323 Downtime 5

Looking around the kitchen while discarding some of the older preservatives who hadn't made it since his last visit, Dax turned to Ke who was on the other side of the counter.

"So, my options are pretty much unfeathered so what do you want?"

"... I don't really know, to be honest, I don't even know what half of these ingredients are."

Answering honestly, Ke looked with confusion at the numerous jars and strange ingredients in front of her, but she nevertheless kept an open mind.

"Then let's do a menu dégustation, I'll whip up some starters."

"A what now?"

As Dax started filleting a medium sized bluefin tuna, he took the time to explain some basic restaurant terminology.

"A tasting menu, simply put it's a collection of small sized dishes served together which allow you to try a wide array of different ingredients and preparations. Do you have any allergies?"

"I don't think so?"

"Good, then the first dish is ready, eat up."

"Eh?"

Not having kept track of what Dax had been doing while she talked to him, Ke looked to the table in front her with surprise and immediately examined the plate that he placed in front of her. Dax had prepared a small dish of thinly sliced pieces of tuna on top of a simple salad which was marinated with some sort of dressing. Overall it was a very flavorful looking dish which had quite an inviting smell, but the raw fish on display put Ke off. 

"... Is that… Raw fish?"

"No it's Carpaccio, the marinate serves to prepare the fish but it needs to be eaten fresh or the taste will spoil so please dig in. It's great, trust me."

With visible hesitation clear on her face, Ke slowly reached for the fork and scooped up a forkful containing both fish and salad before quickly shoving it into her mouth with her eyes shut tightly.

"Mmmm!~"

"I told you it was great~"

With Ke forming a large smile on her face as she rapidly devoured the rest of her dish, Dax mimicked her smile as he started preparing for the next dish.

"Even though the fish is sooo soft the flavour really just explodes in my mouth! I don't think I've ever had fish like this before, it's so tasty!~"

"So what else do you want to try?"

"More fish~ I never really liked fish before, but this is great~"

Watching Ke on cloud nine with a large smile on her face, Dax got an idea for the next dish he wanted Ke to try.

"Normally using the same ingredient two times in a row is a sin, but I think I can make an exception."

"While the first preparation was something more akin to something you could get in a fine restaurant, this is something which would be something more commonly found at a street vendor."

Serving up the deep fried tuna with its puffed up shell of batter encapsulating it and the mayo on the side, Dax couldn't help but smile at the childlike glee Ke was radiating.

"Dig in while it's hot."

"Don't mind if I do~"

Digging into Dax's second dish with an audible crunch, Ke found that the outer batter was crisp and ethereal while the fish inside was served as a perfect fresh balance to the heavy oily exterior, the overall taste made even better when she dipped the entire thing in chilly mayo. With Ke clearly enjoying her second dish and seemingly having no time to give audible feedback other than the occasional squeal of joy, Dax started on his next preparation.

(Since this one was a bit on the heavy side I'll go with something lighter… Yeah, this will work.)

Tossing some fresh pasta into some heavily salted boiling water, Dax started sauteing some fresh spinach and garlic before adding a splash of white wine as Ke finished devouring her dish.

"Hey, what are you making now?~"

Already thoroughly hooked on Dax's cooking after trying just two dishes, she impatiently slapped her tail against the ground as her anticipation rose for Dax's next dish, part of the reason why she was acting like this was that Dax kept the portions small, but also because she had never tasted something so good before.

Luckily Dax had already anticipated Ke's uptick in apatite, the next dish was already ready. Presenting a relatively simple vegetarian pasta dish, Dax was all smiles as Ke rapidly devoured it.

"How are you so good at this Dax?"

Satisfied with the food for the moment, Ke finally voiced the question which had been in the back of her mind for a long time now, it seemed whatever Dax did he did so flawlessly.

"I just found myself bored one day and decided to start practising and experimenting, keeping an open mind throughout it all... I failed a lot at the start, but after a few hundred years of practice I reached this level."

"... A few hundred years? Just how old are you, Dax?"

"Ah, I never really explained that huh?..."

Realizing he had never really told Ke about himself, Dax explained exactly what a qiton was, along with a brief explanation of his life, growing up on the qiton homeworld with his mother, the spartan training, joining the galactic navy as a special forces operator, doing the Empire's dirty work for years until he met Ra and Mu, the formation of Lazarus and finally how he was marooned in a world of magic.

"Are you going to call me an old man now? I wouldn't blame you, being unaging is not really that common of a trait among none engineered life."

"... You don't really act like an old man so I won't call you that, if anything I'm a bit jealous I haven't seen all these parts of your life myself…"

While Ke was even more amazed at all the things Dax had done throughout his life, she also was a tiny bit vexed that she hadn't met him sooner. Ke constantly felt like she was behind the other girls in Dax's life, and she wanted to close that gap, but at the same time, she didn't want to be a bother. Seeing Ke's face cloud with complex feelings, Dax immediately gave up attempting to assess what was going on inside her head, instead, he chose to just reassure and motivate her.

"Well, I don't plan on dying any time soon. So instead of thinking about the parts of my life, you've missed so far, why don't you think about what's ahead instead?"

Placing a hand on top of Ke's head, Dax carefully ruffled her hair while making sure he didn't rough up her braids, in response Ke narrowed her eyes slightly as her face started to heat up.

"... You know doing stuff like that makes me want to pounce, right?~"

"Yeah, I'm not that dense. The girls have already accepted you and I really enjoy your company so I have no issue with a closer rela-"

Not getting a chance to finish his sentence, Dax suddenly needed to worry about Ke's safety as she abandoned all precautions and leaped over the kitchen table separating the two of them and quickly 'captured' Dax, but in the ensuing battle, her lack of experience proved detrimental.