Liam disentangled himself from the two scary women and slipped off the foot of the bed. He threw on some clothes, quickly downed a yogurt, and grabbed his bag. Ideally, he’d leave some instructions behind for his guests, but he didn’t have time to waste. He wasn’t a huge fan of early morning exams, but at least he’d get back before Lilith and Sylara had too much time to get into trouble. Probably. He was pretty sure they both noticed him getting up, but neither opted to get out of bed. Most likely, they were enjoying the unusually comfortable bed… at least from their perspective.
As he locked the front door from the outside, he noticed he had a new text from Vince. “Hey man, guess what?” was all it said. It was timestamped for three in the morning, which was kinda annoying. Liam decided he’d worry about it after his exam.
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By the time Liam had exited the campus, his stomach was growling. Unfortunately, he wasn’t someone who could skip breakfast happily, and the yogurt didn’t quite do it. He decided to celebrate the end of the term by making a good brunch for himself. But not for Sylara and Lilith. They would just have to watch him eat it.
Yeah, no way in hell that was going to happen. He stopped at the convenience store on the way to stock up on more eggs. As he pulled out some cash to pay for the overpriced carton, he realized his finances were trending in a poor direction, thanks in no small part to all the extra food he was serving recently. While it was probably abusive, Liam thought it may not be a bad idea to find some way for the kingdom on the other side of the invisible door to help him out a bit with his finances. He could probably just sell the instructions for how to make antibiotics or the printing press or something like that.
He unlocked the front door, half-expecting to walk in on some craziness like a battle between elves, demons, dwarves, and orcs unfolding in his living room. To his pleasant surprise, the house was quiet and free of bloodstains or other damage. He threw his school bag down in the corner, put the eggs in the fridge, and walked into the bedroom where he spotted his two guests still lying in bed. Just how late had they stayed up playing the game?
Liam returned to the kitchen and gathered a few ingredients. He sliced some breakfast meat and placed it into a hot pan. He alo sliced a bit of onion and leftover baked potato, which he threw into a second pan. While it was all cooking, he beat some eggs and added a bit of milk. As he expected, Lilith arrived before it was even time to pour the eggs over the cooked meat, attracted by the aroma.
“What are you making!?”
“Uh, I like meat in my eggs. Also, I’m making some home fries.”
“It smells good. Let me have some.”
Liam anticipated the request and had enough ingredients lined up already. “I should start charging you for all the meals.”
“You’d charge your guest!?” Lilith complained indignantly.
“Last time I checked, you were my assassin, not my guest. Tenants are not required to feed assassins. It’s probably in the housing code.”
“Wha!?” While Lilith tried to make sense of Liam’s response, he poured the eggs into the pan, mixing it with a spatula.
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“I smell potato.” Sylara entered the kitchen, although she looked quite different from a few minutes ago. She was wearing some of Liam’s clothing in lieu of her rogue’s outfit.
Liam dropped the spatula onto the stove when he saw that, fortunately not causing any damage.
Lilith looked back and forth between Liam and Sylara then frowned. “Damn it, elf, you said you wouldn’t try anything.”
“I’m not trying anything,” Syalana countered. “I didn’t have a change of clothes.”
Lilith didn’t accept that answer. “What type of rogue are you? You need fresh clothes and a warm bed each night while on a mission?”
“While on a mission, yes. Not here. It’s comfortable here.”
“Um…” Liam wasn’t sure if he should cut in or not, but he had something he needed to say. “Lilith, here.” He scraped out the first serving onto a plate and handed it to her along with a fork. “I’ll make another batch. Sylara, do you want eggs? Chicken eggs, that is.”
“Sure. And potatoes.”
Liam didn’t add meat this time so Sylara’s eggs were ready in just a minute. By then, the home fries were ready to eat so he scooped out a bit for each of them. Finally, he added some meat to the pan for his own portion while he nibbled on the remainder of the home fries.
Sylara appreciated the scrambled eggs. “There’s something different about these.” She then slid a fork-full of home fries into her mouth and her face lit up. “These are really good!”
“Oh? Let me try.” Lilith nibbled on the potatoes as well. “You’re right. I’ve had potato before, but never like this.” She then tried her first bit of the eggs. “Damn, that’s good. Then again, it’s what I’ve come to expect here.”
“Demanding freeloader,” Liam mumbled under his breath. “Oh, do either of you want coffee? All I have are k-cups…”
“Coffee?” both women asked in unison.
Liam wondered if introducing coffee to a new society was a bigger deal than he was treating it like, but he turned on his k-cup machine and produced several cups of coffee in quick succession. He made sure to add generous quantities of milk and sugar for Lilith’s and Sylara’s mugs. Then for the heck of it he added just as much to his own. “Here. Careful, it’s still fairly hot. I don’t know how lawsuits work with otherworldly visitors so please don’t spill it all over yourselves.”
The coffee held both of their attention for the next several minutes. Meanwhile, Liam thought about what he would do after breakfast. He was pretty much out of school responsibilities for a good while. His father would need him to oversee some workmen, but other than that he was free to dedicate his full attention to the issues on the other side of the invisible door. His most immediate concern was that Lilith would cause a fuss whenever the kingdom sent over the next party unless she could stay hidden.
“So, after breakfast…” While Liam struggled to think of the best words to use, the phone in his pocket beeped. He pulled it out and saw a new text from Vince. It said, “Not gonna guess!?”
“Dammit, Vince…”
Sylara’s ears twitched when she heard Liam mumbling Vince’s name, but she continued nursing her coffee.
Liam typed back, “No dude. What is it?” He finished off his own coffee while he waited for a response.
Vince texted, “Momma’s having another litter soon. Since you did such a great job with Nathan, you want a pup?”
Liam had to admit dachshunds were cute, but he wasn’t looking to get a dog. He appreciated Vince thinking of him, but probably, the dog’s owner was struggling to find people even willing to take the remaining puppies off their hands.
As Liam prepared to decline politely, he felt a presence behind him. He turned and saw Sylara looking over his shoulder at the phone screen.
“What does it say?”