Smoke Signals • EarthMix AU

CHAPTER 14: Scorch

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• the staves - facing west
• glass animals - gooey
• tangbadvoice - u sick achoo
• the macabees - toothpaste kisses

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"Does he like sweets?"

"He does."

"He likes ice cream, doesn't he?"

Podd takes a few seconds to answer. "Yeah. He's more of a cake guy, I think. But yeah, he likes ice cream, too. Why?"

Mix shrugs and takes a sip of his iced Americano. "Mhm,"

"Something for his birthday?"

Mix purses his lips. "Maybe." Podd raises his eyebrows, egging him to continue. "I dunno, I'm not really good at making stuff in the kitchen."

The older man looks up from the counter, thinking. "Ice cream's a good call. Pretty easy to make. I'd send you a recipe you could follow."

Khaotung, hearing this, wheels his stool to where Mix is standing and interjects. "—just don't burn your house down,"

Mix dials back to a memory of them in college, when he almost burned Khaotung's hand while trying to pour hot water on their cup noodles, a memory he'd rather not relive. But somehow, Khaotung is determined to never let that one die down.

"It's ice cream, Khaotung. How will that even be possible?"

Turns out, it is possible to burn your house down when making ice cream.

Or maybe it's just Mix's innate bad luck not going well with an obviously defective mixer, one he never took out of the box after having purchased it on a whim, back when he thought he had the necessary skill or time to bake.

Panicking over a whirring mixer was not how Earth imagined the first few hours of his birthday would look like.

He wakes up to the alarming sound of something whirring and rushes to find a panic-stricken Mix trying his best to unplug a mixer. He didn't even know he had one. What appeared to be whipping cream was flying from it, with specks landing on his boyfriend's body. Earth runs to the main switch and pulls the lever down before rushing over to check on Mix.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Earth says, scanning his boyfriend's body while trying to calm him down.

"No, no I'm fine."

"What's—"

"It was supposed to be my birthday gift. Ice cream. Because you like sweets and I thought it's the easiest one to make. And it is I— I just didn't account for my bad luck," Mix stumbles on his words, apologetic. He tears his eyes away from Earth, as if afraid to see him disappointed.

Mix moves closer to Earth and in a softer voice, adds. "You've always cooked for me and I wanted to do the same. And fuck, it's not even— it's just ice cream and I still ruined it. Babe, I'm sor—"

Earth takes Mix's face in his hands and looks him in the eye. He doesn't say anything and Mix tenses a little. After a few seconds, Earth brings his lips to Mix's, which the latter welcomes. After the kiss, Earth embraces his waist and relaxes his head on Mix's shoulder.

Mix doesn't see him, but he could feel him smiling into his shoulder. He, too, begins to relax.

"Babe, the sooner we accept you're not made for kitchen duty, the safer it would be for the both of us—"