"A lone sword" -a one-shots book

" spices "

the bear x reader
platonic & familial
+mentions of death

"

You much preferred the cold.

Despite growing up in southern America with sweat basically glued to your back, despite spending all of your time in the back of restaurants washing hot oil off of even hotter plates. And despite your deep love of food so spicy it was a medical oddity that you hadn't burned a hole in your tongue.

Despite all of your proximity to heat of many kinds you had never been able to deal with even the mildest of rising temperatures.

God, even the slightest temperature shift was like lava on your skin. Try as you might to endure, the boiling you felt that seeped through physical form never went away, even as your passion for cooking grew.

You had tried your hardest to work around this issue by wearing less(pretty risky), using icecubes, frozen drinks, and every available version of fan on the market in a valiant attempt to pursue your dream.

Cooking was your life, even more than that, it was the only way you had ever known to use to touch other people's life. Without it, what would you be?

...

"Could you slow down?"

A casual downpour of rain made it hard to hear your tearful ex-girlfriend on the other side of the phone.

"A- And I heard that Cameron came back too, that he's the one running the whole thing." An airy wheeze only paused her for a moment. "You remember Cameron right?"

"Hun, I don't know what the fuck you're saying, your crying is muddling your words." You could almost hear her squeal out another cry. Exasperated, you tried to wrack your brain for someone you hadn't talked to in a while named something like Cameron. "Do you mean Carmen?"

"Yes! Oh my God he's probably going through it, he was always so close to him. You had like a crush on his brother in high school right?"

You paused on your jog, so abruptly you relived the words you just heard.

"What's wrong with Mikey?"

"Were you not listening? He died a few days ago. He committed suicide."

Said so brazen you thought you had misheard her even in the stillness of the pompous suburban sidewalks.

You almost told yourself you couldn't hear her properly over the now lightening drizzle hitting your umbrella, that the dogs barking barking perpetually in the distance were distracting you.

There was no way that-

"Did you hear me? Mikey's his older brother, remember? Real cool guy, and he brought cupcakes and sandwiches to school for one of your birthdays?"

Your hands went limp as you held back from a public breakdown. The only thing you allowed yourself was a shaky hand as a muzzle.

"I'll, will have to have to- call you back." You were barely sure that you hit the hang up button before you had to bite back even the slightest show of emotion.

Somehow even the consistent wave of cool air that came as benefit from living in the north couldn't combat the unshakable heat burning your face. You tried to calm yourself before your tears could boil on the heat of your face but it was too late.

...

Something important was today.

Even after everyone forced Carmen to take a break he couldn't shake the thought that something was happening today.