Kieran let the game idle on his PC as he swung around in his chair to face Kaitlyn. The game wasn’t under serious server stress like at launch, so he could safely AFK in a town without having to worry about being disconnected. Though, to be fair, even if he did get kicked, it wouldn’t be a big deal without massive queues to get in.
“So!” He said, then groaned as he stood up from the desk chair. “What would my lovely little girl like to eat for lunch?”
Kaitlyn took a moment to pause the TV and then shifted to face Kieran while she thought. “Mac and cheese!” She shouted triumphantly.
“Mac and cheese, hm?” Kieran grinned as he scooped her up to carry her into the living room. They had a nice open concept house, with the living room and kitchen in the same area, so he was able to set her down on the couch and flick on the TV while he went about getting lunch together.
Kat didn’t actually watch the screen though, as she spun to perch her arms on the back of the couch to watch her dad as he ventured into the pantry.
Kieran didn’t have any luck finding mac and cheese. Kat liked a specific brand, and probably wouldn’t just accept actual pasta with melted cheese - which Kieran could totally do, if she’d be happy with it.
“Kat, I don’t think we have any mac and cheese, hun.” Kieran said, shuffling some of the items in the pantry around, just to be sure. But the shelves were set up in such a way that you could pretty easily see everything without having to move much.
Kat’s little feet pounded on the floor as she ran over. “What? No mac and cheese?”
“No mac and cheese.” Kieran said. “Anything else you want instead? I’ll go buy some this weekend when I go shopping.”
The little girl just shook her head vehemently. “No! Go buy some now.” She argued and pouted. Kieran did consider it; it wasn’t like the market was far, and he could grab some other things while they were there. And it’s not like anyone in Nettle Tea would begrudge him running to the store to get a cute little girl her lunch.
But he was more concerned that running out just because she asked would set a bad precedent. Not that he hadn’t done it before, to be fair, but she had to hear ‘No’ sometimes too.
“Not today, you little bugger. We’ll find something to eat here. I’ll get you the mac and cheese this weekend, and we can make some for lunch then, okay?”
“No! I want it now!” Kat shouted and crossed her arms angrily. She even looked away and stuck up her nose. Kieran had to hold back a bit of laughter because it was so adorable.
Kieran opted to step around Kat to get to the fridge. He opened it to see what else was available, and his eyes landed on some American cheese singles in one of the drawers. And that seemed like a potentially good substitution.
“How about we make some grilled cheese?” He asked, turning back toward Kat with a smile.
She narrowed her eyes at him but relented. “Fine.” She said and marched back to the couch. Kieran snickered as he grabbed a handful of slices of cheese and went about his business in the kitchen gathering the ingredients and retrieving the stovetop sandwich press.
As he went about buttering bread slices and getting the first sandwich in between the two frying pan-like plates, he was in a great mood. Kat was smiling again with an old rerun of Tom and Jerry playing, of all things. And honestly, the salty and savory idea of a grilled cheese actually really sounded delicious right about now.
As he flipped the first sandwich, Kieran’s phone chimed, so he pulled it from his pocket. “Kat, do you want the first one or the second one?” He asked, opening the chat app.
“First!” She called, so Kieran kept an eye on it to make sure it didn’t get too dark. She would absolutely say it was burnt if there was anything too dark on it. As he flipped it again to get the first side a little bit more golden, he checked the group chat.
{Bisky} : So, what did we want to do with part 2? Take the obvious path? Or should we try going a weird way?
{Mello} : I’m not sure. Maybe just decide once we’re in?
{Fiona} : Whichever works for me. We don’t really know whether the straight path is easier or harder, so it’s not like we’ve got a lot to work off of.
{Bisky} : True. I guess we’ll do it by feel then.
{Aleister} : No need to over commit too early.
{Fiona} : Coming from you, Miss leap-before-you-look, that’s rich.
{Aleister} : Shut your face, Finoa.
{Fiona} : Who?
{Aleister} : Fiona. F-I-O-N-A. Bitch.
{Fiona} : Lol.
{Nyx} : So what’s everyone’s lunch today?
{Fiona} : Tuna sandwich
{Aleister} : Bagel w/ cream cheese.
{Caoimhe} : I’m making Kat and I some grilled cheese.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
{Bisky} : No lunch for me yet. Just a muffin and more tea.
{Caoimhe} : What kinda muffin?
{Bisky} : Banana Nut. What other option is there?
{Caoimhe} : Fair.
{Ash} : Lemon poppy is good.
{Nyx} : Y'all are crazy. Double choc chip is right there.
{Caoimhe} : That’s waaaay too sweet for my blood.
{Nyx} : *sigh* Unfortunately, none of your lunches have inspired me. I still don’t know what to eat.
Kieran chuckled as he slipped his phone back into his pocket and plated Kat’s grilled cheese. “Order up.” He said, as he placed the paper plate on the far side of the kitchen island, where the stools were.
Kat slipped off the couch to the tune of Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 going wrong and slipped onto the stool in front of her sandwich, spinning to watch the TV.
“What do you want to drink?” Kieran asked, as he placed his own grilled cheese in the press.
“Chocolate milk.” Kat said, clearly very enthralled with Jerry dancing around inside a piano. Kieran chuckled, as he moved to pour them both a glass of the chocolate milk. By the time he slipped the glass by Kat’s plate, his sandwich was done. The second one and beyond always grilled so much faster.
It was barely another minute before he slipped into the seat beside her with a bag of baked potato chips, which he shook out onto both their plates. Kieran also spun in his chair to watch Tom struggle to keep up with the big finale of the cartoon episode.
As the last notes of the song played and Jerry hopped out of the piano to take a bow, Kieran and Kat both laughed.
“How’s your grilled cheese?” Kieran asked, as they both spun back to the counter to eat during a commercial break.
“S’good,” Kat said, taking an absolutely massive bite. Kieran couldn’t tell if she was trying to rush through eating or just generally taking huge bites because she could, but he had to make sure not to laugh as she struggled to chew.
“You should take smaller bites, Kat.” He said. “Otherwise you could choke on it.”
“But I want to take big bites. Like you.” She said, once again shoveling in a huge bit of sandwich. Once she took the bite, she held her grilled cheese up near Kieran’s to compare the bite size. To her credit, they were pretty big bites. “See?”
“Okay, but do you know why I take such big bites?”
She tilted her head, curiously. “No?”
“Because my mouth is bigger than yours.”
“So?”
“So because my mouth is bigger, when I take little bites, they’re still bigger than yours.” Kieran said.
“So do a big bite then!” Kat said, excited.
“If I do a big bite, will you promise to take smaller bites?”
“Okay…” Kat said.
So, true to his word, Kieran bit off a huge mouthful of his grilled cheese, then held it up while he struggled to chew. Side by side with his daughter’s sandwich, the bite looked massive. “Shee?” He said around the huge bite.
Kat laughed. “That is a big bite.”
When Kieran finally got the bite down, he said, “And you promised to take small ones now, just like I normally do.”
“Yeah, okay.” She said, then proceeded to take normal sized bites.
Kieran nodded, finishing his own sandwich. He ignored his phone alerts, recognizing the sound for the chat notifications. If they actually needed him for anything, Marissa would text him.
He picked away at the potato chips a bit while Kat finished her own sandwich. Once she was done, He stood and gathered up the trash to throw everything away and just generally clean up. Kat wandered back over to the couch and settled in to watch whatever cartoon was showing now.
Once Kieran was finished cleaning up, he joined his daughter on the couch. She had flipped through some of the channels, and landed on some Blue’s Clues. Kieran wasn’t exactly sure how he felt about the newer revival series with the weird 3D Blue. But Kat liked it, and that was enough.
As Kieran went to pull out his phone, Kaitlyn shifted over and crawled into his lap. Kieran put his arm around her waist so she could comfortably nuzzle in against his shoulder, but keep her eyes on the TV.
They sat like that for a while as Kieran checked on the chat. It was mostly arguing over food and trying to figure out what Nyx should have for lunch. She had eventually settled on leftover Chinese food from the previous night.
Once he was up to speed, Kieran tossed his phone to the other cushion and leaned back a little. Kat shifted to get comfortable again, and then promptly dozed off. Kieran rubbed the girl’s back affectionately as her breathing evened out in her nap.
With thirty minutes to go before the agreed upon meeting time, Kieran figured there was no reason to shift her off his lap and risk waking Kat up, so he was content to sit there. He swapped the TV over to watch some random internet videos - his most recent obsession was uploaded segments about how things were made. It was great background TV.
Unfortunately, the great background TV did its work a little too well. Kieran had opted to avoid shifting to grab his phone to read or browse the internet, so he really only had the screen before him.
But the house was warm, he was full of food, and he had somehow managed to be in a very comfortable position, even with Kat on his lap.
It was merely minutes before his eyes closed and his head lulled back in a nap of his own.
“Dad. Dad. Your phone is going off.”
Kieran woke up to getting jostled by Kaitlyn, nudging against him from his lap. “C’mon, wake up.”
“I’m up, I’m up.” He yawned, and stretched out to grab his phone while Kat scrambled off his lap. He blinked to clear his eyes as he tried to see what the phone screen said.
It was a call. From Marissa.
He quickly picked up the phone and put it to his ear.
He didn’t hear any yelling immediately from the get go, so that was a good sign. He stayed quiet for a moment too, since he didn’t want to say anything that might spark Marissa’s anger.
Instead, she just sighed. “You fell asleep with Kat, didn't you?”
“Yes.” He admitted sheepishly. “How late am I?” He asked, when he realized he didn’t look at the time before answering.
“You’re fine. It’s like 1:30, so fifteen minutes late.”
“Sorry. I’ll be right there.” Kieran said, stretching out on the couch.
“Take your time. We’ve just been having friendly duels.” Marissa said. “I absolutely wrecked Nyx.”
“Nice.” Kieran said, fighting back a yawn. “Alright. I’ll see you in five.”
“See ya.” She said and hung up.
Kieran slipped the phone away and threw an arm around Kat’s shoulders. “Wanna come back to the study and hang with dad, or stay out here?”
“I’ll come with you.” She said.