#alfhild

At some point during the last three weeks, Alfhild had stopped going to the library and instead had set up her mountain of books in Café Durante. She loved the library, she really did, but something about being constantly surrounded by undergraduate students in their first year was beginning to grate on her nerves. It was silly; she had been in that exact position just a few years ago, the first in her family to feel leave the family farm and go to college, full of wonder but also a bit of fear going to even the relative safety of a shelter town.

Maybe it was the constant reminder that she was still something of an outsider, that even with her fifth year here, people still never tried to look at her too directly. Part of it was comforting, knowing that no one was going to try anything with the huldra lady.

Part of it just reminded her that huldra never were supposed to fully belong in a human's world.

"One bowl of broccoli cheddar soup for the madam?"

Alfhild glanced up from her notes, watching as Louis Durante set down a steaming bowl next to her risk management textbook. She raised an eyebrow, slowly transferring the pile of research materials onto the nearby window sill. "I'm sorry, I don't think this is mine."

"You sure about that?" he said with a wink and a trademark sweet smile, pushing it closer and setting down a spoon. "Because I distinctly remember you talking about being between vacations."

"And how did that get you to broccoli cheddar soup?" she asked with a light giggle, humoring Louis and taking a sip. Unsurprisingly, it was divine, creamy and full of flavor, with the greens cooked to absolute perfection.

He sat down in the empty chair across the table, tapping his fingers against the wood before ticking them down. "Well, let's see. You're basically halfway across the country and far from home. Typically you go home for vacations, so you have to be missing something from there. You're a stressed graduate student clearly needing something comforting, which usually means food, so home cooking."

"Following you so far," Alfhild said with a nod.

"You're from a farming area and also have a metabolism I think could kill a god, so some home cooking needs to be simple but hearty, but it also can't be too messy," he continued. "And your home state has a lot of, well, cheese. So. Broccoli cheddar soup."

Alfhild paused for a moment, looking him in the eyes and slowly tapping her spoon against the bowl. "Louis Durante, I'm glad that you have not decided to just take over the world with a thought process like that. Because, with all due respect, you're a fucking mad man."

"If I actually did overstep, I am sorry." He gave her a sheepish grin. "It's just, you've looked like you needed something familiar for awhile now, something that's not...just being here."

With a small smile, she broke the gaze, taking a larger spoonful of soup. "You didn't. I'm just impressed is all."

"It's easy cooking for you," he said, giving her another wink.

"I try to be." Alfhild took the piece of bread offered with the soup, tearing it in half to mop up the dregs in the bowl. "And it's...it's nice having someone make a dish that's not on the permanent menu just for one customer."

"I mean, it's a good winter soup. Maybe I should add it into the seasonal rotation," Louis mused, standing up and glancing back to the counter. "Spent enough time getting it just right to let it just sit there."

She raised an eyebrow. "Louis, how late were you up last night experimenting?"

"Uh."

"Louis."

"Can I answer in volumes of soup?"

"Will this make me more or less likely to call you a mad man again?"

He flushed just slightly at the edges of his ears and cheeks, picking up a nearby tray and gathering up some dirty dishes. "Look, I got really into cheese blends without realizing just how much cheese and cream I bought from the store, and now my home fridge might be forty percent soup base."

"Well, then I'll just have to stop by and get some for myself," Alfhild said, giving a large toothy smile and offering him the empty bowl. "Wouldn't want to have to go to waste."

With a practiced grace, he set it down onto the tray, composure restored with the mischievous glint in his eye. "Seeing as both of us are probably going to be here until closing...mind waiting up for me?"

Alfhild's mother was a fence and a con-artist (think Emily Blunt in Wild Target), so it runs on both sides of the family.

Gender: Female

Pronunciation: AHLF-heeld

Origin: Finnish and Swedish form of the Old Norse name Alfhildr

Meaning: Elf battle