A/N: Hey errrybody. I am pretty excited about this story! I've been wanting to write it for quite a while now. But please be warned that I haven't written anything lengthy in a really long time, so my progress will probably be a little slow.

Also, I feel I should mention that the OCs in this story are not hugely important, but I enjoy having them around. I hope I will be forgiven for this.

Disclaimers: All recognizable characters belong to their respective owners. Everybody else is with me.

Chapter 1

I glanced to my side. Barker worked silently, lips pressed together in a pale line. Black eyes flicked back and forth over his work-surface, glistening in concentration. His gloved fingers flitted deftly from ingredient to ingredient, stirring, pouring, mixing, doing a thousand things at once. White teeth flashed in an inane smile at a remark from the head chef, eyes never leaving his work. A sharper remark brought my attention back to my work; two pots boiling over and the smell of burnt chocolate had me working furiously to distract myself from the enigma in the workstation next to mine.

I gritted my teeth in frustration as I scraped another batch of charred chocolate into the sink and began again. Damn Barker! Even after three semesters as roommates in the culinary institute, I still could not figure the man out. This was extremely unusual for me, as I had found at a very young age that I am excellent at reading people. It is a very useful skill, especially when my observations provide me with blackmail material. There was hardly a student in the institute that did not owe me a favor or two of some kind, and my excellent acting ability and naturally friendly face (not counting my overlarge nose) ensured that they all thought of me as a decent guy.

Suppressing a scowl, I began tempering my chocolate again. At least, all of them except Barker. Barker had certainly noticed my tampering. I was sure of this, but Barker was still as friendly with me as he was with everyone else. Barker had seen through one of the most used tricks in my arsenal: food poisoning. Nothing serious, of course. My victim would just have a nasty stomach bug for a few days, and during that time I would drop by the nurse's office to offer assistance by finishing homework or labs. Though I was always careful to do this a few times a semester, because I knew if I showed up every time someone got food poisoning I would be suspected, or at least mistrusted. I made certain only to go when it was a student I was already acquainted with, and only when their instructor had informed us of the student's illness beforehand. So far, I had most of the class as friends and the nurses and instructors were all convinced of my kindheartedness and generosity. Everyone trusted me. Everyone except Barker. Barker knew something. I could see it in those unnerving eyes of his whenever I volunteered to visit a sick student. Every time I thought of those eyes I had to shudder. Just one person would be all it would take to bring my entire network of allies down. I could not afford to lose them, so I resolved very early on to decipher the mystery that was Mister William Barker. And after all these months, I still had nothing to show for my efforts.

"Hey, Nose!" A voice on his left brought me out of my thoughts.

"Hm? What, Noel?"

"Your chocolate's burning again. Get it together, man!" Noel laughed.

I managed to twist my grimace into a rueful smile. Noel's name went on my mental hit list. "Thanks, Noel. I guess I didn't get enough sleep last night."

"No problem."

I sighed in frustration as I started my chocolate over again and tried very hard to ignore the giggling from the workstation to my right. Damn Barker again. I turned to face my grinning classmate. "What's so funny, Barker?"

Barker's dark eyes were thin as slits above his wide grin. "Oh, you know. The usual."

"Ah, I see." I looked to Barker's workstation and frowned in bemusement.

"What's that you've made? I thought we were assigned truffles today, not tarts."

"Yes."

"... yes? But you haven't made truffles. I mean, not as far as I can tell."

"Oh, the assignment was for trufflessss?"

I winced at the hissing. "Uh, yeah. Truffles."

"As in, more than one truffle?"

"Well, the plural of truffle is truffles, as far as I know."

Barker was about to reply when the chef, Mr. Mandible, stopped by his station and raised an eyebrow at the tart.

"Mr. Barker?"

"Chef Mandible?"

"Didn't I assign truffles for today?"

Barker lowered his eyes and clasped his hands in front of him. "Ah, yes chef. It's just that this morning I thought you said 'truffle' not 'truffles'. I'm sorry, chef."

Mandible's other eyebrow raised. "Is that so? Well, Mr. Barker, I see neither truffle nor truffles here. Explain yourself."

"Oh, chef, I think you misunderstand." Barker's eyes were now wide. "I did make a truffle, you see. It's just tart-shaped. Because it's a tart raspberry truffle. The raspberries you gave us weren't quite ripe; a bit too tart, if you see what I mean."

Mandible's eyebrows were nearing his hairline. "So... you made a... what is it?"

Barker stuck his lower lip out in a pout that almost made me drop my chocolate. Amazing. This man was almost as good an actor as me. Unless... unless he wasn't acting. Which would be disturbing in the highest degree.

"Chef, it's a tart-raspberry truffle tart. Or a tartberry taruffle." Here Barker put a finger to his chin thoughtfully. "No, maybe a raspbart trufflerry. Or a—"

"Yes, yes Mr. Barker. May I taste this... creation of yours?"

I was almost blinded by the brightness of Barker's smile. "Of course, chef!"

He slid a knife out of his knife block and paused to apparently gather his thoughts before delicately slicing a triangle out of the tart. A delicious waft of raspberry-chocolate drifted across the workstation partition and drowned me in a heavenly sweet scent. Everyone in the room had gone silent as they watched Barker. I stared at the tart as pink syrup pooled around its chocolate-crumb base. I swallowed hard. Chef Mandible's brows had all but disappeared into his graying hair. Barker levered the slice onto the flat of his knife and transferred it reverentially to a plate, fetched a fork and set them on the table in front of Mandible.

"Please have a taste, chef."

Mandible snapped out of his trance and nodded vaguely. I watched wide-eyed as Mandible's fork cut through the top shell of chocolate, then through a layer of liquor-soaked raspberries and finally through the bottom crust of chocolate crumb. More than one sigh of longing could be heard as Mandible brought the fork to his mouth. The chef's eyes widened exponentially as he chewed. Barker was radiating self-confidence as Mandible visibly melted in front of him. When at last he finished his bite, he heaved a deep sigh of satisfaction and set the fork down.

"Mr. Barker, this is superb."

Barker, whose face could hardly handle any more smile, positively shone with pride. "Please, chef, finish the rest. I can't possibly eat any more..." he took a second look at his tart and corrected himself. "Scratch that, this looks abso-flippen-lutely delicious. I'll have one little slice..." And proceeded to cut himself about a fourth of the entire tart. "Everybody else can have some, too!"

Off to my left, Noel and his friend Greensleeves high-fived each other and gave Barker a thumbs-up, which he returned with enthusiasm. Mandible took his time finishing his slice before moving on to my table. I shook myself out of my daze and finished filling my chilled truffle shells with marzipan and crushed raspberry. Seeing that I wasn't done yet Mandible moved on to Noel, who had just finished his chocolates.

The chef popped one into his mouth and after a moment sighed sadly. "Mr. Noel, on any other day this truffle would be absolutely scrumptious. The little bit of mint you have here on the top definitely brings it together. But seeing as I have just tasted the god of chocolate tarts— truffles— whatever it was, I am afraid everything else just turns to ashes in my mouth."

Noel nodded good-naturedly. "I know, chef. My chocolates always taste like shite after I try anything of Barker's."

Barker giggled and Mandible sighed again. "An A for the day, Mr. Noel. Well done."

"Thank you, chef."

Mandible tasted Greensleeves' and two other students' chocolates before doubling back to me. "Well then Mr. Prodnose. Let us see what you have made."

I sighed in resignation. If only I had finished earlier I wouldn't have to endure the humiliation of being second-best to Barker. Again. "Chef Mandible, I have made raspberry marzipan-filled dark chocolate truffles. I know they will probably taste like dirt after Barker's genius, so please go easy on me."

Mandible waved a dismissive hand. "Nonsense. Let's have a taste." I felt Barker's intense gaze on me as Mandible munched thoughtfully. "Very smooth, Mr. Prodnose. I see you made good use of the 85% dark we got this morning."

"Yes, chef."

"And your marzipan is very nice, not gritty at all... perfect with the raspberries. An A as well, young man."

I felt only slightly redeemed by this assessment. I chanced a glance at Barker, who startled me with a huge grin and a thumbs-up. A faltering smile was all I could manage as I began cleaning up. Barker was most definitely an active threat, and needed to be subdued as soon as possible.

TBC

I hope y'all know who this strange 'Mr. William Barker' character might be!