The cafeteria was a long hall, arranged with chairs and tables while at the end of the place, two waiters could be seen responsible for serving food.
The trio moved toward the direction of the waitress as Zeras felt his stomach rumbling even more.
“Um, can we have one plate of Mizashi Twale and three fruit juice?” Quinn ordered like a gentleman looking like he had rehearsed this more than thousands of times.
The two waitresses giggled looking at the trio as they went in and out of the place. A big box was brought out with a tray holding three cups of juices.
“Thank you, officers…” Quinn said dragging them towards a particular table as the trio settled down.
Opening the box, Zeras saw it was like some type of gigantic pizza with different colored ingredients on top of it.
Immediately ripping out a piece, he shoved the entire thing in his mouth without care as Zera’s eyes suddenly became a black hole.
“This… It’s so sweet…” Zeras said tears almost slipping out of his eyes as he just couldn’t believe a taste like this also existed. All he had known in his life was stale hard bread with water but now that he tasted this. This was the first time he realized he also had taste buds for sweet things in his mouth.
Looking at the duo, he could see they were looking at him with strange expressions on their face before Quinn suddenly blew up in loud laughter, while a mocking smirk just appeared on Triton’s face.
“What? Did I do something wrong…”
“Um… You’re using your hand to eat…” Triton said pointing to the knife and fork that was placed beside him.
“Besides, what do you mean sweet, the Mizashi Twale is more of an in-between food of bitter and sweet when it comes to food and you’re savoring it as if it’s the number one sweetest food in the world. That’s weird man…” Quinn said as he slowly picked up his knife and fork.
Zeras looked at the duo as he couldn’t help but mutter beneath his breath
“You guys don’t understand…”
Zetas slowly took up the knife and fork feeling incredibly weird as he found them slipping out of his hands bit using his improved strength, he forcefully dipped it Into the food and slowly brought it to his mouth but the pizza slipped off before they could touch his lips.
Now a raging tornado was slowly being built inside him, but when he looked forward, he noticed even the two waitresses were now staring at him shocked while Triton and Quinn seemed to want to bury themselves.
“Tch, what do I do wrong again,” Zeras said with a down-trodden expression. .
“Are you really from around here man…” Triton said looking at him suspiciously.
“That’s not how you use a knife and fork bro. It’s an almost crazy notion that there exists someone this age who is unable to use a fork and spoon. I mean I could do it when I was two.” Quinn said as he shifted towards Zera’s seat and began teaching him how to use the fork and spoon.
It was boring and mind nerving for him as in the Orphanage, what was knife and fork, they wouldn’t even pierce the stale bread, everything was done with the hand.
That has been ingrained in his origin but after continuous pestering from Quinn who seemed to want to twist his hands away and Triton who never stopped gulping down the piece making Zera want to scream at him to wait, he finally got the hand of it as he picked up his first pieces using tye knife and fork.
“Hmm, it’s a really good experience, but I still prefer my hand…” Zeras said as the two waitresses giggled at them once again.
“You’re lucky, if the entire new cadets had seen what you just did now, you would become the butt of the joke in the entire EIA. Fortunately, we came here when nobody was around…” Triton said as he dug into the food eliciting a serious nod from Quinn also.
“But all in all, you’re a pretty fast learner if this is truly your first time picking this up,” Quinn said seriously as Zeras snorted within him feeling proud.
“He wouldn’t learn it so fast if not because he was afraid I would finish up the entire thing…”Triton said with a smirk looking playfully at Zeras.
“That’s not true…” Zeras said firmly denying the accusation.
“Yeah, it’s not…” Triton and Quinn said with a smile as they both stared at him with a knowing smile.
“Ok, maybe a little…” He was really afraid of Triton finishing up the entire thing that’s why he hurriedly tried to learn the spoon-knife thingy.
“Now when I think about it, it’s really weird not being able to see you guys’ eyes. It’s like I can’t see who you are…” Zeras said as he looked at both of them.
Triton has no pupils, with his eyes just covered by the entire white making it hard to see what he was thinking about.
As for Quinn, he always covers his eyes, the last time he used a blindfold, this time he used a dark glass, so dark Zeras couldn’t see his eyes at all. Not being able to see their eyes seemed to also tweak a nerve in him sometimes.
“We Elvians don’t have pupils according to you humans but we have the same experience as pupils when looking at another Elvian. I believe some humans too can see our real emotions with time. It’s because this is your first time, you’ll later understand after spending enough time hanging out with Elvians.” Triton explained to him.
Zeras nodded as what he said made sense, and he directed his attention towards Quinn instead who didn’t say anything but just continuously dug into the food.
“What about you Quinn, why did you always cover your eyes like a blind person but I can tell you can see as clear as day…” Zeras asked him.
“Oh, covering my eyes? It’s due to my genetic ability. It’s related to my eyes and leaving them open wastes some energy.” Quinn replied.
“I’ll only open them if I need them…” Quinn said as Zeras felt his curiosity piqued. A genetic eye ability that uses energy just to open them. It’s a first for him.
“Um… I feel like I’ve heard that ability before, but… Are you from the Nine families Quinn? Particularly from the Voidspace family?” Triton asked suspiciously as Zera’s jaw dropped to the ground.
One from the Nine family?
𝑖𝘦𝑎.𝗇t