Characters: Dragon Slayer Ornstein, Executioner Smough

Summary: Smough gets mad when Ornstein passes out from skipping too much meals.

When Ornstein awoke, he saw the angry face of the executioner staring at him.

"Uh, what happened?", he asked and pulled himself up in a sitting position. His legs felt weak and he had a slight pain at the back of his head.

"What happened? You passed out.", Smough answered. The pissed look didn't leave his face.

Oh, that explained the slight pain in his head. Ornstein inspected his surroundings. He surely wasn't in his room and this wasn't a guest room either. Judging from how dark it was, there was only a lit candle resting on the nightstand, the dragon slayer came to the conclusion that this must have been Smough's room in the dungeon.

"Did you brought me here? Thanks.", Ornstein said, slowly starting to wonder why the executioner looked so angry. Their relationship had gotten a lot better the past few weeks. Ornstein hoped he didn't said something wrong.

"Do you remember why you were passing out?", Smough asked.

Ornstein considered. He had been walking through the hallway, when suddenly a wave of weakness had washed over him, that was the last thing he remembered. That must have been the moment he passed out. But he couldn't exactly remember why he had felt so weak.

"Don't know.", he answered. "Maybe I am getting sick or something."

Smough sighed: "Ornstein, when was the last time you ate something?"

Ornstein just stared at Smough in confusion. The executioner just had assumed that he had passed out from hunger. But his last meal couldn't have been that long away. Let's see, the last time he ate had been...

"Yesterday morning...", he said, hardly able to believe it himself.

Another deep sigh of the executioner. "Ornstein, that isn't healthy at all. You barely eat something lately. I already see some signs of malnutrition.", he scolded the dragon slayer.

"It's not that I wasn't eating anything on purpose.", Ornstein said. "It's just... I kinda... forgot to do it?"

Actually, eating something had started to feel pointless after a while. Ornstein wasn't exactly a good cook, his meals tasted horrible or bland all the time and the effort making them wasn't worth it. He always would remind himself to eat something only to completely forget about it. But this was the first time he had managed to skip five meals in a row.

"You forgot to eat? How can someone forget to eat?", Smough yelled.

Ornstein winced at the sudden raised voice. He still wasn't completely comfortable around the executioner. Their arguments had gotten famous with the silver knights (at least when there still had been silver knights there that weren't straight up summoned magic in armour).

"Difficult to explain...", Ornstein just said. He didn't want the executioner to know that he practically dragged himself out of bed everyday nowadays and how pointless his whole existence had started to feel for him since he had found out the reality about the princess.

"We really need to get some food into you.", Smough said and pulled a steaming bowl out of nowhere. It smelled lovely and Ornstein suddenly realized how hungry he was. The executioner gave the bowl and a spoon to Ornstein.

"Eat this, but slow.", he demanded.

Ornstein was in the process of delving into the soup when a thought crossed his mind.

"Smough, I can't eat this.", he said and put the bowl away.

Smough huffed: "You really think I have put people's part into this, Ornstein? Do you really think I am so low? It's perfectly safe to eat for you."

Ornstein felt a pang of guilt in his chest. Smough had told him why he did cannibalism. That it was mostly an old habit that he also liked to keep cause it was a way for him to respect the deceased. Of course the executioner wouldn't put any weird stuff in a soup he would give to a person who despised this thing.

"Sorry...", Ornstein said, but started intensely at the soup for a while. It smelled so good, his mouth started to water just at the thought of tasting it. He picked up the bowl again and carefully dipped the spoon in the soup and lead it to his mouth.

The taste was heavenly, it was probably one of the best things, no, that was the best thing Ornstein had ever eaten. He took another spoon, then another. He practically started to scarf the whole bowl down until a big hand stopped his own. Ornstein looked up angrily only to meet Smough's soft smiling face.

"I told you to eat slow.", Smough said. "If you eat so fast, you could choke. Or it could be too much for your body and you could need to puke. We want the food in you, not outside of you."

"Sorry...", Ornstein said once again. Smough released the grip of his hand and watched carefully while the dragon slayer finished the rest of the meal.

"Smough, I must admit, that had to be the best meal I ever had.", Ornstein said. "I didn't knew you were such a good cook."

"I learned a lot from the ones who were once dear to me or from the kitchen servants here in Anor Londo.", Smough said. "I really enjoy doing it, but there was barely someone who wanted to try my cooking. It's nice to see that you liked it so much."

Ornstein smiled at him: "I wish I would have tried it earlier." The dragon slayer grew silent for a moment. "But Smough, why were you so angry with me when I passed out from not having eaten?"

"Isn't that obvious?", Smough said, face darkened. "I was used to see people starve to death. It was such a slow way to die, you could literally see them decaying before your own eyes." Smough stared at a wall before picking up the word again: "I just can't see people starving. Especially when they have lots of food to eat but they forgot about it."

"Sorry...", Ornstein was truly apologizing a lot this evening.

Smough cleared his throat: "I, um, have no problem sharing my food with you, so just come to the kitchen when it's time to eat." Smough glared at Ornstein. "And don't you dare forget to come by."

"I won't.", Ornstein quickly said. And he meant it. He truly didn't want to miss a single meal like this anymore.

(Author's note: This is set before the two are dating, they just have talked some of their differences out and have started to be on a more friendlier note to each other.)