Vanilla

Forty Five

A/N: Oh nuouuuouoououoooo I just checked my message board earlier today and realized that I had a TON of messages (wasn't expecting this) and so many sweet people I haven't been replying to! My greatest apologies. The messages have been replied to. Eep.

I hope you enjoyed reading the Honey-Jaxes at the beach! ^0^/ Atlas' POV was amazingly fun to write.

As usual, here's a long chapter for you to enjoy. This week's Sunday update shall be a short story on Lion!Leroy and Reindeer!Vanilla and will be available here on Wattpad. It's sort of like the Bunny!Chip and Wolf!Xander one but clearly better because lol I mean obviously I wrote that nearly seven years ago and looking back wow I had such low standards and bad characters. For sneak peeks, I'll be putting them up on my Instagram (hisangelchip) ^^ hehe.

Enjoy!

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[Leroy]

I'd dropped him a text about not attending the party and telling him that he should, instead, because more than half the ramen recipe, he'd been the one to improvise and help me with. So if anyone was celebrating anything, he'd have to be there with seventy-percent credit. Knowing him, he wasn't going to claim a thing; and the fact that he wasn't felt like a wasted opportunity for everyone to recognize his abilities and admit that he was no fluke.

He gave in. Eventually. And then asked if there was any chance we could have a late-night supper together after my shift. The plan had been to surprise him with a take-home tub of ice cream from the parlour and drop by his room without telling but now that he'd asked, turning him down wasn't really an option. The catch: he'd be doing the cooking.

So we were texting, back and forth, and I was heading out of Roth after grabbing my things from the locker room when Pierson showed up. Out of nowhere, right by my shoulder; hugging my arm like this was an open fucking sea and he wasn't a swimmer. Initially, I thought it was some ghost hand reaching out to me but it wasn't, so I looked away in disappointment and continued down the hallway. He followed.

"—tulations on your win! You never said a thing about being so talented... you must be really humble. It's so nice to see a humble chef. I've never tasted ramen so refreshing and rich at the same time!"

"Guess you haven't been to Japan, then." I was counting the number of steps to the main entrance. Twenty-three. Twenty-four.

"Mmhm. Not yet. Have you? It'll be so nice to have travel companions. You seem like a very nice person to travel with, too. I'm always going out alone. It get's a little lonely sometimes," he said, gazing up at me the entire walking distance while I kept my eyes on the door that was less than a couple feet away. The rightmost corner of my vision was a pink ball and for some reason, the arm he was holding onto was feeling heavier by the second.

"Oh um, by the way. I was thinking... to celebrate a great first round and you winning. Would you like to join some of us from the other schools for a party tonight? At the lodge, maybe? Liqin brought us..." Ah, fuck. Not again. I tuned out as soon as he said something about hosting a party at the lodge and stopped in my tracks, turning to face him.

"I have a shift in thirty minutes," I laid out, serious.

"Aw, you always work so hard! Maybe it's time you relax a little," he was telling me what to do with my life and that wasn't exactly something anyone would like to hear from strangers. "What time does your shift end? I can come pick you up. Where is it? We could maybe... spend some time together. After that."