Page 97 of Riv's Sanctuary

When he came upon the room, his eyes widened.

It was...clean.

The table sparkled so much he could see the underlying pattern underneath. He'd forgotten it had a pattern.

One of his brows arched as his gaze traveled around the room.

The window was open, letting a cool breeze in and the window sills were sparkling.

The clutter of gadgets he had around the room were all cleaned and set into neat piles, and it looked as if they'd been sorted by type.

As he took a slow step into the room, turning slowly as if he was in an alternate dimension, his gaze hit the floor.

Even the floor was sparkling.

What in the actual phek?

The human was nowhere to be seen but it was obvious whose work this was, unless they'd accidentally bought a cleaning fairy at the exchange and let it loose in his quarters.

The entire room smelled like zimsu flowers.

He waited for it, the snarl and growl at the change, but neither came. Instead, he was speechless. He suddenly felt out of place in his own house.

It was clear the human, small as she was, had managed to undertake the mammoth task of cleaning the entire living space.

It was what she’d been doing all day for yesterday he hadn’t seen any sign of her presence.

A faint sound coming from the cook room caught his ear.

Heading that way, he stopped in his tracks at the sight in front of him.

Standing by the stove, the human was...cooking? Grot lay by her feet, tail happily wagging as he waited for scraps of whatever the female was preparing.

But it was clear she had no idea what she was doing.

She was boiling rai grains in a pot and was glaring at a slab of dehydrated meat on the counter.

Grot looked up and saw Riv, then made a sound of greeting, which had the human looking toward the door.

"Oh, hi. Didn't see you there." Her smile was nervous, her gaze wary as if she was worried about something. “I hope you don’t mind. I thought I’d start dinner.”

What?

She was worried about how he'd react to her invading his space, cleaning it, and now cooking his food?

Well…Riv blinked…she should be worried.

But, it was difficult finding that usual pot of anger and annoyance that he often drew from.

"What are you doing?" he asked instead.

"Cooking. Well," she huffed a breath from her nose, her nostrils moving a little as the air went through them, "I'm trying to. I don't know any of these ingredients."

Moving a little closer, he looked at the rai bubbling in the pot.

"First off..." he began, but the look in her eyes stopped him.

It was a half-defiant, half-hopeful look.