[ > Continue? ] Sweet Dreams, Peko. I Have Nothing To Fear As Long As I Have You.

“Oh Peko, stop.” Peko cutely nuzzled against my cheek. He was quite adorable, but I really needed to put the talisman back on him. I lightly pushed at Peko to get him to stop the nuzzling and picked up the talisman. For now, I put the talisman back on his head, although it looked like I needed more rice. I needed to make dinner for us anyway, so I used some fresh cloth to tie the talisman back on Peko’s head for the time being.

Now, I wondered what seemed like a good dinner for the day. Given how late I returned home, it needed to be fairly quick. I already used the sea bream this morning, but I did have some tuna left. No, that would take too long. I guess curry it was. I grabbed a few pieces of beef from the fridge and tossed it on the board along with some random vegetables that happened to be there.

I went and started in shredding the onions with a knife. Once those were reasonably sliced, I tossed them into a pan to cook. While they were cooking, I began on the potatoes and carrots. While I was chopping, I alternated with stirring the onions.

“Ouch.”

And cut myself. Oh that… Didn’t hurt. That is right, getting cut doesn’t hurt. I wasn’t bleeding either. Right, why did I think that cuts bleed? I must really be feeling off today if I thought cuts hurt and bleed.

I continued to prepare the veggies before I started on the meat, first cutting the meat off the bone and then cutting it into bite-sized cubes. I tossed the meat into the pan with the onions and prepared a pot with a bit of crushed garlic and butter. As the butter melted and the garlic roasted, a nice aroma wafted from the pot.

I threw everything into the pot and stirred to get everything nice and even. With that done, I poured in some water. For a little extra flavor, I sliced some tomatoes over the pot and tossed in the pieces.

While I waited for the pot to boil, I returned to petting Peko. Where did the books go? Actually, I knew where. Not a problem for me since I already finished the books.

“Silly Peko, you shouldn’t eat books. I have something much tastier for you if you wait a little.”

I felt like I was forgetting something. That is right, I had promised to send them a text that I got home safely. I quickly sent a message to both to confirm that I arrived home safely. Perfectly timed since once I sent the messages, I heard the pot bubbling.

I turned down the heat and added a little bit of soy sauce to the mix then used the lid to limit the steam leaving the pot. Since I needed to keep the scum cleared, I couldn’t do anything that would distract me for too long. I set a timer and… I had no books to read. Actually, reading books when I could be playing with Peko seemed just weird. I stroked Peko’s smooth body and tickled his belly.

I didn’t have any toys, but I did have the bone from the beef. I ended up enjoying a game of fetch with Peko. Peko was really good at the game, even catching the bone with his arms. Eventually, he didn’t even need to get up, so I could pet him even while we played. Then a ringing sound rudely interrupted the game.

“Oh no, I forgot to scoop up the scum from the top. Maybe I can still salvage it.”

I calmly walked over to the pot and noticed there was no scum. I needed to really consider getting some cold medicine. Why did I think that meat produced scum? I did forget to grab the roux? I opened up the cabinet and sure enough, there was some roux high out of reach.

“I’ll need a stepstool to get that down.”

I went to grab the stepstool, but I noticed a few arms stretched out towards the box. A little bit of shuffling and those arms carried the roux down to me.

“Thank you, Peko. You really are the best pet.”

I opened the box and stirred the roux into the pot. Once it was even, I went and checked on the rice. It was ready, so I scooped out a bowl’s worth. I began mashing the rice into a paste and turned to Peko.

“I made more this time, so hopefully it will stay on this time. Now just stay still for a minute.”

After removing the cloth, I carefully spread the rice over the talisman and stuck the talisman back on Peko, but this time I also used additional rice around the talisman to hopefully secure it better. I also spread some of the paste on the cloth and rebandaged the talisman to Peko. I hoped it would stay on better this time.

With the talisman secured, I checked on the curry and it looked finished. I turned off the heat and prepared the dishes. A good serving of rice and a healthy two ladles worth of curry for each plate and dinner was ready. Peko clearly enjoyed it since he kept grabbing more.

As I chewed on the meat, I noticed something odd. The meat was a little tougher than I remembered beef being. Did I cook it too long or was it just the beef? Not that I planned to waste perfectly edible meat. Actually, when did I buy the beef?

Once we finished, I went to do the dishes, but I noticed that everything was spotless. What was this dish soap even for? Why do people need dish soap when there is nothing to clean? Maybe it was for people that felt weird not doing extra washing, but I had some. Was I that kind of person?

Not important anyway. The bone? Oh, we must have played with it too much. That explains why it is gone.

“There isn’t much that we can do, is there? I’m a little bored, I should buy some toys to play with you.”

Actually, I wasn’t bored at all. I had Peko and that was all I needed. Even so, I should turn in and wake early tomorrow.

“Peko, let us sleep early, okay?”

“Okay.”

Great, I’m glad that Peko agrees. Good night.