Soup and Rice

Lorelei was staring into the pantry, her red eyes squinted in concentration. Her gaze kept flicking between a can of soup and some uncooked rice, as if she were attempting to choose between the two. Which she was.

“Hey what are you doing?” A voice breaks her focus, causing her to jump in surprise and whip around to face the source, finding Zephyr looking at her with one eyebrow raised.

“Uhhh… just deciding on dinner!” Lorelei responds, giving him an awkward smile, as he had just witnessed her act like a paranoid idiot. “I’m not sure if I should heat up some canned soup or make some rice and find something else to add to that” she continues to explain, taking the items from the pantry and weighing each in her hands before looking back to Zephyr for his response.

“What kinda soup?” He asks, reaching over and taking the can from her hand so he can examine the packaging for an answer “Chicken. That’s a bit boring”

“Boring but tasty!” Lorelei intercepts optimistically, retrieving the can from him so she can make her own choice since Zephyr was proving to just be judgemental rather than helpful. “But I’m not sure, homemade is definitely better than canned” she wrinkles her nose slightly as she copies what Zephyr was doing moments ago, examining the packaging.

“Why not have them both?” Zephyr suggests, making Lorelei look back over. “Rice soaks up the moisture of the soup and what not, might make it taste better” Her face is dumbfounded before breaking into a massive grin, looking excited by Zephyr’s idea. She tosses him the ingredients abruptly, causing him to almost drop them immediately, while basically jogging away to fetch the rice cooker.

“That’s perfect! Perfect!” Lorelei gushes while she’s occupied with organising everything for her meal, not looking over at the disgruntled Zephyr. “Why didn’t I think of that? Genius.” She continues, causing him to sigh in slight annoyance.

“Okay, okay. I get it. Your hunger is getting to your head” he comes over and puts what he had been handed prior on the bench so Lorelei doesn’t try grabbing them from his arms when she needs them.

“Do you want some when I’m done? You haven’t had dinner right?” She turns her red eyes over to him, catching his own brown ones which had widened slightly in surprise. He ended up looking away in a flustered manner, caught off-guard by her offer before quickly composing himself and returning to his usual deadpan expression.

“Sure, if there’s any leftover” he agrees, bringing an even bigger grin to Lorelei’s face.

“Great!”