"Once again, thank you very much, Mrs. Ressapanda!" Eternia affirmed too, while Sinistra took the basket which contained some muffins and tartlets. "We are done with renovations and thanks to you we can finally enjoy the evening."
"Don't mention it! Here's hoping we become good neighbours!" The firefox bowed again and waved to her son, who quickly went to take her hand.
"I would love to invite you for coffee but sadly we're not fully done with our setup yet."
"That's alright. I have to rush home now anyway to prepare my husband's supper."
"Then we'll have coffee on another day."
"We will. Goodbye, Eternia and Sinistra."
Kentaro did his best to match his mother's step when both of them wandered off to the garden gate.
"Good night!" Both women waved to the firefoxes before looking at each other, stunned.
"Those ding-dong ditchers looked funny", Sinistra finally said in a happy tone.
"Those weren't ding-dong ditchers but firefoxes."
"Firefoxes?"
"Yup."
"Are there many of them in Dolltopia? I never saw one of them in the city before."
Eternia got up, handed her the cake and removed the dirt from her knees. "Want an honest reply? Neither did I. Talking pandas are totally crazy!"
"Oh, are they? Hm...", Sinistra's brow furrowed while they went back into the house and up to the kitchen. "Maybe that has something to do with our address?"
"Why our address?"
"Well, to my, Star Alley sounds like a magical place."
"Quit joking..."
Both were too exhausted to bother with the frozen pizza experiment now. So Eternia just threw two of the paper plates on the table and got some drinks from the fridge.
"Cherry or pear?" she asked tiredly and showed Sinistra the bottles.
"Whatever", she replied and unpacked the basket. "Lots of cookies and muffins... and marmelade! Not exactly a proper supper."
"I would order pizza but we don't have any cash left."
"Well, I'm so hungry I'd even eat cardboard." The elementalist slumped besides her new roommate. She didn't even complain about the plate. Then she flinched. "Err, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this food looks like cardboard! On the contrary, it looks very delicious..."
"I can't agree more. Enjoy your meal!"
Sinistra happily chewed on a cookie which was exactly as sweet as its looks. "We are lucky to have such nice neighbours, aren't we!"
"Err... I'm not so sure about that."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"In my opinion, this welcome gift was just an excuse to complain about the noise you made when you worked on the kitchen flooring."
"What?!" The elementalist was shocked. "But she didn't mention that at all!"
"She's way too polite to do that." Eternia took a gulp from her cherry juice and sighed. "Take my word for it, she was bothered by that. When I told her that we're finished she relaxed at once."
"Oh my! I should apologize to Mrs. Ressapanda!"
"Don't do that!" Eternia said sternly. "That would just put her on the spot and she feels awful about her feelings anyway since she knows noise can't be avoided during a move-in. Just believe me."
"So what should we do now?"
"Nothing. She made a hidden complaint, I gave a hidden apology. The matter is laid to rest and if we run into her next time we'll just conduct friendly smalltalk." The blonde shrugged.
"You really have a way of reading people's feelings", Sinistra stated after chewing and thinking some more.
"Let's just say I know a lot of people exactly like her."
"Here in Dolltopia?"
"No... far, far away from Dolltopia."
Dolltopia 0016 <- # -> Dolltopia 0018