Askan

Askan hadn’t been living in the Starfall Isles for very long. Maybe he’d lived there about a year or so. Long enough to plant an orchard and garden and grow it up with the help of a local Nature-born imperial.

During his year in the Isles, he tended to his orchard daily and began to make juice out of the fruit that he grew. Making fruit juice was sort of Askan’s hobby, he enjoyed squeezing and milling down the fruit, sweetening up the juice, and then either drinking it up himself or bottling it for later. However, this daily activity of making and bottling juice ended up making Askan have a surplus of it. So much that Askan was almost getting run out of his own house by bottles of juice.

So, Askan took what he could carry of his juice (and extra fruit, because why not?) and went to the local village to either sell it off or give it away. He put down a trade blanket, laid out his bottles of juice and a few baskets of fruit, and waited for his first few customers.

His first customer was a Coatl, with bright golden wings and underbelly, and a cerulean shimmer on the rest of him. The Coatl reminded Askan of a beach, with sun-baked golden sand and the bright waves of the ocean, however Askan shook the thoughts from his mind. He’d just met this coatl, why was he thinking of him so fondly, just for his coloring? He only half listened as the coatl babbled on and on about Askan’s juices and fruits. The only time Askan truly listened to him was when the coatl mentioned making smoothies to combat the summer heat.

“I always loved making smoothies when it got hot out, and now I’m doing it for a living!” Askan had heard the coatl say with a big grin on his face. “No doubt your fruits and juices will work perfectly in my recipes, they’re nearly made to perfection. I can see you put a lot of work into it.”

Askan blushed a little at the compliment and watched as the coatl left a generous pile of gold for what he had bought and left. It was only a few moments later when he realized the coatl had nearly cleaned him out of his stock and paid him nearly double what Askan had been asking for his wares. His mouth fell open and he quickly had to hide his astonishment as the next customer came to see what was left.

That was only the beginning….

A few weeks later, Askan had replenished his stock of juice and fruit and took it to sell in the market again. Not counting how much the Coatl had bought, Askan had been pretty successful at selling his fruit juice and decided that it may not be too bad of an idea to try to make a business of it. That, and he secretly hoped to see the Coatl again, though he silently cursed himself for getting a crush this easily on a guy he just met and didn’t even know!

After a few hours of sitting with his juice and fruit, Askan’s eyes lit up as the familiar Coatl came scurrying over. This time, Askan took more of a note of his features as the Coatl came to look at his wares. His feathers were a bit bent to one side, and he wore some white gloves. There was a smear of red up the side of his face, where some stray smoothie must’ve splashed on him. Then Askan looked at those bright yellow eyes as the Coatl’s brow creased over them.

“What’s wrong?” Askan found himself asking without even a second thought.

“Well, it seems you don’t have that strawberry and sugarmelon juice you had last time…” The coatl trailed off. “I used it to accent my ‘Sweet Delight’ recipe and the hatchlings loved it.”

“Oh…” Askan said, feeling a pang of his own disappointment at the lack of having what the coatl wanted.

The Coatl’s expression then flipped to a smile. “You wouldn’t be opposed to taking custom orders, would you?” He said with a cheery note. “Because I have a lot of different ideas and I could always use some fresh fruits and juice!”

“No! Not at all!” Askan said, his own wide smile crawling onto his face. “What do you need?”

The Coatl’s smile then turned a little devious as he pulled out a long list and let it’s bottom roll out along the ground. “How much of these do you think you could get me?”

Askan took the list and read over it. “Probably a little more than half?” He said, creasing his eyebrows. He hoped that wouldn’t disappoint the coatl.

The Coatl smiled widely. “Alright, well get them to me whenever you can! I’ll pay you handsomely!” He said with a wink that made Askan’s face heat up. “Oh, and if you’re gonna become my supplier, you should know my name. I’m Bacchus,” he said, holding out his little gloved hand.

Askan gently grabbed it in his own much larger hand, careful not to hurt Bacchus as he shook his hand. “I’m Askan.”

Askan found himself working day in and out to get Bacchus’ orders filled. It wasn’t that Bacchus was demanding, but the fact that Askan found himself wanting to meet up with Bacchus more and more frequently. Every time he filled an order for the Coatl, Askan had been invited into Bacchus’ home and smoothie stand to see what the Coatl had been up to. The experimental recipes, and the sweet smell of the stand were delights to experience and Bacchus’ passion for his work made Askan feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and what made it even better is that Bacchus’ work had aligned with Askan’s own as a maker of fruit juice. It was like they had common interests.

But working non-stop was taking a toll on Askan’s health. He wasn’t aware he was running himself ragged purely based on wanting to see Bacchus, and his exhaustion was on the verge of catching up with him. He wasn’t aware that he was beginning to look awful, and that he was beginning to let himself go ungroomed. He wasn’t aware that when he’d make it to Bacchus’ doorstep he would be on the verge of passing out.

“Askan, Askan, Wake up!”

Askan eyes cracked open and was looking up at the ceiling. He had no idea where he was at until a familiar sweet smell hit his nose.

”That smells like Bacchus’ smoothie stand…” Askan thought for a moment before Bacchus popped into his field of view.

“Askan, are you okay?!” Bacchus said, pawing Askan’s face.

Askan rolled over, his back and neck aching and his paws shaking. “Wh-what happened?”

“You knocked on my door to deliver the fruit and when I opened the door you sort of just fell forward and passed out!” Bacchus exclaimed. “You look awful, are you sick? Have you been getting enough sleep?!”

Askan looked at the Coatl as Bacchus worriedly spewed the questions. He felt himself beginning to tear up at the coatl’s worrying. How could he make Bacchus worry like this?

“N-No….” Askan said shakily. “I h-haven’t slept i-in days….”

Bacchus looked up at the Imperial, his yellow eyes wide. “And why not? Do you have anxiety? Insomnia? You should’ve let me know I wouldn’t have kept ordering so much! You’ve made three deliveries in the past week and for all I know you’ve probably been awake at least that long! That’s so dangerous for your health!” At this point, Bacchus was running his claws through his feathers, full on fretting now.

Askan started crying, a fat tear running down his cheek and nearly dripping onto Bacchus’ head

“I-I wanted to s-see you…” Askan murmered

“You wanted to see me?” Bacchus said, calming down a little, looking up at Askan in wonder.

A small bubble of panic arose in Askan. Now he was in a pickle, how does one explain that? He clenched his jaw as more tears spilled over. How did he keep Bacchus from knowing he had a crush on him?

”I wanted to see him because he’s my only friend? No, that’s pathetic… and friendzones him. Because we share a common interest? Maybe, but that’s not worth going nuts over….” Askan’s mind raced.

“I-I…. I l-like you…” Askan said in a small voice.

“I mean, I like you too but frien- oh… OH!” Bacchus said in realization and his face softened into a small smile. “Well, why didn’t you tell me?”

Askan fell silent. He was afraid to. After all, he’d only known Bacchus for a few months what if Bacchus didn’t like him back? What if Bacchus would avoid him for it.

Askan must’ve had his internal turmoil playing on his face, because Bacchus began to chuckle after a few moments.

“Get some rest. We’ll make some smoothies together when you wake up.” Bacchus said with a smile.