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Feeling a little peckish during the night, Cater found himself sneaking to the kitchen to find something to eat. What he didn’t expect to find instead was that the lights in the kitchen were on. Someone was standing in front of the kitchen counter, and the rhythmic sounds of something hard hitting a board suggested that he was chopping something. With another look, he realized the person in the kitchen was Trey.
Keeping his steps light, Cater slipped into the kitchen, making slow and careful steps towards Trey until he was standing right behind him. Then, leaning forward, he wrapped his arms around Trey’s waist and squeezed him lightly, nuzzling his face in his back. Trey jumped a little, then his body relaxed as he leaned into his hug.
“Trey-kun, you cooking something?” Cater asked.
Trey nodded. Turning around, he returned the embrace and snuggled Cater closer. He tousled his hair, wove his fingers in between strands and twirled them gently. Cater let out a happy chuckle.
Trey smelled of violets, sweet things, and… plants. He peered over Trey’s shoulder, finding an assortment of neatly chopped stems and petals on the chopping board. On the side of the counter laid a piece of ruffled green wrapping paper and a piece of ribbon.
“Hey,” said Cater, chin resting on Trey’s shoulder. “Isn’t that the bouquet you received today?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Why are you chopping the flowers up? Don’t people usually put them in a vase or something?”
Trey smiled warmly, one of Cater’s favourite expressions of him. Every face he makes is adorable though, even if Trey doesn’t seem to be aware of it himself.
“Cut flowers don’t usually last very long, even with water,” he said. “I was going to make it into a salad, and maybe share some with Ruggie tomorrow.”
Cater examined the flowers. When he first saw Trey flying down the birthday road, Cater was surprised by how green his bouquet was. He thought the plants in the bouquet were broccoli, lettuces, or whatever vegetables would appear in a salad. The people standing around him were all laughing about it.
But upon a closer look, they really had been flowers and not vegetables. An assortment of flowers big and small laid on the kitchen counter, a few Cater recognized such as chrysanthemum, daisies and hydrangea. He didn’t know that some of those flowers could grow in green.
Trey’s arms went around him once again. “By the way, I haven’t asked you what you’re doing here yet.”
His fingers touched Cater’s bangs, brushing it back and tucking it lightly behind his ear. Eyes shining amber, fixed on his own and so, so pretty.
“I felt hungry, so I was gonna grab something to eat from the fridge.” And it was a good thing that he came here.
“Even though it’s already past curfew?”
“I could say the same to you!” Cater pinch Trey’s cheeks. Trey laughed, and a mischievous smile spread across his face.
“Say, how hungry are you?”
“Hungry enough that I’d want to sneak out of my room in the middle of the night,” Cater said with a laugh.
“Then, wanna have some cup ramen?”
“Where are you going to get cup ramen at a time like this?” His gaze drifted to Trey's mouth, wondering if he was joking or not. Cater still gets taken aback by the things Trey says sometime, even after knowing he was someone capable of spouting nonsense out of nowhere. Despite his personality suggesting that he would be the last person to ever do so.
“I'll let you in on a secret,” he said.
Trey grabbed a chair and placed it in front of the storage shelves, reaching for the topmost closet and opening the doors. The shelf was stacked to the top with rows after rows of cup ramen, neatly arranged by their flavours.
Cater gaped. “But I thought we weren’t allowed to keep anything other than cooking ingredients in the kitchen? Especially not cup ramen?”
“I’m guessing that the first years must have bought and kept them here. Maybe so they would have something to eat if they wanted a late night snack.”
Trey took a few bowls and examined them. “There’s pork rib, seafood, curry, soy sauce, and spicy beef flavoured noodles. Which one do you want?”
“Um, Trey-kun, are we seriously stealing cup ramen from the first years?”
“They probably bought it with our dorm’s money anyways, so who’s to say that we can’t share these? So long as we don’t get caught, of course.”
“I didn’t know you had it in you.”
Trey flashed him a smile and Cater said nothing more. Trey was someone who disliked being in the center of attention, acting in ways that would divert people’s eyes from himself. Which, in a school filled with egoistic and aspiring mages, was maintaining average grades and being mild-mannered. But when no one else’s eyes were on Trey, Cater’s were.
“I’ll have the spicy beef flavoured one, then,” Cater replied.
“Haha, I guessed right! I’ll have the pork rib one myself.”
Steam rose from the kettle on the stove, telling them the water had been fully boiled. They peeled open the paper lid and poured the steaming water in, finding a few cookbooks to put on top of the bowl and keep the lid sealed.
“Do you want to add some flowers in?” asked Trey.
“Eating flowers with cup noodles?” Cater was skeptical of the suggestion.
“Flower petals don’t just go well with desserts, they can taste great with other things too. With cup noodles… chrysanthemum and daisy would taste the best.”
Cater was reminded that Trey had a thing for eating flowers ever since he was a kid. Well, fine, he supposed he was in the mood for eating some flowers today.
He let Trey sprinkle in some petals when the noodles were ready, watching the pastel green slowly drown under a layer of red oil.
“Great example we’re setting for the first years,” he remarked as Trey handed him a pair of chopsticks.
“They don’t have to know if we’re discreet about it,” Trey replied, taking a seat across from Cater.
His photo album from today was filled with pictures of Trey wearing the birthday wizard robe. Trey didn’t show off his flying skills as much as some of the other students whose birthdays came before him, but the truth was that even without all those wowing factors, Trey had looked really good in the robe. The sense of groundedness and dignity he gave off elevated the elegance of the robes, and he was breathtakingly beautiful- but Cater knew if he told Trey any of this, Trey would think he’s exaggerating.
At the present moment, Trey sat with chopsticks in one hand, quietly sending noodles into his mouth. He was wearing beige pajamas, hair slightly messy and curling upwards in places, glasses fogged by billows of steam. None of that elegance from wearing the wizard robe retained, yet Cater felt his mouth curving upwards at the sight. He wanted to capture this moment so badly, it was a shame he left his phone in the room.
This Trey, or any other Trey that Cater had witnessed during the three year they had known each other, was equally as beautiful and precious as the Trey he saw this morning. Even in the most normal of moments, when Trey thought he was so insignificant that no one ought to be paying attention to him, Cater was watching.
He smiled, resting his head on both hands, and watched Trey as he opened his mouth to eat another mouthful of noodles. Trey noticed his stare, and he paused mid-motion.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Is it my glasses?”
Cater shook his head. “I was just thinking, can I sleep over in your room tonight?”
Trey almost dropped his chopsticks.
“What’s with this all of a sudden?” Trey hid his mouth behind his hand, and Cater could tell he was blushing.
“I just want to spend the last minutes of your birthday with you.” Suddenly becoming conscious of what he was implying, he felt a blush creep up his face as well.
“Sure, but there’s school tomorrow…”
“I meant sleeping over in the most literal sense!”
Their eyes met, and they both started laughing.
The petals looked like they would be sweet, but they actually tasted bitter and a bit spicy. The aftertaste lingered in his throat long after he brushed his teeth, falling asleep in Trey’s arms with a faint smile across his lips.