#yeah. yeah. yeah

“Rafal.”

Familiar box in hand, Nel’s retrieved a cookie from the inside. She waves it in his direction, a slight quirk to her brow as she comes to stand in front of him. “It seems this is a tradition I am not familiar with when it comes to the little ones. If I am to partake, I cannot forget the most important person I would like to share this with.”

She doesn’t place the cookie in her mouth. Instead, she breaks it in the exact middle, handing out the other half to him.

“Yet there is no need to compete when we are equals.” With that, she goes to take a bite of the cookie before pausing, glancing at him for a moment. Instead, she chuckles, pressing her half of the cookie into his hand along with the other— and leaning in to press a feather light kiss to his cheek.

“Enjoy. The rest of the box is yours, as well.”

𝐏𝐎𝐂𝐊𝐘 𝐃𝐀𝐘 ♥

The difference between two worlds struck clearer than that of night and day. A box of biscuits to sit in one's hand, a future of cookies and competition promised, victory and defeat to boot - in their Elyos of origin, Nel and Rafal's, never had there been such a meaningless and simultaneously meaningful tradition. Limited resources did not allow for even the simplest of indulgences and treats. The tensions between four nations at war did not permit for amusement. So many delicious cookies and smiling faces produced in the name of one frivolous game, the value of that game was judged far greater in the minds of those like Nel and Rafal.

With that said, that Nel might come to Rafal with it on the mind was not particularly unordinary. What was, on the other hand—

"Hah! How very coincidental."

Her explanation heard in full, one half of a cookie pressed into his hand, and Rafal threw his head back, eyes crinkled with the onset of a. . .laugh? The reason manifested in a similar-looking box he extended from his pocket. "It seems that our minds are one and same. I was just thinking that. . .you might enjoy some figment of this tradition and so procured a special flavor on your behalf."

That special flavor was no better represented than by the picture of a red-hot pepper on the box's cover. How Rafal had stumbled upon it was no mystery. After all, who else was deemed master of all things specially or unusually sweet?

( though this one leaned more unusual than it did anything else. )