"Laxus!"
In return, the mentioned wizard looked up from organizing his designated cabinet.
"What do you want? Can't you see that I'm cleaning? You know, the thing you forced me to do today."
The white-haried woman simply chuckled. She made her way over to the wizard before jumping on his back.
"I need you to help me reach something."
"Why can't you do it yourself? I'm busy."
"Because you're taller than me by like a foot and I need to get the extra broth for the soup I'm making tonight."
Laxus grunted and turned back to his cabinet. Sensing his disinterest, Emi continued.
"Unless, of course, you don't want to eat tonight. I would be more than happy to not cook."
Laxus suddenly stood up and straightened his back, causing the girl to slightly fall off his back before grabbing onto his neck. Laxus wordlessly made his way over to the top of the fridge and reached for the unopened container of broth. He looked at her with his usual bored look and shook the box of broth as to show her that he listened.
"Thanks, Laxus! You're a lifesaver."
Emi jumped down from his back and took the box of broth from his hands before making her way over to the stove. An oversized pot sat on the stove, where carrots and noodles laid on the side.
Laxus returned to his cabinet, sitting down in front of it and taking out all the plastic containers and stacking them neatly. Emi looked over at him as she heard a loud sigh. She walked silently over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Why don't we stop for today. You look like you could use a break."
Laxus did not even look up from his work as he said, "Well yeah. It's been like two hours and you made me clean out the most difficult cabinets."
Emi looked at Laxus with a small smile on her face.
"Tell you what - I'll finish up with preparing dinner and after we can go to the gardens! I know how much you like seeing the flowers."
The lightning wizard made eye contact with Emi and sighed again.
"You're the one who likes the gardens so much. Everytime you want to go you drag me with you and spend hours there. You're just rewarding yourself."
Upon hearing this, Emi gave a sly look to the wizard.
"Yes, but you like the ice cream stand that's next to the gardens. And I think we have enough money left over from that Vulcan job you took last week to get some. So what do you say? You up for it?"
Laxus and Emi looked at each other for what seemed like forever before Laxus stood up and stretched as he said, "One hour at the gardens. No more."
Emi's eyes lit up, giving a big smile to Laxus and clapping her hands together to show her approval.
"And no less!"
-----------------------
After finishing up cutting all the vegetables for the soup, Emi dragged Laxus out of the house and sprinted to the gardens. When she saw the vast amount of flowers, her eyes sparkled.
"Laxus look! They added more flowers! These purple ones weren't here the last time we came."
Emi ran over to the new additions and squatted down in front of them.
"Why don't you just sit on the bench like a normal person instead of sitting right in front of the flowers? You're blocking other people from seeing them."
"Because, the bench is too far away to really appreciate the beauty of the flowers! You can't see the way that the petals fold from so far away! And what about the smell? I can't smell them from the bench. I don't have a super sensitive nose like you."
Laxus looked around at the gardens. He would never admit it to her, but he enjoyed watching Emi get so excited about the flowers. He knew that she was having a hard time recovering her memory, and he was glad that she was able to find something that she remembered liking.
Without him realizing, Emi had drifted off to another section of the gardens. Moments later, she made her way back and walked towards the wizard.
"Laxus!"
"Now what do you want?"
Emi reached the dragon slayer and showed him a flower necklace.
"This guy gave me two of these!"
Emi then put one of the necklaces around her neck, saying, "Which means I can have one..."
She then leaned up to his neck and placed the second one on him, finishing, "And you can have one!"
The look on the wizard's face could tell it all; he was annoyed at the sight of himself wearing flowers. He was supposed to be a "tough guy," and here he was, wearing a flower necklace in public.
"Hey brat! The hour's up."
Emi saw his annoyance and giggled. She grabbed his hand and started walking towards the exit. She looked back at him as she made her way through the gardens.
"Well then, let's get some ice cream!"
"You know, it would've been a lot more efficient if we got ice cream before we spent an hour looking at flowers so that way I would've had something to eat."
"If you keep complaining I'm going to put celery in the soup."
Laxus stopped walking, causing Emi to be pulled back by the strength in his grip. He stared at her intently before his bored expression popped back onto his face.
"Fine. Let's just get the ice cream and finally be done with it. I'm hungry."
"Of course you are. Now let's go!"
-------------------
"So I was thinking that I should put more carrots in the soup. What do you think? Did I cut up enough carrots? I can...."
Laxus's mind drifted, not paying any attention to what the woman was saying. Laxus and Emi took the long, more scenic way back to the house, taking in the cool night of a rather hot summer day. Every now and then, people would double-take at the sight of the lightning mage, seeing him casually in town. The former Fairy Tail wizard made no sign of noticing, as he had gotten used to the stares since he was expelled. Emi, too, paid no attention to the stares. This was, of course, mostly because she was completely oblivious when it came to that sort of thing.
"Laxus, are you listening? This is important."
Laxus gave Emi a bored side glance before responding, saying, "And how, may I ask, are carrots important?"
Emi spun around to face him and said, very seriously, "Carrots are the most important thing in a soup! The ratio has to be just right or else it tastes weird. How can carrots not be important!"
The pair arrived at the house and Emi entered the kitchen to start making dinner. Laxus made his way out to the small hill that is located right behind their house, sitting and looking up at the sky. He never used to do this, but Emi had made a habit of forcing him out here and looking at the clouds during the day. She was childish afterall, and she would point out the different shapes that she would see. Laxus would, however, just stare at the sky and see boring circles.
Emi hummed to herself as she dumped the vegetables into the broth. She used a wooden spoon to stir the mixture, making sure to add the noodles without splashing the hot soup. Once the string noodles were soft, she used her spoon to cut them up while still in the pot. Nobody knew why she did it this way, least of all herself, but this was the way that she always made soup.
"Laxus!"
Upon hearing his name being called, Laxus made his way back to the kitchen.
"How many times are you going to call my name today?"
"As many times as I need to get your attention. Dinner is ready!"
Emi poured the hot soup into a serving bowl and placed it on the table. Laxus huffed and sat down at his usual seat. The table had room for six, but Laxus always sat on the left chair on the side facing away from the wall. Emi made her way to her usual chair, the one opposite Laxus and facing the wall.
Laxus eyed the soup with suspicion, causing Emi to look up at him.
"Why are you staring at it? Aren't you going to get some?"
"Em..."
Emi looked up confused and watched his expression turn disinterested again.
"Nevermind. Let's eat. The only thing you ate today was ice cream."
"Better than nothing!"
"It really isn't."
Emi happily scooped soup into her bowl, making sure to take an even number of carrots, another weird habit of hers. Laxus stared at the soup once more before carefully scooping it into a bowl. He could tell. He could smell it.
"You're staring at it again!"
"You eat it first."
"What? Why? I didn't poison it!"
He could smell it. He could tell. His nose could smell it clearly.
"Eat it first."
"No! Now I want you to eat it first!"
"Brat, just eat the soup. You'll understand why once you taste it."
Emi huffed, rolling her eyes at Laxus before picking up her spoon and taking a small amount of soup from her bowl. She lifted the spoon dramatically to her mouth, as if to show Laxus that she was in fact eating it. Why was he acting so weird about it? It's just soup!
Emi realized her mistake as soon as the soup hit her tongue. Her tongue burned and she started coughing. She tried catching her breath. She looked up to Laxus, who had a facial expression that can be described as a mixture of smug and bored, and put her hands up.
"Do you taste it now?"
Emi looked down at her bowl and muttered, "I don't know how this keeps happening. I followed the recipe perfectly!"
"I think you added an extra ingredient, yes?"
Defeated, she replied, "Yes."
Laxus looked at her from across the table, pushing her for more of an answer: "And that extra ingredient would be?"
Emi looked up briefly before breaking eye contact again and staring at her bowl. She played with her fingers as she muttered an answer.
"...Hot sauce."
"Exactly."