Having just finished hanging up the military uniform he had worn doing the emergency summit, Dax put on his casual wear consisting of some blue shorts and a grey t s.h.i.+rt as he scanned his new apartment. Normally Dax would be in his compound in the old city of Kingstead at this time of day, but instead, he found himself in a brand new and stylish apartment which occupied the entirety of the top floor of a highrise in the new city. The reason suddenly owned such a lavish place was due to Lux, for some reason she had used her executive power to banish him from the compound, instead, she handed him a keycard to this place so he wouldn't spend the entire night out drinking.

(Well, I can always go drinking later, or I could just get myself smashed in here while only wearing a bathrobe…. Yeah, that sounds like a much better idea.)

For some reason, Lux had also seen to it that Dax's collection of high proof booze from all over the world had found its way to his new apartment, the only thing that was missing was a bottle of the stuff Lux really liked herself, which Dax brushed off as payment for the transport. Forming a dumb grin on his face Dax took off his t s.h.i.+rt and threw it aside while he started checking out the kitchen, gripping a beer on the way which he opened by hitting the lid against the kitchen counter which was made of polished stone. Interfacing with the apartment using ICI Dax set the stereo to play some extremely loud death metal before he started to down his 2 litre beer in one go.

(Man I love technology! I need to thank Lux for setting me up with this place.)

While the speakers shouted something about 'hailing Dionysus' and how some old and forgotten place was f.u.c.ked Dax also stripped out of his shorts which he tossed aside using his one foot, wearing only his underwear he went for another beer which he immediately started downing, it was at that moment the door opened as some unexpected visitors let themselves in, just at the same time as the song hit the chorus and Dax started shouting along to it as he played an air guitar.

"All hail slain and risen G.o.d! All hail Dionysus!" 

"... What the f.u.c.k is he doing?"

Looking at Dax shouting almost as loud as the impressive stereo Lilly felt like she was getting a headache, and not because of the music.

"... It looks like Lux didn't tell him."

Arriving next to Lilly at the entrance was Alice, but instead of getting a headache like the elver next to her, Alice felt her cheeks starting to heat up.

"How shameless."

As the last visitor sticking her head in the door Solaris who immediately felt annoyed at the music's text, although she was not sure why it somehow felt blasphemous to her ears.

Of course, the archangel didn't really stay annoyed as when her eyes finally landed on Dax, everything else seemed to fade away and become a blur. With the girls not know how to act seeing such a display unfolding before them they remained completely still and just kept on looking at Dax which seemed to have reached another song in the meantime.

"Et credo in serpentem! Misterium mysteriorum! In nomen eius Baph!- Wait what the h.e.l.l are you people doing here?"

Looking like a deer caught in the headlight for just a fraction of a second Dax seemed to come to some sort of internal conclusion.

"Shoo, this isn't a free performance. Book an appointment and come again some other time."

Feeling something snap when she saw Dax's dismissive att.i.tude, Lilly suddenly created a blade of high pressure wind which extended out from her hand, then she rushed towards Dax, clearly aiming to cut him in two.

"PUT SOME f.u.c.kING CLOTHES ON YOU PERVERT!"

-

"So, what are you girls doing here all of a sudden?"

After having dealt with a minor tamper tantrum Dax paused the music and poured the girls something to drink before they sat down in some couches.

Dax was, of course, still almost nude.

"... Why don't you put something on, we have something to talk about."

Leading the conversation as Lilly was still too mad and Solaris still didn't seem to focus on anything going on around her, Alice wore a wry smile as she tried dealing with the situation.

"Nah, I don't feel like putting on clothes, this is my home and I'm off duty, I'll do as I please."

Swinging his feet up on the coffee table between him and the girls Dax started drinking yet more beer.

"... See, that's just the thing. This is also our new home."

With Alice telling him what was going on, it still took a few seconds for Dax to register it.

"So this is why Lux was so adamant about me moving in here… I'll go put on some clothes."

"Please do, it's kind of embarra.s.sing if you just keep walking around like that without batting an eye..."

It seemed like Lux had been unsatisfied by Dax's romantic progress which had pretty much stonewalled while he had been busy with all sorts of things, it also suddenly made a lot more sense while Lux had volunteered to organize the almost 4 trillion drone force, leaving Dax with nothing to do until the start of the operation to retake the imperial continent.

"So is there anything you girls would like to eat? I'll whip up something real quick."

Having enjoyed his 10 minutes as a bachelor Dax suddenly turned serious once more as he droned an ap.r.o.n.

"Ah, are you going to make something!?"

As if her previous anger had been a complete lie Lilly's eyes suddenly started s.h.i.+ning as she leaned forward in the couch.

"Yeah, that's why I'm asking… Wait, nevermind that, come with me all of you."

"""Eh?"""

"And put on some ap.r.o.ns, we'll all make something together."

By the time the trio of girls had joined him in the kitchen Dax had finished setting up cutting boards with cloth underlying them and was in the process of sharpening a knife.

"So, what do you girls want to eat?"

"... Lasagne."

Uttering the first thing which came to mind, Solaris started drooling at her own imagination. While she had no idea what a 'lasagne' was or how it tasted, she had heard Lux talking about it.

"Then we do that, I'll make some pasta, Solaris you'll be on the tomato sauce with Lilly and Alice will handle the bechamel."

Delegating the tasks that needed to be done Dax started making fresh sheets of pasta while Lily and Solaris timidly gripped their newly sharpened knives, unlike Dax and Alice they had no experience cooking and thus absolutely no idea what a so called 'tomato sauce' entailed. In a blink of an eye, Dax had turned a mount of flower and eggs into a ball of dough which he covered loosely in cloth to let it rest before glancing over at Lilly, finding she was in the process of accidentally cutting off one of her fingers with the newly sharpened kitchen knife while attempting to finely cut up some mushrooms.

"Lilly."

"Y-yes? What is it?"

"Please stop moving for a bit."

Stopping the disaster before it could unfold Dax stepped over behind Lilly, resting his head on top of hers as he looked down at the cutting board.

"You should have just said at the start you didn't know how to use a knife, let me show you."

As Dax said that he placed his hands on top of Lilly's before adjusting her grip and positioning, completely failing to notice from his vantage point that his student had completely frozen up.

"Hold your hand like this, near the blade. Then you use the rest of the grip to balance the weight of the blade before guiding the knife with your knuckles like this, that way you don't start bleeding all over the ingredients, it would be a waste to throw them out."

Taking Lilly's silence as confirmation that she was listening to him, Dax moved her hands to start cutting up the mushrooms, completely failing to notice that the two other girls had also stopped working entirely and looked at him with awe.

"Now these are going to shrink a bunch when we start heating them so you don't need to worry about chopping them so finely, just let the knife do most of the work and make sure you keep taps on your fingers so they don't get in the way of the knife…. Why are you two looking at me like that?"

Finally noticing the pair of gazes on him Dax turned to Solaris and Alice to find that they were both blus.h.i.+ng for some reason while acting strangely timid.

"D-Dax, you might want to stop that lesson there."

"Why? I didn't do anything wrong did I?"

With Solaris finding herself unable to speak any further Alice took over with a wry smile on her face.

"N-no I'm pretty sure that you did your best to carefully explain it, but…. Your dear student has overheated I'm afraid."

Suddenly realizing what was going on Dax turned his attention to Lilly, finding the elver's face and long ears had turned just as red as her hair as she stared blankly into the distance with her mouth opening and closing like fish gasping for air.

"Ah… She's completely gone."

Enjoying the sight for a few more seconds Dax started thinking about a solution to the current issue, coming up with a fix as his mouth curled into a s.h.i.+t eating grin. Lowering himself, Dax crept close to Lilly's ear without her noticing, then without a single shred of mercy, he blew some air into her ear.

"Hiii!~ W-what the h.e.l.l is your problem!?"

"h.e.l.lo, this is central command, can you hear me, Lilly?"

Having gotten her attention Lilly turned to Dax, finding his face just in front of hers, making her freeze up once more.

"And we're back to square one…"

Sighing deeply at Dax's torment of her friend, Alice decided it would just be better to return to cooking while doing her best to ignore the two of them. Meanwhile, Dax how had just finished resisting the urge to pick up Lilly and take her home seemed to arrive at some sort of conclusion.

"It seems like I'm not the only pervert in this apartment~"

"SHUT UP IDIOT!"

With a few more minor roadblocks Dax eventually got Lilly back to work, that's when he felt a tug in his s.h.i.+rt, turning to find a teary eyed angel pleading him for help with a tiny voice.

"T-teach me too."

"S-sure."

While Dax could somehow keep up a poker face when he was messing around with Lilly, surprise attacks like the ones Solaris occasionally came up with out of nowhere almost always managed to shake him up. Scratching the back of his head to avoid his embarra.s.sment, Dax instructed Solaris on how to use her knife before making her cut up some bacon.

"Isn't this way too many mushrooms? They'll barely fit in the pot"

"No, it's perfect. Turn up the pot to max heat and let it heat up for a moment, then toss in the mushrooms in batches and watch what happens."

"Dax, can you taste this?"

"Sure Alice~ Ah, this is almost perfect, just add a bit more nutmeg and take it off the heat."

"Okay~"

"Dax when are we frying the bacon?"

"After the mushrooms have been dry roasted and before the onions, then we'll deglaze the pot with red wine and balsamic reduction before adding the tomatoes."

"Dax my eyes are stinging, please cut these onions for me!"

"Sure~"

Before Dax or the girls had even realized it, they had sort of all become one big happy family making dinner together, growing even closer than they ever had before.