Ralts had just gotten home from spending all day at her job: grocery bagging. Vigorous work, really. The act of picking something up and putting it in a bag could get quite redundant, but she powered through it. This was food she was working with, she had to.
Ralts sighed, placing her purse on the table. It was seven o'clock now, and she hadn't eaten any dinner, but that's okay, as she had brought home a special treat for today. Soup.
Soup was the most delicious thing on Earth for the ralts, and she often found herself daydreaming of the delicious, filling delight. It was practically joy in a bowl from her perspective. In fact, she loves the food enough to the point of eating it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every single day and the only person she'd ever known to rival her love for the food was a vulpix and her love of sandwiches. But this didn't change the fact that it was special for her by any means, oh no, if anything it just made her think it was more special.
She loved every type of soup to have ever existed; lentil soup, tomato soup, potato soup. You name it, she'll love it. As much as she loved every type of soup, though, she loves one much more than all others. The wonderful...the delicious...chicken noodle soup. Ralts rarely got to indulge in such an amazing soup as chicken noodle, but when she did, she savored every last drop of it.
Luckily for Ralts, this was one of those rare times. Unfortunately for her, it has yet to be cooked.
Ralts set her grocery bags containing all the necessary ingredients for the soup on the countertop next to her stove, her excitement growing every second that went by. Ralts loved cooking the soup as much as she did eating it, after all.
Ralts grabbed and placed it on the stove. She dug through one of the grocery bags, pulling out a box of chicken broth. This was one of her favorite parts… Just the view of the chicken broth being poured into the pot always got her excited. With this thought in her mind, she poured in the broth, going into an almost trance-like state. Ralts snapped out of it and Turned the stove on medium to warm it up. She licked her lips and stared for a bit, but looked back to the ingredients.
She dug through one of her two grocery bags, searching for a specific ingredient. One of the main ingredients in chicken noodle soup, her favorite part of the soup… Noodles…
Ralts had always held a deep emotional connection to noodles, so much so that she even joined the noodle fan club a few years back. But to her, there was just something special about noodles soaked in chicken noodle soup broth. It just made them all the more delicious…
Seeing that the broth had finally come to a boil, Ralts poured in the noodles, grinning all the while. This was always her favorite part; seeing the water soften the noodles always turned her drive for soup on. Especially with chicken noodle…
Ralts licked her lips, already fantasizing of the soup that would go into her mouth, and slide down her throat with ease, leaving her mouth with a satisfying chicken noodle taste. Oh how she would have loved to stand there for hours and watch the noodles sit in the broth and fantasize of her favorite soup, but she had more ingredients to put in. Tearing her eyes from the pot, she turned her attention back to the grocery bags. The chicken… One of the most important ingredients…
There was just one problem though. She didn't thaw it. Suddenly, Ralts world came crashing down. This would take at least...half an hour before it was done thawing! She couldn't wait that long… What if she didn't survive? What if—
Ralts shook her head, clearing out the bad thoughts invading her mind. She couldn't think like that. Not when there was soup to be made. She would thaw the chicken and add the rest of the ingredients as it was thawing, then put in the chicken last. She did need the highest quality chicken possible…
...It was risky, but it might just be possible if she really put her heart in it.
Fortunately, Ralts was an expert at thawing chicken. She had done it countless times before and could get it thawing in no time. In mere seconds, Ralts had the chicken in a bowl of hot water to thaw for thirty minutes. She nodded, admiring her work. Oh yes, one that chicken was thawed this soup would be amazing.
Before she even knew it, five minutes had passed with her just staring at the chicken. Ralts shook her head again, this time to knock herself out of her chicken-induced trance. She needed to get back to work.
Digging in her bag, Ralts pulled out some carrots. She loved cutting the carrots almost as much as she loved pouring noodles into her soup. The intoxicating sound a knife makes as it slices straight a carrot is almost overwhelming to her. Getting into a trance-like state while slicing carrots would not end well. She needed to stay focused.
Ralts quickly put out a cutting board for the carrots and grabbed a knife, all too eager to start cutting the orange, delicious carrot. She placed the carrot on the cutting board, licking her lips as she positioned the blade of the knife to cut off a small slice. She applied pressure, eliciting that beautiful noise… Ralts rapidly did the same to the rest of the carrot, deciding to completely indulge herself in it.
By the time she was done, her tongue was hanging out of her mouth and she was staring longingly at the carrot slices. The wonderful, the delicious carrot slices. Diverting her eyes from the carrots to the pot, she lifted the cutting board and poured all the carrot slices into the soup.
There were two other things that needed to be chopped. She didn't take nearly as much pleasure from chopping these two herbs as the she did the carrots, but they still excited her to no end. Basil and oregano.
Moving the cutting board back into position, she gently placed the oregano and the basil on its scraped surface, running through the same process as she did the carrots. She positioned the knife over the scrumptious herbs… And she chopped. Over and over again she chopped the herbs, until there was not that much left to be chopped.
Ralts was breathing hard when she finished cutting the herbs. She had never chopped anything so quickly and passionately in her life, but it looked as if it paid off, as the herbs were now perfect for the soup. She poured in the herbs, the same as she lured in the carrots, then set the cutting board down. There was not much left to do other than season it…
Ralts grabbed her salt and pepper, holding them in each hand as she loomed over the soup. Without so much as the blink of an eye, she started dropping the seasoning into the soup. Ralts's tongue lolled out of her mouth as she saw the miniscule salt and pepper particles drop into the soup.
With that done, there was only one more thing to do: add chicken. Ralts's eyes snapped to the clock, and...ten minutes. Only ten minutes had passed. Ralts's eyes filled with tears… She would have to wait twenty minutes to have the privilege of cutting pieces of chicken, and dumping them into her chicken noodle soup. Ralts, as depressed as she was, could accept this. She set the stove to the "keep warm" setting and put on a timer, sighing at her misfortune.
So she waited, sitting in a chair in her living room. Twenty long and hard minutes, maybe the longest and hardest in her life. She she wouldn't survive, she thought she would go insane, but she had to persevere. Yes, for the sake of the chicken noodle soup, she would fight through this. She just had to find something to occupy herself.
...Ralts had just come to a realization, a realization the was hard to accept, but she knew deep down that was true. Her only hobby was making soup. Sure she did stuff with friends, and that was fun, but on her own, the only thing she liked to do was make soup. Ralts needed a new hobby, and she figured this was the perfect time to get one.
Ralts approached a closet. She always put things in it she found interesting, but her love for soup always overrode what little interest she found. In her closet, she saw...a pack of cards and a soccer ball sitting on a shelf. Ralts shrugged and picked up the pack of cards, thinking it better to stay inside with her soup than go outside to kick a ball.
Thus, she set the cards down at her dining table...and just stared at them. She didn't know the first thing about cards. And how could she? Nobody had ever taught her. So she sat and stared, her mind turning to the delicious chicken soup waiting, longing to be completed…
Beeeeppp!
Ralts gasped. It was time. The chicken was thawed. Had she really been sitting here for so long? Ralts shook her head to clear her head of any thoughts not soup related. She had chicken to cut.
Ralts got another cutting board out, one specifically designed for meat. She gingerly grabbed the chicken out of the bowl of warm water, setting it down on the aforementioned cutting board. Ralts grabbed a knife for the chicken and positioned over the desired location. Ralts always found that the thigh of the chicken was best for chicken noodle soup, so she cut there.
She cut with such grace and passion, carefully planning each cut she made of the chicken. Each piece was masterfully sliced, causing Ralts mouth to water in anticipation of the upcoming meal. She finished cutting with as much finesse as when she started, each breath coming in ragged gasps. She didn't think she'd ever top the amount of passion she put into cutting the basil and the oregano, but somehow she managed it. It was quite a spectacular sight to behold, even if she was the one performing it.
Amethyst dumped the chicken into to pot, just as she did with the other two ingredients, then turned to stove on medium, sulking back to her kitchen table, she plopped onto a chair, her breath hardly recovered. She did it. She finished her soup. Now all she had to do was wait...and hope the noodles weren't overcooked. Ralts cringed. What a tragic event that would be, indeed. She could only hope, though.
So she waited once more, this time without any preoccupations. She just waited. Eventually, her exhaustion caught up to her, and she fell asleep at the table.
(/_-_\\\\\\)
It took only twenty minutes to cook the soup after she got the chicken in. Ralts's automatic soup alarm went off, and she awoke from her slumber, realization in her eyes as she remembered what was going on. Her soup. It was finished.
Ralts hopped from from her spot on the table, almost as if she wasn't tired at all in the first place. She abruptly stopped right in front of her pot of chicken noodle soup, her mouth watering in anticipation of her delicious dinner. Turning the burner off, Ralts hurriedly grabbed a bowl from a cabinet right of the stove, then found a ladle from a drawer nearby.
Ralts looked into the pot, desperately hoping the noodles hadn't been overcooked in her dilemma. Ralts sighed, calming herself. She had to stay calm if she wanted to eat her soup in peace. Ralts dipped the ladle into the chicken noodle soup, scooping the delicious liquid into the bowl-like spoon. She positioned the bowl she had picked up next to the pot on the counter, then moved the bowl of the ladle above it. She tilted the ladle to the side, dropping the soup into the bowl. The soup glowed into the bowl, chunks of chickens and noodles falling into the container.
Deciding that she had put enough into the bowl, Ralts picked up the bowl and quickly dashed to her dining table, eager to finally get a taste of her most recent soup creation. She stared at the liquidy food contained in the bowl, licking her lips.
Ralts reached for a spoon...only to have her hand hit the wooden surface of the table. She forgot the spoon! Ralts took some calming breaths. It was okay...she still had her emergency soup spoon with her… Ralts reached behind her back, to a secret pocket only she knew about. She couldn't risk anybody learning of it, then feeling jealous and stealing it. It was just too risky to let the information out.
Ralts unzipped the hidden pocket and stuck her hand in It. She had a secret place inside of the pocket where she kept her spoon, that way of somebody ever did get their hands on it, her spoon would still be safe. She felt around for a second zipper eventually finding it hidden inside of another pocket inside the pocket. She opened the zipper and grabbed the emergency dining utensil that was carried inside. Ralts gingerly pulled it out, being careful to not dirty it in anyway in its journey to the table. She finally for it out of the pouch and sighed in relief when she noticed some horrible tragedy had not befallen her treasured spoon. Crisis averted, Ralts grinned victoriously.
Without a second of hesitation, Ralts dig into her chicken noodle soup. Bursts of flavor drifted through her mouth as the scrumptious liquid slid down her throat, her tastebuds tingling in excitement at the thought of another wave of the delectable soup washing over her tongue.
She took another spoonful, this time being sure to get noodles mixed into it. This was it...the moment of truth… She brought the spoon to her mouth, frightened at the prospect of overcooked noodles. She swiftly emptied the spoon's contents into her mouth and...sighed in relief when she realized her noodles weren't overcooked. Ralts couldn't resist any longer-she lifted the bowl to her face, its contents sliding down her throat with ease, warming her entire body.
But as much as Ralts was enjoying her dinner, there was something missing; something to go on the side… Ralts's eyes widened in realization. How could she have forgotten?! She needed her side salad! It was pretty much an essential when eating any soup! As much as it pained her, Ralts had to stop eating to get a salad.
Ralts got up from the table and ran to her fridge. She could've sworn she still had salad from her last soup dinner, a couple of days ago. Opening the door, her eyes instantly fell upon the red bowl containing the delicious side salad. She smiled and grabbed the bowl.
Ralts didn't bother taking the salad out, she knew she would eat it all anyway. She simply brought the entire thing to the table, took the lid off, and got a big fork. Oh, and she couldn't forget the dressing. She sat down at the table and opened the bottle of ranch she had grabbed, dumping the entirety of the dressing into the bowl.
With that done, she threw the empty bottle behind her and grabbed her fork. She dunked the dining utensil, bringing it back up with leaves of lettuce stuck to It, dripping with ranch. She shoved the vegetables into her mouth and chewed, her eyes closed and her mouth dripping with the ranch. She swallowed the sustenance and sighed in bliss.
Ralts turned her attention away from her tasty salad and back to her delicious chicken noodle soup. She gently took the spoon in her hand and dipped it back into her soup, bringing back out filled with everything her soup had to offer. She brought the spoon to her mouth once more and lowered her lips onto the spoon, taking all of it into her mouth, then taking a moment to savor the flavor, before swallowing all of it at once.
This process continued for about ten more minutes, with Ralts alternating between her soup and her salad every few bites or so. She always took a moment to savor the flavor with every bite she took.
Eventually though, Ralts's joyous bliss was bound to come to an end. This was a dreaded moment with every meal she had. The moment she realized she could eat no more. This came particularly early for her in this meal unfortunately, with her only managing to eat all of her salad, but only one bowl of chicken noodle soup.
Ralts sighed and bowed her head in defeat. Oh well, there's nothing she could do about it… Ralts raised herself from her spot at the table, carrying all of her dishes with her as she made her way to the sink. Ralts didn't bother taking the time to wash her dishes; she was simply too tired from her meal. Besides, she had work the next day and needed her 12-15 hours of sleep.
Ralts yawned as she poured the remaining soup into a plastic container to save for tomorrow. She put it in the fridge and decided it was time to sleep, as it was 6:30 PM and she had to be to work by noon. She needed her sleep.
Ralts climbed into her bed and pulled the sheets over her body. She sighed in content, closing her eyes and allowing sleep to wash over her. She would dream of soup that night, and every night after that, as she would never forget the experience she had today...