"In the Creator's name, we pray, amen." Kate said grace on behalf of the trio before they commenced with their dinner. For those who haven't read the previous chapter, it was stir fried vegetables with sauce. The sauce was yet to be applied to the food, so Cordon did the honours of pouring it as he had prepared it himself.
The bowl of sauce was sitting on the kitchen counter-top. Cordon grabbed the bowl and walked over to the dining counter-top, where he, Kate and Xis were going to eating at.
Cordon tilted the bowl over his plate and poured a reasonable amount of sauce onto it. He then moved the bowl over to Xis' plate and poured a more than generous amount onto that.
"Hey, you're using a little too much sauce!" Xis complained as the sauce began to overflow the plate and dribbled down the sides.
"Eh," Cordon shrugged and moved the bowl over to Kate's plate, and poured whatever was left. It was the same amount as what he poured onto his own plate. He then returned to his seat afterward.
The trio each had a stainless steel fork and spoon to eat their meal with. In their own way, they brought the food to their mouths and began to chew.
"Mmm, this is delectable!" Kate exclaimed with half a mouth full of food. With the exception for formal occasions, she was not a stickler for dining etiquette.
"You said it," Xis said as he tasted the savoury flavour of the vegetables. The sauce was zesty and complemented the meal well by accentuating its flavor.
"It could use more sauce," commented Cordon. The meal was very crunchy overall, but the sauce made it go down easily.
"Well, you could scoop some off of mine," Xis said as he pushed his sauce to one side of the plate with the back of his spoon.
"Nah, keep it," Cordon replied while nodding. "It'll help to keep up your strength; that's why I gave you that much in the first place."
"I suppose..." Considering he was talking to Cordon, he had some suspicion about his true intent. Even Kate gave a similar look, but in the end, they let it go as it really wasn't worth pushing further.
"Anyway," Kate pushed the conversation into a new direction. "We did a great job cooking this stir fry."
"It's all thanks to teamwork," Xis added cheerfully.
"If we push our culinary skills, we could start up a restaurant if we wanted to," said Kate. "Like a corner shop café by the roadside."
"Or a mobile food stall in a bazaar," Xis fantasied in his mind.
"Or a first class restaurant in the city," Cordon joined in.
"But we just don't have the money," said Kate in a disappointed tone, before reverting it by saying "But I don't want to be doing that for the rest of my life."
"Yeah, considering you're always wanting to try new experiences," said Cordon. "I think working a single shift would be ideal."
"I'm sure an opportunity will arise when the time comes," said Xis, effectively ending the conversation. From then, the trio concentrated on their meal without saying another word.
After several minutes have passed, Xis was the first one to finish up his meal. There were still a lot of sauce on his plate, and he still wasn't satiated, so a second helping was in his best interest. Sadly, there was none, so he was left with a plate full of unused sauce.
He estimated that it would take a few more minutes for Kate and Cordon to finish, so in order to pass the time, he decided to find a way to get rid of the sauce. By doing so, it'll be easier for whoever was washing up.
Beside his plate was an unused napkin, neatly folded in a triangle. He would first use it to wipe a large area around his mouth, as he was quite the messy eater. He then wiped the sauce that overflowed the plate rim, before hovering the napkin over the sauce in the plate. He was about to soak up all the sauce when he saw Cordon looking at him with a 'I hope you aren't doing what I think you're doing' type of glare. In response, Xis began to laugh awkwardly and began to scoop up the sauce with the spoon and placed it into his mouth. Cordon stopped glaring and resumed his meal. Xis continued to eat the sauce on its own, as much as he didn't want to. Sure, the sauce was good and all, but there can be too much of a good thing.
A few minutes later, just as Xis had estimated, Kate and Cordon were done with their meal.
"Well, I'm full on dinner," Cordon said with his hand on his stomach, "but I'm empty on dessert. Who wants some ice cream?"
"I do!" Xis enthusiastically raised up his claw.
"I'll pass," Kate refused with a nod.
"All right," Cordon said as he got off from his bar stool and headed towards the freezer. "Let's open the tub, because I'm too lazy to do anything else."
Cordon opened the freezer door which swung upward like a treasure chest. Inside was a cuboid tub of ice cream that had three flavours; Blue Moon, Red Velvet and Green Tea. He took it out and held it in between the arm and his thigh and walked to various parts of the kitchen to get some utensils. While he was in front of the pantry, he stopped and turned to face Xis.
"You know what will go great with some ice cream?" he asked him.
"No..." Xis answered rather uneasily.
"Chocolate sauce," he said with an evil grin as he took it out from the pantry.
AN: I'm trying to steer Kate's character away from the sophisticated lady type because I dislike those sort of characters. In one of my fanfics that never took off, Kate was portrayed too politely for my liking, and that caused the whole fanfic to crumble. It was meant to be an introductory fanfic, which 'The Tomb Triad' had succeeded to be.