Chapter Text
“Where did Carrot go?”
Leona couldn’t smell the faint sense of the new perfume Cater had started using within the room, meaning Cater clearly wasn’t in the room anymore.
Idia turned to look at Leona. “Huh??”
“Right. You can’t hear shit.”
Leona mouthed the words ‘Magicam’ to Idia, which was followed by a light bulb igniting over Idia’s head.
“Oh. He went out with his phone.”
“Does he go anywhere without his phone?” Leona questioned (to himself apparently).
“Uhh, yeah ok.” Idia said, “Anyway, does this look like enough sugar? Cater-shi bailed while I was mixing it in without telling me the measurement specs, and the recipe’s super vague— like there’s literally no numbers in here anywhere.”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...Oh right, you can’t see.” Idia sighed, “If this were Ignihyde, I’d have like a million new tools to help do everything for me…”
“Lazyass.”
“You can’t be talking, Leona-shi.”
“How is that the only thing you hear???”
Idia poured the rest of the sugar in the packet into the batter, because there was no such thing as ‘too much sugar’, then handed the bowl to Leona along with a whisk.
“‘Stir and mix well for 3 minutes’, that’s what the recipe says. You mix, I’ll count down to three minutes.”
“‘Kay.”
Leona stirred the batter with the whisk for a bit, then paused.
“It hasn’t even been thirty seconds, Leona-shi…”
“This is boring.” Leona said, placing the bowl of batter down, “Let’s do somethin’ else till Carrot comes back. If he’s allowed to slack off, so are we.”
“What.”
“Hmmm.”
“I literally can’t hear what you’re saying.”
“Do you want to keep mixing the damn batter?”
“...???”
“That’s what I thought.”
Idia shot Leona a puzzled look, but Leona paid no heed, instead just pulling the former over to the side of the kitchen island, away from all the stuff placed on it that left it in a rather large mess.
Leona walked across the table once more, letting his hands graze over ingredients, till he finally found what he had been looking for. He pulled a bag of flour aside, along the countertop, all the way over to the other side where Idia had been standing dumbfounded. Leona let out a hum, contemplating something in his mind, before shrugging and tugging off his blind fold. If Cater had taken his phone with him, that meant they weren’t being recorded anymore, so it wouldn’t interfere with the video the orange-haired student had been taking all this while.
Idia raised a brow at Leona’s actions, but decided to go along with it nonetheless, taking off his headphones as well. It gave him a moment to observe the headphones in his hand, which, albeit he had mentioned earlier, looked very similar to the new ones he had purchased online last week. Checking the brand label, which he would have been able to recognize even in his sleep, it most definitely was the ones he ordered!
How Cater got his hands on it… well, Idia had a few ideas in mind as to how he did, but nonetheless, he decided to let it slide. At least the headphones worked as well as he expected them too.
He turned back to glance at Leona, who had begun to draw out flour from the bag, spilling a measured amount on the counter. He paused once he felt like he had gotten out a good amount, then placed the bag back alongside the rest of the ingredients. Following that, he made a square grid with three boxes both horizontally and vertically, like the box you would draw in the edges of your math notebook during a boring lecture to play a game of tic-tac-toe with your friend.
Idia wondered what Leona was drawing it for. Maybe he was trying to recreate some complex riddle and checking if Idia could solve it…? It wasn’t unusual for the two of them to play an intellectual game together (or compete in one), like chess, a game of cards, etc. as long as they were both feeling productive (which was rare in their relationship, lol).
“We’re playing tic-tac-toe.”
“...Huh?!”
“I’m takin’ X for the first round.”
“Wait, what—”
“You took your headphones off and still can’t hear?” Leona said, raising a brow, “Go check your ears out, Radish Sprout. Clearly, wearin’ headphones 24/7 is doing things to you.”
“That’s not what..” Idia deadpanned, “Nevermind.”
He stood next to Leona, who had already drawn an X in the farthest top-right corner of the grid. Idia knew that strategy all too well.
“Prepare to get rekt, Leona-shi.” Idia said, snickering as he drew an O in the middle grid on the top, "I'm gonna absolutely own you.”
“We’ll see about that, Radish Sprout.” Leona responded with a smirk.
Twelve games in, and they both tied. Both of them had three wins each, having taken turns with who got X and who got O, and the rest of the games were all draws.
“This game’s rigged.”
“Fr.”
Somehow, amidst their hardcore competition, the grid had gotten drawn out through the opposite side of the counter, then down to the floor and almost all the way to the door. And somehow, the game had now become a tic-tac-toe game of a six times six grid, with both of them taking their moves very seriously, as if it were a life and death decision.
“Should’ve just set up a chess match…” Idia lamented, inspecting the grids available for him to checkmate Leona.
“Are you nuts?” Leona responded, eyes gazing over the whole grid, observing the trajectory of the game with keen eyes, “Chess? At Heartslabyul?”
Idia shuddered, as the memory of a chess game he played against Cater when he was over at Heartslabyul a couple weeks back came to mind, “GG…”
The Heartslabyul chess board was… definitely something interesting; but what it definitely was not, was that it was certainly not built for beginners. Called the ‘Red Queen’s chess’, it had the most absurd rules, the pieces could somehow move off the board and also play upside down, and instead of the usual checkered white-and-black pattern, it was replaced with an array of card suits fit together in a tessellation, in what Cater told them was ‘the Queen of Heart’s favorite colors’.
The only type of chess board Heartslabyul harbored was a Red Queen’s chess board, and there was no way either of them were willing to test their wits with that game.
Within a few more minutes, they drew another draw.
Leona sighed. “Damnit, another draw…”
“Same vibes as a p2w game tbh…” Idia said, dejected, “So—”
“Leona-kun, Idia-kun…” A voice called out to them from behind, its tone sending chills down their spines, “What’s with all the mess you two’ve made…?”
Cater stood directly behind both of them with a chilling smile plastered on his face, his irritation at the huge mess they had made with the flour was very clearly evident.
“There’s an explanation for this.” Idia said, standing ramrod straight as sweat rolled down his face.
“A very justifiable explanation.” Leona chimed in, in agreement, “One that’ll make you realize this is all real justified.”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“...I’ll cooperate with you for your next three Magicam selfies.” Leona said, shoulders slumping as he let out a sigh.
“Yay! Dw, I forgive you completely~”
Cater looked at Idia with an expectant smile, hands joined together and placed against his cheek.
“...”
“...”
“...Fine…”
“Awesome!! This is going to be #lit.” Cater grinned, pulling out his phone and taking an impromptu selfie with the other two, as they reluctantly gave in. Pulling the phone away, he grabbed one of the brooms and dustpans by the door side, “Welp, it’s #cleanuptime now, boi’s. Get cleaning~”
“...You're not helping?”
“Nope, I’m just gonna chill and edit my next few posts. Adios, babes! Good luck cleaning! We can continue the challenge after~” And with that, Cater took his leave once more with a content grin on his face.
“...One more round of tic-tac-toe before we clean up?”
“Hell yeah. What do I get for winnin’?”
“If you win.”
“When I win.”
“...”
“...”
“You’re so on, Leona-shi.” Idia grinned.
Leona smirked. “Game on, Idia.”