TACO Run
Chapter 11
"…aaaand, hup!" Lifting the heavy bags high, Alfyn set them on the kitchen table, flexing his fingers afterward to get the creases out. Helping missus Inko with the shopping had been an experience, and one he was glad he'd insisted on. There was no way a sweet little lady like her could have carried all of that herself! Besides, the store had been interesting. Like a whole marketplace inside a building, all lit up with these big bars of light in the ceiling, and some of the stuff they'd gotten had been kept in these chilly glass-fronted cabinets, and the vegetables had been in crates, sure, but the crates had been shallow, and the ones along the wall had had a tiny thunderstorm go off over them every half-hour or so, misting them with cold water to keep them fresh.
I wonder if Cyrus could do that. He used lightning, wind, fire, and ice magic pretty easily, and those were all the pieces that made up a thunderstorm. No clue if he can do it in miniature, though.
It was something to bring up, when he ran into the other guys again.
He really ought to go look for them. If they had all poofed to different countries, he wouldn't be able to do anything about that, but he should at least make the attempt, right? When you're lost, wandering around too much will just get you more lost. But it's not like staying in one place will get you less lost, so…
He'd stay with missus Inko and Izuku for one more night, if they'd let him. Long enough to make some more medicines and such for the road, while he had access to a good stove and a tea kettle. And maybe some to give to missus Inko, as thanks for the food and a place to sleep. Moms always needed stuff for coughs and headaches and scrapes and fevers and sniffles. Simple stuff, not prescribed for any specific illness.
Got a good sleepy-tisane too, for fussy nights. Lots of single parents had trouble sleeping, 'cause they worried too much. The sleep-clothes she'd let him borrow were probably her husband's, but they hadn't been used in at least a year he'd bet, and there weren't any men's shoes in the entrance hall. Dead, or just working in another town? She didn't seem to have a job herself, so her husband was probably still alive and kicking, just not around. Poor guy. Must suck not to be near your family.
Izuku was a good kid. Lonely as heck, but smart and kind and respectful to his mom, when a lot of kids his age were starting to act rebellious.
"Inko?"
She jumped again when he said her name, and almost dropped the package of meat they'd picked up.
"Sorry, sorry!" Alfyn laughed awkwardly, glad for the weird, transparent membrane that covered the raw meat. It worked even better than oilcloth for keeping the juices inside. "You're really jumpy, you know." She hadn't been, before Izuku left for school. She probably just wasn't used to having someone at home during the day. "Anyway, is it alright if I use your table and kitchen, once we're done putting all of this stuff away?"
She blinked up at him, and Alfyn belatedly remembered that just because they talked a lot didn't mean they actually understood what each other was saying. He repeated himself, and pantomimed grinding plants with a mortar and pestle, patting the table when he was done so she'd get what he meant.
And she did get it, because her confused look cleared right up and she smiled at him, nodding encouragingly and getting back to putting the groceries and stuff away with a brisk, bustling manner that made Alfyn nostalgic. Nina was like that, cheerfully helping keep the house she and Zeph shared clean, even when Zeph left papers or reagents scattered over their table, or his satchel hanging from a chair-back. Nina might brag about her brother, and claim he was a better apothecary than Alfyn, but even she'd admit that Alfyn was better at keeping house. Even if he did keep leaving his boots in the middle of the floor.
Alfyn didn't know where missus Inko liked to keep things, so he wasn't much help for putting the groceries and other stuff away, but as soon as the table was clear he took his work cloth out of his satchel and spread it out over the flat surface. It'd soak up any spills and prevent contamination.
He'd start with a tisane blend for headaches, and see if missus Inko liked it. Addlewort and feverfew…
Inko sipped the herbal tea Alfin had brewed for her, feeling the first hint of a headache ease away. She'd thought it would be a little bitter, until she saw him add a bit of honey to the hot water before setting the tea aside to steep with a cloth over it to hold the steam in. Now that she was trying it, it wasn't bad at all; a little sharp, perhaps, almost like mint, but somehow different.
It was so interesting, watching Alfin work. She hadn't thought a man as young as him might be a traveling herbalist; in fact, she hadn't thought traveling herbalists existed anymore! Even doctors of holistic medicine had clinics these days.
He's very good with his hands. Dexterous and steady, and he seemed very sure of what he was doing as he laid out various bits of plants and the occasional animal on that stained and faded cloth. He'd borrowed both her teapot and the stove-top, to boil water for the tea and to heat oil in a small glass bowl, adding bits of chopped or powdered this and that. Right now, the bowl of oil was on the lowest possible heat setting, and a half-dozen different herbs were slowly infusing the oil, filling the kitchen with an odd, warm fragrance.
Inko sipped her tea again, hiding a smile. Alfin had been confused by the heating element of an electric stove-top at first, and even looked inside the oven as if expecting to find a fire there! Perhaps he was from a very rural town that still utilized gas or wood-burning stove-tops—or maybe even a low-technology commune of some kind, since he'd seemed to marvel at the conveniences of a modern grocery store, like air conditioning and automatic doors.
As wide-eyed as he'd been before, though, it seemed like he was in his element now. He'd put an amber glass bottle on the table earlier, and now sat a metal framework over it, into which he set a glass funnel, lining up the mouth of the funnel with the mouth of the bottle. Then he took a square of cheesecloth and draped it over the funnel's wide top end, before twisting around to pull another glass jar from his satchel. This one had some kind of herb-and-liquid mix inside, with small white flower petals swirling around when he shook it.
Unscrewing the jar's lid and peeling back a piece of parchment paper, Alfin tipped the whole mixture carefully into the cheesecloth-lined funnel, shaking it to get the last drips of liquid out. Then he rose and walked over to her sink, washing the jar out thoroughly and setting it on the nearby rack to dry. When he sat back down again, he pulled a thin, leafy twig from a bundle in his satchel, and stuck the end of it in the corner of his mouth, wiggling it between his teeth absently as he hitched the chair closer to the table and got back to work.
Inko watched for a little longer, finishing her tea. The house was already clean, and she didn't want to disturb Alfin by turning the television on while he was working. I think I'll take a nap, she decided. Izuku wouldn't be home for another hour or so, anyway, and she'd stayed up a bit late the night before, getting the laundry done. Yes, a nap does sound good. As soon as I fix Izuku's uniform sleeve…
Alfyn wiggled the spice-tree twig between his teeth, concentrating as he measured white skullcap leaves into his mortar. They really are pretty flowers, he mused, smiling a little to himself. He'd never noticed before Ophilia pointed it out. Heh. Small, pretty, all in white, and real soothing when you're feeling feverish—that fits Ophilia to a tee! The gentle priestess had visited him and Zeph in Clearbrook a time or two, when her clerical duties allowed. They'd started teaching her a little bit of medicine-making, mostly tisanes like he'd made for missus Inko. She'd taken right to the work, and to Zeph, saying it was almost like having two older brothers when she spent time with both of them.
Nina'd asked if that meant she was like Ophilia's little sister, and Ophilia'd been right pleased by that, if a little flustered by the attention.
Heh. Prim said I'll make a good father some day, but Ophilia'll be the best ma ever, when she has kids.
Though knowing Ophilia, she'd adopt 'em. Wouldn't make them any less hers, though.
…I wonder if I should maybe adopt a kid. There was that orphanage in Victor's Hollow, after all. And plenty of other kids who'd lost parents, the way he and Zeph had.
Damn, but Alfyn missed Zeph. He and Mercedes were getting along pretty well long-distance—more than friends, but less than lovers—but neither of 'em was really willing to give up what they had right now to be with the other permanently. Not yet, anyway. In another few years, though, after Nina came of age… Zeph might be willing to leave Clearbrook.
Chewing on that thought, Alfyn set the bundle of white skullcap aside, and picked up his pestle. Grinding the flowers most of the way down took a few minutes, and then he added root starch and a few drops of honey, just enough to thicken it to a paste. Once it was good and blended, he scraped the mix out of the mortar onto a length of linen, spreading it thin and moving it over near the stove to dry out. Once it was dry, he'd grind it down to a powder again, and measure it out into dose-sized sachets. He'd leave most of those with missus Inko, and just take a few for himself when he left. Washing his mortar and pestle, he dried them on a nearby towel before going back to the table.
Alright, so next is squeezing the last of the liniment tincture into the bottle—
It had dripped as much as it would on its own, and he'd made plenty more of his headache tisane blend and cough syrup already, while waiting for the oil and herbs to infuse on the stove. S'been a couple hours already, so… that should be done before missus Inko needed to use the kitchen for dinner. Then he'd just need to melt the beeswax in, let it cool, and he'd have a good salve for burns, rashes, and the like.
Once he'd squeezed the bag of herbs dry, he tipped the leavings into the waste bin and rinsed his cheesecloth in the sink. He'd have to wash it properly later—wouldn't do to cross-contaminate his potions!—but for now getting the excess herbs and alcohol leavings out was good enough.
Alright, that's the last of the healing side of things for now, Alfyn mused, sitting back down and clearing the space in front of him again. Time to start on the bit scarier side. Without his axe, he was stuck using poisons and concoctions to defend himself if a monster attacked. Thankfully, missus Inko had decided to take a nap, and little Izuku probably wouldn't even be out of school for another few hours, since it'd been mid-afternoon when Alfyn ran into him yesterday. That meant Alfyn didn't have to worry about anyone besides himself maybe getting exposed.
Tying a kerchief over his face, Alfyn tugged on the thin leather gloves he used when preparing his more dangerous concoctions. Let's start with noxroot…
A little while later, he'd finished grinding the dried noxroot down to a powder, and begun portioning it out for both single-target and multi-target doses. He'd blend the single-target doses with injurious-seed powder, and then pack each dose into little sachets. Toss that in a monster's face, and the double-dose of essence-of-fire would give them a nasty burn even if the poison didn't take.
Alfyn was just bending down to retrieve the sachets from their box in his satchel when a curious voice piped up near his left shoulder, and a hand reached past him towards the powder on the table.
Shit! Quicker than thought, Alfyn spun and grabbed Izuku's wrist, preventing the kid from touching powdered poison. "Dammit, kid, don't scare me like that!" he hissed through his protective handkerchief. He'd thought Izuku wouldn't be home for another couple of hours!
Izuku stared up at him with wide green eyes, shock and fear stamped across his freckled face.
Alfyn let out a slow, shaky breath, and knelt down in front of Izuku. He must have been too focused on his work to hear the kid come in. "Sorry for scaring you like that," he said gently, tugging the kerchief off his face to talk properly. He relaxed his grip on the kid's wrist, but didn't let go quite yet. "You can't go touching stuff without asking first, though, alright? I'm an apothecary, so not all the stuff I work with is safe; even medicines can be poisonous, if you get the dose wrong."
Izuku nodded hesitantly, apparently getting it despite the language barrier. But tears were wobbling in his big green eyes, and he sniffed, wiping his nose on his free wrist and mumbling something that sounded like an apology.
Peeling off a glove, Alfyn ruffled Izuku's hair gently and gave him a reassuring smile. "It's alright, I'm not mad at you. Just be careful, alright?"
Izuku nodded again, wiping his eyes now that Alfyn had released his wrist.
"Let's go wash up, alright?" Alfyn suggested, standing back up. Looked like the trace amount of powdered noxroot on his glove wasn't enough to give Izuku a dangerous reaction, but the skin was already going sunburn-red, and he didn't want to take any risks.
Izuku bit his lip as mister Alfin ran cold water over his wrist. He'd taken off his jacket and shoes at the front door, and he was wearing short sleeves today, so mister Alfin's gloved hand had grabbed his wrist directly. The area he'd grabbed stung, like a sunburn, and his skin had gone bright red too.
Mister Alfin tsk-ed over the redness, and propped one fist on his hip, looking over at a glass bowl on the stove as if it annoyed him for some reason.
"I'm sorry, mister Alfin," Izuku repeated quietly, trying not to tear up again. He should have known better than to just reach for someone else's stuff, especially when he didn't know what it was.
Mister Alfin glanced down at him, and then smiled wryly and ruffled his hair with a wet hand, saying something that Izuku was pretty sure meant 'don't worry about it, kid', or something like that. Turning off the water, he jerked his head in a 'follow me' and led Izuku back towards the table, where all of his stuff was laid out. He dropped to his knees by his satchel—it looked pretty deflated now that he'd taken so much stuff out—and dug through it for a minute, muttering to himself. Then he made an 'aha!' noise and pulled out a roll of bandages, a weird root veggie thing, and a little bitty blue glass bottle.
"What's that for, mister Alfin?" Izuku asked curiously. He hadn't known Heroes did things besides their Hero jobs… but maybe all of this stuff was part of mister Alfin's Hero support gear?
Mister Alfin just smiled at him reassuringly and flapped a hand for him to sit down on a nearby chair.
Izuku obeyed. He didn't want to mess anything else up.
Mister Alfin pulled one of his gloves back on, laid the weird root veggie on a clear part of the table, and carefully cut a few slivers out of it with a scalpel. He used the back of the knife to smush the slivers until some kind of juice came out, and then mixed that together with a few drops of purply-clear liquid from the little blue bottle. He took a little pink seed-thing out next, and ground it down to a powder that he mixed together with the liquid stuff. Then he unrolled the end of the cloth bandages and used it to soak up the mixture, staining about ten centimeters of the cloth before it was all gone.
Izuku held out his arm when mister Alfin gestured for him to do so, and watched as Alfin wrapped the bandage around his red and stinging wrist.
He wrapped it around enough that the colored part wasn't visible anymore, and then tucked the long end in neatly, patting Izuku's arm with a satisfied smile and saying something that Izuku guessed meant 'that'll do'.
Izuku looked down at his bandaged wrist. It still stung a little, but it was better than before. He looked up at mister Alfin with wide eyes. "You make medicine?" he asked wonderingly. Maybe he was a healing Hero, like Recovery Girl, only he used his Icicle Quirk to protect himself and other people during fights so he could get to them faster and use his medicine on them!
Mister Alfin grinned at him, patted his head with the hand that didn't have a glove on it, and then reached down to grab the chair and pick it up with Izuku still in it, making him squawk and freeze in place nervously while the Hero moved around the table.
Mister Alfin set him down again on the table's far side, facing the kitchen. But when he let go of the chair, he made a little twirling motion with one finger, as if he wanted Izuku to turn around.
Izuku did, kneeling on the chair, and realized that he had a good view of the whole table even though he was too far away to touch anything on it. "Really? It's okay if I watch?" He twisted around to look up at mister Alfin eagerly, but the Hero just laughed, ruffled his hair again, and moved back over to his side of the table.
Sitting back down, mister Alfin pulled the handkerchief back up over his nose and mouth, capped and put away the little blue bottle and the weird root veggie, and tugged on his other glove. Then he got back to work.
Izuku was watching him carefully pack a kind of gross-looking powder into little cloth bags when he heard his mom call his name, coming out of her bedroom. "Hi Mom, I'm home!" he called back to her without looking away from the table where mister Alfin worked. "Be careful, mister Alfin's making medicine on the table and he says it's dangerous."
"I know, dear, I was here when he started working—goodness, what happened to your arm?"
Izuku flushed and glanced over at his mom guiltily, gripping his bandaged wrist. "I, um, I kind of tried to touch mister Alfin's stuff without asking and he stopped me by grabbing my wrist, and he didn't hurt me or anything, but it got some stuff on me that burned so he washed it and put medicine on it and, um, it's fine, really! It doesn't even hurt anymore!" It really didn't; he'd forgotten all about it until his mom brought it up again, even!
"Oh, Izuku," his mom sighed, but her worried-face was less worried now, so while Izuku was cringing inside, he managed to keep from cringing on the outside. "May I see?"
"Um, sure, I guess…" Izuku held out his arm.
When his mom unwrapped the bandages, the skin beneath wasn't even pink anymore. Wow, mister Alfin's medicines worked good!
"That's 'work well', Izuku," his mom corrected absently, making him flush a little when he realized he'd said that out loud. "Do you have any homework?"
Izuku shook his head. "Today was the last day of class." They hadn't even had real classes today, just watching movies while the teacher finished grading their homework from the night before.
"Oh, that's right. In that case, we can spend the day at the park tomorrow," his mom smiled at him. "And I've got something special planned for dinner tonight—"
"Is it katsudon?!" Izuku bounced in his chair, ignoring how the wood dug into his knees. "Mom, is it katsudon?"
Her smile widened. "You know, I think it just might be."
"Yeeess!" Izuku crowed, and hugged her tightly. "Mom, you're the best!"
A muffled laugh drew their eyes back to mister Alfin, who was looking up from his work to watch them, a smile in his eyes even if his face was hidden by the handkerchief. He'd finished filling and tying off the little bags, and now he was starting to clean up his mess.
"You're making enough for mister Alfin too, right?" Izuku asked eagerly, looking up at his mom as he let go of her.
"Well of course, dear. He hasn't said he's leaving yet, so I think he'll stay for dinner at least."
As if on cue, mister Alfin's stomach growled, and all of them laughed.
A/N: Alfyn's concoct ability is one of the most useful and flexible skills in-game. It's also one of the most confusing to use without a guide, so a lot of people don't bother, and miss out on a lot!
A/N: Izuku and Inko hear/think of Alfyn's name in the most phonetic way they can hear it, 'Alfin', but he hears them say it and thinks of how he spells it, 'Alfyn', which is why the spelling changes depending on the viewpoint.