It was a bit early, but it was time to begin preparing dinner. Reya was once again cooking for everyone and Adrian accompanied her, asking questions about the ingredients to be used. No matter how many times he saw them, the fruits and vegetables on Verilia looked alien. He was always surprised by the flavours they added to the dishes that Reya made.
The most he was allowed to do was wash them, since he still wasn’t allowed to handle a knife. He made sure to do a thorough job, determined not to fail his only task. Reya put down her knife and hugged him from behind while he was standing at the sink. “It would be great if I could teach you how to properly cook,” she said as she rested her head on his back.
Adrian stopped the water and dried his hands. Turning around, he collected Reya into a more proper hug. “I know how to cook. Admittedly, it’s been quite a while, so I’m probably rusty. The only thing I don’t know how to do is cook with these ingredients. They don’t exist where I’m from. They all look really strange to me, if I’m being honest.”
“Really? That’s so strange. What were they like back on Earth?” After so much time spent together, Reya had learned the name of Adrian’s home planet. She did her best to properly pronounce it, a near perfect imitation of the way Adrian said it. She’d practiced getting it right, determined to learn some of his language. She hadn’t asked him for lessons yet. Adrian seemed to switch back to his native language when he had something to say that he didn’t want others to hear and she hoped she wouldn’t be intruding. Yet a part of her was intensely curious about hearing Adrian express himself as he would naturally. Hoping to hear another word, she focused in on Adrian intently.
“You see, this,” Adrian said as he picked up a dark blue, tomato-like vegetable, “looks remarkably similar to something on my planet, except where I’m from they’re red.”
“Red? That’s bizarre. Why is it that colour?”
“Why does yours grow blue?”
“Because it’s natural for it to do so,” Reya said as if it explained everything. Several of the vegetables that Reya was using had a blue tint to them. “See?” she pointed. “These all have some blue in it.”
“Don’t they start green, though? How does the blue get there?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, why would it ever be green?”
“Wait, are you saying your plants here don’t have chlorophyll?” Adrian pronounced the last word in English, unsure what the proper translation was. “That’s impossible.”
Reya paused. Unsure about the word he used, she took the opportunity to ask about what he meant. “What does that word mean?” Adrian did his best to explain his knowledge on the subject, astounding Reya. After he was done, Reya knew what he was talking about. She gave him the correct word for it and pondered what he’d said.
They couldn’t understand why the plants on each planet were of different colours. The pair forgot about their cooking for a moment and tried to figure out where the differences were coming from. They tried the best they could, coming up with several theories, but were ultimately forced to admit their lack of knowledge on the subject prevented them from being certain.
Rann and Tassie entered the house, returning from their walk. They were expecting for dinner to be cooking and were surprised to see Adrian and Reya standing in the kitchen with intrigued expressions finishing up a conversation.
The newcomers sat down at the kitchen table and listened in, curious about what the discussion was about. When they asked, Adrian and Reya filled them in on the oddity they’d discovered.
“You’re saying,” Rann said, getting up and grabbing the dark blue tomato from the counter, brandishing it, “that this thing starts off green then turns yellow, orange and finally red?”
“That’s exactly it. The two vegetables are almost identical except for the colour. It’s really strange.”
“You’re making this up, aren’t you?” Rann asked, having trouble accepting Adrian’s claim.
Adrian shook his head. “I’m not. I wish I could prove it to you.”
“How does that even work? How can both you and a vegetable be both so similar to things we have here? This makes no sense! Already, occurring just once is a miracle, but twice? How does that even happen?”
“I have no idea,” Adrian admitted. “I’ll try to think of a way to show you that they’re so similar.”
“How will you do that?”
“I haven’t worked that part out yet.”
“I’m sorry Adrian, but this is one thing that’s too difficult to believe unless you give me concrete proof.” Rann did not want to entertain the implications of such a thing occurring. She refused to believe in what Adrian was saying.
“One day, I will. I understand if you don’t believe me for now.”
Reya looked at the time. “We should probably get cooking!” she exclaimed. “I didn’t realize we were this far behind.” She began assembling the vegetables until she was struck by an idea. “Hey, I could make this like a cooking class for you,” she told Adrian.
“I’m not following,” Adrian said with a frown. “I thought that’s what we were doing already.”
“Well, we’re a bit behind schedule. If I had your help cutting the vegetables, things would go much faster.” Reya looked towards Rann and Tassie. “Please?” she asked. “You guys can supervise. I trust Adrian around a knife to help me with this. Plus, it would be good for him to learn.”
Rann and Tassie shared a glance. “I don’t know,” Tassie hesitated. “Jyn’s not going to be happy if we let him near a knife.”
“You’re both armed, you’ll be able to shoot him before he does anything.”
“I vote we don’t shoot me,” Adrian commented quickly.
“What I’m saying,” Reya said, “is that there’s minimal risk of anything happening and you can react properly. You can even have your guns out and ready to go.”
“Is this really necessary?” Adrian asked nervously. “I don’t mind watching, even if it means eating a bit later.”
Tassie and Rann had a quiet discussion between the two of them, deciding on what to do. They were just after agreeing that they should offer Adrian a bit more trust. This was the perfect opportunity to see if it was warranted. Neither of them thought that he’d do anything to Reya, although they couldn’t be certain. They had to decide if they wanted to risk their friend. They asked her.
“Are you sure you trust him enough to do this?” Rann asked.
“Yes,” Reya said confidently.
Rann sighed. “Fine, we’ll give him a chance. We’re keeping our guns out in case he tries something that doesn’t involve strictly cutting vegetables. Adrian, if you so much as turn towards her with that knife, we will shoot you.”
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Adrian gulped. “Understood,” he said.
Rann and Tassie pulled out their chairs and trained their weapons on Adrian. Reya rolled her eyes. “You’re not going to need those, you’ll see.” Taking out a second cutting board, she placed on the counter in front of Adrian. She fetched a sharp knife from block and began instructing Adrian. She showed him how to properly hold it and demonstrated how she wanted each vegetable cut.
When she was done showing Adrian what to do, she handed him the knife. Tentatively, Adrian grabbed it, looking towards Rann right before wrapping his fingers around the handle. He grabbed a pale blue plant that had three protruding bulbs attached to a stem in the center. Carefully, he put his hand in the proper position and slowly began to make his cuts. Reya turned around and began cutting some of the other vegetables on the other counter.
Reya finished chopping her vegetable and took a couple of the purple slices to Adrian. “Here,” she said, coming up next to him, “try this. It tastes really good. One of my favourites.” Adrian finished his cut and put the knife down. Letting go of it, he turned to grab the piece of food only to find Reya extending an arm towards his mouth.
“Here,” she said as she fed Adrian the bite. Adrian accepted happily, flavours exploding on his tongue as he ate. His face lit up in surprise. It tasted like blueberries and cherries, a tangy taste lingering in his mouth. Reya smirked knowingly.
“This is amazing!” Adrian exclaimed. “Can I have another piece?” he asked eagerly. Reya giggled and fed him another. Rann and Tassie watched the sickly sweet scene in front of them in fascination as their love struck friend display her affection. Adrian was trying to explain that the flavour reminded him of two berries from his home world. Reya listened with rapt attention as Adrian chittered away happily.
The two girls shared a look of disbelief. They wondered what had changed to cause their friend to act that way. They looked back at Adrian, who regarded Reya warmly as he spoke. The look never faded whenever he was facing Reya.
The pair returned to cutting their vegetables until Adrian came across his last one. It was a strange looking thing. It was dark grey and consisted of a large ball in the center with eight thick tendrils sprouting all over its body. From the tendrils, small bulbs grew. It had a rubbery texture that made it difficult to cut. He hadn’t the foggiest idea as to how to prepare it.
He called Reya over, who meticulously showed him how the properly cut it. Handing the knife back to Adrian, she stepped back and let him try. Carefully, he held onto the vegetable and positioned his knife. Right as he began to cut down, Jyn’s enraged shout startled him and he slipped. The knife cut into his finger deeply. He put down the knife and watched the blood well out of the wound impassively.
Reya gasped. “Adrian, are you ok? You’re bleeding!” Frantically, Reya searched for paper napkins to help staunch the blood so that they could bandage it.
Adrian watched her go, worried about him. It warmed his heart, knowing that there was someone who cared this much for him. Tassie spotted the expression on his face, making a mental note of it. “I’ll be fine, Reya. I’m alright.”
“No you’re not, look at you! You’re obviously hurt badly.” She took the napkins and brought them to his cut, covering it.
“What is going on here!?” Jyn demanded. “Why is he holding a knife?” he shouted.
“Couldn’t you have asked that like a normal person?” Reya said, louder than she’d intended. “Kell!” she called. “We need you over here.”
Jyn turned towards Rann and Tassie as Kell hurried over, grabbing the med kit from the bathroom first. “How could you let him hold a weapon?” Jyn asked, furious.
“We were supervising him with our guns trained on him. He was well aware that if he did anything other than cut vegetables he was going to be shot,” Rann said, mollifying Jyn somewhat. He was still incredibly angry. He looked towards Adrian as Kell arrived to inspect his injury.
“What happened?” Kell asked. Reya explained as he put the kit on the counter and opened it. He withdrew a needle and thread, along with some gauze. “Adrian,” he said, “I’m going to need to see your hand.”
“I’ll be fine, doc,” Adrian said, waving away his concern.
“Adrian,” Kell said firmly. “Show me where you got hurt. This could be serious.”
“It’s not,” Adrian said flippantly. “The wound isn’t that deep.”
“Like hell it isn’t! Look at all the blood soaking those napkins. Look at –” Kell stopped short when he inspected the napkins for the first time. They weren’t soaked red, like he’d been expecting. Instead, it was a pink colour that had an odd, silvery sheen to it. “What’s wrong with your blood?” Kell asked, getting everyone’s attention. Only Reya and Kell could see properly, however.
“Side effect of the experiments,” Adrian said bluntly. “Don’t worry, I’m perfectly healthy.”
“I still need to see your wound.”
Adrian sighed and moved the napkins away, depositing them on the counter. They could clean it up later. There was far less blood flowing from it than Kell expected. The blood covering Adrian’s hand was a silver-pink viscous fluid that glimmered in the light. Confused, Kell cleaned the wound, only to notice that the cut was barely bleeding. He eyed the discrepancy between the blood soaked napkins and the shallow wound. Reaching for his gauze, he looked away and prepared it. Looking back towards Adrian’s wound, he blinked. It wasn’t bleeding anymore and he could’ve sworn it looked smaller than before.
Wrapping it all the same, he looked up to see Adrian’s worried expression. “There,” Kell said, narrowing his eyes suspiciously, “all fixed. Try not to move around too much and it should be fine.”
Now that Adrian was deemed ok by the doctor, Jyn continued his tirade. Unleashing it upon Rann and Tassie, he exploded. “By the gods, how could you give him a knife? What if he did something? He could’ve hurt Reya! He could’ve lunged at you guys! How could you possibly take such a risk?”
“We’ve decided to try trusting him a bit more after he properly followed our instructions when handling our equipment yesterday,” Rann explained, Kell’s comment about Adrian’s blood forgotten.
“You didn’t think to run it by me first?” Jyn fumed. “We’ve been over this! He’s not allowed to hold knives.”
“It happened when you weren’t around and I made a judgement call on the spot. I took proper precautions to make sure Reya was safe. The risks were mitigated. At one point, you’re going to need to trust us, Jyn.”
“How can trust you when you make decisions like this?” Jyn asked, frustrated.
“So far nothing bad has happened. Quite the opposite, actually.”
“That’s besides the point. It went well this time, but what about next time? This is dangerous, Rann,” Jyn rebuked. “We’re playing with people’s lives here. He’s not allowed to go near knives. That’s final.”
“I think an exception can be made in the case of cooking. He knows that if he goes wandering with a knife he’s going to get shot.”
“He can hide it and pull it on someone later! You’re not always going to be able to catch him.”
“I think it’s time we started trusting him around smaller things. Cooking can be one of them, as long as he’s properly supervised.”
“He could hurt someone!” Jyn fumed. “He shouldn’t be trusted around anything remotely sharp.”
“The only person he hurt was himself, thanks to you,” Reya said coldly. She eyed Adrian’s bandaged hand with worry. “Are you okay?” she asked, concerned.
Adrian smiled and held up his hand. “Good as new,” he grinned, chuckling at his own joke. “I think we should stop the lesson for now. We won’t be able to continue with Jyn here. I can watch you finish the rest and you can explain what you’re doing as you go.”
Reya grabbed his hand and stared at him sadly. “I’m sorry I got you hurt. I didn’t mean to.”
“It’s okay, Reya. It’s not your fault. I’m the one that slipped with the knife, so it’s on me. I had a lot of fun cooking with you. Maybe we can start again with baking, something that requires less knives,” he smiled.
Tears welled in Reya’s eyes and she gave him a hug. “I don’t like seeing you in pain and hurt,” she said. Adrian returned the hug and they held each other for a long moment.
“Thank you for caring,” Adrian whispered tenderly so that only she could hear.
Reya let go of him and said “Always.”
A knot formed in Jyn’s chest as he watched the sweet scene in front of him. He suddenly wanted to be far away. Tassie and Rann also watched, regarding the couple.
While no one was looking, Kell grabbed the bloodied napkins and walked towards the trash bin. Slipping them into his pocket, he pretended to throw them out. Reya noticed and asked Kell what he was doing. “Cleaning up,” he lied smoothly, drawing no attention to the pocket that contained the napkins. He went back to where he was standing moments prior.
“Oh, thank you,” Reya said. She eyed the drops of blood on the counter. “We did make a bit of a mess.” Grabbing a washcloth, she wet it and wiped away the blood. Kell wished he could get a hold of the rag before Reya cleaned it, but he knew there was no way he could ask. Regrettably, he watched her wring the blood out into the sink. It washed away down the drain. Kell would have to settle for the napkins.
He needed to get out before the others noticed. “It looks like you’ll be fine now,” he announced. He put everything back into the med kit and closed it. He got up, kit in hand. “If it gets worse or starts bleeding again, let me know.” Adrian nodded. He then excused himself to go store the kit.
Kell scurried to the bathroom and put the med kit away. The argument in the kitchen grew heated as the group tried to determine whether Adrian was allowed to cook or not. Taking advantage of the chaos, he quietly slipped out the back door and made his way around the house. The others were too preoccupied to notice his disappearance.
Ghosting to the ship, he quickly made his way to the med bay and locked the doors behind him. Preparing a sample of a portion of the napkin soaked in blood, he carefully readied his lab equipment. Placing it under the microscope, he hoped that Adrian would forgive him.
He took a look.
