Enna rummaged through the pantry, grumbling to herself. It had been a couple days since the last supply run they’d made, and the pantry needed restocking. She was pretty sure it was Lyle’s turn to go get the communal food that week, and he was fucking useless, always buying fancy bread and not nearly enough meat. She continued grumbling as she loaded a plate high with dried meat from the back of the pantry. She knew that was the part that was supposed to be for mission supplies. She also knew that her personal supplies were running low, and everyone else could suck an entire dick if they wanted to get on her fucking case about it.
She turned around, pile of jerky in hand, and froze like a deer. Dany was standing in the kitchen (how the hell hadn’t Enna heard her coming up on her, what was the dwarf’s goddamn stealth modifier anyway??) staring at her with her big sparkly eyes and a shocked expression. They shared a moment of mutual startledness before Dany slapped a smile on her face. “Hey, Enna, you making a snack?”
Enna grunted, not wanting to acknowledge the dwarf. Dany had been pretty touchy lately, ever since the whole Madison thing had happened. Enna hadn’t even known that Dany was that close with Madison, but apparently there was a lot she hadn’t known about how Madison felt. Dany’d been going down to the dungeons a lot, bringing baked goods and sweaters and mushy shit like that. She’d also been glaring at Enna every time she headed out to visit Madison. Enna had no fucking clue why. Madison hated her now, it wasn’t like she’d want to see her when she was in jail. Anyway, point was, Dany seemed to alternate between glaring daggers at her and giving her random thumbs-ups and supportive comments. Enna had no idea what to make of that, so she had been trying to avoid Dany lately. Which meant she also had to avoid Emiel, since apparently they were best friends with her now, but whatever.
“That sure is a lot of meat!” Dany chirped. She was apparently in validation mode at the moment. Enna wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. It meant she’d be a lot more friendly, sure, but that also came with her popping up at random times and telling Enna she was so fucking valid, and Enna had no clue what the hell that meant. “Are you going on a trip?”
“Uh, no. Just restocking for myself.” Enna wanted to be out of this conversation very badly, but she was pretty sure that if she just pushed past the dwarf out of the kitchen Jaria would skin her alive. About a week ago, Jaria had seen her climb out of a window in order to escape Barrun asking her how her day was in a slightly concerned tone, and had called her into her office to explain to her that if she was going to get drunk every night and avoid her coworkers that was her prerogative but she didn’t need to break her godsdamned neck doing it.
Dany furrowed her brow at her. “Why’re you doing that? The pantry is for everyone.” That wasn’t strictly true- there were parts of the pantry that were sectioned off for individuals, like where Emiel kept their fancy stinky cheeses and where Dany kept her “medicinal herbs.” Still, the dried meat was in the ‘up for grabs’ section, so Dany had a point. Not like Enna was gonna acknowledge that.
“Yeah, but like, I’m running out of the food I keep in my room, so I’m stocking up.” Enna didn’t see where the confusion was here. Everyone else did the same thing.
“You keep food in your room?” Well, apparently everyone else didn’t. Maybe dwarves were just weird.
Enna scoffed, shifting the plate of jerky to her other hand. “Yeah, duh. Gotta keep your shit where you can see it.”
Dany squinted at her. “Do you just have a pile of meat in your room.”
“What? No!” Technically yes. “It’s in a box!” In a pile, in a box. Dany didn’t need to know the particulars of her meatpile.
“Why do you do that?” Dany asked, looking a little weirded out. “Don’t- don’t do that. You’re going to get food poisoning.”
“I’m not gonna get food poisoning, I’ve been doing this for like ten years!”
“You’re going to get salmonella, and-” Dany cut herself off midsentence, frowning again. “Wait. How old are you?”
Enna set her jerky down on the table, resigned to the fact that this was apparently going to be a godsdamned conversation. “I’m like, twenty-one probably?” She didn’t know the dates exactly, but twenty-one was as good a guess as any. You lose track of time when you live by yourself in the wilderness for a couple years.
Dany’s expression changed again, and Enna didn’t like the way it was shading towards sympathy. “Oh, was there a time when your family couldn’t get a lot of food, so you had to save what you could?”
Enna scoffed. “I mean, if my “my family” you mean me, then yeah. Ten years ago is about when I was fending for myself, and it wasn’t like I had a pantry to put my shit in, so I kept it with me. I guess you were still living in a house when you were on your own? How old are dwarves when that shit happens, like thirteen?”
Enna had only meant to give Dany an opportunity to talk about herself so she could get the subject away from her own shitty backstory, but no such luck. “You were on your own at ten?” Dany’s tone had gone from pitying to… was that surprised? Frightened? Enna wasn’t good with subtleties. Shocked, maybe?
“Yeah, did I stutter?” Enna crossed her arms over her chest.
Dany’s whole face softened and Enna could see tears welling up in her eyes. Shit, Jaria was going to kill her if she found out that Enna had made Dany cry. “Oh my god, I'm so sorry, did something happen to your parents?” Dany had her hands clasped in front of her and kept fiddling with braids in her beard like she did when she was upset. Great, what did Enna do now.
“Yeah, I mean, something happened to my dad and my mom got mad and then I was on my own, it wasn't a big deal, please don't cry or Jaria is gonna murder me herself.”
Dany sniffed and wiped her nose on the sleeve of her cardigan. “Sorry, that's just- you're so valid, you know?”
Enna grunted, picking her jerky back up. “Yeah, that's me, valid as hell. So I'm gonna go back to my room and, uh, be valid in there?” Dany nodded and got out of her way, and Enna gratefully absconded up the stairs. The last goddamn thing she needed was Dany crying all over her. It was her childhood. If anyone was gonna be sad about it, it was gonna be her, and that was never gonna happen. Anyway, she had a box of meat to fill up.
Author's Notes:
I wrote this 8/8/17, and damn, how the hell was I writing a fic a day back then? They were short fics, but still! Enna's relationship with food is really normal and not at all affected by her upbringing. The title is based on the following meme, which was a significant part of my vocabulary at the time of writing.
