"Please, it's the least I could do," Daichi said as he smiled at Sugawara, his warm smile once again melting away all the negative feelings Sugawara had stored inside of him. The other sighed loudly before nodding slightly.

"Just this once, I would hate for a guest to do someone else's job" Sugawara spoke, the servants behind him shivering at the tone of his voice, oh well, but at least all the plants around the castle had regained the color and were once again vibrant green, flourishing in Daichi's presence.

Daichi had been staying with the prince for a few weeks now, of course, it's not like he came here solely on his own intention. Sugawara insisted he comes live at the castle where he can get proper food and sleep comfortably, he said something along the lines of 'your presence soothes my heart' and 'i don't want you out of my eyesight, you must be in a place where I can watch over you at all times'. 

Daichi, with Yokozawa's and Chite's blessing, decided to stay at the castle, for the time being, he made sure that Sugawara agreed to his rules as well. No going around the town arresting random people, no screaming at old ladies, and the freedom of magic practice. Sugawara, shockingly to everyone, agreed to everything as long as Daichi was staying in the castle. The servants were more than helpful, but Daichi preferred doing things on his own, just like he was taught. He couldn't quite remember who taught him everything that he knew, but not like it mattered anyway.

"Alright, then, good luck on your meetings and let's meet after them!" Daichi said cheerfully as he scurried away from Sugawara, looping his arms with the two bakers as they headed towards the main kitchen. A sight was one that was not pleasant to Sugawara's eye, but he kept his end of a bargain, plus it was quite a treat to see his servants so happy with someone, so happy working - just how powerful is Daichi anyway?

As Sugawara turned around and headed towards his meeting room, Daichi had already made his way to the kitchen, he dug through the dry ingredients until he found ones that he was satisfied with. His eyes then fell on a bowl with many large green apples - apples? 

"How do you have apples? Aren't all apple trees frozen to the core?" Daichi asked as he turned to the bakers.

"Well... it's complicated" one of them said, they walked over to the apples and took one, slicing it in half and then in half again. Before Daichi could react he was already being offered a quarter of an apple by a baker who seemed unhappy with his entire life. "Try it, you will understand... These were grown in a separate chamber, heat up with fire and such..."

Daichi, while still confused, bit into an apple. The muscles on his face contracted on their own as the sourness hit his tongue. It wasn't a sweet green apple, it was the secret love child of a young apple and a lemon, tasted like the purest sourness one could ever taste - however, the aftertaste... had something sweet in it. Daichi smiled at the apple piece and turned to the baker. "You have no idea how good this is!" he exclaimed as he rushed to the bowl, counting the apples.

"Good? Sir, these apples are so sour... the prince would kill us if we served it to him" the baker said, concern written all over his face, but the smile on Daichi's face was more than enough to calm him down.

"Sour apples are not good when presented just like this, as an apple" Daichi began speaking. "But if you prepare them correctly and bake them as part of a pie - it will blow your socks off"

"Blow your socks off?"

"Just an idiom. Anyway, let's get to work!" Daichi said cheerfully and picked up a knife. He instructed the other bakers to work on a very specific dough, they couldn't really understand why the dough was supposed to be so weird but went with Daichi's specifications anyway. Daichi, on the other hand, spent his time carefully coring the apples and slicing them. Of course, any traditional apple pie would call to just mix the ingredients with apples and let them sit, but these were so sour that they just had to be caramelized, so that's what Daichi did. While the pie crust was being prepared, he created a sweet and tangy apple pie filling.

Not even an hour later the entire kitchen, if not the entire castle, was full of a sweet smell - the apple pie was cooking nicely in the oven. Daichi watched his creation golden from afar, for some reason it reminded him of his past - wherever he came from, whoever he was friends with - this apple pie connected them all. For some odd reason though, he didn't seem to miss them that much - perhaps he was already used to the life here or maybe his past was not at all important to his life. So, whoever Daichi was, was long gone and lost in the vast space of time.

The crust of the pie, now golden brown and shiny, indicated that it was about time to take it out and set it aside for a minute so it cools for just a bit. The pain of burning your tongue with a lava hot filling still scarred Daichi. The cooks and other workers simply admired it, inhaling the sweet smell. 

Sugawara, in the mean time, had just finished his activities and was stomping down to the kitchen to get Daichi out of there, he just couldn't understand why Daichi would want to work in the kitchen when he already had cooks in the castle. Was he dissatisfied with the quality of food? Was he afraid of being poisoned? What was the big deal?

"Daichi, darling, are you done with your activities?" he stormed into the kitchen, completely oblivious to the fact that he just called Daichi a petname. Daichi stared at him, almost beady-eyed, at first confused as to why he would call him 'darling'. 

"Oh, you're right on time. Come here, sit down" Daichi smiled and pointed at a small and old chair by the old table in the kitchen. Sugawara, unexpectedly to his servants, obeyed and sat down. Daichi sliced him a piece of a pie, the sweet filling almost pouring out from the sides as he handed Sugawara a piece. "I made this for you to try, with your servants' help of course"

Sugawara eyed the pastry suspiciously before taking a bite... The temperature in the room rose up as Sugawara's cheeks turned red. He closed his eyes and smiled, the caramelized apples coated the inside of his mouth and he couldn't help but feel happiness and some sort of nostalgia while eating. He took another bite, and another and another - all while his body regained it's natural colors. Instead of a pale and cold prince there now sat an actual human being, cheeks red, eyes like two jars of honey. 

Most importantly, there was a smile on his face and butterflies in his stomach. 

Unbeknownst to people in the castle, the people outside stepped out of their houses and heard a loud crunch under their feet. The snow, once dry and soft, was now melting into the ground and falling off tree branches and roofs - it seems like spring was coming by...

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
....

so how are you guys doing? You like apple pie?

I've gotten three new tattoos over the course of a month so I am very excited

Anyway, hope you enjoyed!

-Hatari