Juniper let out a loud whoop and did a little twirl in excitement. Then shouting:

  "PIZZA!"

  Noelle just let out another exasperated sigh of annoyance.

  Alice, who had been mostly quiet up until now, still wiping at her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater, suddenly perked up slightly as she looked between Noelle and Juniper.

  "Can we get... garlic bread too?" she asked softly in a way that made it clear she was probably just happy to be included again rather than actually caring about food choices right now.

  Noelle blinked before giving Alice an almost imperceptible nod: "Yeah… sure."

  Juniper gasped dramatically like this was some kind of scandalous betrayal:

  ”NO MEAT?!”

  Noelle immediately elbowed Juniper in the ribs—hard.

  "You are ordering pizza, not planning a war strategy," she snapped while rubbing her own temples like this entire conversation was giving her a migraine.

  Juniper yelped dramatically but quickly shut up when Alice let out an exhausted sigh from where she still leaned against Noelle's side.

  "...Just get whatever you want," Alice muttered into her hands before adding under breath: "I'm too tired for this."

  Noelle hesitated... then nodded stiffly and dinged the bell on the table to actually order something (probably extra cheese).

  "WAITER!!!!" Juniper yelled.

  A door suddenly burst open, an older human woman with graying hair appearing looking annoyed.

  "Is there some kind of emergency??" the woman asked, looking around the room for any kind of problem before her eyes finally lit on Juniper. "Oh...it's just you...what is it now?" she grumbled.

  Juniper put on her best puppy-dog look, pouted and fluttered her eyelashes the way only a pretty girl could pull off to their advantage.

  "Heyyyy," she all but whined in that perfectly obnoxious way she had when asking for favors.

  The woman groaned before pinching the bridge of her nose like Juniper was giving her a migraine too. "What d'you want now?”

  Juniper grinned like a cat who got the cream, already pulling out her phone to tap aggressively at some food delivery app.

  "Pizza," she announced, as if this were obvious. "Extra cheese, extra meat, no pineapple because that's an abomination against nature itself."

  Noelle let out another long-suffering sigh but didn't argue (mostly because she was too busy discreetly wiping away any lingering tears). Alice just nodded in agreement with Juniper’s stance on pineapple-less pizza.

  The waiter woman muttered something under breath about "rich people problems" before turning back toward kitchen without waiting for further input:

  "I’ll send it up when ready."

  When the door shut behind the woman again, Noelle exhaled slowly, her shoulders slouching like a weight had been lifted now that they were alone again.

  "I think she's gonna spit in our food."

  Alice, who was leaning against the wall again, chuckled softly at that, a sound that made Noelle turn to look at her in surprise.

  "You're...laughing?" she said incredulously.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "...Yeah?" Alice nodded, wiping at her still-red eyes.

  Noelle's expression softened: "...I've missed that.”

  Alice managed another small smile at the comment, then, unexpectedly, stepped forward to pull Noelle into a second hug.

  Noelle stiffened for a heartbeat before carefully bringing her arms up to wrap around her former charge as gently as possible as if she was afraid to break her.

  "Gee, lots of hugging today, eh?" Juniper quipped.

  Both Noelle and Alice immediately pulled apart again when Juniper spoke, each flushing slightly.

  "Shut up, Juniper," Noelle grumbled, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck as Alice coughed slightly into her shoulder.

  Juniper grinned as if this was exactly why she had interrupted. Definitely something to make fun of them about later...

  But for now, the atmosphere had shifted yet again, back to the soft, peaceful quiet that only silence can really create.

  Noelle blinked in surprise as the waiter slid a massive pizza onto their table, extra cheese glistening under the hotel room’s lights.

  But before she could even react, Alice immediately reached for a slice with both hands, her face lighting up like it was Christmas morning despite still looking exhausted.

  Juniper cackled and grabbed two slices at once while Noelle just stared at them both like they were feral raccoons who'd never seen food before:

  "...You guys are gonna choke."

  Alice, mouth already stuffed with half a slice, pointed at Noelle accusingly, like she was the one being unreasonable here.

  Juniper nodded sagely while somehow managing to talk through her own full mouth: "Cheese is life."

  Noelle pinched the bridge of her nose again, this time looking even more done than before as she watched them both devour pizza like they hadn't eaten in days.

  "...I’m sitting between two animals," she muttered under breath before finally grabbing a plate and cutting herself an appropriately small piece like some kind of civilized person.

  (She still ate it way faster than normal.)

  The waiter, meanwhile, was almost terrified to put the complimentary caviar down on the table, but placed it down anyway and left after muttering: "Enjoy your meal.”

  Once both Alice and Juniper had finally finished inhaling their pizza, they both looked at each other with matching grins before turning their attention back to Noelle, who, despite now having eaten her own share, was stubbornly staring at her empty plate.

  "You know there's still a whole bowl of caviar too right?"

  Juniper nodded tightly, not even looking up from the table as she commented with a smirk: "Ehhh...I know caviar's basically the poster child food of the rich and powerful...but I don't really like the sound of having fish cum in my mouth.”

  Alice and Noelle immediately froze, staring at Juniper with matching looks of utter disgust.

  Alice was the one to finally reply: "That's...not what caviar is."

  Juniper lifted an eyebrow: "Uh, yes it is?"

  Both girls just groaned in unison, both at Juniper's words but also the fact she actually didn't know anything about fancy food for once.

  "It's roe," Noelle finally explained with an exasperated huff. "And it's tasty.”

  "Wait… so it isn't fish cum?"

  Juniper made a face, both disgusted and embarrassed as she quickly crossed out what had to be one of her 'fun facts' from her brain.

  Alice was trying, and failing, to hide a smile behind her hand. "No, Junie," she finally replied.

  Noelle, realizing Juniper's mistake, suddenly seemed much less annoyed at her roommate's antics. "It's fish eggs," she corrected bluntly. "And it's an expensive delicacy that actually is pretty good.”

  Juniper groaned. "Great. So now I just look like a giant idiot," she complained with a dramatic huff, before brightening suddenly as something else finally clicked for her.

  "Wait, you mean all those fancy foods with little black dots are just fish eggs?!"

  Noelle nodded slowly, while Alice tried, and once again failed, to suppress her laughter.

  "Yep," Noelle said simply. "The more you know, 'genius.'”

  "Oh shut up," Juniper grumbled, cheeks now flushed with embarrassment. "How the hell was I supposed to know that?"

  Noelle smiled teasingly, finally seeming amused again as she replied: "Maybe next time don't claim you know every fancy food on earth when it's clear you have zero clue what you're talking about. Anyways, I'd appreciate if I could eat without hearing vulgar things such as, "

  "Fish cum," Juniper interrupted with a cheesy grin.

  Alice nearly spat out her milkshake, while Noelle was back to pinching her nose like she was fighting a headache.

  "You are so goddamn childish," she said dryly, though the corners of her lips were upturned again despite the annoyance clearly written on her face as she tried and failed to hide her amusement again.

  "Yup," Juniper agreed shamelessly like the smartass she was. "And proud of it!”

  The tension in the room evaporated like mist under sunlight.

  Noelle let out a sharp, startled laugh, one she hadn’t meant to make but couldn't stop now that it had slipped out. Alice was grinning too hard for words while Juniper looked smug as hell for successfully breaking whatever seriousness Noelle had been trying so desperately to maintain.

  Then...the door creaked open again.

  All three froze mid-laugh as an elderly waiter (the same one from earlier) peeked his head in with a deeply unimpressed expression:

  "Did someone call for service?"

  Juniper's grin turned downright wicked. "Yeah actually," She pointed at the caviar bowl still sitting untouched on their table: "We need this explained."

  Alice groaned and facepalmed immediately while Noelle just muttered: "I hate you both."