Sweeten My Coffee

Neighbour in red

The one and only illustrious knight commander, rumoured to be capable of slicing even the toughest of armors with his divine sword, happens to struggle with math. It is a hard truth to swallow as he stares at some more pages he picked up from the laboratory's floor. He always thought he had no weaknesses, yet now the doubts are starting to manifest in an alarming rate.

This is too complicated.

His eyes pinch the paper before him. Whatever that sleeping magician has written on that must be nothing other than recitings of dark magic. There is no other explanation. Of course, one could blame his clueless mind on the fact that he received different education from Espresso as a child. Specifically, his family had planned to raise him to the Knight Commander rank before he was even born, something that heavily influenced his upbringing. Tiring evenings of training and studying left him with few ways to calm his stressed mind. Few of those were bragging about his achievements, about his family, his equipment and soon his own self.

Nobody could have guessed with how quiet and still Espresso has been that he wasn't sleeping. It is difficult to even keep his eyes closed for a long time thanks to all the coffee that keeps dragging important thoughts in and out. That neverending cycle may indeed see no end until the coffee properly exits his system.

While the coffee lover struggles with insomnia, his counterpart is on the verge of tearing that piece of paper apart. He was once determined to understand what the equation is about, but an hour of feeling like he can not get anywhere with it is enough time before he ultimately gives up. Pushing the paper away, he rubs his eyes and lets out a quiet groan.

No wonder he drinks so much coffee.

With his a gaze on the magician laying on the bedroll there are few things he can do now. Either wait for Espresso to get up, wake him up himself or do a bit of exploring in the laboratory. His personality leaves no room for another choice. Predictably, he gets up and starts walking around, golden boots sounding heavy against the floor.

While leaned against one of the kitchen counters, Madeleine senses amusement and pride welling up inside him. He has once again crossed a line nobody ever could by being in the lab of a handsome, sought-out magician. A feat he always felt he could accomplish, yet never actually expected doing it. The room's small window shows the darkening sky outside. Right now is Madeleine's second favourite part of the day, the setting of the sun.

Thanks to his convenient height, he can easily watch outside as the sun falls behind mountains and trees, hiding away the light for darkness to prevail. The knight knows however that the light never leaves. It is always there, ready to illuminate everyone's way.

Much like the sunset, Espresso slowly drifts off into his own world. At last, sleep is catching up to the relentless effects of coffee. In the past it would have taken much longer for this to happen, but due to his newfound tolerance to coffee, he has a higher chance of feeling tired quicker. His eyes may have finally closed but his mind is still wide awake. The first thing that it demands is coffee itself. After such a long time of daily consumption of it the dark drink is seen as an essential part of his life by his body. Arguably, he drinks more coffee than he does water.

'Espresso.' A soft whisper startles his relaxed body to life.

His brown eyes turn to face the source of the voice. As always, Madeleine's bright smile almost ends up blinding him.

'My apologies. I did not mean to startle you.' While bending over, the Knight's long hair slips over his shoulder and falls straight onto the professor's face. With frantic moves, he picks it back up and pulls it behind him.

Espresso's annoyed face speaks for itself as he quietly stands from the uncomfortable bedroll.

'What time is it?'