"About dinner, can I cook it myself?"
When I asked this Leo seemed to freeze for a moment and his brow furrowed, he took a while which I thought might be due to him not liking me using his kitchen and when I thought about saying it didn't matter he replied.
"Ummm, but I invited him…"
Hearing this I understood what he meant.
"I like to cook. And I guarantee that I cook better than a robot." I said confidently, the robots' food is good, but not better than mine, especially since I plan to use some of my ingredients.
The ingredients that are planted in my space are refined with the special aura of the environment and there are even some special items that I managed to bring from other worlds, such as rewards from the world or that the system allowed me to take based on my performance or difficulty in the world.
Listening to my speech, he seemed to understand and scratched his head a little, but ended up agreeing.
At that moment I also heard Rafael's voice.
"Brother, are you going to cook??? I can help you?"
Seeing this I smiled at him.
"Alright, but you must follow what I say and assume your human form, okay?"
He nodded obediently and his tiger body transformed into that of a cute little boy around 4 to 5 years old. With slightly silvery white hair and purple eyes wearing a cute outfit.
I don't know which one I think is cuter of the two versions...
And it was at that moment that I heard Leonardo's voice, sounding strangely shy.
"I'm not good at cooking…but I'm good at following instructions and cutting things…can I help?"
Hearing this and looking at him surprising ears appeared on his head while his gaze was directed downwards somehow looking pitiful…my heart for cute and beautiful things softened.
And unconsciously with my right hand, which wasn't holding the little boy, I ended up touching his ear. All this happened and I didn't notice the victorious, fox-like smile that appeared on the tiger's face where I couldn't see it.
"It's okay, just follow my instructions" I said and after realizing my actions I removed my hand like an electric shock and pretended that nothing happened as I quickly went to the kitchen and from behind I only heard Leonardo's voice talking to Ana.
"Ana, you can go and rest, we'll take care of the rest…"
"Aa ok. I'm going to leave, can I leave, do I have an appointment?"
"No problem…"
Listening to this conversation there was nothing important, so I went into the kitchen.
As expected, the kitchen was gigantic with large and spacious countertops, a chandelier at the top of the kitchen.
It had a giant refrigerator and several cupboards where ingredients and other resources such as pans and so on were stored.
Inside the refrigerator there were various meats and vegetables and others stored.
It also had a large electric stove and other electrical equipment that facilitated and helped the cooking process.
After observing a little and taking a look around the kitchen, I took a small bench and placed Rafael there.
And I removed an apron from my space, one that was pink and had a picture of cute squirrels drawn on it.
I put the apron behind me and tied it.
And I heard Rafael's voice.
"Brother!! What are we cooking today?? How can I help you?" He asked with stars in his eyes.
After analyzing all the items in the kitchen and the ingredients I saw I thought for a few minutes and decided on a relatively quick and simple dish.
"Well, let's make carbonara with grated parmesan cheese and for dessert…..small lemon tarts, let's start with the dessert and preparing the ingredients."
I first took the flour, sugar, lemon and other ingredients to start making the pies, of course the lemon is the most delicious in my space.
Leo also arrived at that moment and seeing me he seemed to freeze for a moment.
"That apron…" He seemed to ask me about the apron while his ears turned a little red.
Seeing him ask about it I thought he wanted one so I took off my other apron which was a little bigger and had cute tiger designs on it.
"Want a?"
He looked and froze a little when he saw this, but he decided to ask before answering.
"Have you used this one yet?"
I didn't exactly understand the purpose of the question, but I answered.
"Yes"
"So I want. Can you help me put it on?"
"Clear"
I didn't see a problem and I went behind him, lifting my feet a little and put the apron on him, pulling the strings back and with my body close to him I felt a smell that seemed to represent him, it was a strong mint smell with a slight spiciness and a feeling of coldness...it was a very pleasant smell that seemed to suit me...it was also rare even for me, even though I was highly sensitive given my physical and mental power, to feel the sensation of the exact smell and not only the ability to differentiate between being an orc and sub orc.
I lost myself for a few seconds smelling as well as the feeling of well-built muscles of an orc and someone from the army, but I woke up when I heard Leo's voice.
"Al?"
"I'm done with nothing."
I tied it quickly while I was a little embarrassed... the feeling and even a certain attraction that I have towards Leonardo is strange... as if our souls played the same song or were connected to each other or something similar... which reminded me of something like a myth of this world of twin beast souls in which two "beasts"/orcs and sub orcs instinctively attract each other as beings destined for each other.
Of course I didn't think much about it, since although it's possible I don't let something like "destined" or directed by a divinity force me, even if I were to get involved with Leo I prefer to go over time getting to know more and see if we can get along. find and conquer each other.
Of course, I thought about it without knowing that in reality Leo had already decided that I was the love of his life and was looking to win me over.
"Well, shall we cook?"
I clapped my hands to clear my scattered thoughts and called everyone, I took 3 bowls and added some wheat, to start preparing the pasta, each of us had a bowl.
And then I started teaching them by adding eggs and flour, while mixing with our hands in firm and uniform movements with a touch of harmony.
Of course...this was more for me, Rafael played with the dough while trying to knead and Leo started clumsily but seemed to get the hang of it a little despite moving with mechanical movements.
While I watched them and stirred my own dough, which was actually two at the same time, one for the pasta and the other for dessert.
"Brother brother, how is mine?"
Hearing Rafael's excited voice I went next to him and saw that the dough was as expected not of high quality but it was good enough.
I took some extra wheat and added it to his dough while touching his nose a little by playing and praising him.
"You are doing very well little tiger"
"Hehehe" he wasn't upset with the joke while he was clearly happy with the compliment I gave him.
Of course, like a playful child he also threw some flour on my face.
"Well, brother is just like me now"
He looked pleased and had a slight mischievous smile on his face.
I just smiled at his cute and mischievous act and played with him using some more flour.
And when I was about to go back to continue with my pasta production I heard Leo's voice.
"And my little squirrel"
Hearing the word squirrel I almost stopped, but I looked at him and strangely there was flour on his face... I swear I saw him very clean before.
"How did you get dirty?"
He didn't mind my question and seemed innocent.
"I got a little confused, I'm new to this"
"Oo and I see" anyway, in fact, his movements, despite being ordered, were those of beginners… the only difference is that it didn't seem to get dirty before, but I decided to look at his mass.
The shape was satisfactory and the smell of wheat was refreshing in the dough.
"Well, we just need to knead it a little more and we can use it"
"Okay squirrel"
I looked at him and even called out his military name.
"General, aren't you abusing our new friendship by using such intimate nicknames?" I asked with a smile.
He looked at me and responded by pretending to be pitiful and even his tail and ears appeared probably as a purposeful act.
"I don't think so… I just want to be close to Alex… the little squirrel who give me new nicknames to…"
He spoke pitifully and clearly shamelessly.
I narrowed my eyes at his action and decided to play around a little, if anyway he's not a bad person
I approached him slowly and with a slightly seductive smile and when I got close enough to his chest that I felt his surprised and strong breathing, I moved my left hand and threw flour in his face.
And I continued provoking him.
"Well, my shameless Big tiger, stop playing around and let's continue cooking."
After that I went back without looking back as I heard the laughter of a certain tiger who seemed to have a silly and happy smile even with flour around him.
And we continue preparing the dough and filling for dessert.
Meanwhile, Ana, who came downstairs, watched the three of them playing with flour and cooking together and couldn't help but think that it looked like a small family of three.