like it or not

that'll have to wait for next time, though. for now, cafe dazzling's famous apple crumble will have to do. luckily, it's extremely delicious, so it should yield the same results. however, what he wasn't expecting out of this was to start visibly blushing whenever the moment happened. the instant ollie lifted his spoon to sample the ice cream, a different sensation took him by storm. embarrassed by the unexpected chemical reaction, he looks away; distracting himself by what his senior is asking him.

"i—uh... well, the easy answer is no." shouta admits, shrugging his shoulders. "i probably enjoy them a little too much, i'm afraid, but i like to say that, because i'm really active, i need the calories and the energy boost." picking up his own utensil, he reaches forward and digs up a spoonful of deliciousness for himself; shoveling it into his mouth in a manner that's messy, and totally "un-smooth". raising his free hand to cover his mouth, he chews, places his spoon on the plate, and grabs a napkin to clean himself up.

Ollie thinks for a moment, his smile thinning into a smirk, complete with an eyebrow raised in apparent amusement. Shouta seems so...nervous? He isn't sure what it is, exactly, but it's, again, insufferably cute. Ollie likes to think Shouta's just eager to make a good impression on him.

“Going toe to toe with you? Not sure, but for a normal person yeah, I like sweets now and again.” he says, intending to tease him, and then he continues, trying to be smooth, "And I mean...you're awfully sweet and I like you, yeah?"

He follows Shouta's lead in taking a more generous bite of the dessert before them, although he manages to do so without spewing crumbs about.

"it's not far from here, so we'll get there in no-time, too!" a part of him is tempted to lean in and grab onto ollie's hand, but he's not brave enough, especially because there are other people around. instead, he pivots on the balls of his feet toward the direction of the café and leads the way; keeping an even pace. "maybe after, we can take the long way home? y—you know, because all the walking will help with digestion..." it's clear that the real reason he's suggesting this is to get more time with ollie, despite his efforts of playing things cool.

he's never been good at that.

—

before they know it, they're seated parallel to one another at a table, there's a monstrous slab of apple crumble, one topped with a delectable mound of vanilla ice cream, in front of them, and shouta's staring at it as if it's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. not wanting to be rude, he looks over to ollie; gesturing his head toward their dessert.

He's almost certain that Shouta is just making excuses to stick together a bit longer, and that pleases him. He finds himself hovering rather close to the other man as they walk along the street, so that they keep bumping into one another slightly; he doesn't mean to drift toward Shouta, he just does.

—

The cafe is nice; the muggy outside kept at bay by commercial air conditioning that circulates the mingled scents of the place's menu. He's always loved the choral chatter of restaurants and diners, the background hum of one and a half dozen conversations.

And the apple crumble is impressive, at least visually, although Oliver was admittedly somewhat skeptical (for what reason he isn't sure), he's excited to dig in.

it's simple, and maybe kind of naïve, but shouta wants to build a few genuine connections. he doesn't know many other gay men, and this was one way he knew how to meet some. that being said, when ollie initially messaged him, he could tell that there was only one thing on his mind, and though he entertained it here and there, he made sure to push for ordinary topics, too, all in an attempt to ensure that his boundaries were clear.

shouta believed that ollie would ditch him the more he changed the subject to more mundane matters, but instead, he kept talking, and what's more is that they've hung out once already and things went well. suffice it to say, his view of him has changed.

so, as he walks beside him on the way to his dorm, he can't help but feel just a little bit rosy. there's a somewhat faint part of him that still thinks this could all be some sort of joke, but it's slowly starting to be eclipsed by the idea that there's more here than he realizes. not wanting to get ahead of himself, shouta focuses in on ollie, and nods his head as his question. "mm!" he replies matter-of-factly, the idea of enjoying something sweet exceptionally appealing. "you're a genius for thinking of that..."

it's then that a lightbulb flickers on above his head, and he pauses; turning toward ollie. "have you ever been to cafe dazzling? it's located near the main gate, and it has an apple crumble that's kind of addicting. it comes with ice cream on top! that counts, right?" he asks, belatedly realizing that it's likely not what ollie had in mind. "it could give us fuel for the rest of the walk home..." the expression on his face resembles that of a puppy-dog, and while he doesn't intend to plead, it comes naturally to him.

Well…he’d sort of gotten over it. If the opportunity to worm his way into Shouta’s bedchamber ever presented itself, he’d most certainly take it. It just wasn’t his primary goal.

Most of the time.

Not today, certainly. Today he’s really just thinking about the two of them enjoying one another's company; Shouta was nice to be around and sometimes Ollie felt that the friends he'd made here were...too much like himself. It was nice to step into Shouta's orbit and bask in his generally pleasant energy.

“I’ve not been, no, but it sounds nice.” He says with a smirk, looking Shouta up and down (quick work considering he was the size of a gnat)—he isn’t sure what it is, but he finds Shouta’s suggestion…precious, somehow. His apparent sweet tooth, and the way he pouts for it. Ollie wasn’t really the sort to coo over things, certainly not people, but he found himself struck by a strange, aggressive urge to take Shouta’s little face in his hands to give it a squeeze, or to bite him kind of hard on the shoulder, or something. Bizarre to him, considering they were both adult men, but he couldn’t help it.