They sat on the living room floor for a while, neither of them saying much. Elara had become slightly more comfortable after the initial chaos, but the emptiness in her stomach was becoming impossible to ignore.
Her stomach growled loudly.
Elara instinctively placed a hand over it and glanced toward Jasper. A second later, his stomach answered with an equally unmistakable growl, making him look down with mild annoyance at his own body. She looked at him, and he looked back.
Neither spoke for a moment.
"Are you hungry?" Elara finally asked. "Do you want to eat something?"
Jasper rubbed his stomach and gave a small nod. "Sure. What do you have?"
Elara pushed herself up and wandered into the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator first, then several cupboards, slowly surveying what remained. Mike had made sure she ate properly that morning, so most of the better ingredients were already gone.
There wasn't much left.
Eventually, Elara found a six-pack of instant noodles tucked away inside one of the cupboards. She picked it up and looked at the packets for a moment before deciding that four should be enough. Two each, she figured, should at least take the edge off their hunger.
She filled a pot with water and placed it on the stove before opening the packets. Within moments, the familiar smell of seasoning began spreading through the kitchen as the noodles softened in boiling water.
Jasper had remained in the living room for another minute, feeling increasingly awkward about sitting around while a girl who had just summoned him from another universe prepared food for him. He finally decided he should at least see whether he could help.
He walked toward the kitchen.
The moment he stepped inside, his nose wrinkled.
"What are you making?"
Elara glanced over her shoulder. "Instant noodles."
Jasper looked at the pot, then at the packets, and finally back at her. His expression shifted into mild, unmistakable disgust.
"Does that even have any nutrition?"
Elara's eyebrows drew together. "It's food."
"Technically."
He looked at the noodles again as though they had personally offended him.
"I don't eat this kind of stuff."
Elara stared at him.
"Then what am I supposed to cook?"
"My body is a temple."
He said it with such complete seriousness that Elara could only stare at him for a moment. She looked at the noodles again before turning back toward Jasper.
"Okay."
She sounded slightly annoyed and a little embarrassed as she returned to the stove. "Then what do I cook? I don't have anything else."
Jasper's expression changed when he heard that. He glanced around the kitchen properly this time and noticed how little food was actually there.
"Okay, then cook whatever you have," he said, his tone softening. "I don't want to put more burden on you."
Elara looked back at him.
Jasper scratched the side of his neck, suddenly feeling guilty. He had criticized the only food she had without even considering why that was what she'd chosen to make.
His eyes moved around the apartment again. She lived alone, there was barely any food, and there was no obvious sign of anyone else staying there. A rather unpleasant possibility crossed his mind.
She's probably poor.
Maybe she was an orphan too. He'd just criticized some kid for the only meal she could make, and the realization made him feel considerably worse.
"Sorry," he said quietly. "I shouldn't have said that."
Elara blinked.
"Why are you apologizing?"
Jasper opened his mouth, then stopped. He clearly didn't know how to explain the assumptions he'd just made without embarrassing himself even further.
Instead, Elara turned off the stove and set the pot aside.
"Never mind."
Jasper looked at her.
"What?"
"I don't want to feed you something you don't want."
She looked toward the door.
"Let's go shopping."
Jasper blinked.
"Now?"
"Yeah."
She looked at him, genuinely confused by his hesitation. "It should still be open."
"No, I mean..." He glanced toward the kitchen. "Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"You have money?"
Elara stared at him.
"Of course."
Jasper stared back.
For several seconds, neither of them said anything. His confusion confused her, while her confusion only made his own expression become more bewildered.
Eventually, Elara frowned.
"Why wouldn't I have money?"
Jasper blinked.
"Why wouldn't you?"
"You just asked me."
"You said you had almost nothing in your kitchen."
"Because I didn't go shopping."
He stared at her.
She stared back.
A few seconds passed before the realization finally reached Jasper.
"Oh."
Elara's lips twitched.
Jasper immediately looked away, quietly regretting the assumptions he'd made over a couple of packets of instant noodles.
Elara's expression broke.
She started laughing.
Five minutes later, they were walking down the street toward the nearest late-night supermarket. Jasper kept his hands in his coat pockets, his shoulders slightly hunched, and his gaze fixed firmly ahead, looking like a man desperately hoping the universe would somehow forget what had just happened.
It wasn't working.
Elara, meanwhile, was having the time of her life. She kept trying to suppress her laughter whenever she looked at him, but every attempt failed. The more embarrassed Jasper became, the harder it was for her to stop.
"Stop laughing."
That only made her laugh harder.
Jasper glanced sideways at her with a deeply embarrassed expression before immediately looking ahead again. He had spent years cultivating the image of an arrogant, bloodthirsty Demon Lord who could make millions of viewers believe he was completely untouchable.
And somehow, within a few hours of being summoned, he'd managed to embarrass himself in front of a sixteen-year-old girl by assuming she was poor because she owned instant noodles.
"I wasn't laughing at you."
Elara wiped at the corner of one eye.
"You absolutely were."
"I'm not."
"You are."
She started laughing again.
Jasper sighed and finally decided it was probably better to stop defending himself. After a few more steps, he muttered, "You do realize I'm supposed to be a demon, right?"
Elara looked at him. The faintest grin appeared on her face.
"You're not very scary."
She burst out laughing again.
Jasper stared straight ahead.
"...Fantastic."
They had walked less than a kilometer before the supermarket finally came into view. The road had been unusually quiet, with barely any traffic passing them, so Jasper hadn't gotten the chance to see many vehicles on the way. The city of Ofinas was unusually quiet. Back in his world most cities had some traffic at any time of day.
Jasper suddenly stopped.
Elara took another step before realizing he wasn't beside her anymore. She turned around and found him staring at something parked near the supermarket entrance with an expression of pure disbelief.
It was just a car.
Nothing particularly special by Atherian standards. It had four wheels, a conventional body, and a few scratches along one side that suggested its owner wasn't overly concerned about maintaining its appearance.
Jasper, however, looked fascinated.
"What the fuck is that?"
Elara looked at the vehicle.
"A car?"
Jasper walked toward it without another word. He crouched slightly, staring beneath the vehicle with his eyebrows drawn together, then moved around the front and toward the side, examining it from every possible angle.
"Why does it have that round thing at the bottom?"
Elara blinked.
"The wheel?"
Jasper looked at her.
"The wheel?"
He repeated the word as though he'd just heard something completely ridiculous. Without waiting for her answer, he moved toward the driver's side and leaned down to look through the window.
His face practically pressed against the glass as he examined the interior. His eyes moved across the buttons, dials, seats, and unfamiliar mechanisms with the shameless curiosity of a child seeing something fascinating for the first time.
Elara watched him for several seconds before finally understanding what was happening.
"Is this your first time seeing a car? Does your world not have them?"
Jasper didn't answer immediately.
He had just spotted something else.
The gear stick.
His eyes widened, and he leaned even closer toward the window.
"Wait."
He stared at it for several seconds before recognition suddenly struck him.
"I've seen this before."
Elara walked closer.
"Where?"
"Museum."
His voice had changed completely. The embarrassment from earlier had disappeared, replaced by genuine excitement as he pointed through the glass.
"An automobile museum. I saw one of these when I was a kid."
Then he laughed under his breath, shaking his head as though he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "This is so fucking cool. Sorry, don't mind my language, but seriously, this is awesome."
He pointed toward the interior again, his eyes practically glowing with excitement.
"Look at that! It's a manual transmission!"
"So?"
Jasper turned toward her with an expression suggesting she had absolutely no idea how incredible the thing sitting in front of them was.
"This thing is ancient!"
Elara's eyebrows rose.
"It's just a car."
Jasper immediately shook his head.
"No, no, no. You don't understand."
He walked around the vehicle again, inspecting it from every possible angle before stopping near the front and looking at it with renewed confusion. Then he crouched slightly and peered underneath it once more.
"And why does it have four wheels?"
Elara stared at him.
"...How many wheels should it have?"
Jasper gave her a strange look.
"Shouldn't it float?"
"What?"
"Never mind."
He returned to the driver's side and peered through the glass again, apparently unwilling to stop inspecting the ancient machine that had somehow appeared in front of him.
Then another realization struck him.
"Wait."
He turned toward Elara.
"Where's the charging port?"
Elara looked at him as though he had just asked where the car's television was.
"What? Why would it have a charging port? It's not a mobile."
Jasper frowned.
"Then what does it run on? Hydrogen? Nuclear?"
Elara blinked.
"This runs on petroleum."
"Petroleum?"
"Yes."
Jasper looked back at the car.
"They use petroleum for cars?"
Elara frowned slightly.
"Of course."
"That's insane."
Jasper walked around the car again, visibly unable to stop himself from inspecting the ancient machine. His eyes lingered on the hood, the wheels, the windows, and the old mechanical parts he could see.
"Do you know how rare petroleum is where I'm from?"
Elara shook her head.
"Very."
"And you people are burning it to make cars move?"
"It's fuel."
"I know what fuel is."
He stared at the car again, his expression filled with genuine disbelief.
"Wow."
Jasper crouched once more and looked beneath the chassis before slowly straightening again.
"A real manual car."
He sounded almost reverent.
"I actually saw one of these in a museum once."
"You told me that."
Jasper blinked.
"Did I?"
"Yes."
He looked back at the car.
"Does your world really not have cars?"
"We have cars."
He paused, considering how to explain it without somehow making the conversation even stranger.
"They just don't look like this."
Elara glanced toward the parked vehicle.
To her, it was simply an old car sitting outside a supermarket. To Jasper, apparently, someone had dragged a museum exhibit onto the street and left it beside a grocery store.
He looked at it one final time before reluctantly stepping away.
"I wish I still had my lens."
Elara tilted her head.
"Your lens?"
"Never mind."
Jasper glanced back toward the vehicle, visibly disappointed that he couldn't preserve the moment.
"I would've taken about twenty pictures of this."
A faint smile appeared on Elara's face.
"You really like cars."
Jasper stared at the old vehicle for another few seconds before shaking his head.
"Oh, God knows how much I do. And it's not even about my love for cars anymore."
He glanced at the vehicle one final time.
"This thing is ancient."
By the time they returned to the apartment, neither Elara nor Jasper had much energy left. The supermarket trip had taken longer than expected, and after finally eating a proper meal, both of them felt the weight of the day settling over their bodies.
Elara put the groceries away while Jasper stood nearby, still occasionally glancing toward the various things they had bought as though half of them belonged in a museum. Neither of them felt particularly interested in talking anymore.
"I'm tired."
"Same."
That was about the extent of their conversation.
Elara disappeared into her bedroom after arranging everything in the kitchen, while Jasper remained in the living room and looked at the couch. It wasn't exactly luxurious, but after everything he'd experienced since arriving in Atheria, he wasn't going to complain.
A few minutes later, Elara returned in comfortable clothes and handed him a blanket.
"You can sleep here."
Jasper nodded.
"Thanks."
She gave him another pillow before turning toward her room.
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
The apartment became quiet.
Neither of them needed long to fall asleep.