Alice’s Appetite - Down the rabbit hole - 1/12 (Patreon)

Collab with DrBlackJack. 

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Airport eateries were no stranger to one so well traveled as Alice Nakiri. She loved the hustle and bustle of so many adventures waiting to happen and wondered ever so slightly what each story could be of every fast paced traveler who scurried around the terminal like ants.

Busy ants like herself were of course attracted to all things sugary and while a master chef in her own right, did not necessarily possess the time or materials to craft her own. She would have to settle for one of the mass produced, savory confections sold at every regular outlet as she waited impatiently for her travel buddy to return.

“They were out of croissants, here’s a cake.”

Ryo Kurokiba flatly threw down the plate holding a little slice of lemon meringue as though it were burning his fingers with each second he took to ferry it. Possessing his own formidable cooking skills, he was less inclined to partake in such uninspired culinary craftsmanship of his own accord and had only done so because Alice had begged him to do so. As her self-proclaimed aide, it was his job to essentially cater to her every whim no matter how frivolous it sounded on the very off chance that he might pick up even a fraction of her genius when it came to cooking.

At nearly 17 years and counting, his patience was starting to wear thin.

“The trick is butter.”

His ears pricked up. They always did whenever Alice had made some impromptu comment about food.

“You see, the Japanese pallet is often quite mild compared to those of other countries. Low fat and low sugar are trendy things which most places have adopted this stance of an almost lack of flavor to appeal to the diet conscious audience.”

She cut herself a small forkful and let it sit upon her tongue before deftly chewing and swallowing.

“A complete lack of butter as the foundation however is a weakness which must be avoided. Good cooking cares little about the figure of the one eating it, but simply wants to be enjoyed. Messing around with that simple formula is the reason why the art of good food is slowly declining.”

Alice had a point. He too had noticed that cakes made in Japan were often served small and decorated ornately but lacked the appeal of something more full bodied. However, she was stating the obvious at this point which annoyed him just ever so slightly.

“And that’s why we’re going to France, I take it?” Ryo sighed wearily

“Precisely! In order to understand butter we must make our way to the land where butter tends to be used the most. Diet trends are hampering the full cooking experience and we need to gather untainted data!”

“Right…geez what a pain…”

A year-long trip with Alice wasn’t exactly his idea of fun, but if it meant that he could learn even a fraction of what she could discern in an instant then he would walk through hell itself to become a better chef. However, Alice wasn’t exactly a straight forward adversary.

“Aww come on, think of it more as a vacation! We’ll get to see all the lights, take in all the sights-”

“Eat all the food?” Ryo finished for her.

“Exactly! It’ll be a fun learning experience that will be sure to improve our repertoire!”

“My only interest is to get better and get this over and done with.”

“That’s fine! That means there’ll be more for me!”

Alice beamed widely as she cut herself another slice of the cake and gulped it down. While she had to admit that less sugary things were easier to eat enmass, they simply did not get to the heart of what it meant to embody the word ‘patisserie’ and all of its worldly goods. Ryo’s impatience was a glaring weakness she aimed to correct but there was nothing she could say to convince him otherwise unless he made that first step out of his comfort zone of his own volition.

Admittedly, she did take him on this trip kicking and screaming about revenge against Yukihira but that was entirely splitting hairs. She sighed in anticipation as she lazily traced her finger against the melted chocolate before placing it between her lips.

A month away from home would be a long time but just like the now empty plate in front of her, she would savor it down to the last morsel.