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Isamu was digging through a collection of translations of Egyptian tomb texts. He was fed up with the Seafaring people theory and he was going to prove it wrong once and for all. Any historian worth their salt knew that it was utterly ridiculous and if this group really caused the collapse of the Bronze Age then there had to have more evidence than a few mentions in an Egyptian text. As he was getting to the text that started this all he heard the familiar sound of flats tapping against the floor.
He looked up and saw Anabelle walking right towards his desk excitedly. He looked at his watch, she was here about half an hour before school started, right on time. He smiled at her and closed his laptop, he could destroy this theory later, and gave her a hesitant wave. She bounced up to his desk and gently set down what looked like a take out coffee but knowing her she made it fresh right before she left. Then Anabelle took out a new can of whipped cream and set that next to the coffee.
"Hey Isamu, I was wondering if you had time to try a new coffee flavor that I’m playing around with? I’m so tired of pumpkin spice being the only fall flavor and decided to try to make a pecan pie coffee! I’m just not sure about the taste because, you know, I can’t stand the taste of coffee.“ She gave out a little laugh “One day I will find the perfect coffee flavor!”
Isamu loved seeing how determined she was to find a perfect coffee flavor. How she can make such good coffee yet hate it all was beyond him but it gave him an excuse to talk to her. He nodded and reached for the cup and smelled the aroma, it smelt delicious.
"So, what’s the whip cream for? This smells great so far by the way” he added the last part quickly, not wanting to make her think that he wasn’t interested. Isamu liked hearing her explain her thought process before trying her experiments, he wanted to help her as much as he could.
"I brought that just in case the flavor was too bitter or was just off. If it was terrible I figured you could always have a mouthful of whipped cream to get rid of the flavor.“ She gave a little shrug and nervously laughed.
"I’m sure that it’s going to be amazing, just like your other coffees. Well, except for the, and I quote, ‘Original American Coffee’.” She immediately pouted while he laughed.
"Isamu you know that they had sludge for coffee then, you’re the one who told me about it!“ She crossed her arms “Plus I thought we agreed to never speak of that incident again. I still can’t forget the smell" she did an over exaggerated shudder and they both laughed. As he lifted the cup up she grew quiet and started to fidget with her hands while biting her bottom lip. Isamu took a breath and sent her what he hoped was a reassuring smile before taking a sip.
The taste was spot on. Somehow she managed to get the essence of pecan pie yet have such a deep flavor. It was robust and fresh and Isamu knew that this fall no one would want pumpkin spiced anything. After taking a minute to savor the flavor he opened his eyes, he hadn’t realized he had shut them, and gave her an excited grin.
"Anabelle this taste amazing! It’s totally going to replace pumpkin spice as the fall flavor. Heck, it might even go down in history as the best fall flavor for coffee!” Anabelle gave out a little excited squeal and clapped before reaching over the desk to hug Isamu in a short hug. He blushed and she let go, grabbing her bag to make sure that it didn’t knock over the coffee.
"I’ll only accept it being such a historic coffee if you write about it first! I want a proper primary source document about my coffee, so you ought to drink more than a sip to make sure that you got all of the details.“ They both laughed and she picked up the whipped cream before sitting down at the desk next to him and dropping her bag on the ground under the table.
"So ‘Mu, what are you working on today? Still working on finding the real U.S information policy during World War Two?” She braced her head on her hands and tiled her head. Isamu felt his heart skip a beat when she smiled at him like that. He’d drink anything she made if she would continue to smile at him like that.
"I’m taking a break from that, although I do have a funny story about Nazi propaganda to tell you about, and today I’m working on finally killing this ridiculous theory called the Seapeoples theory.“ Isamu didn’t end up working on his research again before school started but he wasn’t worried. As Isamu told her about the theory he lost track of time but watching her react was worth more than destroying this crazy theory. Maybe one day they could work together to write a history of coffee, he would need an expert about coffee for accuracy.