Shiro & Scarlet

“Where are we going?” Scarlet asked happily as Shiro pulled her along by her hand, looking like a man on a mission.

“We are going on a proper date!” Shiro yelled a little too loudly.

Scarlet felt her cheeks warm as he announced that to pretty much everyone within earshot. She squeezed his hand a little tighter, though, and walked a little faster to keep up with him. Within a few minutes, they arrived at the market section of the city. Shops were opening, and food stalls began heating their equipment, filling the street with pleasant smells. “So, what’s the plan for breakfast?” Scarlet asked coyly.

Shiro looked around and sniffed the air as though he was trying to find a specific smell in the hurricane of other smells. “This way,” he said as he began walking again, pulling Scarlet along. They walked past stall after stall of delicious-looking pastries. Scones, donuts, donut holes, and so on. Before he finally stopped at a stall with a solid iron plate held over several medium-sized flames. A block of butter melted slowly over the plate as a heavy-set chef with a crown tattoo on his neck rubbed it over the iron plate. As the chef picked up a bowl next to him and began to pour the contents out over the iron plate, Scarlet knew why Shiro brought her there.

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“PANCAKES!” Scarlet exclaimed excitedly and rushed forward, dragging Shiro along for a change.

The chef briefly looked up from his cooking and smiled as he poured out two white puddles of batter, and he said, “Welcome to my stall. Two pancake breakfasts fer ye?”

“Yes, please!” Scarlet said with a massive grin.

Shiro pulled out two golden coins and placed them in a cup near the front of the stand, and the chef nodded in thanks as he threw down four strips of bacon and poured a bowl of scrambled eggs on as well. The chef moved quickly and precisely as he tossed the pancakes into the air, flipping them, and stirred the eggs simultaneously. And before long, he plated the scrambled eggs on two paper plates, followed closely by the bacon and, finally, the pancakes on top of it all.

Scarlet took the plate of food with a gleeful and embarrassingly girly squeal and began chowing down, not even waiting for the proffered disposable utensils. “Thanks for the food,” Shiro said, taking the plate calmly along with both sets of disposable utensils.

With that start to their day, Shiro and Scarlet began exploring the city. They went from shop to shop trying on clothes or going to fun game rooms explicitly designed for cultivators. Hours flew by in the blink of an eye, and a few hours before sunset, Shiro brought her to a restaurant to finish the day.

The restaurant was called The Horned Ox. The seat they got wasn’t the best. It was in the middle of the restaurant. The foot traffic of the servers and other customers surrounded them. A few moments after they sat, their server, an older woman in her fifties, walked up with menus. “Hello, I’m Michelle. What can I get you to drink?” she said with a kind smile.

“We’ll have—” Shiro began but was cut off as the ground shook.

***