Sunny was currently wearing an expression of deep contemplation. Morgan was staring at him, but he didn't care.
He had just taken the first bite of his meal after being determined to not lose in terms of cooking, but was shocked by how good it was. 'I'm going to have to step it up a notch…' His eyes blazed with the flame of competitiveness.
Sunny had been confident his food wouldn't lose out even when compared to a high end restaurant, but he now had to reconsider. The meal was good, his own cooking didn't fall short of it, but there were many aspects that were better.
Of course, he did many things better than the cooks, but an overall win was not what he was looking for. He wanted to win in every separate category of cooking, and his pettiness didn't allow him to shoot any lower.
The next few minutes were spent in silence as Sunny tried to deconstruct the food in his head. He actually split off his shadow to go see how the cooks were doing it too.
Morgan seemed content with simply watching him, just like she had on the first day meeting post [Fateless].
Sunny had soon formulated a few things to try himself in an attempt to match or even surpass the methods of the cooks. He had noticed a few things, such as their use of awakened meat.
The higher the rank of the nightmare creature, the better and tougher the meat was. He would know considering he had partook in the pleasure of consuming meat from a great monster.
The main roadblock to using meat from higher ranks of nightmare creatures was the ability to make it tender. The chefs of this restaurant were using only awakened meat for this reason, and also using several processes to make it softer and easier to chew.
Sunny decided he'd have to develop a way to make even the toughest meats tender if he wanted to surpass them. He pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind, turned back to Morgan and smiled, "So what do you have planned afterwards?"
She looked at him and smiled, it almost looked mischievous, "You'll see." Sunny wasn't entirely content with that answer, but he let it go. There was no point pushing her if he was going to find out in due time anyway.
They spent the next half an hour talking about meaningless things. Sunny wasn't well versed in popular culture, but he was quite happy to complain about any of the two plays that were made of him.
It was nice not talking about the issues that involved the fate of the world. Sunny had already started to see another side of Morgan from their previous encounter, but now he began to truly unravel her as a person.
Soon, the desert he had previously ordered came out. He was careful to make sure it didn't have honey on it. Morgan was subtly interested in why, "Why don't you like honey?"
Sunny shivered, before explaining his reasoning. "I don't know how people can bear to stomach such a thing." She seemed intrigued. "It's made from insect secretions, who would want to eat such a disgusting thing?"
Morgan gave him a strange look. Her expression was a mix of amusement, confusion and concern. "I'm sure you've found yourself eating raw nightmare creatures at some point."
Sunny paused, but quickly retorted. "That's out of necessity, also nightmare creatures aren't insects." There were exceptions of course, but Sunny had only really eaten nightmare creatures that yielded meat.
Morgan stared at him momentarily before chuckling. "You really are a fascinating man." Sunny didn't know how to feel about her comment. He was embarrassed and there was heat rising to his cheeks, but he also had the suspicion that her comment wasn't quite a compliment.
Soon, their meal was over. Sunny would be lying if he said he wasn't at all excited to see what Morgan had planned.
Morgan led him out of the restaurant and down the quiet streets of NQSC. It was late, so most people in this part of the neighborhood were already settled down in their homes.
She didn't seem to have a direction she was going in, so Sunny couldn't help but ask. "Are you taking me anywhere?" She turned to him, smiling.
"No." Sunny was a bit surprised, she had sounded like she had a plan earlier so he was confused as to why they were walking to nowhere in particular. Her next words cleared his doubts.
"You see, I did have a plan, but as the night went on I realised it didn't really fit you." She paused slightly. "You said you didn't really like formal settings, so I threw out the plans involving those. Then you complained about the play I was going to take you to, so now I have nothing else I can really do."
Sunny suddenly felt a little guilty. She had paid attention to his shallow words and scrapped the plans she had, so now they were left with nothing to do.
He hesitated for a bit, before speaking his mind. "It's fine. I still don't want to do anything too fancy, but I will see the play with you." Due to his flaw, he was forced to speak the truth, so he couldn't say he wanted to do any of those things.
Morgan caught this and smiled. She had recognised his sacrifice to make her more comfortable, and wasn't about to let it go to waste. "You're really kind… thank you."
Sunny suddenly had a foreboding feeling. "You know on second thou-" He tried to take back his words, but Morgan pulled him along with a smile.
"You said it yourself, you can't take it back now." Sunny had the feeling that she just wanted to see him embarrassed. Despite assuming the more human side of her he had come to know, she still retained some of her sadistic qualities.
'Why did I have to say anything…' Sunny could already tell it was going to be a long night.