Evening.
Daybreak Farm.
"What do you all feel like eating?"
Noah stood in the kitchen, eyeing the ingredients he had dug out of the cupboards, and called into the living room.
"Trainer, do you have something big and firm to chew on?"
A honeyed voice drifted back at once.
On the sofa, Gardevoir had already taken on her transformed look. She gazed at the face peeking from the kitchen doorway and coyly sucked on a fingertip. A bead of clear moisture traced the corner of her lips and threatened to drip onto the pale skin at her collar.
"My tummy is so empty. I want to be filled quickly..."
"All right, hush."
Before she could say more, Noah walked over and gently pressed a fresh baguette from the fridge into her mouth.
"Trainer... mmph."
Gardevoir knelt on the cushions, white chiffon skimming her curves, white stockings just visible beneath the fluttering hem. Her eyes turned watery at the corners, lips flushed like cherries as she tried to swallow around the bread. Her toes pointed and curled in her stockings against the leather cushion.
Hopeless, this little minx, Noah thought with a helpless rub of his brow.
"Mmm..."
Beside them, Lopunny, seated primly, turned red to the tips of her ears. She had boldly taken on her transformed look as well, still prickly about being called little earlier. The strange part was that while her nature was gentle and soft, her transformed self always looked distractingly glamorous.
She tugged at her strapless top as if it were too tight and pressed her legs together. Even that small movement made her feel overheated, and Gardevoir's muffled sounds were not helping.
Does that really feel that good?
Watching Gardevoir's rapt expression as she chewed, Lopunny licked her lips without noticing.
"In the kitchen we have a big bag of noodles, some rice I got on sale, and a portion of cod," Noah said. "Lopunny, any ideas?"
"Eh?"
Startled from her daze, Lopunny flinched and made an undignified squeak.
"Ah..."
Her already flushed face deepened a shade. She covered her cheeks, then hesitated over her midriff, flustered, and finally froze, unsure what to do with her hands.
"T Trainer..."
Color spread from her ears to her collarbone. Even her soft voice sounded especially teasing in that moment.
Noah swallowed despite himself. Under the chandelier, her waist traced a ripe peach curve. The lace at the top of her stockings had rolled a little from her sudden movement and revealed a sliver of pearl-smooth skin. Startled as she was, her strapless top had slipped a touch before she tugged it back into place.
"Do not catch a chill."
He reached out and adjusted the top higher, averting his gaze.
Lopunny went still for a heartbeat as if the world had tilted. Her eyes grew shiny.
Top slipping, a fluster, then kind concern.
Why is my body so hopelessly sensitive?
Noah patted her head once, gently. For someone as shy and sweet as she was, being caught off guard in front of her own Trainer could be overwhelming.
"If you cannot decide, leave the menu to me," Noah said with a sigh. He glanced from the bashful bunny to Gardevoir still eyeing the baguette as if it were treasure. These restless girls never missed a chance to tease their Trainer.
Back in the kitchen, he laid everything out on the board. Scallions, ginger, garlic, a full jar of oil, a few eggs, cooking wine, a pinch of salt, five long red chiles, and the cod he had picked up on discount.
Most of it was for seasoning. Only the eggs and cod would be the main dishes.
He lifted the cod, wrapped neatly under plastic. This was not ordinary cod from his previous life. Strictly speaking, it was flesh shed from a Veluza. That Pokémon had remarkable regeneration and would discard extra tissue to lighten itself for a sudden charge. In Paldea, many people simmered it into soups for a silky, delicate bite and a clean finish.
"How about spicy cod slices," he said at last.
"Mm?"
Lopunny had crept to the kitchen doorway to escape Gardevoir's distracting noises and nearly yelped when he addressed her.
"Okay."
After a beat, she nodded, cheeks warm. She had fled to the kitchen for quiet, but one of the culprits for her fluster was here too. She glanced at her Trainer's back and remembered that embarrassing scene from a minute ago. Her heart thumped. Then she scolded herself. He was her Trainer. Being seen was not the end of the world. Even so, her pulse refused to calm, and the soft curve of her chest quivered with each breath as if asking him to draw near again.
I might be turning bad, she thought faintly.
"Then I will start," Noah said.
With their approval, dinner could get underway. The girls only had to taste. The one with the knife and the wok had more to think about. When to heat the oil, when to salt, how high the flame should be, how long to cook.
He ran through the steps in his head, then set his palm to the board. The knife leaped into his fingers, flashed, and fell. The red chiles lined up like soldiers and, in a blink, became neat rings.
"Amazing."
Calmer now, Lopunny pressed her hands to her lips in awe, watching the show of cooking begin.