"I'm home," said Nouvel as he took off his boots and hung up his coat.
As he put on his slippers, he heard an old woman's voice say "Welcome back." Despite the tone that would be discouraging to anyone who wasn't used to the woman's usual ornery manner, the younger man smiled, comforted by the fact that his beloved auntie was still well.
After a bit of small talk, Nouvel went to his room to rest for a while. It's been quite a day, he thought to himself. Hmm, maybe I should get that thing out of the bag.
The item in question was a small box that he took out of his otherwise empty backpack with care. He opened it slightly, and then remembered that he would need to get something else before he should do so completely. He went off to the kitchen to get himself a fork and then returned to his bed, where the box was.
He opened it fully this time, revealing a cake. It wasn't as decorated as one could expect, and to be honest, it was what one might call dreadfully... featureless. It was just your typical small cake with a plain, somewhat uneven, layer of icing on it. There were no patterns at all, except for the ones that - most anyone could tell - were accidentally made with a spatula.
Nouvel took a good look at it, as if debating to himself whether or not to eat the damned thing.
But why? Surely it couldn't be that bad, now could it?
And just as he was about to push the fork onto the surface of the said cake, he was startled by the sudden knocking of the door. Judging by how light the sound was, he was sure that it wasn't his auntie.
"Who is it?" he asked, as he turned in the direction of the door.
"It's me, Duke," answered a modulated, somewhat soft, male voice from the other side. "I came to visit, and your auntie let me in."
Confirming that the voice was indeed his friend's, Nouvel said, "Just come in."
As softly as he spoke, Duke opened the door, let himself inside the room, and closed the door behind him.
"So, what'd you come here for?" asked Nouvel, not quite realizing he had slipped into his rougher manner.
"Now, is *that* any way to ask anyone something, huh?!" asked Duke back, using a much louder voice than earlier. One would almost think he was another person because of the difference in energy, but he was indeed the same.
"S-Sorry," said Nouvel, now aware of his mistake.
"Also... There is no way you're eating cake without telling me!"
"Sorry..." The man with the cake didn't know how else to respond. There was a reason he had the dessert alone, and as much as he wanted to tell his friend about it, he couldn't.
"Ohh... It's all right, it's all right... It's just that I've never thought you would be the type to have a sweet tooth, considering you don't have a sense of taste and all," said Duke calmly, trying to make up with Nouvel for the disturbance and the possible humiliation. "I wonder... Did one of the neighborhood girls give that to you?"
The thought of his friend misunderstanding the situation even more scared Nouvel, and so he immediately answered with, "No, I got this for myself."
"All right, I'll take your word for it," said Duke, satisfied with the response. "But still... Wouldn't that just be like... sand in your mouth?" At this point, he was moving closer and closer to his friend, looking almost like a begging cat save for actually brushing up against the other man's body. It didn't help, or perhaps it did, that he was much smaller than the other man.
Nouvel considered answering the question matter-of-factly, in order to make it less than obvious that he was embarrassed at the fact that he was aware of his condition. But who could go against the truth, which wasn't just him not being able to taste, but also him being barely able to feel the textures of that which he ate? All he could muster now was a "Maybe?"
Of course, the visitor wasn't satisfied with the response. "Maybe...? What kind of answer is that, huh?"
Nouvel let out a sigh. "Fine, I'll let you have some. I guess I won't be able to get much out of it."
Duke's face lit up as he heard his friend give him permission. However, his expression dimmed as soon as his tongue tasted the cake.
"What in the world is this?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean... Why in the world is this so salty???"
Nouvel felt like a deflating balloon when he realized the embarrassing detail. At that moment, he regretted letting someone else eat the cake, and even more so considering it was his friend who had the first unpleasant taste.
However, as hesitant as he may have been, he needed to give an answer.
"It's because... I made it. I must've mixed up the sugar and salt somehow."
Duke now felt sorry for not being able to arrive at the conclusion earlier. He was also quite aware that his friend had certain difficulties when it came to his senses, with touch, taste, and smell affected the most.
"You were trying to learn how to bake? You know-"
"I know," said Nouvel, interrupting his friend. "It's just that I thought it would be easier than cooking, since everything is exact and all. I mean, that's the appeal of baking, right?"
"I guess it makes sense. Still, if you're prone to mistakes like this..."
The taller man braced himself. He knew that his friend had a tendency to be a little harsh sometimes, no thanks to his mother's influence. Still, he usually had a point.
"...It's alright to ask for help, you know. Like, call me! We're friends, aren't we?"
Nouvel was caught off-guard. It seemed he was bracing himself for nothing.
"Well... Fine. I just... kind of wanted to surprise you..." he said as he scratched the back of his head and looked slightly downward.
"You don't need to prove anything to me! It's not like I expect you to do what I do for you. I mean, after all, you saved my life back then. There's nothing that can beat that."
To be truthful, Nouvel couldn't remember that incident. He only knew about it since Duke had told him many times ever since they met, or rather, met again. There was some suspicion back then, but now, he simply decides to take it as it is. Even if it wasn't him who did the heroic deed, he had to admit it was still a good thing.
After all, if it didn't happen, the two of them wouldn't have met, and he was glad that they did.
Losing his ability to feel physically had somewhat affected his ability to feel emotionally. In a way, he could say that Duke's presence saved him in turn.
"I guess, huh..." he said, not quite knowing what to say until an idea crossed his mind right then and there. "By the way, you were saying something about a new dessert place the other day, right? You wanna go there to have cake that we can actually eat?"
"Really?! Since you've said it, there's no way I can refuse."
"Well, let's go then."
They threw the bad cake in the trash and went out to go to the dessert place.
This work has an interesting story behind it... It started out as fan fiction for our OCs for a certain fandom. Then we included these characters in an original work of ours, and changed their names and the setting as a result.
Also... I think we had to change a few details regarding their backstories? Regretting not making that many notes for the changes.
Also just sad that the said original work became such a mess and we don't really wanna talk about it lest someone finds us and asks for spin-offs or something.