Chapter Text
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Please don’t die! Not now! C’mon Baby, I’m begging you!” I desperately clutched my dearest Carson’s steering wheel while repeatedly turning the ignition, “Please, Baby, I’m begging you!” Carson remained silent as I let my head fall on the steering wheel. This isn’t good, it was raining cats and dogs and I needed to pick Giselle up from her ballet class. I couldn’t help but let out a series of groans. Giselle’s class was at least close to our house, if I call Mark and ask him to pick her up, it should only be about a few minutes there and back on his scooter… I’ll be hearing him complain about it for weeks, but Giselle can’t stay there the entire night.
I pulled my phone out of my bag from the passenger seat of the car. I glanced at my surrounding area through Carson’s windows while I waited for my brother to answer. There were a couple of shops, clothes and other trinkets displayed in their windows, along with a restaurant named ‘Grilby’s’. I contemplated waiting in one of the buildings for a tow truck after I made the necessary calls for it to come pick up my car and my brother to pick up our sister.
“Hello, Clara, are you almost home? I have just seen the most epic anime ever! It’s perfect for tomorrows movie-night!” My brother’s exited voice rang through the phone, I couldn’t help but let a soft smile cover my face at his excited tone, “Sounds great, bro! As long as it’s not too violent or above PG standards, remember Giselle is only twelve.” “It’s totally fine, sis, Elly will love it!” “Don’t make me regret trusting you… Oh and speaking of Elly, I have a huge favour to ask. Believe me that I hate having to do this to you, but there’s really no other way…”
For a while it was silent on the other line, I almost thought that he had hung up on me, luckily that wasn’t the case though as he answered in a clearly very annoyed tone. “You’re kidding me! It’s raining cats and dogs! What in the world happened to justify you asking your own brother to risk drowning himself?!” “I really am sorry Mark, but Carson just died on me and I am still about a forty-minute walk away from Giselle’s class, and I need to stay here to wait for a tow truck anyway. Please, I am begging you. I promise, no chores for two weeks and you can pick the snack we’re having with movie night if you go.”
He didn’t give me an answer for a minute while he mumbled one thing or another to himself. “Fine…” I breathed a sigh of relief, “Thank you so much, Mark! You’re the best baby brother a girl could ask for!” “Hey! I am not a baby! I am seventeen! Practically an adult!” I couldn’t help but laugh at his undignified response. “Adult or not, you’ll always be my baby bro. Anyway, I have to call a tow truck now. Don’t get into any accidents. Love ya.” He let out an audible sigh on the other end, “Love you too, sis” hanging up my phone I dialled the number of the nearest mechanic.
After I notified them of my predicament and location, and the man on the other line informed me that somebody will be there within the next hour, the phone was placed back into my bag. Deciding to get comfortable, I lay my head down on the steering wheel. My mind was wandering of to think about who the possible murderer could be in the mystery novel that I’m currently reading, when my thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a drop of water that fell from Carson’s ceiling onto my neck, then another and another and another… That’s it! This infernal dripping is driving me crazy! Grabbing my bag, I quickly got out of the car, and after I made sure that the doors were locked I rushed to the restaurant, ‘Grilby’s’ that I spotted earlier.
Upon entering, my previously shivering body (I blame the rain) was enveloped by the buildings warm air. The place had a very comforting and cosy aura that was only enhanced by the wooden floor and the simple yet classy tables and chairs that was scattered across the room. There was also what seemed to be a small bar area behind a long counter. Bar chairs were stacked against it, apparently people could also sit there. There was only a handful of customers there (which wasn’t really surprising considering, A: The lousy weather, and B: The time of day which is four-thirty too late for lunch and too early for dinner.) I immediately felt as if I stuck out like a sore thumb, even though there were only a few customers in the restaurant. I couldn’t help but shrink a little under their suspicious gaze. For you see… I had apparently just walked into a monster hang-out…
Monsters had come to the surface about two years ago after the barrier trapping them under mount Ebott had been broken. Their king and human ambassador had immediately started negotiations with the humans hoping that they could co-exist in peace. Luckily for them, most humans were accepting of this new change and almost instantly did their best to make monsters of all sorts feel welcome in human society, that made negotiations fairly easier and within the first year monsters had received citizenship and had all the same rights as humans, it also became legal for humans and monsters to be romantically involved with one another (one of my co-workers got engaged with one, I don’t know if they’re still together though, we’ve lost touch with one-another when she and her fiancé moved to another city).
Unfortunately, there were others who weren’t as open-minded about their new neighbours from the underground… They tended to discriminate against them and perform heinous hate-crimes that makes my stomach churn just thinking about it. The hate-crimes seems to occur less frequently as the time goes by, which is a huge relief to both monsters and their human friends who also seem to be targets. In all honesty, I can’t blame these monsters for looking at me as if I might try to rip their throats out with my teeth any second…
Pushing my nervousness aside I smiled as friendly as possible and gave them a small wave (which seemed to have made them more at ease with my presence), while walking over to the counter, behind which stood a smoking hot man busily cleaning a glass. No, literally, he was completely made of fire, except his clothes. For a brief moment a small part of my mind was wondering how on earth the cloth wasn’t catching on fire before I immediately dismissed it as magic. Sitting down on one of the tall chairs in front of him I tried my best, though admittedly awkwardly, to start a conversation.
“Hello sir, this place is really nice. A lot better than outside, the weather is absolutely foul today.” Man, I wasn’t even talking with him for a full two minutes and the weather has already been mentioned… what a great way to start a conversation Clara! (note the sarcasm) A minute or two went by without the man responding, frankly, I don’t blame him. I mean seriously, who talks about the weather right off the bat? “Thank you for the complement, though you are right about the weather, it makes things particularly troublesome, especially for someone in my position.”
His voice was unlike any other that I have heard up to this point. It’s a little hard to describe, but to me it sounds exactly like smoke rising from a crackling fire. In spite of myself, I mentally winced at his reply. I should have known that the rain would only make problems for him! He’s made of fire after all! “I’m sorry sir, I must have sounded really insensitive right now…” He laughed, it sounded like the crackling of a fire. “Don’t worry about it, is there anything you want to order?” Oh that’s right! This is a restaurant after all. “Oh, um, do you have any fruit juice? The kind of fruit doesn’t really matter.” He nods before disappearing through a door that I assume is the kitchen.
He reappeared a few minutes later with a tall glass containing a yellow liquid and a red and white straw which reminded me very much of a candy-cane. “Thank you, sir. How much?” The fire-elemental told me the price as I quickly fished a twenty-dollar bill out of my wallet, gesturing him to keep the change. After I paid him, he disappeared into the kitchen again. Closing my eyes, I took a sip of the juice… WOW! If I didn’t know that it was impossible, I would have sworn that my taste-buds started doing the can-can. How in the world was it even possible for juice to taste this good? It must be magic! There is no other explanation. In fact, the juice was so good that it completely distracted me enough to not notice the fire monster reappearing again until he cleared his throat.
Snapping my eyes open, I looked at him. I felt an embarrassed blush threaten to appear on my cheeks. Did I seriously just zone out because the juice tasted good? Mentally slapping myself, I smiled widely at him. “The juice is great, sir! It has to be some of the best that I’ve ever had the pleasure of drinking.” He chuckled slightly at my comment, “I’m glad you like it.” Our conversation continued like that for a few minutes before he disappeared into the kitchen again only to reappear a few minutes later. The other customers had over the time-span of the next thirty minutes paid for their purchases and left, and I am extremely grateful that the looks that they flashed me as they were leaving seemed a hundred times warmer than before.
The warm atmosphere of the restaurant along with the sound of a glass being cleaned, brought such a big feeling of comfort to me that I almost didn’t want to leave. Though, that feeling was soon banished when a glance at my watch told me that a good forty minutes had already passed and that the tow-truck will be arriving any moment now to pick up Carson. Reluctantly I stood up from my seat, “Thank you for the juice sir, and for allowing me to stay in here for as long as I did.” He casually waved of my thanks with one of his hands. “Don’t mention it, customers are always welcomed.” I gave a small laugh and turned to leave, waving at him as I did so, just as the door opened allowing the sound of male voices and sloshing water accompanied by the very strong smell of alcohol to penetrate my senses…