Vanilla

Three

A/N: Hi everyone! So I've been reading your comments (I always read all of them! Though I can't reply to every single one ;-;) and found out that several people are asking for Chip's current age. In Beyond Love, Chip is 22 going 23 when he met 4-year-old Vanilla and since Vanilla is now in high school, 15, Chip would, therefore, be about 33 years old. Of course, Xander and Chip will make occasional appearances in this book especially since I'm almost done with the third book of the Baked series, so you'll see how they've aged, changed, and how some parts of themselves essentially remained the same :> No spoilers tho. 

Enjoy! 

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He hadn't expected the walk to be exactly as short as the other had described it to be. To Vanilla, five-minute walks didn't necessarily exist, or so he'd come to think after having an odd, distorted sense of time as a child, alone and staring into the distance, waiting for something to happen.

"Will your parents be alright with me coming over without notice?" He posed to his companion as they walked against the wind, stopping before a diner's shopfront—tucked between a hairdresser's and a florist. "My uncle doesn't like it when people stop by uninvited."

"It's okay," said Leroy, pressing a button on the side of the door and Vanilla watched in awe as it slid open, revealing a warmly-lit interior. The smell of fried chicken wafted out like an invitation, and so did the sound of friendly chatter. Slow and relaxed. "Follow me."

He did.

They were greeted by the embrace of something in the air; something that a tongue and nose as sensitive and trained as Vanilla's could not identify. His first thought went towards paprika, a ground pepper spice that was rich and red, but the kindness of its touch reminded him otherwise; of marshmallows and cream, gentle and soft. Leroy did not seem to notice this.

"I'm back," he said instead to a lady behind the counter table, seemingly cooking up a storm alongside two other women. Every seat in the diner was occupied.

"Good. You have your homework? Oh, and who's this?" The lady with amber eyes, large and bright as though they contained a jewel within had turned to Vanilla with a smile. "A new friend?"

"No..." Leroy had stolen a sideway glance at his companion, as though confirming a second thought. "He's kinda old."

Vanilla could not help but feel the warmth of a flower, large but delicate in the curve of its petals, blossom and bloom upon those words like they were, to him, the coming of a spring he had been waiting for. Funny and oddly-phrased as they were, he had laughed and looked up at Leroy's mother with eyes behind large, oversized glasses that displayed a child-like anticipation of the new.

"Hello Mrs. Cox. I'm Vanilla Julian White and I'm four-and-a-half years old. Sorry for stopping by at such a short notice," he apologized politely, bowing so low that his glasses slipped askew. "I'll only be here for a short while until my uncle's fiancé comes to pick me up."

Leroy's mother, who Vanilla assumed was the owner of the diner, reached behind her for a basket of freshly made, deep-fried slices of lotus root. "You can stay for as long as you need, Vanilla. Come down for me if you're hungry." She handed the basket to Leroy, who grabbed a bottle of cayenne pepper from the counter and dumped a terrifying amount of it over the lotus chips.