SSD III: Silver

83. Happy Holidays

AN: It's been a while since I asked you guys how you're all doing so, how are you?

To future people who are reading all this as one big fit rather than chapter by chapter as it comes out, when was the last time you took a break? Make sure you're hydrating, have a little snack, go pee. If you're tired and need some sleep, listen to your body, this chapter is a bit of fluff that you all deserve, so it'll give you good dreams rather than the drama of last chapter.

28/04/22 Edit: one word correction.

Maki Gen breathed out, watching the white mist swirl and dissipate in the breeze, his throat burned with the cold and he really wished he'd taken his girlfriend's advice about wearing a scarf tonight. He'd felt so bad leaving her at home tonight, she'd been having a rough time of it recently— he thought exams were bad enough but she was working towards exams and transitioning all at the same time, she was far braver than he'd ever been— but she'd told him to go meet up with his family saying it had been too long since he'd seen them.

He agreed, reluctantly, so now he was walking into that sudden blast of warm air, his nose running as warm lights washed over. Spices flowed through the air leftover from the holiday a week ago, memories of Christmases long past embracing him. He smiled.

He gave a bright waitress the name of the reservation and she led him to a booth with three places laid out for the Maki family. Now all he had to do was wait.

He looked around the restaurant, a place he'd adored since his parents took him here on a trip when he was seven back in his astronaut phase. The ceiling was painstakingly painted by hand with stars, and if the owners were to be believed it was an accurate representation of what the sky would look like at night without all the light pollution. It made him long to be born in a time before electricity. The overhead lighting was made of twisted metal and orbs, designed like a mini solar system and glowing 'alien' plants weaved around bamboo sticks between booths. The tables themselves were interactive, giving kids (and adults) plenty to do as they whizzed around the known universe, learning about particularly interesting or unusual worlds and stars— like the planet that rained glass sideways.

A peal of laughter rang out behind him, a family in the booth there clearly finding something hilarious. All of them were wide smiles, bright eyes, it made him feel all fuzzy inside just seeing people in the world being happy and it left a sweet taste in his mouth. At the table to his right, a man and woman sat opposite each other, a blush over the woman's face as she ducked her head, peeling and eating her appetiser of prawns as quickly as she could.

Maki Gen had a very particular quirk, when he looked at a person, a taste corresponding to their emotions flooded his mouth. Happiness was generally different variations of sweet, anger tasted like chilies, hatred like blood and so on. The taste in his mouth now was a faint flavour of icy mint with a burning feeling at the back of his throat.

"What else can you do with those hands, darling?"

She coughed as the implication that came with that creep's tone and leery smirk hit full force.

"Do you like that?" The taste in Maki Gen's mouth as he looked at Mr Creeper's face over there was that of dark chocolate so rich it may as well have been bitter, dry dirt. "Choking?"

The woman took a sip of water, trying to hide her utter embarrassment and discomfort behind a fake smile and the hair falling over her face. "I'm not sure that's really appropriate," the woman said, trying to keep things from escalating as her eyes darted around to anywhere but the man opposite her.

"Come on, I was just asking," he said. "I'll find out later anyway."

Maki Gen would never understand how a person could hear something like that directed at them and continue to sit there. He definitely would've been throwing punches by now, though he may have had a slight temper.