smile was unwavering as she turned to improvise.

“It is not really a party,” she said, carefully measuring her words. “We are going to have some friends and family over later. It was a good excuse for me to get to try out all of these wonderful things.”

“Well, I hope you enjoy it!”

As John and Ela were saying their final goodbyes to the friendly baker, her husband returned, offering them one more small paper sleeve with a pair of heart-shaped sugar cookies, iced with pink frosting - a gift for their first date. The Gamer blushed, glowing beet red as he accepted the extra sweets, sliding them into the side of the bag he was carrying that had their breakfast in it.

“I- Thank you,” he said, fighting down his own anxious embarrassment. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever get used to this - being out together with someone.

With a final set of goodbyes and well wishes for the day, John and Ela departed the bakery, stepping back out into the cool morning air. It seemed like most of the morning traffic had finally cleared out while they’d been inside, leaving the streets mostly peaceful and free of mundanes. John sighed, then inhaled deeply as the chime on the door rang once more with its closing.

He turned to his companion, gesturing towards the open sidewalks. “Shall we?”

“Of course.” She smiled, heading down the way they’d come from earlier that morning. “It is nice that things are more peaceful again. I like the quiet of morning.”

“It is pretty nice,” John said, looking up at the pristine blue of the sky. ’Everything seems really nice right now though.’

The Gamer took a moment to stew on that. He was happy - the kind of happiness he’d dreamed of finding all the way back when he’d first fought his way up the lighthouse just a few days ago. It wasn’t because Ela had agreed to get breakfast, not entirely, at least - he’d heard that basing your happiness on others was bad, anyway. John was feeling an immense amount of satisfaction and catharsis because he’d mustered the courage to try.

’Succeeding definitely didn’t hurt,’ he thought, watching fluffy white clouds pass above. ’I hope she’s as happy as I am.’

She said yes, didn't she?

’Well, yes, but that's not really what I mean…’ John thought back to the moment he’d asked her to breakfast, the look on her face now etched into his memory. ’This is the first time I've ever asked someone out. I just hope it's special.’

...You asked her out to get breakfast. You’re way overthinking this.

’Probably.’ The Gamer brought his free hand up to run through his hair as he and Ela reached the corner of the road. ’I’m letting my anxiety get to me again. I can’t ever stop myself thinking when I want to…

’OK, well, let’s try thinking about something else,’ he thought, moving his hand down to scratch the back of his neck. ’You know, your voice reminds me, I saved seven skill points last night in case I wanted to use them this morning. Totally forgot.

’...Guess I found the confidence without any extra Charisma. I’ll have to figure out what to do with them later… Wait, didn’t Strength affect my inventory?’

He tilted his head. ’Maybe that’s worth looking into.’

Leaving that for a future John to deal with, present John turned back to the world around him before he got caught zoning out again. The light on the crosswalk that he and his companion were waiting at had just changed to give them the right of way, though there weren’t any cars on the road to be concerned about anyway. As they crossed, he leaned over to talk.

“So, is the plan still to finish our workout?”

“Hmm…” The blonde next to him mused for a moment, frowning ever-so-slightly. “Well, we do need to get home, anyway. I see no reason for us not to finish our exercise. Plus, it will start to get hot if we take too long.”

“Makes sense to me,” John replied, straightening up to his full height and looking around. “Do you think that it’s clear enough that I can store all of this away? Or should we find more cover?”

Ela bit her lip, humming with thought. “I think that it would be prudent to be cautious. There was a small park not too far from here that we passed on our way past the first time, I believe. You can use your powers there under the tree cover.”

The Gamer nodded, and the pair set off.

Just over a block away, they found the oasis of green that the Bookworm Knight had remembered - a small patch of grass and trees breaking up the sea of steel and concrete. The couple took a small detour through a loosely gravel-paved path that bisected the park, searching for a reasonably secluded enough area that John could make all of their boxes disappear.

’You know, it’d be nice if we had the time to just walk around here for a bit…’ he thought to himself. ’She likes food, so maybe a picnic or something..? Thoughts for another day when we don’t already have food AND plans.’

The Gamer made a mental note of that idea before turning back to the task at hand. Tapping his arm, Ela gestured towards a grouping of trees off to one side. Taking her bag of goodies from her, John headed off and stealthily stored away all the food that they’d picked up, safely hidden from any possibly peeping mundane eyes. With that taken care of, he made his way back to Ela so that they could finally depart for home.

“All set,” he said, walking up to her side. “Now… back to my place to eat? Or yours?”

“Your house is closer, and I do not want to wait any longer than I must before we eat,” she said, smiling, her growing hunger palpable. “Perhaps your mother will have left some of that wonderful breakfast behind, too.”

The Gamer swore he could almost see hearts in her pupils as she thought about that. “OK, OK! Haha. Let’s hurry up before you start gnawing on my arm!”

“I-” she sputtered, blushing indignantly, though her smile never wavered. “Fine. Let us see if you can keep up this time!”

“Um, wait a second.” It was John’s turn to blanch. “You’re definitely still faster than me, we don’t need to check that.”

The blonde knight was barely holding back a fit of giggles now. She grabbed both his hands, pulling him with her as she backpedaled faster and faster down the path. The nervous nerd stumbled over himself for a moment before catching his footing, remembering the practice Ela had given him earlier. As soon as he got his feet under him properly, his companion broke out in uproarious laughter, the sing-song of her voice echoing around the park.

“See? You can do it!” she all but shouted over her own giggling. “Come on!”

With that final declaration, she turned, letting go of his hands and running off down the road. John couldn’t help but let her joy infect him, so he smiled and focused himself, doing his best to keep up. His worries flew away with the wind as he rushed after Ela. Once more their laughter intertwined as they dashed through the streets of Springfield together, and everything was wonderful.