Simon's Hiraeth | Simon Petrikov

Hazel Sunrise [02]

•────────────────•

It was a Hazel sunrise. Hazel woke up to the smell of fresh coffee filling the room. Simon was making them breakfast. As she sat on the sofa and turned to face the kitchen, she watched him show off his cooking skills:

- Good morning Simon. Sorry I didn't wake up earlier. Do you need help?

- No worries Hazel. I was gonna let you sleep until the food was ready. But since you're awake now, would you mind getting me two eggs from the fridge?

He said as he finished brewing the coffee. "Sure" Hazel replied making her way over to the fridge and then back to him, handing the eggs.

- Thanks friend. Now, why don't you turn the TV on to entertain us?

- Say no more.

She said with a smile, sensing the smell of scrambled eggs and bacon fill her nose. The TV was now on, playing some sitcom she's never watched with a theme that sings something like "where everybody knows your name..."
Simon seemed to like the show, as he quietly sang along to the theme, serving the food to their plates, and filling two mugs with coffee.

- Come on, be my guest.

He said setting everything at the table. "Today you can just take it easy, watch me talk to the visitors, say whatever you're feeling comfortable about" Simon said.
He kept telling her not to answer any questions if she started getting uncomfortable. "hide in the bathroom you feel insecure" he said jokingly, as if he didn't do that all the time.

"Get ready. Act normal." He said lifting the gates to his home, facing around four people ready to make questions:

- Good morning, and welcome to the life of a 20th century man. And also a woman...

He said not knowing how to introduce her. Making some visitors look at him with shocked faces and others with huge smiles. Amongst them was a girl who'd always visit with the hopes of making him talk about "Fionna and Cake", a book he wrote during his years of being Ice King. She was so surprised:

- Mr Petrikov! You never told me you had a girlfriend!

Simon froze. "I... I don't! she's my friend!" he said. That little girl always gets on his nerves. He now felt scared she would ask about Ice King in front of Hazel...

People seemed to be disappointed they weren't a couple, an old lady who stopped by even lost interest and walked away. "Simon people like romance" Hazel whispered to him as she made her way to clean the dishes:

- Forgive my boyfriend everyone. People in the 20th century are a bit too shy about relationships. This is just him joking.

As Hazel started acting, people seemed to be more entertained. It looked more like watching a TV show once there's romance. A few hours went by quickly as they watched people come and go, until something happened:

Hazel was helping Simon explain about the utensils around the house when a talking dog started to press her to talk, asking how was she alive; Trying to get her impressions on the mushroom war (since he didn't know she was asleep...) and making all sorts of embarrassing questions.

It all made Hazel nervous. A talking dog! That was uncomfortable. Plus it looked like talking Ben, a twisted nightmare. She was having a panic attack, so she did as Simon said, and quickly hid in the bathroom.

- Goodbye everybody! The exhibit will close early today.

Simon said awkwardly trying to push people away while the dog kept talking and annoying Simon too, causing them to bump into each other as Simon tried to get him to leave. The dog's collar fell off, making him bark, not making any sense.