That evening, Shirou prepared all the food everyone wanted after their safe return.
"Those guys actually set up an ambush today! It seriously ticks me off!"
Exusiai complained while munching on a reheated apple pie, her words coming out muffled.
"Exactly! If they had damaged the car, we would not have made it back until tomorrow. Missing this meal would have been a huge loss!"
Croissant's chopsticks never stopped moving, sweeping across the table like a herd of grazing cattle.
Sora and Texas, on the other hand, were much more refined, quietly eating without much fuss.
That said, Sora mostly went for the vegetables, while Texas focused on the meat.
Aside from Exusiai who barely ate proper food before jumping straight to dessert the rest were eating normally.
Still, Exusiai had improved quite a bit; the piece she was holding now was just to satisfy cravings, specially reheated ahead of time.
This time, Shirou had prepared a full table of dishes following Lungmen's dining style. If he had stuck to his usual method of making individual portions, the table would not have been able to hold everything. In fact, he was already considering getting a bigger dining table.
Even now, it was a bit cramped but with some squeezing, everything just barely fit.
"Soup's here, careful it's hot."
Wearing heat-resistant gloves, Shirou brought over the final dish and steadily placed it in the center.
"Is it stewed beast meat with mushrooms? It smelled amazing earlier!"
Sora had been looking forward to it for a while. Her other job required her to maintain a certain figure, and unlike the others, she did not get much exercise so she could not freely indulge in food. But soup? She could allow herself just a little indulgence. Just a little!
"Yep. beast meat was on sale today, so I bought some extra."
Shirou removed his gloves, picked up a large ladle, and served everyone a bowl.
"Wow, even buying discounted ingredients, Shirou, where did you come from, you ultimate super mom?"
Croissant sighed in admiration as she drank her soup.
After observing for a few days, she noticed that Shirou never chose what to cook based on cravings, it was always based on what was on sale, then matched accordingly.
"Cough, cough—!"
Exusiai nearly spat out her soup after hearing Croissant's remark, clearly reminded of something.
Seeing her reaction, Texas showed a faint smile and gnawed on a bone from her soup.
"Careful, you'll choke."
Shirou, not recalling the "Shirou Mom" incident from a few days ago, simply handed Exusiai a tissue.
"This overwhelming 'taking care of kids' vibe is…"
Croissant muttered quietly, earning agreement from Texas and Sora.
Her voice was low enough that Shirou did not hear it otherwise, Croissant might have been stuck eating nothing but store-bought croissants for the next few days.
Though he would not show it openly, Shirou could be a bit petty.
"By the way, upstairs is incredibly clean. Thanks for your hard work today."
After finishing her soup, Texas decided to change the subject just in case she accidentally called him the wrong thing in the future.
She, Texas, would absolutely not make that mistake!
"I was surprised too when I got back. I never thought I would see the floor shining again."
Sora chimed in, she had genuinely been startled.
"With more space cleared up, I can stock more goods."
Croissant was already planning her next batch of purchases.
"Stop right there! I did not clear space so you could pile more stuff in!"
Shirou chopped her lightly on the head, stopping her shopping impulses.
"Exactly."
Having recovered, Exusiai pointed at Croissant, she had just been teased by her, so this was her chance to get back at her!
"Waaah, Sora, look they're bullying me."
Croissant turned to Sora for support.
"I also think since we finally cleared the space, it's better not to mess it up again. It would just burden Shirou."
Sora chose to betray Croissant.
Croissant then looked to Texas, who silently took a sip of the coffee Shirou had made.
"Has everyone been bought off?! Have you all been enchanted by the clean environment and delicious food?!"
With no one backing her up, Croissant clutched her chest dramatically.
"In that case, I'll just prepare store-bought croissants for your breakfast tomorrow."
Shirou pretended to take away Croissant's bowl. She immediately grabbed his hand and snatched it back.
"No, no, no! Lord Shirou, you are the light of Penguin Logistics, we can not live without you!"
After reclaiming her bowl, Croissant served herself another helping of soup and sat there peacefully enjoying it.
Shirou could only sigh at her behavior, he had only meant to scare her a little, but she caved instantly.
The others strongly condemned her "instant surrender."
After teasing Croissant a bit, Shirou suddenly remembered Texas's headphones.
"By the way, Texas, are you planning to replace those headphones?"
"Yeah… it's a shame, but they're broken."
At the mention of them, Texas looked regretful. She had them for a long time, the model was no longer available. Repairs would be expensive, and asking someone like Yith for help felt like overkill. It seemed better to just get a new pair, but none she found in Lungmen were quite satisfactory.
"When I was cleaning today, I took a look. It seems to just be a wiring issue , it should be fixable."
Shirou pulled up a chair and sat down, finally picking up his own bowl and chopsticks.
"Really?"
Texas's eyes lit up, her ears and tail wagging excitedly.
"It should be fine. It is mainly a problem with the wire, you can cut out the damaged part and solder it back together."
Shirou gave a brief explanation, leaving the final judgment to her.
"Then I will leave it to you. Do I need to prepare anything?"
Having understood the basics, Texas decided to trust Shirou. At worst, she would just buy a new pair anyway, she just was not sure what tools were needed.
"I've got everything. I'll fix it after dinner."
"Then I'll go get them."
Seeing that Shirou had only just started eating after being busy all this time, Texas decided not to disturb him further and went upstairs to fetch the headphones.
Watching how happy Texas looked, Exusiai asked:
"You know how to fix stuff like that too?"
If it were firearms, Exusiai was confident in disassembling and repairing them but electronics were not her strong suit.
"It's not that hard. If something inside the headphones is broken, though, I would not be able to fix it."
"That's still impressive. Things like capacitors and circuits seem really complicated."
Sora remarked from the side she knew Texas had been troubled about the headphones, but she did not have any solutions herself.