Work Text:
"Hello everyone! So today, we have my boyfriend, Zayne."
"The camera's recording already?" His voice carries that flat tone, though you catch the tension in his shoulders. He glances at the blinking red light with a frown. "I wasn't prepared."
You've seen those viral couples trying trends for the first time! Couple trend videos all over social media. Eventually, you gave in and decided to join in yourself. Creating content doesn't come naturally to you, and you want Zayne to feel comfortable, so you settled on something sweet: confectionery.
"Don't worry about it; you look perfect as always." The tips of his ears turn pink despite his composed expression. You reach over to gently turn his face back toward the camera, and though he tries to keep his stoic look, his eyes soften when he looks at you.
"Right!" You snapped out of your fleeting fantasy. "So today, with my special guest, we'll be trying different sweets and desserts that you guys have been recommending! I know a lot of you have been curious about Zayne," you gesture toward him, "and his actual thoughts on sugar."
"From a medical standpoint," he begins, straightening his posture, "excessive processed sugar can cause inflammatory responses. Though I'll admit," he adds, voice dropping quieter, "there are certain... exceptions worth making." The camera catches your bright smile and his carefully neutral expression, though his attention never leaves you.
—
"What exactly is this supposed to be?" Zayne holds up a bright red gummy bear between his fingers, examining it like he's reading a patient's chart, and his expression stays perfectly composed.
"It's a gummy bear, Zayne. Just eat it."
"The artificial coloring is questionable," he says matter-of-factly, turning the candy over in his palm as he begins his mental analysis. After a moment, he places it in his mouth without further complaint.
You watch as his eyebrows raise slightly, as dramatic a reaction as you'll get from him on camera, and his jaw works methodically as he chews.
"Final answer?"
"Excessively sweet. Unnecessary sugar content." He pauses, reaching for another one with deliberate movement. "Though the texture is... interesting. The gelatin provides a decent mouthfeel."
You laugh as he methodically tries each color. To anyone else, he might seem uninterested, but you notice everything. How he carefully sets aside the red ones without you asking, remembering your favorites from your random conversations with him.
"The strawberry flavor is too artificial," he comments, sliding more of the red gummies toward your side of the table when he thinks the camera isn't looking, "but I suppose it achieves its purpose."
Coming from Zayne, this is basically a five-star review.
—
"This one is said to be incredibly sour," you caution, peeling back a wrapper from an extremely sour candy. Zayne accepts it without doubt, that calm assurance always steadfast, as if a piece of candy could never unsettle his poise. "My pain tolerance is quite high."
You bite your lip as you watch him place the candy in his mouth with the same calm precision he applies to everything. For a moment, nothing happens. His expression stays perfectly controlled.
Then his left eye twitches. Just once.
"How is it?"
"Fine," he says, though his voice sounds slightly strained. His jaw is tense, fighting not to react to what must be an incredibly sour assault, and his knuckles have gone slightly white.
"Zayne, you can spit it out if it's too much."
"I'm fine," he insists, though he reaches for his water glass too carefully. After a long moment, he swallows and takes a slow sip. You notice the slight sheen of sweat on his forehead.
"It was... just the right amount of sour."
"Are you sure?"
He meets your eyes, and for just a second, his composure cracks into the smallest smile, barely there, as you've learned to read every tiny expression on his face.
"Perhaps slightly more than adequate." The admission costs him, you can tell, but he makes it anyway because he knows it'll make you laugh.
Later, when you reach for the same type of candy, his hand covers yours with quick reflexes. "Perhaps we should save that one for last," he suggests, his thumb brushing over your knuckles briefly, "or skip it entirely."
—
"Chocolate tasting time," you announce, opening a box of expensive truffles. Zayne murmurs something incomprehensible, but you catch the slight relief in his voice, and his posture relaxes just a bit.
He selects a dark chocolate truffle with careful attention, holding it up briefly before taking a small, precise bite. This time, his expression shifts as you watch as he closes his eyes briefly, savoring the taste. When he opens them again, there's genuine appreciation in his gaze. "This is acceptable," he declares.
"Just acceptable?"
He reconsiders for a moment, taking another small bite and letting it melt on his tongue. "The cocoa percentage is appropriate. The texture is smooth without being overly sweet. The flavor is... complex." He pauses, examining the remaining half. "There are notes of vanilla and sea salt. Quality craftsmanship."
"Can't you just say it tastes good?"
"I suppose," he says, and there's almost a smile in his voice, "it does taste good."
But when he thinks you're not looking, you catch him reading the label on the box, his eyes scanning the information intently. By next week, you'll probably find a box of the same chocolates quietly appearing in your kitchen. It's such a Zayne thing to do, showing his care through quiet attention to the small things that make you happy.
"Dark chocolate has well-documented antioxidant properties," he adds. "In moderation, it can actually be beneficial." You realize he's already planning to work this into your regular diet, finding ways to give you something sweet that he can also approve of medically.
"Cotton candy!" You pull out the fluffy pink mass, and Zayne stares at the cloud-like candy as if it's defying physics, which, in his logical world, it probably is.
"Just pull some off and eat it. It dissolves on your tongue." He carefully pulls off a piece and examines it closely. The pink fluff sticks to his fingers; before finally putting it in his mouth, a flicker of genuine confusion crosses his features.
"It's gone."
You let out a soft chuckle at his observation as Zayne takes another piece, larger this time, watching with genuine fascination as it disappears the moment it touches his tongue.
"The sugar crystals must be restructured to create air pockets that collapse when they meet moisture, but the dissolution rate is remarkable..."
"Zayne."
"Yes?" He looks at you with complete seriousness, still holding a piece of pink cotton candy stuck to his finger.
"You're overthinking cotton candy."
He pauses, then gives you that soft expression he gets when he thinks you're being endearing. "Perhaps you're right."
Without warning, he reaches over and gently wipes a small piece of cotton candy from the corner of your mouth with his thumb. The gesture is so natural that you both forget about the camera for a moment.
"You had something..." he explains quietly, his hand staying near your face just a second longer than necessary.
—
"Alright, final thoughts?" you ask, cleaning up the various wrappers scattered across the table. Zayne considers this with his usual seriousness, hands already moving to help organize the mess.
"The experience was educational, though I still maintain that most of these contain excessive processed sugar and artificial additives."
"But did you enjoy it?"
He's quiet for a long moment, and you think he might give another clinical answer. But then he looks directly at you, ignoring the camera entirely. "I enjoyed spending time with you," he says simply, and the sincerity in it makes your heart flutter. "I always do, even when it involves questionable dietary choices."
Before you can respond, he's already standing to help clean up, stacking containers with methodical precision. As he passes behind your chair, his hand briefly touches your shoulder that you're so caught up in the warmth of the moment that you almost forget to sign off for the camera.
"Thanks for watching, everyone! Let us know in the comments what we should try next," you laugh, glancing at Zayne, who's probably already calculating exactly how much water you should drink to balance out the sugar.
"Preferably something with actual nutritional value," he adds quietly, but there's fondness in his voice, and his hand finds yours again as you reach to turn off the camera.
The next morning, you find a neatly written note on a box in the kitchen:
Reminder: Hydrate. 2.5 liters minimum. Also, I’ve scheduled a dental cleaning for both of us.
—Zayne
And just below it? A brand-new box of the same dark chocolate truffles from yesterday.
You smiled.