'Heartfelt' Handmade Chocolate
“Do you know what Valentine’s Day is?” Tartaglia asked, his voice cutting through the endless silence as he watched the girl who had been staring blankly at the vast white blanket stretching before them. Snow covered everything in sight, an unbroken expanse of pale silence beneath the cold sky.
“You’re askin' me? I think you’ve thrown that question at the wrong person,” the girl replied flatly, not even bothering to turn her head toward him. Her tone carried its usual sharp edge, irritated, as the very concept he mentioned held no relevance to her life.
“It’s a day when you give chocolate to someone special,” Tartaglia explained anyway, undeterred. Shizu offered no response to his rambling. To her, such a day was meaningless. What was Valentine’s Day to someone who had no one to cherish, and who believed she herself was unworthy of being cherished in return?
“Hey, how about this,” Tartaglia suddenly proposed, his tone brightening with mischief. “Whoever can make the most snowballs without gloves has to grant the winner’s wish.”
This time, Shizu finally looked at him properly, her gaze shifting into something far more interested. The idea was childish, perhaps even pointless, but it was certainly better than standing here doing nothing but watching snowflakes vanish into the eternal frost beneath their feet.
“Fine,” she said, a crooked smile curling onto her lips. “Don’t cry when you lose.”
“Hahaha, don’t get too confident. I’ve been friends with snow since I was a child,” Tartaglia shot back, grinning. This challenge had already become a game he intended to enjoy thoroughly.
Later, Shizu wore the most bitter expression she could muster as Tartaglia stood before her with an infuriatingly pleased smile, happily accepting the chocolate she had just made. She had underestimated the ginger in front of her. Although she had used her vision to keep her hands warm, the snowballs she formed kept melting in her palms, and whenever she stopped channeling her power, her fingers quickly grew numb and stiff. Meanwhile, Tartaglia had shaped snowballs effortlessly, even crafting them into various neat forms with casual precision, as though the cold were nothing more than an old companion embracing him in familiarity.
“Shizu, this isn’t biteable. It’s hard,” Tartaglia commented after attempting to take a bite of the chocolate she handed him, only for his teeth to clash against something suspiciously solid.
“You’re acting like you’ve never eaten my cooking before,” she retorted dryly, crossing her arms.
Tartaglia could only laugh helplessly, because she wasn’t wrong. Her combat skills were beyond question, sharp and lethal as ever, but when it came to cooking, there was truly no hope for a girl who had once survived by eating raw meat rather than learning how to prepare it properly.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Ajax~” Shizu said at last, flashing him a teasing smile that carried both mockery and something softer hidden beneath it.
“Enjoy the chocolate I made with all my ‘heart.’”