Chapter 22

Words: 1237

"...and then he peaced out." Grim finished explaining the Leona incident to Ace and Deuce while you were all picking up chestnuts.

Ace winced at the story. "Yeah, no way was that guy the groundskeeper."

"That's exactly what I said! He was even wearing an uniform." You groaned and slumped your shoulders.

"Y'know, now that I think about it, he WAS wearin' the golden vest of that Pajama-clog dorm." Grim hummed while raising a paw to his chin to think.

Deuce looked down at the cat with a side-eye. "Pajama...clog? You mean Savanaclaw?"

Yuu burst out laughing at Grim's awful new name, and almost fell over with tears in his eyes.

You caught him, and softly pat his back as he continued to wheeze himself to death.

Deuce on the other hand was thinking with his hand to his chin. "You know, I'm starting to think that there's an awful lot of delinquents here at Night Raven."

He was ignored as Ace happily threw a last handful of chestnuts into a basket. "All right, that should be enough chestnuts. Let's get these baskets over to Trey!"

Grim jumped up happily, pumping his fist. "Myahaha! Now that we're all gassed up, it's destination: Flavortown, baby!"

You chuckled at his excited antics, and scooped him up when he came running up towards you.

You let him sit on your shoulder, while you picked up two huge baskets filled with chestnuts. Ace, Deuce and Yuu all also carrying one themself.

With that you all headed for the kitchen where Trey was waiting.

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"Welcome back. Looks like you got plenty!" Trey greeted with a smile adorning his features.

Grim jumped off your shoulder onto the counter infront of the green haired boy. "Now you can make us some massive tarts!"

Trey chuckled. "Well, the bigger the tarts, the harder it'll be to peel all these nuts, so... good luck with that!"

Deuce didn't look too happy. "We have to peel all of these...? Suddenly the whole room is spinning..."

"Preparation is key to good baking." Trey hummed out.

Ace smiled sweetly. "Yeah, yeah, I know." His tone changed to a more rough and loud one. "We've come this far. We're not giving up now!"

With that you all got to peeling. 

"It can be tricky to peel a chestnut right, but that's where magic comes in!" Trey demonstrated to you all how to do it with magic.

You nodded, even though you couldn't use magic.

"Ace and the Ramshackle Housewardens can't use magic, though, so it's the hard way for them." Deuce added in.

Ace groaned loudly. "Just watch me wipe the floor with you even without magic!"

"Quit your blabbering you two." You sneered, already having peeled a few chestnuts while they did not do anything yet.

Grim was trying to steel some of the chestnuts you peeled already, but you slapped his paws away. "Stop trying to eat our ingredients!"

Yuu had also already gotten too it, although he was struggling a little bit.

Deuce was on a streak of attempting to peel a chestnut with magic, but failed once again. "Oh, no... I smushed another chestnut."

Trey gave him a reassuring pat on the back. "They'll get strained later. Just be sure to get off the skin- that spoils the flavor."

Grim was almost drooling over a few of the peeled ones. "The smushed chestnuts smell de-LISH! I could gobble 'em up all day!"

Yuu janked him back by his scruff before he could touch the food.

Ace grumbled at Grim's antics. "Do you ever stop thinking about eating?"

Trey turned to Grim aswell. "Be patient. You need to wait till we're done."

Grim didn't like the sound of waiting at all. "Blech! Let's get this boring prep work over with so I can have me a tart!"

You all continued to peel. And peel. And even did some more peeling!

"THERE!" Grim put the last peeled chestnut with the rest. "We peeled every last one of those stupid things!"

Your ears were laying flat against your head, and you were leaning on Yuu's shoulder. "My fingers feel numb..."

"Mine too..." Yuu grumbled, leaning his head against yours.

Your tail was slowly swishing behind you at the small ounce of affection.

Ace nodded to both of your words. "My fingers and wrists are killing me..."

"Haha. More work than you thought it'd be, huh?" Trey snickered behind his hand.

"We still got to strain them though."

A few necks snapped in Trey's direction.

Deuce was the first to speak again. "THERE'S MORE?!"

Trey nodded and you all groaned.

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"There! Finally got 'em all pureed!" Ace slumped into a chair, leaning his head back in exhaustion.

Deuce was rubbing his arm. "My arm is killing me..."

Trey walked over behind you, and pat your shoulder. "Nice work. It'll be all the sweeter for your pain!"

Grim was laying sprawled out on your lap. "The smell along already has me droolin'..."

Trey chuckled before walking up to the huge bucket with chestnut puree.

He placed some stuff down next to it. "I just need to add butter an sugar to the chestnut paste, and a sensible splash of oyster sauce- that's my secret ingredient!"

Your ear twitched. Then your expression formed into a deadpan while the others around you seemed shocked.

"Oyster sauce?!" Ace and Deuce yelled at the same time.

Trey nodded with a realistic smile. "Yep. The umami of the oysters gives the cream a deep savory flavor. I use this one here: Walrus-brand Young Oyster Sauce. All the best bakers use it in their tarts."

He held up a bottle of oyster sauce proudly.

"Really? But isn't oyster sauce, like, super salty?" Deuce was genuinly thinking about it.

Ace seemed convinced aswell. "Some folks put chocolate into curry, don't they? Maybe it's the same idea."

You smiled, and pulled your head up. "You sure now how to sell your story, don't you Trey?"

This made the boy with glasses crack up. "Pfft... Ah ha ha ha! I'm totally lying! No one in their right mind would put oyster sauce into a pastry.

Ace flipped his head around towards Trey with an offended look. "What?! So you were just yankin' our chain?"

Trey continued to laugh. "Ah ha ha! I mean, if you'd used your brain like Y/n, you'd have realised how ridiculous it was! Let that be a lesson to you. Don't  believe everything you hear."

Grim groaned and finally sat up in your lap. "Feh. And here I thought that human was actually somewhat decent."

"Next, I'll put in the cream... Oh!" Trey looked around the room with a confused expression.

Ace was first to speak. "What's wrong?"

"You guys gathered so many chestnuts that we may have overdone it with the chestnut paste. I don't think we have enough cream to mix in." Trey muttered, glancing around again.

"They I'll go get some." Deuce chimed in. "Do they sell it at the school store?"

Trey smiled at the gesture. "They sell pretty much everything, so... probably. Can I have you pick me up a few other things aswell?"

Deuce nodded, so Trey started listing out the stuff he needed. "I need two cartons of mils, two packs of eggs, some muffin cups, five cans of fruit..."

Deuce hummed, before turning in your direction. "I don't think I'll be able to carry all that back. Y/n, could you come with me?"

"Yeah, I can come. No worries." You gave him a thumbs up.

Grim immediately jumped up. "Then I'm commin' too! I'm getting dizzy from all this stirrin'. I need a break!"

"All right. Let's  head out then. See you later, boys!" You waved and headed for the door together with Deuce and grim on you shoulder.

They waved back as the door fell shut behind you.

✿༺ 𝓈𝑒𝒸𝓇𝑒𝓉𝓈! ༻✿

✿༺ You like Trey's laugh.
✿༺ Deuce just wanted to hang out with you.
✿༺ Yuu genuinly almost died from how hard he was laughing about Pajama-clog.

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A/n: I was at my gf's place, so sorry for not posting! I'm probably also not posting this weekend because of a friend coming over, but I'll have to see!
-Kitz/Yumeko