Golden Wolf was drawing a few of the schoolchildren when mealtime came. There was Mille with her pale ginger hair, the same color as Pumpkin Patch's, her father; Mishia, wearing a dozen hair loops; Samil and his lemon-shaped and lemon-colored hair; and little Sheeno who had wanted to join in. Sheeno was currently climbing on Golden Wolf’s arm in an effort to see how the painting was coming along, while the others were still posing obediently.
"We wouldn't want to miss mealtime. The sketch is over, so off we go!" Golden Wolf smiled, and everyone scattered, except Samil's little brother Boolo, who stayed behind and took the intendant's hand.
"Hello," he said.
"Well, hello, there," Golden Wolf agreed.
Boolo's little face scrunched-up thoughtfully.
"I'm hungry now. I forgot. Goodbye!" Boolo added, and he ran away.
Golden Wolf chuckled, then turned around to face the room he had been standing in front of. He wanted to talk to the teachers before leaving.
Kuba had heard the same signal, so she headed downstairs. Her room was rather high up, but she didn't mind. Everyone else seemed to have left already, so she had a chance to walk down the staircase alone, which was rather peaceful. As soon as she reached the cafeteria, she bumped into a tiny little toddler who was running around like his life depended on it. She ended up somehow picking him up before he could ram into her. He was like a tiny blueberry, which was very adorable.
"Hello!" Kuba cooed very happily, because she loved babies and children, and also most everyone.
She wanted to hug him and kiss his fat cheeks.
"Hello. Ehhhhhh," the toddler whined, and he started to wiggle.
Kuba regretfully put him down, and he stayed there for a second, looking at her curiously.
"Goodbye!" the toddler called, then he ran off.
Kuba put both her hands to her heart and thought that she loved him. He was absolutely adorable. She followed him with her eyes and saw that he had joined a group of toddlers, and they were all jumping up and down for some reason. That made her laugh. Their mothers were trying to sit them into chairs, but it wasn't really working. Among them was Crystal Tear, recognizable because of her name tag, and she didn't have a young child, but she was still there anyway, because she wanted to (and also because she didn't know who to sit with when her husband wasn't there, but nobody needs to know about that).
Everyone was a little bit on edge this evening. What had prompted the fight had been the taste of the previous meal, and all the doctors and nurses were rather nervous. They were the ones doing the cooking, after all. Kuba couldn't help with that. She was no chef, and couldn't figure out what went wrong with a meal just like that. She was still very curious about what kind of food she would receive, so she went to sit with Crystal Tear.
"Everyone has been very kind to me so far," Kuba said as an icebreaker, then she thought that it was a bad one. "I'm sorry about the battle. I tried to stop it."
Crystal Tear nodded bitterly, and only glanced at her.
"Who are you?" she asked, because it felt like an obligatory question.
"I'm Kuba."
"Ah."
The old woman sighed, and felt forced to keep the conversation going
"You said they were kind to you. They must have been treating you all lady-like. They do the same to me -- they think talking about boogers and fights will upset me, as if I'm not a doctor. But it's sweet, of course," Crystal Tear added.
It wasn't so bad to talk, after all, but her bitterness soon returned. Kuba put a hand on her arm. She was touchy, but it rarely bothered people. It felt normal to a corner of their heads.
"Are you alright? I'm very sorry about the fight," she fretted.
"We all are. Truth is, nobody wanted to fight. I mean, unless those goons. I don't think anyone really wanted to fight."
"I thought the whole castle was involved," Kuba pointed out with a concerned frown.
"Oh, a lot of us. There aren't that many Yellow Eyes. Or maybe there are. Everybody I've seen is perfectly well-balanced in their heads."
"The battlefield was made of two equal parties," Kuba insisted, confused.
"Ah! Maybe you're right, but I'll still insist that most of us are perfectly sane and good people," Crystal Tear agreed, and she waved her fork around.
Kuba didn’t argue. She was getting tired of talking with someone she didn’t already know, so she left her to her business. Beeno had been staring at her for a while, and he saw his chance. He quickly stood up, but started to feel awkward, and sat back down. His father raised an eyebrow at him, but Beeno was busy hiding his face in his egg salad and calling himself an idiot. Ice Golem hadn’t been in class since the battle, and so Golden Wolf hadn’t been able to talk to him. He had decided to wait before talking to the other teachers, and had ended up going halfway down the stairs, only to go back. He wasn’t sure if he was wanted down there.
The Wolf King ended up bumping into him and raising an eyebrow at him, and so Golden Wolf sighed and went back downstairs. The king never ate with everyone else, and he would certainly not start today. He was only out there to do a routine check of the castle, and vaguely see how his people were doing. He didn’t care that much about showing his face.
The meal was as boring as it was uneventful. He spent most of it sitting in his chair and wishing the day was over already. For Kuba, it was the opposite. She spied on everyone’s plates to spot the rumored unfair portions, but ended up nodding off at the table.
The king spotted her, and wondered if he ought to react in some way, then reasoned that reacting to that and nothing else would be a little silly. For some reason, he was eager to meet her, but blamed it on his sleepy brain.
They were both ridiculously tired, too; her, from whatever her day had been like, and him, from doing taxes and paperwork for hours. Kuba didn’t want to fall asleep, but she still was, so she went back upstairs to her room, undressed, and fell asleep in the bed that was delightfully warm despite the rain.
By the time the meal was over, the Wolf King had fallen asleep, too, and rather uncomfortably at that, because he had been sitting in his chair as he nodded off. When he woke up, he looked at the glass wall, and saw that the cafeteria was being cleaned. It wasn't nighttime yet, sadly, and he was waiting for the sun to sink to get out of his room. He liked to walk around the castle when everybody else was asleep. It was peaceful, and quiet. But maybe he ought to get out right now and talk to everyone. The idea stuck with him for a few seconds, then he discarded it.
He sighed, and ended up deciding to get out right now anyway. His paperwork was finished for now, which wasn't quite true, since there was always paperwork to be done, but the money account was finished. And so he got out of his room, wondering who he would bump into first.
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