Clockwise:Wilhelmina(Liam),the Princess of Cordonia. Her mother was poisoned, and her sister ran away from her responsibility to the kingdom to “find herself”.
Maxie breakdancing (Maxwell), the youngest daughter of House Beaumont. She’s full of fun. She invited you to Cordonia on the spur of the moment to sponsor you as a candidate to win the hand of the Princess Fair.
Oliver(Olivia), the Princess’ childhood best friend. He’s been in love with her all his life, but she sees him as a little brother.
Han(Hana), another suitor for the Princess. He’s shy and quiet, but once you get to know him you realize he’s your brother from another mother. He takes his duty to his family very seriously. He has feelings for you and you might have them back.
Draca(Drake), the best friend of the Princess. She’s a commoner (like you), and she loves sarcasm and hard liquor. She’s insecure but you could never resist a damsel in distress… Or a train wreck. She says she’s been in love with you since the night the two of you met.
Bertha(Bertand), the Heiress of House Beaumont. She’s had to claw her way to the top. Regal and proud, she doesn’t suffer fools gladly. She loves Maxie, but resents her Millenial Entitlement too.
Wiggles(corgi), the street dog you adopted. Maxie likes to spoil her.
Leona(Leo) , the Princess Who Left. She gave up her right to be Queen to travel the world searching for love and adventure. You’ve only heard of her in passing, but you admire her already.
Riley - You were a waiter in NYC when you meet a Princess one night…
“Taking my brother from another mother out to eat the best food sold here in Shanghai!”
Hello everyone, thank you so much for the support I’m so happy to see your reactions thank you it really means a lot to me. Today for Liam the friend, I wanted to focus on his friendship with Hana and as Liam loves good food Hana took him to the outdoor market that has her favorite food in Shanghai
Summary: At Liam and Esther’s wedding dinner, Kiara encounters a surprise dish for main course. (This fic is a companion one-shot to Ch 3ofEleanor’s Kitchen)
“Did you know,” Hana whispers in Kiara’s ear at the dining table, “Liam and Esther chose their main course for the wedding from Castelserraillan.”
“Really?” she whispers back. Under the table, she takes care to only barely brush her hand against Hana’s. “Was it at the Food and Art Festival this month?”
“Mhmm.” Hana suppresses a shiver.
Kiara is tempted enough by Hana’s reaction to do more, but the presence of Hana’s mother right next to them is enough to stop her. This is far newer ground for Hana than it ever has been for her, and she’ll be damned if she doesn’t make this as easy for her new girlfriend as she can manage. “The stalls had feijoada, ash-e-reshteh, and chicken tagine. All incredible. Which one is it?”
Hana gifts her a cheeky grin. “I know which one they chose, and I’m not telling you.”
I loved the hidden secrets within the story… a budding relationship… childhood memories… the successions of birth in two families sharing the same meaning and feelings… the longing to connect with someone over mutual emotions…
Even down to the scents and atmospheric display… it all made me feel like I was there seeing it all!
@secretaryunpaid Thank you so much, I’m so happy you liked this fic!! I love all the things you noticed and I’m so glad the descriptions felt vivid enough for you - that’s an area where I usually struggle. This fic is part of a fic series, most of which revolves around Liam and his mother Eleanor, and the foods they’d make or enjoy together
Summary: At Liam and Esther’s wedding dinner, Kiara encounters a surprise dish for main course. (This fic is a companion one-shot to Ch 3ofEleanor’s Kitchen)
“Did you know,” Hana whispers in Kiara’s ear at the dining table, “Liam and Esther chose their main course for the wedding from Castelserraillan.”
“Really?” she whispers back. Under the table, she takes care to only barely brush her hand against Hana’s. “Was it at the Food and Art Festival this month?”
“Mhmm.” Hana suppresses a shiver.
Kiara is tempted enough by Hana’s reaction to do more, but the presence of Hana’s mother right next to them is enough to stop her. This is far newer ground for Hana than it ever has been for her, and she’ll be damned if she doesn’t make this as easy for her new girlfriend as she can manage. “The stalls had feijoada, ash-e-reshteh, and chicken tagine. All incredible. Which one is it?”
Hana gifts her a cheeky grin. Underneath the table, she nudges Kiara’s foot with hers. “I know which one they chose, and I’m not telling you.”
Kiara being happy for her childhood friend but wondering if she’ll ever get a chance to lead like Liam does
Kiara wishing her friendship with Liam could have persisted after Eleanor’s death
How the tagine comes full circle as the meal that brings Liam and Kiara back together.
@mand-delemonde I’m so happy to read this!! I honestly loved writing Hanara…I can’t wait until I finally get to work on the series I’d been planning for them for over two years!! And yes to all three of those points - I honestly believe there’s so many ways Liam and Kiara’s stories run parallel, and I really wanted to explore that once! I especially love what you said about the “full circle” symbolism of the tagine possibly bringing them closer again!!
Summary: At Liam and Esther’s wedding dinner, Kiara encounters a surprise dish for main course. (This fic is a companion one-shot to Ch 3ofEleanor’s Kitchen)
“Did you know,” Hana whispers in Kiara’s ear at the dining table, “Liam and Esther chose their main course for the wedding from Castelserraillan.”
“Really?” she whispers back. Under the table, she takes care to only barely brush her hand against Hana’s. “Was it at the Food and Art Festival this month?”
“Mhmm.” Hana suppresses a shiver.
Kiara is tempted enough by Hana’s reaction to do more, but the presence of Hana’s mother right next to them is enough to stop her. This is far newer ground for Hana than it ever has been for her, and she’ll be damned if she doesn’t make this as easy for her new girlfriend as she can manage. “The stalls had feijoada, ash-e-reshteh, and chicken tagine. All incredible. Which one is it?”
Hana gifts her a cheeky grin. Underneath the table, she nudges Kiara’s foot with hers. “I know which one they chose, and I’m not telling you.”
wow super curious to know more about Hana and Kiara dating it was so cool to see a little bit of the two couples, who are in different stages of their relationship, I hope that Kiara and Hana also have a beautiful wedding The surprised Leo with the tagine was so amazing Awwww Kiara and Liam remembering the day they ate tagine together I loved reading about the happiness of this dinner, it was the best part of the book and reading after the Eleanor’s Kitchen 3 made this scene more special thank you for sharing your talent with us Lizzy
@sazanes Ohh thank you!! I’m so glad you liked and wanted to know more about Hanara. I’ve been wanting to do a series focusing on them for a very long time, and I’m hoping to start on that once Eleanor’s Kitchen is over! And yes! I really liked the idea of Kiara and Liam bonding over the memories of that tagine as adults
Summary: At Liam and Esther’s wedding dinner, Kiara encounters a surprise dish for main course. (This fic is a companion one-shot to Ch 3ofEleanor’s Kitchen)
“Did you know,” Hana whispers in Kiara’s ear at the dining table, “Liam and Esther chose their main course for the wedding from Castelserraillan.”
“Really?” she whispers back. Under the table, she takes care to only barely brush her hand against Hana’s. “Was it at the Food and Art Festival this month?”
“Mhmm.” Hana suppresses a shiver.
Kiara is tempted enough by Hana’s reaction to do more, but the presence of Hana’s mother right next to them is enough to stop her. This is far newer ground for Hana than it ever has been for her, and she’ll be damned if she doesn’t make this as easy for her new girlfriend as she can manage. “The stalls had feijoada, ash-e-reshteh, and chicken tagine. All incredible. Which one is it?”
Hana gifts her a cheeky grin. Underneath the table, she nudges Kiara’s foot with hers. “I know which one they chose, and I’m not telling you.”
Teasing me in public now, huh? You’ve become that bold? Kiara thinks, smirking, as she playfully kicks Hana in the ankle. Hana winks back. Just you wait. I’ll have those eyes rolling all the way to the back of your head, ma belle. You’ll be seeing stars.
Laughter from the head of the table shifts their attention to the bride and groom. King Liam’s head is thrown back in laughter at something his elder brother has said, his hand on the small of his wife’s back. Duchess Esther - the women that they will all now address as Her Majesty - covers his hand with hers, and she can’t resist a slight pang of envy.
Her own elder brother is seated on the opposite side of the table, right next to Penelope. Doubtless whispering sweet nothings in her friend’s ear, both her father and Penelope’s looking at the pair and nodding in approval. Kiara allows herself a small smile, cheered by the sight of her Baba and wishing Maman were here instead of Switzerland.
Soon, she promises herself, stealing a glance at Lorelai Lee and absently stroking a knuckle on Hana’s left hand, we’ll find a way to be this free soon.
She turns her gaze back to the newly-weds. King Liam clearly cannot take his eyes off his new bride. Over the years Kiara has seen his smiles have looked more practiced, less warm and open, more weighed down by the stress of running a kingdom…or of running it in his brother’s stead. It’s rare to see joy settle so nakedly on his face as it does today, and the sight - surprisingly - warms her.
It feels like a return to the boy she once knew: the boy she played with, the boy she gorged on sweets with, the one who hugged his mother tight and fought with his brother and - even then - could sometimes look his father in the eye and tell him what he was thinking. The one everyone believed to be the spare.
Kiara sighs. Had their friendship been allowed to last beyond Queen Eleanor’s death, she knows they both would have eventually bonded over being spares. Over possessing the skill and the spirit to lead, yet denied that right by virtue of being secondborn.Over bracing themselves for a future where all the ideas would be theirs’, but the faces representing them would be their brothers’.It’s something, she knows, that neither of them would ever dream of begrudging their older siblings, but she won’t deny there had been nights when she wondered whether the younger prince went to bed feeling as incomplete, as unfulfilled, as resigned to a thankless in-between space, as she did.
But now he is the King of Cordonia. And her fate is still hanging by a thread, leaving her to wonder if Ezekiel will ever work up the courage to talk to Baba and follow his dreams.
A familiar smell wafts in from the other side of the hall, as the palace staff enters with their main course. Kiara takes in a deep breath, her mind awash with memories of caramelized onions, warm spices, tender meat, Maman’s voice, Jiddah’s hands. She knows without even opening her eyes that the dish will be served in a brightly-coloured, geometrically patterned, tagine pot.
Her mouth hangs open at the thought that this - this dish! - was what King Liam chose to make the highlight of his wedding dinner.
“‘Twas worth it not to tell you, just to see the look on your face,” Hana whispers, grinning.
Grinning, Kiara gently elbows her.
The dish has no cinnamon in it (possibly part of the dietary requirements for this dinner, Kiara is certain) but the medley of flavours and heat, the smokiness from the chicken and the bright notes of the preserved lemons more than make up for that. It tastes even better than it did in her hazy memories.
“Chicken tagine?” Kiara vaguely notes a jaunty, teasing voice at the end of the table. Prince Leo. “Well, well. It seems my sister-in-law has excellent taste in food. Unlike someother people I know.”
Esther laughs, briefly resting her hand on Liam’s elbow. Liam laughter is more secretive, and far more smug.
“Oh, come off it, Leo,” he says, forking a tender piece to mouth, staring his brother square in the eye, clearly enjoying both the meal and Leo’s expression, “I’ve enjoyed more than my fair share of chicken tagine, since you practically forced me to eat it every meal we shared in Morocco as children.”
And then he looks straight at her, one eyebrow arched and flashing a familiar, mischievous grin.
“In fact, it’s one of my favourite dishes now.”
It’s a far far cry from that first, very doubtful bite she saw him take at the dining hall of his palace - away from the watchful eyes of their mothers - warily eyeing her younger self as if she could pulverize him with her gaze alone if he so much as looked like he didn’t like tagine (which…given her childhood passion for tagine? Undoubtedly!), the reaction he’s giving now. This is the face of a man who has eaten tagine after tagine after tagine - not out of diplomacy or politeness or a misplaced sense of propriety, but because it’s a dish he fucking loves.
She holds King Liam’s gaze, even as Prince Leo launches into a spiel about how his teenage prank on his baby brother helped “broaden your horizons”, and lets out a soft snort. He responds with a silent laugh, doubtless remembering his own face that day, staring at her in the middle of her tirade on people-who-don’t-like-tagine like she’d gone insane. It isn’t long before their silent chuckles turn into full-bodied - but still silent - laughs, making their significant others look up in surprise.
Esther raises an eyebrow and inclines her head towards Hana, in curiosity, and Hana looks at the two and shrugs.
“You could at least tell us what’s so funny,” Hana whispers to Kiara when her little, and quite-shockingly-unnoticed, giggle fit is over.
“Hah!” she says back, remembering Hana’s saucy grin at knowing what the wedding meal was before she did, “Payback is fair play, ma moitié.”
Hana plays along, giving Kiara her best puppy-dog-eyes impression. It just makes Kiara laugh even harder.
“Besides, if hearing thatstoryis the part of tonight you’re most looking forward to, it’s time I up my seduction game.” she murmurs, quietly lacing her fingers through Hana’s.
At the end of the table, the King and Queen of Cordonia exchange conspiratorial glances. “Mmm. Bedtime story material?” Esther says in a low tone, in Liam’s ear, biting her lip to stem her own laughter.
“If you’re not too tired by the end of the night,” he answers, winking.
Above them all, the chandelier twinkles like stars in daytime, casting their intense glow on the vibrant lemon slices and making the olives in the tagine look far greener. Around them, everyone at the table speaks animatedly, gestures passionately, laughs openheartedly.
There’s not a single face that’s left in doubt that they’ve had a wedding meal they’ll never forget. That this is the best damn tagine in the history of tagines.
–
Translations:
Ma belle - French endearment. Belle means beautiful.
Ma moitié - my other half in French
Maman - French term used to address one’s mother
Jiddah - Term in Darija, that means grandmother. Kiara is referring to her paternal grandmother here.
Note: This fic also takes place in the universe of a future series I’m planning, where Hana and Kiara eventually become a romantic pair. At this point in the story, they’re dating but their parents don’t know yet. Both this fic and EK Ch 3 reference a story in TRR3, where Liam was pranked into eating tagine as a child by Leo, but eventually grew to love the dish.
Buckle up. I had some thoughts recently and I decided to share them and have fun :D You can laugh, or you can discuss it further with me. I had fun writing this :)
So… Riley Brooks. I’ve read nearly all of the books and I remember that every MC had established a back story. We learned things about them like parents, school life, past flings in one book or sequels but TRR franchise is currently on its 6 book and we didn’t know about her life before meeting the prince.
Someone could say “so what? There is nothing deep about it, the writers didn’t want to bother” but it’s not fun xp
I think there is a reason they didn’t tell us bout her past. It’s because….
*drum roll*
she’s a match. *Perfect Match*
Think about it.
She has no background, no relationships and she immediately *clicks* with the prince. She has everything he was looking for. It sounds too good to be true.
I think she was Eros Match #1, the Original. When Rowan kidnapped PM gang he told them this during the dinner:
Maybe that was the case at the beginning. Perhaps a test on how much science can imitate real human beings but he became obsessed about Matches and started treating them like his children. Because someone happened…
it was Daniel
Meet Daniel, former Eros inventor and engineer. He knew Riley was a miracle since he laid his eyes on her and had their first talk. She wasn’t a human being, but she was alive. Her brain and heart were artificial but her thoughts weren’t. She controlled her emotions and thoughts but she wasn’t safe at Eros because of Rowan greed and desire for power and control. So he deleted his plans and notes Eros could use in the future and they run away. Layed low, working in a bar, barely affording to leave. He did one last thing as her handler - he deleted all of her memories and blocked the ability to think about her past - no Eros, no Matches, no Daniel’s being her creator and the moment she opened her eyes for the first time in the lab.
Now answers for questions you may have:
-What about other Li’s?
Depend on other Li’s [MC] gives them what they were looking in life (I only read TRR with Liam and Hana route, so forgive me if I mistake something :/)
Hana all of her life was pressured to marry someone rich and successful. she didn’t have a real and happy childhood and her parents moulded her into their image. When MC appeared in her life, they were rivals, but Riley showed her you can be respected without losing yourself and not missing in life. She showed Hana love can be a magical and intimate thing not only a business transaction.
Drake was in the shadow of his best friend. I don’t think it was Liam’s fault because he would never think about him less just because he isn’t royalty. MC broke through Drake’s bitterness and felt in love of who he truly was and showed him that a higher social status doesn’t mean being bad and you can do a lot of good things too :)
Maxwell… I don’t really know what to write about him :( I think he’s really nice and I personally treat him like a younger brother, but I think (judging from other people’s post) he and MC had a good relationship buildup. Maybe in some way she made him more responsible… He’s funny and I apologize all Maxwell stans… Drake’s too, because as I said I only played Liam and Hana route… But that’s my impressions.
-MC gave birth in TRH, and I’m sure Matches can’t do that!
Yes, but consider this - If Riley is indeed Match #1 she must’ve been Eros breakthrough. She was designed to pass as a human, so she would be able to live on her own, or in case she was captured, her kidnappers had to believe she’s a person.
Eros thought about everything.(I added the wired to the MC’s for fun) Her organs aren’t a machine but it’s not a real thing either. Her skin is fake but it turned red when she blushes. She is the closest thing to the humans ever created.
She’s a miracle.
Think about her as a more advanced Host from Westworld
