Chapter 13: did somebody mention delicious pancakes?

The cafe Taivas cheerfully lead them to is thankfully silent. Scattered throughout and in front are small tables with four chairs each, enough for the group and the few other patrons already enjoying various dishes. Taivas slams himself down on a seat in the corner surrounded by tall decorative plants. Chairs scrape as everyone else seats themselves.

They peruse the menu with a solitary goal in mind. That goal is pancakes. Many delicious pancakes as Vanilla demands and no one objects to.

"Found it," Repliku says, pointing out the option to Naminé leaning over his shoulder. "We can take the largest option and then share?"

Murmurs of agreement meet him. This option also absolves Naminé of having to order anything besides her drink.

As they fold up their menus in the typical signal of 'We're ready to order,' a waitress arives, her hair an uncomfortable shade of pink. Repliku makes the snap judgement of shoving Vanilla deeper into Naminé's bag. Vanitas disappears with a quick yelp, which the waitress does not appear to notice.

"Welcome! What may I get you?" She says, notebook already in hand. Her gaze sweeps across the gathered friends, waiting. Expecting.

Repliku, the designated speaker of the group, glances at the menu one last time before ordering. "We'll take the family sized pancake platter, please."

The waitress notes it down with practiced speed. "Good choice! It includes complemantary condensed milk, very tasty. Any drinks?"

"Taivas?" "Black coffee!" "Himoyachi?" "Orange juice, please." "Naminé?" "Just some water, thank you." "And another coffee for me, preferably with cream."

"Alright then! One pancake platter, two coffees, one black, one with cream, an orange juice and some water. Is that all?"

"Yes, thank you."

"Coming right up!" She turns and leaves.

"Wait." Himoyachi leans down to look at Naminé's bag. "Does Vanilla want to drink anything?"

With the sound of tearing velcro, a head of purple pops back out of the shoulder bag. He shakes his head to rouse his flattened fur. "About time someone remembered. No thanks, by the way."

Then, as if struck by lighting, Taivas smacks his hands against the table. "How do we feed Vanilla without anybody noticing?"

A mild conundrum arises as everyone puts their heads together. How do they gift Vanilla his share of pancakes without either soiling Naminé's bag with sweetened condensed milk or alerting all other patrons to their creature of darkness?

The waitress nears, platter of pancakes held aloft. Panic sets in. Himoyachi glances back and forth, Repliku twists his napkin into various shapes, Taivas taps his foot against the floor. Only Naminé speaks, voice quiet but gaining strength, "Don't worry."

Fog seeps out along with her words. It swirls around Vanilla in a quick flash, obscuring him from view until the waitress stands before their table.

She gasps in the delight only attained when unexpectedly meeting an animal. "What a cute dog! What's his name?"

"Vanilla," Naminé smiles.

"Adorable. Make sure he behaves, alright?" She sets down her platter. "Here's your order, one stack of pancakes together with your drinks. Enjoy!"

"Thank you." After the waitress exits, Naminé places her phone on the table to complete the deception. Now, instead of a shade there sat a dog, and instead of said shade yelling it was a voice over the phone.

"How did you do that!" Instead of shaking her silly, Taivas opts to shake Himoyachi by the shoulders, almost dislodging both of them from their chairs.

Naminé runs her fingers over Vanilla's back. He, meanwhile, already started devouring all scraps handed to him. "It's illusion magic. Travelers use it to maintain World Order."

"I thought you could only do small things?" Repliku looks at her, at her illusion. He doesn't express distaste that the powers that fooled him have grown to fool others, no. His gaze is soft and the corners of his lips turn up when he asks.

All Nobodies are born empty. Even if they don't stay empty, the magic of the worlds they came from wiggles its way inside the negative space, infusing them from the inside out. All higher Nobodies have a specialty like that, and, though Naminé's is and always will be memory, smoke and mirrors remain her bread and butter. Long since past are the days of twisted charms.

Using her powers like this, so everyone can smile and laugh together, makes her fledgeling heart dance. Repliku doesn't look disappointed, Naminé realizes, because he's proud of her.

Speaking of fledgeling heart, Vanilla might be the oldest person here. "How old is everyone here? I know Repliku and I are three."

"I think we're two," Taivas says, resting his head on the table.

Himoyachi corrects immediately, "We were created approximately one year and ten months ago. Our birthdays are in Autumn."

First, Vanilla finishes chewing. Then, he says, "I'm either fifteen or two. Do comas count?"

Repliku promptly chokes on his pancake and thumps against his own chest to regain air. "You're fifteen?"

"What about it? You're three!"

Naminé slaps his back and Repliku finally stops choking. "Nothing! I didn't expect you to be the oldest here."

"Considering you're.. you know. Your kind aren't really known for being long lived." While asking, Naminé takes note of the implication that Vanilla has apparently been in a coma for thirteen years. That's not… a pancake topic though.

"Hey! I'm the oldest and strongest of my kind!"

Taivas buts in, "What kind are you anyways? Cuz you're not a Heartless or your eyes would be yellow."

"I've never seen a Heartless shaped like you either," Himoyachi adds.

Vanilla rears up on his hind legs, the points digging into Naminé's thighs. "That's because I'm not!"

"What are you then?" Naminé manouvres him into her arms, so he can feel tall and not skewer her at the same time.

"Why should I tell. I don't know what you are." He crosses his little arms and Naminé does her very best not to coo at him, since he is both very adorable and hates being told as much

"I'm a Nobody."

"You are? Doesn't seem like it. You're.. emotional. Legitimately. Not like the others I've met, they sucked. You're better."

"Aww, Vanilla. You admit you like me?"

"I do not!" His refusal is undermined by the simple fact he currently sits in Naminé's arms and refuses to escape. The other traitors at the table laugh at him. Or with him? What's the difference?

She puts him back down and pushes a small plate filled with more pancake slices, one of those miniature plates that come with cups sometimes, toward him. He takes another bite. And, despite the fact he should rightfully be angered by their blatant disrespect, his grimace loosens.

Despite everything, despite being smaller than everyone else, less powerful, less dangerous, he feels… No, he can't name it. If he forced a word upon the feeling curling in his stomach, it would become…

He stops eating. Vanitas isn't hungry anymore.

Despite that, the others continue. They stay for at least another hour, during which they talked and joked about all sorts of things.

"Wait, you almost stole a wedding invitation?"

"We actually stole a Gummi-Ship!"!

"Yeah, so then I threatened to break his nose-" "And then he ran off and you got detention for a week-"

"So she thought it was pudding, when in actuality it was-" "Her paint bucket!"

"And then he tried to spin in the chair but launched himself out-"

Eventually, when the pancakes near their end, Taivas has a suggestion. "Remember that one time in the groupchat when I fainted? Wanna know what it looks like?"

His excitement to show off his neat abilities ran directly counter to Himoyachi's enthusiams about the affair. "Please don't."

What he didn't consider, is that, hyped up from either sugar or the joy of friendship, Vanilla is an agent of chaos. "I want to see. You should do it, it would be cool."

Immediatly, the phone on the table Vanilla supposedly spoke through as far as passerby thought, springs to life, and an actual voice exits. "Pretty cool, right?"

Meanwhile, his head hits the table and Vanilla croaks a laugh. In that moment, the waitress from before decided it would be just the right moment to give them their check. She jumps back a meter and yells, "Jesus Christ, kid, can you stop doing that."

Both Naminé and Repliku continue letting their mouths hang open enough to let flies in. "He's narcoleptic!" says Himoyachi.

Taivas bounces back up as Vanilla fruitlessly attempts to catch his breath. The waitress sighs, hands him the check. "One day your trick is going to give someone a heart attack."

"Sorry. I'll pay." He pulls out his own purse between eco-friendly cloth bags storing more cloth inside. "Keep the change."

"Thanks. Have a good day and I hope to see you again soon!"

They gather their things, including Vanilla back in the shoulder bag. This time, his upper half hangs out, appearing to the world as a simple bag-sized dog. Maybe his words sound like barking. Then he could say whatever he wanted, with the exception of the idiots exempt from Naminé's magic, who could in that scenario still understand him.

"I had a lot of fun today," Naminé says. She hugs the two data-boys, who return her embrace.

"Yeah," Himoyachi agrees, "and don't think I'll forget about that offer to spar, Repliku."

In a display of complete bro-ness, they give each other a fistbump that transitioned into the handshake-and-then-hug bro manouvre. "You better be ready."

Taivas goes in for a group hug, which Vanilla wiggles his way out of on account of otherwise getting crushed. "See you three on Monday?"

"Sure thing."

And after one last stop at a departmen store for Naminé, Repliku, and Vanilla, they return home together, satisfaction in their stomachs and strenghtened bonds in their hearts. It was the better decision to stay a little longer, after all.

AN: as a german/russian i am physically incapable of writing pancakes without condensed milk it is so good and tasty. it's like viscous sugar and the BEST.