A delicious smell of homemade food filled the kitchen as the three of them unpacked their meals. Júlia was the first to sit at the table and try the food.
“Wow! The food there is better than I remembered,” she said, her mouth half-full of rice, beans, and fish.
“I doubt it. That’s probably just your hunger talking,” Daniel replied as he filled her glass with a soda that had been sitting in the fridge for a week.
Júlia scooped a generous amount of food and held it out to him. “Try it first, and then tell me I’m wrong.”
Daniel took the bite she offered. The rice was perfect, the beans and broth brought out the flavor, and the fish added a delicious touch.
“It’s as good as always. You’re probably just used to the food in S?o Paulo.”
Júlia laughed, and her laugh spread to Cristiano, who said, “It’s not that bad there, just expensive.”
In that warm atmosphere, their lunch went on as the three of them caught up. Daniel paused for a moment, taking in the sight of his friends laughing, reminiscing about the old days, and chatting away. Sharing a meal with them felt good.
Then the girl’s brown eyes met his.
“By the way, Dani, when I ordered your lunch, I didn’t get the discount. Looks like the restaurant owner actually believes all the nonsense people have been spreading about you…”
Cris turned to her and asked, “Wasn’t he a D.A. fan?” Júlia nodded, so he continued, “So why did I, the D.A.’s biggest rival, get the discount?”
“Because he admires you as a pro player,” Júlia said as if it were obvious. “If Anika, Gust, Xin Tao, or even fucking White Snow went there for lunch, I bet they’d all get the special discount too.”
Daniel set his utensils down, rested his elbows on the table, and buried his face in his hands. Then he turned to Júlia and said, “He probably hates me now. Everyone looks at me like I’m a pariah. I’ve even seen rumors claiming that the Dark Age ended because of me.”
Cris forked a roasted potato, chewed, swallowed, and added, “Yeah… I saw that rumor going around on social media.”
A wave of sadness washed over Daniel. His half-closed eyes lingered on his plate. He took a deep breath.
“The worst part is, there’s nothing I can do… not yet,” he admitted with regret. “No one influential is willing to take the risk of giving my side of the story a chance.”
“We should help somehow,” Júlia said, turning to Cris.
Meanwhile, their food grew cold.
“Impossible,” Cristiano said. “All the evidence—even the court ruling—was in favor of Emerich and his crew.”
“You read the ruling?” Júlia asked, surprised.
“Yeah. I did a little digging into the case, but I didn’t find anything helpful.”
After hearing that from the Red Crows’ captain, she looked at Daniel with sympathy. He was still staring down.
Cris let out a deep breath, stood up, went to the fridge, opened the freezer, and took out three beers. When he returned to the table, he gave Daniel a supportive pat on the shoulder and said, “Come on, man. Being beaten down just isn’t you.”
Júlia agreed and joined in to encourage him. “He’s right. You were always there to lift me up whenever I was feeling down.”
Daniel raised his head, breathed deeply, and took a sip of the homebrew beer Cristiano handed him. At the first sip, his mouth was overwhelmed by a bitter, almost rotten taste.
“Delicious,” he lied, forcing himself not to grimace at the taste of his friend’s father’s beer.
Luckily, Cristiano didn’t notice Daniel’s brief moment of disgust.
Júlia set her knife and fork down on her empty plate. It was her turn to try the drink. Like a warrior, she gulped down nearly half the bottle in one go. Daniel’s jaw dropped. Noticing his astonished stare, she asked, “What?”
He opened his mouth to express his amazement, but before he could say a word, Júlia twitched, then let out an explosive hiccup, immediately clapping her hand over her mouth.
Daniel and Cris burst out laughing, but Cris was drinking at that exact moment. He sprayed the beer in his mouth straight toward the sink, but a few droplets still hit Júlia.
Her cheeks flushed red, and she cursed at both of them, mostly at Cris. But eventually, when she replayed the moment in her head, she started laughing at herself, which triggered more hiccups, which in turn made the other two laugh even harder.
It took a while for the three of them to calm down.
Cris grabbed the cloth left beside the sink and began cleaning up the mess, but Daniel turned to him. “I’ll clean it.”
“I’m the one who made this whole damn mess.”
“But you’re my guest. So sit your ass down.”
Cris rolled his eyes and gave up.
“Fine, fine. I’ll lie down on the couch for a bit and let the food digest.” He dropped the cloth in the sink and shuffled out of the kitchen.
Daniel looked at his nearly empty plate. In a few quick bites, he finished the rest of the rice, then picked up the piece of fried chicken with his hand and ate it clean down to the bone.
Júlia’s elbows were on the table, her fingers interlaced under her chin as she watched him with curious eyes.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Was all that hunger?” she asked.
He nodded, then noticed her plate, spotless.
“I could say the same about you…”
They each grabbed their beers and finished them at the same time.
“This stuff is awful. How did you drink so much in one go?” Daniel asked.
“Shh!” She hissed, putting a finger to her lips. “He might hear us from the living room.”
They stayed quiet for a full minute. Then Júlia leaned toward him and murmured softly, “His dad got divorced recently and threw himself into the whole homebrew beer thingy. I’m just being polite, you know?”
Daniel nodded. They exchanged a look and stifled a laugh at the situation. When the mood calmed and silence returned to the kitchen, he said, “I’ll wash the dishes. Go keep our gloomy friend company.”
He got up with his plate in one hand and reached out with the other for hers, but she pulled it out of reach and retorted, “No way, I’m drying the dishes.”
They stacked the dishes in the sink. While he washed the first plates, she cleaned the table and the mess sprayed by the man who was now resting in the living room. Once everything was clean, Júlia stopped beside Daniel and began drying the dishes.
A silence settled in, broken only by the sound of hot water running over plates and the clink of dishes being placed in the rack mounted on the wall.
Both searched for something to break the ice.
“So… what’s it like being on Red Crows?” Daniel was the one who found a relevant topic.
“It’s… different.”
“In a good or in a bad way?”
She hesitated, took a deep breath, and answered, “There’s not that sense of camaraderie among the team,” she finished, turning toward him, the plate in her hands still dripping.
“Maybe they’re missing someone to set an example. Have you tried bonding with them?”
After a long sigh, Júlia admitted, “Yes.”
She glanced over her shoulder to peek through the opening between the kitchen and the living room, she hesitated, then raised her face and looked at Daniel with pursed lips.
“What is it?” he asked.
The girl leaned closer and whispered, “It’s Cris.”
Daniel arched an eyebrow and rubbed his chin.
“I really like him. He’s a great friend and an excellent player, maybe even as good as you, but as a leader… I don’t know…”
“Does he treat you badly?”
“No, not at all. He treats us really well. It’s just that… he… he doesn’t inspire us. From what I’ve seen of the main roster, there’s something missing.”
“And you felt that while on D.A.?”
She nodded.
“There were people I didn’t like in the Dark Age. After we lost the semifinal, things got really tense, but even then, I still felt a strong bond with everyone.”
Júlia finished drying the glass and placed it in the rack. She shot Daniel a playful glare, then twisted the dish towel in her hands and snapped it against his butt.
Daniel let out a brief, contained grunt of pain. He reached for the flexible faucet hose to spray her, but when he noticed her pretty dress and the pleading look on her face, he hesitated.
“Coward,” she teased.
Daniel grabbed the hose anyway, aimed it above her face, and covered part of the opening with his thumb.
The pressure created a jet of water that splashed across her face. Júlia tried to shield herself, but she wasn’t fast enough. By the time her hands covered her face, he had already returned the hose to the sink.
She lowered her hands, revealing the crushed expression of someone who had died inside. Daniel opened the second drawer in the counter and handed her a clean piece of cloth.
“Thanks,” Júlia said as she dried her face.
Washing and drying continued in a light-hearted mood, with casual conversation about their lives. When she put away the last glass, something caught her attention.
“It’s too quiet.”
Daniel tried to figure out what she meant. The only sounds in the apartment were the hum of the fridge and the chatter of a TV show in the background.
Seeing his confusion, she clarified, “Cris. He’s way too quiet.”
“You think he’s spying on us?”
“He’s not a child.”
“I’ve always been suspicious of that serious, apathetic act of his.”
Júlia tapped her finger repeatedly against her hip. “I’m going to check on him.”
Daniel nodded. She tiptoed toward the opening between the kitchen and the living room. Júlia craned her neck for a better look, and her eyes widened.
“Dani, come here!” she whispered sharply, gesturing for him to hurry.
Daniel’s expression shifted to concern at her tone. He walked toward her quietly and when he peeked into the living room, a laugh escaped him.
“Sleeping like an angel,” Júlia whispered sweetly.
On Daniel’s favorite recliner, just to the right of the couch where he had stretched out earlier, Cris napped with his mouth half-open, releasing small, intermittent snores. His long black hair spilled over his chest and shoulders.
“Like an angel? Maybe Lucifer.”
“Lucifer was blond,” she corrected.
“No, Gabriel was the blond one. Lucifer had dark, short hair.”
“You’re imagining things. Where did you even get that from?”
Daniel stared at her for a moment, then asked, “Why are we even arguing about this?”
“You’re the one who started it.”
“Fine, whatever, why did he fall asleep, though?”
Júlia placed a hand on her chin, thinking for a moment.
“I think he hasn’t been sleeping much lately, like two or three hours a day. At least that’s what I noticed while watching his training sessions and talking to the main team.”
Daniel felt a pang of worry. Cris had always been as determined as he was, one of the few players in the world who mastered a class many considered the hardest to control in New Avalon Online.
He took a deep breath, rested his hand on her shoulder, met her gaze and said, “Take care of him, okay?”
Júlia was speechless. She opened her mouth to say something, but the words got stuck in her throat. Cristiano’s story within Dark Age was considered a tragedy, silenced for years.
“I… of course.”
Daniel removed his hand from her shoulder. The melancholy faded from his face, replaced by a small smile and a playful remark, “How about we wake our sleeping prince?”
“But be gentle.”
They stopped in front of the three-seater couch. Júlia sat first, choosing the right side, closer to the recliner where Cris slept.
Seeing Daniel hesitate, she said, “Sit here next to me.” She patted the spot with her left hand. “The last thing I need is you sitting all the way at the other end.”
Daniel shrugged and sat beside her. Once they were settled, he pulled out his phone and gradually raised the TV volume. An exclusive interview with one of the lead writers of the game was playing.
They watched attentively, even forgetting for a moment that Cris was in the room. In the meantime, the Red Crows captain twitched, his body jolted, and a loud snore startled both Daniel and Júlia.
Cris’s tired, half-open eyes scanned the room before landing on the two sitting on the couch.
“Sorry, I ended up dozing off. The food was way too good.” He finished by patting his skinny belly.
“In half an hour there’ll be an exclusive interview with Anika. You guys want to watch it?” Daniel asked. “They say there’ll be a big reveal.”
“Sure,” Júlia replied.
“Alright,” Cris said, adjusting the recliner. “Let’s see what that saint has to show us.”
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