there's thunder in our hearts

IV

The scene El saw at 7-Eleven took a moment to set in. Steve and Dustin, it appeared, were dead-set on trying every single flavor, all at once. Robin had coordinated various flavors to form a rainbow, which she had topped off with a bag of skittles. Mike, indecisive as ever, stood at the fountain sampling flavors before ultimately deciding settling on blue raspberry.

Walking over to the fountain, El and Will both selected large cups before filling them with their desired flavors: strawberry Fanta for El and Mountain Dew/ piña colada mix for Will. They both capped their slushies and took sips.

"Tastes like cavities," Will commented.

"Yep," El agreed.

"Cheers." They both lifted their cups and tapped them together, then ambled over to witness Steve and Dustin's reaction to their Everything slushies.

"Okay. Three, two..." Steve and Dustin counted down. At "one" they both took long drags from their cups, which were a muddled brown/purple from the mixing of the colors. They both made faces, setting their cups aside. Robin laughed, quirking a brow.

"Not what you expected? Or is that actually the problem?" she held her own slushie- which was actually much more visually appealing- in one hand, the megaphone still occupying the other. Neither really responded, instead uncapping their slushies and dumping them out in the fountain tray before going off to refill them with singular flavors.

"Hey, El. Let's compare." Mike walked over to face El and Will, and he stood offering his cup to the former.

"Oh, um, sure," El said, caught slightly off-guard, as she'd been pre-occupied by watching Steve and Dustin walk away. The two exchanged drinks, then silently sampled the other's. Will looked at each of them, standing quietly.

"Hm," Mike said, smacking his lips together. "Interesting."

"What?" El asked, taking her cup back and returning Mike's. He only shook his head, smiling teasingly.

"Still like mine better. Strawberry is just..." He shook his head again. El rolled her eyes, sticking her straw in her mouth before responding.

"Well, I do not need your approval of the flavor. For your information, I like strawberry better than blue raspberry, which does not even exist in nature as a fruit. Also, your tongue is purple now," she informed him. Mike laughed.

"Oh, really? Then so is yours, silly." He pulled her towards him, smiling down at her. "And that means we match." Will made a point to look away, which El noticed. She faced away from Mike, who had leaned down to give her a kiss and ended up skimming her ear. She then carefully extracted herself from his hold, instead gesturing to Will.

"Try Will's. He also has good taste," El insisted. Mike rose a brow.

"Oh, really? Well, I'll be the judge of that ." Mike and Will traded drinks. El watched Mike's face expectantly.

"Well?" she prompted. He just shrugged.

"Eh. Could be better. Kinda underwhelming. Expected more." Mike handed it back to Will, who rolled his eyes.

"Uh huh. And yours tastes like straight-up corn syrup. No, thanks." He passed the blue raspberry back to Mike.

"Gays, gays," said Robin, walking over. "Each flavor has its own appeals, but it's when you add them together that you experience true bliss." She held out her slushie to Mike. "Observe."

"Um, didn't you mean to say 'guys'?" asked Will as Mike dubiously accepted the rainbow concoction.

"Shh, Mike's tasting the rainbow," Robin hushed him.