Alois sighed. He found it hard to believe that anyone, anywhere, was more bored in that moment in time than him. All of the demons in the house were out for something at the moment. That left Alois with nothing to do and no one to do it with. Silently he cursed how bored and lonely he was and wished for something interesting to happen.
Wait, was that a knock at the front door? Who on earth would be knocking on the door today? Alois got up to go see who it was and let them in. Whoever it was, they would probably relieve his boredom for a little while, and at the very least he wouldn't be lonely.
As he got to the door, he grumbled about the milkman not using the kitchen door like he should. Alois opened the front door to find someone who was most definitely not the milkman.
"Hi! You're the Earl Trancy, right?" I'm Soma Asman Kadar. And this is my kahnsama, Agni." Alois was taken aback for a moment. He thought that was a girl for a moment. "Mind if we come in?" Alois didn't know why Soma bothered to ask, he had already let himself in anyway.
"Please forgive my prince's behavior, but may I use your kitchen?" Agni asked politely as he entered the house.
"Uh, go ahead." Alois was still a little too surprised to say anything else.
"Yes! Curry tonight!" Soma bounced around the room while Alois showed Agni to the kitchen.
"I don't think I've ever had curry before." Alois thought aloud.
Soma looked hurt. "Never had curry?" He asked in disbelief. Alois shook his head, a little afraid of what would come next. "Then you're in luck!" Soma's face brightened considerably. "Agni's curry is the best in the whole world!"
Alois wondered why this guy had decided to hang out at his place today. Oh well, at least he wasn't bored and lonely anymore. "So what are you guys doing in this country anyway? You're from India, right?"
"Yeah. Recently we've been traveling around the world. The last time I came though England, I made a friend. I'm here now trying to get a hold of him. We haven't had much luck though."
Alois nodded. He couldn't quite relate to Soma's search for his friend.
The clang of cooking utensils attracted the two boys' attention towards the kitchen. "You should see Agni cook. It's incredible to watch. His curry is like nothing you've ever had before. Come on!" Soma grabbed Alois and dragged him off to the kitchen before Alois could utter a word of protest.
The earl was stunned. Agni's hands were practically flying around the room, stirring, grabbing spices and adjusting the heat. "Wow."
"Incredible, huh? Hey Agni, can we help cook something?" Soma asked his friend.
Alois didn't really want to be doing any cooking. He probably wouldn't be very good at it anyway. But from what he knew about Soma, he didn't want this guy loose in the Trancy kitchen.
"Well, the curry's almost done. Maybe you can make something quickly that would go well with the curry." Agni offered.
Soma thought for a second. "Ah, I got it!" he snapped his fingers. "Hey, where do you keep the cheese?"
Alois didn't like the look in his eyes. He motioned to the cheese anyway, against his better judgment. Soma was thrilled. "Great! Can you get a pot for us to put all this cheese in?" Soma had grabbed quite a handful of cheese. Alois had to dig in the cupboard for a minute to find a pot big enough for all that cheese.
"What exactly are you cooking? Melted cheese?" Alois asked, watching Soma dump blocks of cheese into the pot.
"Well, that's step one. Here, you keep throwing in the cheese, I'll get started on the next part." Soma handed Alois the piece of cheese he had been unwrapping before dashing off to the pantry. Alois complied and started stirring as the cheese at the bottom of the pot started melting.
Soma returned with a few loaves of bread and dropped them on the cutting board. He grabbed a knife and started cutting the bread into small pieces, which he put in a bowl he had brought out. When he finished with that, he grabbed some crackers and put them in another bowl, then grabbed some vegetables.
"So, what exactly are you making?" Alois asked, still stirring the cheese.
"While Agni and I were traveling through Switzerland, we learned how to make fondue." Soma beamed.
"Fondue?"
"Yeah, you melt the cheese and dip stuff in it!" Soma retrieved some long forks.
"The curry's done." Agni finished putting it on plates.
"I'll put the silverware on the table." Soma volunteered. Alois and Agni brought out the curry. After the first trip, they returned to the kitchen to pick up the fondue.
Soma used some potholders to carry out the melted cheese by the pot handles. He trotted along into the dining room with the other two behind him, carrying the stuff to dip into the cheese.
Soma happily paraded up into the table and put the pot of melted cheese on the table as the other two did the same with their loads.
"Hey, do you…" Soma turned away from the table to address his new friend. Unfortunately, as he released the pot, it was on a slight (and almost invisible to the naked eye) incline. The pot slipped and splashed a little of the melted cheese towards Soma before righting itself.
"Soma-sama!" Out of nowhere, Agni pushed Soma out of the path of the scalding hot cheese.
"Agni! Are you OK?" Soma quickly turned to his friend with concern.
"Yes, it's nothing. I'm just going to rinse it off with some cold water. But you need to be more careful, my prince."
Soma looked at the floor sheepishly. Alois just stood there and stared. He wondered briefly if anyone would have protected him like that. He shook his head a bit. Of course, Claude would!
"Hey Soma, let's eat!" Alois smiled. Soma's face brightened as he dove into the curry. Alois took a bite and found he really liked it. Whether that statement applied to curry as a whole or just Agni's curry, Alois wasn't sure.
A short while later, Agni returned with a plate of what appeared to be buns. "Curry-pan!" Soma's face brightened even more (if that was even possible). He was dipping some broccoli into the cheese fondue at that moment. He quickly dropped the vegetable in favor of the bread.
"What?" Alois saw bread, not curry.
"It's curry bread. Please, try one." Agni offered the plate to Alois. Soma had already helped himself to one and was now dunking it into the cheese. Alois sighed at Soma's amusement and reached out to take one from the plate Agni was holding.
As he grabbed the roll, Alois looked over at Agni's left arm. The spot where the scalding hot cheese had hit him was easily noticeable. It had clearly been fairly painful when it had hit him, yet he didn't seem to be very bothered by it.
Alois found himself again wondering what Claude would have done in the same situation. He was a demon, so why wouldn't he protect Alois from some melted cheese? The cheese wouldn't hurt him, no matter how hot it was. But Alois couldn't help but wonder, what if it was something that could hurt Claude? Would the demon still be willing to protect Alois if there was something he could lose by doing it? Alois took a bite of his curry bread, wondering what would happen.
Soma was obviously not troubled with such thoughts. He had now decided to try dipping a small block of un-melted cheese into the pot. "You're just going crazy with this fondue thing." Alois laughed at Soma's enthusiasm.
"Well yeah! It's fun!" Soma dipped a cracker into the cheese.
"It's certainly interesting." Alois ate a piece of cheese covered bread. He thought for a minute. "It's really weird."
"What? The cheese fondue?"
"Well, yeah. It makes dinner so informal." Alois suspected that the informality came from either the strangeness of the food or the fact that Soma was a foreigner and not as bound to British social etiquette.
"Is that a bad thing?" Soma was confused by Alois' tone.
"No, not at all. It's a refreshing change." Alois smiled.
Agni nodded, enjoying some curry bread himself. "I'll bet it's because Soma-sama is so easy to talk to."
"I'd say it's because we're friends." Soma beamed at Alois. Alois couldn't help but smile back. Soma suddenly dropped the cheesy cauliflower he was holding back onto his plate. "I just thought of something we totally have to do!"
"Uh, what?" Alois was a little startled.
"Paper, airplane, battle." Soma smiled, obviously happy at this random and fun sounding decision.
"Alright, I don't think I know how to fold a paper airplane."
"Here, I'll teach you!" Soma trotted off to find some paper.
Alois shook his head and smiled at Agni. "Is he always like this?"
Agni smiled back. "It's just Prince Soma's way. He's friendly and has a kind heart. That helps him make friends easily."
So thus the two boys ran around the main room of the Trancy mansion in an epic paper airplane battle. Alois, having the 'home team advantage' got the second floor and the aerial view. They both had a blast, and Agni even threw a few airplanes too.
By the time they finished their 'battle' the sun had set, and it was time for Soma and Agni to leave. Alois saw them to the door. "Thanks for coming guys. I'm really glad I met you."
Agni nodded politely. "Thank you so much for having us, Earl Trancy."
"Yeah, we'll definitely visit again… Wait, what is your first name?" Soma realized with a little embarrassment that he never asked the Earl Trancy for his name.
The blond boy laughed. "It's Alois."
"Alois Trancy, I'll remember that." Soma smiled and waved goodbye as he and Agni walked off into the night.
Alois shut the door and returned to the kitchen. The whole room was a mess, and the dining room didn't look too much better. And there was the fleet of paper airplanes littering the main hall. Alois headed to bed. He decided to leave the cleanup as a present to Claude for deserting him for the day. Alois smiled, overall what had started out as the most boring day of his life, had turned into a fun day with a new friend.