Alebard smiled as Silas mentioned the Culinary Club meeting coming up on the weekend.  "You know it," he replied.  "I've actually looked through some of the books in the library for recipes lately and found one for something called a cheesecake.  It sounds interesting, so I think I'll try my hand at it.  It's more complicated than anything I've ever done, though, so I might need a bit of help," he added as Silas finished his breakfast, then got up to get more.  From their interactions in Culinary Club, Alebard knew how much Silas liked to eat, and he sometimes wondered how the slightly older boy wasn't overweight, at least not noticeably.  When Silas got back and commented on Zalek's enthusiasm in his food, Alebard chuckled along with him and gave a joking smirk as he replied, "Not quite.  You're just missing that draconic snout."  Alebard had a habit of teasing his friends, especially when they walked right into such a situation as Silas had here, but he always made sure to give that joking smirk that let his friends know that he was just giving them a hard time and that he didn't mean anything bad by it.  While it was true that Silas definitely ate with gusto, any human would be hard pressed to tear into their meal the way a dragon did, no matter how much that human liked to eat.  Alebard, unlike Silas or Zalek, was a much slower eater, taking small bites of food at a time and chewing slowly, sometimes almost thoughtfully.  Part of his philosophy when it came to food was that it ought to taste good, and it ought to be enjoyed.  His philosophy also included more abstract, less clearly-defined concepts on such things as the proper balance between sweet, savory, spicy, and other flavors in a meal, and what the proper types of food and drink were for each meal, some of which was also influenced by his attendance at the Vitality Club, but none of that was relevant to the topic of discussion at hand.

Zalek finished his meat before Alebard was even halfway through his omelette.  Seeing the unfinished breakfast, Zalek looked between the omelette and Alebard expectantly.  Alebard sighed.  "Don't give me that look," he said to the dragon.  "You just had at least half your body weight in meat, you can't still be hungry."  This was another of the games that Alebard and Zalek would play on an almost daily basis, but despite Alebard's protests, Zalek was quite good at breaking down Alebard into giving him at least one bite of his breakfast.  On this particular morning, though, Alebard didn't seem to want to give in so easily.  He continued to eat his omelette on his own until there was only about a quarter of it left, and that was when Zalek gave him the big puppy dog eyes and squeezed his belly in to make himself appear thinner.  Alebard finally broke down and gave Zalek half the remainder of his omelette.  Zalek hummed happily before digging into his share of Alebard's breakfast.  "You are a tricky little bugger, you know that?" Alebard playfully teased as he scratched Zalek's head right between his horns.  Zalek chuckled at his accomplishment as Alebard finished his food.