I made you wait so long I’M SORRY I kept blanking on who should be doing the cheering up/cheered up
(as a small note, please no new asks for this meme everyone! there is one more I might get to, otherwise I am considering it done)
How to Comfort Edea Lee
by Ringabel Dim Lee TBD
Step One: Food usually works best.
Eleanor Goodman’s feasts were always splendid–excellent food, a comfortable atmosphere, a charming hostess–and Ringabel eagerly sat himself down, after he’d pulled Edea’s seat out for her of course. On the other side, Agnès and Tiz looked a little guilty, had ever since Tiz said he was looking forward to another one of Mrs. Goodman’s dinners, which was ridiculous. All they had done was realize a pattern: if they saved Daniel Goodman from Kikyo Konoe, Mrs. Goodman served them a rich dinner in gratitude. They had still come for the sole purpose of keeping Mr. Goodman safe and alive. Not for the dinner. Dinner was a bonus.
And still, Tiz was opening his mouth to try excusing himself out of dinner yet again before Ringabel kicked his shin under the table and gave him a significant look. He had already had this discussion with Agnès on another occasion; it would be rude to discard all the sacrifice that had gone into preparing the meal. If Tiz felt like he was somehow taking advantage of the Goodmans’ hospitality, he should focus on making them happy, and Mrs. Goodman would be made happiest by her cooking being well-received. Of course, he couldn’t tell Tiz this across the table with the lady circling the table to serve everyone, so instead he did his utmost to communicate through glaring. Tiz first stared back with indignation, then melted once more into a guilty pile of mush, and finally took his napkin and unfolded it on his lap to be ready for dinner. Good.
“Uh, um… Thank you, Mrs. Goodman. That’s enough.”
“Alright, Edea. Lady Agnès, would you like some mashed potatoes too?”
“Oh–are you sure you have enough, Edea?”
Ringabel looked over, curious, and then stared at Edea’s plate. No wonder Agnès had questioned Edea’s portions. One slice of honey ham, a biscuit, two scoops of peas and mashed potatoes each? These…these were an average person’s portions. Not his angel’s. “Are you alright?”
Her elbow drove into his side. “Oh, stuff it, Ringabel! I’m just not hungry.”
And since when was she not hungry?! But the elbowing had clearly been a warning, and Ringabel shut up for the moment. If he kept questioning it, Mrs. Goodman might think that Edea disliked her food, little knowing how enthusiastically she had feasted on it two previous times. And that definitely wasn’t the issue… Hm.
He didn’t like this. Edea was skimping on good food.
Step Two: Sweets, in particular, are her favorite.
“She has been a bit subdued,” Agnès mused. “Do you not think so?”
“No, I absolutely think so!” Ringabel insisted. Edea had turned in to sleep early, and he hadn’t hesitated in rounding up Tiz and Agnès to get to the bottom of the matter. “Her elbow didn’t even bruise me!”
“She shouldn’t be trying to bruise you, you know,” Tiz pointed out. “But it is kind of odd that she went to bed so soon…”
“Hopefully she is feeling better in the morning,” Agnès mused. “If not, we should ask her what the matter is.”
“But she is hurting now,” Ringabel whined. His poor angel. Was she even sleeping, or was she tossing and turning, suffering in silence? He couldn’t bear it. He wanted to go straight up to her room, take her into his arms and comfort her, except knowing his luck she probably would have just fallen asleep and she would murder him regardless.
But something was wrong.
“She was fine fighting against Kikyo, but…” Tiz hesitated for an annoyingly long moment, scratching the back of his head as he thought. “Do you think it’s because we’re doing this all again? Today it was Kikyo, and she was never close to her, but then there’s…”
Agnès sighed and closed her eyes as she realized what Tiz was thinking. “Nobutsuna Kamiizumi, her master.”
“We’ll never get her to talk about it, if that’s the case,” Ringabel groused. Even the first time they had gone through this journey, Edea had brushed off their concerns. But what if it was finally getting to her?
“We can’t force her to talk.” Tiz nodded. “But we can show her we’re there for her whenever she wants. And for Edea, the best way to show her we care is–”
“Food!”
“Food!”
“–Gifts.” Tiz flushed when both Ringabel and Agnès looked at him questioningly, and added, “Food can be a gift.”
Ringabel nodded, warming to this idea. His only hesitation was– “It’ll have to be something really special, though.”
“It’ll be special because it’s a gift from us.”
“Tiz, Tiz, Tiz.” Ringabel laid his hands on the younger man’s shoulders, patting him. “Tiz, oh Tiz…you blessedly naive youth.”
“…I’m only four years younger than you. Or two? How old are you supposed to be again?”
“Youth,” Ringabel insisted, because he was absolutely the elder here, and also because Tiz didn’t need to know that he’d forgotten his age again. “No, if she’s feeling bad enough to pass up Mrs. Goodman’s food, she needs something really special! Something to whet her appetite! Something fantastic and unexpected, out-of-the-way–”
“Uh…” A still-sleepy Edea stared out over Grandship’s railing, blinking blearily in the crisp morning’s light. “Did I miss something? Why are we in Florem!?”
“Because Ringabel piloted straight through the night like a madman,” Datz muttered groggily, right as the Drunken Pig’s door burst open.
“BECAUSE FLOREM HAS POWDERED CRÊPES~!” Ringabel sang out. Tiz followed behind him, lightly dusting some sugar off his hands. Agnès was still inside, eating a crêpe for herself (while cutting off a small portion for Airy).
“We got your favorites!” Tiz added, beaming with enthusiasm. “Chocolate, strawberries, peaches, you name it!”
“Wh, what? It’s not even my birthday! What’s the occasion?” Edea asked. Despite her questioning, she was coming over to check out the crêpes, looking over the different varieties.
“Do we need an occasion to spoil you, darling?” Ringabel asked, leaning over to see if she was tempted by anything in particular. She looked at him suspiciously.
“Like he said, no occasion,” Tiz added. “We just wanted to do something fun. Now that we know the Goodmans are safe and Praline is out of the picture, we can take a small break.”
“Good thinking! We’ll have to go back eventually and make sure things are sorted out, but I guess we can take a break. And these crêpes really do look scrumptious…”
Yet the expression she made in the next moment–flitting by so quickly, Ringabel nearly missed it–didn’t match what she was saying. For a moment, she didn’t look pleasantly surprised. She looked…wistful.
And she only took two crêpes. Two. They had gotten half a dozen each of six different varieties so that she could have all the crêpes she wanted, and she was only going to have two?!
“E-Edea,” Ringabel said nervously–there was nothing for it, he would just have to talk straightly– “You know you can always talk to us if something’s wrong, right?”
“…Yes?” Edea looked at him strangely. “Are you asking me this for a reason, Ringabel?”
Ringabel looked above her head to Tiz’s, trying to desperately ask with eyes alone how do I say it’s because she’s eating normal meals without her killing me? Either this was much too complicated to ask by eye contact or Tiz had no better idea, because he merely shrugged, with a slightly concerned dip of the eyes to Edea, before getting distracted by something Agnès was asking him.
Step Three: And remember, there is no such thing as too much.
For lunch, they went to Ancheim, a land overflowing with sand and spices and sugar, the latter two of which should have been enough to lure Edea into eating with gusto, whether by stretchy ice cream or hot curry. They went on a group lunch to a restaurant with a solid reputation for all the varieties of local cuisine so that Edea could have a wide range of options to pick from.
She got the same salad as Agnès, and only finished half of it, then had a small spoonful of Tiz’s dessert, which he had been all too obliging to give her. Ringabel had confiscated the spoon from Tiz after that and made him use another. Perhaps it was a bit unfair of him.
But Ringabel felt like he was going mad.
Edea did not eat like this! Including the previous night, this made three meals where she had merely picked at food instead of devouring it eagerly! His angel had to be so hungry and yet…her heart was too heavy for her to eat…and she wouldn’t just say what was wrong…
An ordinary man might have given up at this point. An ordinary man might have thought there was nothing more that he could do. An ordinary man might have been sick of spending so many hours at Grandship’s wheel.
Ringabel was no ordinary man. But he was sick of spending so many hours at Grandship’s wheel, and he realized halfway on the trip to Eternia that the Proprietress knew perfectly well how to make an Eternian Special Parfait without them going all the way to the frozen country. With her help, and a little of his engineering ingenuity to figure out the conundrum of getting 25 ice creams scoops and 10 wafer sticks to stand together in a tower of sugar and cream, they created the Quintuple Deluxe Eternian Special Parfait.
They didn’t have time to marvel at the terror they’d created when a bit of the base was already softening. He quickly sent Tiz to fetch Edea (Agnès seemed fixed that she would not introduce her friend to such a health hazard), and the younger boy had her close her eyes until they were at the bar in front of the huge (slightly runny) dessert.
“Surprise!”
Ringabel expected a range of reactions. A gasp of delight. A smile. A question if that was really the most ice cream they were able to fit into the serving bowl because really, it ought to have been more. Though really, after the failures both breakfast and lunch had been, he wouldn’t have been entirely surprised if she didn’t react at all.
He was not expecting her to half-groan, half-scream in a fit of exasperation. Even Agnès, who had been protesting this as a bad idea, started in her seat.
“Edea…?”
“This isn’t faaiiiiiir,” Edea groaned. “Why are we having all the nice foods when I’m sick?!”
“…Wait. You’re sick? But you said you were fine yesterday…”
“I am, it’s just a stomach bug. Besides, we know Kikyo’s little invitation ambush is always that day, I wasn’t going to miss it just for an upset stomach. But…” She looked at the gigantic parfait with something very near distress and groaned again. “Ugh, I have never been so repulsed by something and wanted it so much at the same time before. It’s…it’s amazing and I can’t eat it. I feel like I’m going to hurl just looking at it.”
This was how Ringabel usually felt about looking at her desserts, but he was unnerved to hear her say such a thing. “Um, maybe we should…store it, then?” Agnès suggested.
The Proprietress barked out a laugh. “Ain’t no way it’s fitting into the freezer like this! How about you get Datz and Zatz and we’ll all split it. But hurry up, before it all turns to soup.”
“I–I’ll get them,” Ringabel said. Better to seize his chance to escape now, before he was expected to eat it too. He stopped just long enough to give his love a sympathetic pat on the shoulder before walking out of the tavern as fast as his legs would take him.
