KHALL
Khall stepped off the elevator into the penthouse and was greeted by an incredibly delicious smell.
The stress of the workday slipped instantly from his shoulders and for a moment he almost forgot that he wasn’t coming back to one of Xteniya’s home cooked meals.
“Welcome home, Mr. Rivvor,” April’s sweet voice called out from the kitchen area.
“It’s Khall,” he said, pushing aside thoughts of Xteniya and striding in to see what the nanny was up to.
He had left the takeout menus on the counter for her, but this didn’t smell familiar.
“And it would be Captain Rivvor,” Minerva laughed.
“Captain Daddy,” Bo yelled, her little feet pounding the ground as she ran for him.
He laughed and bent to catch her, lifting her up in his arms and spinning her around. When her feet were back on the floor, he reached into his bag and produced a small box containing a lighting kit for the hover blocks she loved so much.
Her eyes went wide, and she darted off to her room, yelling a singsong thank you over her shoulder.
He turned back to Minerva and April.
“It smells amazing in here,” he said. “Where did you guys order from?”
“We cooked,” Bo squealed, running back into the room with her arms thrust out in front of her like she was an old-fashioned aeroplane. She must have been pretty excited about it to just stash a new toy in her room without even opening it.
“Is that so?” he asked, glancing at April. “You cooked?”
“No,” she said with a smile. “We cooked. Your daughters are phenomenal in the kitchen.”
“That can’t be right,” he said, prowling over for a better look.
Sure enough, the kitchen was wrecked. And something soupy-looking sat on the counter in a glass dish. The heavenly smell was in inverse proportion to the slimy looks of it.
“I guess you did cook,” he said, surprised.
He had honestly thought maybe they had heated up a boxed dinner or something. And he would have been impressed enough at that. The girl had just spent her first whole day here.
“We just made a salad and a quick lasagna,” she told him. “Why don’t you go relax, and we’ll let you know when the table is set?”
“That sounds great, thanks,” he said, wandering off to his room feeling a little shocked.
A few minutes later, he headed back to the living space in his favorite pair of jeans. He’d kept the crisp white cotton shirt from his pilot’s uniform, since it seemed like a t-shirt would be disrespectful for a special homemade meal.
Minerva was showing Bo how to fold a napkin and place silverware on top. The suns were setting outside, and the girls were lit from behind so that they looked like a painting.
Something about it made him feel happy and sad all at once.
“What do you like to drink with your dinner?” April asked softly.
He normally liked a brew, but this was a special occasion.
“I think I have a bottle of wine in the cupboard over the oubliette,” he said, wandering over to check.
Sure enough, the bottle was still there, the label proclaiming it to be the pride of Maltaffia.
The colleague who had given it to him at last year’s secret Hearth Day Beast exchange was half kidding and half propositioning him when she spent far over the maximum gift budget to get him a bottle of wine rumored to be so good it was an aphrodisiac.
And he had promptly shoved it in the cupboard and forgotten about it.