Blank Slates

Chapter 30

"You look...different today," she said slowly, surprised by his change in style. Prior, he had consistently shown up in just his casual sleepwear or some other ratty apparel, but now, he donned a simple white button up shirt tucked into black shorts. His brown hair was combed somewhat neatly for once and the top buttons of his shirt were undone to reveal a silver chain glinting on his collarbone.

"Well, is it a nice kind of different?" he chuckled, shutting the door behind him with his foot and walking over to her.

Her lips curved up slightly. "I would say so."

He grinned. "Why, thank you, darling. I brought you some special things today."

Her eyes fell on his tray of food, much larger than anything she had previously been given. On it lay a plate of little sandwiches, a small jar of pickles, a bowl of vibrant purple grapes, and a pitcher of tea paired with two cups. Her stomach growled in anticipation as she drank in the wonderful sight. "What's the occasion?"

He shrugged casually. "Just...thought I'd do something nice for you. Since you gave me that gift and you've been through a lot of shit lately. Here, hold the tray for a moment."

She took it from his hands and watched as he spread a mat over the floor for them to sit on. "Oh, that little thing? I'm glad you liked it, but this is far too much for something such as that."

"Which is why I'm eating with you," he replied, motioning for her to sit down with him. She complied, placing the tray between them.

"H-how did you get all this?" she stammered, still in a slight daze.

"I ate my food shares sparingly over the past few days, so this is all my stuff. Folks would kill me if I was giving the good—and "good" is subjective—kind of food to Blanks like you...even more so now since our shipments are low and we've been relying mainly on scavenged stuff and the few things in our little garden."

She stared at him slightly confused. "Shipments? Scavenged?"

He took a sandwich for himself and handed another to her. "Normally, we have a supplier for our food. They're an insider in the government and steal from their reserves for us. But those shipments have been cut off due to...uh, complications, so we've been relying on scavenging and our own food more heavily now."

"I presume that all the carrots and beetroot were from the garden, and the preserved items were from scavenging?"

"Yup. Carrots and beetroot are what we have most of, but we're all basically tired of it by now. But what can we do, right?"

She nodded, placing the sandwich back down and pushing the plate over to him. "I-I'm sorry. Thank you sincerely for this, but I can't accept it. Not when you need it the most."

"Hey, you need food too."

"B-but not this...I can't...the things you've been giving me before are sufficient..."

He sighed. "Darling, it's okay. We're not gonna starve." He noticed her still hesitating, so he handed her the sandwich again. "I promise, it's okay."

After another long pause, she finally accepted, taking the sandwich from his hand and starting to eat. She didn't say anything for some time aside from expressing her gratitude, but he couldn't help but notice how her actions seemed to get more and more frantic as she began to shovel food into her mouth at a faster and faster pace. She didn't even seem to stop to take a breath between bites nor did she notice that he had stopped his own eating to stare at her. The food wasn't even anything that spectacular, but the way she ate made it seem as if it was meticulously prepared by a culinary expert. When she reached for one of the cups of tea, her hand bumped into his, dragging her back to reality. Her head shot up to look at him, and a blush came to her cheeks.