Black Licorice and Butterscotch // Dennor

Confronting Reality

When Emil's birthday finally arrived, Lukas was beyond excited. He had woken up at 5am to start working on Emil's favorite breakfast, hoping to wake him up with breakfast in bed. When he was finished making the spread of pastries, fresh fruit, yogurt, and a freshly made latte topped with a light dusting of cinnamon. 

Lukas carefully crept up the stairs, trying not to make a sound as he gripped the tray with both hands. His foot caught  the fourth stair and he stumbled a moment, dropping a few grapes as he let out a sigh. He continued until reaching Emil's door, being sure to carefully balance the tray as he released a hand and turned the doorknob. 

Moving forth, Lukas opened the curtain's to his brother's room so that the light could shine through. The rays cut through the slightly messy room, eliciting a groan from the teenager whose eyes had just been directly assaulted by the sun. Lukas smiled as Emil grumpily pulled his blankets over his head. 

"Happy Birthday!" Lukas half-yelled, not wanting to piss Emil off but also wanting to seem enthusiastic for his special day. Emil let out another grown before shoving his blankets off his head. 

"Thanks" he grumbled, sitting up to stretch as Lukas picked the tray back up. 

"I made you breakfast" Lukas stated, placing the tray on Emil's lap as the teen rubbed his eyes. When he looked down he seemed pleasantly surprised, his eyes lighting up at the sight of the latte. 

"How the hell did you froth this milk?" Emil blurted, picking up the latte in amazement. They didn't own a milk steamer, so Emil was genuinely surprised at the cafe-quality froth of the milk. Lukas let out a chuckle at his brother's amazement. 

"A magician never tells his secrets" Lukas replied, eliciting an eye roll from the teenager. In reality, Lukas just didn't want to admit that he had shaken a jar filled with milk for maybe 20 minutes trying to get it frothy enough to serve. If anyone had seen him through the windows of his kitchen he would've seemed like an absolute maniac. He even yelled at the milk at one point. 

"Alright I'm gonna go clean up the kitchen.. enjoy" Lukas said. Emil gave a quick thank you and Lukas walked back down the stairs, feeling accomplished that he wrung any sort of emotion out of his brother. So far, this birthday was going well. 

He stepped into the kitchen to clean all the flour he had flung across the room before remembering the gift he had gotten Emil. He quickly strode his room, grabbing the bag with the puffin and the licorice in it before heading back to Emil, who had just shoved a mini croissant into his mouth.

"Here, I forgot this" Lukas stated, stifling laughter at the muffled 'thank you' Emil tried to convey as bits of croissant escaped his mouth. Not wanting to see his brother's reaction to the gift in fear of failure yet again, Lukas went back downstairs to get started on the kitchen. 

After cleaning the kitchen he decided to tidy up his own room, which had been neglected due to his panicked state of mind focusing solely on Emil's birthday. He was a few minutes into cleaning his room when he heard Emil approach his doorway. Lukas turned to see his brother leaning against the doorframe, a smug look on his face. 

"Can I help you, birthday boy?" Lukas joked, wondering why his brother looked so conniving. 

"Nope. Just wondering if you've met anyone special recently" Emil asked, a slight smirk on his face. Lukas furrowed his brows, wracking his brain for a reason why his brother would be asking. 

"No.. have.. you?" Lukas asked awkwardly, utterly confused by his brother's expression. 

"Noooo" Emil practically sang in a teasing tone.

"Ok" Lukas uttered monotonously, not knowing how else to continue the conversation. 

"Just wondering why I found this in the bag of licorice you gave me" Emil exclaimed, a huge, taunting grin on his face as Lukas squinted his eyes in an attempt to see what he was talking about. In between Emil's thumb and pointer finger was a pale pink post-it note with black writing on it. Lukas took a step forward to see a phone number, followed by a dash and a name. Lukas knew exactly what it was. 

Embarrassed, Lukas snatched the slip of paper out of Emil's hand and crumpled it up before throwing it into the wastebasket at the side of his desk. Emil started laughing at the dramatic reaction, nearly doubling over as Lukas felt his face heat up. 

"I'm guessing he's not cute" Emil let out between chuckles, trying to surpress his laughter. 

"Quite the opposite, actually" Lukas muttered shyly, quickly composing himself as he continued to go back to the tidying he was doing prior to his brother's intrusion. 

"What's your deal? He's cute, he gave you his number.... you're just going to throw it away?" Emil  questioned, kicking a t-shirt up off the floor onto Lukas in an attempt to pull attention. 

"He's out of my league Emil. I'm not contacting him just for him to dissapoint me" Lukas shot back. 

Emil let out a loud groan. "You're such an idiot. He wouldn't have put his name in the bag if he didn't find you attractive. I swear to god every time something like this happens to you you just push it away because you have this complex where you think taking care of me has to go above your own happiness. I'm 17. I can take care of myself. If you don't text this man I will literally shave your head in the middle of the night" he ranted.

Lukas was taken aback by his honesty. Emil was right. Lukas was trying not to confront the possible reality that Mathias had really been flirting with him. He was terrible with anything remotely romantic and he didn't really want to invite anything unfamiliar into his life. He was pretty consistent in his work life and his home life. Almost to a fault. 

Lukas had been kind of staring into the distance, zoned out for a while thinking about the truth bomb his brother had dropped on him before he snapped out of it. Emil looked annoyed. 

"Thanks for the licorice. Now will you please grow up?" Emil snapped before turning and heading back to his own room with another brazen eye-roll. 

As the door shut behind him, Lukas bit his lower lip. He could not believe his little brother had told him off and was actually right. He let out a sigh before walking over to the wastebasket and grabbing the crumpled up ball of paper. He wanted to give it a shot. He was sick of his inner voice sabotaging any chance he got at succeeding in something new. 

Smoothing out the paper on his desk, Lukas entered the number into his contacts before sitting on his bed and contemplating what to send. He had never done this before and had no idea what the proper way to speak to someone who was interested in him was. Did he start formally? Or friendly? Or flirty? He felt his hands start to sweat. He was clueless. 

He decided to take a chance. Opening his messaging app, Lukas wrote:

So.. what's the schedule looking like for a private butterscotch-making class?

Nearly gagging at how out of character the text he was about to send was, Lukas took a deep breath. "Fuck it" he muttered, looking away from his phone as he clicked send. Not wanting to think about it any longer, Lukas flung his phone onto his bed and continued tidying up. It was only a minute of so later when he heard his phone ring. 

Nervous, Lukas looked at the lock screen. 

1 Unread Message from Mathias Køhler

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Finishing this chapter was really frustrating because in December I remember having a well thought-out plan for this story but now in April I have absolutely forgotten what I was going to write. I usually write endings or storylines through in my notes but I guess I must've deleted the notes for this story. Lmao dumbass energy foiling my plans yet again. It's okay. We will persevere. Regardless of my messy writing behavior, I hope you guys enjoyed! Thank you for reading (: