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001
silk
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"Pearl?" the Lady says, perched on an old cushy couch, folding silken hands over on her lap.
"Yeah?" he replies, hollering from the kitchen table one room over. He has a newspaper spread out in front of him, and he frowns slightly in contemplation.
"I would like a smoothie, please."
Pearl freezes. Normally, such a request would be presented to Dia, but since that guy is out of town… well, Pearl has a sinking feeling that his culinary skills are not up to par with Platina's standards.
Think, Pearl, think… "Ah! But there are no bananas!" His uneasy eyes fall upon three of the ripe yellow fruit. As if to prove his point, he broke out into nervous song. "Yes, we have no bananas! We have no bananas today!"
Platina must have stood up, because her voice is now much louder. "That's alright." Pearl breathes easy for just a moment, until she says, "I'll have my smoothie without bananas, thank you."
Pearl panics. Not knowing what to do, he throws strawberries, pineapples, honey, blueberries, and pure cane sugar into the blender and sets it to five minutes. When it's finished, Pearl tastes it and wrinkles his nose in disgust. Then he realizes exactly what's wrong with it. It's warm. It needs ice! He opens the freezer and pulls out six or seven cubes.
Then he proceeds to drop them on his bare feet.
"Yeeouch!" he cries out in pain, gripping the edge of the counter for support.
Then he hears Platina's voice in the other room. "Pearl? Are you alright?"
"Just fine," he says through gritted teeth.
"I'm coming out there," he hears her say. Instantly, he runs to the fruit bowl and throws the bananas against the wall, where they land with a splat. Then he tries using his newfound height - six inches this summer - to block Platina's view from the mess in the blender.
Unfortunately, she can see past him. "That looks delicious, Pearl. Thank you." She passes him, not noticing the mortified look on his face, pours herself a glass, and takes a big gulp.
Then something very strange happens. Her face, normally so impassive, twitches slightly. Her lips twinge, as if halfway between amusement and revulsion.
In fact, the more that Pearl observes this expression, the more he decides that she is halfway between amusement and revulsion.
"Pearl, it's… it's… very unique…" she tries to say, setting down the glass. "What exactly…"
"Um, well…" he says, blushing. "I don't really know…" Then he steels himself. "I'm not really good at making food, but Dia wasn't here and you wanted a smoothie, so…" Pearl trails off, looking everywhere but her.
Platina smiles broadly. Pearl blushes even more. "I wish you'd said something. We can go get snow cones down at the corner, if you'd like…" she grabs his hand and walks him toward the door. "I'll pay."
Pearl's face turns beet red. "Ah… is this a date?"
"No, it's only a date if one person asks another. I'm telling you."
"Oh."
"By the way, your smoothies had a very silky texture. How did you get it so fine?"
"Um, lot's of blending…"
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Author's Note: This piece is the tenth part of the ten-portioned series 'Boxes of Chocolates'. Each encounter is a private love note, and each of the separately–published stories will cover a different shipping. Each chapter is a different drabble about the shipping; I'll do five per story, possibly more.
The full list: SpecialShipping (Ambiguous), AgencyShipping (Menial), FranticShipping (Tenacious), ChosenShipping (Exploitable), PanderShipping (Retrospective), CommonerShipping (Parametric), FeelingShipping (Harmonic), OldRivalShipping (Stoic), MangaQuestShipping (Vivacious), and HaughtyShipping (Loquacious). I'm perfectly well aware that the publishing format I ended up deciding on is annoying, but I figured that dividing it up by shipping would be the best way for everyone involved to pick and choose which ones they would like to read, without being 'exposed' to opposing shippings.
Please take a look at the others, if you like this one, and enjoy. (For the record, they won't be published until I actually finish writing the first drabble for each of them. I didn't want to spam the forum completely, so… just keep an eye open, I guess. They'll be in the order above.)
Also, I should mention that these aren't necessarily sequential. I write what I can, based on the theme I'm given.