Chapter Text
As Burning Spice studied the main courtyard of Fermentum University, Yeastmere campus, he breathed in the scent of wood and various mixed perfumes/colognes. The day before classes started is the most exciting day of the year (besides the last) for second-year students, and he was eagerly looking forward to seeing the other three in his friend group.
He turned to Silent Salt beside him, patting him on the back heartily and laughing. “You look tired already just from our walk to campus,” he joked, squeezing his friend/roommate’s shoulder and pushing and pulling it back and forth to annoy him.
Silent Salt simply rolled his eyes, retorting, “I’m getting pissed. I don’t want to socialize like this… especially being the oldest.”
“Huuhhh? You’re barely the oldest– you’re only a month older than Mystic Flour!” Burning Spice replied, gulping. He still couldn’t bring himself to call her a nickname, even though he did so for the other three in the group. It was too.. comfortable -- casual. She deserved something better and for it to come later, if she would let him reach that point. He yearned.
“The point stands regardless,” Silent Salt stated, turning his attention back to the courtyard. He inhaled, puffing out his chest in confidence, and stepped forward as Burning Spice spaced out before snapping back to attention when he realized his roommate was already three steps ahead of him.
“Hey, don’t leave me behind,” Burning Spice said, taking two extra long steps to keep up in a second. It’s not hard when you’re the tallest in the friend group by only a couple inches.
Silent Salt spotted Shadow Milk’s ombre hair, fading from black to blue, almost immediately in the crowd, and made his way over. Burning Spice trailed behind, saying hi to his friends from last year and all the new freshmen he met over the summer.
Burning Spice looked around the courtyard at the gorgeous, lush, green scenery; in the center was a fountain with crystal clear blue water spurting out from a marble fish, with the courtyard tiles all sparkling like an ocean at sunrise. The warm sun beamed down on everyone as smiles, laughs, and embraces were shared as were the "I missed you"'s, "How was your summer?'"s, and, most importantly, "Did you break up with your boyfriend?"'s. Burning Spice sighed, looking at the sight, but it was a sigh of relaxation. He almost never got to -- Shadow Milk always told him he was too uptight, and needed to turn his frown upside down to enjoy life a little more, regardless of difficult things happening. And, right now, *almost* everything was going right for Burning Spice. His grades ended better than they've ever been before, he has a new love interest to spice up life, and he found a stable friend group to spend time with who had similar goals as he. He couldn't wait to see how it would all change. Change is his most favorite virtue, even if others find it a disability.
“Why, Si, I’m so glad you found me first instead of vice versa!” Shadow Milk said as Silent Salt tapped him on the shoulder without a word.
“Nice to see you again… it’s been a week,” Silent Salt said, chuckling but almost unnoticeably so. Neither of them even noticed Burning Spice slipping away to continue his greetings to a freshman with feline-like features and bright red hair with dark red streaks.
“Shadow Milk… who are these two?” a short girl with white and red ombre pigtails said, peeking from behind him. Her eyes became a bit wider in curiosity as Shadow Milk put his hand on her shoulder. She had a mischievous yet unhinged expression on her face, as if she already knew all too well. Shadow Milk is known in the group to be the most TMI person, especially to those he finds amusing.
“Candy Apple, this is Silent Salt, the quiet one in my group I told you about,” Shadow Milk replied with a grin.
“Salty? The one you said who doesn’t go to parties?” she asked in an innocent voice as a black-haired guy behind her sighed. She smiled, as if she was naive, but Burning Spice knew that *she* already knew all too well. How much did Shadow Milk tell her about him?
Shadow Milk said nothing and smiled, looking at Silent Salt. Silent Salt pursed his lips, nodded to the ground, and then looked at Shadow Milk for a moment to continue the conversation, or to move on to something different entirely.
Thankfully, Burning Spice took care of it. “Shad,” Burning Spice said as he returned to the duo, now that he was finished with saying his greetings to those already in the courtyard. He grinned at Shadow Milk, patting him (also) heartily on the back as Shadow Milk coughed and swatted at Spice’s arm, frowning.
“You hit way too hard,” Shadow Milk murmured, but then quickly mustered up a smile as he remembered that it was the first day back, and he was seeing one of his closest friends. “Why, Spice, it is a delight to see you again after such a long week! Have you two seen Eternal Sugar and Mystic Flour yet?”
“Not yet,” Burning Spice said with a laugh. “We’ll be sure to look for them now.” He gulped, and felt it slide down his throat before he regained his composure.
“I’ll follow you two. Candy Apple and Black Sapphire, remember – don’t drink from the water fountains,” he said in a loud whispering tone, moving his eyes left and right humorously.
“Yes, sir!” Candy Apple said, laughing and clapping her hands together in a prayer pose, as Black Sapphire nodded.
Silent Salt had already begun looking for the two girls with Burning Spice following close behind, so Shadow Milk scrambled to catch up to them. In just a little bit more time of looking, they spotted the two of them finally entering the courtyard, fashionably late.
Shadow Milk waved over to them. “Yoohoo! Sugar and Flour!” he yelled, with a large grin on his face as his pointy teeth glistened in the afternoon sunlight.
Eternal Sugar’s head snapped over in attention, before her face lit up. “Oh, what a long week it’s been!” she said to them in a squealy, excited voice. She walked over quickly to the three guys and gave all of them small hugs. Her strong but not over-indulgent perfume smelled like vanilla, browned butter, and assorted florals – almost cloying, but not quite enough; at least, not if you spent a lot of time smelling it. She was wearing heels for the occasion, making her taller than Mystic Flour.
Burning Spice wiped the sweat forming on his temple off as he got a look down at Mystic Flour. She was the only one of the two of them not to wear a special outfit – she was in a simple square neck beige top with her favorite choker. It was a look Burning Spice couldn’t get enough of seeing, and he inhaled quickly and quietly to keep from saying something stupid.
“Burning Spice,” she said, with a slight tug on the right corner of her mouth up into a smile.
“Mystic Flour,” he replied, out of breath from a sudden nervousness, taking hold of his heart and making it vibrate deep in his chest. Their eyes locked, red staring at black like a deer in headlights, while the other looked indifferent.
“Are you excited to do even more work this year?” she asked, tilting her head a bit to the side. "I feel as though this year will be most troublesome... but I imagine next year will be even more laborious. We ought to enjoy this while we still can, at least... safely."
“I guess not, but hopefully it’ll pay off? I should put more effort into my assignments this year,” he sighed, "but staying confident in myself is more important!" before noticing Silent Salt’s strange expression as he watched the pair. “What?” Burning Spice asked him, raising one of his thick, full eyebrows.
“Nothing. Are you hot?” Silent Salt asked, his eyes moving up to Burning Spice’s forehead.
“I mean, kind of… we’re outside. The sun is out. I'm wearing a jacket. I get hot more easily than the average person. You should know this more than anyone, since I keep our apartment freezing cold every night,” Burning Spice growled, turning away to wipe it off to calm his beating heart. He was worried that Mystic Flour could see it on his chest.
She gave him a strange expression, before engaging in conversation with Eternal Sugar and Shadow Milk, greeting him. Burning Spice groaned in his head, looking down at Burning Spice's clear existent jacket (he was wearing a tank top).
“I guess so,” Silent Salt replied, shrugging slightly. “By the way, I’m a bit hungry,” he added after a moment of reflection.
“Hm…. maybe we should get something to eat before we go home. Or before we hit the bars?” Burning Spice said loudly, cracking his knuckles with a grin.
“Bars?” Shadow Milk said, looking over with an intrigued expression. "You know.... they do say it's 5 o'clock somewhere."
“...Who's they? Forget ittttt. Let’s go to a dessert shop…” Eternal Sugar chirped, chiming in with her opinion as she licked her lips. "It would be much easier."
“You always want something sweet,” Mystic Flour said as she sighed, "like a child."
“Of course… everyone likes dessert,” Eternal Sugar replied, tossing her pink hair with blonde roots over her shoulder. They were in perfect ringlets from overnight curls. As Burning Spice caught a whiff of her hair perfume, he snorted – it was definitely starting to become too sweet.
“Except Silent Salt,” Mystic Flour retorted, smiling slightly as she nodded towards the taller man with long black hair. He rolled his eyes in return.
Eternal Sugar looked up at Burning Spice. “What do you think? Dessert?”
Burning Spice thought about it for a minute. “What about something Crispian? We can expand our horizons if we go to a foreign or exotic place.”
Shadow Milk, surprisingly quiet the whole time, clapped a few times. “Let’s give the gentleman a round of applause for coming up with an idea that isn’t spicy.” He grinned at Burning Spice.
Burning Spice groaned. “Crispian food can be spicy too..”
Mystic Flour chuckled a bit, covering her upturned mouth with her fingers on her right hand. Burning Spice felt embarrassed but only fixed his posture to try to keep his cool, when suddenly, she added, “Something Crispian could be delicious. What about something fruity?”
“I could go for a daiquiri right now…” Eternal Sugar said, giggling, as the group continued to debate food options.
———————————————————————————————————
Since everyone walked to campus, they all decided to walk together to eat. Eternal Sugar and Shadow Milk were in front, Silent Salt was in the middle, and conveniently, Mystic Flour and Burning Spice were in the back.
The two were silent for a minute as they both listened to Eternal and Shadow chat energetically, but eventually, Mystic Flour was the one to break the quiet.
“So… are we still getting drinks after this? I don’t believe I recall if we are or not,” she said, biting her bottom lip and covering her mouth with her right hand to cover it.
“Well… I’m open to it, just to get tipsy,” he replied, becoming a bit nervous. He cracked his neck on both sides to distract himself.
“It could be fun. I’m guessing it’ll be up to Shadow Milk, who will most definitely choose the less sober option. Most likely with a sweet cocktail,” She chuckled, looking up at him. Her eyes were as deep as a void, her striking white eyelashes adding a contrast as they, along with her bangs, created a shadow that danced over her undereyes.
He looked at her slender fingers and prominent collarbone, as well as the curve of her shoulders and bridge of her nose… she was wearing more makeup than usual this day, but still looked as dainty and feminine as ever.
He suddenly snapped back to reality and laughed louder than he should have. She gave him a confused expression, and the others turned back to see what was funny, but Burning Spice had no words.
“Let’s just continue on our path,” Mystic Flour said after she didn’t receive a word back, smiling subtly to herself, enough where Burning Spice didn't notice. She folded her hands in front of her as she continued to walk gracefully, watching the pavement for bird poop and sidewalk cracks, so that each step she took would be perfect. She loved having a routine, and eventually settled in to focusing on the rhythm of her steps as she kept up with his speed.
Burning Spice felt embarrassed but kept it to himself, nodding as he thought more about their interaction just then. It felt difficult to be himself around her, but he hoped one day that would change. He had no idea just how deep their story would become. As they both walked on the pavement, he watched as their steps slowly became more in sync. He took smaller steps to accommodate for her shorter legs as she continued to bite her lip. He wanted to tell her to break the bad habit, but it was endearing enough; it was charming, even if it made her lips bloody. He liked the look regardless.
Finally, as they reached the restaurant, Burning Spice ran ahead to hold the door for everyone while spying from the outdoor glass window into the inside – it looked busy enough to be good, so he inhaled and decided to set high expectations. It was something he needed to work on; meeting high expectations is a feeling like no other.
As Mystic Flour mouthed, “Thanks,” to him when she stepped inside the restaurant, he watched as she tucked a small bit of her bangs behind her ear, the corners of her mouth being pulled up into a slight smirk. She had the kind of smile that reminded you of a Renaissance painting, or like a female figure in a Song Dynasty painting. It was a sweet thought of it; he wondered what she would look like as a painting in the style of his hometown's. He inhaled sharply to regain his confidence, and fixed his posture accordingly, puffing out his chest.
As the restaurant door closed behind him as he stepped inside, he felt the earth shake. He didn’t feel it under his feet, or above his head, but within his heart. Inside, a flame grew. He didn’t know how to quell it, nor did he even want to; he just wanted to ignore it long enough to make it through one luncheon, just one – one where he conveniently remembered all the moments from summer he shared with Mystic Flour that would lead his heart to beat for a new reason.
He was scared he wouldn’t and couldn’t get enough of it.