"Ahh…" Sasha groaned as her eyes fluttered open to a white ceiling. She rolled over, her vision blocked by the crumpled sheets beneath her cheek. With one long stretch, she sat up and stumbled out of the room, drawn by the faint smell of the city drifting in from outside.
The apartment was quiet. Too quiet. She wandered into the kitchen, her eyes landing on a folded sheet of paper on the counter. She picked it up, squinting hard as her lips moved, mumbling guesses at the words.
The front door creaked open. Sasha tensed, sliding instinctively into a defensive stance, ready to protect her comrade's fortress.
It was only Barry. He stepped in, shutting the door behind him, and froze at the sight of the wild-haired girl in a loud shirt. His gaze flicked to the note in her hand, choosing to focus on that instead of admitting, even to himself, that he'd let a bush girl in his apartment.
"What are you doing?" he asked, breaking the silence.
Sasha quickly moved to the living room, dropped the note on the coffee table, and muttered, "Huh?" pretending she hadn't heard the question.
Barry sighed. "Anyway… what are you going to have for breakfast?"
"Rice and chicken," she said without hesitation.
"Again? You had that last night."
"Well, you see…" Sasha pouted awkwardly. "That was the only thing I knew on the menu. There was this guy by the counter, and he ordered chicken and rice. So… I ordered rice and chicken."
Barry blinked. "So you didn't—or you can't—read the menu?"
"I can! It just takes me a really long time sometimes, so I didn't bother."
"Okay," he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. "This isn't a restaurant. What do you really want?"
Sasha's eyes lit up. "Can I have toasted bread?"
"Dry?"
"I can have butter with it?" she asked.
"Sure."
Back in Ivi Town, the "breakfast" of so-called criminals had been little more than burnt toast—if you were lucky. Lunch was usually nothing at all. And if you could scavenge a few shriveled beans from the dried-out farms, that counted as dinner.
Sasha only had butter on her toast on good days when her dad returns from work.