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Despite it being spring, the evenings were still cold and Quiche found herself wishing she had packed more than just one outfit. She was used to travelling but her new companion wasn't. That was one downside of managing a café for so long she supposed.
"Let's stop here for the day okay?" Quiche offered a hand to her struggling companion.
"Ha…. Ha…. Sorry…" Tarte grabbed Quiche's outstretched hand and let her be pulled to a nearby tree. "I'm just slowing you down aren't I?"
Quiche laughed. "Well a little, but the trade off is worth it."
"Trade off?"
"Your cute presence more than makes up for it."
Tarte blushed at the straightforward reply. "I-I'll start setting up the tent!" She quickly pulled out the tent from Quiche's bag and began unpacking everything.
It had been a few days since they had left La Bête to head north. Tarte was getting used to the travelling life, there were so many things different from her time at La Bête that she wondered if she was being a nuisance to Quiche.
"Ack!" Tarte had hit her hand while nailing the tent down. "Ow…"
"Tarte! Are you okay?" Quiche rushed over to check on Tarte's hand. Luckily it wasn't bleeding and only stung a little. "Ointment, ointment…" She mumbled to herself as she looked through her first aid kit.
"I-I'll be okay!" Tarte smiled through the pain. "You don't need to use any of that-"
"Nonsense, this'll make you feel better." Quiche ignored her and applied some ointment to the bruised hand. The pain started fading away. "There! I'll finish setting up the tents, you can relax by the fire."
"…Thanks." Tarte mumbled. She meekly made her way over to one of the chairs that Quiche had set up earlier.
Quiche was used to setting up camp so finishing up the tent setup didn't take long at all. She joined Tarte on another chair and tended to the fire.
Night was starting to set in but the fire kept the darkness at bay. Dinner prep was started by Quiche (since making Tarte do that would be… a mistake) and she hummed to herself as she began cooking over the open flame.
Meanwhile Tarte sat listlessly looking at the flame. She looked up at the stars that shined overhead and sighed.
"Everything ok Tarte?" Quiche asked. Tarte had been looking… down for the past few days. The start of their journey was fine, but as time went on and on she began looking more and more depressed.
"Y-yeah!" Tarte put on a fake smile for Quiche. "I'm alright!"
A lie. Lying to Quiche was painful but Tarte felt it was necessary to not burden Quiche anymore than she already was. She didn't know the first thing about travelling, whether it be knowing where to set up camp, how to set up a tent, cooking, or sometimes even just how to pace herself while walking. Was it really the right choice to come along with Quiche? Wasn't she just burdening her now too?
The only thing she could do was brew tea for the two of them. It was the one thing that Tarte took solace in that she was good at. But even then brewing tea brought back painful memories. She remembered running Café K with her sister who…
"Hey Tarte?" A voice brought her out of her thoughts. She looked at Quiche.
"Do you mind if we did something different for tea time tonight?" Quiche asked.
Tarte's heart sank. Were her tea times no longer good enough even? "…Sure!" She put on her best fake smile. "Having tea time every night must get boring eventually right haha…"
The mistake that Quiche had made became apparent right away. "No! That's not what I meant at all!" She tried to cover up for her blunder. "I… Gah, I'm so terrible at this… I just wanted to show you something." She scratched behind her head.
It'd be easier to just show Tarte at this point. Quiche reached for her bag and pulled out a little kettle, a grinder, a filter, some cups, and some coffee beans. "Here, I just thought it'd be nice to try coffee tonight."
"B-but I've never made coffee…" Tarte meekly mumbled.
"That's why I'll teach you! Then we can decide between coffee and tea times at night!" Quiche beamed.
Slowly Tarte nodded. At least this way she'd be helpful in some other aspects. She tried to get Quiche to teach her how to cook but… that just ended in disaster still. Whenever she held a frying pan it just reminded her too much of Macaron.
Quiche had made coffee for herself before while travelling. It was a nice hot beverage that gave her energy and she liked trying out different coffee beans from different communes. It was different from the teas that Café K had served, and she wanted to show Tarte that too.
With practiced motions, Quiche explained the coffee making process to Tarte. It wasn't too complicated, at least with her setup. Get the beans, roast them, grind them, put them in the filter, then pour hot water over it and…
"Coffee done!" Quiche handed Tarte a cup of coffee. "Simple right?"
Tarte nodded. It was different from making tea, but similar in some aspects too. If she got good at making coffee then maybe that'd be another thing that she could help Quiche out with.
The warm aroma of coffee soothed Tarte's mood from earlier. "Cheers." Quiche smiled and clinked her cup with Tarte's.
Tarte took a sip. And immediately made a sour face. "Bitter!"
Quiche laughed. "Right? Drinking coffee black like this is so hard, though I've heard some people like the taste. Me though? I'm convinced they're either lying, or I've heard that the older you get the less bitter it tastes."
The cup of black coffee almost seemed to taunt Tarte. What's wrong little girl, can't handle the bitterness in your life?
Memories of the time when she was first making tea came back to her. Overbrewing, underbrewing, using the wrong combination of herbs, messing up the water temperature, a plethora of mistakes could cause the end result to taste bitter and unpleasant to drink.
And more than that, she remembered Macaron being there with her every step of the way. Her smile, her wide open eyes when she tasted some of Tarte's failures… Then she started thinking of Macaron's last moments, the pain in her eyes as she knew her time was coming, and… the memories flooded in and Tarte found herself crying.
"S-sorry… It's just…" Tarte sniffled and tried holding her tears back. "It hurts… it hurts so much… I know this is proof that I loved her but even then… it hurts…"
Quiche moved her chair so that she was sitting next to Tarte. "I… I know it sounds empty for me to say, but it's okay to feel this way." She put her arm around Tarte. "The memories of… of Macaron passing are bitter right?"
The tears flowed harder and the sobs grew louder. Tarte nodded, unable to say anything through her sobs.
"But you know," Quiche added, "not all of your memories of her were bitter right?" She reached into her bag and pulled out a little tin. "You had sweet memories of her too right?" Her hands opened the tin, revealing little white cubes.
Tarte was still crying but she nodded.
"Like remember that time when Macaron made the Macaron Tart for the first time? How you said 'there's no way anyone can finish that!' to which Macaron pointed at me?"
Tarte nodded. She remembered Quiche's flustered smile accompanied by Macaron's laugh and her going "See? Our resident glutton gives her seal of approval!" She giggled a little remembering Macaron's bright smile.
Quiche added one of those cubes in. "Hey, why don't you tell me some other sweet memories the two of you shared? I want to hear more about the two of you before I came."
Sniffling, Tarte began thinking back to when Tarte was learning how to make tea, and Macaron was making sweets. She recounted a story of how Macaron had accidentally made too many cookies and the two of them almost got a stomachache from eating too much. Quiche laughed. "If only I was there huh?" prompting Tarte to giggle as well. Tarte still remembers how the two of them had fought over the last cookie… though it was to make the other person eat it.
Once again Quiche added another cube in to Tarte's coffee. "Tell me one more story!" She insisted.
Tarte took a deep breath. "There was this one time that we had read a scary story together. Macaron was soooo scared that she grabbed onto my sleeve asking if I could sleep with her that night… she was sooooo cute!" Tarte almost spilled her coffee when she remembered how cute Macaron was. Her upturned eyes, the way she snuggled against her in bed…
Laughing, Quiche said "Ok I think that one deserves two of these." And plopped two more cubes into Tarte's coffee.
"…What have you been adding to my coffee anyways?" Tarte finally asked.
"Your sweet memories of Macaron." Quiche smiled. "Why don't you try the coffee now?"
Nodding, Tarte slowly sipped at the coffee. "Woah! It's sweet…"
Quiche confirmed. "For each sweet memory you told me of Macaron, I added a sugar cube to your coffee."
It was much more drinkable now. Tarte found herself sipping away at it. The sugar didn't exactly cancel out the bitterness of the coffee, but it gave it a more complex flavor. It was… bittersweet. Just like her memories of Macaron.
"Feeling better?" Quiche asked.
Tarte nodded.
"Just like this cup of coffee, of course you're going to have bitter memories of Macaron going on her journey. But along with those bitter memories, there are sweet memories too. Together, those are your memories of Macaron. Not just the bitter ones."
…How could Tarte have forgotten? She looked down at her cup of coffee. Remembering Macaron meant remembering not just the bitter times, but the sweet times too. The sad times, the happy times. The boring times, the fun times. All of those were her memories of Macaron.
"…Thank you Quiche." Tarte whispered. She looked up at the sky. "And thank you Macaron, for being part of my life."
She drank the rest of her coffee. To the sweet and bitter times both.
Quiche watched as Tarte finished her coffee. She added a sugar cube to her own coffee. May she add ever more sweet memories with Tarte to her own blend.