This story takes place 1 year BT (before Traveler :p), meaning canon events won't take place here until a much later date.
Thought it won't be brought up much, Diona and Bennett are 11 and 13 respectively in this story.
The door to Cat's Tail entrance swung open to a boy a few years older than Diona. His most striking feature was the scars and plasters all over his body. An adventurer from the look of it. She noted his Pyro vision.
He waved. "Morning! I'm here for an order for the Adventurers' Guild."
"Mooorniiing," Nimrod, who passed out after an unhealthy amount of drinks, drawled out. It was a miracle he was even conscious.
Not a moment later, all the cats started hissing and crawled under whatever small cracks they could find. The boy chuckled nervously at their glare.
"Still mad about yesterday, huh?" If possible, the cats glared harder.
Diona raised a brow. The cats were never this hostile to customers. Sure, sometimes Paisley could get a bit aggressive when he wanted to be left alone, but that didn't explain Nelson and Roger. The two loved attention. But now they were acting like the boy broke their toys.
And Prince was nowhere to be seen, as usual. That lazy bum.
Ignoring the cats' behavior, Diona greeted the boy.
"Good morning. Were you the one who ordered two barrels of starconch and lizard tail flavored cocktails?"
"…that still sounds disgusting–I mean, yes! That's my order."
She nodded. "Margaret told me you'd come a bit later."
The boy slowly approached the counter, warily eyeing the suddenly murderous cats every step of the way.
"Yea, sorry about that. The guild wanted to start the party sooner. If it's not ready yet I can come back later." He pulled out a pouches of Mora and put it on the counter. "Oh, and here's the payment."
Diona checked the pouch and confirmed the amount. Stuffing the Mora back in, she gestured to the back of the tavern.
"Your order's in the back. I'll go get it." She climbed down her stool and made way for the storage room.
"You need help carrying those barrels?"
"Eh, they're not that big. And they have wheels. I'll manage."
"Um, okay then." The boy said, still eyeing the hissing cats.
Diona shrugged and walked away. She trusted them not to bite customers.
"Heheh. Hello, Paisley."
"Mrow!"
…much.
Diona blinked at the note Margaret left on the barrels when she found them.
"Huh. If the cocktail went bad, make a new one. But don't ask for more payment," the note read. Diona scratched her head in confusion. "Why would it go bad? I just made it yesterday."
Just to be sure, Diona checked on each barrels to see if they were still okay. And they were. Shrugging it off, Diona slipped the note into her pocket and began to work.
Cryo flowed under her feet, capturing the moisture in the air and forming a think track of ice of ice on the floor. She slid the barrels on the track and repeated the process until she arrived at the counter.
Before she could make her presence known, she saw the boy behind the counter trying to make a cocktail.
Nimrod was definitely not sober but he was pestering the boy to make a new drink.
"Come on, Diona. Just one more."
"Uh, working on it!" The boy chuckled nervously, putting in ingredients Diona never thought of using because they didn't work for her.
She sighed. Only that drunkard could mistake a teenage boy for a girl. She'd better help that boy.
"Nim-"
"That looks about done!" the man interrupted her and snatched the shaker from the boy. Just a few gulp and the liquid inside were gone. A few seconds later, something Diona could only describe as a miracle happened.
Nimrod's face turned green and he retched out whatever he drank since this morning.
"Mrow!" the cats all ran away.
He weakly grabbed the counter before lying his head on it. "Ugh, that was disgusting."
"S-sir?!" Bennett called out to him.
Nimrod passed out soon after. But that hardly mattered for Diona.
The boy just accomplished something she could never do. He managed to create the most disgusting drinks without even trying.
She dashed to him and grabbed his arm.
"What did you put in the drink?"
"Ah!" The boy jumped. "Th-this isn't what it looks like." He waved his hands frantically.
Diona pulled him till their foreheads were almost touching.
"What. Did you put. In the drink?"
"Nothing!" The boy shouted in panic. "Just normal stuff. I promise. I didn't mean it!"
"Show me."
They had to clean the floor first and get Nimrod's wife to pick him up, but once that was done, Diona had the boy show her how he did it.
The boy, Bennett, really did only use normal ingredients. No exotic stuff like slime condensates or crystalfly cores. But somehow the result was very different from what she usually ended up with.
If the poisonous look wasn't enough of an indicator, the pungent smell sealed the deal. She wasn't old enough to drink but nobody needed to know that. She made sure the point got across with her glare.
"Don't tell anyone," she hissed to which he nodded quickly.
Bracing herself for it, she took a sip only to spit it back out.
"Blegh! So… disgusting," she said the last word dreamily as she stared at the drink.
"Um, are you okay?"
Diona barely registered his voice, too lost in her musing.
After all this time, she finally found it. She had been looking at it all wrong. All this time she had been looking for the ingredients that didn't exist!
If anything she touched became good, what was the point? But the boy, he was the opposite. Anything he touched would rot. Margaret's note made sense now.
This boy–No, Bennett. With his help, she could bring down the wine industry for sure!
She looked up at him, excitement coursing through her body.
"Would you like to work as a bartender?"
Bennett blinked. "Excuse me?"
"So you jumped over the counter or something?"
"Yeah. The cats got a bit violent."
"What exactly did you do to do the cats anyway? I've never seen Roger this mad at someone. Or ever."
"I broke his toys."
"That's all?"
"No. I mean all his toys. Somehow. I also spilled Nelson's food on him. And I stepped on Paisley's tail a couple of times. You weren't here yesterday but it was a mess. Got a few scars to prove it too."
"Oh, that explains why we're missing some glasses. And chairs... And a cabinet... Margaret went out to get them replaced."
"…"
"..."
"Some bad luck I have, huh?"
"Come on, don't be sad now. It happens. It's not like bad luck follows you everywhere you go."
"Heheh, yeah. Definitely not…"
"That's the spirit. Now help me make this drink. We've got a wine industry to destroy."
Don't let this chapter fool you. There will be angst. Enjoy the fluff while you still can. :D
My tumblr is "dionette" for updates or if you have any question.
