Enjoy reading, rejoice and...
See you all on next time
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(...Continuing)
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Announcing his entrance, Micael made room for Rias to enter, the sound of footsteps sounding soon after he said his words.
With him closing the door, Miyako was the first to appear wearing an apron over a long, simple dress. "Finally, I thought you weren't coming." She said looking specifically at Micael.
Taking his cell phone out of his pocket and looking at the time, Micael responded by pointing the screen at her. "But it's eight-seventeen, there's still thirteen minutes to go."
"Yes, but dinner is ready."
Giving an expressionless look, Micael put away his cell phone without saying anything, he understood what she was doing so he just left it aside, turning to Rias, he introduced her.
"Rias, this is my stepmother, Miyako Alvez de Aoyama." He said gesturing with his hand towards the woman, then turning to Miyako, he gestured to Rias. "Miyako, this is my "business partner", Rias Gremory."
At his introduction, Miyako bowed with a smile appearing on her face, her demeanor immediately becoming affable. "It's a pleasure to meet you dear."
Rias adopted a soft smile as she bowed in response. "It's a pleasure to meet you ma'am."
Miyako nodded while maintaining a soft smile before approaching her.
"Come on, don't be shy." Miyako took Rias' hands and held them for a moment before turning around and leading her inside.
With her hand being held, Rias found herself blinking in reaction to being taken by Miyako, she instinctively ended up looking at Micael.
And Micael met her gaze as he followed her, patting her on the back for support.
Turning her gaze to the front, Rias soon found herself in what appeared to be a living room, an older man sitting on one couch and a teenage girl sitting on another.
Just like the woman who was holding her hand at that moment, she knew the two of them on the sofas, but other than Micael's sister, she had never seen what his father and stepmother were like.
The first impression she had of Miyako was that besides being pretty and looking like a traditional Japanese wife, she was quite friendly.
Now she was about to get an impression of Micael's father.
"Guys, they've arrived, this one next to me is Rias Gremory." Miyako introduced her smiling.
Rias watched as Micael's father and sister got up from the couches and approached her.
With the man standing in front of him, he extended his hand as he smiled slightly, his voice sounding calm.
"Nice to meet you, my name is Francisco."
Rias almost bowed when he introduced himself, controlling herself before doing so, she took his hand and responded with a smile and acting in a respectful manner.
"Nice to meet you, sir."
With a nod of recognition, the man finished the handshake by moving away, giving space to Micael's sister.
Arriving in front of her, the girl extended her hand and simply greeted her.
"Hi."
Smiling in amusement at his greeting, Rias felt much more at ease with the girl in front of her. "Hi." Rias responded accepting Mari's handshake.
As they shook hands, she saw how Miyako gave Mari a warning look.
"What? We already know each other." That's what Mari responded to Miyako's look.
But the woman didn't care about her answer, she just continued to look at her.
Rolling her eyes, Mari raised her hand for a second shake as she introduced herself again. "Nice to meet you, my name is Mari, but you already know that."
"Hahaha, nice to meet you Mari, my name is Rias, but you already know that."
As Rias enjoyed herself, she saw how Mari looked at her silently, her face calm as she looked into her eyes.
Rias' amusement lessened a little as she felt confused, for a moment, she felt that the feeling of the girl's gaze was different.
But she believed it was just in her head because she didn't feel anything different in her eyes until they finished shaking hands.
With a calm expression, Mari ended the handshake and walked away, standing next to Francisco with her arms crossed.
"Well, since everyone has already introduced themselves, let's eat, food doesn't serve itself."
Patting Rias on the arm, Miyako headed towards the kitchen, with Francisco and Mari following her.
Rias instinctively looked to where Micael was behind her, with him patting her on the back again, she headed towards the kitchen with him close behind.
Arriving in the kitchen, Rias found several plates of food on the table, she recognized sushi and sashimi, and there was even what looked like yakisoba.
They were typical Japanese dishes, but there were some that she didn't recognize, with a kind of yellow flour with pieces of something that looked like meat.
A bowl full of rice and beans with leafy greens that looked like they had been cooked together and a yellow paste with pieces of what she assumed was chicken.
"Feel free to eat whatever you want, and don't worry about the quantity, Francisco and Micael take care of that."
As she looked at the food, Miyako spoke catching her attention, she saw how the woman smiled softly with her hands folded in front of her.
"Right." Rias could only give a response of agreement to the smiling woman.
The large amount of food wasn't really a problem for her, but eating large amounts of food wasn't very feminine in her opinion, so she was glad she didn't have to do that and spared herself the embarrassment.
"Well, let's eat." Saying that, Miyako pulled out a chair as she sat down.
And everyone followed her example, Francisco sat next to Miyako while Micael pulled out a chair for her to sit on.
"Thanks." She thanked him with a smile before sitting down.
Micael gave a nod of acknowledgment before sitting down, though as she sat down she noticed the silent look the Mari girl gave her before pulling out a chair and sitting down.
Rias for a moment felt like she was being judged, she wondered if she had done something wrong, in the end she decided to dismiss it believing she was just thinking too much.
With her finally seated at the table, Miyako spoke to her reassuringly.
"Be at ease my dear."
Accompanied by the woman's words, Rias saw how Micael, his father and his sister were already picking up the plates and serving the food, with Miyako soon doing the same.
Looking down, she silently picked up a plate and started to get food.
Adding rice and some yakisoba to the larger plate and a few slices of sushi to a smaller plate, Rias picked up her chopsticks and began eating.
Chewing silently, she looked at the others and saw how Mari had gathered food similar to hers, but instead of eating with chopsticks she ate with a fork.
Miyako had also made a dish similar to hers and also ate it with chopsticks, but Francisco next to her was different.
He had taken from that plate the rice mixed with beans along with that yellow flour with the pieces of meat and that paste with pieces of chicken in addition to which he ate with a spoon.
Looking at Micael beside him, he was the one who had the most food with him, having literally taken a little of each while eating everything with a knife and fork.
Stopping eating for a moment, she watched silently as his food disappeared with surprising speed and subtlety, it was as if he was used to eating this amount of food.
As she looked at him, he ended up looking back at her.
"What?"
He ended up asking while chewing.
Rias just shook her head in response, but Micael in reaction offered some of his food.
"Want some?"
Placing her fingers over her mouth while chewing, Rias looked at the yellow flour he was pointing at and asked curiously.
"What food is this?"
"It's called Calabrian sausage farofa." He replied as he took some from his plate and placed it on her plate. "It's basically corn flour with toasted Calabrian sausage."
With it on her plate, she looked at the 'farofa' before looking at Micael.
He nodded toward the farofa. "Prove it." Then starting to eat again.
Rias finished chewing and looked at it in silence for a moment before hesitantly taking a handful along with the rice, slowly bringing it to her mouth.
Chewing slowly, Rias tasted the farofa, it had a strange flavor and was different from anything she had ever eaten, especially the texture, but somehow it was good.
"It's good, isn't it?"
Micael asked next to her, making her look at him and nod her head as she chewed, she really liked it.
"I'm glad you liked it."
With Miyako speaking, Rias looked at her understanding that she was the one who had cooked, she quickly finished chewing to respond. "It's very good ma'am, you cook very well."
Gently waving her hand at her, Miyako smiled looking happy. "Ara, there's no need to praise me my dear, but I appreciate it anyway, hahaha~"
Rias ended up smiling at Miyako's reaction, the woman seemed clearly happy to have her cooking praised, Rias even saw from the corner of her eye that Micael gave her a subtle thumbs up.
'Good job Rias, keep it up and soon you'll earn your mother-in-law's affection by accident.' That was Micael's thought when he saw their interaction.
As Rias went back to eating with a smile, she saw how Micael took some of the plate of rice mixed with beans and placed it on hers.
"Try this one too, it's called baião de Dois, it's basically rice cooked with beans and some seasonings."
Silently thanking her, she took some and ate it, the taste was a little different from eating just rice, obviously because of the beans and other seasonings, but not much other than it was good too.
With her finished chewing, Micael, who was even waiting for this, took some of that yellow pasta with chicken and put it on her plate.
"Here this is chicken stroganoff, it's made with cooked chicken broth mixed with other ingredients, it's harder to explain."
Picking up a piece of diced chicken covered in pasty yellow sauce, she looks at it for a moment before eating.
And as she expected, it tasted different and was also very good, plus she noticed that the name seemed different from the other two.
"Stroganoff?" She asked Micael with her fingers on her lips.
"If I'm right, it's a dish of Russian origin, but what you're eating is the Brazilian version, so it's probably different."
Nodding to him in understanding, she focused on eating, sometimes taking from the dishes he gave her.
While she was eating intently, Miyako ended up talking to her.
"So Rias, why don't you tell me a little about yourself? You can start by telling me what your routine is like at school."
With the woman smiling softly at her, Rias blinked for a moment, she understood that Miyako was wanting to form an impression of her personality, so, not being against it, she responded by smiling at her.
"Well, my routine isn't very special, actually..."
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"Hahaha..."
"Hahaha~"
"Hahaha."
With laughter filling the kitchen, Rias along with Miyako and Francisco laughed in amusement.
"Did that really happen?" Rias asked with a smile on her face at Miyako.
"Yes he did, he had no choice anyway." Miyako smiled amusedly, looking at her son who was still eating carelessly, seeming unaffected by him being the subject of the conversation.
Rias looked at Micael, the amusement in her gaze was clear as she smiled, in reaction he just looked at her and shrugged his shoulders before speaking.
"Yes, I went to that children's costume party wearing frog pajamas, although I don't know why I agreed to that, I remember it looking really ridiculous." Micael spoke as he finished eating, he remembered that party at school, all the students had to wear costumes similar to the one he wore, the problem was that he wasn't going originally.
"You accepted this because your stepmother wouldn't let you train in martial arts after almost breaking your bones if you didn't go to that costume party." Francisco answered Micael's question while smiling, amused by the memory.
Micael blinked for a moment as he muttered. "Right, that was the reason."
"Hahaha~" Rias just laughed with a smiling expression when she saw his reaction.
Turning his head and looking at her, Micael raised an eyebrow when he saw her smile and crescent-shaped eyes. "You seem to be having a lot of fun with my misfortune, don't you?"
Stopping laughing and squinting her eyes, Rias covered her smile with her fingers as she replied "innocently". "I don't know what you're talking about~."
Micael narrowed his own eyes when he heard her answer.
Silently observing the two's interaction, Miyako interrupts them. "You didn't look ridiculous Micael, on the contrary, you were very cute, I wanted to squeeze you every time I looked at you."
Resting his arms on the table and leaning back, Micael shook his head as he responded to her. "Me being cute doesn't make this any less embarrassing."
Shaking her head at him, Miyako looked smiling at Rias as she spoke. "I took a lot of photos at that time, I'll show you later, you have to see how cute he looks."
"Please, I would love to see these photos." Rias replied with a big smile on her face.
Upon hearing the two, Micael's expression became blank as he stared at the ceiling as if he had lost his soul. 'Ugh, what a pain in the balls.'
Hearing laughter in the corner, Micael looked at Mari and saw the girl smiling mischievously at him, in reaction he ended up speaking. "I don't know why you're laughing, you literally went through a similar situation at the same time, I still remember you wearing a ladybug costume."
Upon hearing his words, Mari's smile stopped, then a blush appeared on her face as she frowned and pointed at him. "Hey, they're talking about you, not me, don't put my name on it."
And in response Micael stuck his tongue out at her.
And the girl responded in kind, showing her tongue too.
"Okay Oaky, have some manners, you two aren't kids anymore." Miyako interrupted the two while shaking her head at this.
Seeing the two listening to her, Miyako switched to Rias as she regained her smile. "Well, now that we've talked about things in our lives and you're more comfortable, I imagine it's time to talk about this subject."
Rias immediately felt a change in the atmosphere, with the woman smiling and with her hands clasped on the table, her smile seemed anything but.
An déjà vu was what Rias felt when looking at Miyako, that smile that didn't look like a smile was something she recognized, it was the same thing her hand did in different circumstances.
She finally understood what had happened, it turns out that Miyako had brought up more mundane topics about their lives to make her more comfortable and relaxed.
Now that she was prepared enough, Miyako could finally address this topic and get any response from her.
Honestly, she found it scary, but also familiar, as her hand had already done something similar, mothers had a special way of being intimidating.
With a bead of sweat forming on her temple, Rias felt her heart start to beat faster as she glanced sideways at Micael.
Receiving a nod from him, she took a slow deep breath as she tried to calm herself, adopting a more calm expression, she began to explain.
"It all started when Micael and I made a contract...
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(Continue...)