CASE [GL]

The smell of good cooked food wafting through the air, what else could I say than that it was good to be home sweet home with my girlfriend. We ate our food at the dinner table that was designed for more than just two people. Not that it really mattered much because we just sat next to each other and spread our pans with freshly cooked food around us. Dusty, the trusty auto duster, was sitting on the opposite end of the table. 

Luna was not wasting any time and just started munching through the delicious meal. 

“Make sure you don’t choke on a piece of bacon.” 

“Don’t worry, I have perfected this eating method.” Just as she said that, she started coughing. 

I patted her back while I chuckled. “Ah yes, clearly, perfection.” 

“Shush.” She blushed once she’d cleared her throat. 

I put some mayonnaise and ketchup on top of my hotdog and started eating myself. It got a weird look from Luna as I did so. 

“Don’t people generally eat that with mustard and ketchup?”

“They do, but I’m not like most people.” I laughed as I added some crunched dried unions. “But I prefer it with mayo. I think mustard has a very strong taste.” 

“Oh.”

“You should try it yourself and see what you prefer. You took some mustard home too, didn’t you?” 

“I think I did.” She nodded. 

So I quickly stood up from my seat and ran over to the fridge to look for the pot of mustard. It was rather easy to find as my fridge was, all by all, still quite empty, but I have to say that I didn’t really recognize this brand. In no-time, I was standing back at the dinner table. “I’ll make one for you. Half of it with ketchup and mayo, the other side with ketchup and mustard.” That way, we wouldn’t have to throw away or eat the entire hotdog if she didn’t like it. 

Luna watched as I prepared the hotdog for her, taking a couple of bites from her own food still as I was doing so. I cut the hotdog in half, added the sauces, and then presented her with her little taste test. “Blindfolding you will be unnecessary, as it is going to be quite obvious which is which. Although the use of blindfolds later on today might still be considered.” 

Luna processed that for a couple of seconds before her blush from earlier returned, this time in full force. “T-that’s…” She bit down on her lip. “M-maybe…” 

As weird as it sounds, I had not expected a reaction that cute, and definitely not her agreeing to my silly suggestion. I did feel my cheeks color a little too. In the end, I just nodded in return. 

Luna waited a couple of seconds to calm down before she took the first hotdog, the one with mayo, and started tasting it. I couldn’t really make out what she was thinking by the look on her face, but she did finish that part of the hotdog rather quickly. 

Without saying anything she took the second part and bit into that, but when she did, her face turned pretty red almost immediately after which she started coughing. “Ugh, s-strong... Very strong...” She tapped her chest a couple of times with the palm of her hand. 

“You okay?” 

She nodded but didn’t speak as she was still coughing. 

I took the pot of mustard in my hand. The label read ‘extra strong mustard’. “Whoops.” I should probably have noticed that from the smell, but since I don’t really use mustard much, I just didn’t realize. “Looks like you accidentally bought some extra strong mustard?” 

Luna still tapped her chest while getting to the end of her coughs “W-wait, there’s different kinds?” 

“Apparently so.” I got up from the table and ran over to the fridge to get her something to drink. The bottles of soda weren’t particularly cold yet but I don’t think Luna would care. I then went back and gave her a glass of bubbly relief. 

 

She drank from the glass and put it down again. “Thanks.” The half-eaten piece of hot dog was still sitting in between the two of us. “I think you should try it too.” 

“Uh…” 

Luna shoved the plate closer to me. “I suffered, so you have to suffer too.” 

“Wow, that sounds a bit extreme.” I shoved the plate back a little. 

But Luna kept pushing it back. “Please, join me in my pain.” 

I chuckled. “Well, if you put it like that.” I took the hot dog in my hand. It would only be fair to give it a try as well. But at least I had a glass of soda at the ready already. 

Luna looked at me with great expectation glistening in her eyes. I was not doubting for a second that she wanted me to cough as badly as she had done. This filled me with the determination to show as little emotion as possible. And as a soldier, I definitely had something to hold high here too. 

I shoved the hot dog into my mouth, and from the moment it did, the very sharp taste of the mustard was just overwhelming anything else in my mouth. A part of me wanted to draw comparisons to a soldier during the first World War in the 20th century, but the other, more sensible part knew that that would be incredibly disrespectful. 

Even though the taste was so strong, I managed to hold most of my poker face together, but I knew that after this, I would definitely never, ever, put mustard anywhere near my snacks again. 

Luna studied my face as I chewed down the last piece of hot dog and swallowed. “Hmm… That’s rather disappointing.” She pouted. 

I nodded with a somewhat forced smile and grabbed for the glass of soda, but before I could take it up and bring it to my lips, Luna grabbed the glass before me. 

“I mean, you don’t need the soda, right? So I can just drink it?” She lifted the glass to her own lips, the little alien demoness. She was trying to lure me out of my trenches. And it was working too… 

“No… please… it really does not taste very good...” I broke. 

Luna grinned and swiftly handed the glass over to me. 

 

We ate the rest of our food and put the mustard very far away from any of the remains, we didn’t want it to spread its taste through random freak osmosis or something like that. It was about three o’clock in the afternoon when we had eaten our last part of lunch. 

Just when we were about to clean up our plates, my holo stick started ringing. 

“Are you expecting any calls?” Luna asked as I put my plate in the dishwasher and jogged for my stick, which I had left on the table. 

“Not really, maybe it’s Eva.” I took up my holo stick and opened it up. The moment I did, a black silhouette of a rather feminine looking figure appeared on the screen. I didn’t see any identification. “Uh, hello? You are speaking with Lauren Davis.” 

“Hello Commander.” The familiar voice shocked us. 

"Ellie? Is that you?” 

“It is, Commander.” She replied. 

“Are you sure you should be calling us right now? Aren’t people investigating you right now?” 

“They are, but I’m not really concerned by it. I masked the signal, there’s no way they will be able to intercept or detect it.” She sounded very sure about that. It must be something she learned by giving herself that update… 

“Are you doing okay, Ellie?” Luna walked up to me to talk to our AI crewmate. “It’s good to hear from you.” 

“Thank you, Lieutenant-Commander. It’s good to hear your voices, too.” The figure on the screen moved a bit from side to side, as if she was shifting her balance from one leg to the other. “I have to admit… It is quite lonely here…” 

“Ellie… Are you going to tell me that’s why you have called us?” 

“...” Ellie stayed silent.

“Lauren, she has been living with all of us for quite some time. It’s only natural she’d miss us, right? Especially with people she doesn’t know messing around?”  

“I suppose that’s true. Sorry for that, Ellie. We miss you too.” 

The black silhouette slowly rubbed her left arm with her right hand. “I hope I’m not imposing on you.” 

“You aren’t. We just finished lunch.” Luna replied and then tilted her head towards the screen. “What’s that image you are using, by the way?” 

The silhouette backed off a little, scratching the back of her head. “It’s just something I was messing around with because I got bored… Do you like it?” 

Luna nudged me to say something. “I do.” I replied. “But it’s more important that you like it as a representation for yourself, right?” 

“And for the record, I like it as well.” Luna added. 

The silhouette wiggled from side to side again. “I think… I like it too.” 

“We are happy to hear that.” Luna smiled and took the holo stick out of my hands. “Would you like to see Lauren’s house? It's huge!” 

The silhouette, or better said, Ellie, nodded. “I would like to.” 

Luna give me a quick look to ask for permission, of course I granted it with a nod. -Somehow it felt like we’d rediscovered a friend.- I smiled and walked along with Luna as she started to show off my house to Ellie. Luna herself hadn’t even seen the entirety of it yet.