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Saying you knew how to cook would be an outright lie. The best you knew how to do was putting a char on canned meat and melting cheese in bread. Boiling water and letting an egg sit in it. How much could you really learn in a few hours? Probably less than Yuliana could benefit from being around the motorcycles.
“Nah. I refuse.” You said to Yuliana’s proposal, “We’re both ready, far as I can see. I don’t need any handicap. Let’s just get to it.”
Yuliana’s eyebrow twitched, and contempt returned to her glare. “So be it. I’ve no doubts how this will be settled, regardless.” She glanced at you up and down again. “You’re looking worse for wear. Did a rough customer take you aside when you should have been with your officer?”
“Yuli.” Magnus said sharply, “Hold your tongue. Your insults are uncalled for and strike myself too.”
“I apologize.” Yuliana said flatly, and clearly to Magnus, not to you. Not that you cared. An insult with no truth to it didn’t sting.
“Save your bitterness for each other for when your contest turns violent, lest either of you spoil your cooking and try my patience both,” Magnus said with some smoldering tone you rarely heard outside of military context. “Lady Nowicki has-” Yuliana and you both scoffed at that title at the same time, “-elected not to adjourn your contests, but I don’t want you to start immediately. You lack for materials, after all.” He pulled a watch from his pocket and checked it. “It is one hour and thirty minutes. We’ll go to the market nearby and you two can buy what you need.”
“I don’t got much money on me,” you interjected. In fact, you had no money at all.
This seemed to give Magnus an idea. “Yuliana. Buy for both of you.”
An offended grimace spread across the bitch’s face. “What? No.”
“Would you rather I finance her, then?” Magnus challenged, and Yuliana’s tune changed.
“I suppose…” she grumbled, “It would only be fair, considering the difference in our means and bloodlines, that I should show generosity befitting mine…”
“Good girl.” Magnus reached out and brushed Yuliana’s hair behind her ear, and you saw her smile for the first time as his hand brushed her cheek- a twinge of fury caught you off guard and had to be pushed down into your bowels at the sight of this. You hadn’t felt the scorch of that sort of ember of jealousy falling on you for a <span class="mu-i">long</span> time.
Unfortunately, Yuliana caught scent of how much you'd tensed up, in spite of how brief the feeling had been, and her smile turned to an insufferably smug smirk. The expression that made you think of what she had said offhandedly, and that you hadn’t paid any mind to at the time. Because you didn’t care then upon hearing it, but part of you, seeing that face, did now.
Whatever. That feeling was stupid. Playing into her hands.
