CH167- Side story, sleepovers

“I change my mind, this is dumb and embarrasing. What if Sonya comes home early? She’ll write about this to my mother and then I’ll actually die, Ben.”

“Sorry but it’s too late, I’ve put way too much work into making this fun so change into your pajamas then come help me make the pizza.”

She groaned but did as she was asked, changing into one of the nightgowns she’d rest in before returning to the kitchen and feeling Ben’s eyes on her as he worked on preparing ingredients with his silly cooking outfit.

“If you stare I’m using you to practice my magic all night.”

“I’m not staring,” He told her, raising his hands in self-defense. “You came into the room and I looked at you, big difference.”

“Mmh,” She knew she was just feeling self-conscious about doing this when she was an adult, but it was really her own fault. She’s the one that brought up the topic when they’d been forced to room together in the dyrad village and it seemed like Ben thought it would be fun so he’d worked hard to create a typical human sleepover for a night he learned that Sonya was taking the overnight shift. While he was used to walking around in his sleepwear in the evening, she was not, typically opting to change in her room before bed. Being about like that made her feel exposed, and somehow it made it worse that Ben really didn’t seem too conscious of her in it.

“Come on, it will be fun so don’t worry too much and help me decide what toppings to put on the dough,” He picked it up and threw it in the air, giving it a few good spins before getting it to the size he wanted. “It’s a shame I couldn’t get the ingredients to make the same sort of red sauce I did for pasta, but there are no pizza purists in the house! We can throw on whatever sauces and toppings we want!”

“Why are you so pumped about this? And isn’t this just a flatbread?”

“Because pizza is delicious but also maybe! We aren’t going to focus on that bit, come on, it’s fun.”

He began pulling random ingredients from the cold box and sliced them up, adding whatever he thought might be good to half of it. Knowing he was doing all of this because she asked, as well as the fact that he wouldn’t give it up, she did her best to put aside her reservations to try to have fun with it, giving in and adding some toppings herself.

It seemed to raise his spirits even more to see her getting into it and he started talking up the meal. “You know, on my world, or at least the part of it I’m from, I could always find a pizza place somewhere in a twenty-minute walk that would be open for most of the night. It wasn’t necessarily always good, but you can’t beat the convenience.”

“Wait, we’re making this and it won’t even be good? Is it too late to switch to something else?”

“Don’t get me wrong, it was usually good, and even bad pizza can have its charm. You could call it a party food. For lots of people it’s the goto for get-togethers, although plenty do it as a weekly meal for their family’s as something else if they need a day off from cooking.”

“Alright, I’ll admit it’s looking good. How long will it take to cook?”

“As long as I don’t pass out, no more than ten minutes.”

“… And why would you pass out?”

“It needs to be cooked at a really high heat to get a good crust. Since that means pouring more mana into the oven for the enchantments it might be cutting it a bit close, but don’t worry, I’ll stop before I get to that point.”

She saw the cheer and enthusiasm filling his face and knew he wouldn’t be dissuaded. He was plenty used to regulating his mana use for his enchantments at that point anyway so there was no reason to worry. Still, since he brought it up she found herself keeping a closer eye on him than she’d planned while waiting for the food to cook.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Alright, you were right, this is really good,” she admitted, going back for another slice. What wasn’t there to like? I was basically just bread with some toppings she personally enjoyed.

“Glad, you’re enjoying it. In light of that, maybe go a bit easier on me?”

“I am going easy on you.”

After the food had cooked and they were just waiting for it to cool down a bit, they began a night of board games to entertain themselves, leading to Ben being mercilessly crushed.

“Maybe go a bit easier then?”