#solllare

     Nnoitra was feeling pretty GLOOMY these days, which didn’t exactly make him sociable. He hadn’t met up with ANY of his friends for at least two weeks. Grimmjow had an early shift at work, so he wasn’t home. Nnoitra would’ve gone with him, but he had stayed behind to do some much needed vacuuming instead. Whenever he got like this, he was even LESS inspired than usual to do housework. Grimmjow had offered that he could do it instead, and that had made Nnoitra pull himself together and tell him nah - he could do it. Vacuuming wasn’t impossible to do with one arm, of course, but it was just SO much easier for Nnoitra to do it - so he did. He was in the process of moving the couch to get access to the very dusty area underneath it, when there was a knock on the door. Whenever someone was at the door, Nnoitra automatically assumed it was food delivery, but after that initial; OH FOOD! - he remembered that he hadn’t ordered any food. He moved away from the couch. Tulip and Pantera peeked out from their hiding place there, clearly relieved that Nnoitra had been distracted.

     Right before he opened the door he remembered that it could be the police. His heart jumped up his throat, uninvited, and he unlocked the door. THANK FUCK! It was Melody who was standing there. Nnoitra hadn’t seen her in a while, and that only added to the relief. What a nice surprise. Nnoitra had never invited her in before, but now he held the door open and stepped aside so that she could enter the apartment. It was fine, since Grimmjow was at work. If she saw the cats and asked about them... Nnoitra was just going to say he was... Taking care of them for a friend while they traveled or some shit like that.

     ❝ Yo! ❞ He greeted her, and it felt good to know that he was smiling. There hadn’t been much of that recently. He quickly noticed that she was carrying something. It looked like a present. He was intrigued, but didn’t assume that it was for him until she HANDED it to him. It wasn’t his birthday or anything like that... So why? Surprised ( but DELIGHTED ), he accepted the wrapped present. It was a little heavy, almost like.. A book? Nnoitra hadn’t held one in a while, so he couldn’t be sure. He didn’t see why anyone would want to gift his dumb ass a book anyway. He could hardly even read. Melody seemed very eager, and urged him to open it. Nnoitra loved getting presents, so he didn’t need to be asked twice. There was something exciting and joyous about unwrapping a gift. The neatly folded yellow paper was torn off, and dropped to the floor. The content was revealed and --- It was a book. Nnoitra’s surprised / confused expression must’ve been OBVIOUS, because Melody soon provided an explanation.

     She reminded him of the day they had been baking gingerbread cookies. Of course he remembered! It had been great! His first time baking cookies and, yeah, he was totally bragging when he said they had turned out great. What he was holding in his hands was --- A cookbook. That Melody had made for him. His single eye was wide when he began to turn the pages. They were easy to turn so he wouldn’t accidentally rip them. Each page was protected by plastic and he supposed that was in case he’d spill something on there ( it would be possible to wipe the page without ruining it ). The very first thing he noticed was the font size. It was large, similar to what it was like on his phone ( he had turned the size up so that it would be easier for him to read ). The type of font too, seemed easier on his vision. Nnoitra had only ever seen one other cookbook, and that was the one he and Melody had used when they baked together. He remembered how he had been so confused by the difference between ‘tsp’ and ‘tsb’, because to him and his dyslexia they looked exactly the same. He noticed that Melody had made an effort to make them different. It was such a little thing, but Nnoitra really FELT it hit him. Hard. 

     All his life, Nnoitra had been treated like he was stupid. All the teachers he had ever had had just given up on him. Part of the reason was probably because they didn’t like him. They had never thought it worth bothering to try and make things easier for him. Nnoitra had always felt lesser than everyone else in class, because they were all smarter than him. Nobody cared enough to help him with the things he had troubles with understanding. Nnoitra had hated everything about school because of this. He had hated being proved over and over again that he was worthless and stupid.

     He held the book tightly in his hands like he was worried it would disappear. He had NEVER actually wanted to hold a book before. But this... This was the nicest thing anyone ( who wasn’t Grimmjow ) had done for him. Instead of getting annoyed by how slow and useless he had been when it came to reading the recipes in the cookbook when they had baked together, Melody had gone out of her way to make something that was customized for him. She wasn’t thinking that it was just a waste of time to try and help him. She seemed to think that if he just DID get some assistance he... COULD learn things. It wasn’t as if he was overly interested in cooking ( though he had wanted to learn at least the basics, so that he and Grimmjow didn’t have to live off of heat-up meals ). It was the fact that this book was made for him. Made for his needs. Nnoitra turned the pages slowly, looking at the pictures of the delicious food. He already knew which thing he wanted to try and make first. He came to the end of the book and there was a list of what things meant. Another thing that he’d need. Nnoitra closed the book.

     He was so happy.

It’d been about two, going on three years ever since he set up shop on this quaint, but cozy and always full of life, street. Ever since he discovered his passion for baked sweets and pastries, he vowed one day to open up his own shop. 

This neighborhood was lovely, always surrounded by friendly locals and visitors alike. The shopkeepers as well were lovely and welcoming, always happy to give him some of their goodies in exchange for some leftover treats that he hadn’t managed to sell out at the end of the day.

One of his frequent visitors, who happened to be the wife of the flower shop next door had announced that it was her wife’s birthday yesterday as she dropped in. Although he hadn’t interacted much with her, he was always entranced by the beautiful bouquets that she had displayed in the shop’s windows and he knew that many of his customers were loyal customers of hers as well. Taking this opportunity, he set aside a couple of his most popular treats in a box before opening up for the day; not knowing what she liked, surely she would like at least one out of the various treats.

“Yer very welcome,” he smiled back at Melody, relieved to see that she had accepted the sudden gift without much resistance. Blushing furiously at her barrage of compliments, he waves her off, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Oh, heh, I’m glad ya like ‘em a lot. Thanks as always fer yer continued support. And Renji will be just fine. Besides, we are neighbors aren’t we?” he chuckles. 

SQUOOSHES HER CHEEKS

      “ ah ~ if it isn’t my favorite little fairy ~ ♡ ! “ he cooed in response, the demon returning her smile almost immediately, his eyes wandering down to the shiny purple tin. oh, he could smell the homemade delights even now ! freshly baked, some probably still a bit WARM even, chocolate was the overwhelming scent that wafted into his nose, and he swore he could feel his mouth begin to water with anticipation. mephisto happily accepted the tin, purple gloved hands holding the container, the male going to thank her before she continued, forest green now being met with a child’s drawing of him. his eyelid twitched ever-so slightly at the title he was given, but he still took the piece of paper nonetheless and examined it thoughtfully.

There was a long sigh before...