Broken Wings
N.W. 38
The Cake of Tomato
It was just after what would have been his fifty-fifth birthday (had he still been celebrating it) when he found himself in Altamira, delivering an order for his adoptive father. There had been no reason not to head for the Lezareno Building, which was why he ended up knocking on the door to Regal's office and opening it slowly once he'd been asked to enter.
Regal's head rose from what looked like paperwork, and his bearing shifted into something much less tense when he recognized his visitor. "Ah, Lloyd!"
Lloyd stepped into the office, sheepish smile on his face. "Now's not a bad time, is it?"
Regal chuckled. "I could use a distraction. I'm just… going over things I've gone over a dozen times in the past few months."
It was sad that Lloyd didn't have to ask to know that he really meant 'making sure my affairs are set in order, again.'
"You're not going to believe what Genis did to me last week," he started instead, trying to act indignant and fully aware that he was failing.
Regal raised an eyebrow. "Given that he's learned the less than subtle art of revenge-pranking, I'm not sure I want to know what you did to deserve it."
"I didn't do anything this time!" Lloyd said. "We figured out a few hours later that he was trying to get me back for something Zelos did." He stopped and tried not to grin. "Anyway, he made me a tomato cake."
The way Regal blinked at him was telling.
"A… tomato… cake?"
Lloyd let the smile out. "You know, if it weren't for the fact that tomatoes honestly burn the inside of my mouth, that thing would have been absolutely delicious. I didn't know you could make tomatoes taste sweet. But, yeah, no, the familiar burning feeling got to me and I realized what it actually was. Didn't stop me from eating my way through it, though. Just… smaller portions at a time."
Regal was still giving him an incredulous look, and Lloyd pulled his wing pack out. He'd saved one last slice just for this, after all, once he'd found out Dirk needed to get a delivery to Altamira…
"Here."
He sat it on the desk, and Regal eyed it.
"It looks like a strawberry cake."
"That's what Genis told me. Then I ate it. It was obvious with the first bite it wasn't, but it took me most of a slice this size to figure out what it actually was," Lloyd replied.
And Regal finally suspended his disbelief enough to try it.
There was a moment of contemplative chewing, and then the pleasantly surprised hum that Lloyd had been expecting. "Interesting. Almost like carrot cake, but without the cinnamon."
Lloyd grinned. "Yeah. I think I about gave Genis a heart attack when I said I actually liked it."
Regal chuckled. "You know, it sounds to me more like you have a sensitivity to one of the acids in tomatoes, not so much that you don't actually like them."
Lloyd shrugged. "This is basically the first time I've gotten to taste something even vaguely tomato without it immediately burning my mouth, so… yeah. Probably. But yeah, I thought I'd come share this with you. You and Genis were always the best chefs of the group."
Regal's smile was usually a tired, worn expression, but Lloyd counted it a personal victory every time the blue-haired—now silver-haired, really—man was able to aim it at him with more of the energy and enthusiasm Lloyd had known in the years after defeating Mithos.
"Master Regal…"
Regal turned to the man in the doorway, and Lloyd knew that look. Regal had somewhere he needed to be.
"I'll leave you to it, then," Lloyd said, forcing on a smile with an almost disgusting ease.
Once, he hadn't been able to fake it this well. That... was decades ago.
Regal's return smile was tired again, but knowing. "Thank you for coming, Lloyd."
"Any time," Lloyd replied.