The light smell of cheap alcohol on apparent in Mitya's breath when he opened up the door to allow Houren into the home he and his mother shared in Orchidia Town. Strangely enough, it didn't see like Mr. Mitya could remember Houren from the last request; when Enil Issir, the owner of the bar which directly rivaled Mitya's had hired the Fairy Tail mage to make sure that he did not cause any trouble in his establishment. Likely, by the end of the night, he had become so drunk that the entire affair had become a complete blur to him. That worked to Houren's advantage though; it meant that Mitya did not have any suspicions about Houren and his intentions, and was more than willing to hire him for this job. It was a simple babysitting job, not one that required a mage of any particular talent at all, but still, it must not have been easy to have to put your aging mother's life in the hands of someone you didn't know. At the same time though, Mitya didn't seem like the kind of person who would think this kind of thing through. After all, he is the guy who closes up his business early just so he can go and disturb his rival.

"Well, I guess I'll leave you to it, yeah?" Mitya began, grabbing his coat and exiting the apartment to go for his day of work. Houren wondered to himself whether Enil had gotten another guy to prevent Mitya from ruining business, since it was obvious that he would be returning late tonight, only because he would be spending most of the night after work harassing Enil and criticizing the types of drinks that he sold at his bar. That wasn't Houren's problem for today though, he had something else to deal with; specifically, this kindly old lady. Mitya did a quick introduction before he left, and also muttered some words into his mother's ears, probably a warning not to cause too much trouble for Houren, and that her regular caretaker would be back soon. The Fairy Tail mage was aware that the elderly absolutely needed some sort of consistency in their lives. If the caretaker was changing every single day, or weekly, then they were bound to get anxious.

Hanging out with the old lady wasn't particularly interesting, but Houren supposed that there were worst things to be doing. She was different from the other elderly that Houren had experience with, the old, veteran kind that loved to talk about the past, what they did, who they did and how they lived. You know the kind, the people who liked to complain about how youngsters these days had it all so easy. Mitya's mother was the complete opposite; she wanted to hear about Houren's life, work life, social life, love life and the works, but being the introverted man he was, the Fairy Tail mage was reluctant to share. He did tell her that he was a Fairy Tail magus by profession though, and that he was currently unattached as far as dating went. He did not elaborate on that, and she did not probe further as she began to do some knitting. Once she finished her current project, what seemed to be a pair of kittens, she started a crossword puzzle, managing to do it in what Houren thought was record time. Likely, she had done this exact puzzle before, and her son was just too stingy to buy her a brand new one to do. At that moment, Houren felt bad for her.

"I remember when Mitya first opened his bar. How happy he looked then, it was always his dream, you know? And I've always supported him,'' she recollected the past as she put away her jigsaw puzzle. The Fairy Tail mage didn't have a particularly high opinion of her son, and he wasn't the kind of person to lie either, so he simply kept quiet when she said this. He could almost imagine it; that drunkard Mitya actually being a respectable young man who's dreams were crushed when he realized that his establishment was not as successful as he wanted it to be. When Houren did not reply, the old lady decided to break the awkward silence herself by suggesting she bake some of her signature dishes, namely the cookies that she was famous for. Houren told her that it wouldn't be necessary, but she hadn't listened as she made her way into the kitchen. The mage waited in the living room for a few minutes, but when she did not update him, he went to the kitchen to check on her, only to find that she had already whipped up all the dough for the snack. Sprinkling some blue powder onto the cookies, she placed it into the oven and turned to face him. "Now bake at 190 degrees for 45 minutes..." she said, returning to the living room and starting another knitting project.

When the 45 minutes were up, Houren realized that the old lady had absolutely no intention of getting up from her knitting. It was obvious that she had forgotten about the time, or maybe it really was true that the older you got, the slower time moved. In any case, he was pretty sure that the 45 minutes that they had to wait were up and as such, he took the liberty of removing them from the oven. Seeing this, Rynah walked back into the kitchen and implored for Houren to try one of the cookies. He was reluctant at first, but upon further inspection, they actually did look quite nice so he decided to take one and eat it. Suddenly, he began to feel a strange sensation throughout his body, something he had not felt since he had eaten that hermit's herbal soup back in Magnolia, and he knew exactly what that meant and what ''secret ingredient'' Rynah had put into the cookies.  Nothing of note happened after that, but he thanked her immediately and waited until Mitya returned (drunk, of course) to dismiss and pay him.

1022/1000