Untitled dribble no. 4 (Antique Bakery)
I apologise in advance for all the pastry fail that I'm sure is littered around here.
"Strawberry," said the tall man in - surprisingly - perfect Japanese. Tachibana took a moment to let that sink in, before he straightened and pulled the hand out of his pocket to point beneath the top of the counter.
"In that case, I recommend our speciality here, sponge cake soaked in cuban rum with stewed strawberries and glazed with rosewater syrup."
The blond stared at him for ten seconds, then finally grunted a "sounds good." Tachibana turned towards the kid who was unmistakably Japanese, and with hair that was just the right length to be inappropriately long yet not long enough to make some kind of rebellious fashion statement, pulled back in a pitifully stubby ponytail. He was staring at the display with a vaguely ill expression. His friend nudged him in the side, and he jumped a little when he realized that Tachibana was waiting for an order.
"Do you have ice cream?" he asked in a voice that already had faced its defeat.
"The apfelstrudel served with complimentary ice cream or whipped cream after choice, but as we don't have any particularly sophisticated menus for that, we don't serve ice cream separately. If you want something refreshing, these tarts countains a mousse of lime and fresh mint - "
"No thank you," he mumbled without looking at Tachibana, "I'll just have a coffee."
"Coffee," the foreigner snorted as they turned to sit down, "you're in a first-class French patissiere, and you order coffee."
"Why didn't you just go with Seguchi-san if you wanted somebody who shares your love of disgusting, unhealthy desserts?"
"You know, Seguchi might actually do something drastic if he trace some rumor about him eating cake back to you just because he doesn't bitch about other people's preference in food. If you didn't want cake, you shouldn't have whined about coming along."
"I thought we could have lunch!" the younger man exclaimed, and collapsed onto himself as half the locale turned in his direction. The blond rolled his eyes.
"What was that?"
Tachibana turned to where Ono and Kanda had appeared in the kitchen doorway, the latter holding a tray of scones.
"Somebody brought along a friend who doesn't like cake."
"Doesn't look like the kind of guy to come to places like this, does he?" said Kanda, "check out the sunglasses. Is he a foreigner?"
"Maybe cake is a manly thing in America or wherever - "
"Oh my," Ono said quietly behind them. Tachibana, out of an instinct grown from steady exposure, had turned around in a fraction of a second to wave a hysterical finger in Ono's face.
"Don't say it!" he sneered, and Ono looked at him in pale shock.
"Tachibana, don't you recognise him? That's - "
"I don't want to hear it!"
"But Tachibana - "
"Quiet!"
"He's not a foreigner," Ono weakly concluded, casting an wistful look over at the table where the blond was eating his cake and his friend had sunk into a decidedly sulky slump that Chikage was blithely ignoring as he put down the coffee. "He's Japanese. Those are his natural colors."
"...really?" Kanda stared towards the corner in unashamed curiosity and blissful ignorance.
Tachibana, older and experienced with the cruel truths in life, thought about Ono's last statement for three seconds longer before he glanced over to confirm the small, embarrassed smile.
"Definably natural."
Tachibana wanted to die.
I wrote this because everyone who's read the manga knows that Yuki loves cake and Tohma is the one who buys them for him. I didn't expect to find any of the Gravitation cast on Antique Bakery, but I don't know what I underestimated them: Kazuhiko Inoue voiced Chikage in the Drama CD.