INFORMATION

Disclaimer: The World Ends with You belongs to Jupiter and Square Enix.

Synopsis: Sanae Hanekoma just came up with a new recipe to put on his menu and he wants Joshua to be the first to try it.

Pairing: Hanekoma/Joshua

Milk Tea with Custard Bits

Joshua stared at the drink in front of him, arms crossed, eyebrows slightly wrinkled, and lips frowned. The brownish grey liquid inside the white tea cup before him on the counter was still swirling after Hanekoma had set it down. There were tiny yellow cubes caught in the current of the drink and the froth was swimming on the surface. In all, it didn't look very appealing to his taste buds.

"What is this, Mr. H?" he asked the café owner.

Hanekoma came back from the coffee machines and took his seat across from Joshua on the other side of the counter where he served the costumers their orders.

"It's my latest concoction," the man said proudly. "Milk tea with custard bits."

"Milk and tea?" Joshua questioned. Tea and milk were two things that simply should never go together in, Joshua's opinion. Tea was tea and milk was milk. He didn't know what possessed Hanekoma to come up with this for a drink and to serve it to the few—almost nonexistent—costumers that visited Wildkat Café. Was he trying to push this place into early bankruptcy?

"No, thank you," Joshua said and turned his face away from the drink.

"C'mon! You haven't even tried it yet," Hanekoma urged. "Just give it a sip, Josh."

Joshua sighed and turned back to the older man. "Mr. H, Tea and milk are two completely different drinks and they taste fine on their own. You can't put them together. Besides, that tea's aroma would be stolen by the presence of the milk. Not to mention those yellow contaminants in there."

"They're custard… and I thought you like things out of the ordinary," Hanekoma said with a taunting, smudged smile.

"Not everything is worth trying," the teen replied with a smirk.

"Aw, c'mon, Josh, do an old man a favor, yeah?" Hanekoma moved in towards him and gave his best crooked smile.

Josh could see Hanekoma's pleading eyes under his shades from the way he was leaning. After their short stare down, Joshua finally gave in and waved his white flag in the form of a heavy sigh to which the barista chuckled.

"Let's hope I don't keel over after this," Joshua murmured in defeat, finally picking up the cup. He slowly, hesitantly brought the edge of the cup to his lips and waited for a second, taking in the scent of the drink before he took in a sip of the icy liquid.

Hanekoma had leant in even further towards him, eagerness filling his eyes this time.

"So?" Hanekoma asked when Joshua set the cup back down on the counter. "Isn't it delicious?"

"It's… it's alright." Joshua concluded. He blinked and couple of times as he tried to get his tongue around the new taste. Then he actually took up the cup again for another swig.

"Alright?" Hanekoma asked with an eyebrow raised as he backed away from Joshua. There was a hint of disappointment in his tone when he sighed. "Just alright?"

"Yes," Joshua said, and quickly drained the rest of the drink. "It is potable."

"And the flavor?"

"Like I said, it's alright. However, I still think that tea and milk should each be left to their own accords."

Hanekoma sighed again even with an amused smile perched on his mouth. "Okay, okay. Everyone's got their own palette."

To this, Joshua gave his signature smirk of a grin. "Exactly."

"Oh—look," Hanekoma suddenly averted his attention back to the cup. "You forgot to eat the custard bits."

"The drink was enough, thank you," Joshua said and waved his hand in front of him.

"I'm sure you'll like it though," Hanekoma insisted and somehow magically pulled out a spoon from beneath the counter. He fished a few pieces of the custard onto the utensil and held it up to the teen's lips.

"R-really, Mr. H, it's—" was all Joshua could manage before the café owner took hold of his chin with his free hand and lifted his face. Hanekoma gave him no choice but to try the custard. Yet, even as he parted his lips to take in the sweet dessert, Joshua kept his composure and blank expression; he was holding back from showing any emotion. He had thought that one defeat would be enough. Hanekoma didn't have to push it, Joshua thought angrily.

"Like it?" the barista asked, chuckling. He pulled the spoon away as well as released his hold on Joshua while the boy was still chewing on the custard.

How could he not, was what went through his mind. But his only response, however, was a shallow nod. The frail teen looked away from Hanekoma to focus his attention on the titles of the floor. It was the best he could do to hide the redness on his cheeks.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Milk tea is delicious, isn't it? Too bad Josh doesn't like it too much ;-)

I can't get enough of the Hanekoma/Joshua pairing and I think these two deserve a bit more love. Also, I have a feeling that Mr. H already has milk tea on his menu but I just wanted to use it for the story. I hope you enjoyed it!