"Ugh! We're done!" Evan stretched. Keng followed Evan and the others out to the front. The cold Midwest Winter air made his face feel numb. He let out a warm breath of air, watching it float away as the group moved off to the side, huddling in the growing cold.
"What do we do now? Eat?" Ritsuka raised his eyebrows at the group. Evan looked disheveled. Manny looked like he could fall at any mont. Olivia seed spaced out. Liz was trying her best to keep it together while Ritsuka and Keng hid their exhaustion well.
"I think… We go ho and order out." Evan sighed. "I need to soak my body in salts again."
"You and your salts." Manny snickered.
"What?" Evan looked over at Manny. "They're effective."
"It's all in that mind of yours. Salts equals freedom from pain. You're literally soaking your body in hot flavored water. The water does all the work." Manny shrugged.
"The salts have stuff that helps the water be more relaxing. You should try it." Evan pressed against Manny. Manny and Evan shoved each other back and forth, the others giving smiles as a cold breeze rushed past them.
"Let's go ho." Keng's teeth chattered. "I'm freezing." Keng led the way back to their car, Olivia lifting her keys up.
"I think soone should drive instead of . I'm wiped." Olivia told them.
"I'll drive." Ritsuka snatched the keys. He glanced over at Keng and nodded over to the other side. "Ride shotgun!"
"Mmkay." Keng nodded and rounded to the other side, taking the shotgun seat. The group was quiet on the way back. Manny ordered pizza and had it delivered to the house while Keng couldn't help but think about what the Grand Healer said.
'I don't have much ti left.' Keng thought. 'I need to go to the West side of the City… Thank the God King the restrictions have lifted… It would be a pain in the ass to try to get out by regular ans.'
The car ca to a complete stop in the driveway. Calis's car was nowhere to be seen and the sun was already starting to set. The group groaned as they exited the car and shuffled inside. The warm house greeted them as the sound of a car pulled up.
"Pizza's here already?" Liz asked, looking behind Keng. She held the screen door open as Keng looked. "Oh, it's Calis. He just got back?"
"I guess." Keng shrugged. Calis exited the car and waved at them. He opened the trunk and started to pull so stuff out. "I'll help him with his stuff." Keng turned and moved towards Calis.
"Yo, you just got back?" Calis asked, pulling so large bags out.
"Yeah." Keng nodded. He grabbed so bags from Calis and looked at the contents within. "What do you need all of these for?" There were clothes, random items that made no sense together and a very familiar device. Keng hid the device amongst the other bags and looked up at Calis.
"From our friends." Calis answered, shutting the door. "I'll tell you about it later. How'd the mission go?" Keng turned and walked with Calis towards the front door.
"Great." Keng sighed. "May have accidentally forgotten that I was in my natural form and the entire group knows my secret."
"What?" Calis stopped. He looked at Keng worried their cover was blown.
"My cover has been blown, but you're still just a bodyguard in the rest of their eyes." Keng reassured him. "Pizza's coming soon and I'm cold. Let's go inside." The two entered the ho. The group had scattered to their rooms or to shower. Keng closed the door behind Calis and helped him lug all of his things up to his room. The shower went as Keng sat the things on Calis's bed, reaching for the hidden bag. He plucked the bag out and sat down.
"Why do you have this?" Keng asked. He waved the rectangle device. Calis looked up, realized what Keng was talking about and went back to sifting through the bags.
"Oh, that's for ." Calis pulled it out of Keng's hands and stuffed it into his jeans. "I asked for a favor, and they gathered so information for ."
"Anything noteworthy?"
"No, not really."
"Why all the stuff? I thought you ca with clothes."
"It's much colder here than I realized, so I went shopping." Calis answered. He neatly folded his clothes into separate piles. "So, I bought so more clothes." Keng picked through the bags with an assortnt of random things.
"What're these then? It just looks like you randomly plucked so stuff off a shelf." Keng pulled out pens, candy and a candle.
"Just random stuff that'll help." Calis told him. "I gotta take notes sotis."
"You could just jot it down on your phone." Keng set the stuff back in the bag.
"I'm old fashioned." Calis chuckled. "The candies for my sweet tooth and this room kinda slls so I thought I'd freshen it up."
"Ah." Keng nodded. A knock ca at the door and Keng glanced over at it.
"Hey, Calis." Manny's voice ca from behind the door after the knocks. "Pizza's here if you want so."
"Alright. Be down in a minute." Calis answered.
"Guess that's my cue." Keng stood up and stretched. "I'll leave you to it then."
"Hey, Keng." Calis turned and grabbed Keng's coat sleeve. Keng turned and looked at him. "Are you sure you didn't tell them about ?"
"No. They just wanted to know why I'm acting like Lee Seng." Keng told him. "Don't worry! The only one who knows your identity is Ritsuka. We good?" Calis nodded, releasing Keng. Keng unlocked the door and moved to the first floor. He pulled his coat off and hung it on the hook and made his way to the kitchen. Piping out pizza was displayed for all to see. Two slices of pepperoni and sausage were taken with so breadsticks. The ranch bottle was sitting on the counter, half-capped and a set of plates were left out.
Keng helped himself to three pizzas and so breadsticks and made his way over to the dining room table. Manny was munching away, greeting him with a muffled "hey" before continuing to eat. Keng sat opposite to Manny and stared at the food.
"You never had pizza before?" Manny asked Keng. Keng looked at Manny, shaking his head. He had known all these wonderful foods, but never had the chance to try them until now.
"No. Lee Seng ate this quite a bit, huh?" Keng asked, picking up a piping hot slice of pizza. He took a bite, cheese, marinara sauce, bread and toppings oozing in his mouth.
"Good, huh?" Manny raised his eyebrows. The sa guy who was mad about Keng not being Lee Seng, was happily talking to him.
"Mmm." Keng nodded. "It's good." He took a couple more bites as noise from the stairway caught Keng's attention. He turned to see Calis and Ritsuka greeting each other.
"Have you had pizza before, Calis?" Ritsuka asked.
"I have." Calis nodded. The two entered the kitchen as Manny looked up, acknowledging them. Keng cleared his throat, widening his eyes at the two as they looked up.
"Got sothing in your throat, Ke—Lee Seng?" Manny caught himself at the last second. Keng turned, eyebrows raised.
"Hm? Oh, I think it's phlegm." Keng rubbed his throat before readjusting in his chair. "I feel much better now." He continued to eat as Ritsuka and Calis filled their plates and joined Keng and Manny at the table.
"Have a good day, Calis?" Manny asked.
"Yeah. Went shopping after I got so work done." Calis nodded. "Judging from how you guys all ca back, the job must've been hard?"
"Complicated." Ritsuka answered.
"Very much so." Manny agreed. "Could've honestly died if it weren't for K—Lee Seng." He motioned at Keng.
"Oh, really? How so? I've seen him fight in class, but he doesn't look like he would be useful at all." Calis comnted. A vein bulged on Keng's forehead as he turned to look at Calis.
"Excuse ?" Keng asked, peeved. Calis gave him "the look" he hated and turned his attention onto his food. He would eat his frustrations away if he had to.
"No, for real, he did well." Manny complinted Keng. "Who knew a guy who just had his powers for… A half-ish year could beco so powerful in a short amount of ti."
"He worked his butt off with ." Ritsuka bead a smile.
"What're you boys talking about?" Liz asked as Olivia and Evan followed after her. They sat in the remaining spots, Liz sitting next to Keng while Evan sat to the right of Calis and Olivia next to Ritsuka and Manny.
"How Ke—Lee Seng did such a great job today!" Manny quickly corrected himself, again.
'That's the third ti… You really suck at keeping secrets.' Keng thought.
"Mmm, Lee Seng did his fair share like the rest of us." Olivia agreed. "I just can't believe we got into an actual dungeon. They normally don't give out dungeon jobs."
"The front desk lady was so surprised when we told her what happened." Evan chid in.
"I think she was more shocked we had a whole bunch of poisoned people in Foxes." Keng corrected him.
"Both." Liz chid in.
"We did get loads more creds for that job though." Manny smiled. "Almost as much as an actual B-rank job. The extra survivors were just bonuses!"
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