Chapter 167- Side story, sleepovers

“I change my mind, this is dumb and embarrasing. What if Sonya comes home early? She’ll write about this to my mother and then I’ll actually die, Ben.”“Sorry but it’s too late, I’ve put way too much work into making this fun so change into your pajamas then come help me make the pizza.”

She groaned but did as she was asked, changing into one of the nightgowns she’d rest in before returning to the kitchen and feeling Ben's eyes on her as he worked on preparing ingredients with his silly cooking outfit.

“If you stare I’m using you to practice my magic all night.”

“I’m not staring,” He told her, raising his hands in self-defense. “You came into the room and I looked at you, big difference.”

“Mmh,” She knew she was just feeling self-conscious about doing this when she was an adult, but it was really her own fault. She’s the one that brought up the topic when they’d been forced to room together in the dyrad village and it seemed like Ben thought it would be fun so he’d worked hard to create a typical human sleepover for a night he learned that Sonya was taking the overnight shift. While he was used to walking around in his sleepwear in the evening, she was not, typically opting to change in her room before bed. Being about like that made her feel exposed, and somehow it made it worse that Ben really didn’t seem too conscious of her in it.

“Come on, it will be fun so don’t worry too much and help me decide what toppings to put on the dough,” He picked it up and threw it in the air, giving it a few good spins before getting it to the size he wanted. “It’s a shame I couldn’t get the ingredients to make the same sort of red sauce I did for pasta, but there are no pizza purists in the house! We can throw on whatever sauces and toppings we want!”

“Why are you so pumped about this? And isn’t this just a flatbread?”

“Because pizza is delicious but also maybe! We aren’t going to focus on that bit, come on, it's fun.”

He began pulling random ingredients from the cold box and sliced them up, adding whatever he thought might be good to half of it. Knowing he was doing all of this because she asked, as well as the fact that he wouldn't give it up, she did her best to put aside her reservations to try to have fun with it, giving in and adding some toppings herself.

It seemed to raise his spirits even more to see her getting into it and he started talking up the meal. “You know, on my world, or at least the part of it I’m from, I could always find a pizza place somewhere in a twenty-minute walk that would be open for most of the night. It wasn’t necessarily always good, but you can’t beat the convenience.”

“Wait, we’re making this and it won’t even be good? Is it too late to switch to something else?”

“Don’t get me wrong, it was usually good, and even bad pizza can have its charm. You could call it a party food. For lots of people it’s the goto for get-togethers, although plenty do it as a weekly meal for their family’s as something else if they need a day off from cooking.”

“Alright, I’ll admit it’s looking good. How long will it take to cook?”

“As long as I don’t pass out, no more than ten minutes.”

“... And why would you pass out?”

“It needs to be cooked at a really high heat to get a good crust. Since that means pouring more mana into the oven for the enchantments it might be cutting it a bit close, but don’t worry, I’ll stop before I get to that point.”

She saw the cheer and enthusiasm filling his face and knew he wouldn’t be dissuaded. He was plenty used to regulating his mana use for his enchantments at that point anyway so there was no reason to worry. Still, since he brought it up she found herself keeping a closer eye on him than she’d planned while waiting for the food to cook.

“Alright, you were right, this is really good,” she admitted, going back for another slice. What wasn’t there to like? I was basically just bread with some toppings she personally enjoyed.

“Glad, you’re enjoying it. In light of that, maybe go a bit easier on me?”

“I am going easy on you.”

After the food had cooked and they were just waiting for it to cool down a bit, they began a night of board games to entertain themselves, leading to Ben being mercilessly crushed.

“Maybe go a bit easier then?”

“I don’t know how I could, I’m pretty positive this game's luck-based.”

“If it came down to luck I’d be able to win occasionally. I’m sure there’s some complex mechanics behind go-fish I’m just not getting.”

She shot him a pitying look before immediately winning the game and moving on to the next one. Even if Ben would ask her to go easy on him, he seemed to have fun no matter how much he lost, just enjoying the act of playing. It also wasn’t like he was particularly terrible at any of them. While he had no skill in low mage, he was able to give enough of a challenge in any game from his world he introduced her to, to make it entertaining no matter how many times she won, though perhaps the victory streak just felt good in and of itself.

They chatted as they played, and as the games went on, Thera found herself relaxing more and more, no longer as conscious about the night as when they started. It was fun, and they were just hanging out like they usually did outside of their own work and training, they’d just stretched it farther into the night than usual.

Much farther actually. She wasn’t sure how many hours they’d spent, but she was getting tired, and yawning more and more.

“Hmm, if you’re getting tired we should move on to the last part of the night. Give me a minute.”

“What? What else did you have planned? Please tell me it’s not a pillow fight.”

“I mean, it wasn’t but we can if you want. Could be fun.”

“Let’s pass for now.”

“You’re loss. Give me a bit to set up then.”

He ran to his room and came back carrying something that looked large and unwieldy. She couldn’t begin to guess what it was supposed to be, but he set it up on the table in front of them before giving power to a light within it, causing it to illuminate the wall in front of them and turning all the others in the house off before sitting down beside her.

“Alright, I have no clue what you could possibly be doing.”

“Ha, I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise. It was a lot of work to make and I’m just one guy so it’s nothing special, but this is something called a projector. Just watch.”

He reached forward and began turning a crank, only for music to begin playing. She couldn’t put her finger on what the style of it was, forced to assume it was something from his world, but it gave off the impression of being upbeat and fun.

As far as music boxes went it seemed nice enough, but she didn’t understand the light until it slowly changed as he cranked it, showing simple scenes of a forest, and three small pink animals building houses within.

She watched in surprise and curiosity as the images changed, occasionally being broken up with written text that Ben insisted on reading aloud, doing different voices for each character as he went.

It wasn’t particularly long, but it was an experience like she’d never had before and by the end her eyes were sparkling. The light turned off and they were left alone in the dark.

“So, what did you think?”

“That a story about the value of building things well is right up your alley,” She told him with a laugh.

“Ha, I wasn’t thinking about that when I chose it, I swear. It’s a pretty famous fairytale from my homeland. I figured something that could be told quickly like that was the easiest option for my first attempt. I won’t go into detail, but the amount of time and effort that went into making something like that was intense, it was hard to balance with my other projects.”

“Well, I think it was worth it. Thanks for taking the time to show me that Ben, it was incredible.”

In the dark of the night, they couldn’t see the smiles on eachothers faces but the joy Thera got from experiencing something new and interesting like that, paired with Ben’s own happiness giving her the experience left them talking long into the night until they eventually went to sleep.

Sonya had come home from a long overnight shift. Her boss had needed to take a break which meant the duty fell to her until he was back, but it had been a dull one and she was looking forward to turning into bed for the day.

As she got in she cast a fleeting glance to the living room before doing a double take, a happy smile stretched across her face.

She thought to herself cheerfully as she went to Thera’s room to take the blanket from her bed before returning to the living room to cover the two peacefully resting against each other on the couch.