Page 88 of By Rude Strength

Cass was mixing up batter in a bowl, humming away.

“Thank you.” LA raised the mug.

“Of course, Elly! I know it’s the very first thing you need every morning.” Cass laughed and went back to stirring.

“You know I have frozen waffles, right?”

Cass gasped. “Blasphemy.”

“Faster.”

“Faster is not better.” Cass turned up his nose haughtily. “Hmmph.”

LA chuckled as he shook out his little collection of pills from their respective bottles. “Okay, fair. I will never mention the frozen waffles again.”

He swore Cass shuddered just hearing the wordsfrozen wafflesand resisted the urge to say it again to test that theory.

Even if it was very tempting.

“Thank you.” Cass swished his tail as a waffle iron magically appeared on the counter.

“You made a waffle iron?”

“No, I summoned a waffle iron from my house!”

“Over in monster land, right?” LA swallowed back his meds with a swig of coffee. “What’s it like over there anyway?”

“Oh!” Cass blinked in surprise. “I suppose it isn’t much different than the human world. We have cities and roads and all that. It’s rather normal, I’m afraid.”

“Monster schools? Monster dentist?”

“Yes, but it’s just aschooland just thedentistover there.” Cass giggled. “We don’t actually putmonsterin front of everything.”

“Oh. Right.” LA drank more coffee. “Can we go there sometime?”

Cass squeaked. “No!”

“Why?” LA raised his brow. “Is it, like, forbidden? No humans allowed because of some magical barrier or something? Would I get cursed? Have to stay forever?”

“What? No.” Cass grinned sheepishly. “I just haven’t cleaned in a while since I’ve been here with you.”

“Oh, come on.” LA laughed. “It can’t be that bad.”

“You are very sweet.” Cass opened the waffle maker to pour in the batter and then closed it tight. “I’m, hmm, organization challenged.”

“Really?”

“You sound surprised.”

“Well, you just seem so… organized?” LA snorted. “You do a pretty good job of keeping me on track.”

“It’s always easier when it’s not my mess. Not that you’re a mess. But if you were a mess, you’d be a very lovely one!”

“Thanks.” LA smirked.

He continued to drink his coffee while Cass made waffles, and he figured they’d eat out on the couch like usual. LA made a mental note to clear off the kitchen table at some point so they could eat together. He didn’t use most of the crap that had stacked up there anyway, and he realized there wasn’t really any reason to keep half of it.

Why wait?